endly to himself,
resolved to play the part of king-maker, and sent the embassy to
Tashkent for a Khoja to come and rule Kashgar, only he omitted to say
that Kashgar was not conquered.

We can now return to Buzurg Khan and his commander-in-chief. When they
left Tashkent they had only a following of six, among whom were Abdulla,
Pansad; Mahomed Kuli, Shahawal; and Khoja Kulan, Hudaychi. All of these
played a very prominent part under Yakoob Beg. From Tashkent they went
to Khokand, where their numbers rose to sixty-eight. Here the final
preparations were made, and during the first days of January, 1865, this
band of adventurers crossed the Khokand frontier into Eastern Turkestan.
The mountain forts seem to have been deserted, for no opposition was
encountered in the passage of the Terek defile. Several small bodies of
troops joined them, and they reached Mingyol in the neighbourhood of
Kashgar with increased numbers and confidence. Sadic Beg had conceived a
more sanguine view of his situation by this time, and half repented that
he had invited the Khojas in at all, more particularly when he found
that the Khoja had a following of his own, and a skilled commander and
minister in Yakoob Beg. He then strove to dissuade Buzurg Khan from
proceeding further with an enterprise fraught with great peril, for he
represented the Chinese as sure to return, when summary vengeance would
be exacted. But his arguments were unavailing. Either Buzurg Khan or his
adviser, Yakoob Beg, was deaf to all entreaty. The enterprise they had
embarked on must be continued to the bitter end. They could not think of
returning to Khokand with nothing accomplished, with the stigma
attaching to them of a retreat when there had been no foe. Sadic Beg
could not but submit with the best grace possible; and Buzurg Khan was
accordingly placed on the throne of his ancestors.

In his "_orda_" or palace he administered justice and received the
congratulations of his own followers and of the Andijani townspeople.
The court rules were drawn up on the model of those in use in Khokand,
and while the expedition had but established itself, in an uncertain
manner, in one city it was thought necessary that etiquette should be as
strictly defined and enforced as if all this were taking place in a
brilliant and luxurious capital. In a few days Sadic Beg, on finding
that he played but a secondary part, revolted, and set himself up as
ruler at Yangy Hissar. It was now that