The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-28

Khirghiz, and after several hard campaigns they
subdued these 1000 600 nomads, who, for over
twenty years, have paid their conquerors, with
out murmur, their annual tax of three roubles
q tent
Beyond the Kirghiz steppes that bordered
Russia stretched far eastward across the desert
two belts of verdure, through which flow two
great rivers, the ancient Oxus and Jaxartes,
now known as the Amu-Daria and the Syr-
Daria. The one rising on the southern and the
ether ON the northern slopes OF the Pamlr had
for ages distributed over their banks ailuvlum
borne ON rapid tides from their headwaters cre-
ating long and continuous oases in the midst OF
the most desoate desert in the world. Here
| were rich lands and populous and alf-civilized
nations. Here were the routes to inner Asia,
caravan roads that led to China, the high
| ways over which great camel trains from Box
| hara had for many years borne to Orenburg and
Astrakhan their loads of cotton, silk, skins, and
| shagreen leather to exchange for Russian hard
| ware, chintz and guns. Here was q chance
I for vast expansion of Muscovite power and
commerce. Russia's motive was no longer
| self-protection, but the subjugation of the
! khanates of Turkestan and the extension Of
| trade
Her expedition against Khiva in 1889 was dis
asJrous. The bitter cold Of the Ust Urt plateau
ruined Perowsks army. Russia, repulsed in her
attempt to acquire the Oxus, turned to the Syr-
| Daria. After she planted her foot upon that
river, Hcr IOFWaru marcn was SlOW STEADY, anu
persistent. Her line of forts along the left bank
of the river heightened year by year. She made
| the river her ally in her warfare upon the
khanates. Twelve years after the first Russian
gun was leveled at the walls of the first town in
| khokand, this rich khanate, including it's me-
tropolis, Tashkend, became the Russian province
/ of Ferghana Then Bokhara, after bitter
struggle, lost its independence Two of the
| three khanates of Turkestan were now gained,
| the SyrDara, from its mouth to its sources,
was a Russian stream, and the Muscovite arms
We're once more turned toward the OxEs. Gen.
kaufman's attack upon Khiva was crowned with
success. The khanate was added to the Russian
| conquests in Turkestan, and the Oxus passed
/ into Russa's control.
| What are the countries and the people whom
| Russia has conquered, at terrible cost and after
many years of bitter warfare? The three khan
ates are estimated to contain from 5000, 600 to
6.O0O, 600 people. Vanbery says that in the
richness of their soil and in the variety of their
productions it would be difficult to find in Europe
aterritory that would surpass the oasis countries
OF Turkestan. Bokhara ancient seat of Mo
| hammedan learning, still attracts thousands of
| students from India, Afghanistan. Cashmere and
China. The town has la mosques, and when
| Vanbery visited it 5, 600 students were studying
theology. logic and philosophy in its eighty col
leg @leges; The &C chief cities of the Khokand oasis,
Tashkend, Tchemkent, Khodjend, and others,
are scattered along the rich valley of Syr Daria.
| Several thousand Russian and Cossack peasants
have, with governmental assistance, become
| tlllers OF the soil near Taskhend and
Samarcand. Tashkend has 100000 pop
ulation, thirteen inns, sixteen colleges,
| and many mosques, and its exports
/ and imports in 1878 amounted to $24 000 000
The Khivan oasis, though kept within narrow
| limits by the surrounding desert, is large and
rich enough to support a populace of about
! 1000 600 people. Since Russia conquered Kho-
kand she has placed upon the Syr-Daria a feet
of steamers that ply up the river for distance
| of 800 miles from the Aral sea. Sand bars in
| ma vi h1t n
| boats have ascended the greater part of its
course as far as Choja Saleh, now we'll known as
| the point on the river where, the Afghans assert
| their frontier joins that Of Russia Both these
great rivers are valuable arteries of trade, but
the Oxus, though the fertile lands along its
banks not extensive so populous as
| those along the Syr-Daria, is destined to be
| commercially the more important stream.
| While the Syr-Daria leads only toward the COM
| paratively barbarous countries of east Turkes-
tas and Thibet, the Oxus will carry the freight
/ age of Russia almost to the gates of India. 1t
| is evident to all students of her progress in
central Asia that Russias commercial aims
| include not only vast augmentation of her
overland trade with China, but the opening of
| India to her products as the reward of her long,
and as yet, i'll requited sacrifices in Turkestan.
| The revenues from her new possessions yet
| cover hardly third of the annual expenditures
| The khanate of Khokand has been so com
pletely absorbed by the Russian military gov
ernment that its name has disappeared from
| reCeit maps. DOhHdFd dNU hnlVa are SCll
nominaly ruled by their old sovereigns, but they
| are merely dependencies of Russia, and pay
| heavy tribute for the privilege of retaining
semblance of autonomy The Khan of Khiva
| is not permitted to have an army, and his sub
| jects have been stripped of their weapons. He
is so far more completely subjected prince
than the Ameer- of Bokhara, who is permitted
| to maintain an army of 20 600 men, which he
| has pledged himself to place at the disposal of
| the Russian commander, and which, according
| to Mr.. Boulger, will prove a serviceable aux
| iliary corps.
When Russia had conquered the khanates,
there was still hard work for her armies south
of the Oxus where large tribes of wild Turko
mans constantly menaced her enterprises and
| blocked the way to Herat. Some years after
Khiva fell, Skobeleff and his Cossacks scattered
;, the Teke- -Turkomans the greatest slave hun ters
| and most lawless nomads who roamed the desert
| of Kara Kun. Last year the last stronghold OF
this tribe was occupied by Russian troops. 1t
| was the earth fort they were building in bend
| of the Murghat river at Merv, when ODonovan
visited them four years ago. Its ramparts, forty
speedily knocked to pieces, and Merv now forms
part of the Russian transcaspian province.
| Years before Sir Henry Rawinson, the greatest
| authority on central Asia, had told the British
| government that "Herat is at the mercy of the
| general who occupies Merv." But public opinion
| in England did not keep pace with the march of
| events IN ASIA and it was not till the Russian
| forces had left the Merv oasis and received the
submission of the Turkomans south of Sarakhs
that Great Britain awoke to the belief that the
Car was threatening Herat and menacing India
THE Observation-Disclosures.