. The date given is the 1st of May. That
Yakoob Beg should meet with a violent death, considering that he was
surrounded by such doubtful followers as the Tungan chiefs, is not to be
marvelled at, and that the first reverse in his career should be the
signal for fresh disturbances is only what we should expect from a
consideration of his country and its peoples in the light of past
history. So far, then, as the assertion goes, that Yakoob Beg was
murdered, there is nothing improbable about it. But there are many
discrepancies in the accompanying narrative. The first intelligence of
the death of the Ameer of Kashgar was contained in a telegram published
in the _Times_ of July 16 last year. It stated that his death occurred
at Korla, after a short illness, and that he had nominated as his
successor Hakim Khan Torah, to the express disregard of his own sons.
The telegram went on to say that Hakim Khan had declined to accept the
gift, and that the Ameer's eldest son, Beg Kuli Beg, had succeeded to
the throne. A few days after this telegram Hakim Khan Torah was
identified with the ancient dynasty of Kashgar, which Yakoob Beg had
first seated on the throne, and then displaced in the person of Buzurg
Khan. All this intelligence came from Tashkent. On the 23rd of July we
learnt in this country, from the same source, that Beg Kuli Beg had
notified his father's death and his own accession to the throne to
General Kaufmann. There no longer remained any doubt that Yakoob Beg was
really dead.

For some reason or other Beg Kuli Beg does not appear to have been a
favourite with the Russians; but this aversion to him was based on some
mistake, for Beg Kuli Beg was certainly unfriendly to England, and was
scarcely civil to our envoy, Sir Douglas Forsyth. Moreover, he at once
placed himself in communication with the Russian government, asking for
advice as to the course he should pursue with regard to the Chinese
invasion, and renewing his father's request that Russia should stop the
supplies sent to Urumtsi and Turfan from Kuldja. It was reported, but
not confirmed, that his latter demand was complied with.

Nothing more was heard of the history of these events until the end of
August, when news reached India through Ladakh and Cashmere that Yakoob
Beg "had been assassinated by Hakim Khan Torah, the son of Buzurg Khan."
This was the first hint that Yakoob Beg had fallen by the hands of
discontented partisans. In itself so natural, it t