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THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 
 
The Silver Series of English Classics 
 
 ^ 
 
 DE QUINCEY'S 
 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS 
 
 OR, FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCK KHAN AND HIS 
 
 PEOPLE FROM THE RUSSIAN TERRITORIES 
 
 TO THE FRONTIERS OF CHINA 
 
 EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
 BY 
 
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 The Silver Series of English Classics is designed to fur- 
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 is also established through the influence of such study. 
 
 To these ends, carefully edited and annotated editions of the 
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 furnishing a practical example of what a masterpiece in oratory 
 should be. 
 
 Next follows the essay, as exemplified by Macaulay's " Essay on 
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 interest in his work, and the student, before he proceeds to study 
 
 3 
 
4 PUBLISHERS ANNOUNCEMENT. 
 
 the essay, is shown in the Introduction the difference between the 
 oratorical and the essayistic style. 
 
 After this, Burke's " Speech on Conciliation " is treated in a 
 similar manner, the essential principles of forensic authorship) 
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 Again, De Quincey's *' Flight of a Tartar Tribe " — a conspic- 
 uous example of pure narratiun — exhibits the character and qual- 
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 The teacher will appreciate the fact that enough, and not too 
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 gestions which have been presented. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Thomas De Quincey is among the unique personali- 
 ties in modern English literature. With a countenance 
 remarkable for its intellectual quality and every appear- 
 ance of high breeding, his smallness of stature was soon 
 forgotten when his conversational powers, in which lie 
 excelled, exercised their fascination over the listener. 
 
 In like manner, one forgets, while reading his volumi- 
 nous writings, that he was an opium eater for many 
 years of his life; and, were it not for his autobiographic 
 sketches, including "The Confessions of an English Opium 
 Eater" and "Suspiria," there would be little suspicion that 
 his life was "shadowed by one great cloud, which would 
 have fatally obscured any ordinary intellect." 
 
 The materials for a description of his early years, and 
 of his struggle with and final victory over the "narcotic 
 devil," are drawn from his own writings, mainly from 
 those which have been mentioned. 
 
 Ample data, however, of his literary habits are given in 
 the reminiscences of his friends, who regarded him as a 
 great literary genius. 
 
 We will consider the incidents of his career chiefly as 
 they bear a relation to his works, in which scholarship, 
 
6 THOMA8 DE QUINCEY. 
 
 imagination, wit, and liumor combine to make him one of 
 the most attractive, as well as instructive, writers of his 
 period. 
 
 That period is justly celebrated for its constellation of 
 famous authors, often styled the Lake Poets of England, 
 living as they did among the beautiful scenery of the 
 Westmoreland lakes. 
 
 The father of De Quincey was a merchant, who died 
 when his son was seven years old, leaving a comfortable 
 inheritance to Ids children. Thomas was placed, by his 
 father's will, under the care of four guardians, who sent 
 him successively to several schools. At thirteen years of 
 age he wrote Greek with ease; at fifteen, he could con- 
 verse fluently in that language, and when at Eton he was 
 the phenomenal scholar of his class. 
 
 Being ready for the university in his sixteenth year, he 
 requested his guardian, under whose sole care he had then 
 come, to allow him to leave Eton. The guardian, a 
 worthy but obstinate man, refused ; this disturbed the lad 
 and touched his pride, so that on his seventeenth birthday 
 he ran away, wandered through North Wales, and eventu- 
 ally reached London, without money but determined to 
 elude all pursuit. 
 
 Now began a long agony of extremity and hunger, which 
 lasted many months. Finally, he applied to a Jew, and, 
 on the strength of his financial expectations, raised the 
 money to carry him in pursuit of a classmate, who he 
 hoped would aid him in his wish for a course at the 
 university. 
 
 His errand was fruitless; but soon a reconciliation, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 effected partly by accident, was made with his friends, 
 and his uncle sent him to Worcester College, Oxford, with 
 an allowance of £100 a year. 
 
 Unfortunately his abject, though voluntary, penury in 
 London had so affected his constitution that he soon fell 
 under the fearful habit of eating opium. 
 
 In the first part of his "Confessions," entitled, "The 
 Pleasures of Opium," he tells us that he experienced only 
 enjoyable sensations from 1804 until 1812. After the 
 latter year, his chapter on "The Pains of Opium" de- 
 scribes the miseries into which the fearful habit plunged 
 him, body and mind. These "Confessions" were first 
 published in 1821, but were given to the world in their 
 final form in 185G. 
 
 It is not necessary to trace the series of struggles, 
 relapses, and comparative escape at last, which checkered 
 his life with reveries, moods, brilliant episodes, and 
 periods of incapacity. So far as his literary career was 
 affected by his use of opium, it must be said, that, while 
 the best of his works are the result of his genius and 
 industry, undoubtedly much of his impassioned prose, his 
 dreamy and fantastic descriptions, his sense of the vast 
 and the vague, may be attributed to the effect upon his 
 brain of the pernicious drug. 
 
 It is a marvel that, notwithstanding the phantoms, 
 incommunicable in words, which haunted his mind, he 
 preserved to the last a fine literary instinct and a sweet- 
 ness and courtesy of manner which lend a charm to almost 
 everything he wrote. 
 
 Even in his autobiographical writings, he maintained a 
 
8 THOMAS DE QUINOEY. 
 
 self-respect, which is evident in the purity of his imagery 
 and in the high moral tone of his sentiments. There was 
 a certain reticence which respected his own private rights 
 as a man, and which calls for the reader's extenuation 
 rather than hasty condemnation of his fault. His choice 
 of subjects was sometimes on the unprofitable side, as in 
 his ingenious defense of Judas Iscariot, his " Murder as a 
 Fine Art," and in "The Vision of Sudden Death." His 
 discursive style, in much of his writing, seems involved 
 and incomplete, and his idealizing tendency often leads 
 to exaggeration ; but, take him all in all, De Quincey well 
 merits what Christopher ]N'orth said of him in "Noctes 
 Ambrosianse, " that "with all his logic,(_he is a man of 
 imagination,' and, bating a little formal pedantry now and 
 then, a master of the English language ; God bless him ! " 
 
 Archdeacon Hare calls him "the great logician of our 
 times." Coleridge, addicted to the same opium habit, 
 thought much of his literary ability. Both Coleridge and 
 De Quincey were equally gifted in the flow and the breadth 
 of their conversation; but the great author of "Aids to 
 Reflection " was much more averse to the labors of compo- 
 sition than De Quincey. 
 
 Both were scholars at Eton, although Coleridge was 
 thirteen years older than his friend, having been born in 
 1772, and De Quincey in 1785 (at Greenheys, near Man- 
 chester). They were graduated from different universities, 
 Coleridge being a Cambridge and De Quincey an Oxford 
 man. They did not meet until 1807; but when De Quincey 
 settled at Grasmere, in 1809 (holding a cottage tliere for 
 twenty-seven years), he was at once admitted into the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 charmed circle of his literary neighbors, among whom 
 Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, and Charles Lloyd were 
 preeminent. 
 
 Charles Lamb, who had befriended him in his early 
 days, was also one of the choice spirits whom he termed 
 "princely" both in generosity and friendship. 
 
 De Quincey was married in 1816. He had five sons 
 and three daughters. After his removal to Scotland, he 
 edited, in 1819, The Westmoreland Gazette, but in 1821, a 
 large part of his patrimony having wasted away, he went 
 to London and remained till 1824, writing and publish- 
 ing his "Confessions," and contributing to The London 
 Magazine. 
 
 After vibrating between London and Grasmere, we find 
 him in 1828 at Edinburgh, where he wrote for Blackwood\^ 
 Magazine and other reviews, and where he joined the 
 famous coterie, consisting of John Wilson (Christopher 
 North), Hogg (the Ettrick Shepherd), and others, whose 
 wise (and foolish) "convivia" are chronicled in the cele- 
 brated "Noctes Ambrosianse." 
 
 For convenience, he had his family with him in Edin- 
 burgh several years, still keeping the Grasmere cottage. 
 His wife died in 1837, when his eldest daughter became 
 the able mistress of the household. In 1840 he accom- 
 panied his daughters to Lasswade, which was his home 
 for the rest of his life, although he spent about three years 
 in astronomical researches in Glasgow and was often in 
 Edinburgh. He died at Edinburgh in the seventy-fifth 
 year of his age, December 8, 1859. 
 
 The range of De Quincey 's literary works is very wide; 
 
10 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 
 
 liistorical, biographical, theological, and miscellaneous, 
 not to speak of his fanciful and mystic lucubrations, all 
 of which form a notable part of the English literature 
 of the early half of the nineteenth century. His eccen- 
 tricities were as marked as his genius. He gave away 
 money lavishly, and polished his shillings before he 
 handed them to the beggars. He left bushels of papers 
 in lodging houses, and forgot where he had deposited 
 them. He was often "snowed in" by heaps of useless 
 journals and manuscripts in his rooms, and was Bohe- 
 mian in his impulses and manners. 
 
 But when his antiquated figure, quaintly dressed, was 
 seen no more in the streets of old Edinburgh, the critics 
 might complain of his discursive tendency and infinite 
 subtlety, but no one could deny that he possessed the 
 musical element in style, a mystic beauty of imagery, a 
 conscience in literary effort, and a charm in simple nar- 
 ration, which few writers of the English language have 
 equaled and none have excelled. 
 
 That his heart was gentle is proved by his attachment 
 to children and his generosity to the poor; that, in tlie 
 midst of his failings and eccentricities, his sensibilities 
 were elevated and pure, is gathered from his acts and 
 words, as when he said of the animals and birds which 
 he loved, "The instincts of all the inferior creatures are 
 now holy in my eyes; for, like reason's self, they have 
 their origin in love." And so we leave him gently and 
 kindly, with his biographer's remark, "JVi7 tangit quod 
 non ornai." 
 
THE AET OF NARRATION 
 
 AS ILLUSTRATED IN 
 
 DE QUINCEY'S "FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE." 
 
 In prose literature, the art of narration is distinct by 
 itself. It may be joined with other forms of composition, 
 in historical and biographical writing, and in the essay; 
 but there are rules which regulate it that cannot be over- 
 looked. 
 
 Few possess the gift of story-telling in perfection. The 
 art may be acquired by study and practice ; only the rare 
 literary genius can possess it without laborious effort. 
 
 Narration, pure and simple, is not historical composi- 
 tion, although it may give historical events. The historian 
 employs generalization and argument, and sums uj) the 
 conclusions of authorities. He ought not to argue as a 
 partisan. De Quincey censures the historian Hume for 
 doing this. Neither should he encumber his work with 
 gossipy tales, becoming, as De Quincey styles Suetonius, 
 author of the Lives of the Twelve Caesars, "a curious 
 collector of anecdotage." But the historian, as such, may 
 use reasoning and logic, of which the narrator has little 
 need. 
 
 The writer of narrative must have events to tell, and be 
 
 able to tell them in a way that will hold the reader's 
 
 11 
 
12 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 
 
 interest to the end. He will arrange his materials in a 
 natural sequence, and have the whole story in his mind as 
 he writes, so as to avoid repetition and a premature dis- 
 closure of the ending of his story. 
 
 But rhetorical writing, elocution, argument, and disser- 
 tation are foreign to his purpose. Long-winded disquisi- 
 tions and digressions are out of place in narration. There 
 is a vast difference between a classic flow of language and 
 the spinning of long yarns. 
 
 The narrator's vocabulary need not be very large, but 
 he will have full command of appropriate words. I)e 
 Quincey said that in early life he labored under a " peculiar 
 penury of words." Later on, he acquired sufficient com- 
 mand of language, and was sometimes perplexed by an 
 exuberance of expressive terms. 
 
 Long sentences may be allowed in narration, if the 
 language is clear and the connectives are well chosen. But 
 parenthetical clauses ought generally to be avoided as 
 inelegant in literary style, and especially in this depart- 
 ment of composition. "A parenthesis is a chasm," says 
 a critic of style, "across which it is hard for the reader 
 to leap." 
 
 Classical allusions are permitted in narration when they 
 reinforce the writer's descriptions, or help to explain his 
 story; never should they be used for mere embellishment. 
 An acquaintance with the best Latin and Greek authors is, 
 however, of advantage, inasmuch as writers like Herodotus, 
 Homer in some parts of the "Hiad," and Caesar in his 
 "Commentaries," are models of this form of composition. 
 
 De Quincey was familiar from his youth with the ancient 
 
THE ART OF NARRATION. 13 
 
 classics, and their influence on him gave precision and 
 elegance to his style. But he uses some words of foreign 
 derivation where Saxon would have been more to the point. 
 Coleridge sacrificed much to his German models, and thereby 
 led his readers into many a mystic maze. 
 
 Clearness and simplicity are indispensable to good nar- 
 ration. What Sydney Smith calls "obvious language" is 
 essential, because no narrative can be perfect which com- 
 pels the reader to read a sentence twice before he can get 
 at the meaning of it. Herbert Spencer advises literary 
 men to "economize the mental force of their readers"; 
 and in no department of literature is this advice more to 
 be heeded than in the telling of a story. 
 
 Simplicity in the manner of describing men and events 
 makes narration a delight. Long descriptions of scenery, 
 which do not add to the understanding of the plot, are 
 generally skipped by the reader, who is promised a story 
 and who does not want to be delayed by fine writing in 
 the progress of the tale. An unaffected style is always 
 graceful and acceptable, especially when the writer pro- 
 fesses to be a narrator of facts. 
 
 J^ow, De Quincey may not be the writer who will give 
 the best model in all respects for a perfect English style; 
 he writes in various moods, and sometimes wanders away 
 into strange vagaries of expression. But he certainly 
 offers a very fair example of narration in his story of The 
 Eevolt of the Tartars and their tragic flight. Here, at 
 least, there is no " soaring in a winged chariot on a figura- 
 tive vocabulary." He has declared that, "through a circle 
 of prodigious reading, he had never known a writer who 
 
14 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 
 
 did not sometiiiics violate the accidence or syntax of the 
 English language," so that we cannot expect him to be the 
 sole exception to this general affirmation. In the paper, 
 however, which we are about to study, the art of narration 
 is brought very near perfection. 
 
 The story flows easily along. It is not broken up by 
 irrelevant dissertations on things that are foreign to it. 
 As you read, Avith sustained interest to the end, you do 
 not think of the writer, who also seems to have forgotten 
 himself in his work, and you mind what he is telling 
 rather than how he is telling it. 
 
 He may have erred in the first few prefatory i)ages, 
 which naturally belong at the end of the story because 
 they contain remarks about things which the reader can 
 understand only as he follows the narrative itself. 
 
 But, beginning with the story proper at the sentence 
 " On the 21st of January, 1761 " (p. 21), we find few if any 
 violations of the canons laid down for this kind of literary 
 work. 
 
 There are some long paragraphs. Take, for example, the 
 description (j). 22) of the young Kalmuck prince, Oubacha; 
 but notice how skillfully the author uses the connectives of 
 the clauses, giving the reader no trouble with the length 
 of the whole sentence. 
 
 The writer introduces to the reader early in the narrative 
 all that needs to be said about the character of the treach- 
 erous jDretender, Zebek-Dorchi. This is art, for it obviates 
 the necessity for any further statement, in this respect, 
 iis the story progresses. 
 
 Almost the only place in which the narrator volunteers 
 
THE AUT OF NARRATION. 15 
 
 an opinion of Ids own is (p. 26) in the few paragraphs 
 beginning, "He, a worm as he was," etc., — an allowable 
 analysis of the traitor's mental attitude, because, without 
 this explanation, the traitor's cause would seem utterly 
 reckless and foolhardy. 
 
 Now and then, as in the sentence (p. 31) "Human 
 experience gives evidence," etc., the author departs from 
 pure narration and states a general proposition. In this 
 case, as the proposition is by no means a truism, it should 
 not have been interpolated, because it needs proofs which 
 this is not the place to give. 
 
 The slight digression (p. 31) on the war between 
 Russia and the Sultan is allowable, because it explains 
 why Oubacha contributed more than his quota of cavalry 
 on the eve of the intended flight, and because it is neces- 
 sary to show the favorable and unfavorable results of his 
 splendid victories over the Turks. These results were 
 unfavorable to the scheme in hand, because the jealousy 
 and hostility of certain tribes were aroused against the 
 migrating Kalmucks; and they were favorable to the 
 scheme, by preparing the minds of the Kalmucks them- 
 selves to perceive the necessity of instant departure. 
 
 Take note, now, how the narrator, after depicting 
 Zebek's shrewd arraignment of Russia's tyranny before 
 the assembled representatives of the Kalmuck tribes 
 (pp. 38-41), hurries on the story, till on the 5th of Jan- 
 uary, 1762 (see p. 41), the multitudes begin their migra- 
 tion. 
 
 From this point onward, the reader is led from one scene 
 of horror to another, throuc^h the awful series of calami- 
 
16 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 
 
 ties; worse, as the writer declares, than the inroads of 
 Huns, Avars, or Mongol Tartars brought upon their vic- 
 tims; worse than the sufferings of Napoleon's army in 
 the retreat from Moscow, which the writer delays but a 
 moment to consider. 
 
 It is a lengthy narrative; yet it cannot be shortened, in 
 justice to the subject and the reader's demand for details. 
 A single allusion to Xerxes (p. 56) is all that this lover 
 of classic legend allows himself to make. 
 
