324 JOURNEY TO ANAMBARUIN-ULA.
were cared for by a body of Chinese, who entered into friendly intercourse with them and induced them to lay aside their weapons, besides distributing flour and other provisions amongst the starving, hunted Tungans. Then they were guided to Tscharklik and Abdal, and thence farther to the north, where, on the initiative of the Chinese, they founded the colony of Kara-kum in the neighbourhood of Schinalgha; and at the same time colonists were also settled there from other quarters. Four of the chiefs or more distinguished men of the fugitives were carried to Urumtschi, to be tried, and were there beheaded.
Fig. 259. WASHING IN CAMP AT KAN-AMBAL.
My reason for relating this trifling episode is that it is not likely to find its way into any other chronicle, and because it represents the last westward »after-swell» of the Tungan revolt. It likewise constitutes a strange isolated wave in the history of the Völkerwanderungen of Central Asia, a wave that has passed without leaving any other traces behind it except the little village of Kara-kum. It thus forms intrinsically a remarkable, and at the same time an admirable, example of resignation and tenacity of purpose — a body of several thousand people set off to travel to some unknown region, leave innumerable graves behind them beside the track, are stopped again by armed force, and then, when the last miserable remnant are on the point of perishing of hunger, they find safety in a strange country!
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