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_
Universal consternation was diffused through the wide
borders of the Khan's encampment by this disastrous
intelligence, not so much on account of the numbers
slain, or the total extinction of a powerful ally, as because 30
the position of the Cossack force was likely to put
to hazard the future advances of the Kalmucks, or at
least to retard and hold them in check until the heavier
columns of the Russian 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 their children, once again resounded through the
tents--the signal for flight, and this time for a flight
more rapid than ever. About 150 miles ahead of their 5
present position, there arose a tract of hilly country,
forming a sort of margin 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 westwards. Pretty nearly in the 10
centre of this hilly range lay a narrow defile, through
which passed the nearest and the 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 15
the Cossacks, inasmuch as not only would the delay in
forcing the pass give time to the Russian pursuing
columns for combining their attacks and for bringing
up their artillery, but also because (even if all enemies in
pursuit were thrown out of the question) it was held, by 20
those best acquainted with the difficult and obscure geography
of these pathless steppes--that the loss of this one
narrow strait 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 25
of at least 500 miles extra; besides that, after all, this
circuitous route would carry them to the Torgau at a point
unfitted for 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 30
cavalry, there was little chance but it would be found
preoccupied by the Cossacks. They, it is true, had
suffered greatly in the recent sanguinary action with the
defeated _ouloss_; but the excitement of victory, and the
intense sympathy with their unexampled 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, therefore, of preoccupation
was reduced to a race. The Cossacks were marching 5
upon an oblique line not above 50 miles longer than
that which led to the same point from the Kalmuck
headquarters before Koulagina; and therefore, without
the most furious haste on the part of the Kalmucks, there
was not a chance for them, burdened and "trashed"[6] as 10
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_) 15
was now at stake to allow of any regard to minor interests,
or what would be considered such in their present
circumstances. The dreadful week already passed--their
inauguration in misery--was yet fresh in their
remembrance. The scars of suffering were impressed 20
not only upon their memories, but upon their very persons
and the persons of their children; and they knew that,
where no speed had much chance of meeting the cravings
of the chieftains, no test would be accepted, short of
absolute exhaustion, that as much had been accomplished 25
as could be accomplished. Weseloff, the Russian captive,
has recorded the silent wretchedness with 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 contrary, 30
a brief but bitter experience had taught them to
take 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 5
greater than before, for the cold had been more intense,
and many perished out of the living creatures through
every class except only the camels--whose powers of
endurance seemed equally adapted to cold and heat.
The second morning, however, brought an alleviation to 10
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 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 15
check the advance of the Cossacks. Here, then, was the
last interval of comfort which gleamed upon the unhappy
nation during their whole migration. For ten days the
snow continued to fall with little intermission. At the
end of that time, keen, bright, frosty weather succeeded; 20
the drifting had ceased. In three days the smooth expanse
became firm enough to support the 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 25
had perished in such vast numbers on the previous
marches that an order was now issued to turn what
remained to account by slaughtering the whole, and
salting whatever part should be found to exceed the
immediate consumption. This measure led to a scene 30
of general banqueting, and even of festivity amongst all
who were not incapacitated for joyous emotions by distress
of mind, by 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,
exclusively of the many thousand allies who had been cut
down by the Cossack sabre. And the losses in reversion
were likely to be many more. For rumors began now to
arrive from all quarters, by the mounted couriers whom 5
the Khan had dispatched 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 Torgau, as the most convenient point for
intercepting the flying tribes; and it was already well 10
known that a powerful division was close in their rear,
and was retarded only by the numerous artillery which
had been judged necessary to support their operations.
New motives were thus daily arising for quickening the
motions of the wretched Kalmucks, and for exhausting 15
those who were previously but too much exhausted.
It was not until the 2d day of February that the
Khan's advanced guard came in sight of Ouchim, the
defile among the hills of Moulgaldchares, in which they
anticipated so bloody an opposition from the Cossacks. 20
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 camels, and some pieces of light 25
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 view, Zebek-Dorchi 30
appeared upon their rear with a body of trained riflemen,
who had distinguished themselves in the war with Turkey.
