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and there were literally tens of thousands of ponies, cattle, sheep, and goats feeding on it. The day was clear and cloudless with a light westerly breeze, and we descended to find wild flowers, including roses, still in bloom, and butterflies flitting about everywhere. It was still summer, and very pleasant after the cold of the mountains.
In the Russian territory which we traversed the Hassacks pay taxes to a Hassack. official who visits them twice a year for the purpose. He takes more from the rich than from the poor, and the district is evidently assessed at so much.
He takes money or skins or animals.
September 27.-Keeping in a south-westerly direction we proceeded over the plain, and at mile 7 passed some Chinese mud built farms, where is the Government Tai of Emilgol. Here we struck the Emil River and kept down it for the rest of the day, first on one side and then on the other. At mile 94 the road forked, the right branch going due west, and keeping near the Tarbagatai range. Both roads are equally good and both lead to Chuguchak, but the one on the north is said to be a day nearer. We took the other one as there were more inhabitants en route.
From now
on there were occasional Chinese farms dotted about, bare, bleak, treeless, uncomfortable looking places, but each with a good deal of land under wheat cultivation, the crops being now under the process of gathering and winnowing, and also patches of cabbages and other vegetables and even tobacco; though the small streams from the hills are diverted to irrigate the fields, none of the little canals are more than a few inches deep.
At mile 11 we halted at a Chinese farm to avoid the great heat of the day. The farm had been in existence a great many years, for the owner-a man of 35-had been born in it. The farmers do not seem to object to the many animals wandering about to pasture, and yet though comparatively little land is under cultivation compared to what is left to grass the animals cannot but stray on to the unpro- tected crops.
The only tax the farmers pay is so much wheat per annum to the Government at Chuguchak. All the Chinese farmers are Tien-tsin men so Tien-tsin may be said to have had the honour of colonising the plains of Chuguchak. On the other side of the Emil and lying among trees, some 3 miles away, is the lama temple of Karaussu. At mile 15 we crossed the stream which is some 30 feet wide and only a foot deep; it flows over a firm bed between banks for the most part between 2 and 3 feet high and hence difficult to approach. At mile 17 we recrossed the river and 5 miles later reached a group of scattered Chinese farms known as Sanshiblipu. Here we halted for the night at a large shop, the only one of the place. This is kept by a Tien-tsin man who has been here two years, and does a good business in everything with the neigh- bouring Hassack and Mongol population. The trade is entirely one of barter, he receiving in exchange skins, wool, wheat, tobacco and grains. His Chinese goods all come via Newchwang and the Siberian railway to Chuguchak, whence they are brought to Sanshihlipu by camel or cart. To avoid duties in Russia the goods are consigned to Russian riddlemen, who forward them to Chuguchak. The shop pays no taxes except li-kin at Chuguchak, which is said to be unusually severe. Goods are said to reach here in three weeks from Peking. The skins, wool and hides are sold to Russian firms at Chuguchak. The tobacco grown here is only used by the Mongols and Hassacks, who grind it to powder and swallow it. The Chinese here liave nothing to say but bad of the Mongols or Hassacks who, they affirm, steal everything. It was impossible, they said,- to keep a good animal, for it disappeared almost at once.
For current use Guchen "red" cash are in use here, they are light and worthless. September 28.---Keeping slightly south of west, and passing some more farms we were abreast at mile 1 of a kind of small fortress, a piece of land inclosed by low mud walls 200 yards long and 100 broad, with some low buildings inside.
The place is called a fort, but there are no soldiers there, nor are there to be any. It has been built by the Chinese themselves as a refuge in the event of future troubles. The whole population of the Sanshiblipu district probably 250—would doubtless take refuge there.
Here the district may be said to end, for though we passed later on farms at intervals of half-a-mile or so, they were small and squalid. After 8 miles we reached the River Emil again at the Chinese colony of Emilho. Here the road turned north- west, passing under an avenue of tall trees, and between signs of the utmost desolation for a quarter of a mile, for the settlement is one of long standing, and was a flourishing place thirty years ago, when it was wiped out in the troubles. The ruins are used as cabbage beds and tobacco ground, and for growing Indian corn, wheat and vegetables; there is another fort here in case of need. To the north-west of the old settlement has
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sprung up a new one, which has a population of 200 Chinese and is very flourishing. I counted more than a dozen well-to-do shops. A certain number of Hassacks also live here. The Chinese shop at which we stopped does a large barter business, selling the nomads' produce to the Russians at Chuguchak. It sells silks, stuffs, raisins, dates, salt, looking-glasses, combs, photographs (Japanese), caps, boots, beads, tobacco (both Hassack and Chinese grown) everything in short.
