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if sick they have to go to any doctor they can, and have to pay for treatment them- selves. I did not ask to see the rifles which are probably of Noah's Ark pattern, as I felt that whatever they were they would be quite wasted on this inefficient, opium smoking, rotten garrison. I met the Major on way back, an aged man of over 60, who was very effusive, begged me to return and take tea, which 1 declined. Returning to city, skirted west wall and south wall as far as gate, and took broad avenue leading south-west for about a mile--past some brick-kilns--to another barracks, the cavalry one. A fort of the same pattern precisely-possibly a trifle smaller. Here a Captain commands, drawing the same pay as the Major at the other fort. I heard there were 125 on register, but in reality only 70 or 80, most of whom had gone with the Captain to meet the Chentai. The faces of the few left betrayed opium sots.
A soldier gets 5 taels 55 cents a-month, but has to pay for his own horse on journeying; the cost of this being some 3 taels-is deducted from his pay. When he wants to leave he cuts off some of the hair and tail, and tells the Captain that the pony is dead.
The place was horribly dirty; pigs and fowls were running about everywhere, and the Captain's wife and family tumbling about the dirty yards. I asked what work the soldiers had to do, and they thought they had a great deal. In summer, some are told off to take the horses ont to grass, others to clean the yard, get wood, and ride with letters. In summer the horses feed outside, in winter they are kept inside dark stalls, of ordinary Chinese inn pattern, and get straw, hay; this the Captain has to find himself.
Chuguchak, as regards defences, might be able to resist a native foe, a foreign one would entirely disregard it or be inside the yamên in ten minutes. In the evening I had a talk with a Chinese man who said that his brother had been murdered not long ago by a Russian Hassack. The murderer was caught, but after confinement for two or three days at Bakhti was reported to have died of cold. Chinese authorities are powerless, or else are too auxious to please the Russians in order to retain their posts, from which they could be easily ousted by hints at Peking and elsewhere as to their corruption and financial mismanagement, to take active steps. If only a portion of what I heard as to the lawlessness of Russian subjects is true, any complaints of the Russian Government as to the infraction of the frontier or lawlessness of Chinese subjects are distinctly one-sided,
I dined at the Russian Consulate in the evening. Poor Loutchitch was very tired after two days' strenuous work, seeing off his Consuls, and interviewing Chinese officials and carrying on routine work, and it was rather unfair to tackle him in such a state. It was then that I asked him about the Consulate guard at Urga. He said that everything was necessary for prestige in Mongolia where the people were savage (I have endeavoured to show by my solitary journey without an escort that the people are really most friendly disposed), Loutebitch asked me if I had heard that the Governor was in trouble over the Hassack murder question: I said yes, and asked him if it was true, and he confirmed it. It seems that the executed official had really been squeezing, but, as Loutchitch said, there was not much difference between all the officials as far as that went. They (the Russian Consulate) possessed strong documentary evidence inculpating the Governor in this matter and also in other peculations, and they found it very useful, when discussing matters which required a prompt settlement, to leave a written statement of moneys stolen by his Excellency on the table close to where he sat; they had seen the signs of distress on his Excellency's face on noticing the
paper. Loutchitch was speaking in all sincerity, and, while allowing a slight margin for exaggeration, it shows how the Russian officials get the upper hand in Mongolia, for they hold the dishonest officials (and who is not ?) in the hollow of their hands. There is little difficulty in obtaining evidence against them in a country where practically all is known. The only doubt is as to the legitimacy of the use of knowledge so obtained, and this does not seem to disturb the Russians.
Talking of my own journey Loutehitch laughed, and said it had taken him forty days to come from Urga to Chuguchak instead of twenty. How did I know he had not followed me about? He then spoke seriously, and said that he had been obliged to visit the Iro gold mines in the mountains to the north-east of Urga to see how matters were going there, and that he had found the utmost and most lamentable chaos and confusion.
October 4.-The Russian Consulate guard only consists of two Cossacks, and an increase in this is unlikely in view of the proximity of Bakhti, where there are three companies (one of cavalry, infantry, and artillery respectively).