These men had contrived to crawl unobserved over the
cliffs which skirted the ravine, availing themselves of the
dry beds of the summer torrents and 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 5
followed to the Cossacks, and a slaughter such as in some
measure avenged the recent bloody extermination 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_ 10
(that is, cuirassiers mounted on camels); hardy 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 diminished their
powers for effecting an escape. Very few, in fact, _did_ 15
escape; and the bloody day of Ouchim became as memorable
among the Cossacks as that which, about twenty
days before, had signalized the complete annihilation of
the Feka-Zechorr.[7]
The road was now open to the River Igritch, and as yet 20
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 officer was to be joined on
his route by ten thousand Bashkirs, and pretty nearly the 5
same amount of Kirghises--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 compatriots as
served under the Sultan. The Czarina's yoke these wild 10
nations bore with submissive patience, but not the hands
by which it had been imposed; and accordingly, catching
with eagerness at the present occasion offered to their
vengeance, they sent an assurance to the Czarina of their
perfect obedience to her commands, and at the same time 15
a message significantly declaring in what spirit they meant
to execute them--viz. "that they would not trouble her
Majesty with prisoners."
Here then arose, as before with the Cossacks, a race
for the Kalmucks with the regular armies of Russia, and 20
concurrently 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
abasement, under the eyes of the Turkish Sultan. The
forces, and more especially the artillery, of Russia were 25
far too overwhelming to permit the thought of a regular
opposition in pitched battles, even with 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 their only hope--in strength of foot, as before, 30
and not 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. 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 5
track their course through a space of full two thousand
miles; for so much at 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 10
ground on the east bank of the Torgau. For the first
seven weeks of this march their sufferings had been imbittered
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 15
of their baggage wagons, or (as occasionally happened)
from the forests which skirted the banks of 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, 20
all dead and stiff at the return of morning light. Myriads
were left behind from pure exhaustion, of whom 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; 25
the vast extent of the march at length brought them into
more genial latitudes, and the unusual duration of the
march was gradually bringing them into more genial
seasons of the year. Two thousand miles had at least
been traversed; February, March, April, were gone; the 30
balmy month of May had opened; vernal sights and
sounds came from every side to comfort the heart-weary
travellers; and at last, in the latter end of May, crossing
the Torgau, they took up a position where they hoped to
find liberty to repose themselves for many weeks in comfort
as well as in security, and to draw such supplies from
the fertile neighborhood as might restore their shattered
forces to a condition for executing, with less of wreck
and ruin, the large remainder of the journey. 5
Yes; it was true that two thousand miles of wandering
had been completed, but in a period of nearly five
months, 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, 10
cow, horse, mule, ass, sheep, or goat, not one survived--only
the camels. These arid and adust creatures, looking
like the mummies of some antediluvian animals, without
the affections or sensibilities of flesh and blood--these
only still erected their speaking eyes to the eastern 15
heavens, and had to all appearance come out from this
long tempest of trial unscathed and hardly diminished.
The Khan, knowing how much he was individually
answerable for the misery which had been sustained,
must have wept tears even more bitter than those of 20
Xerxes when he threw his eyes over the myriads whom
he had assembled: for the tears of Xerxes were
unmingled with compunction. Whatever amends were in
his power, the Khan resolved to make, by sacrifices to
the general good of all personal regards; and, accordingly, 25
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, whether, even at this point, they should untread
their steps, and, throwing themselves upon the Czarina's 30
mercy, return to their old allegiance. In that case,
Oubacha professed himself willing to become the scapegoat
for the general transgression. This, he argued, was
no fantastic scheme, but even easy of accomplishment;
for the unlimited and sacred power of the Khan, so well
known to the Empress, made it absolutely iniquitous to
attribute any separate responsibility to the people. Upon
the Khan rested the guilt--upon the Khan would
descend the imperial vengeance. This proposal was 5
applauded for its generosity, but was energetically 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, 10
the motives were evenly balanced for retreat or for
advance. Either way they would have pretty nearly
the same distance to traverse, but with this difference--that,
forwards, their route lay through lands comparatively
fertile; backwards, through a blasted wilderness, 15
rich only in memorials of their sorrow, and hideous to
Kalmuck eyes by the trophies of their calamity. Besides,
though the Empress might accept an excuse for the past,
would she the less forbear to suspect for the future?