 The episode (p. 60) which describes the rescue of 
 Oubacha, the Khan, from the treachery of his unprinci- 
 pled cousin, Zebek, is a thrilling incident, which heightens 
 the description of this agonizing flight of the wretched 
 Kalmucks. 
 
 It is at this point, by a stroke of genius, that the nar- 
 rator relieves the reader's mind from its terrible strain by 
 bringing on the scene, before the final catastrophe at the 
 Lake of Tengis, Kien Long, the Emperor of China, whose 
 munificence relieved the necessities of the survivors of the 
 flight, and gave them territorial possessions under his 
 protection. 
 
 Without this relief for a moment, the overwhelming 
 horrors of the carnage at the bloody lake would be insup- 
 portable to the reader, leaving him in a tumult of inde- 
 scribable emotions. 
 
 Finally, when Zebek-Dorchi, the arch-traitor, is dis- 
 posed of by assassination, at an imperial banquet, even 
 poetic justice is satisfied, and the story-teller leaves the 
 decimated Tartar tribe in the midst of quiet sylvan 
 scenes, rich in all the luxuries of life and the loveliness 
 
THE ART OF NARRATION. 17 
 
 of Arcadian beauty, where their descendants remain unto 
 this day. 
 
 In all this De Quincey has shown the art of a true nar- 
 rator. The story which he tells is derived from veritable 
 history. But his genius appears, in that, while the narra- 
 tive does not deviate from historic fact, nor dress the 
 characters in artificial garb, nor color the incidents with 
 adventitious horrors, the reader is borne on to the end 
 with ever-increasing interest, absorbed in the story with- 
 out thinking of the style. 
 
 It is plain, concise, classic, dealing with events as they 
 occurred, and with men as they actually lived, fought, and 
 suffered. The hand of a master has thus prepared in liter- 
 ature, to the memory of the princely Oubacha and his 
 afflicted countrymen, a monument more enduring than the 
 mighty columns of granite and brass erected near the banks 
 of the Ily, by the Chinese Emperor, to commemorate with 
 appropriate inscriptions. 
 
 The Flight of a Tartar Tribe. 
 

DE QUINCEYVS 
 FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 
 
 3i<K< 
 
 There is no great event in modern history, or, perhaps 
 it may be said more broadly, none in all history from its 
 earliest records, less generally known, or more striking to 
 the imagination, than the flight eastwards of a principal 
 Tartar nation across the boundless steppes of Asia in the 5 
 latter half of the last century. The terminus a quo of this 
 flight and the terminus ad quern are equally magniflcent, 
 — the mightiest of Christian thrones being the one, the 
 mightiest of Pagan the other. And the grandeur of these two 
 terminal objects is harmoniously supported by the romantic 10 
 circumstances of the flight. In the abruptness of its com- 
 mencement and the flerce velocity of its execution, we read 
 an expression of the wild, barbaric character of those who 
 conducted the movement. In the unity of purpose connect- 
 ing this myriad of wills, and in the blind but unerring aim 15 
 at a mark so remote, there is something which recalls to the 
 mind those almighty instincts that propel the migrations of 
 the swallow and the lemming, or the life-withering marches 
 of the locust. Then, again, in the gloomy vengeance of Eussia 
 and her vast artillery, which hung upon the rear and the 20 
 skirts of the fugitive vassals, we are reminded of Miltonic 
 images, — such, for instance, as that of the solitary hand 
 pursuing through desert spaces and through ancient chaos 
 a rebellious host, and overtaking with volleying thunders 
 
 19 
 
20 DE quincey's 
 
 those who believed themselves already within the security 
 of darkness and of distance. 
 
 We shall have occasion, further on, to compare this event 
 with other great national catastrophes as to the magnitude 
 
 5 of the suffering; but it may also challenge a comparison 
 with similar events under another relation, viz., as to its 
 dramatic capabilities. Few cases, perhaps, in romance or 
 history, can sustain a close collation with this as to the 
 complexity of its separate interests. The great outline of 
 
 10 the enterprise, taken in connection with the operative 
 motives, hidden or avowed, and the religious sanctions 
 under which it was pursued, give to the case a triple char- 
 acter : First, That of a consjnracy, with as close a unity in 
 the incidents, and as much of a personal interest in the 
 
 15 moving characters, with line dramatic contrasts, as belongs 
 to Venice Preserved or to the Fiesco of Schiller. Secondly, 
 That of a great military expedition, offering the same roman- 
 tic features of vast distances to be traversed, vast reverses 
 to be sustained, untried routes, enemies obscurely ascer- 
 
 20 tained, and hardships too vaguely prefigured, which mark 
 the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses; the anabasis of the 
 younger Cyrus, and the subsequent retreat of the ten thou- 
 sand to the Black Sea; the Parthian expeditions of the 
 E-omans, especially those of Crassus and Julian; or (as 
 
 25 more disastrous than any of them, and, in point of space 
 as well as in amount of forces, more extensive) the Russian 
 anabasis and katabasis of Napoleon. Thirdly, That of a 
 religions exodus, authorized by an oracle venerated through- 
 out many nations of Asia, — an exodus, therefore, in so far 
 
 30 resembling the great scriptural exodus of the Israelites 
 under Moses and Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar 
 distinction of carrying along with them their entire fami- 
 lies, women, children, slaves, their herds of cattle and of 
 sheep, their horses and their camels. 
 
 35 This triple character of the enterprise naturally invests it 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 21 
 
 with a more comprehensive interest. But the dramatic 
 interest which we ascribed to it, or its fitness for a stage 
 representation, depends partly upon the marked variety 
 and the strength of the personal agencies concerned, and 
 partly upon the succession of scenical situations. Even r> 
 the steppes, the camels, the tents, the snowy and the sandy 
 deserts, are not beyond the scale of our modern representa- 
 tive powers as often called into action in the theatres both 
 of Paris and London; and the series of situations unfolded, 
 beginning with the general conflagration on the Wolga, pass- lo 
 ing thence to the disastrous scenes of the flight (as it liter- 
 ally was in its commencement), to the Tartar siege of the 
 Eussian fortress Koulagina; the bloody engagement with 
 the Cossacks in the mountain passes at Ouchim; the sur- 
 prisal by the Bashkirs and the advanced posts of the Rus- 15 
 sian army at Torgau; the private conspiracy at this point 
 against the khan; the long succession of running fights; 
 the parting massacres at the Lake of Tengis under the eyes 
 of the Chinese; and, finally, the tragical retribution to 
 Zebek-Dorchi at the hunting lodge of the Chinese Emperor, 20 
 — all these situations communicate a scenical animation to 
 the wild romance, if treated dramatically; whilst a higher 
 and a philosophic interest belongs to it as a case of authen- 
 tic history, commemorating a great revolution for good and 
 for evil in the fortunes of a whole people, — a people semi- 25 
 barbarous, but simple-hearted and of ancient descent. 
 
 On the 21st of January, 1761, the young Prince Oubacha 
 assumed the sceptre of the Kalmucks upon the death of his 
 father. Some part of the power attached to this dignity he 
 had already wielded since his fourteenth year, in quality of .30 
 vice-khan, by the express appointment and with the avowed 
 support of the Russian government. He was now about 
 eighteen years of age, amiable in his personal character, 
 and not without titles to respect in his public character as 
 
22 , DE quincey's 
 
 a sovereign prince. In times more peaceable, and amongst 
 a people more entirely civilized or more humanized by reli- 
 gion, it is even probable that he- might have discharged his 
 high duties with considerable distinction. But his lot was 
 
 5 thrown upon stormy times, and a most difficult crisis amongst 
 tribes whose native ferocity was exasperated by debasing 
 forms of superstition, and by a ^rationality as well as an 
 inflated conceit of their own merit absolutely unparalleled; 
 whilst the circumstances of their hard and trying position 
 
 10 under the jealous surveillance of an irresistible lord para- 
 mount, in the person of the Russian Czar, gave a fiercer 
 edge to the natural unamiableness of the Kalmuck disposi- 
 tion, and irritated its gloomier qualities into action under 
 the restless impulses of suspicion and permanent distrust. 
 
 15 Ko prince could hope for a cordial allegiance from his sub- 
 jects or a peaceful reign under the circumstances of the 
 case; for the dilemma in which a Kalmuck ruler stood at 
 present was of this nature : wanting the sanction and sup- 
 port of the Czar, he was inevitably too weak from without 
 
 20 to command confidence from his subjects, or resistance to 
 his competitors : on the other hand, with this kind of sup- 
 port, and deriving his title in any degree from the favor 
 of the imperial court, he became almost in that extent an 
 object of hatred at home and within the whole compass of 
 
 25 his own territory. He was at once an object of hatred for 
 the past, being a living monument of national independence 
 ignominiously surrendered, and an object of jealousy for 
 the future, as one who had already advertised himself to 
 be a fitting tool for the ultimate purposes (whatsoever 
 
 30 those might prove to be) of the Russian .^orrt.- Coming 
 himself to the Kalmuck sceptre under the- ^aviest weight 
 of prejudice from the unfortunate circumstances of his 
 position, it might have been expected that Oubacha would 
 have been pre-eminently an object of detestation; for, 
 
 35 besides his known dependence upon the cabinet of St. 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 23 
 
 Petersburg, the direct line of succession had been set 
 aside, and the principle of inheritance violently suspended, 
 in favor of his own father, so recently as nineteen years 
 before the era of his own accession, consequently within 
 the lively remembrance of the existing generation. He 5 
 therefore, almost equally with his father, stood within the 
 full current of the national prejudices, and might have an- 
 ticipated the most pointed hostility. But it was not so: 
 such are the caprices in human affairs that he was even, in 
 a moderate sense, popular, — a benefit which wore the more lo 
 cheering aspect and the promises of permanence, inasmuch 
 as he owed it exclusively to his personal qualities of kind- 
 ness and affability, as well as to the beneficence of his gov- 
 ernment. On the other hand, to balance this unlooked-for 
 prosperity at the outset of his reign, he met with a rival in 15 
 popular favor, almost a competitor, in the person of Zebek- 
 Dorchi, a prince with considerable pretensions to the throne, 
 and perhaps, it might be said, with equal pretensions. Zebek- 
 Dorchi was a direct descendant of the same royal house 
 as himself, through a different branch. On public grounds 20 
 his claim stood, perhaps, on a footing equally good witli 
 that of Oubacha; whilst his personal qualities, even in those 
 aspects which seemed to a philosophical observer most odi- 
 ous and repulsive, promised the most effectual aid to the 
 dark purposes of an intriguer or a conspirator, and were 25 
 generally fitted to win a popular support precisely in those 
 points where Oubacha was most defective. He was much 
 superior in external appearance to his rival on the throne, 
 and so far better qualified to win the good opinion of a 
 semi-barb? r.on« people; whilst his dark intellectual qualities 30 
 of Machiavt an dissimulation, profound hypocrisy, and 
 perfidy which knew no touch of remorse, were admirably 
 calculated to sustain any ground which he might win from 
 the simple-hearted people with whom he had to deal, and 
 from the frank carelessness of his unconscious competitor. 35 
 
24 DE quincey's 
 
 At the very outset of his treacherous career, Zebek- 
 Dorchi was sagacious enough to perceive that nothing could 
 be gained by open declaration of hostility to the reigning 
 prince : the choice had been a deliberate act on the part of 
 
 .') Russia, and Elizabeth Petrowna was not the person to recall 
 her own favors with levity or upon slight grounds. Openly, 
 therefore, to have declared his enmity towards his relative 
 on the throne could have had no effect but that of arming 
 suspicions against his own ulterior purposes in a quarter 
 
 10 where it was most essential to his interest that for the 
 present all suspicion should be hoodwinked. Accordingly, 
 after much meditation, the course he took for opening his 
 snares was this : He raised a rumor that his own life was 
 in danger from the plots of several saissang (that is, Kal- 
 
 15 muck nobles) who were leagued together under an oath to 
 assassinate him; and immediately after, assuming a well- 
 counterfeited alarm, he fled to Tcherkask, followed by 
 sixty-iive tents. From this place he kept up a correspond- 
 ence with the imperial court, and, by way of soliciting his 
 
 20 cause more effectually, he soon repaired in j^erson to St. 
 Petersburg. Once admitted to personal conferences with 
 the cabinet, he found no difficulty in winning over the 
 Russian councils to a concurrence with some of his politi- 
 cal views, and thus covertly introducing the point of that 
 
 25 wedge which was finally to accomplish his purposes. In 
 particular, he persuaded the Russian government to make 
 a very important alteration in the constitution of the Kal- 
 muck state council, which in effect reorganized the whole 
 political condition of the state and disturbed the balance of 
 
 30 power as previously adjusted. Of this council, in the Kal- 
 muck language called sarga, there were eight members, 
 called sargatcM; and hitherto it had been the custom that 
 these eight members should be entirely subordinate to the 
 khan, holding, in fact, the ministerial character of secre- 
 
 35taries and assistants, )mt in no respect ranking as co-ordi- 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 25 
 
 nate authorities. That had produced some inconveniences 
 in former reigns ; and it was easy for Zebek-Dorchi to point 
 the jealousy of the Russian court to others more serious 
 which might arise in future circumstances of war or other 
 contingencies. It was resolved, therefore, to place the 5 
 saryatchi henceforward on a footing of perfect indepen- 
 dence, and therefore (as regarded responsibility) on a footing 
 of equality with the khan. Their independence, however, 
 had respect only to their own sovereign; for towards Rus- 
 sia they were placed in a new attitude of direct duty and 10 
 accountability by the creation in their favor of small pen- 
 sions (three hundred roubles a year), which, however, to a 
 Kalmuck of that day, were more considerable than might 
 be supposed,- and had a further value as marks of honorary 
 distinction emanating from a great empress. Thus far the 15 
 purposes of Zebek-Dorchi were served effectually for the 
 moment ; but apparently it was only for the moment, since, 
 in the further development of his plots, this very depend- 
 ency upon Russian influence would be the most serious 
 obstacle in his way. There was, however, another point 20 
 carried, which outweighed all inferior considerations, as it 
 gave him a power of setting aside discretionally whatsoever 
 should arise to disturb his plots : he was himself appointed 
 president and controller of the sargatchi. The Russian 
 court had been aware of his high pretensions by birth, and 25 
 hoped by this promotion to satisfy the ambition which, in 
 some degree, was acknowledged to be a reasonable passion 
 for any man occupying his situation. 
 
 Having thus completely blindfolded the cabinet of Rus- 
 sia, Zebek-Dorchi proceeded in his new character to fulfil 30 
 his political mission with the khan of the Kalmucks. So 
 artfully did he prepare the road for his favorable reception 
 at the court of this prince, that he was at once and univer- 
 sally welcomed as a public benefactor. The pensions of the 
 councillors were so much additional wealth poured into the 35 
 
26 DE quincey's 
 
 Tartar exchequer: as to the ties of dependency thus cre- 
 ated, experience had not yet enlightened these simple 
 tribes as to that result. And that he himself should be 
 the chief of these mercenary councillors was so far from 
 
 5 being charged upon Zebek as any offence, or any ground of 
 suspicion, that his relative the khan returned him hearty 
 thanks for his services, under the belief that he could have 
 accepted this appointment only with a view to keep out 
 other and more unwelcome pretenders, who would not have 
 
 10 had the same motives of consanguinity or friendship for 
 executing its duties in a spirit of kindness to the Kal- 
 mucks. The first use which he made of his new functions 
 about the khan's person was to attack the court of Eussia, 
 by a romantic villainy not easy to be credited, for those 
 
 15 very acts of interference with the council which he himself 
 had prompted. This was a dangerous step; but it was in- 
 dispensable to his farther advance upon the gloomy path 
 which he had traced out for liimself. A triple vengeance 
 was what he meditated: (1) upon the Russian cabinet, for 
 
 20 having undervalued his own pretensions to the throne; 
 (2) upon his amiable rival, for having supplanted him; 
 and (3) upon all those of the nobility who had manifested 
 their sense of his weakness by their neglect, or their sense 
 of his perfidious character by their suspicions. Here was 
 
 25a colossal outline of wickedness; and by one in his situa- 
 tion, feeble (as it might seem) for the accomplishment of 
 its humblest parts, how was the total edifice to be reared 
 in its comprehensive grandeur? He, a worm as he was, 
 could he venture to assail the mighty behemoth of Mus- 
 
 30covy, the potentate who counted three hundred languages 
 around the footsteps of his throne, and from whose "lion 
 ramp" recoiled alike "baptized and infidel," — Christen- 
 dom on the one side, strong by her intellect and her organ- 
 ization, and the "barbaric East" on the other, with her 
 
 35 unnumbered numbers? The match was a monstrous one; 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 27 
 
 but in its very monstrosity there lay this germ bf encour- 
 agement, — that it could not be suspected. The very hope- 
 lessness of the scheme grounded his hope; and he resolved 
 to execute a vengeance which should involve, as it were, 
 in the unity of a well-laid tragic fable, all whom he judged 5 
 to be his enemies. That vengeance lay in detaching from 
 the liLissian Empire the whole Kalmuck nation, and break- 
 ing up that system of intercourse which had thus far been 
 benehcial to both. This last was a consideration which 
 moved him but little. True it was that Russia to the Kal- 10 
 mucks had secured lands and extensive pasturage; true it 
 was that the Kalmucks reciprocally to Kussia had furnished 
 a powerful cavalry. But the latter loss would be part of 
 his triumph, and the former might be more than compen- 
 sated in other climates, under other sovereigns. Here was 15 
 a scheme, which, in its final accomplishment, ^\f)uld avenge 
 him bitterly on the Czarina, and in the course of its accom- 
 plishment might furnish him with ample occasions for re- 
 moving his other enemies. It may be readily supposed, 
 indeed, that he who coald deliberately raise his eyes to the 20 
 Russian autocrat as an antagonist in single duel with him- 
 self was not likely to feel much anxiety about Kalmuck 
 enemies of whatever rank. He took his resolution, there- 
 fore, sternly and irrevocably to effect this astonishing trans- 
 lation of an ancient people across the pathless deserts of 25 
 Central Asia, intersected continually by rapid rivers rarely 
 furnished with bridges, and of which tlie fords were known 
 only to those who might think it for their interest to con- 
 ceal them, through many nations inhospitable or hostile, — 
 frost and snow around them (from the necessity of com- 30 
 mencing their flight in the winter), famine in their front, 
 and the sabre, or even the artillery, of an offended and 
 mighty empress hanging upon their rear for thousands of 
 miles. But what was to be their final mark, the port of 
 shelter after so fearful a course of wandering? Two things 35 
 
28 DE quincey's 
 
 were evicrent: it must be some power at a great distance 
 from Eussi^ so as to make return even in that view hope- 
 less; and it must be a power of sufficient rank to insure 
 them protection from any hostile efforts on the part of the 
 
 :> Czarina for reclaiming them or for chastising their revolt. 
 Both conditions were united obviously in the person of 
 Kien Long, the reigning Emperor of China, who was fur- 
 ther recommended to them by his respect for the head of 
 their religion. To China, therefore, and, as their hrst 
 
 10 rendezvous, to the shadow of the great Chinese Wall, it 
 
 was settled by Zebek that they should direct their flight. 
 
