, pay this departed warrior, who as a
soldier met few equals, as a governor none in his long career. Much as
we may marvel at, and perhaps impugn, Chinese strength, let us not judge
Yakoob Beg harshly, because Chinamen out-manoeuvred him, and overthrew
him in fair fight. It is an easy gauge to apply, and one which would
dispel all the reputation the Athalik Ghazi had secured, if we deny the
Chinese the great qualities those who know them best will accord them
without hesitation. But in applying so shallow a test to the case before
us, we should be wronging our own understanding quite as much as its
victim. However much we may blame Yakoob Beg for going out to encounter
an enemy whom he ought to have awaited either at Kucha or Aksu, his
valour, and also his mistaken contempt for the Chinese, are made all the
more clear. We may fairly claim for him that he was the most remarkable
man Central Asia in its fullest extent has produced since Nadir Shah;
and that he accomplished with insignificant means a task which ordinary
men, though born in the purple and ruling a prosperous and thickly
populated state, might have failed to do. What better epitaph could be
placed over a courageous and just ruler?

The moral of his career is a short one, but for us full of significance.
Those independent rulers who establish themselves for a space on the
confines of China are mere ephemeral excrescences; birds of passage who
must betake themselves away, if they can, when their little hour has
struck. English governments have never understood the vitality of
Chinese institutions. They should appreciate it better in the future.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CHINESE RECONQUEST OF KASHGAR.

When Yakoob Beg died at Korla the task of reconquering Kashgar had
barely commenced. The Chinese army, victorious at Turfan, was lingering
in idleness round that city, exhausted, as some believed, by the
greatness of the effort. It was not clear even that the Chinese aspired
to achieve any greater triumph than that they had already won, viz., the
subjection of the Tungani, a subjection which could not be considered
accomplished so long as Yakoob Beg remained in the neighbourhood at the
head of a large army; and that with the withdrawal of the Kashgarian
army to Karashar the Chinese generals might call a halt of an indefinite
duration. Nor did it follow as a matter of necessity that because the
Chinese had taken Turfan they could capture Kashgar or Yarkand. D