Page images
PDF
EPUB

in the cities, especially of Western Turkestan, has attained such perfection. The nomads are still very lax Mussulmans. But the Mullahs, who are sent among them as teachers by the Russians, are gradually improving their orthodoxy, though intolerance, unfortunately, is developed in proportion. There is, indeed, a whole horizon of difference between the habit of mind of the Mohammedan rulers of to-day and that of their more illustrious predecessors, who, if unable to decide between the rival creeds, could at least recognise what is good in each. We read that Kublai Khan, the grandson of Chingiz, addressed his prayers for protection alike to Buddha, to Mohammed, and to the God of the Christians; and while decidedly preferring the tenets of the latter faith, was deterred from accepting baptism by the absence, among the Christian priests, of the miraculous powers which were freely claimed by their idolatrous rivals.*

The population of the Khanate is very small in proportion to its extent being estimated by Mr. Bellew at less than a million, and certainly not exceeding one million and a-half. This fact has a material bearing on the question of the trade with India. At present the wants of the northern and more populous districts, lying nearer to Russia, are already supplied by her, reducing still further the number of our probable customers; while the physical obstacles to a further development of trade are greater on our side than on that of Russia. Nor can these, from their nature, be materially lessened. All the merchandise must be transported over a series of the most tremendous mountainpasses in the world. It is possible that, if our relations with Tibet were on a different footing, a somewhat easier (and from the Punjab a more direct) route might be adopted to the eastward of those now in use; and much time and personal risk to the trader may be saved by the proposed establishment of a fair at Ladak, though the attempts in this direction made by our authorities have not been very successful. It is also suggested that places of shelter might be erected along the roads, and lucerne cultivated near them for the use of the cattle. The breeding of mules for carriage might be encouraged, the yaks becoming much sooner footsore and useless. A curious experiment was made by Captain Biddulph as to the carrying-power of sheep. The result was not unsatisfactory. They marched 330 miles in a month, with 20-lb. loads, in very inclement weather, with only one casualty. They required little supervision and little food, while capable of supplying a great deal of food if occasion called for it. A certain number of horses might

* Yule's 'Marco Polo,' i, 339.
2 G 2

be

be imported from Eastern Turkestan; but as to other merchandise, the point chiefly sought after is that it should be light or easily portable. Accordingly we find, that of the imports into India 45 per cent. in value consists of gold, and 13 per cent. of pashm (shawl-wool); while the supply to Turkestan of heavy goods, such as ironware, &c., is entirely in the hands of the Russian merchants. But though the trade is now insignificant in value, and can never perhaps attain any great dimensions, it is still an object worthy of encouragement. The Amir's conduct, as regards trade, is most enlightened, and the Hindoo trader here suffers from none of the exactions and difficulties that he meets with in the other States of Central Asia.

The future prospects of this country cannot but suggest the reflection that, in a commercial point of view, a well-ordered native State like this is a far better neighbour to us than Russia would be. The object which Russia has in view, perhaps beyond any other, in her steady encroachments on her neighbours, is the establishment of a commercial supremacy. Accordingly, in all the States over which her influence extends, her enlightened professions do not prevent the exclusion of Anglo-Indian goods by a prohibitive tariff. The annexation of Kashgar would, therefore, commercially be an injury to us; and with the increased prosperity of the country, and an extension, for instance, of the Indian tea trade in that direction, the injury would be more appreciable than at present. Meanwhile, there is little doubt that under the present settled rule population and trade will increase. The loss of life from war and wholesale massacre during the late revolution was enormous, and population is now at its lowest; but many of the neighbouring nomads are even now immigrating, attracted by the security offered, or flying from oppression elsewhere.

In former days, when Kashgar and Yarkand were alternately prosperous capitals, and in the still earlier times when the surrounding countries enjoyed a degree of civilised prosperity which the invasion of Islam seems to have indefinitely checked, the population of this part of Asia must have been incalculably larger. But even lately, under the Chinese rule, in Kashgaria a considerable population was employed in mining and other industries, notably the working of jade. This all closed with the fall of the Chinese, but is now gradually reviving, and this in turn must lead to an increase in the numbers of the cultivators of the soil. The agricultural resources of the country are, of course, very limited in proportion to its extent, being dependent entirely on the supply of water available for irrigation. But this is far from being developed to the extent it might be with a larger popula

year.

tion, though considerable skill is shown in the process, even if the science is not carried to the same perfection as in Western Turkestan. It may be said that there are countries beyond the Amir's territory which might come within the range of our trade, and it seems that a road lies from Yarkand across the Pamir into Khokand, which is available for camels throughout the But the small states on the Upper Oxus have been almost depopulated by misgovernment; while Khokand and other districts to the north are already within the prohibitive Russian zone. We are told that the population of Kashgar is singularly wellto-do, and that every one has a sufficiency of good food and warm clothing; in fact, that the internal trade of the country, which is considerable, is carried on, not so much to supply unsatisfied wants, as for the opportunities of gossip and excitement which it affords! As to this, however, we may be allowed to doubt whether the writer has accurately fathomed the inner mind of the Kashgar trader.

A considerable amount of the jade imported into China came from the mines in the Kuen-lun mountains, near Khotan, though it may be found in other parts of the range, where the rocks are similar in character. The difficulty of finding it is owing to the rocks being usually covered with masses of débris. The common green jade occurs in veins sometimes ten feet thick, but so much fractured that it is difficult to obtain large pieces. The green, which is in the centre of the vein, gradually merges into a whiter stone of the same character; that, again, is surrounded by a pure white and apparently zeolitic mineral, and bands of this traverse the mica and hornblende schists, of which, along with syenitic gneiss, this portion of the range consists. The mode of quarrying it seems very primitive.

