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The other two routes were communications by water, which, however, depend upon the navigableness of the rivers Sír- and Amú-Dariá. Preference was given to the . route along the Amú-Dariá, because it is the shortest (?) and most convenient (?). This route leads from the Volga through the Caspian Sea, the Turkestán or Hyrcanian Steppe, the Khanate of Khiva, thence on the Amú-Dariá through Bokhára to Táshkend and Kokán.'

In connection with this route it was resolved to make a road from the eastern shore of the Caspian, and indeed from the Bay of Krasnovodsk, to the Amú-Dariá, and the utmost expedition in its construction was most urgently recommended. The steamers plying on the Caspian Sea and on the river Volga would make the communication with Moscow complete. One circumstance is, however, essentially necessary to render this route of practical utility, and that is to have entire possession of that river, which now waters the greater portion of the Khanate of Khiva, a territory that has not yet been subjugated by Russia.

1 Compare Vámbéry's Russia's Designs on the Eastern Coast of the Caspian Sea, in the supplement of the Allgemeine Zeitung, 1869, No. 361; also A Retrospect of the Policy of the Great Foreign Powers, in the Ausland, 1870, pp. 67-68; and again Vámbéry, The Russian Commercial Route on the Eastern Coast of the Caspian, in the supplement of the Allgemeine Zeitung, 1870, No. 34.

2 For particulars of these projected routes vide Russia's Designs on the Eastern Coast of the Caspian Sea, by Vámbéry, in the supplement of the Allgemeine Zeitung, 1869, No. 364; also Vámbéry's The Russian Commercial Route on the Eastern Coast of the Caspian Sea, in the supplement of the Allgemeine Zeitung, 1870, No. 34, where the disadvantages of this route are discussed.

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CHAPTER XI.

THE OPERATIONS AGAINST KHIVA.

As scarcely a doubt could be entertained of Russia's sooner or later acquiring those districts about the Amú-Dariá which were not yet in her possession, no endeavours were spared to urge the Government on to energetic action in this matter. Thus Krasnovodsk was in all haste turned into a permanent place of arms,' and strong detachments of troops were here concentrated. General Kaufmann, the Governor-General of Turkestán, inspected the other fortified places, and had them strengthened according to their requirements. In short, there was every appearance of a war soon breaking out against Khiva, and in all probability it would then have happened if an insurrection of the Northern Kirghiz had not just at that time taken place.

This outbreak is supposed to have originated with the Cossacks of the Don, who would not submit to the new

1 On November 10, 1869, Colonel Stolyetov, of the État Major-Général, embarked with one battalion of the 88th Daghestán Regiment, a detachment of thirty men of the sappers and miners, seventy Cossacks, a sub-division of mountain artillery, and a division of field artillery (unhorsed), on board two steamers at Petrovsk, on the west coast of the Caspian, and landed on November 17 and 19 in the creek of Krasnovodsk, near the valley of Kumodág, where the wells of Shagadám, Suidshekúi, and Balkúi are situated.

organisation of the Cossack army which had been resolved upon by the Minister of War at St. Petersburg. The Kalmuks and the Kirghiz joined with the Cossacks, as has been repeatedly the case in former times. Only the Kirghiz in the district of Turgái remained passive. General Leon von Ballusek 2 induced the tribe of Tshiklinsk to conform to the new regulations, and to set out from Barsúki for the district appointed for the summer pasturage of this nomadic tribe. On the other hand, the insurrectionary movement extended from the Cossacks of the Don to the Kalmuks and Kirghiz dwelling in the steppes of the Don, the Volga, and along the borders of the Ural. The main body of the rebels moved up the right bank of the river Ural towards the town of Uralsk, which had been placed in a state of defence. The Russian settlers in the districts bordering on the European-Asiatic frontier became naturally very much alarmed, and many of the Russian families which were scattered over the plains and steppes fled with all their goods and chattels into the fortified places. The garrison of Uralsk, numbering only 168 men, succumbed under a surprise made by 12,000 insurgents. Soon afterwards its commerce was quite prostrated-in fact, so much so that the caravans from the Sír-Dariá discontinued altogether their journeys.

This insurrection, however, did not excite particular apprehension in Russia, as already on frequent occasions she had had to put down revolts of this kind. Moreover,

Here it must be observed that the Cossacks of the Don, as well as the Kalmuks and Kirghiz, have never been extremely faithful subjects of Russia, and have repeatedly, especially under Pugachev, created revolts and caused bloody wars.

2 President of the section of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society at Orenburg.

the want of unity in action amongst these Asiatic tribes, generally so hostilely disposed towards each other, led to the hope that this resistance to authority would be entirely suppressed without any great difficulty.

But this rebellion, which the Russians imagined they had crushed for ever in 1869, broke out again with all its former virulence in the summer of the following year. It had been chiefly fostered and supported by the Khivans, who, being inexorable enemies of Russia, constantly did their utmost to inflict what injury they could on Russian interests. Thus it happened that Russia was occupied almost throughout the whole summer of 1870 before she was able to restore perfect tranquillity to those vast steppe districts.

The fort of Novo-Alexandrovsk at the Bay of MertvyKultuk on the Caspian Sea was first taken by the Kirghiz, then burnt, and the garrison put to the sword. This intelligence naturally spurred the Russian commander of the forces to renewed activity, by means of which he at length succeeded in entirely subduing the insurrection. But these tedious operations materially delayed the actual expedition against Khiva. Then the Russians commenced arming themselves, as it were, to overthrow the last remaining bulwark of the Central-Asian people of the Turcoman-Tartaric race-namely, the Khanate of Khiva.

During these transactions in the Kirghiz Steppe affairs in the Khanates had apparently not much changed. Bokhara had for the last two years acquiesced with remarkably quiet submission in her irretrievable fate; whilst the untimely and probably violent death of the Kette-Töre had doomed to silence a great portion of the discontented Mollahs. Mozaffer-Eddin, however, notwithstanding his ostentatious friendship for the Russians, and in particular

for the Governor-General von Kaufmann, secretly hoped still to regain his former power, as is revealed by the missions which he sent to the Courts of Kábul and Constantinople.

Things wore a different aspect in Kokán. Khudayer Khán was known to be from youth upwards a blockhead and dissolute rake, but he prospered to his heart's content in his older days under the shadow of Russian suzerainty. At his court a right jolly life was led and free from all cares. Khiva alone showed now as always a hostile demeanour towards Russia. This state is, as regards territory, the most extensive of the three Khanates; for its southern frontiers are bounded by the northern declivities of the Iranian mountain range as far as Herát. It forms, so to speak, the key to the highly important position of Herát, and for that reason the English have always endeavoured to win over the Khivans to their interests. The missions of Conolly, Abbot, and Shakespear in former years had no other object in view. The ruler of Khiva, Saïd Muhammed Khán, is likewise a dull, short-sighted prince; and his brother too is always stupefied from the effects of opium. The internal condition of Khiva is in frightful disorder. The central power of the government is considerably more feeble than that of Bokhára; the bureaucracy, the so-called Sipáhis, is quite impoverished, and therefore powerless. On the whole the Russians need have little cause of anxiety on account of the Uzbek States; in fact, they have already had occasion to make a small conquest on behalf of Mozaffer-Eddin.

Ever since Russia had assisted the Amír of Bokhára against his son and the Begs of Shahr-i-Sabz, the son's allies, there has been a hostile feeling between Russia and that small but turbulent state. In the course of the

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