Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus Part 21

The first Kalmuck emigrations towards the west were speedily followed by others. The Derbetes and other Torghouts arrived in the steppes of the Caspian and Volga to the number of more than 10,000 tents. In 1665, Aiouki Khan, grandson of Daitc.h.i.n.k, an enterprising and ambitious man, succeeded, in defiance of Russia, in extending his sway over all the Kalmuck tribes. This chief pushed his excursions up to the foot of the Caucasus, and being opposed on his march by the Nogais of the Kouban, he completely defeated them in a general engagement. The bodies of his slain foes were cast by his orders into a pit dug under a great tumulus, situated on the field of battle, and still known in the country by the name of _Bairin Tolkon_ (Mountain of Joy), bestowed on it by the victorious khan in memory of his triumph.

Aiouki's forces then took part in Peter the Great's famous expedition against Persia, in which they rendered great services to Russia. The Kalmuck prince had a brilliant interview on this occasion with the Tzar.

Peter received him on board his galley on the Volga, near Saratof, and treated him and his wife with all the honours due to sovereigns. Aiouki was then at the height of his power, and cared little for the oath of allegiance to Russia taken by his predecessors. Peter required 10,000 men of him, and he furnished 5000. It was about this period that an emba.s.sy, under the special protection of Russia, arrived from China, by way of Siberia, and waited on Aiouki Khan, ostensibly for the purpose of treating with him for the restoration of one of his nephews, who was detained at the imperial court for reasons unknown to us. But we believe that the princ.i.p.al object of the emba.s.sy was to keep up political relations with the Kalmucks, whom the Chinese government wished to bring back under its own sway. Aiouki, following the example of his predecessors, had not broken off all communication with the celestial empire, and had even sent rich presents to the emperor in 1698. It was, therefore, important to cherish this favourable disposition, of which the Chinese hoped to avail themselves sooner or later. Of course it is not to be supposed that these views were avowed officially; and we cannot but wonder at the indifference of the Russian government, or the adroitness with which the Chinese availed themselves of the aid of Russia herself to compa.s.s their ends. But in the various interviews between Aiouki and Toulichen, the head of the emba.s.sy, the question of keeping up an intimacy between the two nations was largely discussed, and all necessary measures were arranged to avoid awakening the suspicions of Russia, and thus closing the only means of communication that lay open to them.[37]

Aiouki reigned about fifty years. After his death, in 1724, the old dissensions broke out again among the Kalmucks; Russia made good use of the opportunity to break down the independence of the hordes by directly interfering in their domestic affairs, and their princes soon became subject to the imperial sceptre. Thenceforth the dignity of khan was conferred only by the Muscovite tzars, and the tribes were put under the special control of a Russian commander called a _pristof_.

After a long series of contests and intrigues, Dondouk Ombo, the son-in-law of Aiouki, was named khan, to the prejudice of Aiouki's grandson. Under this prince internal peace was restored among the hordes, and the Kalmucks did good service to Russia in the campaigns against the Nogas, and other inhabitants of the Kouban. But quarrels broke out again on the death of Dondouk Ombo in 1741. His children, who were minors, were set aside, and his ambitious and intriguing widow contrived to have Dondouk Dachi, her youngest brother, and grandson of the celebrated Aiouki, declared vice-khan. The new chief was entirely devoted to Russia, and his submissiveness was rewarded after the lapse of fifteen years by promotion to the rank of khan; but he enjoyed that dignity only four years. His son Oubacha succeeded him as vice-khan in January, 1761.

In Oubacha's reign new hordes arrived in Europe, and the Kalmucks were reinforced by 10,000 tents, commanded by Chereng Taidchi. The various tribes, which consisted of more than 80,000 families, and possessed innumerable herds of cattle, extended at that time from the sh.o.r.es of the Jak to the Don, and from Zaritzin, on the Volga, to the foot of the northern slopes of the Caucasus. Oubacha paid no tribute to Russia; he was regarded rather as an ally than a va.s.sal, and was only required to supply cavalry to the imperial armies in time of war.

