r practice with the
_tyfu_, an awkward weapon, being a sort of gun-cannon, carried by two
men and served by three, was pronounced very good up to 250 yards.

It is proper to state here, very clearly, that while the English mission
was on Kashgarian soil it lived and travelled free of all expense, and
as the Ameer paid his subjects in hard cash for whatever service they
rendered, it is obvious that for a small state such as his was this was
no trivial expense. It is only fair that this fact should be as widely
known as possible, for some discontent was aroused by a similar
hospitality being extended to the Seyyid Yakoob Khan last year. That
discontent arose from ignorance; for it is hardly to be imagined that
any Englishman would grumble at reciprocating the courteousness of a
Central Asian potentate. The mission remained at the capital almost four
months, and altogether the time passed very pleasantly. The weather was
certainly rigorous; but then there was much to be done in the way of
business, sight-seeing and amusement.

On the 2nd of February Yakoob Beg placed his seal to the treaty of
commerce, and this act concluded the business portion of the English
mission. On the 16th of March formal leave was taken of the Athalik
Ghazi, and the mission returned to India. It had accomplished its task
with pre-eminent success, and the Forsyth Embassy deserves long to be
remembered as the most ably conducted and practically useful embassy
that ever set out from India.

Since the signature of that treaty the Turkestan Trading Company has
been very actively engaged in despatching several caravans annually into
Kashgaria; but now, whether temporarily or permanently remains to be
seen, its operations have come to a standstill. In these later years,
Mr. Shaw, in his old post as Commissioner in Ladakh, had been as quietly
performing his useful work as ever before; and there were rumours that
he was to receive his reward in being sent as another envoy, or rather
as a resident agent, into Kashgaria, last year. If the appointment were
made, it has at this date (October 1st) been for the time suspended; and
such entirely new considerations have come into play that it may be
postponed for an indefinite period. Hadji Torah's visit to this country,
in June and July, 1877, when the Turko-Russian war had rendered the
Eastern Question once more acute, revived our interest, which had been
flagging, in Eastern Turkestan. But he came at an unfor