we do not know; but the invaders on was a short time ago only occupied by the 7th April resumed the offensive. thirty negroes of a West Indian regiment, The Fantees had in the meantime been without an officer. It is to be hoped that reinforced, and were encouraged by the the reinforcements which have been depresence of 120 of the Houssa police, spatched from Sierra Leone and Lagos under Lieutenant Hopkins, who had been will be employed to strengthen these tardily empowered to afford them sub-forts, for there seems to be no intention stantial aid. A battle which lasted six of carrying on any operations in the open hours took place, the Houssas fighting field. The force at the disposal of the gallantly and losing two men killed and Governor consists of three men-of-war fourteen wounded. The Ashantees, how- or gunboats, and 840 armed police, black ever, gained the day, and Lieutenant soldiers and volunteers. Had it been deHopkins fell back with his detachment to sired, ten times that number might have the coast. The Ashantees must have been raised from among the Fantees, bought their triumph dearly, for not till who, if well armed and led by Englishthe 14th did they again engage the beaten, men, would probably fight well. Fightbut still stubborn, Fantees. On this ing would however interfere with the occasion the fight lasted fourteen hours, moral force policy which seems to be in at the end of which time the Fantees favour. Besides, Lord Kimberley denies were completely routed. that we are under any obligation to proThe first battle was fought at a spot tect the protected tribes. It is not, he about seventeen miles from Cape Coast lately said, British, but only British-proCastle; the second action took place ap-tected, territory which has been violated, parently at the same place, but the scene and we have never pretended to defend it of the last engagement was no doubt against aggression in the same way as nearer to Cape Coast Castle. At all British territory. To unsophisticated events, it is said that the whole country minds it would seem that here is a disis now in the hands of the invaders, and tinction without a difference, and that the that we cannot be said to hold an acre of meaning of protection is to defend the ground save what is commanded by the protected against aggression. To calm fire from the forts on the coast. The any apprehension that might be felt, he fortifications of Cape Coast Castle con- asserted that the Ashantees, who numsist of an earthen work adjoining the bered only 4,000, were at the back of the road which leads to the town, a strong protected territory. Information obmasonry fort on the shore, and a martello tained from non-official sources gave the tower in which is kept the ammunition of number at 30,000 in one body, and, inthe garrison. Unfortunately this tower is deed it is now officially admitted that the isolated, and the fort itself is overlooked Colonial Office has been misinformed, at a distance of 300 or 400 yards by some and that the enemy numbers from 30,000 high hills. Cape Coast Castle is, how-to 40,000 men. Convinced at last that we ever, sufficiently strong both as regards have to deal with no mere raid, but with fortifications and garrison to defy the a very substantial and formidable invadusky warrior, who is as unlikely to fulfil sion, Lord Kimberley has sent out in hot his oath as was his predecessor Quacoi haste a rocket battery and some marines. Duah, who vowed in 1863 to cut off the It is probable, however, that these reinGovernor's head, and didn't. The out-forcements will arrive somewhat late, for lying settlements are in a somewhat by this time the rainy season has comcritical condition, their works being out menced and operations in the field must of repair, ammunition being short, and have perforce come to an end. the garrisons weak. Accra, for instance,

PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY
LITTELL & GAY, BOSTON.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.

For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. But we do not prepay postage on less than a year, nor when we have to pay commission for forwarding the money; nor when we club the LIVING Age with another periodical.

An extra copy of THE LIVING AGE is sent gratis to any one getting up a club of Five New Subscribers. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register leders when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & GAY.

་་

From The Quarterly Review.
CENTRAL ASIA.*

THE first two works on our list were issued before the late revival of excitement about Central Asian questions. The publication must, in each case, have been inspired by a happy prescience, or guided by singular good fortune.

Bokhara seems not to have been of much antiquity at the Mahommedan conquest. Moslem writers, cited by Vámbéry as asserting that the city's name meant in the language of the idolaters "a place of study," indicate its true origin. The site is said to have been a hollow covered with marshy jungle. Here, then, amid the reeds and wild-fowl, some pious Buddhist ascetics established their Vihára, just as the early monks of our own lands sat down amidst the fens of Ely or Glastonbury. It is interesting thus to trace in the name of Holy Bokhara a flood-mark, in the extreme north-west, of

Of Professor Vámbéry's book, we cannot speak at such length as it might justly claim. It is the only history of Bokhara in existence; the narrative is maintained with surprising spirit; and the proportions assigned to each period are adjusted with great judgment, and free from prolixity. The author uses a vari- that strange influence of Hindu religion ety of new Oriental sources, and intro- which has spread in an opposite quarter duces us to dynasties now named in an to far Japan and the Moluccas. European book for the first time. They, indeed, as might be expected, are not We had selected for extract passages the dynasties whose history affords treating of the accession of the Amír the most attractive episodes. The at- Maasum (1784), and his invasion of Merv, tention must flag over the barren wars because they touch characteristics of and bigotries of the later Uzbeg rule, till Central Asia; the pharisaic Islamism of that rule reaches a climax of degradation | Bokhara; the slaving raids, which are in Nasrullah Khan, best identified to the scourge of the whole Khorasan fronEnglish readers as the unpunished murderer of Conolly and Stoddart, father of the present Amír Mozaffar, on whose unhappy head, as Professor Vámbéry remarks, the ancient Hebrew proverb, that "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge," has found a rare and rapid, completeness of verification. In the base reign of Nasrullah a new and vast power rises luridly on the horizon of Bokhara.

