98 



CHINA. 



"St. Petersburg Journal," speaking of this 

 subject in 1878, said : " If Kulja were to be sur- 

 rendered to China, Russian rule in the eastern 

 part of Central Asia would be undermined. . . . 

 The surrender," it continued, "would be an- 

 other triumph to England, and the Mantchoos 

 would hold their heads still higher. In tine, 

 Russian influence in Central Asia would be 

 shaken." A diplomatic mission was appointed 

 in August to go to St. Petersburg and negotiate 

 for an adjustment of the differences respecting 

 the frontier and the restoration of Kulja, and 

 to demand the surrender of the fugitive ex- 



TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, PEKING. 



Khan of Kashgar. The chief of the embassy, 

 or Minister Plenipotentiary, was Chunghou, 

 Governor of Moakden, the capital of Mant- 

 chooria the same officer who was dispatched 

 to France in 1870 to explain that the massacres 

 which occurred at Tientsin in that year were 

 not the work, directly or indirectly, of the 

 Chinese Government. He was accompanied by 

 Silun, a Mantchoo, who had been employed 

 during the late trouble as an agent, civil or mil- 

 itary, on the northwest frontier. The pleni- 

 potentiaries left Tientsin on the 5th of August 

 for Peking, to have an audience with the Em- 

 peror. The Russians professed to be ready to 

 retire whenever they should be compensated 

 for the expense which the occupation of the 

 district had occasioned them. 



Kulja is a place of considerable strategical 

 and commercial importance, and might be made 

 profitable to its possessor. It forms a wedge 

 into the Chinese territory, and is protected on 

 the north by the Kopkesen and Kuyuk Moun- 

 tains, and on the south by theTien-shan range. 

 Few passes cross these natural barriers, and 

 they are capable of being so fortified that they 

 could be made practically unassailable. The 

 Russians holding it would at the same time 

 occupy an important vantage-ground, either 



for an invasion of Kashgar on the south or of 

 Chuguchak on the north. It is the only dis- 

 trict occupied by Russia in Central Asia which 

 might be made a source of revenue instead of 

 expenditure to the Government. The soil is 

 fertile and easily tilled, and the mountains are 

 rich in minerals, including iron, copper, and coal 

 of good quality. During the occupation by the 

 Chinese the land produced flourishing crops, 

 and grain, flour, and all articles of food were 

 abundant and cheap. Trade, assisted by the 

 facilities of transport afforded by the river Hi, 

 which runs east and west through the whole 

 course of the valley, 

 was in a fairly flour- 

 ishing condition. The 

 Chinese established 

 nine schools in Hi, or 

 New Kulja, from its 

 foundation in 1763, for 

 the children of the 

 garrison, and supple- 

 mented them with a 

 college ; and they af- 

 terward founded a 

 school for the study of 

 Russian, with annu.il 

 examinations in that 

 language, and prizes. 

 The city was in ruins 

 when Mr. Eugene 

 Schuyler visited it in 

 1873. 



In November it was 

 reported that Sir Thos. 

 Wade, the British Am- 

 bassador at Peking, 

 had been instructed 



to confer with Lord Lytton at Lahore concern- 

 ing the relations of Russia with China respect- 

 ing the restoration of Kulja. 



The advance of the Chinese armies against 

 the rebellious Sungarians was accompanied by 

 a general destruction of the Mohammedans, 

 with their cattle and other property, in the 

 provinces occupied by them. In this, however, 

 they are said only to have done what the in- 

 surgents had done before them ; for during 

 the period of their insurrection, from 1801 to 

 1870, the Mohammedans had exterminated the 

 Chinese in the provinces of Shensi, Kansu, Hi, 

 and Eastern Turkistan. 



The northern provinces of China were af- 

 flicted during the first six months of 1878 by a 

 famine, which lasted until it was partly alle- 

 viated by the rains which began to fall in 

 June. The famine first spread in the fall of 

 1875, and was caused by the long-continued 

 absence of rain. The drought was a part of the 

 process of desiccation of the plains of Chihli 

 and Shantung, which, having begun long ago 

 in the table-lands of Central Asia, has now 

 reached the densely populated northern prov- 

 inces of the empire. Mr. Frederick H. Baltbur, 

 of Cavendish Square, London, who had been 

 in constant communication with the famine- 



