KIAKHTA AND THE TRADE WITH RUSSIA.The trade with Russia formerly all passed through Kiakhta, a town near the frontier, and was carried on by special agents and officials appointed by each nation. The whole business was managed in the interest of the government, and its ramifications furnished employment, position, and support to so many persons as to form a bond of union and guaranty of peace between them and their subjects. Timkowski’s journey with the decennial mission to Peking in 1820-21 furnishes one of the best accounts of this trade and intercourse now accessible, and with Klaproth’s notes, given in the English translation published in 1827, has long been the chief reliable authority for the divisions and organization of the Mongol tribes. Since the opening of the Suez Canal, through which Russian steamers carry goods to and fro between Odessa and China, the largest portion of the Chinese produce no longer goes to Kiakhta. That which is required for Siberia is sent from Hankow by way of Shansí, or from Kalgan and Tientsin, under the direction of Russian merchants at those places. Furs, which once formed the richest part of this produce, are gradually diminishing in quality and quantity with the increase of settlers. In 1843 the export of black tea for Russian consumption was only eight millions of pounds, besides the brick tea taken by the Mongols. Cottrell states the total value of the trade, annually, at that period, at a hundred millions of rubles, reckoned then to be equal to $20,830,000, on which the Russians paid, in 1836, about $2,500,000 as import duty. The data respecting this trade of forty years ago are not very accurate, probably; the monopoly was upheld mostly for the benefit of the officials, as private traders found it too much burdened.Kiakhta is a hamlet of no importance apart from the trade. The frontier here is marked by a row of granite columns; a stockade separates it from Maimai chin. Pumpelly says: “One can hardly imagine a sharper line than is here drawn. On the one side of the stockade wall, the houses, churches, and people are European, on the other, Chinese. With one step the traveller passes really from Asia and Asiatic customs and language, into a refined European society.” The goods pay duty at the Russiandouanein a suburb of fifty houses, near Kiakhta. The Chinese town is also a small place, numbering between twelve and fifteen hundred men (no women being allowed in the settlement) who lived in idleness most of the year. This curious hamlet has two principal streets crossing at right angles, andgates at the four ends, in the wooden wall which surrounds it. These streets are badly paved, while their narrowness barely allows the passage of two camels abreast. The one-storied houses are constructed of wood, roofed with turf or boards, and consist of two small rooms, one used as a shop and the other as a bedroom. The windows in the rear apartment are made of oiled paper or mica, but the door is the only opening in the shop. The dwellings are kept clean, the furniture is of a superior description, and considerable taste and show are seen in displaying the goods. The traders live luxuriously, and attract a great crowd there during the fair in February, when the goods are exchanged. They are under the control of a Manchu, called thedzarguchí, who is appointed for three years, and superintends the police of the settlement as well as the commercial proceedings. There are two Buddhist temples here served by lamas, and containing five colossal images sitting cross-legged, and numerous smaller idols.[109]The western portion of Mongolia, between the meridians of 84° and 96° E., extending from near the western extremity of Kansuh province to the confines of Russia, comprising Uliasutai and its dependencies, Cobdo, and the Kalkas and Tourgouths of the Tangnu Mountains, is less known than any other part of it. The residence of the superintending officer of this province is at Uliasutai (i.e., ‘Poplar Grove’), a town lying northwest of the Selenga, in the khanate of Sainnoin, in a well cultivated and pleasant valley.THE PROVINCE OF COBDO.Cobdo, according to the Chinese maps, lies in the northwest of Mongolia; it is bounded north and west by the government Yeniseisk, northeast by Ulianghai, and southeast by the Dsassaktu khanate, south by Kansuh, and west by Tarbagatai. The part occupied by the Ulianghai or Uriyangkit tribes of the Tangnu Mountains lies northeast of Cobdo, and north of the Sainnoin and Dsassaktu khanates, and separated from Russia by the Altai. These tribes are allied to the Samoyeds, and the rule over them isadministered by twenty-five subordinate military officers, subject to the resident at Uliasutai. This city is said to contain about two thousand houses, is regularly built, and carries on some trade with Urga; it lies on the Iro, a tributary of the Jabkan. Cobdo comprises eleven tribes of Kalkas divided into thirty-one standards, whose princes obey an amban at Cobdo City, himself subordinate to the resident at Uliasutai. The Chinese rule over these tribes is conducted on the same principles as that over the other Mongols, and they all render fealty to the Emperor through the chief resident at Uliasutai, but how much obedience is really paid his orders is not known. The Kalkas submitted to the Emperor in 1688 to avoid extinction in their war with the Eleuths, by whom they had been defeated.Cobdo contains several lakes, many of which receive rivers without having any outlet. The largest is Upsa-nor, which receives from the east the River Tes, and the Íkí-aral-nor into which the Jabkan runs. The River Irtysh falls into Lake Dzaisang. The existence of so many rivers indicates a more fertile country north of the Altai or Ektag Mountains, but no bounties of nature would avail to induce the inhabitants to adopt settled modes of living and cultivate the soil, if such a clannish state of society exists among them as is described by M. Lévchine to be the case among their neighbors, the Kirghís. The tribes in Cobdo resemble the American Indians in their habits, disputes, and modes of life, more than the eastern Kalkas, who approximate in their migratory character to the Arabs.THE PROVINCE AND LAKE OF KOKO-NOR.The province of Tsing hai, orKoko-nor(called Tsok-gum-bam by the Tanguts), is not included in Mongolia by European geographers, nor in the Chinese statistical works is it comprised within its borders; the inhabitants are, however, mostly Mongols, both Buddhist and Moslem, and the government is conducted on the same plan as that over the Kalkas tribes further north. This region is known in the histories of Central Asia under the names of Tangout, Sifan, Turfan, etc. On Chinese maps it is politically called Tsing hai (‘Azure Sea’), but in their books is namedSí YuorSí Yih, ‘Western Limits.’ The borders are now limited on the north by Kansuh, southeast by Sz’chuen,south by Anterior Tibet, and west by the desert, comprising about four degrees of latitude and eleven of longitude.It includes within its limits several large lakes, which receive rivers into their bosoms, and many of them having no outlets. The Azure Sea is the largest, lying at an altitude of 10,500 feet and overlooked by high mountains, which in winter are covered with snow, and in summer form an emerald frame that deepens the blueness of the water. It is over 200 miles in circuit, and its evaporation is replaced by the inflowing waters of eight large streams; one small islet contains a monastery, whose inmates are freed from their solitude only when the ice makes a bridge, as no boat is known to have floated on its salt water. The wide, moist plains on the east and west furnish pasturage for domestic and wild animals, and constant collisions occur between the tribes resorting there for food. The travels of Abbé Huc and Col. Prejevalsky furnish nearly all that is known concerning the productions and inhabitants of Koko-nor. The country is nominally divided into thirty-four banners, and its Chinese rulers reside at Síning, east of the lake; but they have more to do in defending themselves than in protecting their subjects. The whole country is occupied by the Tanguts of Tibetan origin, who are brigands by profession, and roam over the mountains around the headwaters of the Yangtsz’ and Yellow Rivers; by the Mohammedan Dunganis, who have latterly been nearly destroyed in their recent rebellion; and by tribes of Mongols under the various names of Eleuths, Kolos, Kalkas, Surgouths, and Koits. The Chinese maps are filled with names of various tribes, but their statistical accounts are as meagre of information as the maps are deficient in accurate and satisfactory delineations.The topographical features of this region are still imperfectly known, and its inhospitable climate is rendered more dangerous by man’s barbarity. High mountain masses alternate with narrow valleys and a few large depressions containing lakes; the country lying south of the Azure Sea, as far as Burmah, is exceedingly mountainous. West and southwest of the lake extends the plain of Tsaidam, which at a recent geological age has been the bed of a huge lake; it is now covered with morasses, shakingbogs, small rivers, and sheets of water—the most considerable of the latter being Lake Kara, in the extreme western portion. The saline argillaceous soil of this region is not adapted to vegetation. Large animals are scarce, due in part to the plague of insects which compels even the natives to retreat to the mountains with their herds during certain seasons. Its inhabitants are the same as those of Eastern Koko-nor; they are divided into five banners, and number about 1,000yurts, or 5,000 souls.The Burkhan-buddha range forms the southern boundary of this plain, and the northernmost limit of the lofty plateau of Tibet. Its length from east to west is not far from 130 miles, its eastern extremity being near the Yegrai-ula (the near sources of the Yellow River) and Toso-nor. The range has no lofty peaks, and stretches in an unbroken chain at a height of 15,000 to 16,000 feet; it is terribly barren, but does not attain the line of perpetual snow. The southern range, which separates the headwaters of the Yellow and Yangtsz’ Rivers, is called the Bayan-kara Mountains; that northwest of this is called on Chinese maps, Kílien shan and Nan shan, and bounds the desert on the south. On the northern declivities of the Nan shan range are several towns lying on or near the road leading across Central Asia, which leaves the valley of the Yellow River at Lanchau, in Kansuh, and runs N.N.W. over a rough country to Liangchau, a town of some importance situated in a fertile and populous district. From this place it goes northwest to Kanchau, noted for its manufactures of felted cloths which are in demand among the Mongol tribes of Koko-nor, and where large quantities of rhubarb, horses, sheep, and other commodities are procured. Going still northwest, the traveller reaches Suhchau, the last large place before passing the Great Wall, which renders it a mart for provisions and all articles brought from the west in exchange for the manufactures of China. This city was the last stronghold of the Dungani Moslems, and when they were destroyed in 1873 it began to revive out of its ruins. About fifty miles from this town is the pass of Kiayü, beyond which the road to Hami, Urumtsi, and Ílí leads directly across the desert, here about three hundred miles wide. This route has been for ages the line of internal communication betweenthe west of China and the regions lying around and in the basins of the Tarim River and the Caspian.