g the space of twelve years.
The name of the Athalik Ghazi became so well known in this country, and
his person was so exaggerated by popular report, that those who come to
these pages with a belief that their hero will be lauded to the skies
must be disappointed. Yakoob Beg was a very able and courageous man, and
the task he did accomplish in Kashgaria was in the highest degree
creditable; but he was no Timour or Babur. His internal policy was
marred by his severity, and the system of terrorism that he principally
adopted; and his external policy, bold and audacious as it often was,
was enfeebled by periods of vacillation and doubt. Yet his career was
truly remarkable. He was not the arbiter of the destinies of Central
Asia, nor was he even the consistent opponent of Russian claims to
supremacy therein. He was essentially of the common mould of human
nature, sharing the weaknesses and the fears of ordinary men. The
Badaulet, or "the fortunate one," as he was called, was essentially
indebted to good fortune in many crises of his career. He cannot, in any
sense, be compared to the giants produced by Central Asia in days of
old; and among moderns Dost Mahomed of Afghanistan probably should rank
as high as he does. Yet he gives an individuality to the history of
Kashgar that it would otherwise lack. The recent triumphs of the Chinese
received all their attraction to Englishmen from the decline and fall of
Yakoob Beg, the hero they had erected in the country north of Cashmere.

In the second place, the following pages strive to bring before the
English reader the great merits of China as a governing power; and this
object is really the more important of the two. It is absolutely
necessary for this country to remember that there are only three Great
Powers in Asia, and of these China is in many respects the foremost.
Whereas both England and Russia are simply conquering Governments, China
is a mighty and self-governing country. China's rule in Eastern
Turkestan and Jungaria is one of the most instructive pages in the
history of modern Asia, yet it may freely be admitted that the brief
career of Yakoob Beg gave an interest to the consideration of the
Chinese in Central Asia that that theme might otherwise have failed to
supply. The authorities used in the compilation of the facts upon which
the following pages have been erected are principally and above all the
official Report of Sir Douglas Forsyth, and the files of the _Tash