Prince Bekovitch was authorised to undertake the enterprise.

He

In 1714 a reconnoitring expedition left the shores of the Caspian in the direction of Khiva. With this particular expedition everything went well, and maps were sent to Peter of the new region thus explored. The result was, of course, only partial, and much more remained to be done before even the old channel of the river could be determined. In the following year Prince Bekovitch was entrusted with a larger force, not less than six thousand men; but a large portion of this army remained at Krasnovodsk bay. reached Karagash, on the Khivan frontier, with about three thousand troops. At first the Khan opposed his entry; but after a time, being won over by presents, and doubtless hoping to obtain more, he permitted him to remain. Prince Bekovitch did not hesitate to proclaim that he regarded Khiva merely as a half-way house in his progress through the States of Central Asia. But the Khan soon became discontented with his guests, and resolved to destroy them.

In a weak moment Bekovitch consented to the distribution of his force, and they were overcome and massacred in detail. The prince himself was reserved for a more cruel fate. He was flayed alive, and then murdered. Such was the termination of the Bekovitch enterprise, which at one time promised so auspiciously, and which was undertaken in so thorough and adequate a manner. Peter himself had no further opportunity of interfering beyond the Caspian, but he paved the way for fresh enterprises in this direction.

under his successors by the reduction of the harbour of Derbend.

From 1715 to 1837 nothing was done in this matter, and after more than one hundred and twenty years' interval the nominally scientific expedition of Peroffsky succeeded the more grandiose affair of Bekovitch. This expedition was a signal failure, since it was compelled to retreat before it had proceeded far into the desert, and was glad to find safety in the harbours on the shore of the Caspian, with the loss of nearly all its camels.

Since Peroffsky's year the attempts have been more frequent, and the bed of the Oxus has been more or less explored by Ivanof, Lomakine, and others. Lines of wells have been dug across in several directions from the Caspian to Khiva, and in one respect these would appear to have supplemented the absence of a railway or a waterway. But as a matter of fact it is not so. Communication between Krasnovodsk and Khiva is still attended by considerable danger both from man and nature; and there is no great caravan route here such as the Russians should in their own interests create. Military operations are hampered to a still greater extent, and the military sub-district of TransCaspiania is actually separated from that of Amou Darya by a greater distance than the latter is from Orenburg. These explorations will not be crowned with success until the Oxus or a railway forms a connecting link between the two seas of Caspian and Aral.

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CHAPTER III.

THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT OF TURKESTAN.

It is not easy to determine the modifications that have taken place since Mr. Schuyler penned his graphic description of the Russian administration in Central Asia,* and it is almost impossible to say whether there has been progress or retrogression. The Russian possessions in Turkestan at the present moment cover about four hundred and sixty thousand square miles, and the population of this vast region is at the highest computation under three millions. Yet within the confines of the Russian possessions are to be found the ruins of several powerful kingdoms, and the representatives of great conquering races and families, such as the Kipchak, the Usbeg, and the Kirghiz. The kingdom of Khokand has been completely absorbed, those of Bokhara and Khiva have been stripped of some of their possessions, and a province of the Chinese Empire has been retained at the cost

* "Turkistan," by Eugene Schuyler, vol. ii. chapter xiii.

of incurring the resentment of its Government and people. The total subjected population is between two millions and a half and three millions of human beings, scattered over a region which exceeds Western Europe in size. Among the subjected races there is no connecting link save that of religion, which has always in their case proved singularly valueless, and the Russian garrison is very nearly as large as that which is stationed in India. It will be more convenient to discuss the military situation in another chapter.

Up to the year 1867 affairs were conducted in Central Asia in what can only be called a hap-hazard fashion under the control of the Governor of Orenburg; but the triumphs of Generals Tchernaieff, Krjihanoffsky, and Romanoffsky, had resulted in the advance of Russian arms from Kazala at the mouth of the Syr Darya to Tashkent and Chinaz. It became necessary to constitute some definite authority in this new region. Whereas before that year the military and civil authority had been reposed in separate hands, they were henceforth to be wielded by the same functionary. A ukase (see Appendix), which appeared on the 11th (23rd) of July in that year, and which was published by the "Journal de St. Petersburg" a few days afterwards, announced the formation of the Central Asian possessions into a governor-generalship, with the seat of government at Tashkent. For the first four months General Romanoffsky filled this new and much-coveted post; but it was in November found convenient to recall him in accordance with some State

necessity, and on the 17th of that month General Kaufmann arrived in Tashkent as the representative of the Czar.

Before that time Kaufmann had been an officer attached to the staff of the Czar. He had never been in Central Asia, and he possessed no knowledge of the subject over which he was henceforth to exercise supreme control. But these were not his only faults, for, being naturally of an extremely vain disposition, it was not long before he became persuaded of his own special qualifications for the high office which he held, and strove in many ways to add a lustre to his administration by the prosecution of numerous campaigns, and by a series of conquests that have so far been unprofitable. The state which he maintains at Tashkent, his Cossack guard, the strict etiquette which fences him around, and the court balls that are given in close imitation of those held at St. Petersburg, all these are now well known, thanks to Mr. Schuyler, and have earned for the Czar's representative the nickname of Yarim Padishah, or half-king. But the actual result of all this sham State ceremony is that in practical affairs General Kaufmann is a cypher. He knows nothing of the subject which he is supposed to decide upon, and is consequently bound to guide his own impulse by the advice of such men as Abramoff and Kolpakoffsky. There are others in the civil administration who are equally influential, though less honourably distinguished, and in all directions in Turkestan an autocratic officialism works its own way and for its own ends, seeking only to flatter and to pander to the