elsewhere, to take a view of the stolen prey, and to carry it home; whilst the former quietly smokes his pipe, being sure that his thieves will in every corner find out for him sufficient game without any trouble to himself. The thief, the seller, the interpreter, are all ready for his service, because they are all paid by him. In some cases, the purchaser unites himself with the seller for the purpose of deceiving the interpreter; whilst in other cases the interpreter agrees with the thief and pretended seller to put the stolen person into the hands of the purchaser. There wants on the side of fair dealing the necessary precaution and the requisite scrutiny, and on the opposite side the profound secrecy of the prisons, and the strict care in shipping the slaves, correspond with the licentiousness with which the transfers are fabricated.

A distinction ought, however, to be made between such illegal and criminal practices, and a more moderate trade in slaves; many of whom, it is true, are stolen, but not in our vicinity, nor in the districts of the Company; the other part are such persons as, according to the particular laws and customs of the natives of Celebes, have in some way or other forfeited their liberty, either in war, or for some misde. meanors, or on account of debts. These slaves, indeed, are higher in price, and the purchaser cannot make so great profits upon them; but they may appear in broad daylight; an interpreter may with security answer for them; such slaves can also be shipped very quietly in the day time; the horrid circumstance of murder abetting theft is not so much to be feared, and our town has to apprehend considerable less danger from that description of slaves than from the one mentioned before.

In order to put this trade on a tolerable footing, so that all abuses may be effectually remedied, the undersigned Committee

are of opinion, under correction of a wiser judgment, that the orders already enacted and above cited ought to be maintained with all possible vigour, and that the several interpreters ought, if possible, to be kept strictly to their duty: that further, a constant attention should be paid to the good order and tranquillity of our town, and to those people called bondsmen, or hirelings, who by all possible means ought to be prevented from dwelling within the houses and campongs of our inhabitants, and permitted only to reside either in the Campong Baro, or elsewhere; and finally, that the purchaser of a stolen man or woman should, on their being claimed, be obliged immediately to deliver them up, without cost and damage, to the innocent person, the purchaser having then no indemnification to demand but from the interpreter; and also that every one without exception should be obliged to carry his slaves for sale on board his vessel in broad daylight. All these being punctually observed, would have a most salutary effect; and for the better establishment of the necessary measures, it would not, in our opinion, be inexpedient to suspend, if but for one year, the exportation of slaves.

The undersigned Committee flatter themselves that, as far as possible, they have given satisfaction in the performance of their duty, and subscribe themselves with profound submission,

(Signed) A. J. VAN SCHINNE, Fiscal.
S. MONSIEUR, License-Master.

Our next number will contain the Appendix to this Report. There will be found in it a variety of details shockingly interesting, as exhibiting the character and consequences of the slave-trade and slavery of the Eastern Islands.

1820, the Emperor Alexander (especially desirous of extending Russian commerce towards the East), resolved on sending in his turn an embassy to Bokhara. The ambassador appointed was the Counsellor of State Negri, attended by a secretary, a na

turalist, three staff-officers, and three interpreters. They left Orenburg on the 20th of October 1820, accompanied by an escort of 200 Cossacks, as many of infantry, 25 Bashkirs, and two pieces of light artillery. The provisions, felt tents, &c. were conveyed by 350 camels, hired from the Kirgees, through whose country the expedition had to pass.

The weather was propitious through out the whole journey, the thermometer never falling below 55°, without either rain, or any of those tremendous snow storms, generally so fatal to the caravans travelling in those parts.

The expedition, after having crossed the Ural near Orenburg, turned towards the Sarai Ishaganak, or Yellow Bay of the lake Aral; then passing over the icy covering of the Sir-Daria, they proceeded for a distance of 64 geographical miles, when they reached the Kuban-Daria, which river they crossed about 40 miles above its mouth. Sixty-four miles beyond this they crossed the wide bed of the Yan Daria, the course of which could only be distinguished by a series of unconnected pools filled with stagnant water. The Kisil-Daria was entirely dried up; and for five days during which they proceeded through the great desert KisilKom, or red sand (a distance of above 215 miles), not a drop of water could be discovered. After this they passed over a chain of barren rocks, the highest of which rise to an elevation of about 1,000 feet; and, after having crossed several other deserts and dreary plains, they reached Kagatan, the first Bokharian village, about 44 miles distant from the capital.

