Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/455

Rh Tartary, and comprises the Turcoman steppes, the khanates of Khiva, Bokhara, Samarcand, and Kokan, together with Balkh and some smaller provinces which are in dispute between Russia and Afghanistan. These disputes have led to quarrels between Russia and England, and quite likely will lead to war at no distant day.

"The people dwelling in Turkestan are mainly of the Turkish race; their language is Turkish, and the country was the seat of the race that

spread its boundaries by a career of conquests, which did not stop until it entered Europe and pressed as far westward as the walls of Vienna. Briefly we may say the inhabitants of Turkestan are Ozbeks or Uzbeks (the 29