 Next came the question of time : When should the flight 
 
 commence? and, finally, the more delicate question as to 
 
 the choice of accomplices. To extend the knowledge of 
 
 15 the conspiracy too far was to insure its betrayal to the 
 Russian gc^ernment. Yet, at some stage of the prepara- 
 tions it was evident that a very extensive confidence must 
 be made, because in no other way could the mass of the 
 Kalmuck population be persuaded to furnish their families 
 
 20 with the requisite equipments for so long a migration. 
 This critical step, however, it was resolved to defer up to 
 the latest possible moment, and at all events to make no 
 general communication on the subject until the time of 
 departure should be definitely settled. In the meantime 
 
 25 Zebek admitted only three persons to his confidence, of 
 whom Oubacha, the reigning prince, was almost necessarily 
 one; but him, from his yielding and somewhat feeble char- 
 acter, he viewed rather in the light of a tool than as one 
 of his active accomplices. Those whom (if anybody) he 
 
 oO admitted to an unreserved participation in his counsels 
 were two only, — the great lama among the Kalmucks, and 
 his own father-in-law, Erempel, a ruling prince of some 
 tribe in the neighborhood of the Caspian Sea, recommended 
 to his favor not so much by any strength of talent corre- 
 
 ;J5 sponding to the occasion, as by his blind devotion to him- 
 
FLIGHT OF A TAUTAK Till BE. 29 
 
 self and his passionate anxiety to promote the elevation of 
 his claughtei' and his son-in-law to the throne of a sovereign 
 prince. A titnlar prince, Zebek already was; bnt this dig- 
 nity, without the substantial accompaniment of a sceptre, 
 seemed but an empty sound to both of these ambitious 5 
 rivals. The other accomplice, whose name was Loosang- 
 Dchaltzan, and whose rank was that of lama, or Kalmuck 
 pontiff, was a person of far -more distinguished pretensions. 
 He had something of the same gloomy and terrific pride 
 which marked the character of Zebek himself, manifesting lo 
 also the same energy, accompanied by the same unfaltering 
 cruelty, and a natural facility of dissimulation even more 
 profound. It was l)y this man that tlie other question was 
 settled as to the time for giving effect to their designs. 
 His own pontifical character had suggested to him, that in 15 
 order to strengthen their influence with the vast mob of 
 simple-minded men whom they were to lead into a howling 
 wilderness, after persuading them to lay desolate their own 
 ancient hearths, it was indispensable that they should be 
 able, in cases of extremity, to plead the express sanction of 20 
 God for their entire enterprise. This could only be done 
 by addressing themselves to the great head of their reli- 
 gion, — the dalai-lama of Thibet. Him they easily per 
 suaded to countenance their schemes; and an oracle was 
 delivered solemnly at Thibet, to the effect that no ultimate 25 
 prosperity would attend this great exodus unless it were 
 pursued through the years of the tiger and the hare. Now, 
 the Kalmuck custom is to distinguish their years by attach- 
 ing to each a denomination taken from one of twelve ani- 
 mals, the exact order of succession being absolutely fixed ; so 
 so that the cycle revolves, of course, through a period of a 
 dozen years. Consequently, if the approaching year of the 
 tiger were suffered to escape them, in that case the expedi- 
 tion must be delayed for twelve years more; within which 
 period, even were no other unfavorable changes to arise, it 35 
 
30 DE quincey's 
 
 was pretty well foreseen that the Russian government would 
 take the most effectual means for bridling their vagrant 
 propensities by a ring fence of forts, or military posts, to 
 say nothing of the still readier plan for securing their fidel- 
 6 ity (a plan already talked of in all quarters) by exacting 
 a large body of hostages selected from the families of the 
 most influential nobles. On these cogent considerations it 
 was solemnly determined that this terrific experiment should 
 be made in the next year of the tiger, which happened to 
 
 10 fall upon the Christian year 1771. With respect to the 
 month, there was, unhappily for the Kalmucks, even less 
 latitude allowed to their choice than with respect to the 
 year. It was absolutely necessary, or it was thought so, 
 that the different divisions of the nation, which pastured 
 
 15 their flocks on both banks of the Wolga, should have the 
 means of effecting an instantaneous junction, because the 
 danger of being intercepted by flying columns of the impe- 
 rial armies Avas precisely the greatest at the outset. Now, 
 from the want of bridges, or sufficient river craft for trans- 
 
 20 porting so vast a body of men, the sole means which could 
 be depended upon (especially where so many women, chil- 
 dren, and camels were concerned) was ice; and this, in a 
 state of sufiicient firmness, could not be absolutely counted 
 upon before the month of January. Hence it happened 
 
 25 that this astonishing exodus of a whole nation — before so 
 much as a whisper of the design had begun to circulate 
 amongst those whom it most interested, before it was even 
 suspected that any man's wishes pointed in that direction — 
 had been definitively appointed for January of the year 1771 ; 
 
 :^oand, almost up to the Christmas of 1770, the poor, simple 
 Kalmuck herdsmen and their families were going nightly to 
 their peaceful beds without even dreaming that the fiat had 
 already gone forth from their rulers, consigning those quiet 
 abodes, together with the peace and comfort which reigned 
 
 o5 within them, to a withering desolation, now close at liand. 
 
FLIGHT OF A TAIITAK TUII5K. 31 
 
 Meantime war raged on a great scale between llussia and 
 the Sultan; and, nntil the time arrived for throwing ott' 
 their vassalage, it was necessary that Oubacha should con- 
 tribute his usual contingent of martial aid. Nay, it had 
 unfortunately become prudent that he should contribute n 
 much more than his usual aid. Human experience gives 
 ample evidence that in some mysterious and unaccountable 
 way no great design is ever agitated, no matter how few or 
 how faithful may be the participators, but that some pre- 
 sentiment, some dim misgiving, is kindled amongst those lo 
 whom it is chiefly important to blind. And, however it 
 might have happened, certain it is that already, when as 
 yet no syllable of the conspiracy had been breathed to 
 any man whose very existence was not staked upon its con- 
 cealment, nevertheless some vague and uneasy jealousy had 15 
 arisen in the Kussian cabinet as to the future schemes of 
 the Kalmuck khan; and very probable it is, that, but for 
 the war then raging and the consequent prudence of con- 
 ciliating a very important vassal, or at least of abstaining 
 from what would powerfully alienate him, even at that 20 
 moment such measures would have been adopted as must 
 forever have intercepted the Kalmuck schemes. Slight 
 as were the jealousies of the imperial court, they had not 
 escaped the Machiavellian eyes of Zebek and the lama; 
 and under their guidance, Oubacha, bending to the circum- 25 
 stances of the moment, and meeting the jealousy of the 
 llussian court with a policy corresponding to their own, 
 strove by unusual zeal to efface the Czarina's unfavorable 
 im})ressions. He enlarged the scale of his contributions, 
 and that so prodigiously, that he absolutely carried to head-^o 
 quarters a force of thirty-five thousand cavalry, fully 
 equipped. Some go further, and rate the amount beyond 
 forty thousand; but the smaller estimate is, at all events, 
 within the truth. 
 
 With this magnificent array of cavalry, heavy as well as o5 
 
32 DE quincey's 
 
 light, the klitm went into the fiekl under great expecta- 
 tions; and these he more than realized. Having the good 
 fortune to be concerned with so ill-organized and disorderly 
 a description of force as that which at all times composed 
 
 5 the bulk of a Turkish army, he carried victory along with 
 
 his banners, gained many partial successes, and at last, in 
 
 a pitched battle, overthrew the Turkish force opposed to 
 
 him, with a loss of five thousand men left upon the field. 
 
 These splendid achievements seemed likely to operate in 
 
 10 various ways against the impending revolt. Oubacha had 
 now a strong motive, in the martial glory acquired, for 
 continuing his connection with the empire in whose service 
 he had won it, and by whom only it could be fully appreci- 
 ated. He was now a great marshal of a great empire, — one 
 
 15 of the paladins around the imperial throne; in China he 
 would be nobody, or (worse than that) a mendicant alien, 
 prostrate at the feet, and soliciting the precarious alms, of 
 a prince with whom he had no connection. Besides, it 
 might reasonably be expected that the Czarina, grateful for 
 
 20 the really efficient aid given by the Tartar prince, would 
 confer upon him such eminent rewards as might be sufficient 
 to anchor his hopes upon Eussia and to wean him frojn 
 every possible seduction. These were the obvious sugges- 
 tions of prudence and good sense to every man who stood 
 
 25 neutral in the case. But they were disappointed. The 
 Czarina knew her obligations to the khan; but she did not 
 acknowledge them. Wherefore? That is a mystery per- 
 haps never to be explained. So it was, however. The 
 khan went unhonored ; no ukase ever proclaimed his merits ; 
 
 30 and perhaps, had he even been abundantly recompensed by 
 Eussia, there were others who would have defeated these 
 tendencies to reconciliation. Erempel, Zebek, and Loosang, 
 the lama, were pledged life-deep to prevent any accommo- 
 dation; and their efforts were unfortunately seconded by 
 
 35 those of their deadliest enemies. In the Eussian court 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 33 
 
 there were at that time some great nobles preoccupied with 
 feelings of hatred and blind malice towards the Kalmucks, 
 quite as strong as any which the Kalmucks could harbor 
 towards Eussia, and not, perhaps, so well founded. Just 
 as much as the Kalmucks hated the Russian yoke, their 5 
 galling assumption of authority, the marked air of disdain, 
 as towards a nation of ugly, stupid, and filthy barbarians, 
 which too generally marked the Russian bearing and lan- 
 guage, — but, above all, the insolent contempt, or even 
 outrages, which the Russian governors or great military lo 
 commandants tolerated in their followers towards the bar- 
 barous religion and superstitious mummeries of the Kal- 
 muck priesthood, — precisely in that extent did the ferocity 
 of the Russian resentment, and their wrath at seeing the 
 trampled worm turn, or attempt a feeble retaliation, react 15 
 upon the unfortunate Kalmucks. At this crisis it is prob- 
 able that envy and wounded pride, upon witnessing the 
 splendid victories of Oubacha and Momotbacha over the 
 Turks and Bashkirs, contributed strength to the Russian 
 irritation; and it must have been through the intrigues of 20 
 those nobles about her person who chiefly smarted under 
 these feelings, that the Czarina could ever have lent herself 
 to the unwise and ungrateful policy pursued at this critical 
 period towards the Kalmuck khan. That Czarina was no 
 longer Elizabeth Petrowna: it was Catharine II., a princess 25 
 who did not often err so injuriously (injuriously for herself 
 as much as for others) in the measures of her government. 
 She had soon ample reason for repenting of her false policy. 
 Meantime, how much it must have co-operated with the 
 other motives previously acting upon Oubacha in sustaining 30 
 his determination to revolt, and how powerfully it must 
 have assisted the efforts of all the Tartar chieftains in pre- 
 paring the minds of their people to feel the necessity of 
 this difficult enterprise, by arming their pride and their 
 suspicions against the Russian government, through the 35 
 
34 DE quincey's 
 
 keenness of their sympathy with the wrongs of their 
 insulted prince, may be readily imagined. It is a fact, 
 and it has been confessed by candid Russians themselves 
 when treating of this great dismemberment, that the con- 
 5 duct of the E-ussian cabinet throughout the period of sus- 
 pense, and during tlie crisis of hesitation in the Kalmuck 
 council, was exactly such as was most desirable for the 
 purposes of the conspirators : it was such, in fact, as to set 
 the seal to all their machinations, by supplying distinct 
 
 10 evidences and official vouchers for what could otherwise 
 have been, at the most, matters of doubtful suspicion and 
 indirect presumption. 
 
 Nevertheless, in the face of all these arguments, and 
 even allowing their weight so far as not at all to deny the 
 
 15 injustice or the impolicy of the imperial ministers, it is 
 contended by many persons who have reviewed the affair 
 with a command of all the documents bearing on the case, 
 more especially the letters or minutes of council subse- 
 quently discovered, in the handwriting of Zebek-Dorchi, 
 
 20 and the important evidence of the Russian captive Weseloff, 
 who was carried off by the Kalmucks in their flight, that 
 beyond all doubt Oubacha was powerless for any purpose 
 of impeding or even of delaying the revolt. He himself, 
 indeed, was under religious obligations of the most terrific 
 
 25 solemnity never to flinch from the enterprise, or even to 
 slacken in his zeal; for Zebek-Dorchi, distrusting the firm- 
 ness of his resolution under any unusual ]3ressure of alarm 
 or difficulty, had, in the very earliest stage of the con- 
 spiracy, availed himself of the khan's well-known supersti- 
 
 ;50 tion to engage him, by means of previous concert with the 
 priests and their head the lama, in some dark and mysterious 
 rites of consecration, terminating in oaths under such ter- 
 rific sanctions as no Kalmuck would have courage to violate. 
 As far, therefore, as regarded the personal share of the khan 
 
 35 in what was to come, Zebek was entirely at his ease. He 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR T'ilBE. 35 
 
 knew him to be so deeply pledged by religious terrors to 
 the prosecution of the conspiracy that no honors within the 
 Czarina's gift could have possibly shaken his adhesion ; and 
 then, as to threats from the same quarter, he knew him to 
 be sealed against tliose fears by otliers of a gloomier charac- r. 
 ter, and better adapted to his peculiar temperament. For 
 Oabaclia was a brave man as respected all bodily enemies 
 or the dangers of human warfare, but was as sensitive and 
 timid as the most superstitious of old women in facing the 
 frowns of a priest, or under the vague anticipations ofio 
 ghostly retributions. But had it been otherwise, and had 
 there been any reason to apprehend an unsteady demeanor 
 on the part of this prince at the approach of the critical 
 moment, such were the changes already effected in the state 
 of their domestic politics amongst the' Tartars by the under- 15 
 mining arts of Zebek-Dorchi and his ally the lama, that very 
 little importance would have attached to that doubt. All 
 power was now effectually lodged in the hand of Zebek- 
 Dorchi. He was the true and absolute wielder of the Kal- 
 muck sceptre; all measures of importance were submitted 20 
 to his discretion, and nothing was finally resolved but under 
 his dictation. This result he had brought about, in a year 
 or two, by means sufficiently simple : first of all, by availing 
 himself of the prejudice in his favor, so largely diffused 
 among the lowest of the Kalmucks, that his own title to the 25 
 throne, in quality of great-grandson in a direct line from 
 Ajouka, the most illustrious of all the Kalmuck khans, 
 stood upon a better basis than that of Oubacha, who derived 
 from a collateral branch; secondly, with respect to that sole 
 advantage which Oubacha possessed above himself in the 30 
 ratification of his title, by improving this difference between 
 their situations to the disadvantage of his competitor, as 
 one who had not scrupled to accept that triumph from an 
 alien power at the price of his independence, which he 
 himself (as he would have it understood) disdained to court; 35 
 
36 DE quincey's 
 
 tliirdly, by his own talents and address, coupled with the 
 ferocious energy of his moral character; fourthly, and per- 
 haps in an equal degree, by the criminal facility and good 
 nature of Oubacha; finally (which is remarkable enough, as 
 5 illustrating the character of the man), by that very new 
 modelling of the sarga, or privy council, which he had used 
 as a principal topic of abuse and malicious insinuation 
 against the Russian government, whilst in reality he first 
 had suggested the alteration to the empress, and he chiefly 
 
 10 appropriated the political advantages which it was fitted to 
 yield. For, as he was himself appointed the chief of the 
 sargatchi, and as the pensions of the inferior sargatchi passed 
 through his hands, whilst in effect they owed their appoint- 
 ments to his nomination, it may be easily supposed, that 
 
 15 whatever power existed in the state capable of controlling 
 the khan being held by the sarga under its new organiza- 
 tion, and this body being completely under his influence, 
 the final result was to throw all the functions of the state, 
 whether nominally in the prince or in the council, sub- 
 
 20stantially into the hands of this one man; whilst at the 
 same time, from the strict league which he maintained 
 with the lama, all the tliunders of his spiritual power were 
 always ready to come in aid of the magistrate, or to supply 
 his incapacity in cases which he could not reach. 
 
