ion, re-established, and for that
purpose proposed to send a mission across the frontier into China. The
Peking government assented and issued passports for the party, which was
under the command of Colonel Browne. Mr A.R. Margary, a young and
promising member of the China consular service, who was told off to
accompany the expedition as interpreter, was treacherously murdered by
Chinese at the small town of Manwyne and almost simultaneously an attack
was made on the expedition by armed forces wearing Chinese uniform
(January 1875). Colonel Browne with difficulty made his way back to
Bhamo and the expedition was abandoned.

Chifu convention 1876.

Tedious negotiations followed, and, more than eighteen months after the
outrage, an arrangement was come to on the basis of guarantees for the
future, rather than vengeance for the past. The arrangement was embodied
in the Chifu convention, dated 13th September 1876. The terms of the
settlement comprised (1) a mission of apology from China to the British
court; (2) the promulgation throughout the length and breadth of the
empire of an imperial proclamation, setting out the right of foreigners
to travel under passport, and the obligation of the authorities to
protect them; and (3) the payment of indemnity. Additional articles were
subsequently signed in London relative to the collection of likin on
Indian opium and other matters.

Revolt in Central Asia.

Imperial consolidation.

Simultaneously with the outbreak of the Mahommedan rebellion in Yun-nan,
a similar disturbance had arisen in the north-west provinces of Shen-si
and Kan-suh. This was followed by a revolt of the whole of the Central
Asian tribes, which for two thousand years had more or less acknowledged
the imperial sway. In Kashgaria a nomad chief named Yakub Beg, otherwise
known as the Atalik Gh[=a]zi, had made himself amir, and seemed likely
to establish a strong rule. The fertile province of Kulja or Ili, lying
to the north of the T'ianshan range, was taken possession of by Russia
in 1871 in order to put a stop to the prevailing anarchy, but with a
promise that when China should have succeeded in re-establishing order
in her Central Asian dominions it should be given back. The interest
which was taken in the rebellion in Central Asia by the European powers,
notably by the sultan of Turkey and the British government, aroused the
Chinese to renewed efforts to recover their lost territories, and, as in