Oubacha vigorously seconded the Russians in their expedition against the Turks and Nogas. His army amounted to 30,000 horse, and one of its detachments figured even in the celebrated siege of Otchakof. It was on the return of the Kalmucks from these campaigns that their celebrated emigration took place, when nearly half a million of men, women, and children, headed by their prince, quitted the banks of the Volga with their cattle, and set out across the most arid regions in quest of their old country.

The flight of the Kalmucks has been variously explained. B. Bergmann attributes it solely to the vindictiveness of Zebeck Dorchi, a relation of Oubacha's, who had been frustrated in his attempt to raise himself to sovereign power. After fruitless attempts at the court of the Empress Elizabeth, he had nevertheless been named first _sargatchi_, or councillor at the court of his rival. The imperial government hoped by this means to curb the ambition of Oubacha, whose power it had abridged in 1761, by deciding that the sargatchis, or members of the khan's council, should be attached to the ministry of foreign affairs, with an annual salary of 100 rubles. According to Bergmann, Zebeck Dorchi made no account of his new dignity, and unable to forgive Russia for not having favoured his pretensions, he joined the hordes with a full determination to take signal vengeance. He would induce the Kalmucks to go over to China, and thus deprive the empire of more than 500,000 subjects, and the army of the greater part of its best cavalry, and make all the neighbouring towns feel severely the loss of their cattle. Such, according to Bergmann, was Zebeck Dorchi's project, to realise which he counted solely on the natural fickleness of the Kalmucks, and his own active intrigues. This was certainly a very extraordinary scheme of vengeance, and one we can hardly credit, notwithstanding Bergmann's a.s.sertions. Zebeck Dorchi's aim being to secure the supreme power, it would have been folly for him to choose such means. It would have been much more to the purpose to have informed against Oubacha at the moment when the latter was making his arrangements for quitting Russia. Such a service would have had its reward, and the informer would undoubtedly have supplanted his rival. This whole explanation of the affair given by Bergmann, rests on no one positive fact, and can only have been devised by a man writing under Russian influence, and consequently forced to disguise the truth.

At the period of the Kalmuck emigration Catherine II. filled the throne, and the Russian government was beginning to adopt those principles of uniformity which so highly characterise its present policy. Moreover, it was really impossible to allow that the whole southern portion of the empire should be given up to turbulent hordes, which, though nominally subjected to the crown, still indulged their propensity to pillage without scruple. Placed as they were between the central and the southern provinces, and occupying almost all the approaches to the Caucasus, the Kalmucks were destined, of necessity, to lose their independence, and fall beneath the immediate yoke of Russia. Catherine's intentions were soon no secret, and Oubacha saw that he must escape by flight from the encroachments of his powerful neighbours, if he would save what remained to him of the primitive authority of the khans. If we reflect, moreover, that the power of the Kalmuck princes had been considerably abridged by the new organisation of their administrative council; that Colonel Kitchinskoi, then grand pristof, had excited the general indignation of the tribes by his harsh conduct; that the political and military exigencies of Russia were continually on the increase; we shall have no difficulty in comprehending the real causes of the emigration of these Mongol tribes. Certainly it required all these combined motives to induce the Kalmucks to undertake such a journey through desert regions, the inhabitants of which were their natural enemies. Nevertheless, we believe the Chinese government was not altogether unconcerned in bringing about Oubacha's determination; for, as we shall see by and by, the emperor had already, in Aiouki's time, sent the mandarin Toulischin to the Kalmucks, to a.s.sure them of his protection, in case they would return to their native country.[38]

It was on the 5th of January, 1771, the day appointed by the high priests, that Oubacha began his march, with 70,000 families. Most of the hordes were then a.s.sembled in the steppes on the left bank of the Volga, and the whole mult.i.tude followed him. Only 15,000 families remained in Russia, because the Volga remained unfrozen to an unusual late period, and prevented them from crossing over to the rendezvous. Oubacha arrived, without impediment, beyond the Jak, but was afterwards vigorously a.s.sailed by the Cossacks of the Ural and the Khirghis, and lost many men. After two months' marching, the exhausted hordes encamped on the Irguitch, which falls into Lake Aksakal, to the north of the sea of Aral. Next they had to cross the frightful desert of Chareh Ousoun, where they were exposed to all the torments of thirst, and suffered indescribable disasters; after which they arrived at Lake Palkache Nor, where many of them fell in a last encounter with the Khirghis. Oubacha then forced a pa.s.sage through the country of the Burats, and at last reached China, after a march of eight months. Strange to say, the Muscovite government took no energetic means to arrest the fugitives, and detain them in Russia. General Traubenberg, indeed, who was in command at Orenberg, was sent in pursuit of them, but failed totally, whether from incapacity or otherwise. Thus was accomplished the most extraordinary emigration of modern times; the empire was suddenly deprived of a pastoral and warlike people, whose habits accorded so well with the Caspian steppes, and the regions in which many thousand families had fed their innumerable flocks and herds for a long series of years, were left desolate and unpeopled.

