KULJA OCCUPIED BY RUSSIA. 213 



canal in the precincts of the city. The Chinese official 

 Lu-tsu-han, in a report written for his Government, 

 which fell, however, into the hands of the Russians, 

 says : " There were many instances that in lonely places 

 they actually caught Mantchus and Chinese and killed 

 them. Happily Heaven did not permit the human race 

 to end. Now the leader of the great Russian empire, 

 the Dzian-Dziun of Semiretch, with his army inspired 

 with humanity and truth, has quieted every one. This 

 petty foreign Power (Russia !) saved the nation from 

 fire and water, it subdued the whole four countries 

 without the least harm, so that children are not fright- 

 ened, and the people submitted not without delight and 

 ecstasy ! " ^ 



How vastly more entertaining would our own consular 

 reports be, were they permeated by a similar sense of 

 humour ! 



The Russian expedition was an undoubted success, 

 and had, therefore, to be approved by the statesmen 

 on the Neva, who were in reality far from pleased at 

 these further acquisitions and consequent responsibili- 

 ties. The Government at Peking were informed of the 

 occupation, and assured of the readiness of the Russian 

 Government to restore the province to its rightful 

 owners, as soon as a Chinese force of sufficient strength 

 to occupy and preserve order in the district should 

 arrive. 



For once China showed herself capable of a deter- 

 mined and wholly unexpected fixity of purpose. Tso- 

 Chungt-'ang, the general to whom the task of reconquer- 

 ing Turkestan was delegated, was a man, as Professor 

 Douglas remarks, " of proved ability and of great stead- 

 fastness of purpose." Before him stretched a dreary 

 waste, dotted at distant and lonely intervals by small 



1 Schuyler's Turkestan, vol. ii. p. 188. 



