t the Chinese were strong enough to have defied
Khokand, and to have broken off all intercourse with that state. By
dismissing the Aksakals, and severing the connection between the two
states, the Chinese would have dispelled a danger that was for forty
years to be ever before them, and, in the end, when the Tungani also
rose, was to overcome them. Even clemency after Yusuf's inroad, which
was really caused by the Chinese repressions, might not have been wholly
in vain, and would have consolidated their position, when reinvigorated
by Zuhuruddin's tenure of power. But the Chinese did not appreciate the
quality of mercy. They could be just and impartial in the ordinary
avocations of life, but to those who revolted against their authority
they showed no trace of human feeling. For a man to rebel against them
was certain death; for a people, history tells us, the fate was not far
different. Nor in dealing with such did they hesitate to supplement
their military strength by the most despicable of artifices. Garrisons,
accorded honourable terms, ruthlessly butchered; princes, who threw
themselves on their mercy, deported to Pekin to be hanged or tortured
out of life: these are frequent occurrences in the history of China, and
of her career in Central Asia the tale is identical. Yet, while drawing
a veil over these blots on an otherwise brilliant surface, should we not
desire to conceal them wholly from the view. It is necessary that they
should be stated to understand what Chinese domination means as a whole;
of its great benefits there can be no doubt, if the people will remain
quiescent. For fifty years, or for five hundred, China will rule an
unmurmuring people with justice, and lead them into the paths of
prosperity and peace; but if they rebel, if they openly defy authority,
if they invite a hostile stranger within their borders, the punishment
will be as sweeping, as cruel, and, in one and a higher sense, as
wrongfully foolish, whether the association of the races may have been
for fifty years or five centuries, as it was in the case of Kashgar.
There is not much reason for hoping that China will deviate from her
ancient custom, on the occasion now transpiring, of demanding "an eye
for an eye" and "a tooth for a tooth."

CHAPTER VI.

THE BIRTH OF YAKOOB BEG AND CAREER IN THE SERVICE OF KHOKAND.

We have now traced the history of Kashgar and of the neighbouring states
down to the year 1860, immediately before