Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/27

8 from troubles on her western frontier, and how the death by violence of the Ameer Yakub Beg has been followed by the dissolution of his kingdom.

We now pass on to the reign of the Emperor Kien Long, who conquered Kashgar and Eastern Turkestan, and having slaughtered or expelled the whole Dzimgarian population, repeopled the country of Dzungaria by sending military colonies from Manchuria, by deporting Chinese criminals, and by bringing agriculturists from Eastern Turkestan. For the purpose of keeping the country in order, the city of Ili, or what is called Manchu Kulja, was built as the seat of government, and was settled by Manchus. Six other forts were built.

It is owing to these wars and invasions, with their constant changes of population, and to the measures taken by the Chinese Government that the region of Kulja has its present curious mixture of races and peoples.

The settlers from Eastern Turkestan became known as Taranchis, literally agriculturists, or millet-sowers, from "taran," millet. (Schuyler's "Turkistan," ii. 168 seq.)

The military colonists were brought from Dauria, in North-West Mongolia, and consisted of Solons, who are still famous in all China for their skill in archery, and Sibos, a tribe on whose gratitude the Chinese Government could especially count, because at the accession of the Manchu