[110]A better idea of the security of traffic and caravans within the Empire, and consequently of the goodness of the Chinese rule, is obtained by comparing the usually safe travel on this route with the hazards, robberies, and poverty formerly met with on the great roads in Bokhara, and the regions south and west of the Belur tag.THE TANGUTS AND NOMADS OF KOKO-NOR.The productions of Koko-nor consist of grain and other vegetables raised along the bottoms of the rivers and margins of the lakes; sheep, cattle, horses, camels, and other animals. Alpine hares, wild asses,[111]wild yaks, vultures, lammergeiers, pheasants, antelopes, wolves, mountain sheep, and wild camels are among the denizens of the wilds. The Chinese have settled among the tribes, and Mohammedans of Turkish origin are found in the large towns. There are eight corps between Koko-nor and Uliasutai, comprising all the tribes and banners, and over which are placed as many supreme generals or commanders appointed from Peking. The leading tribes in Koko-nor are Eleuths, Tanguts, and Tourbeths, the former of whom are the remnants of one of the most powerful tribes in Central Asia. Tangout submitted to the Emperor in 1690, and its population since the incorporation has greatly increased. They inhabit the hilly region of Kansuh, Koko-nor, Eastern Tsaidam, and the basin of the Upper Yellow River. They resemble gipsies, being above the average in height, with thick-set features, broad shoulders, hair and whiskers, black, dark eyes, nose straight, lips thick and protruding, face long and never flat, skin tawny. Unlike the Mongols and Chinese they have a strong growth of beard and whiskers which, however, they always shave. They wear no tail, but shave their heads; their dress consists of furs and cloths made into long coats that reach to the knees. Shirts or trowsers are not made use of; their upper legs are generally left bare. Women dress like the men. Their habitations are wooden huts or black cloth tents. The Tangut is cunning,stingy, lazy, and shiftless. His sole occupation that of tending cattle (yaks). He is even more zealous a Buddhist than are the Mongols, and extremely superstitious.[112]The trade at Síning is large, but not equal to that between Yunnan and Burmah at Talí and Bhamo; dates, rhubarb, chowries, precious stones, felts, cloths, etc., are among the commodities seen in the bazaar. It lies about a hundred miles from the sea, at an elevation of 7,800 feet, and near it is the famous lamasary of Kumbum, where MM. Huc and Gabet lived in 1845. The town is well situated upon the Síning ho, and though constructed for the most part of wood, presents a fine appearance owing to the number of official buildings therein. The population numbers some 60,000 souls.[113]The towns lying between the Great Wall and Ílí, though politically belonging to Kansuh, are more connected with the colonies in their form of government than with the Eighteen Provinces. The first town beyond the Kiayü Pass is Yuhmun, distant about ninety miles, and is the residence of officers, who attend to the caravans going to and from the pass. It is represented as lying near the junction of two streams, which flow northerly into the Purunkí. The other district town of Tunhwang lies across a mountainous country, upwards of two hundred miles distant. The city of Ngansí chau has been built to facilitate the communication across the desert to Hami or Kamil, the first town in Songaria, and the dépôt of troops, arms, and munitions of war. “With the town of Hami,” says an Austrian visitor in these regions, “the traveller comes upon the southern foot-hills of the Tien shan, and the first traces of Siberian civilization. Magnificent mountain scenery accompanies him on his way toward the west to the Russian line. In the government of Semipolatinsk are the express mail-wagons which stand ready at his order to carry him at furious speed to the town of the same name, then to the right bank of the River Irtysh, and so to Omsk.”[114]This route and that stretching towards the southwest bring an important trade to Hami; the country around it is cultivated by poor Mongols.[115]Barkul, or Chinsí fu, in lat. 43° 40′ N., and long. 93° 30′ E., is the most important place in the department; the district is called Ího hien. A thousand Manchus, and three thousand Chinese, guard the post. The town is situated on the south of Lake Barkul, and its vicinity receives some cultivation. Hami and Turfan each form atingdistrict in the southeast and west of the department. The trade at all these places consists mostly of articles of food and clothing.Urumtsi, or Tih-hwa chau (theBich-balikof the Ouigours in 1100[116]), in lat. 43° 45′ N., and long. 89° E., is the westernmost department of Kansuh, divided into three districts, and containing many posts and settlements. In the war with the Eleuths in 1770, the inhabitants around this place were exterminated, and the country afterwards repeopled by upwards of ten thousand troops, with their families, and by exiles; emigrants from Kansuh were also induced to settle there. The Chinese accounts speak of a high mountain near the city, always covered with ice and snow, whose base is wooded, and abounding with pheasants; coal is also obtained in this region. The cold is great, and snow falls as late as July. Many parts produce grain and vegetables. All this department formerly constituted a portion of Songaria. The policy of the Chinese government is to induce the tribes to settle, by placing large bodies of troops with their families at all important points, and sending their exiled criminals to till the soil; the Mongols then find an increasing demand for their cattle and other products, and are induced to become stationary to meet it. So far as is known, this policy had succeeded well in the regions beyond the Wall, and those around Koko-nor; but the rebellion of the Dunganis,who arose in these outlying regions at the moment when the energies of the Peking government were all directed to suppressing the Tai-ping insurrection, destroyed these improvements, and frustrated, for an indefinite period, the promising development of civilization among the inhabitants.DIVISIONS AND BOUNDARIES OF ÍLÍ.That part of the Empire calledÍlíis a vast region lying on each side of the Tien shan, and including a tract nearly as large as Mongolia, and not much more susceptible of cultivation. Its limits may be stated as extending from lat. 36° to 49° N., and from long. 71° to 96° E., and its entire area, although difficult to estimate from its irregularity, can hardly be less than 900,000 square miles, of which Songaria occupies rather more than one-third. It is divided into twoLu, or ‘Circuits,’ viz., the Tien shan Peh Lu, and Tien shan Nan Lu, or the circuits north and south of the Celestial Mountains. The former is commonly designated Songaria, or Dzungaria, from the Songares or Eleuths, who ruled it till a few scores of years past, and the latter used to be known as Little Bokhara, or Eastern Turkestan.Ílí is bounded north by the Altai range, separating it from the Kirghís; northeast by the Irtysh River and Outer Mongolia; east and southeast by Urumtsi and Barkul in Kansuh; south by the desert and the Kwănlun range; and west by the Belur-tag, dividing it from Badakshan and Russian territory.[117]In length, the Northern Circuit extends about nine hundred miles, and the width, on an average, is three hundred miles. The Southern Circuit reaches nearly twelve hundred and fifty miles from west to east, and varies from three hundred to five hundred in breadth, as it extends to the Kwănlun range on the south. There is probably most arable land in the Northern Circuit.TOPOGRAPHY OF ÍLÍ.Ílí, taken north of the Tarim basin, may be regarded as an inland isthmus, extending southwest from the south of Siberia, off between the Gobi and Caspian deserts, till it reaches the Hindu Kush, leading down to the valley of the Indus. The former of these deserts incloses it on the east and south, the other on the west and northwest, separated from each other by the Belur and Muz-tag ranges, which join with the Tien shan, that divide the isthmus itself into two parts. These deserts united are equal in extent to that of Sahara, but are not as arid and tenantless.This region has some peculiar features, among which its great elevation, its isolation in respect to its water-courses, and the character of its vegetation, are the most remarkable. Songaria is especially noticeable for the many closed river-basins which occur between the Altai and Tien shan, among the various minor ranges of hills, each of which is entirely isolated, and containing a lake, the receptacle of its drainage. The largest of these singular basins is that of the River Ílí, which runs about three hundred miles westward, from its rise in the Tien shan (lat. 85°) till it falls into Lake Balkash, which also receives some other streams; the superficies of the whole basin is about forty thousand square miles. The other lakes lie north-eastward of Balkash; the largest of them are the Dzaisang, which receives the Irtysh, the Kisilbash, into which the Urunguflows, and four or five smaller ones between them, lying north of the city of Ílí. Lake Temurtu, or Issik-kul, lies now just beyond the southwestern part of this Circuit, and was until recently contained therein. This sheet of water is deep and never freezes; it is brackish, but full of fish; the dimensions are about one hundred miles long, and thirty-five wide; its superabundant waters flow off through the Chu ho into the Kirghís steppe.The Ala-tau range defines the lake on the north shore. Says a Russian traveller in describing this region, “It would be difficult to imagine anything more splendid than the view of the Tien shan from this spot. The dark blue surface of the Issik-kul, like sapphire, may well bear comparison with the equally blue surface of Geneva Lake, but its expanse—five times as great—seeming almost unlimited, and the matchless splendor of its background, gives it a grandeur which the Swiss lake does not possess. The unbroken, snowy chain here stretches away for at least 200 miles of the length of the Issik-kul; the sharp outlines of the spurs and dark valleys in the front range are softened by a thin mist, which hangs over the water and heightens the clear, sharp outlines of the white heads of the Tien shan giants, as they rise and glisten on the azure canopy of a central Asian sky. The line of perpetual snow commences at three-fifths of their slope up, but as one looks, their snowless base seems to sink the deeper in the far east, till the waves of the lake seem to wash the snowy crests of Khan-Tengsè.” Forty small rivers flow into it, but its size is gradually lessening.