136 CHINESE TURKESTAN 



to them by their authorities. The chief reason for 

 this is that they fear Russia will soon take per- 

 manent charge, and do not care to live under 

 foreign rule. 



There is a Russian Consulate at Kuldja, but 

 while we were there the vice-consul was in charge, 

 and was very civil to us. There is also a Roman 

 Catholic Mission, the missionaries in charge of 

 which Messrs. Steinman and Smidt were more 

 than kind and hospitable to the strangers near their 

 gate, and in their society we passed many pleasant 

 hours. Indeed, if it had not been for them, time 

 would have hung but heavily on Phelps's hands 

 while I was away in Tashkent. They both spoke 

 English as well as French, and long were our dis- 

 cussions in a mixture of languages as to the justice 

 and probable result of the war in South Africa 

 when our letters and papers at last began to arrive 

 from England. 



The Chinese officials were a Taotai, or Governor, 

 who, though he received us civilly enough, never 

 returned our call, only sending his cards with the 

 excuse of press of work, and the Skwingdm, or 

 police magistrate, who was a good fellow. He, I 

 believe, really was rather overworked, but found 

 time to come and see us pretty often. He asked 

 us to dinner two or three times, and generally did 

 his best to make things pleasant for us ; but then, 

 he had been in Shanghai, and knew something of 