 25 But the time was now rapidly approaching for the mighty 
 experiment. The day was drawing near on which the sig- 
 nal was to be given for raising the standard of revolt, and, 
 by a combined movement on both sides of the Wolga, for 
 spreading the smoke of one vast conflagration that should 
 
 30 wrap in a common blaze their own huts and the stately 
 cities of their enemies over the breadth and length of tho^e 
 great provinces in which their flocks were dispersed. The 
 year of the tiger was now within one little month of its 
 commencement. The fifth morning of that year was fixed 
 
 35 for the fatal day when the fortunes and happiness of a 
 
FLIGHT OP A TARTAR TRIBE. 37 
 
 whole nation were to be put upon the hazard of a dicer's 
 throw; and as yet that nation was in profound ignorance of 
 the whole plan. The khan, such was the kindness of his 
 nature, could not bring himself to make the revelation so 
 urgently re(j^uired. It was clear, however, that this could n 
 not be delayed; and Zebek-Dorchi took the task willingly 
 upon himself. But where or how should this notitication 
 be made, so as to exclude Russian hearers? After some 
 deliberation the following plan was adopted: Couriers, it 
 was contrived, should arrive in furious haste, one upon the lo 
 heels of another, reporting a sudden inroad of the Kirghizes 
 and Bashkirs upon the Kalmuck lands at a point distant 
 about one hundred and twenty miles. Thither all the 
 Kalmuck families, according to immemorial custom, were 
 required to send a separate representative; and there, 15 
 accordingly, within three days, all appeared. The dis- 
 tance, the solitary ground appointed for the rendezvous, 
 the rapidity of tlie march, all tended to make it almost cer- 
 tain that no Russian could be present. Zebek-Dorchi then 
 came forward. He did not waste many words upon rhetoric. 20 
 He unfurled an immense sheet of parchment, visible from 
 the outermost distance at wliich any of this vast crowd 
 could stand. The total number amounted to eighty thou- 
 sand: all saw, and many heard. They were told of the 
 oppressions of Russia; of her pride and haughty disdain, 25 
 evidenced towards them by a thousand acts; of her con- 
 tempt for their religion; of her determination to reduce 
 them to absolute slavery; of the preliminary measures she 
 had already taken by erecting forts upon many of the great 
 rivers of their neighborhood; of the ulterior intentions she 30 
 thus announced to circumscribe their pastoral lands, until 
 they would all be obliged to renounce their flocks and to col- 
 lect in towns like Sarepta, there to pursue jnechanical and 
 servile trades of shoemaker, tailor, and weaver, such as the 
 freeborn Tartar had always disdained. 
 
38 DE quincey's 
 
 said the subtle prince, "shfe increases her military levies 
 upon our population every year. We pour out our blood 
 as young men in her defence, or more often in support of 
 her insolent aggressions; and as old men we reap nothing 
 
 5 from our sufferings, nor benefit by our survivorship where 
 so many are sacrificed." At this point of his harangue, 
 Zebek produced several papers (forged, as it is generally 
 believed, by himself and the lama) containing projects of 
 the Russian court for a general transfer of the eldest sons, 
 
 10 taken en masse from the greatest Kalmuck families, to the 
 imperial court. "Now, let this be once accomplished," he 
 argued, " and there is an end of all useful resistance from 
 that day forwards. Petitions we might make, or even 
 remonstrances; as men of words, we might play a bold 
 
 15 part : but for deeds, for that sort of language by which our 
 
 ancestors were used to speak, holding us by such a chain, 
 
 Russia would make a jest of our wishes, knowing full well 
 
 that we should not dare to make any effectual movement." 
 
 Having thus sufficiently roused the angry passions of his 
 
 20 vast audience, and having alarmed their fears by this pre- 
 tended scheme against their firstborn (an artifice which was 
 indispensable to his purpose, because it met beforehand every 
 form of amendment to his proposal coming from the more 
 moderate nobles, who would not otherwise have failed to 
 
 25 insist upon trying the effect of bold addresses to the empress 
 before resorting to any desperate extremity), Zebek-Dorchi 
 opened his scheme of revolt, and, if so, of instant revolt; 
 since any preparations reported at St. Petersburg would be 
 a signal for the armies of Russia to cross into such positions 
 
 30 from all parts of Asia as would effectually intercept their 
 march. It is remarkable, however, that, with all his 
 audacity and his reliance upon the momentary excitement 
 of the Kalmucks, the subtle prince did not venture at this 
 stage of his seduction to make so startling a proposal as 
 
 35 that of a flight to China. All that he held out for the 
 
FLIGHT OF A TAllTAR TRIBE. 39 
 
 present was a rapid march to the Temba or some other great 
 river, which they were to cross, and to take up a strong 
 position on the farther bank, from which, as from a x)Ost 
 of conscious security, they coukl hold a bolder language to 
 the Czarina, and one which would have a better chance of r, 
 winning a favorable audience. 
 
 These things, in the irritated condition of the simple 
 Tartars, passed by acclamation; and all returned homewards 
 to push forward with the most furious speed the prepara- 
 tions for their awful undertaking, liapid and energetic 10 
 these of necessity were; and in that degree they became 
 noticeable and manifest to the Russians who happened to 
 be intermingled with the different hordes, either on com- 
 mercial errands or as agents officially from the Itussian 
 government, — some in a financial, others in a diplomatic 15 
 character. 
 
 Among these last (indeed, at the head of them) was a 
 Russian of some distinction, by name Kichinskoi, a man 
 memorable for his vanity, and memorable also as one of the 
 many victims to the Tartar revolution. This Kichinskoi 20 
 had been sent by the empress as her envoy to overlook the 
 conduct of the Kalmucks. He was styled the grand pristaw, 
 or great commissioner, and was universally known among 
 the Tartar tribes by this title. His mixed character of 
 ambassador and of political stirveillant, combined Avith the 25 
 dependent state of the Kalmucks, gave him a real weight 
 in the Tartar councils, and might have given him a far 
 greater had not his outrageous self-conceit and his arrogant 
 confidence in his own authority, as due chiefly to his per- 
 sonal qualities for command, led him into such harsh dis-30 
 plays of power and menaces so odious to the Tartar pride 
 as very soon made him an object of their profoundest malice. 
 He had publicly insulted the khan; and upon making a 
 communication to him to the effect that some reports began 
 to circulate, and even to reach the empress, of a design in 35 
 
40 DE quincey's 
 
 agitation to fly from the imperial dominions, he had ven- 
 tured to say, " But this you dare not attempt. I hiugh at 
 such rumors: yes, khan, I laugli at them to the empress; 
 for you are a chained bear, and that you know." The khan 
 5 turned away on his heel with marked disdain; and the 
 pristaw, foaming at the mouth, continued to utter, amongst 
 those of the khan's attendants who stayed behind to catcli 
 his real sentiments in a moment of unguarded passion, all 
 that the blindest frenzy of rage could suggest to the most 
 
 10 presumptuous of fools. It was now ascertained that sus- 
 picions had arisen; but at the same time it was ascertained 
 that the pristaw spoke no more than the truth in represent- 
 ing himself to have discredited these suspicions. The fact 
 was, that the mere infatuation of vanity made him believe 
 
 15 that nothing could go on undetected by his all-piercing 
 sagacity, and that no rebellion could prosper when rebuked 
 by his commanding presence. The Tartars, therefore, pur- 
 sued their preparations, confiding in the obstinate blindness 
 of the grand pristaw, as in their perfect safeguard; and 
 
 20 such it proved, to his own ruin as well as that of myriads 
 beside. 
 
 Christmas arrived; and a little before that time courier 
 upon courier came dropping in, one upon the very heels of 
 another, to St. Petersburg, assuring the Czarina that beyond 
 
 25 all doubt the Kalmucks were in the very crisis of departure. 
 These despatches came from the governor of Astraklian; 
 and copies were instantly forwarded to Kichinskoi. Now, 
 it happened that between this governor, a Russian named 
 Beketoff, and the pristaw, had been an ancient feud. The 
 
 30 very name of Beketoff inflamed his resentment; and no 
 sooner did he see that hated name attached to the despatch 
 than he felt himself confirmed in his former views with 
 tenfold bigotry, and wrote instantly, in terms of the most 
 pointed ridicule, against the new alarmist, pledging his own 
 
 35 head upon the visionariness of his alarms. Beketoff, how- 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 41 
 
 ever, was not to be put down by a few hard words or by 
 ridicule. He persisted in his statements. The Russian 
 ministry were confounded by the obstinacy of the dispu- 
 tants ; and some were beginning even to treat the governor 
 of Astrakhan as a bore and as the dupe of his own nervous 5 
 terrors, when the memorable day arrived, the fatal 5th of 
 January, which forever terminated the dispute, and put a 
 seal upon the earthly hopes and fortunes of unnumbered 
 myriads. The governor of Astrakhan was the first to hear 
 the news. Stung by the mixed furies of jealousy, of tri- lo 
 umphant vengeance, and of anxious ambition, he sprang 
 into his sledge, and at the rate of three hundred miles a day 
 pursued his route to St. Petersburg, rushed into the impe- 
 rial presence, announced the total realization of his worst 
 predictions, and upon the confirmation of this intelligence 15 
 by subsequent despatches from many different posts on the 
 Wolga, he received an imperial commission to seize the 
 person of his deluded enemy and to keep him in strict cap- 
 tivity. These orders were eagerly fulfilled; and the unfor- 
 tunate Kichinskoi soon afterward expired of grief and 20 
 mortification in the gloomy solitude of a dungeon, — a 
 victim to his own immeasurable vanity and the blinding 
 self-delusions of a presumption that refused all warning. 
 
 The governor of Astrakhan had been but too faithful a 
 prophet. Perhaps even he was surprised at the suddenness 25 
 with which the verification followed his reports. Precisely 
 on the 5th of January, the day so solemnly appointed under 
 religious sanctions by the lama, the Kalmucks on the east 
 bank of the Wolga were seen at the earliest dawn of day 
 assembling by troops and squadrons, and in the tumultuous 30 
 movement of some great morning of battle. Tens of thou- 
 sands continued moving off the ground at every half hour's 
 interval. Women and children, to the amount of two hun- 
 dred thousand and upwards, were placed upon wagons or 
 upon camels, and drew off by masses of twenty thousand 35 
 
42 DE quincey's 
 
 at once, i:)lacecl under suitable escorts, and continually 
 swelled in numbers by other outlying bodies of the horde 
 who kept falling in at various distances upon the first and 
 the second day's march. From sixty to eighty thousand of 
 
 5 those who were the best mounted stayed behind the rest of 
 the tribes, with purposes of devastation and plunder jnore 
 violent than prudence justified or the amiable character of 
 the khan could be supposed to approve. But in this, as in 
 other instances, he was completely overruled by the malig- 
 
 10 nant counsels of Zebek-Dorchi. The first tempest of the 
 desolating fury of the Tartars discharged itself upon their 
 own habitations. But this, as cutting off all infirm looking 
 backward from the hardships of their march, had been 
 thought so necessary a measure by all the chieftains, that 
 
 15 even Oubacha himself was the first to authorize the act by 
 his own example. He seized a torch, previously prepared 
 with materials the most durable as well as combustible, and 
 steadily applied it to the timbers of his own palace. Noth- 
 ing was saved from the general wreck except the portable 
 
 20 part of the domestic utensils and that part of the woodwork 
 Avhich could be applied to the manufacture of the long 
 Tartar lances. This chapter in their memorable day's 
 work being finished, and the whole of their villages 
 throughout a district of ten thousand square miles in one 
 
 2r. simultaneous blaze, the Tartars waited for further orders. 
 
 These, it was intended, should have taken a character of 
 
 valedictory vengeance, and thus have left behind to the 
 
 Czarina a dreadful commentary upon the main motives of 
 
 their flight. It was the purpose of Zebek-Dorchi that all 
 
 30 the Eussian towns, churches, and buildings of every descrip- 
 tion should be given up to pillage and destruction, and such 
 treatment applied to the defenceless inhabitants as might 
 naturally be expected from a fierce people already infuri- 
 ated by the spectacle of their own outrages and by the 
 
 35 bloody retaliations which they must necessarily have pro- 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 43 
 
 voked. This part of the tragedy, however, was happily 
 intercepted by a providential disappointment at the very . 
 crisis of departure. It has been mentioned already that 
 the motive for selecting the depth of winter as the season 
 of flight (which otherwise was obviously the very worst 5 
 possible) had been the impossibility of effecting a junction 
 sufficiently rapid with the tribes on the west of the Wolga, 
 m the absence of bridges, unless by a natural bridge of ice. 
 For this one advantage the Kalmuck leaders had consented 
 to aggravate by a thousandfold the calamities inevitable to 10 
 a rapid Hight over boundless tracts of country with women, 
 children, and herds of cattle, — for this one single advan- 
 tage ; and yet, after all, it was lost. The reason never has 
 been explained satisfactorily; but the fact was such. Some 
 have said that the signals were not properly concerted for 15 
 marking the moment of absolute departure; that is, for 
 signifying whether the settled intention of the eastern 
 Kalmucks might not have been suddenly interrupted by 
 adverse intelligence. Others have supposed that the ice 
 might not be equally strong on both sides of the river, and 20 
 might even be generally insecure for the treading of heavy 
 and heavily laden animals such as camels. But the pre- 
 vailing notion is, that some accidental movements, on the 
 3d and 4th of January, of Russian troops in the neighbor- 
 hood of the western Kalmucks, though really having no 25 
 reference to them or their plans, had been construed into 
 certain signs that all was discovered, and that the prudence 
 of the western chieftains, who, from situation, had never 
 been exposed to those intrigues by which Zebek-Dorchi had 
 practised upon the pride of the eastern tribes, now stepped 30 
 in to save their people from ruin. Be the cause what it 
 might, it is certain that the western Kalmucks were in some 
 way prevented from forming the intended junction with 
 their brethren of tlie opposite bank; and the result was, 
 that at least one hundred thousand of these Tartars were 35 
 
44 DE quincey's 
 
 left behind in Russia. This accident it was which saved 
 their Ilussian neighbors universally from the desolation 
 which else awaited them. One general massacre and con- 
 flagration would assuredly have surprised them, to the utter 
 
 5 extermination of their property, their houses, and them- 
 selves, had it not been for this disappointment. But the 
 eastern chieftains did not dare to put to hazard the safety 
 of their brethren under the first impulse of the Czarina's 
 vengeance for so dreadful a tragedy ; for, as they were well 
 
 10 aware of too many circumstances by which she might dis- 
 cover the concurrence of the western people in the general 
 scheme of revolt, they justly feared that she would thence 
 infer their concurrence also in the bloody events which 
 marked its outset. 
 
 15 Little did the western Kalmucks guess what reasons they 
 also had for gratitude on account of an interposition so 
 unexpected, and which, at the moment, they so generally 
 deplored. Could they but have witnessed the thousandth 
 part of the sufferings which overtook their eastern brethren 
 
 20 in the first month of their sad flight, they would have 
 
 blessed Heaven for their own narrow escape; and yet these 
 
 sufferings of the first month were but a prelude or foretaste 
 
 comparatively slight of those which afterwards succeeded. 
 
 For now began to unroll the most awful series of calami- 
 
 25 ties, and the most extensive, which is anywhere recorded 
 to have visited the sons and daughters of men. It is pos- 
 sible that the sudden inroads of destroying nations — such 
 as the Huns, or the Avars, or the Mongol Tartars — may 
 have inflicted misery as extensive; but there the misery 
 
 30 and the desolation would be sudden, like the flight of vol- 
 leying lightning. Those who were spared at first would 
 generally be spared to the end; those who perished would 
 perish instantly. It is possible that the French retreat 
 from Moscow may have made some nearer approach to this 
 
 35 calamity in duration, though still a feeble and miniature 
 
FLIGHT OF A TAETAR TRIBE 45 
 
 approach, for tli(3 French sufferings did not commence in 
 good earnest until about one month from the time of leav- 
 ing Moscow; and though it is true that afterwards the vials 
 of wrath were emptied upon the devoted army for six or 
 seven weeks in succession, yet what is that to this Kalmuck 5 
 tragedy, which lasted for more than as many months? But 
 the main feature of horror, by which the Tartar march 
 was distinguished from the French, lies in the accompani- 
 ment of women and children. There were both, it is true, 
 with the French army, but so few as to bear no visible 10 
 proportion to the total numbers concerned. The French, 
 in short, were merely an army, — a host of professional 
 destroyers, whose regular trade -was bloodshed, and whose 
 regular element was danger and suffering. But the Tartars 
 were a nation carr3dng along .with them more than two 15 
 hundred and fifty thousand women and children, utterly 
 unequal, for the most part, to any contest with the calami- 
 ties before them. The children of Israel were in the same 
 circumstances as to the accompaniment of their families; 
 but they were released from the pursuit of their enemies in 20 
 a very early stage of their flight; and their subsequent 
 residence in the desert was not a march, but a continued 
 halt, and under a continued interposition of Heaven for 
 their comfortable support. Earthquakes, again, however 
 comprehensive in their ravages, are shocks of a moment's 25 
 duration. A much nearer approach made to the wide range 
 and the long duration of the Kalmuck tragedy jmay have 
 been in a pestilence such as that which visited Athens in 
 the Peloponnesian War, or London in the reign of Charles 
 II. VThere, also, the martyrs were counted by myriads, and 30 
 the period of the desolation was counted by months. But, 
 after all, the total amount of destruction was on a smaller 
 scale; and there was this feature of alleviation to the 
 conscious pressure of the calamity, — that the misery was 
 withdrawn from public notice into private chambers and 35 
 
46 DE quincey's 
 
 hospitals. The siege of Jerusalem by Vespasiau and his 
 son, taken in its entire circumstances, comes nearest of all 
 for breadth and depth of suffering, for duration, for the 
 exasperation of the suffering from without by internal 
 
 5 feuds, aud, finally, for that last most appalling expression 
 of the furnace heat of the anguish in its power to extin- 
 guish the natural affections even of maternal love. But, 
 after all, each case had circumstances of romantic misery 
 peculiar to itself, — circumstances without precedent, and 
 
 10 (wherever human nature is ennobled by Christianity), it 
 may be confidently hoped, never to be repeated. 
 