[118]Little is known concerning the topography, the productions, or the civilization of the tribes who inhabit a large part of Songaria, but the efforts of the Chinese government have been systematically directed to developing its agricultural resources, by stationing bodies of troops, who cultivate the soil, there, and by banishing criminals thither, who are obliged to work for and assist the troops. It gives one a higher idea of the rulers of China, themselves wandering nomads originally, when they are seen carrying on such a plan for extending the capabilities ofthese remote parts of their Empire, and teaching, partly by force, partly by bribes, and partly by example, the Mongol tribes under them the advantages of a settled life.The productions of Songaria are numerous. Wheat, barley, rice and millet, are the chief corn stuffs; tobacco, cotton, melons, and some fruits, are grown; herds of horses, camels, cattle, and sheep, afford means of locomotion and food to the people, while the mountains and lakes supply game and fish. The inhabitants are composed mostly of Eleuths, with a tribe of Tourgouths, and remnants of the Songares, together with Mongols, Manchus, and Chinese troops, settlers and criminals.TIEN-SHAN PEH LU AND THE TOWN OF KULDJA.Tien-shan Peh Luis divided by the Chinese into three commanderies,Ílíon the west,Tarbagataion the north, andKur-kara usuon the east, between Ílí and the west end of Kansuh. The government of the North and South Circuits is under the control of Manchu military officers residing at Ílí. This city, called by the Chinese Hwuiyuen ching, and Gouldja (or Kuldja) and Kuren by the natives, lies on the north bank of the Ílí River, in lat. 43° 55′ N., and long. 81½° E.; it contains about fifty thousand inhabitants, and carries on considerable trade with China through the towns in Kansuh. The city was defended by six strong fortresses in its neighborhood, and the solidity of the stone walls enabled it to resist a vigorous assault in the Dungani rebellion. Its circuit is nearly four miles, and two wide avenues cross its centre, dividing it into four equal parts, through each of which run many lanes. Its houses indicate the Turkish origin of its builders in their clay or adobe walls and flat roofs, and this impression is increased by the Jumma mosque of the Taranchis, and the Dungan mosque, outside of the walls. The last has a wonderful minaret built of small-roofed pavilions one over another; both of them affect the Chinese architecture in their roofs, and their walls are faced with diamond-shaped tiles. The Buddhist temple has hardly been rebuilt since the city has returned to Chinese rule. The supply of meats and vegetables is constant, and the variety and quality exceed that of most other towns in the region. The population is gradually increasing with the return of peace and trade, but is still under twenty thousand, of which not one-fifthare Chinese and Manchus: the Taranchis constitute half of the whole, and Dunganis are the next in number. The province is the richest and best cultivated of all this region of Ílí; its coal, metals, and fruits are sources of prosperity, and with its return to Chinese sway under new relations in respect to Russian trade, its future is promising.The destruction of life was dreadful at the capture of Kuldja and other towns, which were then left a heap of ruins.[119]Schuyler estimates that not more than a hundred thousand people remained in the province, out of a third of a million in 1860. It is stated in Chinese works that when Amursana, the discontented chief of the Songares, applied, in 1775, to Kienlung for assistance against his rival Tawats or Davatsi, and was sent back with a Chinese army, in the engagements which ensued, more than a million of people were destroyed, and the whole country depopulated. At that time, Kuldja was built by Kienlung, and soon became a place of note. Outside of the town are the barracks for the troops, which consist of Eleuths and Mohammedans, as well as Manchus and Chinese. Coal is found in this region, and most of the inland rivers produce abundance of fish, while wild animals and birds are numerous. The resources of the country are, however, insufficient to meet the expenses of the military establishment, and the presents made to the begs, and the deficit is supplied from China.[120]Subordinate to the control of the commandant at Kuldja are nine garrisoned places situated in the same valley, at each of which are bodies of Chinese convicts. The two remaining districts of Tarbagatai and Kur-kara usu are small compared with Ílí; the first lies between Cobdo and the Kirghís steppe, and is inhabited mostly by emigrants from the steppes of the latter, who render merely a nominal subjection to the garrisons placed over them, but are easily governed through their tribal rulers. The Tourgouths, who emigrated from Russia in 1772, into China, are located in this district and Cobdo, as well as in the valleys of the Tekes and Kunges rivers. They have become more or less assimilated with other tribes since they were placed here. In the war with the Songares, many of the people fled from the valley of Ílí to this region, and after that country was settled, they submitted to the Emperor, and partly returned to Ílí. The chief town, called Tuguchuk by the Kirghís, and Suitsing ching by the Chinese, is situated not far from the southern base of the Tarbagatai Mountains, and contains about six hundred houses, half of which belong to the garrison. It is one of the nine fortified towns under the control of the commandant at Kuldja, and a place of some trade with the Kirghís. There are two residents stationed here, with high powers to oversee the trade across the frontier, but their duties are inferior in importance to those of the officials at Urga. 2,500 Manchu and Chinese troops remain at this post, and since the conquest of the country in 1772 by Kienlung, its agricultural products have gradually increased under the industry of the Chinese. The tribes dwelling in this distant province are restricted within certain limits, and their obedience secured by presents. The climate of Tarbagatai is changeable, and the cold weather comprises more than half the year. The basin of Lake Ala-kul, or Alaktu-kul, occupies the southwest, and part of the Irtysh and Lake Dzaisang the northeast, so that it is well watered. The trade consists chiefly of domestic animals and cloths.The town of Kur-kara usu lies on the River Kur, northeast from Kuldja and on the road between it and Urumtsi; it is called Kingsui ching by the Chinese. The number of troopsstationed at all these posts is estimated at sixty thousand, and the total population of Songaria under two millions.POSITION OF TIEN-SHAN NAN LU.TheTien-shan Nan Lu, or Southern Circuit of Ílí, the territory of ‘the eight Mohammedan cities,’ was namedSin Kiang(‘New Frontier’) by Kienlung. It is less fertile than the Northern Circuit, the greatest part of its area consisting of rugged mountains or barren wastes, barely affording subsistence for herds of cattle and goats. The principal boundaries are the Kwănlun Mountains, and the desert, separating it from Tibet on the south; Cashmere lies on the southwest, and Badakshan and Kokand are separated from it on the west and northwest by the Belur-tag, all of them defined and partitioned by the mountain ranges over which the passes 12,000 to 16,000 feet high furnish both defence and travel according to the season.THE RIVER TARIM AND LOB-NOR.The greater part of this Circuit is occupied with the basin of the Tarim or Ergu, which flows from the Belur range in four principal branches[121](called from the towns lying upon their banks the Yarkand, Kashgar, Aksu, and Khoten Rivers), and running eastward, receives several affluents from the north and south, and falls into Lake Lob in long. 89° E., after a course, including windings, of between 1,100 and 1,300 miles. Of the river system from which this stream flows Baron Richthofen says, “the region which gives birth to this river is on a scale of grandeur such as no other river in the world can boast. It is girt round by a wide semicircular collar of mountains of the loftiest and grandest character, often rising in ridges of 18,000 to 20,000 feet in height, while the peaks shoot up to 25,000 and even 28,000 feet. The basin which fills in the horse-shoe shaped space encompassed by these gigantic elevations, though deeply depressed below them, stands at a height above the sea varying from 6,000 feet at the margin to about 2,000 in the middle, and formed the bed of an ancient sea. From its wall-like sides on the south, west, and north, the waters rush headlong down, and though the winds blowing from all directions deposit most of their moisture on the remoter sides of the surroundingranges, viz., the southern foot of the Himalayas, the west side of the Pamir, and the northern slope of the Tien shan, the streams formed thereby winding through the cloud-capped lofty cradle-land, and breaking through the mountain chains, reach the old ocean bed only partly well watered. The smallest of them disappear in the sand, others flow some distance before expanding into a level salt basin and are there absorbed. Only the largest, whose number the Chinese estimate at sixty, unite with the Tarim, a river 1,150 miles long, and therefore in length between the Rhine and Danube, but far surpassing both in the massiveness of surrounding mountains, just as it exceeds the Danube in the extent of its basin. Its tributaries form along the foot of the mountains a number of fruitful oases, and these by means of artificial irrigation have been converted into flourishing, cultivated states, and have played an important part in the history of these regions.”[122]Col. Prejevalsky’s explorations in this totally unknown country have brought out a multitude of facts pregnant with interest both for historical and geographical study. Among the most important results of his discoveries is the location of Lob more than a degree to the south of its position on Chinese maps, and a consequent bend of the Tarim from its due eastern course before it reaches its outlet. This lake, consisting of two sheets of water, the Kara-buran and Kara-kurchin (or Chon-kul), lies on the edge of the desert, in an uninhabited region, and surrounded by great swamps, which extend also northwest along the Tarim to its junction with the Kaidu. It is shallow, overgrown with weeds, and is for the most part a morass, the water being fresh, despite the salt marshes in the vicinity. The people living near it speak a language most like that of Khoten; they are Moslems. Lake Lob is elliptical, 90 to 100 versts long and 20 wide, 2,200 feet above the sea. Enormous flocks of birds come from Khoten on the south-west, as they go north, and make Lob-nor their stopping-place. The desert in this region is poor and desolate in the extreme. Its southern side is formed by the Altyn-tag range, a spur of the Kwănlun Mountains that rises about 14,000 feet in a sheerwall. Wild camels are found in its ravines, whose sight, hearing, and smell are marvellously acute. No other river basins of any size are found within the Circuit, except a large tributary called the Kaidu, which, draining a parallel valley north of Lob-nor, two hundred miles long, runs into a lake nearly as large, called Bostang-nor, from which an outlet on the south continues it into the Tarim, about eighty miles from its mouth. The tributaries of this river are represented as much more serviceable for agricultural purposes than the main trunk is for navigation. The plain through which the Tarim flows is about two hundred miles broad and not far from nine hundred miles long, most of it unfit for cultivation or pasturage. The desert extends considerably west of the two lakes. The climate of this region is exceedingly dry, and its barrenness is owing, apparently, more to the want of moisture than to the nature of the soil. The western parts are colder than those toward Kansuh, the river being passable on ice at Yarkand, in lat. 38°, for three months, while frost is hardly known at Hami, in lat. 43°.The productions of the valley of the Tarim comprise most of the grains and fruits found in Southern Europe; the sesamum is cultivated for oil instead of the olive. Few trees or shrubs cover the mountain acclivities or plains. All the domestic animals abound, except the hog, which is reared in small numbers by the Chinese. The camel and yak are hunted and raised for food and service, their coats affording both skins and hair for garments. The horse, camel, black cattle, ass, and sheep, are found wild on the edge of the desert, where