have up to the present moment paralyzed all progress in those countries.'

In 1865 Tashkend was captured by General Tchernaief with a mere handful of men and eight old guns, after a severe struggle in the open field. For this officious conquest General Tchernaief was recalled in (simulated) disgrace, and General Romanofsky, who succeeded to the command of the forces in Russian Toorkestan, was instructed to pacify and consolidate the newly acquired territories, and to resist all temptations to further aggrandisement. In that year Mozuffar-ood-deen had taken the imprudent step of marching to Khokan to place Khoda Yar Khan upon the throne, and, not content with sending a letter of defiance and menace to General Tchernaief, confiscated all the property of Russian subjects he could lay hands upon. By way of reprisal, the Russians seized upon the goods of Bokhariot traders in Orenberg, and the Ameer had the assurance to send an envoy to complain of this act of violence. His messenger, however, got no further than Fort Kazali, now Fort 2, where he was placed in confinement. A counter-mission despatched by General Tchernaief to Bokhara was treated in like manner, but not otherwise ill-treated.

The Russian General, avoiding Khojend, pushed on to Jizak through a barren country, until he found himself in presence of a force twenty times more numerous than his own. He retreated, however, in good order and without loss, and gave up the command to his successor, the olive-bearing Romanofsky. But peace was at that juncture impossible. The Oozbegs, after a series of smart skirmishes, had entrenched themselves at Chinaz on the Syr, while Mozuffar-ood-deen took the field with 5000 regular troops, 35,000 Kirghiz, and 21 guns.

The two armies encountered each other on the 20th May, 1866, at Yirdjar, a few miles to the north of Khojend. The Russians had 20 guns, but only fourteen companies of infantry

men.

and five squadrons of cavalry, their total force not exceeding 4000 The issue of the fight, however, was never for a moment doubtful. The Bokharian irregulars were thrown into confusion at the very outset by the well-served artillery of the Russians, and a gallant charge drove the entire host into headlong flight. Their camp and artillery fell into the hands of the victors, who affirm that they counted 1000 dead bodies of the enemy on the field of battle, while their own loss in killed and wounded did not amount to fifty.

This brilliant success was followed up by the surrender of a small fort called Nau, and after a siege of seven days the important town and fortress of Khojend was carried by escalade, the garrison suffering a loss of 2500 men, while that of the Russians is again reported to have been insignificant. Convinced of the uselessness of any further resistance, Khoda Yar Khan hastened to save what yet remained to him of his dominions by accepting the hard terms imposed by the conqueror. Not only did he acknowledge himself a vassal of the Tzar, but he also ceded the valley of the Syr from Mehrem, threw open all his towns to Russian traders and residents, and undertook the payment of an indemnity.

Untaught by the bitter experience of his neighbour and ally, the Ameer of Bokhara, in 1866, proclaimed a Jihad, or religious war, against the infidel, in the vain hope of rousing the fanaticism of his subjects and of the nomad tribes of the desert. The first consequence was Count Dashkof's capture of Uratupeh, and shortly afterwards of Jizak. In the following year General Kaufmann made himself master of Yenghy Kurghan, and on the 13th May, 1868, with only 8000 troops, defeated Mozuffar-ood-deen's host of 40,000 men, drawn up on the opposite bank of the Zarafshan. The rout was complete, and the fugitives, on reaching the walls of Samarkand, found the gates closed against them. That once beautiful and opulent

city surrendered at discretion on the approach of the victorious Russians, in whose hands it has ever since remained.

The Ameer fled to the Kermeeneh, and his eldest son Abdool Malek Meerza to Bokhara, while General Kaufmann followed upon the heels of the retreating army. Ketty Kurghan submitted without firing a shot, and the final struggle took place at Serpul, on the same ground that had witnessed the defeat of Baber by Sheibani Khan and his Oozbegs. The Ameer's troops were advantageously posted, but the Russians stormed the heights in the most dashing manner, and the existence of Bokhara as an independent kingdom was brought to a close.

