214 KULJA. 



oases ; beyond again lay Turkestan. With a contempt 

 for time, which was as delightful as it was character- 

 istic, but with an altogether unlooked-for tenacity, the 

 general embarked upon his task. His soldiers became 

 husbandmen, the land was ploughed, seed was sown, 

 and in due season crops were reaped, and the danger of 

 famine thus averted — hey, presto ! the Celestial farmers 

 became the soldiers of the green banner once more, and 

 the expedition resumed its way. 



The result was a complete success. Urumtsi and 

 Manas soon fell — not without hideous slaughter in the 

 case of the latter : the notorious Yakub was compelled 

 to fly : Aksu, Yarkand, Kashgar, and Khoten capitu- 

 lated, and by the year 1878 the task of conquest had 

 been completed. 



Seven years, however, had elapsed since the occupa- 

 tion of Kulja by Russia, who was no longer in a mood 

 to restore the lost property without ample remunera- 

 tion, and a leisurely diplomatic duel ensued. A treaty 

 concluded at Livadia by the Chinese official Chunghou 

 — the same that had been sent to France in 1871 to 

 apologise for the massacre of sixteen French sisters of 

 charity at Tientsin — so incensed the Court at Peking 

 that it was immediately repudiated, and its unfortunate 

 author handed over to the tender mercies of the Board 

 of Punishments, while Gordon of imperishable fame was 

 called in to lend the lustre of his reputation as stiffen- 

 ing for a Chinese army to be hurled against the might 

 of Russia. His mission was rendered abortive by his 

 repeated declaration on his way to the capital of his 

 intention to induce China to make peace — the very last 

 thing for which he had been summoned ; and eventually 

 the question, after dragging its tedious length along 

 the obscure channels of oriental diplomacy and intrigue, 

 found a solution in the treaty of St Petersburg, con- 