they find a precarious subsistence. The mountains and marshes contain jackals, tigers, bears, wolves, lynxes, and deer, together with some large species of birds of prey. Gold, copper, and iron are brought from this region, but the amount is not large, and as articles of trade they are less important than the sal-ammoniac, saltpetre, sulphur, and asbestos obtained from the volcanic region in the east of the Celestial Mountains. The best specimens of theyuhor nephrite, so highly prized by the Chinese, are obtained in the Southern Circuit.TOWNS OF THE SOUTHERN CIRCUIT.The present divisions of this Circuit are regulated by theposition of the eight Mohammedan cities. The western departments of Kansuh naturally belong to the same region, and the cities now pertaining to that province are inhabited by entirely similar races, and governed in the same feudal manner, with some advantages in consideration of their early submission to Kienlung. The first town on the road, of note, is Hami; Turfan and Pidshan are less important as trading posts than as garrisons. The eight cities are named in theStatistics of the Empirein the following order, beginning at the east: Harashar, Kuché, Ushí (including Sairim and Bai), Aksu, Khoten, Yarkand, Kashgar, and Yingkeshar or Yangi Hissar. The superior officers live at Yarkand, but the Southern Circuit is divided into four minor governments at Harashar, Ushí, Yarkand, and Khoten, each of whose residents reports both to Kuldja and Peking. There is constant restiveness on the part of the subject races, who are all Moslems, arising from their clannish habits and feuds; they have not the elements of substantial progress and national growth, either under their own rulers or Chinese. They have lately thrown off the Peking Government, but they have generally regretted the rapines and waste caused by the strifes and change, and would probably receive theKitai(so they term the Chinese) back again. The latter are not hard masters, and bring trade and wealth the longer they remain. One of the Usbek chiefs under Yakub khan gave the pith of the situation between the two, when he replied to Dr. Bellew’s remark that he talked like a Chinese himself, “No, I hate them. But they were not bad rulers. We had everything then; we have nothing now. We never see any signs of the Kitai trade, nor of the wealth they brought here.”Harashar (or Karashar) lies on the Kaidu River, not far from Lake Bagarash or Bostang, about two hundred and ninety miles west of Turfan, in lat. 42° 15′ N., and long. 87° E. It is a large district, and has two towns of some note within the jurisdiction of its officers—namely, Korla and Bukur. Harashar is fortified, and from its being a secure position, and the seat of the chief resident, attracts considerable trade. The embroidery is superior; but the tribes living in the district are more addicted to hunting than disposed to sedentary trades. Korla liessouthwest of Harashar on the Kaidu, between lakes Bostang and Lob, and the productions of the town and its vicinity indicate a fertile soil; the Chinese say the Mohammedans who live here are fond of singing, but have no ideas of ceremony or urbanity. Bukur lies two hundred miles west of Korla and “might be a rich and delicious country,” says the Chinese account, “but those idle, vagrant Mohammedans only use their strength in theft and plunder; the women blush at nothing.” The town formerly contained upward of ten thousand inhabitants, but Kienlung nearly destroyed it; the district has been since resettled by Hoshoits, Tourbeths, and Turks, and the people carry on some trade in the produce of their herds, skins, copper, and agates.Kuché, about eighty miles west from Bukur, lat. 41° 37′ N., and long. 83° 20′ E., is a larger and more important city than that of Harashar, for the road which crosses the Tien shan by the pass Muz-daban to Ílí, here joins that coming from Aksu on the west and Hami on the east. It is three miles in circuit, and is defended by ten forts and three hundred troops. The bazaars contain grain, fruits, and vegetables, raised in the vicinity by great labor, for the land requires to be irrigated by hand from wells, pools, and streams. Copper, sulphur, and saltpetre are carried across to Ílí, for use of government as well as traffic, being partly levied from the inhabitants as taxes; linen is manufactured in the town, and sal ammoniac, cinnabar, and quicksilver are procured from the mountains. Kuché is considered the gate of Turkestan, and is the chief town, politically speaking, between Hami and Yarkand. The district and town of Shayar lie south of Kuché, in a marshy valley producing abundance of rice, melons, and fruit; the pears are particularly good. Two small lakes, Baba-kul and Sary-kamysch, lie to the east of this town, and are the only bodies of water between Bostang-nor and Issik-kul. The population is about four thousand, ruled bybegssubordinate to the general at Kuché.The valley of the Aksu contains two large towns, Aksu and Ushí or Ush-turfan, besides several posts and villages. Between the former and Kuché, lie the small garrisons and districts of Bai and Sairim. The first contains from four to five hundredfamilies, ruled by their own chiefs. Sairim or Hanlemuh is subordinate to Ushí in some degree, but its productions, climate, and inhabitants are like those of Kuché. “Their manners are simple,” remarks a Chinese writer, speaking of the people; “they are neither cowards nor rogues like the other Mohammedans; they are fond of singing, drinking, and dancing, like those of Kuché.” Aksu is a large commercial and manufacturing town, containing twenty thousand inhabitants, situated, like Kuché, at the termination of a road leading across the Tien shan to Ílí, and attracting to its market traders from Siberia, Bokhara, and Kokand, as well as along the great road. Its manufactures of cotton, silk, leather, harnesses, crockery, precious stones, and metals are good, and sent abroad in great numbers. The country produces grain, fruits, vegetables, and cattle in perfection, and the people are more civilized than those on the east and north; “they are generous and noble, and both sing and ridicule the oddities and niggardliness of the other Mohammedans.” The Chinese garrison consists of three thousand soldiers, and the officers are accountable to those at Ushí.Ushí lies about 70 miles due west of Aksu, in lat. 41° 15′ N. and long. 79° 40′ E., and is stated to contain ten thousand inhabitants. The Chinese name is Yung-ning ching (i.e.‘City of Eternal Tranquillity’). The officers stationed here report to the commandant at Ílí, but they communicate directly with Peking, and receive the Emperor’s sanction to their choice of begs, and to the envoys forwarded to the capital with tribute. Copper money is cast here in ingots, somewhat like the ingots of sycee in the provinces. There are six forts attached to Ushí, to keep in order the wandering tribes of the Kirghís, called Pruth Kirghís,[123]which roam over the frontier regions between Ushí and Yarkand. They pay homage to the officers at Ushí, but give no tribute. Those who do pay tribute are taxed a tenth, but the Kirghís on this frontier are usually allowed to roam where they like, provided they keep the peace. This region was nearly depopulated by Kienlung’s generals, and at present supports a sparse population compared with its fertility and resources.THE GOVERNMENT AND TOWN OF KASHGAR.The government of Kashgar, known, at the time of the Arab conquest, asKichik Bukhara, presents a vast, undulating plain, of which the slope is very gradual toward the east, and of which the general elevation may be reckoned at from three to four thousand feet above the sea. The aspect of its surface is mostly one of unmitigated waste—a vast spread of bare sand and gloomy salts, traversed in all directions by dunes and banks of gravel, with the scantiest vegetation, and all but absence of animal life. Such is the view that meets the eye and joins the horizon everywhere on the plain immediately beyond the river courses and the settlements planted on their banks.[124]The population of this whole district is considerably less than a million and a half. The natural mineral productions here are of great value, and it is a knowledge of this fact which has induced the Chinese to persevere in retaining so expensive and turbulent a frontier province. The gold and jade of Khoten, silver and lead of Cosharab, and copper of Khalistan, have given abundant employment to Chinese settlers; while coal, iron, sulphur, alum, sal ammoniac, and zinc, though worked in unimportant quantities before the insurrection of Yakub khan (Atalik Ghazi), furnished the inhabitants with supplies for domestic use. An important hinderance to building villages in many sections of this territory is the prevalence of sand dunes here. Solitary houses and even whole settlements lying in the path of these moving hills are suddenly overwhelmed and oftentimes totally effaced.The town of Kashgar is situated at the northwestern angle of the Southern Circuit, on the Kashgar River, a branch of the Tarim, in lat. 39° 25′ N., and long. 76° 5′ E., at the extreme west of the Empire. Several roads meet here. Going in a northwest direction, one leads over the Tien shan to Kokand; a second passes south, through Yarkand and Khoten, to Leh and Cashmere; a third, the great caravan route, from China throughUshí, may be said to end here; and the fourth and most frequented, leads off northwest over the Tien shan through the Rowat Pass, and along the western banks of Lake Issik-kul to Ílí. Kashgar was the capital of the Ouigours for a long time, and its ruler forced his people, as far east as Hami, to accept Islamism about the year 1000. They then came under Genghis’ sway, and this city increased its importance, but when Abubahr Miza took Yarkand, he razed Kashgar to the ground. Under Chinese rule it became one of the richest marts in Central Asia, and its future importance is secured by its position. The city is enclosed with high and massive walls, supported by buttress bastions, and protected by a deep ditch on three sides, the river flowing under the fourth. There are but two gates; the area within is about fifty acres. Around it are populous suburbs.In the middle of the town is a large square, and four bazaars branch from it through to the gates; the garrison is placed without the walls. The manufactures of Kashgar excel those of any other town in the two Circuits, especially in jade, gold, silk, cotton, gold and silver cloths, and carpets. The country around produces fruit and grain in abundance; “the manners of the people have an appearance of elegance and politeness,” says the Chinese geographer; “the women dance and sing in family parties; they fear and respect the officers, and have not the wild, uncultivated aspect of those in Ushí.” This judgment is in a measure confirmed by Bellew, who credits the people with being singularly free from prejudice against the foreigners, quite indifferent on any score of his nationality or religion, and content so long as he pays his way and does not offend the customs of the natives. Several towns are subordinate to Kashgar, because of its oversight of their rulers, and consumption of their products. Southwest lies Tash-balig, and on the road leading to Yarkand is Yangi Hissar, both of them towns of some importance; the whole distance from Kashgar presents a succession of sandy or saline tracts, alternating with fertile bottoms wherever water runs. Small villages and post houses serve to connect the larger towns, but the soil does not reward the cultivators with much produce.
KIAKHTA AND THE TRADE WITH RUSSIA.
