ASIA (Jfdcttell Httiuetatti} Ilibrarg iltltara, Jfrm ^ath CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THECHINESE THE GIFTOF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASSOF 1876 1918 The date shows „Torenewth,i.f.^b,o.o]<j</ q^ a51.CMo6rn2ell University Library "* "'''*''-"- »^i^-^'' t^l Th, Russans In Central Asia :their occu 3 1924 023 159 621 a /<, : THE RUSSIANS IN CENTRAL ASIA: THEIROCCUPATION OF THE KIRGHIZ STEPPE AND THE LINE OF THE SYR-DARIA : THEIR POLITICAL EBLATI0N8 WITH KHIVA, BOKHARA, AND KOKAN ALSO DESCRIPTIONS OF CHINESE TURKESTAN AND DZUNGARIA. BY CAPT. VALIKHANOF, M. VBNIUKOF, AND OTHER EUSSIAN TRAVELLERS. ffiranslattU from tfje Eusstan BY JOHN AND ROBERT MICHELL. LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD, 6 CHARING CROSS, 1865. M %b\% PREFACE. The valuable contributions to the geography and political history of Central Asia printed from time to time at St. Petersburg are almost entirely lost to this country^ owing to their being published in the Russian language. The great interest which Central Asia has lately attracted, in consequence of recent political events in the Khanat of Kokan, and the comparative ignorance which has prevailed in England respecting the true position of Russia in those distant regions, have induced us to make a collection of the most important of the Russian materials relating to the ' subject, and to present them to the public in an English form. The several chapters composing this volume, on their original appearance at St. Petersburg, excited considerable interest, and their several authors arewell-knownRussian travellers and geographers,who have made Central Asia their special study. IV PREFACE. Among the accounts of journeys and travels in Cen- tral Asia here presented to the reader, those of Captain Valikhanofin Dzungaria andEasternTurkestan occupy a prominent position. Since the days of Marco Polo and the Jesuit Goez,noEuropean,with the exceptionof A. Schlagintweit,has, to ourknowledge, penetratedinto those countries. The fear and jealousy of Europeans and the religious fanaticism of the people made that country quite inaccessible to modern explorers, and the mournful fate of the enterprising traveller at Kashgar is an illustration of the danger with which any attempt to reach it is beset. The travels of Valikhanofthrough Dzungaria and Chinese Turkestan were performed under singularly favourable circum- stances. Although an officer in the Russian service and a man of good education, he is the son of a Kirghiz Sultari and a native of the Steppes. He is consequently well acquainted with the language and customs of the people of Central Asia, and could go amongst them without exciting the least suspicion of being connected with Russia. He succeeded in reaching Kashgar in the train of a Kokan caravan, under the assumed character of a Marghilan merchant. His description of Kashgar, and ofthe political state of Eastern Turkestan, will be acknowledged as an im-