At Bakhti begins the Russian posting system to Sergiopol and thus to Semipalatinsk.
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I had some conversation with Loutchitch over Russian affairs and the war; he said that now it was too late everyone was busy with reforms, that there had been the utmost peculation in everything; that the second Siberian line now being laid would cost very much less than the first one, for it was shorter; that it had been found that the first had been purposely made out of the straight, in order to give the contractors a large profit, while towns had been left away from the line, because they had not given the contractor a present. I mentioned Pavloff's name as an instance of what had been done, and he said, What was that? Simply a drop in the ocean of corruption that had While there is nothing new in all this, it is, I think, of interest, as showing that the Russian officials nowadays allow themselves to speak openly of these matters.
gone on.
SECTION VIII-CHUGUCHAK TO KULDJA.
We had now used camels for the last time, and this section of the journey was performed in carts of the "Peking" pattern, drawn by two mules. The wheels were, however, further apart from the body than is usually the case, and admitted of heavy luggage being placed on a board between the body and the wheel. We hired the carts as far as Shihu (six days' distance to the south), at the rate of 13 taels (398.) a-piece.
Leaving Chuguchak on the 4th October we slept a night at Kwantien, and reached Emilho at noon on the 5th October. The boy's bill, on leaving Chuguchak, was interesting, as showing the expenses of travelling. It only amounted to 15 tacls (45s.) for the three servants and myself for the five days we had spent in the town, and also for the necessary provisions for us all for another six days.
At Emilho we had trouble with the carters, who wished to spend the rest of the day here buying fodder and food. While waiting for an hour here we came across our host of Altaishan, who was busy trying to dispose of the 5,000 sheep he had bought from Sharasumé; prices, he said, were bad, and he would probably have to take most of them on to Ili.
Crossing the Emilho, we kept in a south direction over a flat and dreary plain to a small hamlet, standing among some fine trees, called Errhtao chiao sze, 8 miles from Emilho. Here, as at each of the hamlets we had to pass, is a Government rest-house and small picket. A couple of soldiers accompanied us from one station to the next, where they were relieved by their colleagues.
The rest-houses consists of mul walls and a kang, nothing else. At this village we struck the line of telegraph poles, and kept alongside them for the rest of the way to Kuldja. The service is so little looked after that in many places the poles were nearly lying on the ground, and almost everywhere the wires sagged tremendously. In winter snow must cause a great deal of delay to the service.
October 6-The road is excellent and requires no keeping up. Keeping south over the plain, and crossing several small streams, we reached Lofengkou at mile 138. It is difficult to see the use of the escort from stage to stage, unless it is to protect us from the soldiers themselves, for, with the exception of an occasional drover, we met no one, and the country was open, and there were no houses. The rest-house here was gay with red felt, rugs, and carpets, in preparation for the Chentai's return journey.
I went to see the Captain in charge of the picket of four men.
He has only been here a year; he said the men were never changed, their duties were only to act as escort and to keep a look-out for robbers. Presumably, too, to mend the telegraph wire if necessary.
Ascending over the easy sboulder of a low range of hills, we descended into another plain, and rose again steadily to a mountain chain in front of us, the Djaiir Shan; to the west were the Barlik Shen, and to the cast other ranges of hills. We reached Toling after another 13 miles.
October 7-The villagers here were very eloquent about the Governor, the loathing He is known as the merchant for whom seems to reach to every part of his district. Governor. Trritation is great over the murder of the Hassack official. The villagers say that the Russian Consul tried to save him by asking for three days grace on the plea that the man owed money to the bank and that the interval would have been used for telegraphing to Peking.
When a Hassack wants a loan the Governor makes him take it in tea bricks; now these he obtains from Hankow at the Government expense and sells for a high price. His Excellency is also said to give land rent free and then when farmers have cultivated it, to take it from them again for his own use.
The Prefet also seems to act in an arbitrary way; he is preventing a quantity of
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