w was fairly treated on the whole, and
has of all writers on Kashgar given us the most graphic description of
the people and the country. Mr. Shaw's position was to a certain extent
compromised by the arrival of another Englishman, the lamented Mr.
Hayward, who was murdered in a somewhat mysterious manner, three or four
years afterwards, in the neighbourhood of the Cashmerian fortress of
Gilgit. Both travellers were for a time detained in a sort of honourable
confinement in Kashgar, but all ended happily, and the first two English
explorers of Eastern Turkestan returned in perfect safety to Ladakh. The
result of Mr. Shaw's interesting journey was not made known in England
until 1871, after he had set out and returned from Kashgar a second
time, in the first embassy of Mr., now Sir, Douglas Forsyth. The result
of this visit to Yarkand and Kashgar was almost magnetic. Not only did
the Indian Government promptly take into its consideration the question
of what our political relations were to be with the Athalik Ghazi, but
the whole Anglo-Indian community turned an attentive ear to the stories
told of the new country. A new avenue for commerce had been opened up,
and Eastern Turkestan might, after all, prove the true gateway to the
marts of Bokhara and Kuldja. In our more immediate vicinity there was
the jade trade of Khoten to be revived, and the wool of Tartary, of
ancient fame, should alone form a staple article of commerce. For
Manchester goods and Indian wares there was also a very inviting
prospect in the thickly populated districts of Yarkand and Kashgar,
which were at first supposed to contain a much larger population than as
a matter of fact they did. At first it is probable that the main
sentiment was one of satisfaction on commercial grounds alone; later on,
the progress of events in Khokand and Kuldja made the political motives
appear more prominently before English minds. A trading company was
formed in conception, but it did not begin operations until several
years later on, after the signature of the Forsyth treaty, for which,
and the official regulations concerning the working of that company,
the reader may be referred to the Appendix of this volume.

Mr. Shaw himself formed a very roseate estimate of the future of the
trade between India and Kashgar, and participated with all his wonted
activity in promoting the fortunes of the Yarkand Trading Company from
his advantageous post at Leh. Although the more san