Mr.
Colborne Baber, Who Had Been A Member Of The Yunnan Commission, Was
Dispatched To Szchuen, To Take Up His Residence At Chungking For The
Purpose Of Facilitating Trade With That Great Province.
The successful
tour of Captain Gill, not merely through Southwest China into Burmah, but
among some of the wilder and more remote districts of Northern Szchuen,
afforded reason to believe that henceforth traveling would be safer in
China, and nothing that has since happened is calculated to weaken that
impression.
When Kwangsu ascended the throne the preparations for the campaign against
Kashgaria were far advanced toward completion, and Kinshun had struck the
first of those blows which were to insure the overthrow of the Tungani and
of Yakoob Beg. The fall of Souchow had distinguished the closing weeks of
the year 1873, and in 1874 Kinshun had begun, under the direction of Tso
Tsung Tang, who was described by a French writer as "very intelligent, of
a bravery beyond all question, and an admirable organizer," his march
across the desert to the west. He followed a circuitous line of march,
with a view of avoiding the strongly placed and garrisoned town of Hami.
The exact route is not certain, but he seems to have gone as far north as
Uliassutai, where he was able to recruit some of the most faithful and
warlike of the Mongol tribes. But early in 1875 he arrived before the
walls of Barkul, a town lying to the northwest of Hami. No resistance was
offered, and a few weeks later Hami was also occupied.
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