east of Korla, when they experienced a second, more
severe, and more lasting shock, in the announcement that the Chinese
were again advancing. Their brief contentment passed away, and all their
old terror revived in tenfold force. Hope died within their bosoms, and
the resignation of despair only nerved them to bear a fate which their
own valour should have striven to avert. It is time for us now to return
to the Chinese army, and to follow its decisive operations.

North of the Tian Shan the supreme command was vested in the hands of
Tso Tsung Tang, generalissimo of the army operating against Kashgar, and
Viceroy of the province of Kansuh. South of it the commanders were
Generals Kin Shun and Chang Yao, the former the hero of the siege of
Manas, the latter of the diversion against Turfan from Hamil. The base
of the former was Manas, of the latter Turfan. Their sources of supply
were Hamil, Barkul, and Chuguchak, within the Chinese frontier, and
Kuldja, Semiretchinsk, and Semipalatinsk, without. Their weapons and
ammunition were transported across the desert from Lanchefoo, and their
ranks were swollen by recruits from the Calmuck and other tribes. It
does not appear that the Chinese were very eager to enlarge their army
in size; they rather aimed at increasing its efficiency by the
distribution of Berdan rifles and Krupp's cannon; and during the heat of
the summer months they remained at rest in their recently acquired
possessions. Nor is it probable that those epidemics broke out in their
ranks which it was asserted had appeared amongst them. A sensational
paragraph was published in the _Tashkent Gazette_, which was copied by
some of the London newspapers, asserting that a species of cholera,
known in Kashgar by the name of _vuoba_, had decimated the Chinese army,
and that in consequence of that calamity its advance was permanently
checked. Certainly, this was a piece of gross exaggeration, even if
there were a substratum of fact for the assertion. Then, again, we were
apprised, on high authority, that the Russian government had put a stop
to the despatch of provisions to the country occupied by the Chinese
army, at the request of its new-found friend, Beg Bacha. Yet there is no
question that the caravans of Mr. Kamensky continued to pass between
Kuldja and Manas, and that the chief caterers for the Chinese army were
the Russian merchants of Central Asia. In the course of their
intercourse the best feelings do not app