 The first point to be reached, before any hope of repose 
 could be encouraged, was the river Jaik. This was not 
 above three hundred miles from the main point of departure 
 
 15 on the Wolgaj (and, if the march thither was to be a forced 
 one and a severe one, it was alleged, on the other hand, 
 that the suffering would be the more brief and transient: 
 one summary exertion, not to be repeated, and all was 
 achieved. Forced the march was, and severe beyond ex- 
 
 20 ample, — there the forewarning proved correct, — but the- 
 promised rest proved a mere phantom of the wilderness, a 
 visionary rainbow, which fled before their hope-sick eyes, 
 across these interminable solitudes, for seven months of 
 hardship and calamity, without a pause. These sufferings, 
 
 25 by their very nature and the circumstances under which 
 they arose, were (like the scenery of the steppes) somewhat 
 monotonous in their coloring and external features. What 
 variety, however, there was, will be most naturally exhibited 
 by tracing historically the successive stages of the general 
 
 30 misery exactly as it unfolded itself under the double agency 
 of weakness, still increasing from within, and hostile pres- 
 sure from without. Viewed in this manner, under the real 
 order of development, it is remarkable that these sufferings 
 of the Tartars, though under the moulding hands of acci- 
 
 35 dent, arrange themselves almost with a scenical propriety. 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 47 
 
 They seem combined as with the skill of an artist, the 
 intensity of tlie misery advancing regularly with the 
 advances of the march, and the stages of the calamity cor- 
 responding to the stages of the route ; so that, upon raising 
 the curtain which veils the great catastrophe, we behold 5 
 one vast climax of anguish, towering upwards by regular 
 gradations, as if constructed artificially for picturesque 
 effect, — ^ a result which might not have been surprising, had 
 it been reasonable to anticipate the same rate of speed, and 
 even an accelerated rate, as prevailing through the later lo 
 stages of the expedition. But it seemed, on the contrary, 
 most reasonable to calculate upon a continual decrement in 
 the rate of motion according to the increasing distance from 
 the headquarters of the pursuing enemy. This calculation, 
 however, was defeated by the extraordinary circumstance 15 
 that the Russian armies did not begin to close in very fiercely 
 upon the Kalmucks until after they had accomplished a 
 distance of full two thousand miles. One thousand miles 
 farther on, the assaults became even more tumultuous and 
 murderous; and already the great shadows of the Chinese 20 
 AVall were dimly descried, when the frenzy and achar7iement 
 of the pursuers and the bloody desperation of the miserable 
 fugitives had reached its uttermost extremity. Let us 
 briefly rehearse the main stages of the misery, and trace 
 the ascending steps of the tragedy according to the great 25 
 divisions of the route marked out by the central rivers of 
 Asia. 
 
 The first stage, we have already said, was from the Wolga 
 to the Jaik; the distance about three hundred miles; the 
 time allowed seven days. For the first Aveek, therefore, 30 
 the rate of marching averaged about forty-three English 
 miles a day. The weather was cold but bracing; and at a 
 more moderate pace this part of the journey might have 
 been accomplished without much distress by a people as 
 hardy as the Kalmucks. As it was, the cattle suffered 35 
 
48 DE quincey's 
 
 greatly from overdriving; milk began to fail even for the 
 children; the sheep perished by wholesale; and the chil- 
 dren themselves were saved only by the innumerable camels. 
 The Cossacks who dwelt upon the banks of the Jaik were 
 
 5 the first among the subjects of Eussia to come into colli- 
 sion with tlie Kalmucks. Great was their surprise at the 
 suddenness of the irruption, and great, also, their con- 
 sternation; for, according to their settled custom, by far 
 the greater part of their number was absent during the 
 
 10 winter months at the fisheries upon the Caspian. Some 
 who were liable to surprise at the most exposed points fled 
 in crowds to the fortress of Koulagina, which was immedi- 
 ately invested and summoned by Oubacha. He had, how- 
 ever, in his train only a few light pieces of artillery; and 
 
 15 the Russian commandant at Koulagina, being aware of the 
 hurried circumstances in which the khan was placed, and 
 that he stood upon the very edge, as it were, of a renewed 
 flight, felt encouraged by these considerations to a more 
 obstinate resistance than might else have been advisable 
 
 20 with an enemy so little disposed to observe the usages of 
 civilized warfare. The jjeriod of his anxiety was not long. 
 On the fifth day of the siege lie descried from the walls a 
 succession of Tartar couriers, mounted upon fleet Bactritin 
 camels, crossing the vast plains around the fortress at a 
 
 25 furious pace, and riding into the Kalmuck encampment at 
 various points. Great agitation appeared immediately to 
 follow. Orders were soon after despatched in all direc- 
 tions ; and it became speedily known that upon a distant 
 flank of the Kalmuck movement a bloody and exterminating 
 
 30 battle had been fought the day before, in which one entire 
 tribe of the khan's dependents, numbering not less than 
 nine thousand fighting men, had perished to the last man. 
 This was the ouloss, or clan, called Feka-Zechorr, between 
 whom and the Cossacks there was a feud of ancient stand- 
 
 35 ing. In selecting, therefore, the points of attack, on occa- 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 49 
 
 sion of the present hasty inroad, the Cossack chiefs were 
 naturally eager so to direct their efforts as to combine with 
 the service of the empress some gratification to their own 
 party hatreds, more especially as the present was likely 
 to be their final opportunity for revenge, if the Kalmuck 5 
 evasion should prosper. Having, therefore, concentrated 
 as large a body of Cossack cavalry as circumstances allowed, 
 they attacked the hostile ouloss with a precipitation which 
 denied to it all means for communicating with Oubacha; 
 for the necessity of commanding an ample range of pas- 10 
 turage, to meet the necessities of their vast flocks and herds, 
 had separated this ouloss from the khan's headquarters by 
 an interval of eighty miles : and thus it was, and not from 
 oversight, that it came to be thrown entirely upon its own 
 resources. These had proved insufficient. Ketreat, from 15 
 the exhausted state of their horses and camels, no less than 
 from the prodigious incumbrances of their live stock, was 
 absolutely out of the question. Quarter was disdained on 
 the one side, and would not have been granted on tlie 
 other; and thus it had happened that the setting sun of 20 
 that one day (the thirteenth from the first opening of the 
 revolt) threw his parting rays upon the final agonies of an 
 ancient ouloss, stretched upon a bloody field, who on that 
 day's dawning had held and styled themselves an inde- 
 pendent nation. 25 
 
 Universal consternation was diffused through the wide 
 borders of the khan's encampment by this disastrous intel- 
 ligence, not so much on account of the numbers slain, or 
 the total extinction of a powerful ally, as because the posi- 
 tion of the Cossack force was likely to put to hazard the 30 
 future advances of the Kalmucks, or at least to retard and 
 hold them in check until the heavier columns of the Rus- 
 sian army should arrive upon their flanks. The siege of 
 Koulagina was instantly raised; and that signal, so fatal 
 to the happiness of the women and children, once again 35 
 
50 DE quincey's 
 
 resounded through the tents, — the signal for flight, and 
 this time for a flight more rapid than ever. ,4.bout one 
 hundred and fifty miles ahead of their present position 
 there arose a tract of hilly country, forming a sort of mar- 
 5 gin to the vast, sealike expanse of champaign savannas, 
 steppes, and occasionally of sandy deserts, which stretched 
 away on each side of this margin both eastwards and west- 
 wards. Pretty nearly in the centre of this hilly range lay 
 a narrow defile, through which passed the nearest and the 
 
 10 most practicable route to the river Torgau (the farther bank 
 of which river offered the next great station of security for 
 a general halt). It was the more essential to gain this pass 
 before the Cossacks, inasmuch as not only would the delay 
 in forcing the pass give time to the Russian pursuing 
 
 15 columns for combining their attacks and for bringing up 
 their artillery, but also because (even if all enemies in pur- 
 suit were thrown out of the question) it was held by those 
 best acquainted with the diflicult and obscure geography of 
 these pathless steppes that the loss of this one narrow strait 
 
 20 amongst the hills would have the effect of throwing them 
 (as their only alternative in a case where so wide a sweep of 
 pasturage was required) upon a circuit of at least five hun- 
 dred miles extra; besides that, after all, this circuitous 
 route would carry them to the Torgau at a point ill fitted for 
 
 25 the passage of their heavy baggage. The defile in the hills, 
 therefore, it was resolved to gain; and yet, unless they 
 moved upon it with the velocity of light cavalry, there was 
 little chance but it would be found preoccupied by the Cos- 
 sacks. They, it is true, had suffered greatly in the recent 
 
 30 sanguinary action with their enemies; but the excitement 
 of victory, and the intense sympathy with their unexam- 
 pled triumph, had again swelled their ranks, and would 
 probably act with the force of a vortex to draw in their 
 simple countrymen from the Caspian. The question, there- 
 
 35 fore, of preoccupation was reduced to a race. The Cossacks 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 51 
 
 were marching upon an oblique line not above fifty miles 
 longer than that which led to the same point from the Kal- 
 muck headquarters before Koulagina; and therefore, with- 
 out the most furious haste on the part of the Kalmucks, 
 there was not a chance for them, burdened and " trashed " 5 
 as they were, to anticipate so agile a light cavalry as the 
 Cossacks in seizing this important pass. 
 
 Dreadful were the feelings of the poor women on hearing 
 this exposition of the case ; for they easily understood that 
 too capital an interest (the summa rerum) was now at stake 10 
 to allow of any regard to minor interests, or what would be 
 considered such in their present circumstances. The dread- 
 ful week already passed — their inauguration in misery — 
 was yet fresh in their remembrance. The scars of suffering 
 were impressed not only upon their memories, but upon 15 
 their very persons and the persons of their children; and 
 they knew that, where no speed had much chance of meet- 
 ing the cravings of the chieftains, no test would be accepted, 
 short of absolute exhaustion, that as much had been accom- 
 plished as could be accomplished. Weseloff, the Russian 20 
 captive, has recorded the silent wretchedness Avith which 
 the women and elder boys assisted in drawing the tent 
 ropes. On the 5th of January all had been animation and 
 the joyousness of indefinite expectation; now, on the con- 
 trary, a brief but bitter experience had taught them to take 25 
 an amended calculation of what it was that lay before them. 
 
 One whole day, and far into the succeeding night, had 
 the renewed flight continued. The sufferings had been 
 greater than before; for the cold had been more intense, 
 and many perished out of the living creatures through every 30 
 class except only the camels, whose powers of endurance 
 seemed equally adapted to cold and heat. The second 
 morning, however, brought an alleviation to the distress. 
 Snow had begun to fall ; and, though not deep at present, 
 it was easily foreseen that it soon would be so, and that, as 35 
 
52 DE quincey's 
 
 a halt would in that case become unavoidable, no plan could 
 be better than that of staying where they were, especially 
 as the same cause would check the adv^ance of the Cossacks. 
 Here, then, was the last interval of comfort which gleamed 
 
 5 upon the unhappy nation during their whole migration. 
 For ten days the snow continued to fall with little inter- 
 mission. At the end of that time, keen, bright, frosty 
 weather succeeded : the drifting had ceased. In three days 
 the smooth expanse became hrm enough to support the 
 
 10 treading of the camels, and the flight was recommenced. 
 But during the halt much domestic comfort had been 
 enjoyed, and, for the last time, universal plenty. The 
 cows and oxen had perished in such vast numbers on the 
 previous marches, that an order was now issued to turn 
 
 15 what remained to account by slaughtering the whole, and 
 salting whatever part should be found to exceed the imme- 
 diate consumption. This measure led to a scene of general 
 banqueting, and even of festivity, amongst all who were not 
 incapacitated for joyous emotions by distress of mind, by 
 
 20 grief for the unhappy experience of the few last days, and 
 by anxiety for the too gloomy future. Seventy thousand 
 persons of all ages had already perished, exclusive of 
 the many thousand allies who had been cut down by the 
 Cossack sabre; and the losses in reversion were likely to 
 
 '25 be many more. For rumors began now to arrive from all 
 quarters, by the mounted couriers whom the khan had de- 
 spatched to the rear and to each flank as well as in advance, 
 that large masses of the imperial troops were converging 
 from all parts of Central Asia to the fords of the river 
 
 30 Torgau, as the most convenient point for intercepting the 
 flying tribes; and it was by this time well known that a 
 powerful division was close in their rear, and was retarded 
 only by the numerous artillery which had been judged neces- 
 sary to su]>port their operations. New motives were thus 
 
 35 daily arising for quickening the motions of the wretched 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 53 
 
 Kalmucks and for exhausting those who were previously 
 but too much exhausted. 
 
 It was not until the second day of Febrjiary that the 
 khan's advanced guard came in sight of Ouctiim, the defile 
 among the hills of Moulgaldchares, in which they antici- 5 
 pated so bloody an opposition from the Cossacks. A pretty 
 large body of these light cavalry had, in fact, preoccupied 
 the pass by some hours; but the khan, having two great 
 advantages, — namely, a strong body of infantry, who had 
 been conveyed by sections of five on about two hundred lo 
 camels, and some pieces of light artillery which he had not 
 yet been forced to abandon, — soon began to make a serious 
 impression upon this unsupported detachment, and they 
 would probably at any rate have retired; but at the very 
 moment when they were making some dispositions in that 15 
 view Zebek-Dorchi appeared upon their rear with a body of 
 trained riflemen who had distinguished themselves in the 
 war with Turkey. Tliese men had contrived to crawl un- 
 observed over the cliffs which skirted the ravine, availing 
 themselves of the dry beds of the summer torrents, and 20 
 other inequalities of the ground, to conceal their movement. 
 Disorder and trepidation ensued instantly in the Cossack 
 files. The khan, who had been waiting with the elite of 
 his heavy cavalry, charged furiously upon them. Total 
 overthrow followed to the Cossacks, and a slaughter such 25 
 as in some measure avenged the recent bloody extermi- 
 nation of their allies, the ancient ouloss of Feka-Zechorr. 
 The slight horses of the Cossacks were unable to support 
 the weight of heavy Polish dragoons and a body of trained 
 cameleers (that is, cuirassiers mounted on camels). Hardy 30 
 they were, but not strong, nor a match for their antagonists 
 in weight; and their extraordinary efforts through the last 
 few days to gain their present position had greatly dimin- 
 ished their powers for eftecting an escape. Very few, in 
 fact, did escape; and the bloody day of Oiichim became as 35 
 
54 DE quincf.y's 
 
 memorable among the Cossacks as that which, about twenty 
 days before^ had signalized the complete annihilation of the 
 Feka-ZechoiT , 
 
 The road \/ ' j now open to the river Igritch, and as yet 
 5 even far beyond it to the Torgau; but how long this state 
 of things would continue was every day more doubtful. 
 Certain intelligence was now received that a large Russian 
 army, well appointed in every arm, was advancing upon the 
 Torgau under the command of General Traubenberg. This 
 
 10 officer was to be joined on his route by ten thousand Bash- 
 kirs and pretty nearly the same amount of Kirghizes, — 
 both hereditary enemies of the Kalmucks, both exasperated 
 to a point of madness by the bloody trophies which Oubacha 
 and Momotbacha had in late years won from such of their 
 
 15 compatriots as served under the Sultan. The Czarina's 
 yoke these wild nations bore with submissive patience, but 
 not the hands by wliich it had been imposed; and accord- 
 ingly, catching witli eagerness at the present occasion 
 offered to their vengeance, they sent an assurance to the 
 
 20 Czarina of their perfect obedience to her commands, and 
 at the same time a message significantly declaring in what 
 spirit they meant to execute them, namely, "that they 
 would not trouble her Majesty with prisoners." 
 