The trade with Russia formerly all passed through Kiakhta, a town near the frontier, and was carried on by special agents and officials appointed by each nation. The whole business was managed in the interest of the government, and its ramifications furnished employment, position, and support to so many persons as to form a bond of union and guaranty of peace between them and their subjects. Timkowski’s journey with the decennial mission to Peking in 1820-21 furnishes one of the best accounts of this trade and intercourse now accessible, and with Klaproth’s notes, given in the English translation published in 1827, has long been the chief reliable authority for the divisions and organization of the Mongol tribes. Since the opening of the Suez Canal, through which Russian steamers carry goods to and fro between Odessa and China, the largest portion of the Chinese produce no longer goes to Kiakhta. That which is required for Siberia is sent from Hankow by way of Shansí, or from Kalgan and Tientsin, under the direction of Russian merchants at those places. Furs, which once formed the richest part of this produce, are gradually diminishing in quality and quantity with the increase of settlers. In 1843 the export of black tea for Russian consumption was only eight millions of pounds, besides the brick tea taken by the Mongols. Cottrell states the total value of the trade, annually, at that period, at a hundred millions of rubles, reckoned then to be equal to $20,830,000, on which the Russians paid, in 1836, about $2,500,000 as import duty. The data respecting this trade of forty years ago are not very accurate, probably; the monopoly was upheld mostly for the benefit of the officials, as private traders found it too much burdened.
Kiakhta is a hamlet of no importance apart from the trade. The frontier here is marked by a row of granite columns; a stockade separates it from Maimai chin. Pumpelly says: “One can hardly imagine a sharper line than is here drawn. On the one side of the stockade wall, the houses, churches, and people are European, on the other, Chinese. With one step the traveller passes really from Asia and Asiatic customs and language, into a refined European society.” The goods pay duty at the Russiandouanein a suburb of fifty houses, near Kiakhta. The Chinese town is also a small place, numbering between twelve and fifteen hundred men (no women being allowed in the settlement) who lived in idleness most of the year. This curious hamlet has two principal streets crossing at right angles, andgates at the four ends, in the wooden wall which surrounds it. These streets are badly paved, while their narrowness barely allows the passage of two camels abreast. The one-storied houses are constructed of wood, roofed with turf or boards, and consist of two small rooms, one used as a shop and the other as a bedroom. The windows in the rear apartment are made of oiled paper or mica, but the door is the only opening in the shop. The dwellings are kept clean, the furniture is of a superior description, and considerable taste and show are seen in displaying the goods. The traders live luxuriously, and attract a great crowd there during the fair in February, when the goods are exchanged. They are under the control of a Manchu, called thedzarguchí, who is appointed for three years, and superintends the police of the settlement as well as the commercial proceedings. There are two Buddhist temples here served by lamas, and containing five colossal images sitting cross-legged, and numerous smaller idols.[109]
The western portion of Mongolia, between the meridians of 84° and 96° E., extending from near the western extremity of Kansuh province to the confines of Russia, comprising Uliasutai and its dependencies, Cobdo, and the Kalkas and Tourgouths of the Tangnu Mountains, is less known than any other part of it. The residence of the superintending officer of this province is at Uliasutai (i.e., ‘Poplar Grove’), a town lying northwest of the Selenga, in the khanate of Sainnoin, in a well cultivated and pleasant valley.
THE PROVINCE OF COBDO.
Cobdo, according to the Chinese maps, lies in the northwest of Mongolia; it is bounded north and west by the government Yeniseisk, northeast by Ulianghai, and southeast by the Dsassaktu khanate, south by Kansuh, and west by Tarbagatai. The part occupied by the Ulianghai or Uriyangkit tribes of the Tangnu Mountains lies northeast of Cobdo, and north of the Sainnoin and Dsassaktu khanates, and separated from Russia by the Altai. These tribes are allied to the Samoyeds, and the rule over them isadministered by twenty-five subordinate military officers, subject to the resident at Uliasutai. This city is said to contain about two thousand houses, is regularly built, and carries on some trade with Urga; it lies on the Iro, a tributary of the Jabkan. Cobdo comprises eleven tribes of Kalkas divided into thirty-one standards, whose princes obey an amban at Cobdo City, himself subordinate to the resident at Uliasutai. The Chinese rule over these tribes is conducted on the same principles as that over the other Mongols, and they all render fealty to the Emperor through the chief resident at Uliasutai, but how much obedience is really paid his orders is not known. The Kalkas submitted to the Emperor in 1688 to avoid extinction in their war with the Eleuths, by whom they had been defeated.
Cobdo contains several lakes, many of which receive rivers without having any outlet. The largest is Upsa-nor, which receives from the east the River Tes, and the Íkí-aral-nor into which the Jabkan runs. The River Irtysh falls into Lake Dzaisang. The existence of so many rivers indicates a more fertile country north of the Altai or Ektag Mountains, but no bounties of nature would avail to induce the inhabitants to adopt settled modes of living and cultivate the soil, if such a clannish state of society exists among them as is described by M. Lévchine to be the case among their neighbors, the Kirghís. The tribes in Cobdo resemble the American Indians in their habits, disputes, and modes of life, more than the eastern Kalkas, who approximate in their migratory character to the Arabs.
THE PROVINCE AND LAKE OF KOKO-NOR.
The province of Tsing hai, orKoko-nor(called Tsok-gum-bam by the Tanguts), is not included in Mongolia by European geographers, nor in the Chinese statistical works is it comprised within its borders; the inhabitants are, however, mostly Mongols, both Buddhist and Moslem, and the government is conducted on the same plan as that over the Kalkas tribes further north. This region is known in the histories of Central Asia under the names of Tangout, Sifan, Turfan, etc. On Chinese maps it is politically called Tsing hai (‘Azure Sea’), but in their books is namedSí YuorSí Yih, ‘Western Limits.’ The borders are now limited on the north by Kansuh, southeast by Sz’chuen,south by Anterior Tibet, and west by the desert, comprising about four degrees of latitude and eleven of longitude.
It includes within its limits several large lakes, which receive rivers into their bosoms, and many of them having no outlets. The Azure Sea is the largest, lying at an altitude of 10,500 feet and overlooked by high mountains, which in winter are covered with snow, and in summer form an emerald frame that deepens the blueness of the water. It is over 200 miles in circuit, and its evaporation is replaced by the inflowing waters of eight large streams; one small islet contains a monastery, whose inmates are freed from their solitude only when the ice makes a bridge, as no boat is known to have floated on its salt water. The wide, moist plains on the east and west furnish pasturage for domestic and wild animals, and constant collisions occur between the tribes resorting there for food. The travels of Abbé Huc and Col. Prejevalsky furnish nearly all that is known concerning the productions and inhabitants of Koko-nor. The country is nominally divided into thirty-four banners, and its Chinese rulers reside at Síning, east of the lake; but they have more to do in defending themselves than in protecting their subjects. The whole country is occupied by the Tanguts of Tibetan origin, who are brigands by profession, and roam over the mountains around the headwaters of the Yangtsz’ and Yellow Rivers; by the Mohammedan Dunganis, who have latterly been nearly destroyed in their recent rebellion; and by tribes of Mongols under the various names of Eleuths, Kolos, Kalkas, Surgouths, and Koits. The Chinese maps are filled with names of various tribes, but their statistical accounts are as meagre of information as the maps are deficient in accurate and satisfactory delineations.
The topographical features of this region are still imperfectly known, and its inhospitable climate is rendered more dangerous by man’s barbarity. High mountain masses alternate with narrow valleys and a few large depressions containing lakes; the country lying south of the Azure Sea, as far as Burmah, is exceedingly mountainous. West and southwest of the lake extends the plain of Tsaidam, which at a recent geological age has been the bed of a huge lake; it is now covered with morasses, shakingbogs, small rivers, and sheets of water—the most considerable of the latter being Lake Kara, in the extreme western portion. The saline argillaceous soil of this region is not adapted to vegetation. Large animals are scarce, due in part to the plague of insects which compels even the natives to retreat to the mountains with their herds during certain seasons. Its inhabitants are the same as those of Eastern Koko-nor; they are divided into five banners, and number about 1,000yurts, or 5,000 souls.
The Burkhan-buddha range forms the southern boundary of this plain, and the northernmost limit of the lofty plateau of Tibet. Its length from east to west is not far from 130 miles, its eastern extremity being near the Yegrai-ula (the near sources of the Yellow River) and Toso-nor. The range has no lofty peaks, and stretches in an unbroken chain at a height of 15,000 to 16,000 feet; it is terribly barren, but does not attain the line of perpetual snow. The southern range, which separates the headwaters of the Yellow and Yangtsz’ Rivers, is called the Bayan-kara Mountains; that northwest of this is called on Chinese maps, Kílien shan and Nan shan, and bounds the desert on the south. On the northern declivities of the Nan shan range are several towns lying on or near the road leading across Central Asia, which leaves the valley of the Yellow River at Lanchau, in Kansuh, and runs N.N.W. over a rough country to Liangchau, a town of some importance situated in a fertile and populous district. From this place it goes northwest to Kanchau, noted for its manufactures of felted cloths which are in demand among the Mongol tribes of Koko-nor, and where large quantities of rhubarb, horses, sheep, and other commodities are procured. Going still northwest, the traveller reaches Suhchau, the last large place before passing the Great Wall, which renders it a mart for provisions and all articles brought from the west in exchange for the manufactures of China. This city was the last stronghold of the Dungani Moslems, and when they were destroyed in 1873 it began to revive out of its ruins. About fifty miles from this town is the pass of Kiayü, beyond which the road to Hami, Urumtsi, and Ílí leads directly across the desert, here about three hundred miles wide. This route has been for ages the line of internal communication betweenthe west of China and the regions lying around and in the basins of the Tarim River and the Caspian.[110]A better idea of the security of traffic and caravans within the Empire, and consequently of the goodness of the Chinese rule, is obtained by comparing the usually safe travel on this route with the hazards, robberies, and poverty formerly met with on the great roads in Bokhara, and the regions south and west of the Belur tag.
