CENTRAL ASIA. 



101 



As the former tribe consists mostly of nomads, 

 the latter, Mohammedan Tartars, who are a 

 settled, agricultural people, are likely to gain 

 the ascendency. The Tarandshis number, 

 according to the estimate of Radloff, who 

 visited this part of Asia in 1862, about 6,000 

 families. The Soongarians may number a 

 little more. The latter far surpass not only 

 the Calmucks, but even the Tarandshis, in 

 both mental and physical respects. Till about 

 two years ago, nothing more was heard of 

 the Tarandshis and Soongarians than that the 

 chief place of the former was at Kultscha, 

 of the latter at Uruntzi, and that, although 

 they did not stand exactly in friendly rela- 

 tions, there was no hostility between them. 

 More recently, since the movement to assume 

 a separate existence has been agitated among 

 the Soongarians, the reports from there have 

 been of a dubious character. The spiritual and 

 temporal leader of the Soongarians, Daud Kha- 

 life, has become a rival of Yakoob Kushbegi, 

 and, although the report which reached Europe 

 by Forsyth, that the Soongarians would sup- 

 port the Chinese in seeking the restoration of 

 East Toorkistan, has not been confirmed, the 

 relations between these people of common 

 faith in the far East have continually grown 

 more cool, till, in 1869, the ruler of Yarkand, 

 in Northern Turfan, became involved in a war 

 with these Soongarians. 



Of the Tarandshis, whom a year's endur- 

 ance of Chinese rule had made quite submis- 

 sive, nothing was heard till the summer of 

 1871. Their great concern was to maintain 

 the status quo with reference to the Buddhist 

 Calmucks. In order to secure themselves 

 against these, they studiously avoided collision 

 with the Soongarians in the east, and with the 

 ruler of East Toorkistan in the south, and 

 lived quite peacefully under the spiritual and 

 temporal rule of their mollah in Kultscha, 

 who claimed to be Seid. But at length, in 

 May, 1871, this people was brought out upon 

 the stage of the world's affairs, through the 

 advance of a division of the Russian army, 

 Avhich established a watch-post on the borders 

 of the district of Semiretchink, on the banks 

 of the little river Uessttg. The object of this 

 step was,^on the one hand, to watch and pro- 

 tect the Kirgheez, who were living in that re- 

 gion under cover of the Russian power, and, 

 on the other hand, to keep an eye on the new- 

 ly-organized state of the Tarandshis ; for the 

 Czar, at the request of the Chinese Emperor, 

 had undertaken to reduce this people to sub- 

 jection. It is difficult to decide whether 

 General Kolpakovsky, the Russian command- 

 ant, brought on a quarrel with the Sultan of 

 Kultscha, or whether he was compelled to take 

 the offensive, as we have only the Russian 

 version of the proceeding. But the circum- 

 stance that the Russians had, early in the 

 spring of 1871, pushed their posts for the pro- 

 tection of the frontier over the Uessiig, the 

 former boundary between the Russian and 



Chinese Empires, prevents our regarding it as 

 a wholly defensive measure. One Tasa Beg, 

 who held the rank of an ensign in the Russian 

 army, with a band of Kirgheez, rebelled against 

 the Russian authority and fled to the Chinese 

 territory, in order to join the insurgents there. 

 To prevent the accomplishment of this design, 

 the Cossack officer, Gerassimoff, was sent to 

 the border. The Sultan of Kultscha seems 

 also to have been apprised of Tasa Beg's in- 

 tention, for he sent a small force to assist his 

 fellow-religionists. Gerassimoff, not being in 

 a position to give battle, advanced a com- 

 pany with two guns, and thereby succeeded in 

 keeping back the Tarandshis, and occupying a 

 deserted fort on the river Korgas, but not in 

 preventing the escape of Tasa Beg. These 

 events marked the beginning of hostilities. 

 General Kolpakovsky dispatched a message to 

 demand from the Sultan of Kultscha, whom 

 the Russians call Abil Oglan, the surrender of 

 the fugitive Kirgheez. The Sultan refused to 

 give them up. In May, 1871, General Kolpa- 

 kovsky sent three small bodies of troops, con- 

 sisting of infantry and cavalry, with a few 

 field-pieces, over the border into the territory 

 of the Tarandshis, to call the Sultan to account, 

 and, in case diplomacy did not succeed, to take 

 sterner measures, to cure him of his disposition 

 to endanger Russian interests. It is evident 

 that the Tarandshis are very unequal antago- 

 nists to the Russians. The people of Central 

 Asia are far inferior to those of the countries 

 farther east; the people of East Toorkistan, 

 kinsmen of the Tarandshis, are inferior to the 

 other people of Central Asia; and the Ta- 

 randshis themselves, an agricultural and hith- 

 erto servile folk, rank in bravery far below 

 their brethren beyond the hills of Thian-Shan. 

 It was difficult to comprehend how these un- 

 disciplined farmers, of whom about a tenth 

 part may have possessed a poor sort of a 

 matchlock, would be able to sustain a battle 

 against the thoroughly-drilled Russians, using 

 the newest weapons. But we learn, from the 

 Russian dispatches, that Colonel Jelensky, the 

 commander of one of the corps that had been 

 sent forward, was attacked by about 3,000 

 well-armed and brave Tarandshis, and that he 

 defeated them after an engagement of five 

 hours, inflicting upon them a loss of 200 

 men, while his own loss amounted to only 

 three killed and eight wounded. On the 18th 

 of May the Russians took the fortress at Me- 

 zar, where a large stock of provisions, and a 

 number of Chinese arms, fell into their hands. 

 More severe battles took place at Akkend, on 

 the 16th of June, and at Alim, on the 28th of 

 the same month, where, according to the Rus- 

 sian accounts, the whole camp of the enemy 

 was captured, together with twenty-three 

 heavy guns. Shortly afterward, the fortress 

 of Tching-dee-kho-see was captured, and the 

 power of the Sultan of Kultscha was entirely 

 broken in a decisive battle before the fortress 

 of Sliding, which is about four miles frorr 



