"'No one needs blush when he can limit his desires; no one has occasion to fear when he knows how to desist in due time. Such are the sentiments that actuate me. In all places under heaven, to the remotest corners beyond the sea, there are men who obey under the names of slaves or subjects. Shall I persuade myself that they are all submitted to me, and that they own themselves my vassals? Far from me be so chimerical a pretension. What I persuade myself, and what is strictly true, is that the Torgouths, without any interference on my part, have come of their own full accord to live henceforth under my laws. Heaven has, no doubt, inspired them with this design; they have only obeyed Heaven in putting it in force. I should do wrong not to commemorate this event in an authentic monument.
"'The Torgouths are a branch of the Eleuths. Four branches formerly constituted the entire nation of the Tchong Kars.[43] It would be difficult to explain their common origin, respecting which moreover nothing very certain is known. These four branches separated, and each formed a distinct nation. That of the Eleuths, the chief of them all, gradually subdued the others, and continued until the time of Kang Hi, to exercise over them the pre-eminence it had usurped. Tse Ouang Raptan then reigned over the Eleuths, and Aiouki over the Torgouths. These two leaders, at variance with each other, had disputes, to which Aiouki, the weaker of the two, feared he should be the unhappy victim. He conceived the design of withdrawing for ever from beneath the sway of the Eleuths.[44] He took secret measures to secure the flight he meditated, and escaped with all his followers to the lands under the sway of the Russians, who permitted him to settle in the country of Etchil.[45]
"'Cheng Tsou Jin Hoang Ty, my grandfather, wishing to be informed of the true reasons that had induced Aiouki thus to expatriate himself, sent him the mandarin Toulichen[46] and some others to assure him of his protection in case he desired to return to the country where he had formerly dwelt. The Russians, to whom Toulichen was ordered to apply for permission to pass through their country, granted it without difficulty; but as they gave him no information as to what he was in quest of, it took him three years and some months to fulfil his commission. It was not until after his return that the desired information respecting Aiouki and his people was at last possessed.
"'Oubacha, who is now khan of the Torgouths, is great grandson of Aiouki. The Russians, never ceasing to require soldiers of him to be incorporated in their troops, having at last taken his own son from him as a hostage, and being besides of a different religion from himself, and making no account of that of the Lamas which the Torgouths profess, Oubacha and his people finally determined to shake off a yoke which was daily becoming more and more insupportable.
"'After having secretly deliberated among themselves, they resolved to quit an abode where they had to suffer so much, and come and dwell in the countries subject to China, where the religion of Fo is professed.
"'In the beginning of the eleventh moon of last year, they began their march with their women and children and all their baggage, traversed the country of the Hasacks, passed along the shores of Lake Palkache Nor and through the adjoining deserts; and towards the close of the sixth moon of this year, after having completed more than 10,000 leagues in the eight months of their wayfaring, they at last arrived on the frontiers of Chara Pen, not far from the banks of the Ily. I was already aware that the Torgouths were on their march to submit themselves to me, the news having been brought me shortly after their departure from Etchil. I then reflected that Iletou, general of the troops at Ily, having already been charged with other very important affairs, it was to be feared that he could not regulate those of the new comers with all the requisite attention.
"'Chouhede, one of the general's councillors, was at Ouche, employed in maintaining order among the Mahometans. As he was at hand to attend to the Torgouths, I ordered him to repair to Ily, that he might use his best efforts to establish them solidly.