EASTERN TURKESTAN, Chinese Turkestan, or Little Bokhara, may be described as the country to the east of the Pamir steppe. It is bounded on the north by the Tien Shan range, on the south by the Himalaya and Konen Lun, and on the east by the great Gobi desert, ivhich stretches away to the confines of China proper. This province was held by the Chinese, but in 1862 an insurrection broke out, and by 1861, Yakub Beg, the commander of the rebel forces, succeeded in completely ousting the Chinese, and seating himself on the throne. He evinced no small powers 'of governing, was brave, energetic, and prudent, and by his liberal treatment of merchants, and his merciless severity to robbers, did all he could to encourage trade. He was known under the name of ' the Kushbegi,' or commander-in-chief, but he assumed the title of Atalagh Ghazi. He received with honour a,nd distinction Mr. Shaw, who with Lieutenant Hay ward penetrated into Yarkand, and he expressed a desire to se,nd an envoy to the Viceroy of India. His brief career ended in his murder. The chief towns in Eastern Turkestan nearest to British frontier are Yarkand and Khotan. Williams in his Middle Kingdom gives the population of Yarkand, 200,000; Kashgar, 80,000; Siaram, 31,000 ; Aksu, 20,000.
The entire territory of Little Bokhara, assuming it to extend as far a,s the tueridian of 90°, thus including the great lake of Lob, is sterile in the extreme, but relieved by large and fertile oases,—a feature common to the continuation of the desert eastward, where it becomes the great desert of Gobi or Shamo. The most important and best known oases are those of Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan. Of these, the first named lies at the foot of the southern spurs of the Tien Shan range, and consists of a well-watered tract, on the principal river of which, called by the same name, is the city of Kashgar. This was for many centuries the seat of an independent prince, but, after a rebellion in 1826, was reduced by the Chinese authorities to a secondary position in the district of Ili, of which Yarkand is the capital, and to which Khotan has also been attached. Kashgar city is in lat. 39° 25' N., aud long. 74° E. (approxi matively) ; and the river on which it is situated, after a course of 300 miles, unites with that of Yarkand to form the Tarym, which, after a further course of 250 miles, falls into the great lake of Lob-nor. Both these streams are famous for the jasper and jade-stone which are found in their beds. Yarkand is situate in lat. 38° 10' N., and long. 76° 30' E., on a river of the same name. It
is walled, but with extensive suburbs, and has a population variously estimated at from 40,000 to 200,000. It has belonged to China since 1757, and is governed by Mahomedan and Chinese officials alternately. The environs are highly cultivated, producing wheat, barley, rice, fruits, and silk, and there is extensive pasturage. Yarkand is known to the Chinese by the name of Ya-lo kiang. Khotan lies to the eastward of Yarkand, and iS situated in an oasis said by the Chinese to be about 1000 li or 350 miles in circum ference, immediately to the north of the Kara korum pass. It is watered by a great number of streams, almost all of which flow into the Lob-nor. It contains the six towns of Khotan, Yurun Khash, Kara-Khagh, Djira, Keria, and Takhubin. Khotan city is situate in 37° N., a,nd 80° 35' E., a position which very nearly corresponds with the site assigned to it as immediately to the N.E. of the Kara-korum pass. It is the Ili-tchi or Ho-taen of the Chinese, and is supposed to con tain about 50,000 inhabitants. It was originally a Hindu colony, and is supposed to have been founded about the 2d century, but the magnificent Buddhist temples and monasteries were all de stroyed by the Mahomedan conquerors. The northern portion of Little Bolthara, under the shadow, as it were, of the Ala-tagli, is the district Aksu, one of the most fertile of the provinces into which the Chinese subdivided their acquisi tions here after tho revolt of 182G. The products consist chiefly of lentils, wheat, barley, millet, apricots, grapes, and melons, and cotton is also said to grow hero of fair quality. The capital of the same name is situate in lat. 41° 9' N., and long. 78° 40' E. The natives of the district are renowned for their skill in dressing hides and manufacturing cotton goods, and it is stated that there are mines of copper and ono of rubies in the immediate neighboitrhood. The chief exports froin Eastern Turkestan to Hindustan consist of silks, shawl-wool, chores, felts, and ponies ; and the imports are mainly in opium, red goat-skin, piece-goods, chintzes, spices, sugar in a raw state, and drugs. The shawl-wool, termed in Eastern Turkestan Toorfanee or Kueharee, has only of late been brought into use in the inanufactnre of shawls. This Toorfanee wool is quite as good, if indeed it is not better, than the pashm exported to Kash mir from Chanthan. The region produces jade, gold, alum, saltpetre, sulphur, salt, sal-ammoniac, jasper.—Veniskof, p. 133 ; Jour. Soc. of Arts, March 1827.