and I heard nothing of any prison.* This was the
first town we had entered where Muhammadans were
so numerous, and I had not yet forgotten the warning
given me in Omsk as to the danger of offering them
the Scriptures. Nor did I know how such a course
would be regarded by the Chinese. When going to
the bazaars next day, howeyer, I took in the chaise
a large bag filled with Scriptures, and whilst looking
here and there for curios to purchase, I presently
offered for sale a copy of the Gospels in Chinese for
5 kopecks. It was bought and immediately examined,
with the result that others came to buy, and those to
whom I had sold returned to purchase more. I then
offered the New Testament for 40 kopecks, and the
Bible for 60 kopecks, and was amused to see them
comparing the size of the Bible with that of the
Gospels, and so reckoning what ought to be the price
of the latter from the proportionate thickness of the
former. I was now besieged by purchasers, who
jumped at my offers. One man wished to buy wholesale,
but fearing that he would re-sell them at exorbitant
prices, I preferred to dispose of them myself,
and soon came to the end of my Chinese stock. But
the Mussulmans showed equal eagerness to get Tatar
* Mr. Pantusoff gives the statistics for crime in Kuldja in 1873 as
follows :—
Attempted suicide
Murders
Thefts .
Receiving goods .
Assaults and riots
15I69
131
7
,57
5
47
12
16
28
i9
5
Ü
books, and my remaining Kirghese New Testaments
were fast disappearing— one Tatar on horseback not
only paying the sum demanded, but in his eagerness
literally snatching the book from my hand. Some of
the Chinese subsequently came to the Consulate to
purchase more, and I presented some Mongol Scriptures
to the interpreters for themselves and for a
school of which they told me. A few other copies of
Mongolian Scriptures I left with a note for Mr. Paderin
to distribute, and thus, with the many I sold and others
I gave, it came to pass that I emptied in Kuldja my
three cases of books, and had the satisfaction of being
the first salesman there of the Word of God. This I
counted a greater honour than to have marched into the
city at the head of an army, 'whether it were the halfwild
horsemen of Jinghis Khan, or the Cossacks of the
Russian Tsar. The latter have now left the province,
but my books remain as seed that is sown. And I am
content to wait for an answer to the question, What
shall the harvest be ?