house divided against itself, that its final war with the Russians began.
Colonel Abramoff, as commandant of Jizakh, took the first step towards punishing the assailants of Lieutenant Slushenko by making an attack upon the village of the robbers. In the meanwhile Mozaffur had been deserted by the Afghan prince, Iskander Khan, with some 2,000 followers, who had gone over to the Russians; yet unable to resist the demands of his people, he declared a holy war against Russia. General Kaufmann, who was said to be on the eve of setting out for St. Petersburg, but who had previously, there is good reason to believe, sent a letter to the Kazi Kalian of Samarcand, demanding the surrender of that city, thereupon ordered an advance to be made into Bokharan territory. This decision was come to early in the month of May, 1868, and on the 13th the first brush with the Bokharan army took place at the hill of Tchupan-ata on the banks of the Zarafshan river. The result was an easy triumph for the Russians, who crossed the river in the face of a heavy fire and drove the enemy out of their entrenchments. The result of this success was the surrender of Samarcand itself, for the inhabitants of their own accord shut their gates upon the Bokharan army, and voluntarily welcomed the Russian army. After the surrender of Samarcand desultory fighting took place between the Russian army and irregulars from Shahr-i-sebz and other cities. In all of these the Russians were uniformly victorious, but these attacks necessitated a scattering of the Russian forces which gave confidence to the Ameer.
