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chairs, the table being covered with the most gaudy and cheap ware which Birmingham could produce. Brandy, cigars, sweets, and biscuits were served as a slight collation. Towards the end of my visit the Prince said he had numerous Russian friends at Peking, whom he saw when in the capital, but no British. Although I begged his Highness to consider that from to-day at least he had one such, I felt that the true proof of this in Chinese usages was wanting, as I had nothing on my person valuable enough to present to him as a keepsake to cement our acquaintance." I left Fumafu the day following this interview. The Duke was kind enough to send me a bottle of brandy as a leaving present and his card with a few words inscribed on it in Mongol; this was sent to me to show to any innkeeper who attempted to squeeze, and proved of real service.
The King's aversion to foreigners, to which I have already alluded, caused some difficulty in the establishment here of a branch of the China Inland Mission. This was, however, overcome, and the Mission is now, since a few months, installed. The King maintained that the Treaties, by which missionaries were allowed to reside in the interior, did not apply to Thibet or Mongolia. He therefore refused to change the missionary's travelling transport for one to reside. The missionary in question referred the matter to Peking, and also to the Chinese authorities at Ninghsia. No answer had at the time of my visit been received from Peking; the Ninghsia authorities had, however, issued the necessary passport, and the King withdrew his opposition to the leasing by the missionary of a house in his capital.
I asked the Frince whether he had opened any schools in Fumafu? He said that they would like to, but that there is no money. The only school is a Chinese one for Chinese children. No Mongol is taught.
In spite, however, of the King's dislike to foreigners, he has allowed a Russian subject to open a large shop in his capital, but perhaps as this man is a Buriat (Russian Mongol) he does not fall in the King's category of foreigners. But as the Buriat employs a young Russian as book-keeper, there is always a foreigner present in Dinyuaning. This shop is a branch of one in Urga, or Uliassutai, and sells much the same kind of things, sugar, sweets, toys, enamel pots, pans, brandy, biscuits, cotton, calico, &c., as at Urga.
It is said that the stores do not pay, the Alashan Mongols having no money to buy all these nice things, and that the stores are to be closed, but there has been a delay in effecting this. Supplies reach these stores by caravan across the desert, for there is a track from Urga to Alashan direct. The journey takes about a month to perform, and it is a difficult one owing to lack of wells, the route traversed being the most sterile part of the Gobi.
Another road into Alashan leads from the east, and is a continuation of the Kweihuacheng-Bantu road. At Dengkou the track forks, one branch continuing south to Ninghsia on the east side of the Alashan range, the other continuing westward, erossing the low spur where the Alashan range begins, and joining the Dinyuaning-Urga track turns south to the capital. Yet one more way of reaching Dinyuaning is from the south-west but this track runs across the most dreaded waterless district of the kingdom of Alashan.
Except for these means of communication there are none other between Dinyua- ning and the outer world, and the benefits of civilization, such as post and telegraph, have not yet been established. The former, it is true, has been mentioned, and the idea of establishing a branch of the Imperial Chinese Post Office has been mooted, but the expense would be too great. At present the Ninghsia branch does not pay its way, and until this does so it is little likely that the system will be extended to Fumafu. At present letters reach the China Inland Mission through Ninghsiafu by a private arrange- ment with an inn in that town and another in Fumafu,
No description of Dinyuaning and its inhabitants would be complete without mentioning that it is also the residence of Prince Tuan. This notorious supporter of Boxerism has family ties in the kingdom, his sister having married the King. He seems to lead a quiet existence bere since his disgrace. His evil deeds cause him some anxiety at times, as on the arrival of the missionaries already mentioned he fled to the hills for a short time until he regained courage. He must live in some affluence as confiscation of property was not included in his sentence, so his son-a duke in Peking, where he lives to manage the family property-remits to his father, it is said, 800 taels a-month, 1,440. a-year. One of the younger sons-there are many--owned, up to the last Chinese New Year, a shop in Fumafu. This was situated just outside the main southern gate. It was, however, closed then and had not been reopened when I visited the town. Prince Tuan seems to be a modern Henry VIII, and is said to have treated his numerous wives very cruelly. His fourth left the capital, the day I entered it, for Peking. The
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poor woman was so ill that she had to be carried by eighteen hearers, and even a mule litter would have jolted her too much. A fifth wife, 18 years old, had just been obtained. It is to be hoped she will prove a Catherine Parr.