The Czarina's _pardon_ they might obtain, but could they 20
ever hope to recover her _confidence_? Doubtless there
would now be a standing presumption 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 25
surely remained unimpaired by anything that had occurred.
In reality the revolt was, after all, no revolt,
but (strictly speaking) a return to their old allegiance;
since, not above one hundred and fifty years ago (viz. in
the year 1616), their ancestors had revolted from the 30
Emperor of China. They had now tried both governments;
and for them China was the land of promise, and
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
themselves, would be readily conceded by the
Empress: and there is little doubt that they would at
this time have thrown themselves gladly upon the imperial 5
mercy; when suddenly all was defeated by the arrival of
two envoys from Traubenberg. This general had reached
the fortress of Orsk, after a very painful march, on the
12th of April; thence he set forward toward Oriembourg,
which he reached upon the 1st of June, having been 10
joined on his route at various times through the month
of May by the Kirghises and a corps of ten thousand
Bashkirs. From Oriembourg he sent forward his official
offers to the Khan, which were harsh and peremptory,
holding out no specific stipulations as to pardon or 15
impunity, an exacting unconditional submission as the
preliminary price of any cessation from military operations.
The personal character of Traubenberg, which
was anything but energetic, and the condition of his
army, disorganized in a great measure by the length and 20
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 parties, sinister
events occurred in the meantime such as effectually put
an end to every hope of the kind. 25
The two envoys sent forward by Traubenberg had
reported to this officer that a distance of only ten days'
march lay between his own headquarters and those of
the Khan. Upon this fact transpiring, the Kirghises, by
their prince Nourali, and the Bashkirs, entreated the 30
Russian general to advance without 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, and they would
themselves form his advanced guard. Traubenberg, however
(_why_ has not been certainly explained), refused to
march; grounding his refusal upon the condition of his
army and their absolute need of refreshment. Long
and fierce was the altercation; but at length, seeing no 5
chance of prevailing, and dreading above all other events
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 10
for many a league in search of food or provender for
their camels. The 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 15
accidents of ground) three or four blending into one;
flight and pursuit, rescue and total 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 20
innumerable sections; and thus, for some hours, it had
been impossible for the most practised eye to 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 25
down; but at length Zebek succeeded in rallying a
strong column of infantry, which, with the support of the
camel corps on each flank, compelled the Bashkirs to
retreat. Clouds, however, of these wild cavalry continued
to arrive through the next two days and nights, followed 30
or accompanied by the Kirghises. These being viewed
as the advanced parties of Traubenberg's army, the
Kalmuck chieftains saw no hope 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 fugitives were anticipating
a deep repose, without further molestation, the whole
summer through.
It seemed as though every variety of wretchedness 5
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 their story we shall immediately revert, 10
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
Wolga, a Russian gentleman of some rank at the court 15
of the Khan, whom, for political reasons, it was thought
necessary 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 continually diminishing the chances of escape, 20
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. Weseloff was formally restored 25
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-Dorchi that not 30
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 negotiating
an exchange. Upon this plea, to his own severe affliction,
the Russian was detained until the further pleasure
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 5
audience humbly remonstrated upon the injustice done
him 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 blighting them, the good-natured prince disclaimed 10
all participation in the affair, and went so far in
proving his sincerity as even to give him permission to
effect his escape; and, as a ready means of commencing
it without raising suspicion, the Khan mentioned to Mr.
