Ghazi. Whether it was absolutely necessary or even prudent to annex Ili,
may be doubted with some reason, but it is impossible to find fault with
the Russians for that step. Probably it was the most excusable of all
their conquests, none the less may the decision have been founded on a
misapprehension of circumstances, or it may have been premature to shut
Yakoob Beg out from advancing into a region where he would have been at
the complete mercy of the Russians. Nor is it clear even that Yakoob Beg
had the intention, so generously attributed to him, of committing what
would certainly have resulted in political extinction, viz., an advance
to the northern side of the Tian Shan. The reader will, we hope,
perceive that as little interest was felt by the Russians in the events
transpiring in Kashgar as there was in India, and this indifference
continued down at all events to the end of 1866. At that date Yakoob
Beg's enterprise had been crowned with complete success and the Russian
Government, far more promptly and accurately apprised of the course of
events than our Government in India, was obliged to devote some
attention to this new power, whose appearance was already beginning to
raise a ferment in the Mahomedan states lying to the west of Kashgar.

In 1866, however, some indefinite agreement was arrived at by the
commanders of forces along the Naryn borders, to abstain from
interfering with each other's actions. The Russian forces were permitted
to follow refugees from Khokand and predatory Kirghiz within the nominal
frontier of Kashgar, and when occasion arose a similar right was
accorded to the Kashgarian officials. By some good fortune, perhaps
caused by a feeling of mutual respect, no collisions of any consequence
occurred between the representatives of the two powers during these
early and vague negotiations. Although the Russian governors of Siberia
and Turkestan refused to acknowledge either Buzurg Khan or Yakoob Beg,
they seem to have done their best to make use of these conciliatory
measures along the northern frontier as a lever for inducing Yakoob Beg
to make overtures to them for their support. If such was their intention
the firmness of Yakoob Beg thwarted all their designs, as will be seen
in the sequel. To obtain, however, some advantage out of the apparent
apprehension of the Kashgarian ruler for Russian power was absolutely
necessary, if only to demonstrate the perfection to which Muscovite
diplomacy