with China upwards of a century before the Christian era. In the fourth century it was entirely devoted to Buddhism, and in the time of Hiouen Tsang contained a hundred convents peopled by 5000 monks. According to that pilgrim, the people were of gentle character, orderly in their conduct, polite in their manners, skilful, industrious, and fond of music, song, and the dance. They wrote after the Indian fashion, but spoke in a peculiar dialect. Their ordinary apparel was of white cotton, few making use of either furs or wool. Silkworms were much cultivated, while carpets, felt, and cotton cloths were the chief manufactures. Marco Polo also makes mention of Cotan, a Mohammedan province, eight days' journey in length, containing many towns and castles, with much abundance of all things necessary for life and comfort. The inhabitants-who, it has been suggested, may be descended from the Xâural Scythians of Ptolemy-were rather given to the pursuit of trade than of arms. The silkworm, it is said, was introduced by a Chinese Princess, who, at a far distant epoch, had married the ruler of Khotan. The original capital was named Ilchi, and it is quite recently that the town of Khotan has obtained any sort of notoriety.

The ill-fated Moorcroft was favourably impressed with the natural capabilities of the province. Yaks, he says, were bred on the mountains, and ordinary cattle in the plains. Sheep of the Dumba stock and shawl-goats increased and multiplied. Among wild animals, the two-humped camel was hunted down both for its flesh and for its wool. The Gorkhar or wild ass, many kinds of deer, including the musk deer, hares, foxes, leopards, bears, wolves, and perhaps tigers, provided profitable sport for hunters. Partridges and the larger francolin were common. The manufactures comprised woollens, camlets, cottons, and silks, and at one time an extensive trade was carried on with Hindostan, but this had fallen off previous to

Moorcroft's wanderings, between 1819 and 1825. The jade manufacture was then in a fourishing condition, and stones free from speck were reserved exclusively for his Celestial Majesty. It was believed that if poison were put into a jade cup the vessel would fly into pieces; that fragments of jade worn upon the person avert the lightning flash; and that any liquor drunk from a jade cup will relieve palpitation of the heart.

In the year 1865 Mr W. H. Johnson, employed in the Indian Trigonometrical Survey Department, finding himself at Leh in Ladakh, was moved by truly British restlessness to make a journey across the mountains to Ilchi. Setting out in the month of July he took the usual route to the Pangong Lake up the Changchenmo valley, and across the Pass. After that he chose the Brinjga route, which traverses extensive plains with an easy slope, but devoid of vegetation except a few lavender plants, and badly supplied with water. At the northern extremity of the plains the route dips suddenly to the Karakash river, where grass and fuel are obtainable in small quantities. It thence leads over the snowy Passes of Brinjga, lofty and difficult through the masses of snow and ice with which they are encumbered. It then turns down a ravine for one whole march, and afterwards crosses several more passes and streams, and finally descends into the plains of Khotan near Bezilia. 'I was informed,' Mr Johnson remarks, 'that by skirting the Kiun Lun range wheeled conveyances might be easily taken from Ilchi to the Changchenmo valley near Leh; that water, grass, and wood are obtainable at every halting-place, and that the only difficulty is the liability to meet with opposition from the shepherds of Rudok in the portion of the route which passes across the Changthang Plain.'

As it was, it took him sixteen days from the valley of the Karakash to Ilchi, by a very difficult road and over a recently

discovered Pass. He goes on to describe the province of Khotan as an extensive plain gently sloping towards the north, and well watered by mountain streams and artificial canals. The soil is generally sandy, free from stones, and highly productive. An exceedingly fine sand, resembling minutely pulverized clay, often falls in showers, when there is not a breath of wind, obscuring the light of day, but fertilizing the land which it covers. Much the same cereals are grown as in India, but of superior quality, owing to the greater equality of the climate. The most common trees are poplars, willows, and tamarisks. The grass is magnificent, and cotton and raw silk are of excellent quality. Minerals abound, such as gold, silver, iron, lead, copper, antimony, salt, saltpetre, sulphur, and soda.

As a manufacturing town Ilchi, or Khotan, ranks next to Yarkund, and turns out silks, felts, carpets of a mixed fabric of silk and wool, coarse cotton cloths, and paper made from mulberry fibre. The population of the capital is estimated at 40,000 and that of the province at 250,000. Females are said to be in excess of males to the extent of twenty per cent., owing to the frequency of wars and rebellions. The men are fair complexioned, well built, and good looking; and the women, though rather short, are pretty, but with a slight touch of the Tatar cast of countenance. Men and women alike were dressed in clean and comfortable attire, and seemed cheerful and prosperous.

The Khan at that time dwelt in an old Chinese fort, built of earth. The town was surrounded by a wall twenty-five feet in height and twenty in breadth. Watchmen patrolled the streets at night, notifying their approach by striking a stick against a hollow piece of wood, which gave forth a loud, unmusical sound. The old Chinese instruments of torture were then in use. One of them was the rack, worked by screws; another, similar to our treadmill; and a third, employed to

extort confession, was a frame covered with sharp stones and gravel, on which the culprit was forced to kneel with a heavy log of wood laid across the inner part of his knee joints, the pain being excruciating. Hanging and blowing away from guns were the ordinary modes of inflicting capital punishment. Gallows were erected, for convenience sake, in various parts of the city. Flogging with a leather thong was also a common method of chastising both men and women.

Mr Johnson was invited to Yarkund to take possession of the town and district in the name of the British Government, and was informed that the inhabitants, weary of anarchy, confusion, and oppression, had clubbed together to present him with £30,000 and sundry robes of honour, if he would consent to remain and be their ruler. The flattering offer was declined, and Mr Johnson returned to his humbler duties as a surveyor, and it is reported received something like a snubbing from the Governor-General for wandering into unknown lands, and incurring the liability of being pelted with provinces and kingdoms.

CHAPTER XV.

THE AMEER OF KASHGAR.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ALTYSHUHR-WALEE KHAN TOURA-MOHAMMED YAKOOB BEG-TUNGANI REBELLION-HEROIC SUICIDE OF THE AMBAN-FALL OF KASHGAR-YAKOOB BEG DEFEATS THE TUNGANIS-RECEIVES TITLE OF ATALIK GHAZEE-TREACHEROUS SEIZURE OF KHOTAN-REDUCTION OF TASH KURGHAN OFFICIAL RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA - MR FORSYTH'S FIRST MISSION-BARON VON KAULBARS' MISSION-EXPORTS AND IMPORTS -PROGRESS OF RUSSIAN INFLUENCE-AGA MEHDIE RAPHAEL ROUTES TO INDIA LADAKH-MR FORSYTH'S SECOND MISSION-LORD CLARENDON'S NEUTRAL ZONE.

BUDDHISM was the national faith of Eastern Toorkestan from the commencement of the Christian era to the close of the 14th century. During the 8th century, indeed, a long and terrible war raged between the Arabs and the Chinese, in which the former were victorious, and succeeded in impressing the ritual observances of their faith upon the nomad population. The original inhabitants and the Chinese settlers continued, however, loyal to their ancient creed, and it was not until the reign of Timour that Islam finally superseded belief in the teachings of Sakya-Muni. Under the descendants of Chinghiz Khan, Altyshuhr-comprising the six cities of Yarkund, Kashgar, Ilchi, Aksu, Yanghissar, and Ush-Turfan-formed a portion of the Chagatai Khanat. Religious toleration, or indifference, was one of the characteristic features of the early Tatar domination, and in Marco Polo's time there existed several nunneries belonging to the Nestorian Christians.