Weseloff that he had just then received a message from 15
the Hetman of the Bashkirs, soliciting a private interview
on the banks of the Torgau at a spot pointed out. That
interview was arranged 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 20
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 Khan's person. He
mused a little, and then communicated so much of his
suspicions to the Khan as might put him on his guard; 25
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
returning to their countrymen on the west bank of the
Wolga, guessing the intentions of Weseloff, had offered 30
to join him in his escape. These men the Khan would
probably find himself obliged to countenance in their
project, so that it became a point of honor with Weseloff
to conceal their intentions, and therefore to accomplish
the evasion from the camp (of which the first steps only
would be hazardous) without risking the notice of the
Khan.
The district in which they were now encamped
abounded through many hundred miles with wild horses 5
of a docile 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 10
toils of their remaining route 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 fugitives repaired.
They took a circuitous path, which drew them as little as 15
possible within danger of challenge from any of the outposts
or of the patrols which had been established 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 they were 20
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, 25
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 30
Weseloff's arrival. One of these he recognized almost
certainly as the Khan, who was fighting hand to hand,
but at great disadvantage, 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 carabines 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 5
whole troop of cavalry was coming down upon the assailants,
who accordingly wheeled about and fled 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 10
shocked, though Weseloff at least was not surprised, on
stooping down and scrutinizing his features, to recognize
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 15
time a dead silence prevailed. The situation of Weseloff
was delicate and critical. To leave the Khan at this point
was probably to cancel their recent services; for he might
be again crossed on his path, and again attacked, by the
very party from whom he had just been delivered. Yet, on 20
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 he
broke silence and said: "I comprehend your situation;
and, under other circumstances, I might feel it my duty to 25
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
watch fire, is an outpost. Attend me so far. I am then
safe. You may turn and pursue your enterprise; for 30
the circumstances under which you will appear as my
escort are sufficient to shield you from all suspicion for
the present. I regret having no better means at my disposal
for 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
at which he heard the uproar; but that, _having_ heard it, 5
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 assaulted by assassins. A few minutes after 10
they reached the outpost at which it became safe to
leave 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 the one he rode; and by 15
shifting from one to the other (like the ancient Desultors
of the Roman 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 200 miles in the twenty-four
hours for three days consecutively. After that time, 20
considering 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 adhered
firmly to the details of his printed report. One of the 25
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 particular,
he mentions vast heaps of money as part of the 30
valuable property which it had been necessary to sacrifice.
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, with the price of their beautiful horses, which they
afterward sold at one of the Russian military settlements
for about L15 apiece, which eventually enabled them to
pursue their journey in Russia. This journey, as regarded
Weseloff in particular, was closed by a tragical catastrophe. 5
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 probably had
undermined her constitution. Still she had supported it.
Weseloff, giving way to the natural impulses of his filial 10
affection, had imprudently posted through Russia to his
mother's house 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 15
the spot.
* * * * *
We 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 20
even more monotonous than on the former half of the
flight, but also more severe. Its main elements were
excessive heat, with the accompaniments of famine and
thirst, but aggravated at every step by the murderous
attacks of their cruel enemies, the Bashkirs and the 25
Kirghises.
These people, "more fell than anguish, hunger, or
the sea," stuck to the unhappy Kalmucks like a swarm of
enraged hornets. And very often, while _they_ were
attacking them in the rear, their advanced parties and
30 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 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 5
rich in the comforts of life; but in such a land they were
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 preoccupation of
all the defensible positions, mountain passes, or bridges. 10
Sometimes, again, wearied out with this mode of 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 15
plague of starvation, whether with or without this plague
of hostility in front, whatever might be the "fierce varieties"
of their misery in this respect, no rest ever came
to their unhappy rear; _post equitem sedet atra cura_: it
was a torment like the undying worm of conscience. 20
And, upon the whole, it presented a spectacle altogether
unprecedented in the history of mankind. Private and
personal malignity is not unfrequently immortal; but rare
indeed is it to find the same pertinacity of malice in
a nation. And what imbittered the interest was that the 25
malice was reciprocal. Thus far the parties met upon
equal terms; but that equality only sharpened the sense
of their dire inequality as to other circumstances. The
Bashkirs were ready to fight "from morn till dewy eve."
