was the chief means of attracting the affections of the
people to this family. That veneration has not disappeared to-day, and
the Hazrat Afak, as he is generally spoken of, is scarcely inferior in
the eyes of the people to Mahomed himself. The great miracles he is
reported to have wrought, and the peculiar sanctity which attached to
him during his life, gave him complete ascendancy throughout the
country, and before his death he was entrusted with the supreme
authority. His son, Yahya or Khan Khoja, succeeded him during his
lifetime, but was murdered in a riot a few months after the death of
Hadayatulla. Then recommenced with fresh vigour the old series of
disturbances. Aspirant after aspirant appeared in the political arena,
but, as each had little claim to lead on account of original merit, a
successful rival always was forthcoming, and so this wearying cycle
continued until 1720.

The course of the history of Kashgar has now been brought down to the
commencement of the eighteenth century, during which a fresh change
occurred in the history of the country by the Chinese conquest. It may
be well, therefore, before narrating that event and the causes which
immediately produced it, to consider the chief lessons taught us by the
history of Eastern Turkestan, as revealed in the preceding pages. The
most cursory reader must have been struck by the fact, that only twice
in the course of eight centuries did the country secure a firm and
settled government, and they were when two conquerors, Genghis Khan and
Tamerlane, reduced every semblance of authority to one bare level of
subjection. At fitful moments there arose, indeed, some leader, Yunus,
Ababakar, or the first Khojas, capable of preserving for a few years his
frontiers against the inroads of hostile neighbours, and of maintaining
an outward show of prosperity and tranquillity to foreign travellers;
but even such gleams of sunshine as these were transitory on the dark
horizon of the condition of mankind in Central Asia. With the fall of
each pretender, too, hopes of an improvement became fainter in the
breasts of the people; and when the successors of the Khoja saint showed
themselves not less amenable to the errors and frailties of their
predecessors than any past ruler had been, it was to some extraneous
circumstance, we may feel sure, that the people looked for aid. There is
an old saying in this part of the world, that when "the people's tithe
of bricks is full, t