THE LAND OF UNREST 391 



under their leader Ubashi Khan, attempted to escape 

 from the arms of Russia and to return to their old home, 

 the desire being increased by an invitation from the 

 Emperor Chien-lung, who, after depopulating Dzungaria, 

 wished to find desirable colonists and promised the 

 Torguts a home in their native land. The migration of 

 a people, including men, women, children, flocks and 

 herds ; the transport of all household belongings ; the 

 actual journey, undertaken— as it was — in mid-winter, 

 over bleak and barren steppes, for a distance of three 

 thousand miles from the Volga to Dzungaria, form 

 adequate material for a romance. Harassed by enemies, 

 decimated by disease, starving, fighting for their lives and 

 their belongings, unable to retreat, forced to advance 

 or to die, the Torguts marched by slow and painful 

 stages back to their own land. After running the 

 gauntlet of Russian Cossacks and Kirghiz plunderers 

 for eight months, the remnant arrived on the confines 

 of China, and were given lands in the Kobuk district ^ 

 of Northern Dzungaria, the Yulduz plateau, and the 

 Kunguz and Tekes Valleys in Tian Shan. There exists 

 also a small section of Torguts resident in the southern 

 slopes of the Altai at the sources of the Urungu River, 

 and on the Baitik Mountains, which latter region they 

 share with the Kirei. 



In Western Dzungaria is another reservation for a 

 Mongol tribe, namely, the Borotala Valley. In this 

 abundantly watered and well-protected region on the 



^ My reasons for considering the Kobuk Torguts a portion of the 

 tribe who migrated to the Volga and back again, are gathered from the 

 accounts given by Tsh'ovenn-iven, first Tao-tai of Southern Dzungaria, 

 who relates that " in the thirty-sixth year of Kien-loung (Chien-lung) 

 the Torguts, having at their head their chief, Tortsi-bek, settled them- 

 selves at seven days' march distant from and to the east of the town of 

 Tarbagatai, in a place called Kiabek saU " (Kobuk saU, or Kobuk Valley). 