The Kalmucks, on the contrary, were always obliged to 30
run. Was it _from_ their enemies as creatures whom they
feared? No; but _towards_ their friends--towards that
final haven of China--as what was hourly implored by
the prayers of their wives and the tears of their children.
But, though they fled unwillingly, too often they fled in
vain--being unwillingly recalled. There lay the torment.
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 5
advanced guard to fight them; every day the battle raged
for hours, and uniformly with the same result. For, no
sooner did the Bashkirs find themselves too heavily
pressed, and that the Kalmuck march had been retarded
by some hours, than they retired into the boundless 10
deserts, where all pursuit was hopeless. But if the Kalmucks
resolved to press forwards, regardless of their enemies--in
that case their attacks became so fierce and
overwhelming that the general safety seemed likely to be
brought into question; nor could any effectual remedy 15
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 death. It will not be surprising that the irritation
of such a systematic persecution, superadded to a previous, 20
and hereditary hatred, and accompanied by the
stinging consciousness of utter impotence as regarded all
effectual vengeance, should gradually have inflamed the
Kalmuck animosity into the wildest expression of downright
madness and frenzy. Indeed, long before the 25
frontiers of China were approached, the hostility of both
sides had assumed the appearance much more of a
warfare amongst wild beasts than amongst creatures
acknowledging the restraints of reason or the claims of a
common nature. The spectacle became too atrocious; it 30
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 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 5
region the Emperor had built a gorgeous hunting lodge,
to which he resorted annually for recreation and relief
from the cares of government. Led onwards in pursuit of
game, he had rambled to a distance of 200 miles or
more from his lodge, followed at a little distance by a 10
sufficient military escort, and every night pitching his
tent in a different situation, until at length he had arrived
on the very margin of the vast central deserts of Asia.[8]
Here he was standing by accident, at an opening of his
pavilion, enjoying the morning sunshine, when suddenly 15
to the westward there arose a vast, cloudy vapor, which
by degrees expanded, mounted, and seemed to be slowly
diffusing itself over the whole face of the heavens. By
and by this vast sheet of mist began to thicken toward
the horizon and to roll forward in billowy volumes. The 20
Emperor's suite assembled from all quarters; the silver
trumpets were sounded in the rear; and from all the
glades and forest avenues began to trot forwards towards
the pavilion the yagers--half cavalry, half huntsmen--who
composed the imperial escort. Conjecture was on 25
the stretch to divine the cause of this phenomenon; and
the interest continually increased in proportion as simple
curiosity gradually deepened into the 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 Emperor's
movements, or possibly by wild beasts prowling for prey,
and might be fetching a compass by way of re-entering
the forest grounds at some remoter points, secure from 5
molestation. But this conjecture was dissipated by the
slow increase of the cloud and the steadiness of its
motion. In the course of two hours the vast phenomenon
had advanced to a point which was judged to be
within five miles of the spectators, though all calculations 10
of distance were difficult, and often fallacious, when
applied to the endless expanses of the Tartar deserts.
Through the next hour, during which the gentle morning
breeze had a little freshened, the dusty vapor had developed
itself far and wide into the appearance of huge 15
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 skirts of these
aerial curtains, rents were perceived, sometimes taking the
form of regular arches, portals, and windows, through 20
which began dimly to gleam the heads of camels "indorsed"[9]
with human beings, and at intervals the moving
of men and horses in tumultuous array, and then through
other openings, or vistas, at far-distant points, the flashing
of polished arms. But sometimes, as the wind slackened 25
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, the clamors, the shrieks, and groans ascending
from infuriated myriads, reported, in a language not 30
to be misunderstood, what was going on behind the
cloudy screen.
