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be that there was a family feud of long standing. The official was warned by his friends that the Governor meditated his ruin. They urged fight, but he did not think that his Excellency dared execute a Government official, His Excellency, however, wrote to the Tartar General at Ili that this official was planning a revolt among his Mahommedan friends; he asked leave to arrest the culprit and for instructions as to punishment. Before the reply came the official was arrested and bebeaded. Subsequently the Tartar General wrote giving instructions for execution, The Governor then seized all the property of the victim and turned his four wives and children literally into the streets. This vindictive action has irritated and terrified the Mahommedans.
His Excellency told me that until the creation of the settlement at Sharasumé, all the country up to the Altaishan had formed part of the Chuguchak administration. The Tourgout Prince comes to Chuguchak every year to the Emperor's birthday festivities in order to kowtow to the Imperial authorities.
On leaving the yamên I went to call on the Russian Consulate and found that the Consul, Sokoff, was going on leave in two days' time, and that Loutchitch, whom I had met as junior assistant at Urga---was already in charge. The Russians say that Chuguchak is a dull place with good shooting and riding and plenty of work among the many Russian subjects (mostly Kirghiz); as when any one of these crosses the frontier (only 6 miles away) on any business whatever he has to get the Consulate visa to his papers the mass of daily work can be understood. One of the cases between the Consulate and the yamên at present is that of a Russian Hassack who, a couple of years ago, robbed and murdered three Chinese in different localities. The Chinese merchants say that there is no such thing as justice where the guilty are Russian subjects, and that they are sent to the frontier fortress of Bakhti, kept in prison for a couple of days and then released, while the Consulate slate that they have died in prison. In conversa- tion with M. Sokoff, he told me that the Governor was unscrupulous, but a "bonhomme.' Sokoff asked me about the colony at Altaishan, and how many soldiers there were now there. I replied readily to this question, because the Russian Consul at Uliassutai had himself given me the figure which I had subsequently verified. I made, however, no mention of the guns. The Consul spoke very slightingly of the Amban at Sharasumé, and was very bitter as regards his general attitude. Sokoff urged me to come and stay at the Consulate while I was at Chuguchak, but as I had already declined the Governor's offer of a room at the yamên I equally refused the Russian hospitality.
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I lunched, however, at the Consulate, and visited the Russo-Chinese Bank in the afternoon. The manager speaks no European language except Russian. The branch is run from Barnaul. The manager told me that all their business is done with Russian subjects, and that they have practically none with Chinese, This is due to the fact that The they find it impossible to collect Chinese debts as no guarantee is possible. manager said that they have one bad debt of 1,500 roubles which has been outstanding for two years,
During the day the Governor sent me a present of two sheep, two ducks, two chickens, one sack of flour, and another of rice, all of which I returned. The following prices are interesting :-
A sheep costs 3 taels, a pony as much as 40 taels, flour is cheap at 3 cents a catty and rice extremely dear at 124 cents a catty.
I dined at the Consulate in the evening, and met Korotkoff, the Russian Consul- General at Urumtsi, who is returning to his post from leave. He is accompanied by his wife and two children and governess as well as personal servants. A guard of ten Cossacks were escorting them to Urumtsi, but I do not know whether these men had already formed part of the Consulate guard or whether they were additional. All three Consuls, Sokoff, Loutchitch, and Korotkoff speak French fluently.
I asked Korotkoff about the newspaper articles headed "A journey in Chinese These Turkestan," which had appeared during 1907 in the "North China Daily News." articles were written by Mr. Hans Doring, sub-agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, during a journey in the winter of 1905-6. Korotkoff said there was a mass of untruth or imagination in them. He spoke very sarcastically about them, and one of the reasons for this is as follows:-The journey was a simple one along the Imperial high-road, and the descriptions of the travelling were unreliable, vague, and full of mistakes. No one knows this better than the Russians, who have travelled over all these districts. The absurdity and ignorance of the following extract from the preface to the articles naturally therefore excited irritation among the Russians: "The region is a little known one, and the journal is a valuable contribution to the scant knowledge, geographical and otherwise, possessed by the outside world of these comparatively
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speaking, unexplored regions." I asked Korotkoff especially about the passage: If the Shangliae papers speak about the unrest in Sinkiank, they are not wrong." He thought it mischievous.
