- E.
[11] Cascar, Chascar, Cassar, Kaschgar, Or Hasicar, According To
Forster.
Cashgar is at the western end of the great desert, instead of
the eastern, as expressed in the text; indeed this route is most
confusedly, and almost unintelligibly laid down, probably from
corrupted transcription.
The series ought to have been, the high table
land of Pamer, the province of Cashgar, and lastly, the desert of
Pelow or Belur. But care must be taken to distinguish this from the
chain of Belur-tag, which runs north and south, between Great and
Little Bucharia. - E.
SECTION VI.
Of the city of Samarcand, the town of Lop, the Great Desert in its
Neighbourhood, and other remarkable Passages.
Samarcand[1] is a great and famous city, in a fertile plain, and surrounded
by fine gardens. It is subject to the nephew of the great khan, and is
inhabited by a mixed population of Christians and Mahometans, among whom
there is little agreement; and in one of their disputes, the following
miracle is said to have happened, about an hundred years ago. Zagathai, the
brother of the great khan, then governed this country, and was persuaded to
become a Christian; and the Christians, through his favour, built a church
in honour of St John the Baptist, which was constructed with such skill,
that the whole roof seemed to depend for support upon one central pillar,
which was founded upon a large stone, which, by the permission of Zagathai,
had been taken from a building belonging to the Mahometans.
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