We will now extract that portion of the Memoirs of the Jesuits, Vol. I., in which Father Amiot recounts the arrival of the Kalmucks in China, dated Pekin, November 8th, 1772. I copy this curious doc.u.ment from Father Amiot's original ma.n.u.script.[39]

"In the thirty-sixth year of Kien Long, that is to say, in the year of Jesus Christ, 1771, all the Tatars[40] composing the nation of the Torgouths[41] arrived, after encountering a thousand perils, in the plains watered by the Ily, entreating the favour to be admitted among the va.s.sals of the great Chinese empire. By their own account, they have abandoned for ever, and without regret, the sterile banks of the Volga and the Jak, along which the Russians had formerly allowed them to settle, near where the two rivers empty themselves into the Caspian.

They have abandoned them, they say, _to come and admire more closely the brilliant l.u.s.tre of the heavens, and at last to enjoy, like so many others, the happiness of having henceforth for master the greatest prince in the world_. Notwithstanding the many battles in which they have been obliged to engage, defensively or offensively, with those through whose country they had to pa.s.s, and at whose expense they were necessarily compelled to live; notwithstanding the depredations committed on them by the vagrant Tatars, who repeatedly attacked and plundered them on their march; notwithstanding the enormous fatigues endured by them in traversing more than 10,000 leagues, through one of the most difficult countries; notwithstanding hunger, thirst, misery, and an almost general scarcity of common necessaries, to which they were exposed during their eight months' journey, their numbers still amounted to 50,000 families when they arrived, and these 50,000 families, to use the language of the country, counted 300,000 mouths, without sensible error. Among the Russians carried off by them at their departure, were 100 soldiers, at the head of whom was a Monsieur Dudin, Doudin, or Toutim,[42] as the name is p.r.o.nounced here. This name is probably not unknown in our part of the world. It is not at all like the common Russian names. Is it not that of some expatriated Frenchman, who had found employment among the Russians? Be this as it may, had this officer been still alive in last August, when the emperor gave evidence to the Torgouth princes whom he had summoned to Ge Ho, where he was enjoying the pleasures of the chase, he would certainly have been sent back with honour to Muscovy. His majesty did not disdain to inquire personally as to this fact. 'Is it true,' said he to one of the chiefs of the nation, 'that before your departure you plundered the possessions of the Russians, and carried off one of their officers and 100 of their soldiers?' 'We did so,' replied the Torgouth prince, 'and could not help doing so, under the circ.u.mstances in which we were placed. As for the Russian officer and his 100 and odd soldiers, there is every reason to think that they all perished by the way. I remember that when the division was made, eight of them fell to me. I will inquire of my people whether any of these Russians are still alive, and if so, I will send them to your majesty immediately on my return to Ily.'

"This year, 1772, the thirty-seventh of the reign of Kien Long, those of the Eleuths who were formerly dispersed over the vast regions known by the general name of Tartary, some hordes of Pourouths, and the rest of the nation of the Torgouths, came like the others, and voluntarily submitted to a yoke which no one sought to impose on them. They were in number 30,000 families, which, added to the 50,000 of the preceding year, make a total of 480,000 mouths, who will unite their voices with those of the other subjects of the empire in proclaiming the marvels of one of the most glorious reigns that has been since the foundation of the monarchy.

