What are the Russians about in Bokhara ? Samarcand was
-occupied on the 14th of May, and it has since been reported, both from Russia and India, that the city of Bokhara was likewise occupied, no date, however, being assigned. The latest Russian -news makes this doubtful, and shows that the hands of the Russian generals were fully occupied otherwise from the 14th of May to the -20th of June. Strong detachments were sent out to occupy the -country about Samarcand, chiefly the fortresses to the south and west—on the road to Shehr-i-Sebz, a semi-independent district of Bokhara, and on the road to the capital itself. There were at least three serious engagements in the end of May and beginniug of -June,—at Ourghout, south-east, and Kara-Tepe, south-west. of Samarcand, and at Ketti-Kurgan, about forty miles to the west, nearly half-way to Bokhara, the latter affair being the most hn- -portant. These engagements were succeeded on the 14th of June by a grand attack on the forces of Bokhara, collected a few miles to the west of Ketti-Kurgan, to take part in which Samarcand -was almost stripped of its garrison, hardly a thousand men -being left. The battle was one of the most considerable -that has yet occurred in these campaigns, the killed in the army of Bokhara being reckoned at 1,000; and the Russian -victory was of course complete. But meanwhile Samarcand was besieged by another division of the Bokhariots, reinforced after a little by the fugitives of the defeated army, and it was very nearly retaken. Returning by forced marches, General Kaufmann only relieved the siege, which had been "heroically resisted," on the 20th of June. It is now telegraphed from St. Petersburg that peace has been concluded, that the Russians are to be paid half a million of roubles indemnity, and are to evacuate the towns of Bokhara which they have occupied. If true, the peace must have followed very quickly on the hostilities above described, so quickly -as to be hardly credible, and the distrust is so great on both sides that its finality is doubtful. We should also doubt very much the Russian intention to evacuate all the towns they have occupied ; but this does not matter a great deal, as the peace would imply the Emir's consent to be a Russian vassal.
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