"2. It was essential that the line of our advanced forts laid down in this manner should be situated in a country not only sufficiently fertile to secure their provisions, but also to facilitate regular colonisation, for this alone can secure to an occupied country a future of stability and prosperity in winning the neighbouring populations for civilised life.

"3. Lastly, it was urgent to fix that line in a definite manner, in order to escape from the dangerous and almost inevitable inducements to go on from repression to reprisals, which might result in an endless extension."

"With this object the basis of a system had to be laid down, which should be founded not only upon reason, which is elastic, but upon geographical and political conditions which are of a fixed and permanent nature."

In reading these passages we really are at a loss to decide whether grim humour or unprecedented hypocrisy and impudence have dictated them. The ink was scarcely dry with which the lines had been written, when Russia, anxious to avoid "endless extension," plunged again into fresh conquests. Khudayar Khan, the ruler of Khokand, a noted coward even in Central Asia, had soon lost his spirits, and implored Muzaffar-ed-din-Khan for assistance. Bokhara, reputed at that time the very stronghold of

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moral and material strength in Central Asia, was soon at hand with an army outnumbering the Russian adventurers ten or fifteen times; an army in name only, but consisting chiefly of a rabble, ill-armed, and devoid of any military qualities. By dint of preponderating numbers, the Bokhariots succeeded so far as to inflict a loss upon the daring Russian general at Irdjar, who, constrained to retreat upon Tashkend, was at once deposed by his superiors in St. Petersburg, and instead of praises being bestowed upon him for the capture of Tashkend, he had to feel the weight of Russian ingratitude. His successor, General Romanovsky, played the part of a consolidator and a preparer, and as soon as this duty was fulfilled he likewise was superseded by General Kauffmann, a German from the Baltic Russian provinces, uniting the qualities of his predecessors in one person, and doing accordingly the work entrusted to him with pluck and luck in a comparatively short time. In 1868 the whole Yaxartes valley, together with Samarkand, the former capital of Timur, fell into the hands of Russia, and General Kauffmann would have proceeded to Bokhara, and even farther, if Muzaffar-eddin-Khan, terrified by the heavy blows which he had received, and afraid of a revolutionary rising in his own country headed by his own son, had not voluntarily submitted and begged for peace.

At the treaty of Serpul, the Emir was granted the free possession of the country which was left to him, beginning beyond Kermineh, as far as Tchardjui in the south; and not only was he promised vigorous support in all his possessions beyond the Oxus, but Russian friendship even went so far as to suppress for him a rebellion which had broken out at Shehri Sebz, and amity seemed to spring up between these two formerly implacable enemies. Of course the Emir had to pledge himself to be a true and faithful ally of Russia. He had to pay the heavy war indemnity, including all the robberies and embezzlements of Russian officers; he had to place his sons under the tutorship of the Czar in order to be brought up at St. Petersburg, in the very centre of the blackest infidelity; and ultimately he had to cede three points on his southern frontier—namely, Djam, Kerki, and Tchardjui, in order to secure a starting point for Russia towards the south in case of necessity. All these were certainly most oppressive burdens; but what on earth would not the Emir have given to save the shadow of his sovereignty? Of course Russia was very wise to leave him in the delusive dream of his independence; for besides the heavy costs involved by immediate annexation, the administration of the country by Russian officials would have proved a useless expense to the exchequer. This abstemious policy had borne

its fruits-for Russia not only gained the consideration of the foe vanquished by her, but was also looked upon by the adjacent khanates in a far better light than had been hitherto the case, since, according to Tartar notions, conquest was identical with murder, plunder and extirpation. Central Asia was really surprised to find mercy at the hands of the Christian victor.

Scarcely five years had elapsed when Russia, anxious to avoid "endless extension," cast her eyes beyond the Oxus upon the Khan of Khiva, applying almost literally the meaning of the fable of Æsopus in accusing the Khiva lamb on the lower course of the Oxus of troubling her waters in the upper course. A plea for a casus belli was soon unearthed. The young Khan of Khiva, the son of the very man upon whom I pronounced a blessing whilst sojourning in his capital, had vainly endeavoured to apologise and to give every possible redress. The Russian preparations of war had been ready for a long time, provisions were previously secured on different points, and General Kauffmann, notoriously fond of theatrical pageantries, marched through the most perilous route across bottomless sands from the banks of the Yaxartes to the Oxus. Strange to say, he chose the very route upon which I trudged years ago, tormented and nearly killed by thirst. At the station, Adam

Kirligan (the place were men perish) he must have remembered the dervish, for I am told on good authority that he travelled with my book in his hands; and the ominous name of the station would have proved really disastrous to the Russian army if the Uzbegs had had the slightest military foresight, or had been aware of the very rudimentary principles of warfare. The Russians, who marched from three different points upon the khanate, had a very easy task before them. Without fighting a single battle, the whole country on the Lower Oxus was conquered. Russia again showed herself magnanimous by replacing the young Khan upon the paternal throne, after having taken away from him the whole country on the right bank of the Oxus, and imposed his neck the burden of a war indemnity which will weigh him down as long as he lives, and cripple even his successors, if any such are to come after him.

upon

Three more years passed, when Russia, anxious to avoid "endless extension," again began to extend the limits of her possessions in the Yaxartes Valley towards the East. In July, 1876, one of the famous Russian embassies of amity was casually (?) present at the Court of Khudayar Khan at Khokand, when suddenly a rebellion broke out, endangering not only the lives of the Russian embassy but also of the allied ruler. No wonder, therefore, that Russia had