thought of entering the lists
against it. Keen-Lung had, therefore, no just cause for hostilities with
the neighbouring states, as they were always too willing to offer the
amplest reparation for any cause of offence to the Imperial dignity. The
conquest of Turkestan was therefore an object with which he would
heartily sympathise; and when we remember his warlike disposition, and
the exact condition of China at the time, possessing a superabundance of
wealth, and of numbers sufficient to achieve far more difficult
enterprises than the one in question, it is easier to understand the
eagerness with which Keen-Lung intervened in the affairs of Jungaria,
when the following opportunity, which we are about to narrate, offered
for so doing.

It is now time to return to Kashgar and narrate the events that were
happening in that troubled district. The feud between the Aktaghluc and
Karataghluc factions reached its height when Afak, who had been placed
on the throne of Yarkand by the Calmucks, under Galdan, the chief
representative of the Aktaghluc, succeeded in expelling all the
prominent supporters of the rival clan. Afak ruled for some years, but
with difficulty maintained himself in some parts of Kashgar, against the
Calmucks, Kirghiz, and Kipchak. His sons had no better fortune, and the
state was finally divided between a Kipchak and a Kirghiz leader. These
quarrelled between themselves, but happily they each expired in the
first encounter. Acbash, one of the sons of Afak, was executed at Yangy
Hissar in the course of this contention; but he had previously called in
to his assistance from Khodjent, in Khokand, a Khoja, Danyal, of the
rival Karataghluc faction. This roused the enmity of the more bitter
among the Aktaghluc, and, on this, Khoja Ahmad was brought in to
represent their interests. Danyal was besieged in Yarkand, but, with the
assistance of a contingent of Kirghiz, he was able to repulse his
assailants. But, although successful in the field, Danyal was compelled
shortly afterwards to flee, and leave his rival in possession of the
state. He fled to the Calmucks, in Jungaria, and pleaded so well, that
an army was lent him to regain Kashgar. Victory attended this
expedition, but the Calmuck leader, who had captured Ahmad at the siege
of Kashgar, instead of placing Danyal in power, took both him and his
rival as prisoners to his capital of Ili. With so forcible a settlement
of the question, little room was left for us