teach their tyrants, in the words of the poet, "how much the wretched dare." These Khans or Ameers of Central Asia are not worthy of one moment's consideration for their own sake; but, as some account of them is a proper preparation for the modern history of Kashgar, they have been described in this chapter. From the disappearance of Chinese authority in Central and Western Asia in the eighth and ninth centuries, down to the commencement of the eighteenth century, the history of Kashgar, in common with that of its neighbours, was a series of misfortunes. There is nothing to attract our sympathies in any of the rulers, with the exception perhaps of Yunus; and all our commiseration is monopolised for the unhappy races who peopled that region. We therefore have arrived at this crisis in a fit state to appreciate the feelings of the Kashgari at the changes that occurred in the eighteenth century; and before we consider, in a fresh chapter, those alterations we may close this without regret at the disappearance of a long line of Central Asian Khans, who possessed scarcely one redeeming quality among many vices. CHAPTER IV. THE CONQUEST OF KASHGAR BY CHINA. Before continuing the narrative of the events that took place in Kashgar after the year 1720, until it fell into the hands of the Chinese in 1760, it may be as well to consider briefly the history of China, in order that it may be intelligible to us how that power was induced to undertake such far distant enterprises, and how, moreover, it was able to accomplish them successfully. In the earlier years of the seventeenth century the dynasty of Ming was seated on the throne of Pekin, but its power had been shaken to its foundations by repeated disasters in wars with the Mantchoo Tartars, who had wrested the province of Leaou Tung from the Emperor Wan-leh, before his death in 1620. The Mantchoos are said to have been the descendants of the Mongol conquerors of the thirteenth century, who had been forced to take refuge in the wilds north of China when the native Chinese rose up and destroyed their power. Whether this very plausible suggestion be true or not, or whether, as some affirm, these were a new race issuing from the frozen regions of Kamschatka and driven south by the necessity for obtaining sustenance for their increasing numbers, matters little for our present purpose. It is certain that they were a warlike people at this time, and that they could bring considerable numbers into the field, and it is very probable that, when they had obtained some success, their ranks were swollen by recruits from their Tartar kinsmen of Eastern Jungaria. On the death of the Chinese Emperor Wan-leh, dissensions broke out in China as to his successor, and in the struggle that ensued the Mantchoos were invited in to support the cause of one of the claimants. Their aid turned the scale in his favour; but when the fortunes of war had been clearly manifested, the Mantchoos showed no disposition to take their