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TOPOGRAPHY. 91
in founding an empire independent of China. The Zungarian state, established
towards the close of the seventeenth century, became in a few years one of the most
extensive in Asia. Their sovereign is said to have commanded a million armed
warriors ;
from the mountains of Ilami to Lake Balkhash all the land was subject to
his rule, while Yarkand, Kashgar, and even some places in Western Turkestan paid
him tribute. After three successive attacks his armies captured Lassa and the sacred
stronghold of Potala in 1717. But dissension and intestine wars prevented the state
from maintaining its independence, and although two imperial armies were annihi-
lated, a third overthrew the Zungarian power in 1757. The whole country was
subdued, and those of the rebels who failed to reach Siberia or Western Turkestan
were all mercilessly put to the sword. A million of all ages and sexes perished in
this overwhelming national disaster. The ruined cities were replaced by military
stations and colonies of convicts from all parts of China and Mongolia, and these
were soon followed by free migration to the depopulated regions. In 1771 the
Kalmuks of the Turgut branch, then occupying the Lower Volga steppes, resolved
to escape from the oppressive surveillance of the Russian Government, and return
to the Zungarian plains, which still lived in the national traditions. Of the 300,000
who started from the western shores of the Caspian many thousands perished on
the way.
But according to the Chinese accounts the great majority succeeded in
reaching their ancient homes, where they were joined by multitudes of other Mon-
golians from beyond the limits of the empire. Altogether about 500,000 migrated
to the wasted lands stretching from Lake Balkhash to the Gobi, and the Emperor
Kicn-long could boast that he had become master of the whole Mongolian nation.
But fresh massacres were brought about by the differences of race and religion,
and still more by the oppressive Chinese rule. A century after the overthrow of
the Zungarian power the agricultural populations of the Hi basin rose against the
mandarins and imperial troops. The Dungans that is, the native Mohammedans
and the Taranchi that is, the colonists from the Tarim basin alone took part in
the struggle, the Kazaks and Kara-kirghiz holding aloof, owing to the advantages
enjoyed by their nomad life. The war, at first conducted with hesitation, gradually
increased in violence, culminating in 1865 with the wholesale massacre of the Chi-
nese, Manchus, and other military colonists from the east. The arrival of the Russians,
to whom the Kulja territory was temporarily intrusted, put a stop to the flow
of blood, but not before the 2,000,000 inhabitants of the country had been reduced
to L'39,000, mainly Dungans and Taranchi. By the new treaty,
which restores
Kulja to China, Russia has reserved a district in the north-west, where these rebels
niiiy find a refuge from the imperial vengeance. But such are the natural
adjrantagei of the Hi valley, that notwithstanding the frightful butcheries of 1865
tills country is still more thickly peopled than Zunguriu, which, with an area five
times greater, has scarcely more than double the population.
TOPOGRAPHY.
In \orth Zimgiiria there are no towns properly so called, although two military
stations have acquired SOUK; importance! as rest ing-places for the caravans crossing