STAY AT KASHGAR
THE cheerful impressions of that first evening under Mr. Macartney's hospitable roof were a true indication of the happy circumstances under which the busy weeks of my stay at Kashgar were to pass. Busy, indeed, they were bound to be ; for numerous and urgent tasks had to be completed before I could set out from the capital of Chinese Turkestan for the proper goal of my explorations. For almost every one of these tasks I stood in need of Mr. Macartney's experience and active help. But great as the facilities were which his official position and local knowledge assured to me, I could scarcely have availed myself of them with full advantage, had not his friendly care surrounded me from the first with all personal comfort and encouragement. After two months of almost incessant mountain travel I felt the need of some bodily rest. Nowhere could I have combined it more pleasantly with active preparations . for the long journey before me than in the charming residence to which my kind Kashgar friends welcomed me.
Chini-Bagh had been a simple walled-in orchard with a little garden house, such as every respectable Kashgari loves to own outside the city walls, when Mr. Macartney, more than ten years before my visit, took up the appointment of the Indian Government's Political Representative at Kashgar. Continuous improvements effected with much ingenuity and
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