It was, in fact, the Kalmuck host, now in the last
extremities of their exhaustion, and very fast approaching
to that final stage of privation and killing misery beyond
which few or none could have lived, but also, happily for
themselves, fast approaching (in a literal sense) that final 5
stage of their long pilgrimage at which they would meet
hospitality on a scale of royal magnificence and full protection
from their enemies. These enemies, however, as
yet, still were hanging on their rear as fiercely as ever,
though this day was destined to be the last of their hideous 10
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 made in consequence to
welcome the Kalmucks with the most paternal benevolence. 15
But as these couriers had been dispatched 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
Emperor had not looked for their arrival on his frontiers 20
until full three months after the present time. The Khan
had, indeed, expressly notified his intention to pass the
summer heats on the banks of the Torgau, and to recommence
his retreat about the beginning of September. The
subsequent change of plan being unknown to Kien Long, 25
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
clangor of weapons unveiled to the Emperor the true
nature of those unexpected calamities which had so prematurely 30
precipitated the Kalmuck measure.
Apprehending the real state of affairs, the Emperor
instantly perceived that the first act of his fatherly care
for these erring children (as he esteemed them), now
returning to their ancient obedience, must be--to deliver
them from their pursuers. And this was less difficult
than might have been supposed. Not many miles in the
rear was a body of well-appointed cavalry, with a strong
detachment of artillery, who always attended the Emperor's 5
motions. These 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 accordingly he was induced to
retire a little to the rear. It soon appeared, however, to 10
those who watched the vapory shroud 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 45 degrees with
that line in which the imperial _cortege_ had been standing, 15
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 precisely 20
in that spot, and about three hours after, and at noonday
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
appropriate winding up to an expedition in all its parts 25
and details so awfully disastrous. The Emperor was not
personally 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 30
officers.
The Lake of Tengis, near the frightful Desert of Kobi,
lay in a hollow amongst hills of a moderate height, ranging
generally from two to 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 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 5
descend, by a very winding and difficult road, for an hour
and a half; and during the whole of this descent they were
compelled to be inactive spectators of the fiendish spectacle
below. The Kalmucks, reduced by this time from
about six hundred thousand souls to two hundred and 10
sixty thousand, and after enduring for two months and a
half the miseries we have previously described--outrageous
heat, famine, and the destroying scimiter of the
Kirghises and the Bashkirs--had for the last ten days
been traversing a hideous desert, where no vestiges were 15
seen of vegetation, and no drop of water could be found.
Camels and men were already so overladen that it was a
mere impossibility that they should carry a tolerable sufficiency
for the passage of this frightful wilderness. On
the eighth day the wretched daily allowance, which had 20
been continually diminishing, failed entirely; and thus, for
two days of insupportable fatigue, the horrors of thirst
had been carried to the fiercest extremity. Upon this
last morning, at the sight of the hills and the forest
scenery, which announced to those who acted as guides 25
the neighborhood of the Lake of Tengis, all the people
rushed along with maddening eagerness to the anticipated
solace. The day grew hotter and hotter, the people more
and more exhausted; and gradually, in the general rush
forward to the lake, all discipline and command were lost--all 30
attempts to preserve a rear guard were neglected--the
wild Bashkirs rode on amongst the encumbered people
and slaughtered them by wholesale, and almost
without resistance. Screams and tumultuous shouts proclaimed
the progress of the massacre; 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 Bashkir was 5
affected by the same misery, and manifested the 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 10
state, whilst mere multitude and condensation of bodies
alone opposed any check to the destroying scimiter and
the trampling hoof, the lake was reached; and to that
the whole vast body of enemies rushed, and together
continued to rush, forgetful of all things at that moment 15
but of one almighty instinct. This absorption of the
