Kansuh was carved out of Shensi; and Hukuang was separated into Hupeh
and Hunan. Formosa, which was finally reconquered in 1683, was made part
of the province of Fuhkien, and so remained for some two hundred years,
when it was erected into an independent province. Thus, for a time
China Proper consisted of nineteen provinces, until the more familiar
"eighteen" was recently restored by the transfer of Formosa to Japan.
In addition to the above, the eastern territory, originally inhabited by
the Manchus, was divided into the three provinces already mentioned, all
of which were at first organized upon a purely military basis; but of
late years the administration of the southernmost province, in which
stands Mukden, the Manchu capital, has been brought more into line with
that of China Proper.

In 1677 the East India Company established an agency at Amoy, which,
though withdrawn in 1681, was re-established in 1685. The first treaty
with Russia was negotiated in 1679, but less than ten years later a
further treaty was found necessary, under which it was agreed that the
river Amur was to be the boundary-line between the two dominions, the
Russians giving up possession of both banks. Thus Ya-k`o-sa, or Albazin,
was ceded by Russia to China, and some of the inhabitants, who appear to
have been either pure Russians or half-castes, were sent as prisoners to
Peking, where religious instruction was provided for them according to
the rules of the orthodox church. All the descendants of these Albazins
probably perished in the destruction of the Russian college during the
siege of the Legations in 1900. Punitive expeditions against Galdan and
Arabtan carried the frontiers of the empire to the borders of Khokand
and Badakshan, and to the confines of Tibet.

Galdan was a khan of the Kalmucks, who succeeded in establishing his
rule through nearly the whole of Turkestan, after attaining his position