matters to occupy
all his attention, and to task all his resources within his own borders;
but assuming such to have been the case, his indifference to the
suffering thereby inflicted on the Khokandians must remain a blot on his
fair fame. If the part he played in these earlier plots was scarcely
honourable, how much less so was his action in the last rebellion of
1875. But it may be as well to postpone considering that event until
later on in this chapter. Yakoob Beg most probably took a very selfish
view of the state of affairs. His own extremely uncertain tenure of
power made him anxious lest any storm from beyond his frontier should
wreck the frail bark in which he had asserted his claim to independence,
and the whole object of his policy was simply to divert attention from
himself to other quarters. The Russians above all must have their work
cut out for them in repression of continual sedition in their
possessions; while each day of respite witnessed Yakoob Beg in a better
position for making a strenuous resistance when the time should come,
according to Russian ideas, for an attempt to be made to crush his
power. Viewed from this standpoint, the conduct of Yakoob Beg towards
his fellow-countrymen appears in a slightly more favourable aspect,
although his policy of expediency has little in it to command
admiration. Yet the result answered his expectations. In 1868 the
construction of Fort Naryn was the avowed preliminary measure to an
occupation of Kashgar; from that danger this policy of compromise saved
him. Again, in 1870, was he pronounced an incorrigible enemy of the
Czar, and an expedition was prepared which was to bring him to his
senses; once more a revolt in Khokand intervened to distract Russian
attention and Russian arms from the Naryn to Ferghana. The expedition
against Khiva in 1873 also served the purpose of diverting to another
quarter the blow which should, according to many, have descended on the
offending head of the Athalik Ghazi; and lastly, in 1875 the
insurrection in Khokand, the most serious and the most nearly successful
of all the native wars against Russia, saved him from an invasion for
which every preparation had been made.

To return to the year 1868, when the Russian government had constructed
the fort on the Naryn, and had openly proclaimed its intention of
punishing the slight put upon it by Yakoob Beg's refusal to permit the
construction of a road over the mountains to Artosh. Up t