26 
HISTORY OF THE KHOJAS OF EASTERN TURKISTlN. 
From this version of the affair have been derived all modern accounts 
of the final fall of the Khojas. Seeing, however, that it is based on the 
despatch of a Chinese general to his Government, it is scarcely likely to 
be worthy of credit, except in its main ontline. The incident is well 
known, by tradition, even at the present day in the Pamir region, and is 
in the month of almost every Kirghiz, Shighni and Badakhshi to be met 
with ; bnt they tell the story without any mention of the sanguinary 
engagement near Yeshil-Kul, and divide the Chinese figures by about ten. 
In reality it would appear, the Khojas had a following of some hundreds of 
Musulmans and Qalmaqs of whom many were women, children and slaves. 
The Chinese party sent in pursuit followed them as far as the lake, but 
finding that the fugitives had crossed the pass into Shighnan, they cut 
some characters on a rock 1 and returned to Kashghar. There was no 
battle, the Khojas and their party passed unmolested into Badakhshan, 
and had reached Argu, below Faizabad, when they were attacked by 
Sultan Shah, then Mir of the country, and taken prisoners. Sultan Shah 
plundered the whole party, beheaded the two Khojas and kept the Qal¬ 
maqs as slaves. 
On considering the part played by the Qalmaqs in these regions of 
Central Asia, daring the last century, we see how it came about that the 
remnant of the Mo gh uls gave place to the Khojas in Eastern Turkistan, 
and the latter to the Manchu Emperors of China. Had the Khojas been 
independent of the Qalmaqs, it may perhaps be a question whether China 
would have been drawn so far westward as to interfere in the territory 
misgoverned by these factious saints. It is possible that one party might 
have gained so decisive a predominance over the other that a fairly strong 
and permanent government would have been the outcome. But even had 
this been the case the Khojas would not have been long left to themselves. 
In 1714 the Bussian Governor of Siberia, Prince Gagarin, became 
possessed of information that Eastern Turkistan, and especially the district 
of Yarqand was a country whose rivers abounded in gold. In all probabi¬ 
lity it was Khotan that he had heard of, for the rivers there contain gold 
in fair quantities, while in those of Yarqand it is scarcely known; but 
this matters little. He reported his discovery to Peter the Great and 
1 This was the stone seen by Captain F. E. Younghusband in 1890. It has since been 
carried off by the Russians. The imaginary fightiug on the Pamir, it may be mentioned, 
is handed down to posterity in two spirited prints in M. Pauthier’s Chine (Volume T, 
1843) representing not one, but two separate engagements of the most approved 
theatrical pattern. Knights in armour mounted on prancing Arabs charge each other, 
with lance and battle axe, among the forest trees of the Pamir ; while lines of camels, 
with field pieces pivoted above their humps, teach the reader what the artillery of the 
day was like. 