THE TANGUTS AND NOMADS OF KOKO-NOR.
The productions of Koko-nor consist of grain and other vegetables raised along the bottoms of the rivers and margins of the lakes; sheep, cattle, horses, camels, and other animals. Alpine hares, wild asses,[111]wild yaks, vultures, lammergeiers, pheasants, antelopes, wolves, mountain sheep, and wild camels are among the denizens of the wilds. The Chinese have settled among the tribes, and Mohammedans of Turkish origin are found in the large towns. There are eight corps between Koko-nor and Uliasutai, comprising all the tribes and banners, and over which are placed as many supreme generals or commanders appointed from Peking. The leading tribes in Koko-nor are Eleuths, Tanguts, and Tourbeths, the former of whom are the remnants of one of the most powerful tribes in Central Asia. Tangout submitted to the Emperor in 1690, and its population since the incorporation has greatly increased. They inhabit the hilly region of Kansuh, Koko-nor, Eastern Tsaidam, and the basin of the Upper Yellow River. They resemble gipsies, being above the average in height, with thick-set features, broad shoulders, hair and whiskers, black, dark eyes, nose straight, lips thick and protruding, face long and never flat, skin tawny. Unlike the Mongols and Chinese they have a strong growth of beard and whiskers which, however, they always shave. They wear no tail, but shave their heads; their dress consists of furs and cloths made into long coats that reach to the knees. Shirts or trowsers are not made use of; their upper legs are generally left bare. Women dress like the men. Their habitations are wooden huts or black cloth tents. The Tangut is cunning,stingy, lazy, and shiftless. His sole occupation that of tending cattle (yaks). He is even more zealous a Buddhist than are the Mongols, and extremely superstitious.[112]The trade at Síning is large, but not equal to that between Yunnan and Burmah at Talí and Bhamo; dates, rhubarb, chowries, precious stones, felts, cloths, etc., are among the commodities seen in the bazaar. It lies about a hundred miles from the sea, at an elevation of 7,800 feet, and near it is the famous lamasary of Kumbum, where MM. Huc and Gabet lived in 1845. The town is well situated upon the Síning ho, and though constructed for the most part of wood, presents a fine appearance owing to the number of official buildings therein. The population numbers some 60,000 souls.[113]
The towns lying between the Great Wall and Ílí, though politically belonging to Kansuh, are more connected with the colonies in their form of government than with the Eighteen Provinces. The first town beyond the Kiayü Pass is Yuhmun, distant about ninety miles, and is the residence of officers, who attend to the caravans going to and from the pass. It is represented as lying near the junction of two streams, which flow northerly into the Purunkí. The other district town of Tunhwang lies across a mountainous country, upwards of two hundred miles distant. The city of Ngansí chau has been built to facilitate the communication across the desert to Hami or Kamil, the first town in Songaria, and the dépôt of troops, arms, and munitions of war. “With the town of Hami,” says an Austrian visitor in these regions, “the traveller comes upon the southern foot-hills of the Tien shan, and the first traces of Siberian civilization. Magnificent mountain scenery accompanies him on his way toward the west to the Russian line. In the government of Semipolatinsk are the express mail-wagons which stand ready at his order to carry him at furious speed to the town of the same name, then to the right bank of the River Irtysh, and so to Omsk.”[114]This route and that stretching towards the southwest bring an important trade to Hami; the country around it is cultivated by poor Mongols.[115]Barkul, or Chinsí fu, in lat. 43° 40′ N., and long. 93° 30′ E., is the most important place in the department; the district is called Ího hien. A thousand Manchus, and three thousand Chinese, guard the post. The town is situated on the south of Lake Barkul, and its vicinity receives some cultivation. Hami and Turfan each form atingdistrict in the southeast and west of the department. The trade at all these places consists mostly of articles of food and clothing.
Urumtsi, or Tih-hwa chau (theBich-balikof the Ouigours in 1100[116]), in lat. 43° 45′ N., and long. 89° E., is the westernmost department of Kansuh, divided into three districts, and containing many posts and settlements. In the war with the Eleuths in 1770, the inhabitants around this place were exterminated, and the country afterwards repeopled by upwards of ten thousand troops, with their families, and by exiles; emigrants from Kansuh were also induced to settle there. The Chinese accounts speak of a high mountain near the city, always covered with ice and snow, whose base is wooded, and abounding with pheasants; coal is also obtained in this region. The cold is great, and snow falls as late as July. Many parts produce grain and vegetables. All this department formerly constituted a portion of Songaria. The policy of the Chinese government is to induce the tribes to settle, by placing large bodies of troops with their families at all important points, and sending their exiled criminals to till the soil; the Mongols then find an increasing demand for their cattle and other products, and are induced to become stationary to meet it. So far as is known, this policy had succeeded well in the regions beyond the Wall, and those around Koko-nor; but the rebellion of the Dunganis,who arose in these outlying regions at the moment when the energies of the Peking government were all directed to suppressing the Tai-ping insurrection, destroyed these improvements, and frustrated, for an indefinite period, the promising development of civilization among the inhabitants.
DIVISIONS AND BOUNDARIES OF ÍLÍ.
That part of the Empire calledÍlíis a vast region lying on each side of the Tien shan, and including a tract nearly as large as Mongolia, and not much more susceptible of cultivation. Its limits may be stated as extending from lat. 36° to 49° N., and from long. 71° to 96° E., and its entire area, although difficult to estimate from its irregularity, can hardly be less than 900,000 square miles, of which Songaria occupies rather more than one-third. It is divided into twoLu, or ‘Circuits,’ viz., the Tien shan Peh Lu, and Tien shan Nan Lu, or the circuits north and south of the Celestial Mountains. The former is commonly designated Songaria, or Dzungaria, from the Songares or Eleuths, who ruled it till a few scores of years past, and the latter used to be known as Little Bokhara, or Eastern Turkestan.
Ílí is bounded north by the Altai range, separating it from the Kirghís; northeast by the Irtysh River and Outer Mongolia; east and southeast by Urumtsi and Barkul in Kansuh; south by the desert and the Kwănlun range; and west by the Belur-tag, dividing it from Badakshan and Russian territory.[117]In length, the Northern Circuit extends about nine hundred miles, and the width, on an average, is three hundred miles. The Southern Circuit reaches nearly twelve hundred and fifty miles from west to east, and varies from three hundred to five hundred in breadth, as it extends to the Kwănlun range on the south. There is probably most arable land in the Northern Circuit.
TOPOGRAPHY OF ÍLÍ.
Ílí, taken north of the Tarim basin, may be regarded as an inland isthmus, extending southwest from the south of Siberia, off between the Gobi and Caspian deserts, till it reaches the Hindu Kush, leading down to the valley of the Indus. The former of these deserts incloses it on the east and south, the other on the west and northwest, separated from each other by the Belur and Muz-tag ranges, which join with the Tien shan, that divide the isthmus itself into two parts. These deserts united are equal in extent to that of Sahara, but are not as arid and tenantless.
This region has some peculiar features, among which its great elevation, its isolation in respect to its water-courses, and the character of its vegetation, are the most remarkable. Songaria is especially noticeable for the many closed river-basins which occur between the Altai and Tien shan, among the various minor ranges of hills, each of which is entirely isolated, and containing a lake, the receptacle of its drainage. The largest of these singular basins is that of the River Ílí, which runs about three hundred miles westward, from its rise in the Tien shan (lat. 85°) till it falls into Lake Balkash, which also receives some other streams; the superficies of the whole basin is about forty thousand square miles. The other lakes lie north-eastward of Balkash; the largest of them are the Dzaisang, which receives the Irtysh, the Kisilbash, into which the Urunguflows, and four or five smaller ones between them, lying north of the city of Ílí. Lake Temurtu, or Issik-kul, lies now just beyond the southwestern part of this Circuit, and was until recently contained therein. This sheet of water is deep and never freezes; it is brackish, but full of fish; the dimensions are about one hundred miles long, and thirty-five wide; its superabundant waters flow off through the Chu ho into the Kirghís steppe.
The Ala-tau range defines the lake on the north shore. Says a Russian traveller in describing this region, “It would be difficult to imagine anything more splendid than the view of the Tien shan from this spot. The dark blue surface of the Issik-kul, like sapphire, may well bear comparison with the equally blue surface of Geneva Lake, but its expanse—five times as great—seeming almost unlimited, and the matchless splendor of its background, gives it a grandeur which the Swiss lake does not possess. The unbroken, snowy chain here stretches away for at least 200 miles of the length of the Issik-kul; the sharp outlines of the spurs and dark valleys in the front range are softened by a thin mist, which hangs over the water and heightens the clear, sharp outlines of the white heads of the Tien shan giants, as they rise and glisten on the azure canopy of a central Asian sky. The line of perpetual snow commences at three-fifths of their slope up, but as one looks, their snowless base seems to sink the deeper in the far east, till the waves of the lake seem to wash the snowy crests of Khan-Tengsè.” Forty small rivers flow into it, but its size is gradually lessening.[118]
Little is known concerning the topography, the productions, or the civilization of the tribes who inhabit a large part of Songaria, but the efforts of the Chinese government have been systematically directed to developing its agricultural resources, by stationing bodies of troops, who cultivate the soil, there, and by banishing criminals thither, who are obliged to work for and assist the troops. It gives one a higher idea of the rulers of China, themselves wandering nomads originally, when they are seen carrying on such a plan for extending the capabilities ofthese remote parts of their Empire, and teaching, partly by force, partly by bribes, and partly by example, the Mongol tribes under them the advantages of a settled life.
The productions of Songaria are numerous. Wheat, barley, rice and millet, are the chief corn stuffs; tobacco, cotton, melons, and some fruits, are grown; herds of horses, camels, cattle, and sheep, afford means of locomotion and food to the people, while the mountains and lakes supply game and fish. The inhabitants are composed mostly of Eleuths, with a tribe of Tourgouths, and remnants of the Songares, together with Mongols, Manchus, and Chinese troops, settlers and criminals.
