as workmen in the
military shops and factories. The Tungani, who enrolled themselves at
various epochs in the service of Kashgar, were more than dubious in
their fidelity to the state; besides they were of such questionable
courage, that they were no allies of any importance. Even as compared
with one another, these were of varying kinds of efficiency; the Tungani
who joined Yakoob Beg in the earlier portion of his career seeming to be
the best of them. Those who joined after the fall of Aksu and Kucha,
less efficient and more ambiguous in their fidelity; and those who dwelt
in the country from Korla to Turfan and Manas, were totally inefficient,
and not to be trusted to any degree whatever. The Kirghiz and Kipchak
nomads were rather a source of danger to their friends than of dread to
their foes. Yakoob Beg had, therefore, at his orders but a very limited
force to maintain his own dynasty against the machinations of Khoja and
Tungan, and to defend a long and vulnerable frontier against many
powerful and ambitious neighbours. It was absurd for him to think of
venturing single-handed across the path of Russia, and to do him justice
he never deluded himself into the idea that he could. All he seems to
have aspired to was to resist to the uttermost any invasion of his
territory by them, and to die sooner than surrender. Limited in numbers
as his regular forces were, they seem to have had every claim to be
placed high in the rank of Asiatic soldiers. They were certainly not as
formidable a body as the Sikhs or Ghoorkas, probably not as the Afghans;
still they were infinitely superior, except in numbers, to any forces
the Ameer of Bokhara or the Khan of Khokand could place in the line of
battle. To Yakoob Beg alone belongs the credit of their organization.

Yakoob Beg's system of administration was simple in the extreme. A
_Dadkwah_, or governor, was appointed for each district, and in his
hands was vested the supreme control in all the affairs of his province.
Yet he was no irresponsible minister who could tyrannize as he pleased.
Tyrannize in small ways, undoubtedly, many of them did, but, as the life
of the subject could only be taken away by order of the ruler himself,
the most powerful weapon in the hands of an unscrupulous viceroy was
removed.

At stated periods, too, he had to proceed to Kashgar to give a report of
the chief occurrences in his province, and on such occasions petitions
containing charges against the D