"So extraordinary and unexpected an event, happening when the empress mother's eighty-sixth year was celebrated here with a pomp becoming all the majesty of him who gives law to this empire, has been regarded by the emperor as an infallible mark of the goodness of that supreme heaven, of which he calls himself the son, and from which he glories in having unceasingly received the most signal favours since his accession to the throne: it is in this spirit he has caused the fact to be enrolled in the private archives of his nation, archives which, in the course of ages, will, perhaps, contrast in many points with those which will be published by the Chinese historians, and with those, too, which some neighbouring nations may publish with reference to the same facts.

The latter will, perhaps, impute political views and manoeuvres which have had no existence, whilst the former, in spite of certain appearances which may suggest the probability of intrigues and negotiations practised for the accomplishment of a preconcerted design, nevertheless state nothing but the truth, which will be somewhat hard to believe. If the testimony of a contemporary, and, as it were, ocular witness, who has no prejudice or interest in the matter, were necessary to establish that the fact I am about to speak of is among the number of those which are true in all circ.u.mstances, I would freely give it without fearing that any man, of the least information, could ever accuse me of error or partiality. Be this as it may, until such time as history shall acquaint posterity with an event which he regards as one of the most glorious of his reign, the emperor has caused the statement and the date to be inscribed on stone in four languages spoken by the various nations subject to him, viz., the Mantchous, Mongols, Torgouths, and Chinese. This lapidary monument is to be erected at Ily before the eyes of the Torgouths, that it may be seen by all those nations I have named. Having had an opportunity of procuring a copy from the original, taken by one of those who were employed in making the Mantchou inscription, I have ventured to translate it. It would doubtless be very acceptable even as a literary specimen, had I been able to preserve in our language that n.o.ble simplicity, that energy and precision, which the emperor has given it in his own tongue. Its contents are nearly as follows:

"'_Records of the transmigration of the Torgouths, who voluntarily, and of their own full accord, came bodily as a nation, and submitted themselves to the empire of China._

"'Those who, after having revolted, reflecting uneasily on a crime which they cannot yet be made to expiate, but for which they see full well that they will be punished sooner or later, beg permission to return beneath the yoke of obedience, are men who submit through fear; they are constrained subjects; those who having the option to undergo the yoke or not, yet come and submit themselves to it voluntarily, and of their own full accord, even when there is no thought of imposing it upon them, are men who have submitted only because such is their pleasure; they are subjects who have freely given themselves to him whom they have chosen to govern them.

"'All those who now compose the nation of the Torgouths, undismayed by the dangers of a long and toilsome journey, filled with the sole desire of procuring for the future a better manner of life and a happier lot, have abandoned the places where they dwelt far beyond our frontier, have traversed with unshakable courage a s.p.a.ce of more than ten thousand leagues, and have ranged themselves, of their own accord, among the number of my subjects. Their submission to me is not a submission inspired by fear, but a voluntary and free submission, if ever such there was.

"'After having pacified the western frontiers of my dominions, I caused the lands of my domain which are on the Ily to be put under tillage, and I diminished the tribute heretofore imposed on the neighbouring Mahometans. I enacted that the Hasacks and the Pourouths should together form the external limits of the empire on that side, and should be governed on the footing of the foreign hordes. As regards the nations of the Antchiyen and the Badakchan, as they are still more remote, I determined to leave them free to pay or not to pay tribute.

"'No one needs blush when he can limit his desires; no one has occasion to fear when he knows how to desist in due time. Such are the sentiments that actuate me. In all places under heaven, to the remotest corners beyond the sea, there are men who obey under the names of slaves or subjects. Shall I persuade myself that they are all submitted to me, and that they own themselves my va.s.sals? Far from me be so chimerical a pretension. What I persuade myself, and what is strictly true, is that the Torgouths, without any interference on my part, have come of their own full accord to live henceforth under my laws. Heaven has, no doubt, inspired them with this design; they have only obeyed Heaven in putting it in force. I should do wrong not to commemorate this event in an authentic monument.