thoughts in one maddening appetite lasted for a single
half hour; but in the 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 20
party of savage 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 25
struggles, and perishing in 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 30
forced into a share in this carnival of murder 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,
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, 5
for scores of acres, were to be seen all forms of ghastly
fear, of agonizing struggle, of spasm, of death, and the
fear of death--revenge, and the lunacy of revenge--until
the neutral spectators, of whom there were not a
few, now descending the eastern side of the lake, at length 10
averted their eyes in horror. This horror, which seemed
incapable of further addition, was, however, increased
by an unexpected incident. The Bashkirs, beginning to
perceive here and there the approach of the Chinese
cavalry, felt it prudent--wheresoever they were sufficiently 15
at leisure from the passions of the murderous
scene--to gather into bodies. This was noticed by the
governor of a small Chinese fort built upon an eminence
above the lake; and immediately he threw in a broadside,
which spread havoc among the Bashkir tribe. As often 20
as the Bashkirs collected into _globes_ and _turms_ as their
only means of meeting the long line of descending
Chinese cavalry, so often did the Chinese governor of the
fort pour in his exterminating broadside; until at length
the lake, at its lower end, became one vast seething 25
caldron of human bloodshed and carnage. The Chinese
cavalry had reached the foot of the hills; the Bashkirs,
attentive to _their_ movements, had formed; skirmishes had
been fought; and, with a quick sense that the contest was
henceforward rapidly becoming hopeless, the Bashkirs 30
and Kirghises began to retire. The pursuit was not as
vigorous as the Kalmuck hatred would have desired.
But, at the same time, the very gloomiest hatred could
not but find, 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
retributary Providence for their vindictive cruelty--not
the very gloomiest of the Kalmucks, or the least reflecting, 5
but found in all this a retaliatory chastisement more
complete and absolute than any which their swords and
lances could have obtained or human vengeance could
have devised.
* * * * *
Here ends the tale of the Kalmuck wanderings in the 10
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 provided by Kien Long with the most princely
munificence; and lands of great fertility were immediately 15
assigned to them in ample extent along the River Ily, not
very far from the point at which they had first emerged
from the wilderness of Kobi. But the beneficent attention
of the Chinese Emperor may be best stated in his own
words, as translated into French by one of the Jesuit 20
missionaries: "La nation des Torgotes (_savoir les Kalmuques_)
arriva a Ily, toute delabree, n'ayant ni de quoi
vivre, ni de quoi se vetir. Je l'avais prevu; et j'avais
ordonne de faire en tout genre les provisions necessaires
pour pouvoir les secourir promptement: c'est ce qui a ete 25
execute. On a fait la division des terres: et on a assigne
a chaque famille une portion suffisante pour pouvoir servir
a son entretien, soit en la cultivant, soit en y nourissant
des bestiaux. On a donne a chaque particulier des etoffes
pour l'habiller, des grains pour se nourrir pendant l'espace 30
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 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 bien-etre."
These are the words of the Emperor himself, speaking 5
in 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 prompted, and
the delicate considerateness which conducted, this extensive 10
bounty. 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 15
tres-penible route en eussent fait perir presque autant),
ils etaient reduits a la derniere misere; ils manquaient
de tout. Il" (viz. l'empereur, Kien Long) "leur fit preparer
des logemens conformes a leur maniere de vivre;
il leur fit distribuer des alimens et des habits; il leur fit 20
donner des boeufs, des moutons, et des ustensiles, pour
les mettre en etat de former des troupeaux et de cultiver
la terre, et tout cela a ses propres frais, qui se sont
montes a des sommes immenses, sans compter l'argent
qu'il a donne a chaque chef-de-famille, pour pouvoir a la 25
subsistance de sa femme et de ses enfans."
Thus, after their memorable year of misery, the Kalmucks
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 30
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, 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 from
roving and from the savage customs connected with a half 5
nomadic 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
disadvantage there was, amply to overbalance all other 10
possible 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.
