Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/773

Rh MONGOLS 745 ten oxen, a hundred sheep, and a hundred sacks of kumiss. These last, however, instead of being filled with skins of the liquor which Mongolians love so well, contained armed men, who, when the Tatar was feasted, rushed from their concealment and killed him. A grandson of Merghus was the celebrated Wang Khan, who was sometimes the ally and sometimes the enemy of Jenghiz Khan, and has also been identified as the Prester John of early Western writers. In war he was almost invariably unfortunate, and it was with no great difficulty, therefore, that his brother Ki Wang detached the greater part of the Kerait tribes from his banner, and The founded the Torgod chieftainship, named probably from Torgod. t j ie coun try where they settled themselves. The unrest peculiar to the dwellers in the Mongolian desert disturbed the Torgod as much as their neighbours. Their history for several centuries consists of nothing but a succession of wars with the tribes on either side of them, and it was not until 1672, when Ayuka Khan opened relations with the Russians, that the country obtained an even temporarily settled existence. Its position, indeed, at this time made it necessary that Ayuka should ally himself either with the Russians or with his southern neighbours the Turks, though at the same time it was obvious that his alliance with the one would bring him into collision with the other. His northern neighbours, the Cossacks of the Yaik and the Bashkirs, both subject to Russia, had the not uncommon propensity for invading his borders and harassing his sub jects. This gave rise to complaints of the czar s govern ment and a disposition to open friendly relations with the Krim khan. A rupture with Russia followed, and Ayuka carried his arms as far as Kasan, burning and laying waste the villages and towns on his route and carrying off prisoners and spoils. Satisfied with this vengeance, he advanced no farther, but made a peace with the Russians, which was confirmed in 1722 at an audience which Peter the Great gave him at Astrakhan. On Ayuka s death shortly after this event, he was succeeded by his son Cheren Donduk, who received from the Dalai Lama a patent to the throne. But this spiritual support availed him little against the plots of his nephew Donduk Ombo, who so completely gained the suffrages of the people that Cheren Donduk fled before him to St Petersburg, where he died, leaving his nephew in possession. With consummate impartiality the Russians, when they found that Donduk Ombo had not only seized the throne but was governing the country with vigour and wisdom, formally invested him with the khanate. At his death he was succeeded by Donduk Taishi, who, we are told, went to Moscow to attend the coronation of the empress Elizabeth, and to swear fealty to the Russians. After a short reign he died, and his throne was occupied by his son Ubasha. The position of the Torgod at this time, hemmed in as they were between the Russians and Turks, was rapidly becoming unbearable, and the question of migrating &quot; bag and baggage &quot; was very generally mooted. In the war between his two power ful neighbours in 1769 and 1770, Ubasha gave valuable assistance to the Russians. His troops took part in the siege of Otchakoff, and gained a decided victory on the Kalans. Flushed with these successes, he was in no mood to listen patiently to the taunts of the governor of Astrakhan, who likened him to a &quot;bear fastened to a chain,&quot; and he made up his mind to break away once and for all from a tutelage which was as galling as it was oppressive. He determined, therefore, to migrate eastward with his people, and on the 5th of January 1771 he began his march with 70,000 families. In vain the Russians attempted to recall the fugitives, who, in spite of infinite hardships, after a journey of eight months reached the province of Ili, where they were welcomed by the Chinese authorities. Food for a year s consumption was supplied to each family ; and land, money, and cattle were freely distributed. How many lost their lives on the toilsome march it is impos sible to say, but it is believed that 300,000 persons sur vived to receive the hospitality of the Chinese. This migration is interesting as illustrating the many displace ments of tribes and peoples which have taken place on the continent of Asia at different periods of history. Such another migration occurred between four and five thousand years ago, when the Chinese crossed from western Asia into their present empire ; such, again, was the movement which carried the Osmanli Turks from north-eastern Asia into Asia Minor, and eventually across the Bosphorus. By this desperate venture the Torgod escaped, it is true, the oppression of the Russians, but they fell into the hands of other masters, who, if not so exacting, were equally de termined to be supreme. The Chinese, flattered by the compliment implied by the transference of allegiance, settled them on lands in the province of Ili, in the neigh bourhood of the Altai Mountains, and to the west of the desert of Gobi. But the price they were made to pay for this liberality was absorption in the Chinese empire. Like the other Chinese -subdued Mongols, the Torgod were divided into banners, and from that time forth they lost their individuality. Among the Mongol chiefs who rose to fame during the rule of the Ming dynasty of China was Toghon, the Kal- muk khan, who, taking advantage of the state of confusion which reigned among the tribes of Mongolia, established for himself an empire in north-western Asia. Death carried him off in 1444, and his throne devolved upon his son Ye-seen, who was no degenerate offspring. Being without individual foes in Mongolia for the same reason that Narvaez had no enemies namely, that he had killed them all he turned his arms against China, which through all history has been the happy hunting-ground of the northern tribes, and had the unexampled good fortune to take prisoner the Chinese emperor Ching-tung. But victory did not always decide in his favour, and, after having suf fered reverses at the hands of the Chinese, he deemed it wise to open negotiations for the restoration of his imperial prisoner. Thus, after a captivity of seven years, Ching- tung re-entered his capital in 1457, not altogether to the general satisfaction of his subjects. On the death of Ye-seen, shortly after this event, the Kalmuks lost much of their power in eastern Asia, but retained enough in other por tions of their territory to annoy the Russians by raids within the Russian frontier, and by constant acts of pillage. In the 17th century their authority was partly restored by Galdan, a Lama, who succeeded by the usual combination Galdan of wile and violence to the throne of his brother Senghe. Khan. Having been partly educated at Lhasa, he was well versed in Asiatic politics, and, taking advantage of a quarrel be tween the Black and White Mountaineers of Kashgar, he overran Little Bokhara, and left a viceroy to rule over the province with his capital at Yarkand. At the same time he opened relations with China, and exchanged presents with the emperor. Having thus secured his powerful southern neighbour, as he thought, he turned his arms against the Khalkhas, whose chief ground of offence was their attachment to the cause of his brothers. But his rest less ambition created alarm at Peking, and the emperor K ang-he determined to protect the Khalkhas against their enemy. Great preparations were made for the campaign. The emperor, in person commanding one of the two forces, marched into Mongolia. After enduring incredible hard ships during the inarch through the desert of Gobi the im perial army encountered the Kalmuks at Chao-modo. The engagement w r as fiercely contested, but ended in the com plete victory of the Chinese, who pursued the Kalmuks for 1 miles, and completely dispersed their forces. Immense XVI. 94