n Khoja rights. With the general had gone
Yusuf, far from anxious to encounter the Chinese alone. The return of
the Khokandian army sufficed to dispel all danger from Bokhara, and, a
few months after, Mahomed Ali Khan recommenced operations--in the east
this time--against the Kirghiz under Chinese protection. The Chinese
were thoroughly sick of these petty disputes, and made a treaty with
Khokand, by which that state acquired fresh commercial privileges, in
addition to the old ones, and by which the importance of the Aksakals
rather increased than waned. Mahomed Ali Khan had acquired all he
wanted, and discouraged the Khoja party, as, indeed, the terms of this
treaty compelled him to do. The risings under Jehangir and Yusuf were
undoubtedly a great blow to Chinese prestige. To all appearance each had
nearly been successful, and the Chinese, whose prestige was enormous in
Central Asia--quite as great as that of Russia is now--had been, on one
or two occasions, openly defeated. But, after all, this was a little
matter compared to the shock the sentiments, called into being by sixty
happy years, had received. Between Buddhist and Mussulman, between
Chinaman and Central Asiatic, all the old antipathy was revived in the
butcheries of Yarkand and Kashgar. The Kashgari showed that they could
not appreciate the benefits they had received from China, and the
Chinese, enraged at the slaughter of their countrymen, and, perhaps,
also at the ingratitude evinced towards them, retaliated in kind. They
did not appreciate that moderation, which Europeans have not always
shown under similar circumstances, and wrought out their revenge in
their own ancient fashion. It is absolutely necessary that the reader
should remember that the two rapidly succeeding invasions of Jehangir
and Yusuf form a turning-point in the history of the Chinese rule in
Kashgar. Up to that epoch it is difficult to find words sufficient to do
justice to China's beneficent government there; after that year it would
be absurd to employ the same language. For the change the chief blame
must fall upon the fickle and ungrateful Kashgari themselves, and then
on the intriguing Andijanis. The Chinese are justified, at least, in
saying that, having for more than half a century ruled this people with
justice, they only relaxed in their efforts to promote its well-being
when their unarmed countrymen and soldiers had been surprised and
butchered by thousands.

Strange, and almo