"'The Torgouths are a branch of the Eleuths. Four branches formerly const.i.tuted the entire nation of the Tchong Kars.[43] It would be difficult to explain their common origin, respecting which moreover nothing very certain is known. These four branches separated, and each formed a distinct nation. That of the Eleuths, the chief of them all, gradually subdued the others, and continued until the time of Kang Hi, to exercise over them the pre-eminence it had usurped. Tse Ouang Raptan then reigned over the Eleuths, and Aiouki over the Torgouths. These two leaders, at variance with each other, had disputes, to which Aiouki, the weaker of the two, feared he should be the unhappy victim. He conceived the design of withdrawing for ever from beneath the sway of the Eleuths.[44] He took secret measures to secure the flight he meditated, and escaped with all his followers to the lands under the sway of the Russians, who permitted him to settle in the country of Etchil.[45]

"'Cheng Tsou Jin Hoang Ty, my grandfather, wis.h.i.+ng to be informed of the true reasons that had induced Aiouki thus to expatriate himself, sent him the mandarin Toulichen[46] and some others to a.s.sure him of his protection in case he desired to return to the country where he had formerly dwelt. The Russians, to whom Toulichen was ordered to apply for permission to pa.s.s through their country, granted it without difficulty; but as they gave him no information as to what he was in quest of, it took him three years and some months to fulfil his commission. It was not until after his return that the desired information respecting Aiouki and his people was at last possessed.

"'Oubacha, who is now khan of the Torgouths, is great grandson of Aiouki. The Russians, never ceasing to require soldiers of him to be incorporated in their troops, having at last taken his own son from him as a hostage, and being besides of a different religion from himself, and making no account of that of the Lamas which the Torgouths profess, Oubacha and his people finally determined to shake off a yoke which was daily becoming more and more insupportable.

"'After having secretly deliberated among themselves, they resolved to quit an abode where they had to suffer so much, and come and dwell in the countries subject to China, where the religion of Fo is professed.

"'In the beginning of the eleventh moon of last year, they began their march with their women and children and all their baggage, traversed the country of the Hasacks, pa.s.sed along the sh.o.r.es of Lake Palkache Nor and through the adjoining deserts; and towards the close of the sixth moon of this year, after having completed more than 10,000 leagues in the eight months of their wayfaring, they at last arrived on the frontiers of Chara Pen, not far from the banks of the Ily. I was already aware that the Torgouths were on their march to submit themselves to me, the news having been brought me shortly after their departure from Etchil. I then reflected that Iletou, general of the troops at Ily, having already been charged with other very important affairs, it was to be feared that he could not regulate those of the new comers with all the requisite attention.

"'Chouhede, one of the general's councillors, was at Ouche, employed in maintaining order among the Mahometans. As he was at hand to attend to the Torgouths, I ordered him to repair to Ily, that he might use his best efforts to establish them solidly.

"'Those who fancy they see danger everywhere, failed not to make their representations to me on this matter. 'Among those who are come to make their submission,' said they, with one voice, 'is the perfidious Chereng. That traitor, after having deceived Tangalou, put him to death miserably, and took refuge among the Russians. He who has once deceived may do so again. Let us beware; we cannot be too much on our guard. To give welcome to one who comes of his own accord to make submission, is to give reception to an enemy.' Upon these representations I conceived some distrust, and gave orders that some preparations should be made to meet every contingency. I reflected, however, with all the maturity required by an affair of such importance, and my reiterated reflections at last convinced me that what I was told to fear could not possibly come to pa.s.s. Could Chereng alone have been able to persuade a whole nation? Could he have put Oubacha and all the Torgouths, his subjects, in motion? What likelihood is there that so many men would willingly have inconvenienced themselves to follow a private individual--would have entered into his views--and run the risk of peris.h.i.+ng of hunger and wretchedness with him? Besides this, the Russians, from whose sway they have ventured to withdraw themselves, are like myself, masters of a great realm. If the Torgouths were come with the intention of insulting my frontiers, and settling there by force, could they hope that I would leave them undisturbed there? Can they have persuaded themselves that I would not stir to expel them? And if they are expelled, whither can they retire? Can they dare to hope that the Russians, whom they have treated with ingrat.i.tude in abandoning them as they have done, will condescend to receive them back with impunity, and allow them to resume possession of the ground they accorded to them formerly? Had the Torgouths been actuated by any other motive than that of wis.h.i.+ng to submit sincerely to me, they would be without support on either side; they would be between two fires. Of ten arguments for and against, there are nine to show that there is nothing in their proceeding to excite suspicion. Among these ten arguments is there one tending to prove that they entertain any secret views? If so, the future will unmask them, and then I will act as circ.u.mstances shall require. What was to happen at the time I made these reflections, has happened at last. It has proved the accuracy of my reasoning, and exactly verified what I had predicted.

