Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/70

Rh cating with us; and, in the same way, they forbad our entering the town, for they said, "You are our honoured guests, and must not be troubled with anything; all you want, we will bring you." But these honeyed words were mere phrases; they certainly brought us a sheep, bread, and fruit daily, but here their hospitality ended. All that could interest us, or advance the objects of our journey, was denied us; and we were not allowed to know anything beyond the gate of our enclosure. To all our questions as to the town of Korla, the number of its inhabitants, their trade, the features of the surrounding country, &c., we received the curtest replies, or absolute falsehoods; and this continued during the whole of our six months' stay in the dominions of Yakub Beg, or, "Badaulat," i. e. the happy one, as he is termed by his subjects. Nor was it until afterwards on the Tarim and Lob-nor, that we succeeded in occasionally ehciting some information in a quiet way from the inhabitants, who, though generally well disposed, feared showing their feelings. From the people on the Tarim, we learned that Korla and its neighbouring district numbers about six thousand inhabitants of both sexes. The town itself consists of two parts, each surrounded with mud walls: the old commercial town, and the new fort occupied only by troops, of whom very few were left at the time of our visit, most of them having departed for Toksum,