Immediately before reaching the village they had to cross a chain of sandy hills, and then the scene was suddenly changed. The desert abruptly terminates, and, as it were by enchantment, the exhausted traveller finds himself transplanted into one of the most fertile, and best cultivated countries in the world; a terrestrial

paradise. From Katagan to Buchara, the country is covered with houses, fields, orchards, and gardens, with shady walks, often surrounded with walls, and intersected by a thousand fertilizing canals, over which he has to pass before he reaches the metropolis Buchara-i-Sheriff, the residence of Emir Haidar, or as he is now called, Khan Emir-al-Mumenin (leader of the faithful).

The distance from Orenburg to Bokhara is about 1,100 miles. The steppe, through which the expedition had to pass, is described as being continually crossed by chains of hills with gentle declivities. A vast horizon surrounds the naked country, in which the wearied eye searches in vain for a tree to repose on; and the monotony is only occasionally interrupted by a small brook or rivulet. There are only two chains of rocky hills; the first has been already mentioned; the se cond is called Mongodshar, about 440 miles from Orenburg, being a con tinuation of the chains of the Ural and Guberlinsk. All the other elevations in the Kirgees desert are formed irregularly of loose sand, and are particularly numerous in the KaraKum, or black sand, and in the great and little Barsuki. The Sir, which is about 600 feet in breadth, was the only river of any magnitude which the embassy met with between Orenburg and Bokhara; the width of the Kuban not being above 60 feet; and the Yan, which falls into the Kuban, being dried up, although bearing evident marks of its having formerly been of considerable magnitude. This is the case with the ancient river Kisil, which has been dried up long since, and the bed of which it was supposed they had crossed 40 miles south of the Yan.

The whole country between this river and Bokhara is uninhabited, being destitute of water and vegetation; but the country between the Yan-Daria and the Ural has been taken possession of by some wander

ing tribes of Kirgees, who, within the last 40 years, succeeded in driving out the Karakalpaks, who formerly used to wander in these plains; but are now scattered through Khiwa and Bokhara. The country, which in Europe is improperly called great Bokhara, extends from 41° to 37° north latitude, and from 63° to 69° east longitude from the meridian of Greenwich. The distinction between great and little Bokhara is unknown to the natives of the country, who call the whole Bukhara, or rather Bucharia, pronouncing the ch with a deep aspiration. The Usbecks,† who are of a Turkish origin, usually call the whole of the territories which they inhabit by the common appellation of Turkistan; comprising under it, the Khanates of Kokan or Kukan, as far as Tashkent and the Allatan mountains, Bokhara, Khiwa, Shersabes, Kissar, Karernihan, Kulab, Badackshan, Gulum, Balk, Ankoa, Meimona, and Osrushnah, towns and countries ruled by Usbeck Khans, for the most part, independent of each other. Chinese Turkistan would be a more appropriate name than little Bokhara. The eastern part of Bokhara is mountainous, and formed by the western branches of the Musart mountains; whilst the western part is completely flat, with a clayey soil, watered by few rivers, and only capable of cultivation immediately along their banks, or where irrigation has been introduced by means of canals. The remainder of the country is a desert, inhabited by various nomade tribes, such

as

* Khiwa or Chiwa, an immense steppe, about 1,200 square miles in extent, between the Kirgees steppe and Dshagatai (independent Tartary) inhabited by various nomade Tartar tribes. It is very fruitful; and its Khan is said by some to be independent, and by others, to be tributary to the ruler of Dshagatai.

The Usbeks or Usbecks, are a Tartar race, inhabiting Dshagatai, and several other countries of central Asia. The principal tribes of this people are the Sartes and Tadjiks. The Karakalpaks, Turkomans (Truchmen), Arals, &c., alsó belong to them. The different tribes are governed by their Khans, who all depend on the great Khan. The territory in Dshagatai, is called Usbekistan or Mawarelna.

