124 Notes on Central Asia. [No. 3, 
extremity of the lake Issyk-Kul. Here I came upon numerous 
encampments of the hostile Sary-Bagysh tribe, who shortly before 
my arrival, had had a fierce engagement with a Russian detachment ; 
which had been sent out from Vernoé, to punish these mountaineers, 
for acts of violence and plunder. Notwithstanding that, I met with 
a hospitable reception from the Sary-Bagyshes who were comme- 
morating the death of many of their kinsmen who had fallen in the 
recent conflict, I was not able to penetrate beyond the first exposed 
rocky spurs of the Celestial range, nor to visit its wild defiles, being 
apprehensive of treachery from the revengeful mountaineers, who had 
lately been so severely punished by the Russians. 
However, in the spring of 1857, thanks to the escort kindly fur- 
nished me by Governor-General Hasford, who displayed great zeal and 
energy in furthering the organisation and exploration of the newly 
acquired region, I was enabled to realise all my plans. The deadly 
strife between the two Kara-Kirghiz tribes was then at its height, 
and the valleys of the Tian-Shan seemed quite inaccessible. A 
happy combination of circumstances, however, removed this apparently 
insurmountable obstacle to my journey. 
A rumour, that had spread with extraordinary rapidity, through 
almost the whole of the Mustag (the Turk name for the western 
portion of the Tian-Shan) of the approach of a strong Russian detach- 
ment, armed with terrible instruments of destruction,* for the purpose 
of assisting the Manap Burambai, produced a sudden panic among 
the Sary-Bagysh tribe, inducing them to relinquish, not only the 
camping grounds they had seized from the Bogus, but even their own 
native pasturages, from the upper course of the Djirgalan, along the 
whole border of Issyk-Kul, for an extent of more than 200 versts 
and to migrate to the upper course of the Syr-Daria (Marym). The 
Bogu tribe who had been previously attacked by the Bagyshes in the 
spring of 1857, and driven into Chinese limits, expected their complete 
destruction; the sudden flight of their enemies dispelled their fears 
and enabled them to re-occupy their former camping grounds, and 
* The exaggerated accounts respecting the strength of my escort were owing 
to my having really reached Burambaisadls accompanied by 800 horsemen ; 
but these consisted of a body of Kirghizes of the Great Horde under the Sultan of 
Tezek who had voluntarily joined my detachment. My own personal escort 
consisted of only 25 cossacks. 

