312 



Selections. 



[No. 8, NEW SERIES. 



kand which have been recurring periodically every 10 or 20 years 

 during the past century. 



On these occasions the foreign invaders being joined by the 

 Turks of the country, usually succeed in driving the Chinese Gar- 

 risons into their forts and subverting the celestial government for 

 a time, till reinforcements come from the Chinese Provinces further 

 east, when the rabble of Turks soon becomes disorganized, the 

 Kokandis retire to their own country and the people of Yarkand 

 and Kashgar are left to settle their own accounts with the Chinese, 

 which is sometime done by wholesale massacres of the Turks of 

 those cities. 



The invaders are commonly headed by one of the Khojahs of 

 Andishan of the family which ruled at Kashgar before the Chinese 

 conquest (about 100 years ago), and who still aspire to the reco- 

 very of their former dominions. 



An unsuccessful invasion and rebellion of the Turks as here 

 described occurred when I was (Capt. H. Strachey) in Ladak in 

 1847-48 ; on the present occasion the result is said to have been 

 the same. 



So long as the Chinese were in the ascendant, Adolphe Schla- 

 gintweit would have had little chance of penetrating the inha- 

 bited country to so great a distance : they have outposts 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 traveller attempting to pass any of these outposts 

 would probably be stopped and turned back, and extra precautions 

 taken against him all along the frontier, but if detected after pene- 

 trating the inhabited country to any distance he would more pro- 

 bably be murdered. 



The English and Kokandis are generally speaking in no hostile 

 relations, and from his own successful antecedents in Yarkand, 

 Adolphe Schlagintweit might possibly meet a friendly reception 

 there. On the other hand, the Kokandis are (as usual with the 

 Turks of his country) on bad terms with all their neighbours, in- 

 cluding the Russians, who are steadily encroaching on their North- 