In the mean while, however, the feeble garrison left behind in Samarkand was placed in a position of imminent danger. It consisted of no more than 685 men, most of whom were on the sick list, under the command of Baron Von Stempel. This little band was suddenly attacked by 25,000 Oozbegs and Samarkandians, but resolutely maintained their post from the 12th to the 18th June, when they were relieved by General Kaufmann, but not before they had forty-nine of their number killed and 172 wounded.

The Ameer now laid down his arms, opened his country to the Russians, undertook to pay an indemnity, and agreed to place Russian traders on the same footing as Mohammedans, who are exempted by the Koran from paying a higher duty than one in forty, or two and a half per cent. The fanatical party, however, headed by Abdool Malek Meerza, were indignant at the Ameer's submission, and demanded his abdication in favour of his eldest son, but this movement was speedily crushed by the Russians, who took possession of Karshee, the stronghold of the rebels. The astonishment of the Ameer and his subjects was unbounded when, on the third day after their

victorious entry, the Russians marched out again and restored the town to its lawful sovereign.

There seems to be some doubt as to the ultimate fate of Abdool Malek Meerza, beyond the fact of his marrying a daughter of Shere Ali, the Ameer of Afghanistan. According to M. Vambery, the prince either died in Khiva, or is a secret guest of Yakoob Khan, the ruler of Eastern Toorkestan. In 1869 the Ameer sent his fourth and favourite son Abdool Futteh Meerza, though only twelve years of age, to St Petersburg, the bearer of nine presents as from an inferior, with the covert hope of securing the recognition by the Russian government of his claims as heir apparent. The incident was regarded by Sir Alexander Buchanan as of sufficient importance to be notified to the Earl of Clarendon, at that time Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The letter is dated St Petersburg, October 19, 1869, from which the following extract is given in the Correspondence respecting Central Asia,' presented to parliament during the session of 1873.

'A mission from the Emir of Bokhara,' the British ambassador observes,' has arrived here, consisting of the fourth son of the Emir, and other members of his family. The ostensible object of this mission is said to be to give information to the Emperor respecting the hostile intentions and intrigues of the government of India and of the Afghans, but it is believed that his principal object is to secure the succession of the throne of Bokhara to the fourth and favourite son of the Emir. M. de Westmann tells me that the mission is merely one of courtesy, but that it is true that the Emir is desirous that his fourth son should be his successor, a question on which his Excellency says the Russian government can have no interest.' Considering the very prompt and decided line of action adopted by General Kaufmann in crushing the pretensions of the eldest

son, it may be permissible to question the indifference of the Tzar's government with respect to the Ameer's successor, unless it be intended to reduce the Khan to a state of direct vassalage, and to treat him as an hereditary governor of a province, removable at the pleasure of his all-powerful masters.

Having thus established their power on a solid foundation in the western portion of the frontier line between anarchy and order, between barbarism and civilization, the Russians next turned their attention to the eastward, and erected several forts between Fort Vernöe and the northern borders of Eastern Toorkestan. Nor did they rest contented with merely strengthening the line of demarcation drawn by Prince Gortchakof in 1864, when it was thought necessary to offer some sort of apology for the recent annexation of Tashkend. Emboldened by success and the supineness of the European powers, the Russian government in 1871 seized upon Kulja without any sort of provocation beyond the standing challenge of the fat lamb to the ravening wolf, and without condescending to offer any explanation of this additional illustration of the policy, to promote the interests of humanity and civilization, sketched in that perspicuous circular.

In this place it may be worth while to trace the exact position of Russia with reference to Khokan and Eastern Toorkestan previous to this last acquisition, as described by Mr Robert Michell in his paper on the Jaxartes or Syr Darya, avowedly derived from Russian sources and published in the Royal Geographical Society's Journal, No. xxxviii. Mr Michell, it should be premised, is by no means a Russophobist. He does not hesitate to express his belief that the contributions to science which Russian officers and civilians have made since they have been able to penetrate into the interesting regions of Central Asia, are of greater value and importance than the political side of the question as regards our Indian possessions.'