 Here then arose, as before with the Cossacks, a race for 
 
 25 the Kalmucks with the regular armies of Russia, and con- 
 currently with nations as fierce and semi-humanized as 
 themselves, besides that they were stung into threefold 
 activity by the furies of mortified pride and military abase- 
 ment under the eyes of the Turkish Sultan. The forces, 
 
 30 and more especially the artillery, of Eussia were far too 
 overwhelming to permit the thought of a regular opposi- 
 tion in pitched battles, even Avitli a less dilapidated state 
 of their resources than they could reasonably expect at the 
 period of their arrival on the Torgau. In their speed lay 
 
 35 their only hope, — in strength of foot, as before, and not 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 55 
 
 in strength of arm. Onward, therefore, the Kalmucks 
 pressed, marking the lines of their wide-extending march 
 over the sad solitudes of the steppes by a never-ending 
 chain of corpses. The old and the young, the sick man on 
 his couch, the mother with her baby, — all were left behind. 5 
 Sights such as these, with the many rueful aggravations 
 incident to the helpless condition of infancy, — of disease 
 and of female weakness abandoned to the wolves amidst 
 a howling wilderness, — continued to track tlieir course 
 through a space of full two thousand miles; for so much at 10 
 the least it was likely to prove, including the circuits to 
 which they were often compelled by rivers or hostile tribes, 
 from the point of starting on the Wolga until they could 
 reach their destined halting ground on the east bank of the 
 Torgau. For the first seven weeks of this march their 15 
 sufferings had been embittered by the excessive severity of 
 the cold; and every night — ■ so long as wood was to be had 
 for fires, either from the lading of the camels, or from the 
 desperate sacrifice of their baggage wagons, or (as occasion- 
 ally happened) from the forests which skirted the banks of 20 
 the many rivers which crossed their path — no spectacle 
 was more frequent than that of a circle, composed of men, 
 women, and children, gathered by hundreds round a central 
 fire, all dead and stiff at the return of morning light. 
 Myriads were left beliind from pure exhaustion, of whom 25 
 none had a chance, under the combined evils which beset 
 them, of surviving through the next twenty-four hours. 
 Frost, however, and snow at length ceased to persecute; 
 the vast extent of the march at length brought them into 
 more genial latitudes; and the unusual duration of the 30 
 march was gradually bringing them into the more genial 
 seasons of the year. Two thousand miles had at least been 
 traversed; February, March, April, were gone; the balmy 
 month of May had opened; vernal sights and sounds came 
 from every side to comfort the heart-weary travellers; and 35 
 
56 DE quincey's 
 
 at last, in the latter end of May, they crossed the Torgau, and 
 took up a position where they hoped to hnd liberty to repose 
 themselves for many weeks in comfort as well as in security, 
 and to draw such supplies from the fertile neighborhood as 
 
 5 might restore their shattered forces to a condition for exe- 
 cuting, with less of wreck and ruin, the large remainder of 
 the journey. 
 
 Yes, it was true that two thousand miles of wandering 
 had been completed, but in a period of nearly five months, 
 
 10 and with the terrific sacrifice of at least two hundred and 
 fifty thousand souls, to say nothing of herds and flocks past 
 all reckoning. These had all perished, — ox, cow, horse, 
 mule, ass, sheep, or goat: not one survived, — only the 
 camels. These arid and adust creatures, looking like the 
 
 15 mummies of some antediluvian animals, without the affec- 
 tions or sensibilities of flesh and blood, — these only still 
 erected their speaking eyes to the eastern heavens, and had 
 to all appearance come out from this long tempest of trial 
 unscathed and unharmed. The khan, knowing how much 
 
 20 he was individually answerable for the misery which had 
 been sustained, must have wept tears even more bitter than 
 those of Xerxes when he threw his eyes over the myriads 
 whom he had assembled; for the tears of Xerxes were 
 unmiugled with compunction. Whatever amends were in 
 
 25 his power he resolved to make by sacrifices to the gen- 
 eral good of all personal regards; and accordingly, even 
 at this point of their advance, he once more deliberately 
 brought under review the whole question of the revolt. 
 The question was formally debated before the council, 
 
 30 whether, even at this point, they should untread their 
 steps, and, throwing themselves upon the Czarina's mercy, 
 return to their old allegiance. In that case, Oubacha pro- 
 fessed himself willing to become the scapegoat for the 
 general transgression. Tliis, he argued, was no fantastic 
 
 35 scheme, but even easy of accomplishment; for the unlimited 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 57 
 
 and sacred power of the khan, so well known to the empress, 
 made it absolutely iniquitoas to attribute any separate re- 
 sponsibility to the people. Upon the khan rested the guilt; 
 upon the khan would descend the imperial vengeance. This 
 proposal was applauded for its generosity, but was ener- 5 
 getically opposed by Zebek-Dorchi. Were they to lose the 
 whole journey of two thousand miles? Was their misery 
 to perish without fruit? True it was that they had yet 
 reached only the halfway house; but in that respect the 
 motives were evenly balanced for retreat or for advance. lO 
 Either way they would have pretty nearly the same dis- 
 tance to traverse, but with this difference, — that, forwards, 
 their route lay through lands comparatively fertile ; back- 
 wards through a blasted wilderness, rich only in memorials 
 of their sorrow, and hideous to Kalmuck eyes by the 15 
 trophies of their calamity. Besides, though the empress 
 might accept an excuse for the past, would she the less for- 
 bear to suspect for the future? The Czarina's jpardon they 
 might obtain ; but could they ever hope to recover her C07i- 
 Jiclence? Doubtless there would now be a standing pre- 20 
 sumption against them, an immortal ground of jealousy; 
 and a jealous government would be but another name for 
 a harsh one. Finally, whatever motives there ever had 
 been for the revolt surely remained unimpaired by anything 
 that had occurred. In reality the revolt was, after all, no 25 
 revolt, but (strictly speaking) a return to their old alle- 
 giance; since not above one hundred and fifty years ago 
 (viz., in the year 1616), their ancestors had revolted from 
 the Emperor of China. They had now tried both govern- 
 ments ; and for them China was the land of promise, and 30 
 Russia the house of bondage. 
 
 Spite, however, of all that Zebek could say or do, the 
 yearning of the people was strongly in behalf of the khan's 
 proposal ; the pardon of their prince, they persuaded them- 
 selves, would be readily conceded b}^ the empress; and 35 
 
58 DE quincey's 
 
 there is little doubt that they would at this time have 
 thrown themselves gladly upon the imperial mercy, — when 
 suddenly all was defeated by the arrival of two envoys from 
 Traubenberg. This general had reached the fortress of 
 
 5 Orsk, after a very painful march, on the 12th of April ; 
 thence he set forwards towards Oriembourg, which he 
 reached upon the 1st of June, having been joined on his 
 route, at various times through the month of May, by the 
 Kirghizes and a corps of ten thousand Bashkirs. From 
 
 10 Oriembourg he sent forward his official offers to the khan, 
 which were harsh and peremptory, holding out no specific 
 stipulations as to pardon or impunity, and exacting uncon- 
 ditional submission as the preliminary price of any cessa- 
 tion from military operations. The personal character of 
 
 15 Traubenberg, which was anything but energetic, and the 
 condition of his army, disorganized in a great measure by 
 the length and severity of the march, made it probable, 
 that, with a little time for negotiation, a more conciliatory 
 tone would have been assumed. But, unhappily for all 
 
 20 parties, sinister events occurred in the meantime, such as 
 effectually put an end to every hope of the kind. 
 
 The two envoys sent forward by Traubenberg had re- 
 ported to this officer that a distance of only ten days' march 
 lay between his own headquarters and tliose of the khan. 
 
 25 Upon this fact transpiring, the Kirghizes, by their prince 
 Nourali, and the Bashkirs, entreated the Eussian general 
 to advance Avithout delay. Once having placed his cannon 
 in position, so as to command the Kalmuck camp, the fate 
 of the rebel khan and his people would be in his own hands, 
 
 30 and they would themselves form his advanced guard. Trau- 
 benberg, however, — ivliy has not been certainly explained, 
 — refused to march, grounding his refusal upon the condi- 
 tion of his army and their absolute need of refreshment. 
 Long and fierce was the altercation; but at length, seeing 
 
 35 no chance of prevailing, and dreading above all other events 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 59 
 
 the escape of their detested enemy, the ferocious Bashkirs 
 went off in a body by forced marches. In six days they 
 reached the Torgau, crossed by swimming their horses, and 
 fell upon the Kalmucks, who were dispersed for many a 
 league in search of food or provender for their camels. The 5 
 first day's action was one vast succession of independent 
 skirmishes diffused over a field of thirty to forty miles in 
 extent; one party often breaking up into three or four, 
 and again (according to the accidents of ground), three or 
 four blending into one ; flight and pursuit, rescue and total lo 
 overthrow, going on simultaneously, under all varieties of 
 form, in all quarters of the plain. The Bashkirs had found 
 themselves obliged, by the scattered state of the Kalmucks, 
 to split up into innumerable sections ; and thus, for some 
 hours, it had been impossible for the most practised eye to 15 
 collect the general tendency of the day's fortune. Both the 
 khan and Zebek-Dorchi were at one moment made prisoners, 
 and more than once in imminent danger of being cut down ; 
 but at length Zebek succeeded in rallying a strong column 
 of infantry, which, with the support of the camel corps on 20 
 each flank, compelled the Bashkirs to retreat. Clouds, how- 
 ever, of these wild cavalry continued to arrive through the 
 next two days and nights, followed or accompanied by the 
 Kirghizes. These being viewed as the advanced parties of 
 Traubenberg's army, the Kalmuck chieftains saw no hope 25 
 of safety but in flight ; and in this way it happened that 
 a retreat which had so recently been brought to a pause, 
 was resumed at the very moment when the unhappy fugi- 
 tives were anticipating a deep repose, without further moles- 
 tation, the whole summer through. 30 
 
 It seemed as though every variety of wretchedness were 
 predestined to the Kalmucks, and as if their sufferings were 
 incomplete unless they were rounded and matured by all 
 that the most dreadful agencies of summer's heat could 
 superadd to those of frost and winter. To this sequel of 35 
 
60 DE quincey's 
 
 their story we shall immediately revert, after first noticing a 
 little romantic episode which occurred at this point between 
 Oubacha and his unprincipled cousin Zebek-Dorchi. 
 
 There was, at the time of the Kalmuck flight from the 
 5 Wolga, a Russian gentleman of some rank at the court of 
 the khan, whom for political reasons it was thought neces- 
 sary to carry along with them as a captive. For some 
 weeks his confinement had been very strict, and in one or 
 two instances cruel. But as the increasing distance was 
 
 locoutinually diminishing the chances of escape, and perhaps, 
 also, as the misery of the guards gradually withdrew their 
 attention from all minor interests to their own personal 
 sufferings, the vigilance of the custody grew more and more 
 relaxed, until at length, upon a petition to the khan, Mr. 
 
 15 Weseloff was formally restored to liberty ; and it was 
 understood that he might use his liberty in whatever way 
 he chose, even for returning to Russia, if that should be his 
 wish. Accordingly, he was making active preparations for 
 his journey to St. Petersburg, when it occurred to Zebek- 
 
 20 Dorchi that not improbably, in some of the battles which 
 were then anticipated with Traubenberg, it might happen 
 to them to lose some prisoner of rank, in which case the 
 Russian Weseloff would be a pledge in their hands for ne- 
 gotiating an exchange. Upon this plea, to his own severe 
 
 25 affliction, the Russian was detained until the further pleas- 
 ure of the khan. The khan's name, indeed, was used 
 through the whole affair, but, as it seemed, with so little 
 concurrence on his part, that when Weseloff in a private 
 audience humbly remonstrated upon the injustice done him, 
 
 ;iO and the cruelty of thus sporting with his feelings by setting 
 him at liberty, and, as it were, tempting him into dreams 
 of home and restored happiness, only for the purpose of 
 l)lighting them, the good-natured prince disclaimed all par- 
 ticipation in the affair, and went so far in proving his sin- 
 
 o5 cerity as even to give him permission to effect his escape ; 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 61 
 
 and, as a ready means of coinmeiiciiig it without raising 
 suspicion, the khan mentioned to Mr. Weseloff that he had 
 just then received a message from the hetman of the Bash- 
 kirs, soliciting a private interview on the banks of the 
 Torgau at a spot pointed out. That interview was arranged n 
 for the coming night; and Mr. Weseloff might go in the 
 khan's suite, which on either side was not to exceed three 
 persons. Weseloff was a prudent man, acquainted with the 
 world, and he read treachery in the very outline of this 
 scheme as stated by the khan, — treachery against the lo 
 khan's person. He mused a little, and then communi- 
 cated so much of his suspicions to the khan as might put 
 him on his guard ; but, upon further consideration, he begged 
 leave to decline the honor of accompanying the khan. The 
 fact was, that three Kalmucks, who had strong motives for 15 
 returning to their countrymen on the west bank of the 
 Wolga, guessing the intentions of Weseloff, had offered to 
 join him in his escape. These men the khan would prob- 
 ably find himself obliged to countenance in their project; 
 so that it became a point of honor with W^eseloff to conceal 20 
 their intentions, and therefore to accomplish the evasion 
 from the camp (of which the first step only would be haz- 
 ardous) without risking the notice of the khan. 
 
 The district in which they were now encamped abounded 
 through many hundred miles with wild horses of a docile 25 
 and beautiful breed. Each of the four fugitives had caught 
 from seven to ten of these spirited creatures in the course 
 of the last few days. This raised no suspicion; for the 
 rest of the Kalmucks had been making the same sort of 
 provision against the coming toils of their remaining route 30 
 to China. These horses were secured by halters, and hidden 
 about dusk in the thickets which lined the margin of the 
 river. To these thickets, about ten at night, the four fugi- 
 tives repaired. They took a circuitous path which drew 
 them as little as possible within danger of challenge from 35 
 
62 DE quincey's 
 
 any of the outposts or of the patrols which had been es- 
 tablished on the quarters where the Bashkirs lay, and in 
 three quarters of an hour they reached the rendezvous. 
 The moon had now risen, the horses were unfastened, and 
 5 they were in the act of mounting, when the deep silence 
 of the woods was disturbed by a violent uproar and the 
 clashing of arms. Weseloff fancied that he heard the voice 
 of the khan shouting for assistance. He remembered the 
 communication made by that prince in the morning, and, 
 
 10 requesting his companions to support him, he rode off in 
 the direction of the sound. A very short distance brought 
 him to an open glade in the wood, where he beheld four 
 men contending with a party of at least nine or ten. Two 
 of the four were dismounted at the very instant of Weseloff' s 
 
 15 arrival. One of these he recognized almost certainly as the 
 khan, who was fighting hand to hand, but at great disad- 
 vantage, with two of the adverse horsemen. Seeing that 
 no time was to be lost, Weseloff fired, and brought down 
 one of the two. His companions discharged their carbines 
 
 20 at the same moment, and then all rushed simultaneously into 
 the little open area. The thundering sound of about thirty 
 horses, all rushing at once into a narrow space, gave the 
 impression that a whole troop of cavalry was coming down 
 upon the assailants, who accordingly wheeled about and fled 
 
 25 with one impulse. Weseloff advanced to the dismounted 
 cavalier, who, as he expected, proved to be the khan. The 
 man whom Weseloff had shot was lying dead; and both 
 were shocked, though Weseloff at least was not surprised, 
 on stooping down, and scrutinizing his features, to recog- 
 
 ounize a well-known confidential servant of Zebek-Dorchi. 
 Nothing was said by either party. The khan rode off, 
 escorted by Weseloff and his companions ; and for some 
 time a dead silence prevailed. The situation of Weseloff 
 was delicate and critical. To leave the khan at this point 
 
 ;35was probably to cancel their recent services; for he might 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRrP.B. 63 
 
 be again crossed on his path, and again attacked by the 
 very party from whom he had just been delivered. Yet, 
 on the other hand, to return to the camp was to endanger 
 the chances of accomplishing the escape. The khan, also, 
 was apparently revolving all this in his mind ; for at length 5 
 he broke silence, and said, " I comprehend your situation, 
 and under other circumstances I might feel it my duty to 
 detain your companions ; but it would ill become me to do 
 so after the important service you have just rendered me. 
 Let us turn a little to the left. There, where you see the 10 
 watchlire, is an outpost. Attend me so far. I am then 
 safe. You may turn, and pursue your enterprise ; for the 
 circumstances under which you will appear, as my escort, 
 are sufficient to shield you from all suspicion for the pres- 
 ent. I regret having no better means at my disposal for 15 
 testifying my gratitude. But tell me, before we part, — 
 Was it accident only which led you to my rescue ? Or 
 had you acquired any knowledge of the plot by which I 
 was decoyed into this snare ? " Weseloff answered very 
 candidly that mere accident had brought him to the spot 20 
 at which he heard the uproar; but that having heard it, 
 and connecting it with the khan's communication of the 
 morning, he had then designedly gone after the sound in a 
 way which he certainly should not have done at so critical 
 a moment, unless in the expectation of finding the khan 25 
 assaulted by assassins. A few minutes after, they reached 
 the outpost at which it became safe to lea-ve the Tartar 
 chieftain ; and immediately the four fugitives commenced 
 a flight which is perhaps without a parallel in the annals 
 of travelling. Each of them led six or seven horses besides 30 
 the one he rode; and by shifting from one to the other (like 
 the ancient desultors of the E-oman circus), so as never to 
 burden the same horse for more than half an hour at a 
 time, they continued to advance at the rate of two hundred 
 miles in the twenty -four hours for three days consecutively. 35 
 
64 DE qltincey's 
 
 After that time, conceiving themselves beyond pursuit, they 
 proceeded less rapidly, though still with a velocity which 
 staggered the belief of Weseloff's friends in after years. 
 He was, however, a man of high principle, and always 
 
 5 adhered firmly to the details of his printed report. One 
 of the circumstances there stated is, that they continued 
 to pursue the route by which the Kalmucks had fled, never 
 for an instant finding any difficulty in tracing it by the 
 skeletons and other memorials of their calamities. In 
 
 10 particular, he mentions vast heaps of money as part of 
 the valuable property which it had been necessary to sacri- 
 fice. These heaps were found lying still untouched in the 
 deserts. From these, Weseloff and his companions took as 
 much as they could conveniently carry; and this it was, 
 
 15 with the price of their beautiful horses (which they after- 
 wards sold at one of the Russian military settlements for 
 about fifteen pounds apiece), which eventually enabled them 
 to pursue their journey in Eussia. This journey, as regarded 
 Weseloff in particular, was closed by a tragical catastroj)lie. 
 
