CHINA. 



97 



European make. The Kirghiz and the Russian 

 merchants in the territory of Kashgar were in- 

 formed that they had nothing to fear from the 

 Chinese soldiers. After achieving this con- 

 quest, Liu Sho-Daryn was instructed to regain 

 the route from Mourzat, and to march through 

 that place with his army to join Tsin-Tsan- 

 Tsoum, whose troops had already taken up a 

 position between Karashar and Shikho. Beg 

 Kuli Beg, with the family of the late Ameer Ya- 

 koob Beg, took refuge in the Russian territory, 

 where the ex-Khan was detained as a prisoner 

 by the Russian authorities. The Chinese de- 

 manded his surrender to them, but the Russians 

 refused to give him up. Garrisons were placed 

 in each of the Kashgarian towns occupied by the 

 Chinese, and the natives were commanded to 

 furnish horses for subsequent campaigns. At 

 Zanghishahn seven hundred small-sized cannon, 

 made to be carried on the backs of camels, were 

 found, which had not been in use, but "lay 

 under velvet and brocade coverings, and were 

 all supplied from England." A Kashgarian 

 who was at Yarkand when the Chinese took 

 that city, in a letter to Sir Douglas Forsyth, 

 described the Chinese army at that place as 

 having consisted of about one thousand men, 

 and said : "A great number of Chinese had 

 hardly any clothes, and many were lame and 

 in miserable condition. It was a wonder the 

 Chinese ever attempted to come to Yarkand 

 with such troops. A hundred men only are 

 armed with breech-loading rifles; the rest are 

 armed with sticks and short spears. The 

 Chinese in taking Yarkand killed only a few 

 people, mostly innocent persons. . . . They 

 have done their best to disarm the inhabitants. 

 Some arms have been given up ; the people 

 have concealed quantities of them. The Chi- 

 nese Governor collected all the stallion-horses 

 of the Yarkandies aud others, and appropri- 

 ated them to his own use. All horses belong- 

 ing to Andijanies (which amounted to some 

 thousands) were destroyed. The Chinese have 

 been exacting large sums of money as a loan 

 from herders and all others ; also immense 

 quantities of grain from the villages, which is 

 being collected in the several forts. . . . The 

 Chinese have destroyed a few of the arms 

 which belonged to the late Ameer. The guns, 

 etc., they have not injured. They do not know 

 the use of guns." Niaz Beg was governor of 

 Yarkand under the Amban, by whom all or- 

 ders were issued to Niaz Hakim, who saw them 

 carried out. Niaz Hakim is the man who has 

 had all outsiders turned out of the country. 

 " He is afraid of the Chinese," says the writer 

 of the letter, " and they of him. Niaz Hakim 

 could turn out the Chinese in a few hours if 

 he wished. He will do so when he is certain 

 no reinforcements are coming for them. In 

 the whole of Kashgaria there are not more 

 than 7,000 troops (Chinese) 5,000 in Kashgar, 

 600 in Yarkand, 200 in Khotan, and the rest 

 in other towns." 



Intelligence reached the Russian garrison at 

 VOL. xvin. 7 A 



Naryn, on the 13th of July, that a battle had 

 taken place between the Kashgarian insur- 



Sents at Khotan, led by Niaz Beg, and 3,000 

 hinese troops from Aksu, resulting in a disas- 

 trous defeat of the Chinese. To retrieve the 

 honor of the Green Dragon, the Chinese com- 

 mander had dispatched 2,500 troops from Kash- 

 gar to Khotan to crush the Mussulman people. 

 A report prevailed at Orenburg in the latter 

 part of October that the Chinese Governor of 

 Kashgar had prohibited commercial dealings 

 with the Russians, and had ordered all Rus- 

 sians within the territory to accept Chinese 

 nationality or leave the country within two 

 weeks. 



The occupation of Kashgar by the Chinese 

 was followed by events which seemed to threat- 

 en to interrupt the friendly relations which had 

 hitherto existed between China and Russia. 

 The country was thrown into disorder by the 

 change of rule, and the Russians complained 

 that their trade on the frontier was seriously 

 damaged by brigandage, in which they asserted 

 that the Chinese soldiers took part. Russian 

 troops, dispatched to Sharkodeh to restore or- 

 der, heard when they reached that place that 

 the Chinese bands had threatened to set fire to 

 the artillery depots and powder magazines at 

 Kulja, with a view of depriving the Russians 

 of the power of making war upon them. The 

 sentries were therefore increased, and all the 

 material was removed to places of greater se- 

 curity. To the embarrassments growing out 

 of the state of disorder were added others aris- 

 ing from the continued occupation of Kulja by 

 the Russians. This city and the surrounding 

 districts were taken possession of by the Rus- 

 sians in 1871, in order, they said, to prevent 

 Yakoob Beg, who had just made a successful 

 campaign against the Sungarians, from ad- 

 vancing upon it. At the same time the Rus- 

 sians gave a solemn pledge to the Chinese Gov- 

 ernment that they would surrender it as soon 

 as a sufficient Chinese force should have been 

 brought to it to restore order. The Chinese 

 now claimed that they had fulfilled their part 

 of the engagement, for their army, fresh from 

 victories over Yakoob Beg, was waiting at the 

 frontier for the order to march in and take 

 possession. The Russians showed no haste to 

 evacuate the position, and a part of the Rus- 

 sian press opposed the fulfillment of the prom- 

 ise to restore it. The impression that a dispo- 

 sition had been developed among the Russians 

 against surrendering Kulja is enforced by a 

 remark which Terenijeff made in a book pub- 

 lished by him in 1875. In speaking of that 

 position and the expected reconquest of Kash- 

 gar by the Chinese, he said : "In view of such 

 a reawakening on the part of the Chinese after 

 their long slumber, our situation in Kulja is 

 becoming very ambiguous, and every ambiguity 

 is injurious to the prestige of a great empire. 

 Thus before kng the Russian Government will 

 have definitely to decide the question as to who 

 shall be the future masters of Kulja." The 