The Prince is very unpopular in Fumafu, partly because of his alleged cruelty and partly because the people attribute to his presence the fact that it has not rained for eight years.
The traveller's first impression on seeing the town is that he is approaching a welcome oasis. The town is visible during the whole descent from the summit of the mountain range, and the patch of tall trees afford a pleasant change to the eye from the monotonous bleak khaki appearance which pervades the rest of the landscape. He is not disappointed on reaching the town, for trees are plentiful in the streets and there is a certain amount of water trickling through the streets. The presence of this has caused the cultivation of a small amount of ground to the east of the town, mostly by Chinese, where wheat and millet are grown, and here also the poppy has been introduced by the Chinese. Not that many Mongols smoke opium, for they are too busy drinking themselves to death with brandy; but the greater portion of the Chinese population possess the vice, and no steps have been taken by the Alashan Government to enforce the Imperial anti-opium Decrees. But though Fumafu has the appearance of possessing a fine water supply the continuous drought is causing real uncasiness, and a change of residence has already been mooted. The difficulty is that there is no suitable spot in the kingdom to which the capital can be moved. When the Court is forced to leave the whole of the population will doubtless accompany it, and in due time Dinyuaning will become a victim to the ever-encroaching sand drifts, and will be added to the list of sand-buried cities of Central Asia.
Dinyuaning (political) and the Kosloff Expedition.
A casual request of mine for some news of the outer world, of which I had had none for two months, elicited the information from the Duke of Dinyuaning that the General at Kweihuacheng had been disgraced; he added that the Chinese Government had altered their policy towards Mongolia. I affected ignorance, and begged His Majesty to explain, and he said briefly that the Chinese were trying to get possession of all the Mongols land and settle Chinese on it. I asked him if they had tried to get any of Alashan land, and he replied in the negative, with some vehemence. In spite of this it is worth noting that the King recently sold to the General at Kweihuacheng a piece of his territory which contained salt. The General promptly disposed of it for a larger sum to the Chinese, who will, of course, work the salt. It is also of interest that the Chinese have already, both in the capital and in the strip of Alashan along the Yellow River, a very strong foothold, which tends to grow firmer.
Russian influence appears to be exercised in the Principality by means of the Buriat who keeps a shop just ontside the west wall of the town. This man, whose name is Badmayapoff, is a young fellow some 35 years old. He is well dressed and seems extremely comfortably off, in spite of the fact that his stores are said to be a failure. He pays occasional visits to Peking, and on one occasion extended his visit to Tientsin, where be had an excellent time. He owned that this latter was not made at his expense, and the inference is that all these visits are paid for by some one not himself. His stores were to have been closed in the spring, but the closing was deferred till the summer, and the excuse for not going then was the heat; they would be closed in the
autumn.
This somewhat remarkable young man, who speaks Russian, Mongol, and Chinese fluently, has become the right-hand man of the King of Alashan, and can see him at any hour of the day that he pleases. At the time of my visit he was seeing His Majesty daily.
It is probably through him that the numerous presents of clocks, jewellery, gramo- phones, &c., &c.---these etceteras probably including wine, of which I heard mention have been made in the Palace by the Russians. The King is said to be, like all Mongols, extremely fond of such things and to be very extravagant. Here are some of his present necessities as regards money: He owes a large sum of money (4,5001) to the Roman Catholic Mission at Santauho (on the Yellow River, in his own dominion) as Boxer indemnity; this he says he is now prepared to pay. He is said to have borrowed largely at times from the Viceroy at Lanchowfu, who is incensed with His Majesty for selling land to the General at Kweihuacheng, without giving him (the Viceroy) the option of refusal, the Viceroy being his immediate superior; the Viceroy is said to be
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