gold, which could be easily and cheaply transported to China.
What official salary the Futai may receive I do not know, but it seems probable that for the greater part of his revenue he is obliged to make his own arrangements. In the autumn of 1898 many residents in the Yarkand Oasis sent a petition to the Futai, requesting the removal of Liu Ta-jin, the Chow-Kuan. Liu Ta-jin, however, promptly despatched his son to Urumtsi with a gift of 100 yamboos to the Futai, who was of course pleased with the giver and dismissed the petition. The Taotais of Kulja and Kashgar are mainly dependent on their subordinates for their income, and consequently exercise a wise toleration, refraining from issuing orders which would reduce the amounts of presents for which they look.
Most of the higher offices are filled by purchase, the purchase-money going, either in a lump sum or in annual instalments, into the pocket of the official who makes the appointment, and consequently able men who cannot or will not pay the expected bribes are left unemployed. One Chinaman who impressed me as being a man of great ability was thus debarred from the public service through lack of means, and another, a man who had served in China under Gordon, failed in his applications for employment because he would not conform to the habitual bribery. Chinese officials either are, or pretend to be, ignorant of the language of Sin-Chiang, and invariably employ Mohammedan interpreters. These men are paid at the rate of 3 sarrs in money, and about 155 lbs. of corn and 77 lbs. of flour per month, but they are not behind the Chinese in corruption. I have already mentioned the injustice of one interpreter towards the inhabitants of Tir with respect to grazing land in the Kulan Urgi valley, and similar cases were of frequent occurrence. A man who
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