Usbeks, Turkomans, Karakalpaks, Calmucs, Kirgees, Gipseys, and Bedouins. The irrigated part of the country is extremely fertile, and has a luxuriancy of vegetation and an excess of population, with which nothing of the kind in Europe can be compared. The people of Bokhara are divided into two principal classes; that of the conquerors, who are consequently rulers, and that of the conquered aborigines. The first consists of Usbeks, the second of Tadjiks, or ancient Sogdians. The number of Tadshiks amounts to about half a million; that of the Usbeks, to about three times that number; and the whole popula tion of the state to above two millions and a half of people. The Usbeks are either nomades or half nomades; that is, they either lead a completely wandering life, or they are settled during some part of the year for purposes of agriculture: the trades-people and agriculturists, however, are almost exclusively found among the Tadjiks, who never lead a nomade life.

The Bokharians are entirely a commercial nation; the trade, however, had been originally confined to the Tadjiks; but the love of lucre has now also seized the Usbeks, and there is not an officer of state who does not keep his regular counting-house, doing the business of a merchant.

Avarice, deception, and faithlessness, are given as the characteristics of the Bokharians, but more as it would seem among the aborigines, than among the Usbeks, who, being still soldiers by profession, have preserved some part of the pride so peculiar to the Turkish race, and which, although frequently degenerating into arrogance, contains nevertheless a character of generosity.

The form of government in Bokhara is essentially despotic; but the influence, both of religion and the nomade life, in some measure neutralize its effects. All power centres in the Khan: he is absolute lord of the whole territory of the state, as much

as of the lives and property of his subjects; but as a good Mussulman, he respects the wisdom of the Mollahs, chooses his counsellors from among them, and frequently submits to their decisions. The facility with which nomade nations may change their rulers, obliges the latter to treat them with great equity, and even at times to flatter them; which circumstance explains the remarkable fact perceptible among such nations,-despotism, coupled with unlimited freedom.

The administration of Bokhara, such as it is, offers, nevertheless, nothing but a picture of cruelty and iniquity. The first functionaries of state, acknowledge themselves, unhesitatingly, as the humble slaves of the Khan; and by that degrading tenure, they enjoy, for a time, the confidence of the monarch, and consequently a certain degree of authority. All offices ema nate from the Grand Vizier, who distributes them among his own slaves and creatures, the blind tools of his passions, and strangers to any feeling of patriotism. The principle of government is, to consider the country as the property of the Khan, and thus to make its revenue as available to the benefit of his treasury, as is consistent with the laws of their religion. There are forty-four fiscal districts, the revenue of which is let out to the hakims, or governors, who pay their rent to the Khan, and remunerate themselves as well as they are able. Besides this income, the Khan receives

the produce of the tolls, making the whole of the revenue of the state amount to rather less than half a million sterling. This sum serves to defray the salaries of a few public functionaries, the expense for the maintenance of about 25,000 horsemen (the standing army of the country), and of a great number of public schools at Bokhara and Samarkhand, in which, however, nothing but the dogmas of the Koran are taught. The police of every town is managed by a Reis, the justice by a Kadi, who, in order to give more weight to his decisions, has them generally confirmed by a Mufti, or the Sheikh-islam (prince of the faith) as these high dignitaries of the faith are supposed to be best acquainted with the laws of the Koran. The trade of Bokhara with Russia, amounts to twenty millions of roubles. Being of the Sunnite sect, the Bokharians are always in friendly relation with the Sultan of Constantinople, whilst they hate the Persians as Sheïtes, and from their habit of playing the masters among the neighbouring small Khanates, their policy has assumed rather an arrogant bearing.

The journey from Orenburg to Bokhara, was performed in 72 days; and the expedition having arrived on the 20th Dec., stayed in the country till the 22d of March following, returned to Russia in 55 days, without having lost, in both journies, a single horse, and, out of a suite of 470 individuals, more than six men.—Y. Z.