 20 He was at that time young, and the only child of a doting 
 mother. Her affliction under the violent abduction of her 
 son had been excessive, and probal)ly had undermined her 
 constitution. Still she had supported it. Weseloff, giving 
 way to the natural impulses of his filial affection, had im- 
 
 25 prudently posted through Russia to his mother's liouse 
 without warning of his approach. He rushed precipitately 
 into her presence ; and she, who had stood the shocks of 
 sorrow, was found unequal to the shock of joy too sudden 
 and too acute. She died upon the spot. 
 
 30 I now revert to the final scenes of the Kalmuck flight. 
 These it would be useless to pursue circumstantially through 
 the whole two thousand miles of suffering which remained: 
 for the character of that suffering was even more monoto- 
 nous than on the fornun- half of the flight, and also more 
 
 35 severe. Its main elements were excessive heat, with the 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 65 
 
 accompaniiiients of faiuine and thirst, but aggravated at 
 every step by the murderous attacks of their cruel enemies, 
 the Bashkirs and the Kirghizes. 
 
 These people, "more fell than anguish, hunger, or the 
 sea," stuck to the unhappy Kalmucks like a swarm of en- 5 
 raged hornets. And very often, whilst they were attacking 
 them in the rear, their advanced parties and flanks were 
 attacked with almost equal fury by the people of the country 
 which they were traversing ; and with good reason, since the 
 law of self-preservation had now obliged the fugitive Tartars lo 
 to plunder provisions and to forage wherever they passed. 
 In this respect their condition was a constant oscillation of 
 wretchedness ; for sometimes, pressed by grinding famine, 
 they took a circuit of perhaps a hundred miles in order to 
 strike into a land rich in the comforts of life. But in such 15 
 a land they Avere sure to find a crowded population, of which 
 every arm was raised in unrelenting hostility, with all the 
 advantages of local knowledge, and with constant preoccu- 
 pation of all the defensible positions, mountain passes, or 
 bridges. Sometimes, again, wearied out with this mode of 20 
 suffering, they took a circuit of perhaps a hundred miles in 
 order to strike into a land with few or no inhabitants ; but 
 in such a land they were sure to meet absolute starvation. 
 Then, again, whether with or without this plague of starva- 
 tion, whether with or without this plague of hostility in 25 
 front, whatever might be the "fierce varieties" of their 
 niiser}^ in this respect, no rest ever came to their unhappy 
 rear; i^ost equitem sedet atra cura; it was a torment like the 
 undying worm of conscience, and upon the whole it pre- 
 sented a spectacle altogether unprecedented in the history 30 
 of mankind. Private and personal malignity is not unfre- 
 quently immortal ; but rare indeed is it to find the same 
 pertinacity of malice in a nation. And what imbittered the 
 interest was, that the malice was reciprocal. Thus far the 
 parties met upon equal terms ; but that equality only sharp- 35 
 
66 ~ DE quincey's 
 
 ened the sense of their dire inequality as to other circum- 
 stances. The Bashkirs were ready to light "from morn to 
 dewy eve." The Kalmucks, on the contrary, were always 
 obliged to run. Was it from their enemies as creatures 
 5 whom they feared ? No, but towards their friends, — 
 towards that final haven of China, — as what was hourly 
 implored by their wives and the tears of their children. 
 But, though they lied unwillingly, too often they fled in 
 vain, being unwillingly recalled. There lay the torment. 
 
 10 Every day the Bashkirs fell upon them ; every day the 
 same unprofitable battle was renewed. As a matter of 
 course, the Kalmucks recalled part of their advanced guard 
 to fight them. Every day the battle raged for hours, and 
 uniformly with the same result ; for, no sooner did the Bash- 
 
 15 kirs find themselves too heavily pressed, and that the Kal- 
 muck march had been retarded by some hours, than they 
 retired into the boundless deserts, where all pursuit was 
 hopeless. But if the Kalmucks resolved to press forward, 
 regardless of their enemies, in that case their attacks became 
 
 20 so fierce and overwhelming that the general safety seemed 
 likely to be brought into question ; nor could any effectual 
 remedy be applied to the case, even for each separate day, 
 except by a most embarrassing halt and by countermarches 
 that to men in their circumstances were almost worse than 
 
 25 death. It will not be surprising that the irritation of such 
 a systematic persecution, superadded to a previous and 
 hereditary hatred, and accompanied by the stinging con- 
 sciousness of utter impotence as regarded all effectual ven- 
 geance, should gradually have inflamed the Kalmuck animos- 
 
 oOity into th.e wildest expression of downright madness and 
 frenzy. Indeed, long before the frontiers of China were 
 approached, the hostilit}^ of both sides had assumed the ap- 
 pearance much more of a warfare amongst wild beasts than 
 amongst creatures acknowledging the restraints of reason 
 
 35 or the claims of a common nature. The spectacle became 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 67 
 
 too atrocious : it was that of a host of lunatics pursued 
 by a host of fiends. 
 
 On a fine morning in early autumn of the year 1771, Kien 
 Long, the Emperor of China, was pursuing his amusements 
 in a wild frontier district lying on the outside of the Great r. 
 Wall. For many hundred square leagues the country was 
 desolate of inhabitants, but rich in woods of ancient growth, 
 and overrun with game of every description. In a central 
 spot of this solitary region the emperor had built a gorgeous 
 hunting lodge, to which he resorted annually for recreation, lo 
 and relief from the cares of government. Led onwards in 
 pursuit of game, he had rambled to a distance of two hundred 
 miles or more from this lodge, followed at a little distance 
 by a sufficient military escort, and every night pitching his 
 tent in a different situation, until at length he had arrived 15 
 on the very margin of the vast central deserts of Asia. Here 
 he was standing, by accident, at an opening of his pavilion, 
 enjoying the morning sunshine, when suddenly to the west- 
 ward there arose a vast, cloudy vapor, which by degrees 
 expanded, mounted, and seemed to be slowly diffusing itself 20 
 over the whole face of the heavens. By and by this vast 
 sheet of mist 'began to thicken towards the horizon, and to 
 roll forward in billowy volumes. The emperor's suite as- 
 sembled from all quarters ; the silver trumpets were sounded 
 in the rear ; and from all the glades and forest avenues began -5 
 to trot forward towards the pavilion the yagers — half cav- 
 alry, half huntsmen — who composed the imperial escort. 
 Conjecture was on the stretch to divine the cause of this 
 phenomenon ; and the interest continually increased in pro- 
 portion as simple curiosity gradually deepened into the so 
 anxiety of uncertain danger. At first it had been imagined 
 that some vast troops of deer or other wild animals of the 
 chase had been disturbed in their forest haunts by the em- 
 j)eror's movements, or possibly by wild lieasts ]3i'owling for 
 
68 DE quincey's 
 
 prey, and niiglit be fetching a compass by way of re-entering 
 the forest grounds at some remoter points secure from 
 molestation. But this conjecture was dissipated by the 
 sloX\^ increase of the cloud and the steadiness of its motion. 
 
 5 In the course of two hours the vast phenomenon had ad- 
 vanced to a point which was judged to be within five miles 
 of the spectators, though all calculations of distance were 
 difficult, and often fallacious, when applied to the endless 
 expanses of the Tartar deserts. Through the next hour, 
 
 10 during which the gentle morning breeze had a little fresh- 
 ened, the dusty vapor had developed itself far and wide into 
 the appearance of huge aerial draperies, hanging in mighty 
 volumes from the sky to the earth ; and at particular points, 
 where the eddies of the breeze acted upon the pendulous 
 
 15 skirts of these aerial curtains, rents were perceived, some- 
 times taking the form of regular arches, portals, and windows, 
 through which began dimly to gleam the heads of camels 
 "indorsed" with human beings, and at intervals the mov- 
 ing of men and horses in tumultuous array, and then tlirough 
 
 20 other openings, or vistas, at far-distant points, the flashing 
 of polished arms. But sometimes, as the Avind slackened 
 or died away, all those openings, of whatever form, in the 
 cloudy pall, would slowly close, and for a time the whole 
 pageant was shut up from view ; although the growing din, 
 
 25 the clamors, the shrieks and groans ascending from infuriated 
 myriads, reported, in a language not to be misunderstood, 
 what was going on behind the cloudy screen. 
 
 It was, in fact, the Kalmuck host, now in the last extremi- 
 ties of their exhaustion, and very fast approaching to that 
 
 30 final stage of privation and intense misery beyond which 
 few or none could have lived, but also, happily for them- 
 selves, fast approaching (in a literal sense) that final stage 
 of their long pilgrimage at which they would meet hospi- 
 tality on a scale of royal magnificence, and full protection 
 
 35 from their enomios. TIh^sc (Muunies, however, as yet, still 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 69 
 
 were hanging on their rear as fiercely as ever, though this 
 day was destined to be the last of their hideous persecution. 
 The khan had, in fact, sent forward couriers with all the 
 requisite statements and petitions, addressed to the Emperor 
 of China. These had been duly received, and preparations n 
 made in consecpience to welcome the Kalmucks with the 
 most paternal l)enevolence. l>ut as these couriers had been 
 despatched from the Torgau at the moment of arrival thither, 
 and before the advance of Traubenberg had made it necessary 
 for the khan to order a hasty renewal of the flight, the 10 
 emperor had not looked for their arrival on their frontier 
 until full three months after the present time. Tlie khan 
 had, indeed, expressly notified his intention to pass the 
 summer heats on the banks of the Torgau, and to recom- 
 mence his retreat about the beginning of September. The 15 
 subsequent change of plan, being unknown to Kien Long, 
 left him for some time in doubt as to the true interpretation 
 to be put upon this mighty apparition in the desert ; but at 
 length the savage clamors of hostile fury and the clangor of 
 weapons unveiled to the emperor the true nature of those 20 
 unexpected calamities which had so prematurely precipitated 
 the Kalmuck measure. 
 
 Apprehending the real state of affairs, the emperor in- 
 stantly perceived that the first act of his fatherly care for 
 these erring children (as he esteemed them), now returning 25 
 to their ancient obedience, must be to deliver them from 
 their pursuers. And this was less difficult than might have 
 been supposed. Xot many miles in the rear was a body of 
 well-appointed cavalry, with a strong detachment of artil- 
 lery, who always attended the emperor's motions. These 30 
 were hastily summoned. Meantime it occurred to the train 
 of courtiers that some danger might arise to the emperor's 
 person from the proximity of a lawless enemy ; and accord- 
 ingly he was induced to retire a little to the rear. It soon 
 ai:>peared, however, to those who watched the vapory shroud 35 
 
70 
 
 in the desert, that its motion was not such as would argue 
 the direction of the march to be exactly upon the pavilion, 
 but rather in a diagonal line, making an angle of full forty- 
 five degrees with that line in which the imperial cortege 
 
 5 had been standing, and therefore with a distance continually 
 increasing. Those who knew the country judged that the 
 Kalmucks were making for a large fresh-water lake about 
 seven or eight miles distant. They were right; and to that 
 point the imperial cavalry was ordered up ; and it was pre- 
 
 10 cisely in that spot, and about three hours after, and at noon- 
 day, on the 8th of September, that the great exodus of the 
 Kalmuck Tartars was brought to a final close, and with a 
 scene of such memorable and hellish fury as formed an ap- 
 propriate winding up to an expedition in all its parts and 
 
 15 details so awfully disastrous. The emperor was not person- 
 ally present, or at least he saw whatever he did see from 
 too great a distance to discriminate its individual features ; 
 but he records in his written memorial the report made to 
 him of this scene by some of his own officers. 
 
 20 The Lake of Tengis, near the frightful Desert of Kobi, 
 lay in a hollow amongst hills of a moderate height, ranging 
 generally from two or three thousand feet high. About 
 eleven o'clock in the forenoon the Chinese cavalry reached 
 the summit of a road which led through a cradle-like dip in 
 
 25 the mountains right down upon the margin of the lake. 
 From this pass, elevated about two thousand feet above the 
 level of the water, they continued to descend, by a very 
 winding and difficult road, for an hour and a half ; and dur- 
 ing the whole of this descent they were compelled to be 
 
 30 inactive spectators of the fiendish spectacle below. The 
 Kalmucks, reduced by this time from about six hundred 
 thousand souls to two hundred thousand, and after enduring 
 for two months and a half the miseries we have previously 
 described, — outrageous heat, famine, and the destroying 
 
 35 scimitar of the Kirgiiizes and the Bashkirs, — had for the 
 
FLIGHT OF A TAUTAll TRIBE. 71 
 
 last ten clays been traversing a hideous desert, where no 
 vestiges were seen of vegetation, and no drop of water could 
 be found. Camels and men were already so overladen that 
 it Avas a mere impossibility that they should carry a toler- 
 able sufficiency for the passage of this frightful wilderness. 5 
 On the eighth day the wretched daily allowance, which had 
 been continually diminisliing, failed entirely ; and thus, for 
 two days of insupportable fatigue, the horrors of thirst had 
 been carried to the hercest extremity. Upon this last morn- 
 ing, [it the sight of the hills and the forest scenery, which lO 
 announced to those who acted as guides the neighborhood 
 of the Lake of Tengis, all the j^eople rushed along with mad- 
 dening eagerness to the anticipated solace. The day grew 
 hotter and hotter, the people more and more exhausted; 
 and gradually, in the general rush forwards to the lake, all 15 
 discipline and command were lost, all attempts to preserve 
 a rear-guard were neglected. The wild Bashkirs rode in 
 amongst the encumbered people, and slaughtered them by 
 wholesale and almost without resistance. Screams and 
 tumultuous shouts proclaimed the progress of the massacre; 20 
 but none heeded, none halted : all alike, pauper or noble, 
 continued to rush on with maniacal haste to the waters, — 
 all with faces blackened by the heat preying upon the liver, 
 and with tongue drooping from the mouth. The cruel Bash- 
 kir was affected by the same misery, and manifested the 25 
 same symptoms of his misery, as the wretched Kalmuck. 
 The murderer was oftentimes in the same frantic misery 
 as his murdered victim. Many, indeed (an ordinary effect 
 of thirst), in both nations, had become lunatic ; and in this 
 state, whilst mere multitude and condensation of bodies so 
 alone opposed any check to the destroying scimitar and 
 the trampling hoof, the lake was reached ; and into that the 
 whole vast body of enemies rushed, and together continued 
 to rush, forgetful of all things at that moment but of one 
 almighty instinct. This absorption of the thoughts in one 35 
 
72 DE quincey's 
 
 inacldening appetite lasted for a single minute ; but in tlie 
 next arose the final scene of parting vengeance. Far and 
 wide the waters of the solitary lake were instantly dyed 
 red with blood and gore. Here rode a party of savage 
 5 Bashkirs, hewing off heads as fast as the swaths fall before 
 the mower's scythe ; there stood unarmed Kalmucks in a 
 death grapple with their detested foes, both up to the middle 
 in water, and oftentimes both sinking together below the 
 surface, from weakness or from struggles, and perishing in 
 
 10 each other's arms. Did the Bashkirs at any point collect 
 into a cluster for the sake of giving impetus to the assault, 
 thither were the camels driven in fiercely by those who 
 rode them, generally women or boys ; and even these quiet 
 creatures were forced into a share in this carnival of murder 
 
 15 by trampling down as many as they could strike prostrate 
 with the lash of their fore-legs. Every moment the water 
 grew more polluted ; and yet every moment fresh myriads 
 came up to the lake, and rushed in, not able to resist their 
 frantic thirst, and swallowing large draughts of water 
 
 20 visibly contaminated with the blood of their slaughtered 
 compatriots. Wheresoever the lake was shallow enough to 
 allow of men raising their heads above the water, there, 
 for scores of acres, were to be seen all forms of ghastly fear, 
 of agonizing struggle, of spasm, of convulsion, of mortal 
 
 25 conflict, — death, and the fear of death ; revenge, and the 
 lunacy of revenge ; hatred, and the frenzy of hatred ; until 
 the neutral spectators, of whom there were not a few, now 
 descending the eastern side of the lake, at length averted 
 their eyes in horror. This horror, which seemed incapable 
 
 30 of further addition, was, however, increased by an unex- 
 X3ected incident. The Bashkirs, beginning to perceive here 
 and there the approach of the Chinese cavalry, felt it pru- 
 dent, wheresoever they were sufficiently at leisure from the 
 passions of the murderous scene, to gather into bodies. This 
 
 35 was noticed by the governor of a small Chinese fort buiU 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 73 
 
 Upon an eminence above the lake ; and immediately he 
 threw in a broadside, which spread havoc amongst the 
 Bashkir tribe. As often as the Bashkirs collected into 
 " globes " and " tiwms " as their only means of meeting the 
 long line of descending Chinese cavalry, so often did the 5 
 Chinese governor of the fort pour in his exterminating 
 broadside ; until at length the lake, at the lower end, be- 
 came one vast seething caldron of human bloodshed and 
 carnage. The Chinese cavalry had reached the foot of the 
 hills ; the Bashkirs, attentive to their movements, had 10 
 formed ; skirmishes had been fought ; and with a quick 
 sense that the contest was henceforward rapidly becoming 
 hopeless, the Bashkirs and Kirghizes began to retire. The 
 pursuit was not as vigorous as the Kalmuck hatred would 
 have desired; but at the same time the very gloomiest 15 
 hatred could not but hud in their own dreadful experience 
 of the Asiatic deserts, and in the certainty that these 
 wretched Bashkirs had to repeat that same experience a 
 second time, for thousands of miles, as the price exacted 
 by a retributory Providence for their vindictive cruelty, — 20 
 not the very gloomiest of the Kalmucks, or the least reflect- 
 ing, but found in all this a retaliatory chastisement more 
 complete and absolute than any which their swords and 
 lances coidd have obtained, or human vengeance could 
 have devised. 25 
 
 Here ends the tale of the Kalmuck wanderings in the 
 desert; for any subsequent marches which awaited them 
 were neither long nor painful. Every possible alleviation 
 and refreshment for their exhausted bodies had been already 
 provicled by Kien Long with the most princely munificence ; so 
 and lands of great fertility were immediately assigned to 
 them in ample extent along the river Ily, not very far from 
 the point at which they had first emerged from the wilder- 
 ness of Kobi. But the beneficent attention of the Chinese 
 
74 DE quincey's 
 
 emperor may be best stated in liis own words, as translated 
 into French by one of the Jesuit missionaries : '' La nation 
 des Torgotes (savoir les Kalmuqiies) arriva a Ily, toute dela- 
 bree, n'ayant ni de quoi vivre, ni de quoi se vetir. Je I'avais 
 5prevu; et j'avais ordonne de faire en tout genre les provi- 
 sions necessaires pour pouvoir les secourir promptement; 
 c'est ce qui a ete execute. On a fait la division des terres ; 
 et on a assigne a cliaque f amille una portion suffisante pour • 
 pouvoir servir a son entretien, soit en la cultivant, soit en y 
 
 10 nourissant des bestiaux. On a donne a chaque particulier 
 des etoffes pour I'habiller, des grains pour se nourrir pen- 
 dant I'espace d'une annee, des ustensiles pour le menage et 
 d'autres choses necessaires: et outre cela plusieurs onces 
 d'argent, pour se pourvoir de ce qu'on aurait pu oublier. On 
 
 15 a designe des lieux particuliers, fertiles en paturages; et on 
 leur a donne des boeufs, moutons, etc., pour qu'ils pussent 
 dans la suite travailler par eux-memes a leur entretien et 
 a leur bienetre." 
 
