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The great Khan at first established his royal court at Kara-kum in the desert, and followed the Tarter custom of moving about with the golden horde, attended by numerous flocks and herds, according to the changes of the season: but Mangu-Khan, and Cublai-Khan, established their principal seat of empire in the new city of Pe-king, or Khan-balu, and perfected the conquest of China, reducing Corea, Tonkin, Cochin-china, Pegu, Bengal, and Thibet, to different degrees of subjection, or tribute, under the direct influence of the great Khan, and his peculiar lieutenants.
Our Russian friends persuaded us to take advantage of the Transcaspian railway, and not to hazard a journey across the dreaded Kara-Kum sands.
West of Bokhara and south of Khiva stretched the great desert of Kara-Kum, touching the Caspian Sea on the west, the Amu-Daria River on the east, the home of the wandering Turkomans, the born foes of the settled races, but from whom all thought of disputing the Russian rule had for the time been driven by Skobeleff's death-dealing blade.
Tashkend, though nearly in the same latitude as New York, is so protected by the Alexandrovski mountains from the Siberian blizzards and the scorching winds of the Kara-Kum desert as to have an even more moderate climate.
Our pace increased with the growing darkness until at length we were going at the rate of twelve miles per hour down a narrow gorge-like valley toward the seventh and last ridge that lay between us and the desert. At 9:30 P. M. we stood upon its summit, and before us stretched the sandy wastes of Kara-Kum, enshrouded in gloom.
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