"'Nevertheless I neglected none of the precautions that seemed to me necessary. I ordered Chouhede to erect forts and redoubts in the most important places, and have all the pa.s.ses strictly guarded. I enjoined him to exert himself personally in procuring necessary provisions of all kinds in the interior, whilst fit persons, carefully chosen by him, should make every arrangement for securing quiet without.

"'The Torgouths arrived; and at once found lodging, food, and all the conveniences they could have enjoyed each in his own dwelling. Nor was this all; the princ.i.p.al men among them, who were to come in person and pay homage to me, were conducted with honour and free of expense by the imperial post-roads to the place where I then was. I saw them, spoke to them, and was pleased that they should enjoy the pleasures of the chase with me; and after the days allotted to that recreation were ended, they repaired in my suite to Ge Ho. There I gave them the banquet of ceremony, and made them the ordinary presents with the same pomp and state as I am accustomed to employ when I give solemn audience to Tchering and the chiefs of the Tourbeths (_the Derbetes of the Russians_), of whom he is the leader.

"'It was at Ge Ho, in those charming scenes where Kang Hi, my grandfather, made himself an abode to which he might retire during the hot season, and at the same time put himself in a position to watch more closely over the welfare of the people beyond the western frontiers of the empire; it was, I say, in that delightful spot, that having conquered the whole of the country of the Eleuths, I received the sincere homage of Tchering and his Tourbeths, who alone among the Eleuths, had remained true to me. It is not necessary to go back many years to reach the term of that epoch; the memory of it is still quite recent.

"'Who would have said it! When I had the least reason to expect it--when I was not even thinking of it--that branch of the Eleuths which had been the first to separate from the trunk, the Torgouths who had voluntarily expatriated themselves to live under an alien and remote dominion, those very Torgouths came of themselves and submitted to me of their own free will; and it was at Ge Ho, near the venerable spot where rest the ashes of my grandfather, that I had the unsought opportunity of solemnly admitting them among the number of my subjects.

"'Now, indeed, it may be said, without fear of overstepping the truth, that the whole nation of the Mongols is subject to our dynasty of Tay Tsing, since it is from it in fact that all the hordes composing it now receive laws. My august grandfather conjectured this result; he foresaw that it would happen one day; what would have been his delight to know that that day was actually come!

"'It is under the reign of my humble person that the conjectures of that great prince are realised, and what he had foreseen is fully accomplished. What token can I give him of grat.i.tude proportioned to what I owe him! What profound homage, what respectful sentiments can clear my account with Heaven for the constant protection with which it deigns to honour me! I tremble under the apprehension of not bearing sufficiently at heart those obligations with which I ought to be wholly filled, or of not being sufficiently attentive to fulfil them entirely.

After all I have no thought of imputing to my own virtue and merits the voluntary submission, or the arrival of the Torgouths in my dominions. I will strive to behave, in this respect, as well as I possibly can. No sooner were the Torgouths arrived than the representations began anew.

'These people,' I was told 'are rebels who have withdrawn from the sway of the Russians; we are not free to receive them. It is to be feared that if we gave them a favourable reception it would occasion animosities and some troubles on our frontiers.' 'Let not that alarm you,' I replied. 'Chereng was formerly my subject; he revolted and took refuge among the Russians, and they received him. Repeatedly did I request them to give him up to me, but they would not. And now Chereng, acknowledging his fault, comes and surrenders voluntarily. What I here say, I have already said to the Russians in the fullest detail, and I have completely reduced them to silence.'

"'What! was it to be supposed that for considerations no way binding upon me, I should have suffered so many thousand human beings to perish, after they had arrived on the verge of our frontiers almost half dead with wretchedness and famine! 'But,' it was objected, 'they have plundered by the way; they have carried off provisions and cattle.' And suppose they have, how could they have preserved their lives without doing so? Who would have supplied them with the means of existence?