* 1. History of Bokhara, from the Earliest Period down to the Present. By Arminius Vámbéry. Lon

don, 1873.

2. A Journey to the Source of the River Oxus. By Captain John Wood, Indian Navy. New Edition, edited by his Son. With an Essay on the Geography of the Valley of the Oxus. By Colonel Henry Yule,

C.B. 1872.

3. Correspondence with Russia respecting Central Asia. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. 1873. Nos. 1 and 2. (Quoted below as A and B.)

tier; the processes by which tracts of Asia, once fertile and populous, become the irretrievable prey of barrenness. But space affords but one extract, which we take from a letter addressed to the Amír by Aga Mahommed Shah in 1797, and which contains a remarkable recognition of the national unity of the Turkish races : —

Dost thou perchance wish to renew the old wars between Iran and Turan? For such a task thou art verily not sufficient. To play with the tail of the lion, to tickle the tiger in the ear, is not the part of a prudent man. Yet all men are descended from Adam and Eve, and if thou art proud of thy relationship to Turanian princes, know that my descent is also from the same. . . . We all of us owe thanks to God, the Almighty, that he hath given the dominion over Turan and Iran, over Rúm, Rús, China, and India, to the exalted family of Turk. Let each be content. . . . I

4. Die Russen in Centralasien. Von F. v. Hell- also will dwell in peace within the ancient

boundaries of Iran, and none of us will pass over the Oxus.-P. 355.

It is indeed a notable fact that for more than eight centuries at least, unless the anarchy that followed the death of Nadir Shah show a kind of exception, no dynasty of other than Turanian blood has

reigned in Iran; nor, during that time, has any dynasty of Iranian blood held high power anywhere in Asia.

disguises of the familiar Balkh and Bdakhshán; whilst we hardly recognize the Lion of the Panjáb under the form of Rendjit, or Naoshera (more strictly Nohshaira), the scene of his triumph over the Afghans, under that of Nutcherov.

The last chapter of the "History of Bokhara" is headed "Emir Mozaffareddin and the House of Romanoff." This gives a spirited sketch of Russian progress in Turkestan. Vámbéry, it need not be said, is no friend to Russian aggrandizement, but in this history he writes impartially and does full justice to Russian valour and enterprise.

The English of Vámbéry's work is far above the ordinary run of anonymous translations. There are some odd mistakes in it, but they evidently spring from the translator's want of familiarity with Oriental subjects, and not from defective knowledge of either German or English. Dr. Vámbéry gives us incidentally many curious etymologies. We are glad to believe him when he tells us that Mankbarni, the cognomen of Jaláluddín, the gallant king of Chorasmia, meaning "the Sniveller," is an error for Mangbardi, In General Duhamel's memorandum on "the Heaven-sent." Still the meanings a diversion against British India, rewhich he assigns to the names of the cently published by the "Allgemeine ZeiTartar tribes are trivial enough. He tung," on nothing is so much stress laid considers the name of the great tribe of as on the necessity of Afghan alliance. Kerait to have been a corruption of Kirit, And it was a just perception of this that Grey Dog." Manghit, the tribe to led to our fatal enterprise of 1838. The which the reigning house of Bokhara be- importance attached to the Russian longs, he interprets as "Sick Dog"! agency in that quarter was perfectly well Kungrat, the race from which the Khans founded, however disastrous the shape of Cathay used to select their hand- that our rulers gave to their consequent maidens, according to that strange sys- action. The third part of a century-tem of competitive marks described by the measure of a generation - has passed Marco Polo, and still surviving as an since then, and great indeed has been the Uzbeg clan, is "Chestnut Horse; " and approximation of the two empires. The Oirat, another tribe of great fame in advance has not been all on the Russian the Mongol wars, is "Grey Horse." We hesitate when our author asserts the surname of Timour, Gurgán, as commonly written, to be properly Köreken, meaning "Handsome," and to be merely the name fo the particular family from which the conqueror was sprung. We have always understood the title Gurgán, to be a Mongol term, meaning "Son-in-law," which was applied formally to chiefs espoused to ladies of the Great Khan's family, and which was bestowed on Timour because one of his wives was a daughter of the last Mongol emperor at Cambaluc. Hence he is called by the Chinese Timour Fuma, a term having the same application.

We bow to Professor Vámbéry's Ozbeg, without adopting a symbol that only puzzles an English reader; and we doubt not he has reasons for writing Belkh and Bedakhshan (though why in the name of consistency not Bedekhshan ?), but in an English book we protest against these

side. In 1838 our frontier posts were on the left bank of the Sutlej, and of these Ferozpore alone was within 300 miles of the Indus. In 1873 the Indus and all its Indian tributaries are within our frontier, which practically extends to the foot of the Bolan Pass leading to Southern Afghanistan, as well as to the jaws of the Khyber leading to Kábul. Russia was then at Orenburg; she is now at Samarkand; and her troops have been at Shahr Sabz. Roundly speaking the direct interval between Ferozpore and Orenburg was more than 1800 miles, that between Peshawar and Samarkand is less than 500.

The history of the Russian advance from the old frontier has been sketched in former numbers of this Review by the hand of a master. The last of these

*See "Quarterly Review" for October, 1865, and October, 1863.