to give an account of them
that would be interesting to the general reader.

CHAPTER X.

YAKOOB BEG'S POLICY TOWARDS RUSSIA.

Yakoob Beg had in the earlier days of his career come into contact with
the Russians, and although, in the long interval between the fall of Ak
Musjid and his departure from Khokand, the Russians, chiefly owing to
the prostration resulting from the Crimean War, did not press on with
the energy that their first advance on the Syr Darya seemed to promise,
there is no doubt that the possibility of its occurrence was the
foremost thought in the minds of Yakoob Beg and his contemporaries. In
1865, when the Russians threatened and eventually occupied Tashkent, and
brought their frontier halfway on its journey to the Oxus, Yakoob Beg
was far too much occupied with his own affairs in Kashgar to attempt any
interference in Khokand. With, however, the dismemberment of Khokand and
the rout of the Bokhariot army in the spring of 1866, his attention was
forcibly claimed by a fact that seemed in the future to involve him as
the next victim of Russian aggrandizement. In that year, too, he had not
only overcome all resistance in the more important districts of
Kashgaria, but he had to a greater extent than before, become
responsible for the political actions of the people of this state
through the deposition of Buzurg Khan. As early as 1866, it may be
assumed that the new ruler of Kashgar had his attention directed to the
movements of his old antagonist, by their successes against the
Khokandians and Bokhariots; but it is clear that the Russians were not
equally interested in his doings at this period. With the occupation of
the northern portion of Khokand, the rule of Russia was brought into
nearer proximity with that of the new power of Kashgar, and it became
only a question of time whether the two governments were to attain a
harmonious agreement, or whether a series of petty disputes was to
result in a further extension of the Russian Empire, towards both India
and China. The independent portion of the Khanate of Khokand still
intervened, and the difficult country of the Kizil Yart mountains served
the useful purpose of giving the Athalik Ghazi breathing time, ere he
should arrive at a decision about his future relations with Russia.
Indeed, up to this point the interest of Russia in the affairs of
Kashgar had been very slight, for it does not appear that much, if any,
intercourse had been carrie