With the assumption of personal power by Yakoob Beg, on the deposition of the Khoja Buzurg Khan, the first part of the enterprise undertaken in the later days of 1864 was brought to a termination. In the more extended operations of Yakoob Beg against the Tungani and Khoten, may be perceived the effects of events outside his immediate sphere upon, this energetic ruler, who, until his last years, never realized the strength of the Russians, and who had, up to the year 1870 when Kuldja was occupied, convinced himself that he could retard the progress of the great Northern power. It was that idea, besides a thirst for military renown and excitement, that urged him on to the construction of what he fondly believed might prove a formidable and extensive state. As ruler of Kashgar, he could not be anything but a kind of vassal of the Khan of Khokand; as monarch of Eastern Turkestan, he might treat on terms of equality with the Czar of Russia or the Emperor of China. It was no unworthy ambition, and Yakoob Beg, created Athalik Ghazi, Champion Father, in 1866 by the Ameer of Bokhara, accomplished so much of it as was possible. CHAPTER VIII. WARS WITH THE TUNGANI. Yakoob Beg, having deposed Buzurg Khan and suppressed all resistance on the part either of the Tungani or of the Chinese in Western Kashgar, had some leisure to make a careful survey of his exact position. The result of the desultory fighting of the previous twelve months had been eminently satisfactory to himself; but, to say the least, it was dubious how long this state of things might last. Former adventurers had accomplished as much as he had, but the Chinese had always returned with renewed vigour. How was Yakoob Beg to know that the rumours were well founded which asserted that that empire had been sore stricken in other fields than against the Tungani, and that even the victories over the Taepings were not considered a complete set-off to the disasters in every other quarter of the empire? European critics predicted that the last hour of the Chinese Empire was fast approaching; but Yakoob Beg, with far more imperfect means of intelligence at his disposal, feared still, even when the citadel of Kashgar surrendered, that the Khitay would return for revenge. His fears were not groundless, as we now know, but he anticipated events by more than ten years. Yakoob Beg was not so sanguine in his own resources or good fortune that he believed that he should not have to encounter the danger that had overwhelmed all his predecessors, and his first object accordingly was to gather all his strength together in a compact mass to resist the Chinese when they should come. But the dissensions that had, during the conquest of Altyshahr, manifested themselves so palpably in the ill-assorted conglomeration which had gathered round the standard of Buzurg Khan brought home to the mind of Yakoob Beg the disadvantages of a divided people. He accordingly determined that, whatever else he might fail or