TIEN-SHAN PEH LU AND THE TOWN OF KULDJA.
Tien-shan Peh Luis divided by the Chinese into three commanderies,Ílíon the west,Tarbagataion the north, andKur-kara usuon the east, between Ílí and the west end of Kansuh. The government of the North and South Circuits is under the control of Manchu military officers residing at Ílí. This city, called by the Chinese Hwuiyuen ching, and Gouldja (or Kuldja) and Kuren by the natives, lies on the north bank of the Ílí River, in lat. 43° 55′ N., and long. 81½° E.; it contains about fifty thousand inhabitants, and carries on considerable trade with China through the towns in Kansuh. The city was defended by six strong fortresses in its neighborhood, and the solidity of the stone walls enabled it to resist a vigorous assault in the Dungani rebellion. Its circuit is nearly four miles, and two wide avenues cross its centre, dividing it into four equal parts, through each of which run many lanes. Its houses indicate the Turkish origin of its builders in their clay or adobe walls and flat roofs, and this impression is increased by the Jumma mosque of the Taranchis, and the Dungan mosque, outside of the walls. The last has a wonderful minaret built of small-roofed pavilions one over another; both of them affect the Chinese architecture in their roofs, and their walls are faced with diamond-shaped tiles. The Buddhist temple has hardly been rebuilt since the city has returned to Chinese rule. The supply of meats and vegetables is constant, and the variety and quality exceed that of most other towns in the region. The population is gradually increasing with the return of peace and trade, but is still under twenty thousand, of which not one-fifthare Chinese and Manchus: the Taranchis constitute half of the whole, and Dunganis are the next in number. The province is the richest and best cultivated of all this region of Ílí; its coal, metals, and fruits are sources of prosperity, and with its return to Chinese sway under new relations in respect to Russian trade, its future is promising.
The destruction of life was dreadful at the capture of Kuldja and other towns, which were then left a heap of ruins.[119]Schuyler estimates that not more than a hundred thousand people remained in the province, out of a third of a million in 1860. It is stated in Chinese works that when Amursana, the discontented chief of the Songares, applied, in 1775, to Kienlung for assistance against his rival Tawats or Davatsi, and was sent back with a Chinese army, in the engagements which ensued, more than a million of people were destroyed, and the whole country depopulated. At that time, Kuldja was built by Kienlung, and soon became a place of note. Outside of the town are the barracks for the troops, which consist of Eleuths and Mohammedans, as well as Manchus and Chinese. Coal is found in this region, and most of the inland rivers produce abundance of fish, while wild animals and birds are numerous. The resources of the country are, however, insufficient to meet the expenses of the military establishment, and the presents made to the begs, and the deficit is supplied from China.[120]
Subordinate to the control of the commandant at Kuldja are nine garrisoned places situated in the same valley, at each of which are bodies of Chinese convicts. The two remaining districts of Tarbagatai and Kur-kara usu are small compared with Ílí; the first lies between Cobdo and the Kirghís steppe, and is inhabited mostly by emigrants from the steppes of the latter, who render merely a nominal subjection to the garrisons placed over them, but are easily governed through their tribal rulers. The Tourgouths, who emigrated from Russia in 1772, into China, are located in this district and Cobdo, as well as in the valleys of the Tekes and Kunges rivers. They have become more or less assimilated with other tribes since they were placed here. In the war with the Songares, many of the people fled from the valley of Ílí to this region, and after that country was settled, they submitted to the Emperor, and partly returned to Ílí. The chief town, called Tuguchuk by the Kirghís, and Suitsing ching by the Chinese, is situated not far from the southern base of the Tarbagatai Mountains, and contains about six hundred houses, half of which belong to the garrison. It is one of the nine fortified towns under the control of the commandant at Kuldja, and a place of some trade with the Kirghís. There are two residents stationed here, with high powers to oversee the trade across the frontier, but their duties are inferior in importance to those of the officials at Urga. 2,500 Manchu and Chinese troops remain at this post, and since the conquest of the country in 1772 by Kienlung, its agricultural products have gradually increased under the industry of the Chinese. The tribes dwelling in this distant province are restricted within certain limits, and their obedience secured by presents. The climate of Tarbagatai is changeable, and the cold weather comprises more than half the year. The basin of Lake Ala-kul, or Alaktu-kul, occupies the southwest, and part of the Irtysh and Lake Dzaisang the northeast, so that it is well watered. The trade consists chiefly of domestic animals and cloths.
The town of Kur-kara usu lies on the River Kur, northeast from Kuldja and on the road between it and Urumtsi; it is called Kingsui ching by the Chinese. The number of troopsstationed at all these posts is estimated at sixty thousand, and the total population of Songaria under two millions.
POSITION OF TIEN-SHAN NAN LU.
TheTien-shan Nan Lu, or Southern Circuit of Ílí, the territory of ‘the eight Mohammedan cities,’ was namedSin Kiang(‘New Frontier’) by Kienlung. It is less fertile than the Northern Circuit, the greatest part of its area consisting of rugged mountains or barren wastes, barely affording subsistence for herds of cattle and goats. The principal boundaries are the Kwănlun Mountains, and the desert, separating it from Tibet on the south; Cashmere lies on the southwest, and Badakshan and Kokand are separated from it on the west and northwest by the Belur-tag, all of them defined and partitioned by the mountain ranges over which the passes 12,000 to 16,000 feet high furnish both defence and travel according to the season.
THE RIVER TARIM AND LOB-NOR.
The greater part of this Circuit is occupied with the basin of the Tarim or Ergu, which flows from the Belur range in four principal branches[121](called from the towns lying upon their banks the Yarkand, Kashgar, Aksu, and Khoten Rivers), and running eastward, receives several affluents from the north and south, and falls into Lake Lob in long. 89° E., after a course, including windings, of between 1,100 and 1,300 miles. Of the river system from which this stream flows Baron Richthofen says, “the region which gives birth to this river is on a scale of grandeur such as no other river in the world can boast. It is girt round by a wide semicircular collar of mountains of the loftiest and grandest character, often rising in ridges of 18,000 to 20,000 feet in height, while the peaks shoot up to 25,000 and even 28,000 feet. The basin which fills in the horse-shoe shaped space encompassed by these gigantic elevations, though deeply depressed below them, stands at a height above the sea varying from 6,000 feet at the margin to about 2,000 in the middle, and formed the bed of an ancient sea. From its wall-like sides on the south, west, and north, the waters rush headlong down, and though the winds blowing from all directions deposit most of their moisture on the remoter sides of the surroundingranges, viz., the southern foot of the Himalayas, the west side of the Pamir, and the northern slope of the Tien shan, the streams formed thereby winding through the cloud-capped lofty cradle-land, and breaking through the mountain chains, reach the old ocean bed only partly well watered. The smallest of them disappear in the sand, others flow some distance before expanding into a level salt basin and are there absorbed. Only the largest, whose number the Chinese estimate at sixty, unite with the Tarim, a river 1,150 miles long, and therefore in length between the Rhine and Danube, but far surpassing both in the massiveness of surrounding mountains, just as it exceeds the Danube in the extent of its basin. Its tributaries form along the foot of the mountains a number of fruitful oases, and these by means of artificial irrigation have been converted into flourishing, cultivated states, and have played an important part in the history of these regions.”[122]Col. Prejevalsky’s explorations in this totally unknown country have brought out a multitude of facts pregnant with interest both for historical and geographical study. Among the most important results of his discoveries is the location of Lob more than a degree to the south of its position on Chinese maps, and a consequent bend of the Tarim from its due eastern course before it reaches its outlet. This lake, consisting of two sheets of water, the Kara-buran and Kara-kurchin (or Chon-kul), lies on the edge of the desert, in an uninhabited region, and surrounded by great swamps, which extend also northwest along the Tarim to its junction with the Kaidu. It is shallow, overgrown with weeds, and is for the most part a morass, the water being fresh, despite the salt marshes in the vicinity. The people living near it speak a language most like that of Khoten; they are Moslems. Lake Lob is elliptical, 90 to 100 versts long and 20 wide, 2,200 feet above the sea. Enormous flocks of birds come from Khoten on the south-west, as they go north, and make Lob-nor their stopping-place. The desert in this region is poor and desolate in the extreme. Its southern side is formed by the Altyn-tag range, a spur of the Kwănlun Mountains that rises about 14,000 feet in a sheerwall. Wild camels are found in its ravines, whose sight, hearing, and smell are marvellously acute. No other river basins of any size are found within the Circuit, except a large tributary called the Kaidu, which, draining a parallel valley north of Lob-nor, two hundred miles long, runs into a lake nearly as large, called Bostang-nor, from which an outlet on the south continues it into the Tarim, about eighty miles from its mouth. The tributaries of this river are represented as much more serviceable for agricultural purposes than the main trunk is for navigation. The plain through which the Tarim flows is about two hundred miles broad and not far from nine hundred miles long, most of it unfit for cultivation or pasturage. The desert extends considerably west of the two lakes. The climate of this region is exceedingly dry, and its barrenness is owing, apparently, more to the want of moisture than to the nature of the soil. The western parts are colder than those toward Kansuh, the river being passable on ice at Yarkand, in lat. 38°, for three months, while frost is hardly known at Hami, in lat. 43°.
The productions of the valley of the Tarim comprise most of the grains and fruits found in Southern Europe; the sesamum is cultivated for oil instead of the olive. Few trees or shrubs cover the mountain acclivities or plains. All the domestic animals abound, except the hog, which is reared in small numbers by the Chinese. The camel and yak are hunted and raised for food and service, their coats affording both skins and hair for garments. The horse, camel, black cattle, ass, and sheep, are found wild on the edge of the desert, where they find a precarious subsistence. The mountains and marshes contain jackals, tigers, bears, wolves, lynxes, and deer, together with some large species of birds of prey. Gold, copper, and iron are brought from this region, but the amount is not large, and as articles of trade they are less important than the sal-ammoniac, saltpetre, sulphur, and asbestos obtained from the volcanic region in the east of the Celestial Mountains. The best specimens of theyuhor nephrite, so highly prized by the Chinese, are obtained in the Southern Circuit.
