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EAST ASIA.
by the peasantry as a precaution against fresh troubles. Suchew, on the Tolal,
was formerly the bulwark of the empire. But when retaken by the Chinese in
1872 not a single house was standing.
Immediately west of Suchew stands the famous Kiayu-kuan, or " Jade Gate,"
so called because it led to the Khotan country, whence the Chinese traders brought
back the precious mineral. But the gate does not, as is usually supposed, mark
the verge of the desert, for shrubs and patches of herbage still line both sides of
Fig. 32. FORTIFIED VILLAGES NEAH LANTCHEW, PROVINCE OF KANSTT.
the routes beyond it. Nor is there any lack of running waters fringed by the
poplar and weeping willow. Two centuries after Marco Polo, the Portuguese
missionary, Bom-diet de Goes, was the first European to follow this route from
Khotun ; but he only reached Suchew, where he died in 1607. His companion,
Isnur, the Armenian, was unable to save his manuscripts, although he continued
the journey to Peking. Suchew is a great mart for the surrounding Mongols, as
are also Nyausi (Ansi), Kwachew, and Shachew, or Sandy Town," a place already