to feel the weight of Russia's hand. When it did feel it, however, it completely succumbed. So long ago as the year 1620 there are said to have been political relations between the two Courts. In those days there certainly was open hostility between the Cossacks of the Ural and the Khivans; and the former on several occasions carried their raids into the inhabited portion of Khivan territory. But out of this petty border warfare the Khan always emerged with success. The Cossack raiders were invariably cut off and often annihilated. In those days Khiva was strong, and

the Turcomans were her allies.

We have already described the unfortunate expedition of Prince Beckovitch-the first official attempt on the part of the Russian Government to carry on intercourse with the States of Central Asia. The Beckovitch disaster gave the Khan a confidence in the security of his position, which had not deserted his successors even when General Kaufmann was sending ultimatums in 1873. A short time after the murder of Prince Beckovitch, of whose fate no certain tidings had then been received, the Czar Peter sent an ambassador to Khiva, but although he was well received he achieved nothing of importance. After Peter's death. several fresh embassies were sent, but they all were practically abortive. The Khan would not surrender the Russian subjects whom he already possessed. He would not give up his privilege of capturing them whenever he could, and of enslaving them when captured. For more than two centuries Khiva bade defiance to Russia, and for a long time after the first

triumphs on the Jaxartes the Khan continued to be hostile on the strength of his impunity in the past. As between Khiva and Russia there was, therefore, bitter ground for hostility, and Russia cannot be blamed for having at length indulged her pent-up indignation. The Khan had enslaved Russian subjects, when he had not murdered them. He had defied Russia as no civilised power can permit itself to be defied, and from the murder of Beckovitch down to the refusal to surrender the captives in 1869 there was a long score of misdeeds for which reparation. should be given. The day of atonement was long coming, but it came at last.

Russian intrigues in Persia in 1837-38 had been one of the causes of an English invasion of Afghanistan in 1839; and Russia, foiled before the walls of Herat, mainly by the intrepidity and resolution of Eldred Pottinger, turned once more to the Khivan question, by the settlement of which it was hoped that not only would the old difficulties be removed, but that an equivalent might be secured round the Aral for the results of any British triumphs in Cabul. The two great empires made their first advance towards. each other in the year 1839, and, strange to say, each was doomed to meet with disaster. In our case the disaster was relieved by the glory of two victorious campaigns; and in the Russian it was unqualified and complete. Both were capable of being permanently repaired, but while we remained apathetic after our military triumph, Russia turned in another direction to attain what she had failed in securing from the Caspian.

Yet the Russian expedition against Khiva in 1839 was one that, to judge from the care with which it had been prepared, should have succeeded. Its superiority over the Khivan army was not less unquestionable than the superiority of Lord Keane's army over that of Dost Mahomed. The officer who was entrusted with the command was General Peroffsky, certainly not an incompetent or an inexperienced soldier. His force consisted of five thousand fighting-men, twenty-two guns, and ten thousand camels, according to Mr. Schuyler; but Captain Abbott says that Peroffsky himself admitted that he had ten thousand men. There was also a large body of Kirghiz attached to the expedition. The march from Orenburg to Khiva lies through nine hundred and thirty miles of steppe beyond the Emba river, which is almost destitute of water during the summer, and well-nigh impassable in winter, on account of the depth of the snow and the extreme severity of the weather. For some reason or other-the Russians say through the treachery of a Polish officer*-it was considered that, although Russian soldiers could not do without water, there was no degree of cold to which they were not proof. It was in consequence resolved to begin the march in the autumn; but the fates were against the Russians in every way, for that year the winter set in unusually early, and with remarkable severity. Before Peroffsky had got more than half way to Khiva he

* I can find no trace of any officer having been tried for treachery after the close of the campaign.

was compelled to retreat, and those who witnessed that retreat say that its horrors could not have been surpassed. With scarcely one-third of his original force, and only one-tenth of his camels, Peroffsky was glad to find shelter and safety in Orenburg. Khiva was again triumphant, and Russia's Central Asian campaigns, which up to this had been a series of disasters, culminated in this the most disastrous of them all.

It was at once resolved to repair the catastrophe, and great preparations were set on foot for a fresh expedition. It was at this critical juncture that Captain Abbott's efforts at Khiva, and the arrival of Sir Richmond Shakespear on a special mission to that Court, were so far beneficial in the interests of peace that the Khan consented to restore the Russian subjects who had been enslaved in Khiva. These, to the number of four hundred and eighteen, according to one authority—four hundred and fifteen, according to anotherwere surrendered, and escorted in safety across the steppe to Novo-Alexandrovsk on the Caspian. The Russian Government in return was compelled to release the five hundred and fifty Khivan subjects who had been captured during the progress of the

war.

The exact circumstances* of the case are the following: When Sir Richmond Shakespear reached Khiva, and discovered that the threatened Russian invasion had failed, he lost no time in urging upon the

*This is mainly taken from Captain Abbott's "Herat to Khiva."

Khan the necessity for the immediate fulfilment of his promises to Captain Abbott-to whom greater credit is due than has as yet been accorded to release the Russian captives, whom, in that spirit of chivalry which he possessed in so remarkable a degree, Sir Richmond volunteered to escort to the Russian frontier. For a time it seemed that the Khan was too much flushed by his recent success-for the retreat of the Russians was regarded as a triumph in the streets of Khiva, despite the small part that Usbeg or Turcoman valour played in bringing that result to pass-to listen to advice counselling him to concede willingly, and of his own accord, that which he had refused to force. But the English officer pursued the subject with such tact and resolution that he attained his object. The Russian captives were released. The Khan gave Sir Richmond Shakespear authority to search in all the houses wherein it was as much as reported that a Russian subject could be found. It is said that even the royal harem was not sacred from the investigation. This active assistance on the part of the Khan was turned to good account, and in a very short time more than four hundred Russian subjects were collected in readiness for departure. At this moment, when everything had been concluded, and the cortège was only awaiting the signal to set out on its journey, a rumour spread that there was another captive still immured in the city. The rumour was vague, but Sir Richmond was not the man to leave his work halfdone. He hurried back to the Palace, obtained a fresh audience, and, to the amazement of the Court,