Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/116

96 96 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA. sacks — in fact tliej are not Cossacks at all. The supply of Cossacks did not suffice to people the im- mense tract of country lying between Semipalatinsk and Naryn, and consequently it became necessary to settle that line of country not with Cossacks but with Eussian peasants, who, however, were styled Cossacks, and are generally known as the Cossacks of Semiretch- insk. They are, it is not very strange to learn con- sidering their origin, held to be the worst of all the Cossacks in the Russian service. Despite their bad qualities they are the reserve, and the only recognised reserve, of the army of Semiretchinsk. The army of Turkestan in the first place garrisons the numerous stations and towns along the Jaxartes, as well as Tashkent, Samarcand, and Ferghana. Of these places the garrisons of Tashkent, Samarcand, Khodjent, and Chinaz are among the most important. More than three-fourths of the number given is in garrison south of Tashkent, and it is from this force that the main body for any expedition towards the Oxus would be drawn. This army has also a small reserve in the Russian and Cossack colonists — princi- pally the former — round Tashkent, and in the valley of the Zarafshan, where there are undoubtedly im- mense inducements to European settlers. It is, however, a very favourable estimate to say that this would raise General Kaufmann's own regular army by five thousand men ; if it did, it would give him about forty thousand men to draw upon for the formation of an active army. This number is as it is stated to be on paper, but all accounts agree that the numbers