TOWNS OF THE SOUTHERN CIRCUIT.
The present divisions of this Circuit are regulated by theposition of the eight Mohammedan cities. The western departments of Kansuh naturally belong to the same region, and the cities now pertaining to that province are inhabited by entirely similar races, and governed in the same feudal manner, with some advantages in consideration of their early submission to Kienlung. The first town on the road, of note, is Hami; Turfan and Pidshan are less important as trading posts than as garrisons. The eight cities are named in theStatistics of the Empirein the following order, beginning at the east: Harashar, Kuché, Ushí (including Sairim and Bai), Aksu, Khoten, Yarkand, Kashgar, and Yingkeshar or Yangi Hissar. The superior officers live at Yarkand, but the Southern Circuit is divided into four minor governments at Harashar, Ushí, Yarkand, and Khoten, each of whose residents reports both to Kuldja and Peking. There is constant restiveness on the part of the subject races, who are all Moslems, arising from their clannish habits and feuds; they have not the elements of substantial progress and national growth, either under their own rulers or Chinese. They have lately thrown off the Peking Government, but they have generally regretted the rapines and waste caused by the strifes and change, and would probably receive theKitai(so they term the Chinese) back again. The latter are not hard masters, and bring trade and wealth the longer they remain. One of the Usbek chiefs under Yakub khan gave the pith of the situation between the two, when he replied to Dr. Bellew’s remark that he talked like a Chinese himself, “No, I hate them. But they were not bad rulers. We had everything then; we have nothing now. We never see any signs of the Kitai trade, nor of the wealth they brought here.”
Harashar (or Karashar) lies on the Kaidu River, not far from Lake Bagarash or Bostang, about two hundred and ninety miles west of Turfan, in lat. 42° 15′ N., and long. 87° E. It is a large district, and has two towns of some note within the jurisdiction of its officers—namely, Korla and Bukur. Harashar is fortified, and from its being a secure position, and the seat of the chief resident, attracts considerable trade. The embroidery is superior; but the tribes living in the district are more addicted to hunting than disposed to sedentary trades. Korla liessouthwest of Harashar on the Kaidu, between lakes Bostang and Lob, and the productions of the town and its vicinity indicate a fertile soil; the Chinese say the Mohammedans who live here are fond of singing, but have no ideas of ceremony or urbanity. Bukur lies two hundred miles west of Korla and “might be a rich and delicious country,” says the Chinese account, “but those idle, vagrant Mohammedans only use their strength in theft and plunder; the women blush at nothing.” The town formerly contained upward of ten thousand inhabitants, but Kienlung nearly destroyed it; the district has been since resettled by Hoshoits, Tourbeths, and Turks, and the people carry on some trade in the produce of their herds, skins, copper, and agates.
Kuché, about eighty miles west from Bukur, lat. 41° 37′ N., and long. 83° 20′ E., is a larger and more important city than that of Harashar, for the road which crosses the Tien shan by the pass Muz-daban to Ílí, here joins that coming from Aksu on the west and Hami on the east. It is three miles in circuit, and is defended by ten forts and three hundred troops. The bazaars contain grain, fruits, and vegetables, raised in the vicinity by great labor, for the land requires to be irrigated by hand from wells, pools, and streams. Copper, sulphur, and saltpetre are carried across to Ílí, for use of government as well as traffic, being partly levied from the inhabitants as taxes; linen is manufactured in the town, and sal ammoniac, cinnabar, and quicksilver are procured from the mountains. Kuché is considered the gate of Turkestan, and is the chief town, politically speaking, between Hami and Yarkand. The district and town of Shayar lie south of Kuché, in a marshy valley producing abundance of rice, melons, and fruit; the pears are particularly good. Two small lakes, Baba-kul and Sary-kamysch, lie to the east of this town, and are the only bodies of water between Bostang-nor and Issik-kul. The population is about four thousand, ruled bybegssubordinate to the general at Kuché.
The valley of the Aksu contains two large towns, Aksu and Ushí or Ush-turfan, besides several posts and villages. Between the former and Kuché, lie the small garrisons and districts of Bai and Sairim. The first contains from four to five hundredfamilies, ruled by their own chiefs. Sairim or Hanlemuh is subordinate to Ushí in some degree, but its productions, climate, and inhabitants are like those of Kuché. “Their manners are simple,” remarks a Chinese writer, speaking of the people; “they are neither cowards nor rogues like the other Mohammedans; they are fond of singing, drinking, and dancing, like those of Kuché.” Aksu is a large commercial and manufacturing town, containing twenty thousand inhabitants, situated, like Kuché, at the termination of a road leading across the Tien shan to Ílí, and attracting to its market traders from Siberia, Bokhara, and Kokand, as well as along the great road. Its manufactures of cotton, silk, leather, harnesses, crockery, precious stones, and metals are good, and sent abroad in great numbers. The country produces grain, fruits, vegetables, and cattle in perfection, and the people are more civilized than those on the east and north; “they are generous and noble, and both sing and ridicule the oddities and niggardliness of the other Mohammedans.” The Chinese garrison consists of three thousand soldiers, and the officers are accountable to those at Ushí.
Ushí lies about 70 miles due west of Aksu, in lat. 41° 15′ N. and long. 79° 40′ E., and is stated to contain ten thousand inhabitants. The Chinese name is Yung-ning ching (i.e.‘City of Eternal Tranquillity’). The officers stationed here report to the commandant at Ílí, but they communicate directly with Peking, and receive the Emperor’s sanction to their choice of begs, and to the envoys forwarded to the capital with tribute. Copper money is cast here in ingots, somewhat like the ingots of sycee in the provinces. There are six forts attached to Ushí, to keep in order the wandering tribes of the Kirghís, called Pruth Kirghís,[123]which roam over the frontier regions between Ushí and Yarkand. They pay homage to the officers at Ushí, but give no tribute. Those who do pay tribute are taxed a tenth, but the Kirghís on this frontier are usually allowed to roam where they like, provided they keep the peace. This region was nearly depopulated by Kienlung’s generals, and at present supports a sparse population compared with its fertility and resources.
THE GOVERNMENT AND TOWN OF KASHGAR.
The government of Kashgar, known, at the time of the Arab conquest, asKichik Bukhara, presents a vast, undulating plain, of which the slope is very gradual toward the east, and of which the general elevation may be reckoned at from three to four thousand feet above the sea. The aspect of its surface is mostly one of unmitigated waste—a vast spread of bare sand and gloomy salts, traversed in all directions by dunes and banks of gravel, with the scantiest vegetation, and all but absence of animal life. Such is the view that meets the eye and joins the horizon everywhere on the plain immediately beyond the river courses and the settlements planted on their banks.[124]The population of this whole district is considerably less than a million and a half. The natural mineral productions here are of great value, and it is a knowledge of this fact which has induced the Chinese to persevere in retaining so expensive and turbulent a frontier province. The gold and jade of Khoten, silver and lead of Cosharab, and copper of Khalistan, have given abundant employment to Chinese settlers; while coal, iron, sulphur, alum, sal ammoniac, and zinc, though worked in unimportant quantities before the insurrection of Yakub khan (Atalik Ghazi), furnished the inhabitants with supplies for domestic use. An important hinderance to building villages in many sections of this territory is the prevalence of sand dunes here. Solitary houses and even whole settlements lying in the path of these moving hills are suddenly overwhelmed and oftentimes totally effaced.
The town of Kashgar is situated at the northwestern angle of the Southern Circuit, on the Kashgar River, a branch of the Tarim, in lat. 39° 25′ N., and long. 76° 5′ E., at the extreme west of the Empire. Several roads meet here. Going in a northwest direction, one leads over the Tien shan to Kokand; a second passes south, through Yarkand and Khoten, to Leh and Cashmere; a third, the great caravan route, from China throughUshí, may be said to end here; and the fourth and most frequented, leads off northwest over the Tien shan through the Rowat Pass, and along the western banks of Lake Issik-kul to Ílí. Kashgar was the capital of the Ouigours for a long time, and its ruler forced his people, as far east as Hami, to accept Islamism about the year 1000. They then came under Genghis’ sway, and this city increased its importance, but when Abubahr Miza took Yarkand, he razed Kashgar to the ground. Under Chinese rule it became one of the richest marts in Central Asia, and its future importance is secured by its position. The city is enclosed with high and massive walls, supported by buttress bastions, and protected by a deep ditch on three sides, the river flowing under the fourth. There are but two gates; the area within is about fifty acres. Around it are populous suburbs.
In the middle of the town is a large square, and four bazaars branch from it through to the gates; the garrison is placed without the walls. The manufactures of Kashgar excel those of any other town in the two Circuits, especially in jade, gold, silk, cotton, gold and silver cloths, and carpets. The country around produces fruit and grain in abundance; “the manners of the people have an appearance of elegance and politeness,” says the Chinese geographer; “the women dance and sing in family parties; they fear and respect the officers, and have not the wild, uncultivated aspect of those in Ushí.” This judgment is in a measure confirmed by Bellew, who credits the people with being singularly free from prejudice against the foreigners, quite indifferent on any score of his nationality or religion, and content so long as he pays his way and does not offend the customs of the natives. Several towns are subordinate to Kashgar, because of its oversight of their rulers, and consumption of their products. Southwest lies Tash-balig, and on the road leading to Yarkand is Yangi Hissar, both of them towns of some importance; the whole distance from Kashgar presents a succession of sandy or saline tracts, alternating with fertile bottoms wherever water runs. Small villages and post houses serve to connect the larger towns, but the soil does not reward the cultivators with much produce.