 These are the words of the emperor himself, speaking in 
 
 20 his own person of his own paternal cares; but another 
 Chinese, treating the same subject, records the munificence 
 of this prince in terms which proclaim still more forcibly 
 the disinterested generosity which xjrompted, and the deli- 
 cate considerateness which conducted, this extensive bounty. 
 
 25 He has been speaking of the Kalmucks, and he goes on thus : 
 "Lorsqu'ils arriverent sur nos frontieres (au nombre de 
 plusieurs centaines de mille, quoique la fatigue extreme, la 
 faim, la soif, et toutes les autres incommodites inseparables 
 d'une tres-longue et tres x)enible route en eussent fait perir 
 
 sopresque autant), ils etaient reduits a la derniere misere; ils 
 
 , manquaient de tout. II [I'empereur, Kien Long] leur fit" 
 preparer des logemens conf ormes a leur maniere de vivre ; 
 il leur fit distribuer des aliments et des habits ; il leur fit 
 donner des boeufs, des moutons, et des ustensiles, pour les 
 
 35mettre en etat de former des troupeaux et de cultiver la 
 
FLIGHT OF A TART A 11 TllIBE. 75 
 
 terre, et tout cela a ses 2)ropres frais, qui se sont niontes a des 
 sommes imineiises, sans compter Targent qu'il a cloniie a 
 cliaque clief-cle-famille, pour pourvoir a la subsistaiice de sa 
 femme et de ses enfaiis." 
 
 Thus, after their memorable year of misery, the Kalmucks o 
 were replaced in territorial possessions, and in comfort equal 
 perhaps, or even superior, to that which they had enjoyed in 
 Russia, and with superior political advantages. But, if equal 
 or superior, their condition was no longer the same : if not 
 in degree, their social prosperity had altered in quality ; for, lo 
 instead of being a purely pastoral and vagrant people, they 
 were now in circumstances which obliged them to become 
 essentially dependent upon agriculture, and thus far raised 
 in social rank, that, by the natural course of their habits 
 and the necessities of life, they were effectually reclaimed 15 
 from roving and from the savage customs connected with so 
 unsettled a life. They gained also in political privileges, 
 chiefly through the immunity from military service which 
 their new relations enabled them to obtain. These were 
 circumstances of advantage and gain. But one great disad-20 
 vantage there was, amply to overbalance all other possi- 
 ble gain, — the chances were lost, or were removed to an 
 incalculable distance, for their conversion to Christianity, 
 without which in these times there is no absolute advance 
 possible on the path of true civilization. 25 
 
 One word remains to be said upon the personal interests 
 concerned in this great drama. The catastrophe in this 
 respect was remarkable and complete. Oubacha, with all 
 his goodness, and incapacity of suspecting, had, since the 
 mysterious affair on the banks of the Torgau, felt his mind 30 
 alienated from his cousin. He revolted from the man that 
 would have murdered him ; and he had displayed his cau- 
 tion so visibly as to provoke a reaction in the bearing of 
 Zebek-Dorchi, and a displeasure which all his dissimulation 
 could not hide. This had produced a feud, which, by keep- 35 
 
76 DE quincey's 
 
 iiig them aloof, had prol^ably saved the life of Oubacha; for 
 the friendship of Zebek-Dorchi was more fatal than his open 
 enmity. After the settlement on the Ily, this feud con- 
 tinued to advance, until it came under the notice of the em- 
 
 5 peror on occasion of a visit which all the Tartar chieftains 
 made to his Majesty at his hunting lodge in 1772. The" 
 emperor informed himself accurately of all the particulars 
 connected with the transaction, of all the rights and claims 
 put forward, and of the way in which they would severally 
 
 10 affect the interests of the Kalmuck people. The conse- 
 quence was, that he adopted the cause of Oubacha, and 
 repressed the pretensions of Zebek-Dorchi, who, on his part, 
 so deeply resented this discountenance to his ambitious proj- 
 ects, that, in conjunction with other chiefs, he had the pre- 
 
 15 sumption even to weave nets of treason against the emperor 
 himself. Plots were laid, were detected, were baffled: coun- 
 terplots were constructed upon the same basis and with the 
 benefit of the opportunities thus offered. 
 
 Finally Zebek-Dorchi was invi^ied to the imperial lodge, 
 
 20 together with all his accomplices ; and, under the skilful 
 management of the Chinese nobles in the emperor's estab- 
 lishment, the murderous artifices of these Tartar chieftains 
 were made to recoil upon themselves ; and the whole of 
 them perished by assassination at a great imperial banquet; 
 
 25 for the Chinese morality is exactly of that kind which ap- 
 proves in everything the lex talionis : — 
 
 " Lex nee justior ulla est [as they think] 
 Quam necis artifices arte perire sua." 
 
 So perished Zebek-Dorchi, the author and originator of the 
 
 30 great Tartar exodus. Oubacha, meantime, and his people 
 
 were gradually recovering from the effects of their misery, 
 
 and repairing their losses. Peace and prosperity, under the 
 
 gentle rule of a fatherly lord paramount, redawned upon 
 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 77 
 
 the tribes; their househokl lares, after so harsh a translation 
 to distant climates, found again a happy reinstatement in 
 what had, in fact, been their primitive abodes ; they found 
 themselves settled in quiet sylvan scenes, rich in all the 
 luxuries of life, and endowed with the perfect loveliness of 5 
 Arcadian beauty. But from the hills of this favored land, 
 and even from the level grounds, as they approach its west- 
 ern border, they still look out upon that fearful wilderness 
 which once beheld a nation in agony, — the utter extirpa- 
 tion of nearly half a million from amongst its numbers, and 10 
 for the remainder a storm of misery so fierce that in the 
 end (as happened also at Athens, during the Peloponnesian 
 War, from a different form of misery) very many lost their 
 memory; all records of their past life were wiped out as 
 with a sponge, utterly erased and cancelled ; and many 15 
 others lost their reason, some in a gentle form of pensive 
 melancholy, some in a more restless form of feverish de- 
 lirium and nervous agitation, and others in the fixed forms 
 of tempestuous mania, raving frenzy, or moping idiocy. Two 
 great commemorative monuments arose in after years to 20 
 mark the depth and permanence of the awe, the sacred and 
 reverential grief, with which all persons looked back upon 
 the dread calamities attached to the year of the tiger, — all 
 who had either personally shared in those calamities and 
 had themselves drunk from that cup of sorrow, or who had 25 
 effectually been made witnesses to their results, and associ- 
 ated with their relief : two great monuments, we say : first 
 of all, one in the religious solemnity, enjoined by the dalai- 
 lama, called in the Tartar language a Romananrj ; that is, a 
 national commemoration, with music the most rich and sol- 30 
 emn, of all the souls who departed to the rest of paradise 
 from the afflictions of the desert. This took place about 
 six years after the arrival in China. Secondly, another, 
 more durable, and more commensurate to the scale of the 
 calamity and to the grandeur of this national exodus, in the 35 
 
78 DE QUINCEY'S flight of a TARTAR TRIBE. 
 
 mighty columns of granite and brass erected by the emperor, 
 Kien Long, near the banks of tlie Ily. These columns stand 
 upon the very margin of the steppes, and they bear a short 
 but emphatic inscription to the following effect: — 
 
 By the will of God, 
 
 Here, upon the brink of these dt'serts. 
 
 Which from this point begin and stretcli away, 
 
 Pathless, treeless, waterless, 
 
 For thousands of miles, and along the margins of many mighty 
 
 nations, 
 
 Rested from their labors and from great afflictions. 
 
 Under the shadow of the Chinese Wall, 
 
 And by the favor of Kien Long, God's Lieutenant upon Earth, 
 
 The ancient Children of the Wilderness, — the Torgote Tartars, — 
 
 Flying before the wrath of the Grecian czar ; 
 
 Wandering sheep who had strayed away from the Celestial Empire in 
 
 the year IGIG, 
 
 But are now mercifully gathered again, after infinite sorrow, 
 
 Into the fold of their forgiving shepherd. 
 
 Hallowed be the spot forever. 
 
 And hallowed be the day — September 8, 1771 ! 
 
 Amen. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 An account of this singular flight of a Tartar tribe was written 
 by the Chinese Emperor, as a state paper, in the Cliinese language. 
 Roman Catholic missionaries translated parts of it, but the paper 
 itself was very long, and in it the Emperor gives the reasons for his 
 own treatment of the Kalmucks. 
 
 Cambyses, king of the Medes and Persians, son of Cyrus, b.c. 529. 
 Defeated rsammenitus, h.c. 525, and Egypt became a Persian prov- 
 ince. The ruin of many of the monuments of Egypt is attributed to 
 these invaders and their king, who was crazy. 
 
 Anabasis of Cyrus. Known to schoolboys as Xenophon's Anabasis. 
 Cyrus was the son of Darius the Persian. At Cunaxa he was defeated 
 by his brother and slain n.c. 401. 
 
 Crassus, Consul b.c. 55, was defeated by the Parthians with im- 
 mense slaughter and put to death b.c. 53. 
 
 Julian, Roman Emperor, surnamed the Apostate, was killed, a.d. 
 363, in his expedition against the Persians. 
 
 Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, a.d. 1812. 
 
 For the 'W/reat scriptural Exodus of the Israelites,^'' read the Book 
 of Exodus, Old Testament. 
 
 The Huns. Nomadic Scythian tribes, who devastated the Roman 
 Empire in the fifth century. They inhabited the plains of Tartary, 
 near China. Attila was their great leader. The Hungarians are the 
 descendants of the Huns. 
 
 Avars, or Avari. A Mongolian race, some of whom in the sixth 
 century settled on the Danube. Conquered the Dalmatians and some 
 German tribes. Were driven from Dalmatia a.d. 640. 
 
 Mongol Tartars. Nearly allied to the Mongol race. Brought 
 under Mongolic sway by Genghis Khan in the twelfth century. 
 Western Tartary belongs to Russia ; Eastern Tartary to China. 
 Tartary and Turkestan are, in a restricted sense, the same country. 
 
 War betioeen Bussia and Turkey was frequently renewed after 
 Peter the Great, in 1711, was defeated but allowed to escape with his 
 
 79 
 
80 NOTES. 
 
 army. By the peace of 1774, Russia obtained a large accession of 
 territory and the Black Sea. 
 
 The Bashkirs. A Tartar tribe of Russia, living principally in 
 tents, except in winter. They are Mohammedans, and guard the 
 frontiers of Russia. Their territory lies north of the Caspian Sea, on 
 the rivers Volga and Ural and. their branches. 
 
 Kirghizes. A Mongol race, on the southern frontier of Asiatic 
 Russia, on barren plains abounding in salt lakes. They are often 
 called the Cossacks of the Steppes. 
 
 The Cossacks. A mixed Caucasian and Tartar race. They are 
 dashing light-horse troops and form a military cordon of the empire 
 of the Czar, extending from the Black Sea nearly to the Sea of 
 Okhotsk in Eastern Siberia. 
 
 Astrakhan. A part of European Russia, northw^est of the Caspian 
 Sea, divided by the river Volga into two nearly equal parts. The 
 people on the Caspian have extensive fisheries, but the tribes are 
 mostly nomadic. 
 
 Bussia. An absolute monarchy. The Czar is the real head of the 
 nation and of the Greco-Russian Church. When Peter the Great 
 ascended the throne in 1696, the policy and destiny of Russia were 
 immediately changed. From this period the policy of Russia has 
 been to extend her dominions east and south. Under Catharine II. 
 she acquired great possessions in Poland and on the Black Sea. Not- 
 withstanding the Crimean war, which humbled for a time the military 
 pride of Russia, that nation has continued to advance. It has become 
 one of the most powerful, as well as one of the most extensive, nations 
 of modern times. It has an immense army of regular troops, and a 
 feudal militia of the Cossacks and similar races. It has become the 
 ruler and, to some extent, the pacificator of the barbarous tribes of 
 Turkestan. It has great political influence in Persia. It menaces 
 the possessions of England in Asia, although Afghanistan is the inde- 
 pendent "buffer" state between the two rival nations and holds the 
 Gates of Herat, the key of the situation. Lately, by taking the part 
 of China in negotiations with Japan, after the disastrous defeat upon 
 the sea of the Chinese by the Japanese, Russia has gained a strong 
 foothold in the Celestial Empire. 
 
 It is supposed to have, as its ultimate aim, the possession of Con- 
 stantinople, and has already control of the Black and Caspian seas. 
 The loss of a great Tartar tribe, therefore, in 1771, was humiliating to 
 Russia's pride. Hence the pursuit and sanguinary attacks upon the 
 fleeing Kalmucks. 
 
NOTES. 81 
 
 The Kalmucks, or Cahnucks, had been expelled from China in 1672, 
 but had been repeatedly invited to return. The tribe of the Derbets, 
 or Tchoros, west of the Volga, did not join in the flight, and their 
 descendants remain still in that region. De Quincey's estimate of the 
 number of Tartars, whose flight he records, must be greatly exag- 
 gerated, if other sources of information can be relied upon. Three 
 hundred thousand souls would probably be nearer the fact. The dis- 
 tance traveled, which he speaks of incidentally as 4000 miles, could 
 not have exceeded 2000 miles, counting in all deflections from a 
 straight course ; for the new Trans-Siberian railway, to be completed 
 in 1905, and extending from European Russia, through Siberia and 
 Manchuria, to the Japan Sea, is but 4741 miles long. 
 
 On the map, the route of the flight may be approximately traced by 
 the dotted lines ; the railway runs some hundreds of miles north. The 
 student may profitably consult a large map of Central Asia for infor- 
 mation concerning the boundaries of Russia in Asia at the present 
 time. Russia's geographical relations with Turkey, Persia, Afghanis- 
 tan, India, and China should also be studied. 
 
 At the present time there is another "Flight" eastward which 
 reminds one of the Kalmuck migration a century ago. It is a wild 
 stampede of emigration, at first encouraged by the government, and 
 which it now in vain endeavors to check. In 1894, 180,000 peasants 
 set out for Siberia. Between the months of January and May, 1896, 
 170,000 people had already passed on, and in May alone 100,000. 
 Transportation lines are choked, with all the attendant miseries of 
 hunger, despair, and death. Thus history repeats itself as civilization 
 advances and the centuries roll on. 
 
 Jaik Elver (p. 46). Now called the Ural. 
 
 Wolga liiver (p. 46) . Same as the Volga. 
 
 "Trashed" (p. 51, 5th line), means encumbered by indispensable 
 baggage. 
 
 "Indorsed" (p. 68, 18th line), from in and dorsum — with "human 
 beings" on the camels' backs. 
 
 The inscription at end of text has been changed from Chinese sym- 
 bols of dates, to coincide with the Christian era. 
 
 The term "Grecian czar" may have been used because the Russian 
 Czar was supposed to be the successor of the Byzantine Cfesars, being 
 of the same faith with them ; or, simply because the faith of the Russian 
 Czar and of the Russian Church was Greek. 
 
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