'Watch so well,' says an old Chinese proverb, 'that you may never be surprised; keep such careful guard that perfect security may reign even in your deserts.'

"'With regard to the Ily country where I have allowed them to take up their abode, though I have very recently caused a town to be built there, that place is not yet strong enough to protect the frontiers in that direction, and hinder the brigands from continuing to insult them.

Those who inhabit the country are employed only in tilling the ground and feeding cattle. How could they protect themselves? How could they secure the peace of those deserts? General Iletou being informed of the approach of the Torgouths, failed not to acquaint me with the fact. If through fear of the uncertain future, or considerations unsuited to the circ.u.mstances of the case, I had determined to have the border strictly guarded, and to have a stop put to the march of the Torgouths, what should I have gained thereby? Driven to despair, would they not have rushed into the most violent excesses? An ordinary private individual would be justly stigmatised as inhuman, were he to behold strangers from a far country exhausted with fatigue, bowed down by wretchedness, and ready to breathe out their last gasp, and not take the trouble to succour them; and shall a great prince, whose first duty it is to try to imitate Heaven in his manner of governing men, shall he leave a whole nation that implores his clemency to perish for want of aid? Far from us be such vile thoughts! farther still be conduct conformable to them! No, we will never adopt such cruel sentiments. The Torgouths came, I received them; they wanted even the commonest necessaries of life; I provided them with every thing abundantly; I opened for them my granaries and my coffers, my stalls and my studs. Out of the former I bestowed on them what was requisite for their present wants; from the latter I desired that they should be supplied with the means of providing for themselves in time to come. I intrusted the management of this important affair to those of my grandees whose disinterestedness and enlightenment were already known to me. I hope and trust that every thing will be done to the entire satisfaction of the Torgouths. It is needless to say more in this place. My intention has only been to give a summary of what has come to pa.s.s."[47]

FOOTNOTES:

[37] "Narrative of the Chinese Emba.s.sy to the Khan of Torgouth Tartars, in the years 1712, '13, '14 and '15, by the Chinese Amba.s.sador, and published by the emperor's authority at Pekin." London. I am indebted to the kindness of Baron Walckenaer for an acquaintance with this work.

[38] The flight of the Kalmucks has also been attributed to Prince Chereng Taidchi, of whom mention has been made above. This version of the matter seems to us improbable. Chereng had left China as an outlaw, and it is not to be supposed that he was favourable to the emigration, notwithstanding the impatience with which he endured the yoke of Russia.

It appears, on the contrary, that he never ceased to protest against the resolution adopted by Oubacha.

[39] The MS. belongs to M. Ternaux Compans, who has obligingly placed at my disposal all the rich stores of his valuable library.

[40] Here again we see that the Chinese give the name of Tatars to the Mongols, which confirms our opinion, that the denomination we give to the Mussulman subjects of Southern Russia is incorrect. We have subst.i.tuted Tatar for the word Tartar in the MS.

[41] The Chinese doubtless adopted the name Torgouth, because the fugitive Kalmucks consisted, in a great measure, of that tribe. The Kalmucks that remained in Russia are almost all Derbetes and Koschoots.

[42] Russian doc.u.ments confirm the fact, that a captain of this name commanding a Russian detachment was carried off by the fugitive Kalmucks.

[43] There is here, evidently, a confusion of names. The Soongars, or Tchong-Kars, as the Chinese call them, are a branch of the Eleuths, and are the very nation who played the important part here attributed to the Eleuths in general.

[44] This a.s.sertion seems totally erroneous. The Torgouths arrived in Russia in 1630, and Aiouki was not raised to the dignity of khan until 1675; he could not, therefore, have acted the part here ascribed to him.

The relation of the Chinese emba.s.sy to Aiouki (1712-1715) likewise confirms in all points the inaccuracy of the Emperor Kien Long's historical version. At that period China was a country almost unknown to the Kalmucks, and Aiouki, in all his conferences with the amba.s.sadors, was continually asking for information of all kinds respecting the celestial empire.

[45] The part of southern Russia comprised between the Volga and the Jak. The Tatars also gave the name of Etchil to the Volga.

[46] Here the emperor's words are altogether at variance with the report of the Chinese emba.s.sy, of which Toulischin was the leader.