t route for
the expansion of their trade and political influence into Central Asia.
The analogy thus presented could not fail to impress me even further when
I proceeded to examine the ruins of Khara-khoto, the 'Black Town' which
Colonel Kozloff, the distinguished Russian explorer, had been the first
European to visit during his expedition of 1908-1909. There remained no
doubt for me then that it was identical with Marco Polo's 'City of
Etzina.' Of this we are told in the great Venetian traveller's narrative
that it lay a twelve days' ride from the city of Kan-chou, 'towards the
north on the verge of the desert; it belongs to the Province of Tangut.'
All travellers bound for Kara-koram, the old capital of the Mongols, had
here to lay in victuals for forty days in order to cross the great 'desert
which extends forty days' journey to the north, and on which you meet with
no habitation nor baiting place.'

"The position thus indicated was found to correspond exactly to that of
Khara-khoto, and the identification was completely borne out by the
antiquarian evidence brought to light. It soon showed me that though the
town may have suffered considerably, as local tradition asserts, when
Chingiz Khan with his Mongol army first invaded and conquered Kansu from
this side about 1226 A.D., yet it continued to be inhabited down to Marco
Polo's time, and partially at least for more than a century later. This
was probably the case even longer with the agricultural settlement for
which it had served as a local centre, and of which we traced extensive
remains in the desert to the east and north-east. But the town itself must
have seen its most flourishing times under Tangut or Hsi-hsia rule from
the beginning of the eleventh century down to the Mongol conquest.

"It was from this period, when Tibetan influence from the south seems to
have made itself strongly felt throughout Kansu, that most of the Buddhist
shrines and memorial Stupas dated, which filled a great portion of the
ruined town and were conspicuous also outside it. In one of the latter
Colonel Kozloff had made his notable find of Buddhist texts and paintings.
But a systematic search of this and other ruins soon showed that the
archaeological riches of the site were by no means exhausted. By a careful
clearing of the debris which covered the bases of Stupas and the interior
of temple cellas we brought to light abundant remains of Buddhist
manuscripts and block prints, both in