The following story shows the dangers of the streets of a town in Chinese Turkestan at night.
After dining at the Consulate I returned to the inn late. This was a third of a mile from the Consulate and situated in a street closed at night by high wooden gates. It was after midnight and a pitch dark night. The gates were shut and locked, and I had a difficult 25 feet climb, during which I knocked down a good portion of mud wall and expected to be picked off every minute by a zealous sentry. I had to drop into the strect among howling dogs and with not a soul about. At night the streets are given over to the dogs, who reign supreme and resent all intrusion. Followed by barking dogs snapping at me and having a hundred more to face, I thought it best to attack a small house in which there was a light in order to get a stick. The inhabitants were terrified, and refused to open, so there was nothing to be done except to burst the door open, while the inmates screamed "thieves." The door open, I was confronted by a frightened man whirling a heavy stick. As he was too scared to attempt to understand me, I made another attempt to face the dogs, but was driven back on the house. By that time the owners had recovered a little, and one man consented to accompany me down the street, but even with the assistance of his stick we had great difficulty in advancing. Close to the door of the inn, we ran into two night-watchmen who first wanted to club and then arrest me,
October 1-The Governor called in the morning and was very amiable. A salute of three guns announced his departure from the yamên and his visit was accompanied by all possible pomp and splendour. Some thirty soldiers dressed in red, and scarlet, and orange lined the inn yard on either side, carrying ancient pikes, halberts and scythes. His Excelleney himself came in a brilliant cart and the officer who assisted him to alight knelt as he descended. His Excellency was dressed in the most beautiful silks and was loaded with chains of beads of wood and priceless jade. He was kind enough to invite me to dine with him but I declined as best I could. He then expressed the hope that I would call on him in two days' time before his own departure for the country for a tour which his Excellency is making in order to see what land is good enough for growing more wheat. I asked him about minerals and his Excellency said coal had been recently found in the mountains. He was also going there to see for himself what it was like. The wood burnt in the yamên is brought from the gully in the mountains down which we descended on the 26th September.
On the Governor's departure I hired a cart for 20 cents and drove to the telegraph office to see if an urgent telegram addressed to Peking and handed in yesterday at 7 P.M. had been dispatched.
The open carts used in Cbuguchak are heavy but well-built and capable of carrying a great quantity of baggage. They cost 40 taels if new. There are four telegraph clerks all of whom, I understood, know a little Russian. There were only two in the office while I was there, both were heavy opium smokers, one so sodden that he was still sleeping off the effects at mid-day and was fuddled with it for a long time when woken up.
He spoke a very little English but could read it. I asked him whether he had sent my telegram and he hunted about among some books and at last found it. It had not gone and would go to-day. He said that being marked "very urgent" it would be very expensive. I commented strongly on the fact that it had reached him at 7 PM. yesterday, that he knew it to be very urgent and yet had not even scut it off by mid-day to-day. He said it should go at once and I made him sit down and send it in my presence.
The next station is Shihu; from there it is forwarded to Uinuntsi, Turfan, Hami, Suchow, and Lanchow, thence to Peking. As the telegram had to pass through so many offices the chances of its reaching Peking under two days were small in spite of the fact that it was marked "very urgent" and paid for at that rate. The clerk said that He was so ashamed of himself, time for one to get through was eight hours. proper however, that he added several urgents on his own account and the telegram got through in record time. The clerk admitted to very little work; they had, he said, about as many sheets per day to do as there were then in the office to be done, i..., ten sheets, mostly Chinese Government work, some of it having just arrived from Altaishan to be telegraphed. There was no attempt at privacy about the work. People dropped I commented in and read my telegram and those of the Government as they pleased. later to the Russians about the bureau and they said the office was practically
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