CHAPTER LVIll. 
FROM KASHGAR TO KARGALIK 
A S soon as I had recovered from the attack of fever, 
and could get my new caravan properly organized, I 
left Kashgar for the last time. My departure made some 
stir. The great Shang Dao Tai himself in august person 
came, with every circumstance of pomp and parade, followed 
by his train of Chinese friends and servants, to pay me a 
farewell visit. My caravan of nine horses and three men, 
under command of my trusty Islam Bai, started on the 
morning of December 14th, 1895. I myself, accompanied 
by two servants, followed them at noon on the same da) . 
It was precisely five years before, to the very day, that I 
first set eyes on Kashgar, the last outpost of European 
civilization in the centre of Asia. 
There was quite a crowd assembled in the courtyard of 
the consulate to see me off — Consul-General Petrovsky and 
his hospitable wife, the Polish missionary Adam Ignatieff, 
fifty mounted Cossacks and their two officers, and lastly all 
the native secretaries, interpreters, and servants. After a 
last farewell to my host and hostess, in whose hospitable 
house 1 had spent so many happy and instructive hours, 1 
vaulted into the saddle, and we set off at a gentle trot 
through the bazaars, followed by the Russian officers an 
their Cossacks, and the old Pole. The soldiers sang as 
they trotted along, and their cheerful voices echoed lou y 
through the narrow, confined bazaars. At the Swecis 
mission-house w'e stopped a moment, whilst I said goo 
bye to Mrs. Hogberg and her children. Her husband 
joined my co7'tege on horseback. When, shortly afterwar s, 
our good friend the Russo-Chinese interpreter Yan a 01 
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