Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/31

12 the Edinburgh Review on Western China. Had the talented writer of that article lived, how vividly would he have depicted the rise and fall of the Mohammedan power in Eastern Turkestan. It would be waste of time and a vain effort on my part to attempt to recapitulate here the tale which has been so admirably told by Mr. Wyllie, of the progress of the Mohammedan insurrection against the yoke of the Chinese, which culminated in the establishment of Yakub Beg's complete ascendancy over the whole of what was called Altyshahr. But I cannot refrain from doing more justice to the memory of the late Ameer Yakub Beg than the able reviewer was disposed to award him. The bare idea of despatching an embassy to Central Asia aroused in the mind of the Reviewer feelings of the bitterest hostility, and called forth what he himself admits was strong language regarding the ignorant temerity of officers who would place their lives in the hands of the bloodthirsty and perfidious barbarians of Central Asia. But very soon afterwards the triumphant return of Messrs. Shaw and Hayward from a lengthened sojourn in Kashgar, when they were the honoured guests of the Kushbegee Yakub Beg, taught us to moderate the fears which had been excited by the Reviewer; and the subsequent intercourse which Europeans, both commercial agents and officials, have maintained with that country, so long as Yakub Beg's