1858.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 379 



12. So long as the Chinese were in the ascendant, Adolphe 

 Schlagintweit would have little chance of penetrating the inhabited 

 country to any distance : they have out-posts on all the roads across 

 their frontier ; from the rarity of population and traffic, individuals 

 are easily marked ; and Adolphe Schlagintweit would hardly be able 

 to barbarize himself enough to bear scrutiny. An European tra- 

 veller attempting to pass any of these out- posts would probably be 

 stopped and turned back, and extra precautions taken against him 

 all along the frontier, but if detected after penetrating the inha- 

 bited country to any distance, he would more probably be murdered. 

 It is not likely that Adolphe Schlagintweit would stay more than 

 one w T inter in the demi-deserts this side of Khoten, nor that if still 

 there he would not have opened communications with Ladak 

 and India ; it is probable therefore that he took the opportunity 

 offered hy the temporary subversion of the Chinese authority to enter 

 Khoten or Tarkund. But to go far or stay long there he could 

 hardly avoid the notice of the insurgent Turks : the natural im- 

 pulse of these people would be to rob and murder an European, 

 but in the actual conjuncture, they might perhaps welcome him as 

 a common enemy of the Chinese, and the mania of travel or ad- 

 venture might prompt Adolphe Schlagintweit to offer himself in 

 that capacity. In either case when the Chinese got the upper- 

 hand again (as they are now said to have done), they would first 

 regain possession of their southern frontier towards Ladak, and 

 Adolphe Schlagintweit would probably retire with the invading 

 Turks through Kashghar into Khokuud. 



13. The relations of the English with Khokund have been very 

 slight, but so far as they go, wholly amicable, and on the strength 

 of them, or of his own antecedents in Tarkund, Adolphe Schlagin- 

 tweit might possibly meet a friendly reception there : on the other 

 hand the Khokandies are (as usual with the Turks) on bad terms 

 with all their neighbours, including the Russians, who are steadily 

 encroaching on their North- West frontier ; and this would add to 

 his difficulties in leaving their country again. 



14. The ways out of Khokuud are eastward to Hi and South- 

 Eastward to Kashghar, both completely stopped by the Chinese ; 

 Southward to Sirkol Badakshan and Cabul, but physically and 