Leaving the settlement and river, we kept north-west over the plain. It was a dreary march, with no farms or trees or anything to break the eye except very occasional nomad yourts. We plodded on for another 14 miles and reached a group of Chinese farms--Kwantien-standing among some trees. Here we halted for the night at the Government rest-house. The population of the place is not more than thirty, and every single member of it seemed to be an opium smoker.
The rest-house consisted of a large courtyard and a couple of buildings with nothing but four bare mud walls, a roof, a slit for a window, and a doorway. As there was no door, the room was open to the courtyard, which was in its turn open to the high road, We treat our animals in England better than the Chinese do travelling human beings.
We had passed numerous tramps and vagabonds during the afternoon; all Hassacks and truculent-looking villains. At one time the road had wandered for 5 or 6 miles through a mass of rough grass 6 feet high, a capital lurking-place for highway robbers.
September 29.-We kept north-west over a dreary plain. At mile 6 we crossed a small stream, and from now on the country was well watered. From mile 124 the trees round Chuguchak became visible. At mile 144 we crossed a river-bed 200 yards broad with a stream several inches deep flowing down by several channels. Rising out of this depression, we passed several farms among clumps of trees. At mile 15 the telegraph- poles coming up from the south were visible on
A mile later began
our left.
a fine avenue of trees, under which the road ran between the ruins of Old Chuguchak, now used as vegetabic patches. At mile 164, crossing a stream by a low wooden bridge, we reached the south gate of Hsincheng ("New Town "). Passing through the town, we left it by the north gate to reach the Chinese trading quarter, where we had our usual long search for an inn, our efforts being handicapped by tlie simultaneous arrival în the town of some Russian acrobats in full costume, and to whose party we were thought to belong. We found three miserable inus close to each other on the left side of the road. One of them had a fair-sized, but filthy, room. This, however, was tidied up, and I took possession. The yamên kindly sent three red lanterns and hangings, which gave pomp to the exterior but did nothing to mitigate the squalor of the interior.
Chuguchak.
September 30,-I walked to the yamên in the morning to call on the Governor; the yamên is near the south gate of Hsincheng. Chalagen is a Manchu Solon from the Ili district. He is 51 years of age. He has been in office for little more than a year. While he has never been to Peking, he has travelled extensively in Russia (he has visited St. Petersburgh among other places), and speaks Russian fluently, but badly. His room was fitted up in a Russian manner. Although he was very cordial to me, I took a strong dislike to him. He has a disagreeable, crafty-looking face and sharp, ferret-like eyes. He is extremely unpopular, not only in Chuguchak, but throughout the whole province. No one with whom I spoke had a good word for him. The Chinese merchants say he paid 230,000 taels (34,5007) for the post, and that now he is busy recouping himself as quickly as possible. One of these ways is by opening shops of his own where he undersells the other merchants; as his goods pay no li-kin, Chinese traders are very angry. The Governor told me, à propos of nothing, at our second meeting, that the Government nowadays allowed officials to keep shops (so that the complaint of the Chinese is probably well founded). The appointment was made by the Tartar General of Ili. The merchant at Sanshihlipu two days ago told me that the Chinese trade was suffering considerably under the new régime. The Governor, for instance, imports tea-bricks from Hankow free of charge, and sells them at 1 t. 70 c. each, whereas the merchants have to sell them at 2 taels. If the latter alter their prices they are sent for to the yamên, warned, and punished. The merchant added that it was the same in the case of cloth and silks. In consequence, the Chinese have tried to defeat him by means of the Russians, by passing the goods through them and having them stamped as Russian products.
The latest crime of the Governor is the execution of a Hassack, a small Government The charge was misappropriation of moneys, but the truth seems to official in the town.
[2155 6-1]
2 G
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