The Eleuthes or Kalmucks allege that they dwelt in old times in the countries lying between Koho Noor (Blue Lake) and Thibet. Their division into four great tribes, each under an independent prince, dates probably from the dissolution of the Mongol power. These tribes, whose remains exist to this day, are the Koshotes, Derbetes, Soongars, and Torghouts. The Koshotes, whose chiefs consider themselves to be lineally descended from a brother of Genghis Khan, were partly destroyed in intestine wars with the Torghouts and Soongars, and partly subjugated by China. Only a small remnant of them accompanied the Derbetes to the banks of the Volga.
The Soongars originally united with the Derbetes, constituted the most formidable tribe in Asia, in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Their princes, who resided on the river Ily, had then subdued all the other Kalmucks; they could bring 60,000 fighting men into the field, and the Khirghis and Turkmans paid them tribute. Their pride augmented with their success, and a war they undertook against the Chinese Mongols became the cause of their downfall. The Soongars were enslaved or scattered, and a branch of the Derbetes shared their fate. It was about this period that the first emigration of Kalmucks took place into Russia; 50,000 Soongar or Torgout families encamped on the banks of the Volga, in 1630, and Astrakhan owed its safety only to the death of their prince Cho Orloek, who was slain in an assault on the town. Subsequently, however, about 1665, Daitchink, the son of Cho Orloek, was forced to acknowledge himself a vassal of the empire, and to swear fealty. His example was followed by his son. But this submission was merely nominal, and did not at all affect the real independence of the Mongol hordes.
The first Kalmuck emigrations towards the west were speedily followed by others. The Derbetes and other Torghouts arrived in the steppes of the Caspian and Volga to the number of more than 10,000 tents. In 1665, Aiouki Khan, grandson of Daitchink, an enterprising and ambitious man, succeeded, in defiance of Russia, in extending his sway over all the Kalmuck tribes. This chief pushed his excursions up to the foot of the Caucasus, and being opposed on his march by the Nogais of the Kouban, he completely defeated them in a general engagement. The bodies of his slain foes were cast by his orders into a pit dug under a great tumulus, situated on the field of battle, and still known in the country by the name of Bairin Tolkon (Mountain of Joy), bestowed on it by the victorious khan in memory of his triumph.
Aiouki's forces then took part in Peter the Great's famous expedition against Persia, in which they rendered great services to Russia. The Kalmuck prince had a brilliant interview on this occasion with the Tzar. Peter received him on board his galley on the Volga, near Saratof, and treated him and his wife with all the honours due to sovereigns. Aiouki was then at the height of his power, and cared little for the oath of allegiance to Russia taken by his predecessors. Peter required 10,000 men of him, and he furnished 5000. It was about this period that an embassy, under the special protection of Russia, arrived from China, by way of Siberia, and waited on Aiouki Khan, ostensibly for the purpose of treating with him for the restoration of one of his nephews, who was detained at the imperial court for reasons unknown to us. But we believe that the principal object of the embassy was to keep up political relations with the Kalmucks, whom the Chinese government wished to bring back under its own sway. Aiouki, following the example of his predecessors, had not broken off all communication with the celestial empire, and had even sent rich presents to the emperor in 1698. It was, therefore, important to cherish this favourable disposition, of which the Chinese hoped to avail themselves sooner or later. Of course it is not to be supposed that these views were avowed officially; and we cannot but wonder at the indifference of the Russian government, or the adroitness with which the Chinese availed themselves of the aid of Russia herself to compass their ends. But in the various interviews between Aiouki and Toulichen, the head of the embassy, the question of keeping up an intimacy between the two nations was largely discussed, and all necessary measures were arranged to avoid awakening the suspicions of Russia, and thus closing the only means of communication that lay open to them.[37]