"'With regard to the Ily country where I have allowed them to take up their abode, though I have very recently caused a town to be built there, that place is not yet strong enough to protect the frontiers in that direction, and hinder the brigands from continuing to insult them. Those who inhabit the country are employed only in tilling the ground and feeding cattle. How could they protect themselves? How could they secure the peace of those deserts? General Iletou being informed of the approach of the Torgouths, failed not to acquaint me with the fact. If through fear of the uncertain future, or considerations unsuited to the circumstances of the case, I had determined to have the border strictly guarded, and to have a stop put to the march of the Torgouths, what should I have gained thereby? Driven to despair, would they not have rushed into the most violent excesses? An ordinary private individual would be justly stigmatised as inhuman, were he to behold strangers from a far country exhausted with fatigue, bowed down by wretchedness, and ready to breathe out their last gasp, and not take the trouble to succour them; and shall a great prince, whose first duty it is to try to imitate Heaven in his manner of governing men, shall he leave a whole nation that implores his clemency to perish for want of aid? Far from us be such vile thoughts! farther still be conduct conformable to them! No, we will never adopt such cruel sentiments. The Torgouths came, I received them; they wanted even the commonest necessaries of life; I provided them with every thing abundantly; I opened for them my granaries and my coffers, my stalls and my studs. Out of the former I bestowed on them what was requisite for their present wants; from the latter I desired that they should be supplied with the means of providing for themselves in time to come. I intrusted the management of this important affair to those of my grandees whose disinterestedness and enlightenment were already known to me. I hope and trust that every thing will be done to the entire satisfaction of the Torgouths. It is needless to say more in this place. My intention has only been to give a summary of what has come to pass."[47]
[37] "Narrative of the Chinese Embassy to the Khan of Torgouth Tartars, in the years 1712, '13, '14 and '15, by the Chinese Ambassador, and published by the emperor's authority at Pekin." London. I am indebted to the kindness of Baron Walckenaer for an acquaintance with this work.
[38] The flight of the Kalmucks has also been attributed to Prince Chereng Taidchi, of whom mention has been made above. This version of the matter seems to us improbable. Chereng had left China as an outlaw, and it is not to be supposed that he was favourable to the emigration, notwithstanding the impatience with which he endured the yoke of Russia. It appears, on the contrary, that he never ceased to protest against the resolution adopted by Oubacha.
[39] The MS. belongs to M. Ternaux Compans, who has obligingly placed at my disposal all the rich stores of his valuable library.
[40] Here again we see that the Chinese give the name of Tatars to the Mongols, which confirms our opinion, that the denomination we give to the Mussulman subjects of Southern Russia is incorrect. We have substituted Tatar for the word Tartar in the MS.
[41] The Chinese doubtless adopted the name Torgouth, because the fugitive Kalmucks consisted, in a great measure, of that tribe. The Kalmucks that remained in Russia are almost all Derbetes and Koschoots.
[42] Russian documents confirm the fact, that a captain of this name commanding a Russian detachment was carried off by the fugitive Kalmucks.
[43] There is here, evidently, a confusion of names. The Soongars, or Tchong-Kars, as the Chinese call them, are a branch of the Eleuths, and are the very nation who played the important part here attributed to the Eleuths in general.
[44] This assertion seems totally erroneous. The Torgouths arrived in Russia in 1630, and Aiouki was not raised to the dignity of khan until 1675; he could not, therefore, have acted the part here ascribed to him. The relation of the Chinese embassy to Aiouki (1712-1715) likewise confirms in all points the inaccuracy of the Emperor Kien Long's historical version. At that period China was a country almost unknown to the Kalmucks, and Aiouki, in all his conferences with the ambassadors, was continually asking for information of all kinds respecting the celestial empire.
[45] The part of southern Russia comprised between the Volga and the Jaik. The Tatars also gave the name of Etchil to the Volga.
[46] Here the emperor's words are altogether at variance with the report of the Chinese embassy, of which Toulischin was the leader.