Sericulture is pursued, also in a primitive manner; but great attention is paid to it. The eggs are carried about and hatched on the person, great cleanliness and attention being insisted on. The patron Saint, always invoked by the workers in silk, is the patriarch Job, from whose suffering body the first silkworms are said to have issued.

Of the territories of the Amir of Kashgar, the portions actually visited by the Mission were comparatively very slight; only a few hasty excursions were made, and those always apparently under close surveillance. Reasons of state are alleged as the cause; but the country was tranquil and the people friendly, and considering the great value set upon our friendship, we cannot but think that a little insistence on greater latitude of movement would have had the desired effect. In fact, the only important excursion was one which, under the command

of

of Colonel Gordon, extended beyond the Amir's boundaries, to the sources of the Oxus. It had been intended to proceed much further, and to return to India by this route through Afghanistan, but that plan was abandoned. Still, we are disposed to consider the geographical information obtained as perhaps the most important result of the Mission, and great credit is due to Captain Trotter, the surveyor of the expedition, for the care and thoroughness with which his work was done under conditions of exceptional difficulty. The journeys were very hurried, for much time had unaccountably been lost, thus preventing in many places more than a continuous route survey, checked by astronomical observations, while the difficulties of the mountain roads necessitated the cutting down of baggage, including instruments, to the lowest possible point. Add to this, the cutting winds and driving snowstorms, with a thermometer far below zero, and at an elevation where severe bodily exertion is both trying and dangerous. The difficulties of taking delicate observations under these circumstances may be imagined. Captain Trotter modestly deprecates too great expectation as to the amount and quality of the work done; but to us, who have the work before us, this is not needed.

[ocr errors]

Much interesting detail has been added to our knowledge of that famous and well-debated country formerly (and still by Mr. Bellew) styled Bolor.' It is, perhaps, unnecessary to enter into the well-worn controversy as to this name, to which we thought Colonel Yule had given a final quietus; but Bolor' seems to die very hard. Mr. Bellew proposes to apply the name to the Pamir mountain mass, first, because he can find no other name for it, and, secondly, because Mirza Haidar uses it. But Mirza Haidar, in the passage to which Mr. Bellew presumably refers, expressly describes Bolor as bounded on the north by Badakhshan; and in point of fact, the Bolor, or more correctly Bilaur, of which he speaks, is the region to the south of Badakhshan, comprising the districts of Chitral, Dardistan, Balti, &c. Mr. Bellew, by the way, speaks elsewhere of 'Baltistan, or Bolor.' He is much nearer the truth here, though giving only a partial expression to it. Meanwhile it would seem that, among the natives, the name of Pamir is applied pretty generally to the district, and, as will be seen, not inappropriately. Various explanations are given of the meaning of the word 'Pamir,' which are hardly worth repeating. Sir T. Forsyth, however, says that Pamir is a Khokandi-Turki word, signifying Wilderness, a place abandoned— waste, yet capable of cultivation.'

The Pamir Expedition started in April, which is the most unfavourable season for travelling in these mountains. In winter the traveller usually proceeds along the frozen surface of

the

the streams, while for summer an alternative route lies along the mountain-side, at a considerable height above. The former is of course impassable in summer, while the latter in winter is buried in snow. But in spring, when the ice on the streams is breaking up, and the snow on the higher ground still hardly melted, either route is beset with difficulty, and sometimes with danger. When their route lay along the course of a stream, it was found necessary to make a very early start in the morning to avoid the floods that came down as soon as the sun's power was felt. There are only two seasons in these upper regions, a winter of eight months, and a summer of four. We have heard the climate of Scotland described as consisting of eight months of winter and four of severe weather; so they are better off in the Pamir.

The party ascended through the valley of Sirikol, a little mountain State with an elevation of 10,000 feet, and interesting as containing the furthest offshoot, or remnant, in that direction of an Iranian, or 'Tajik' race. The Sirikolees profess to be identical in race with the people of Shighnan, one of the small Pamir States, and, like the inhabitants of nearly all the small mountain States both north and south of the Hindu Kush, are Shiahs in religion. Whether these mountain Tajiks are all, as Radloff thinks, to be classed as a distinct branch of the race, under the name of Galcha, is not altogether clear. They are said to retain the Iranian type in greater purity, and to speak an older form of that language, than the Tajiks of the plain; but it is possible they may owe this to their isolated position, as they do their hardier and more warlike qualities to the more difficult conditions of their existence. The fact of their being nearly all Shiahs, while the Tajiks of the plains are Sunnis, seems, as Elphinstone remarked, to point to a greater extension in former days of the Shiah creed, and possibly to an identity of origin with some of their neighbours, the Shiah 'heresy' having been extirpated in the plains, while it survived in the more inaccessible mountains. Former writers have described the wholesale expulsion or deportation of the Sirikolees after the defeat of their chief by the Amir of Kashgar, and have even resented it from a sentimental point of view as an Aryan grievance. They will be glad, therefore, to learn that their relatives were found in situ by the Mission.

The character of the region which we must henceforth call Pamir is now well ascertained. Lying between the mountains of the Hindu Kush to the south, and those of Khokand to the north, it is a great plateau, sloping gently towards the west and north, averaging 12,000 to 14,000 feet in height, and containing

numerous

« PreviousContinue »