One word remains to be said upon the _personal_ interests 15
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 alienated from his cousin; he revolted from the man 20
that would have murdered him; and he had displayed his
caution 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 keeping them aloof, had probably saved the life of 25
Oubacha; for the friendship of Zebek-Dorchi was more
fatal than his open enmity. After the settlement on the
Ily this feud continued to advance, until it came under
the notice of the Emperor, on occasion of a visit which
all the Tartar chieftains made to his Majesty at his hunting 30
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 affect the interests of
the Kalmuck people. The consequence 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 projects
that, in conjunction with other chiefs, he had the presumption 5
even to weave nets of treason against the Emperor
himself. Plots were laid, were detected, were baffled;
counter-plots were constructed upon the same basis,
and with the benefit of the opportunities thus offered.
Finally, Zebek-Dorchi was invited to the imperial lodge, 10
together with all his accomplices; and, under the skilful
management of the Chinese nobles in the Emperor's
establishment, 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 15
banquet. For the Chinese morality is exactly of
that kind which approves in everything the _lex talionis_:
"... Lex nec justior ulla est [as _they_ think]
Quam necis artifices arte perire sua."
So perished Zebek-Dorchi, the author and originator of 20
the 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 the tribes: their household _lares_, after so 25
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 Arcadian beauty. But from 30
the hills of this favored land, and even from the level
grounds as they approach its western border, they still
look out upon that fearful wilderness which once beheld
a nation in agony--the utter extirpation of nearly half a
million from amongst its numbers, and 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 5
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 others lost
their reason; some in a gentle form of pensive melancholy,
some in a more restless form of feverish delirium
and nervous agitation, and others in the fixed forms of 10
tempestuous mania, raving frenzy, or moping idiocy.
Two great commemorative monuments arose in after
years to 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 15
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 effectually been made witnesses
to their results and associated with their relief: two great
monuments; one embodied in the religious solemnity, 20
enjoined by the Dalai-Lama, called in the Tartar language
a _Romanang_--that is, a national commemoration, with
music the most rich and solemn, 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 25
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 mighty columns
of granite and brass erected by the Emperor, Kien Long,
near the banks of the Ily. These columns stand upon 30
the very margin of the steppes, and they bear a short but
emphatic inscription[10] to the following effect:--
By the Will of God,
Here, upon the Brink of these Deserts,
Which from this point begin and stretch 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-- 10
Flying before the wrath of the Grecian Czar,
Wandering Sheep who had strayed away from the Celestial Empire
in the year 1616,
But are now mercifully gathered again, after infinite sorrow,
Into the fold of their forgiving Shepherd. 15
Hallowed be the spot
and
Hallowed be the day--September 8, 1771!
Amen.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] "Trashed." This is an expressive word used by Beaumont and Fletcher in their "Bonduca," etc., to describe the case of a person retarded or embarrassed in flight, or in pursuit, by some encumbrance, whether thing or person, too valuable to be left behind.
[7] There was another _ouloss_ equally strong with that of Feka-Zechorr, viz. that of Erketunn under the government of Assarcho and Machi, whom some obligations of treaty or other hidden motives drew into the general conspiracy of revolt. But fortunately the two chieftains found means to assure the Governor of Astrachan, on the first outbreak of the insurrection, that their real wishes were for maintaining the old connection with Russia. The Cossacks, therefore, to whom the pursuit was intrusted, had instructions to act cautiously and according to circumstances on coming up with them. The result was, through the prudent management of Assarcho, that the clan, without compromising their pride or independence, made such moderate submissions as satisfied the Cossacks; and eventually both chiefs and people received from the Czarina the rewards and honors of exemplary fidelity.
[8] All the circumstances are learned from a long state paper on the subject of this Kalmuck migration drawn up in the Chinese language by the Emperor himself. Parts of this paper have been translated by the Jesuit missionaries. The Emperor states the whole motives of his conduct and the chief incidents at great length.
[9] _Camels_ "_indorsed_" "and elephants indorsed with towers."--MILTON in _Paradise Regained_.
[10] This inscription has been slightly altered in one or two phrases, and particularly in adapting to the Christian era the Emperor's expressions for the year of the original Exodus from China and the retrogressive Exodus from Russia. With respect to the designation adopted for the Russian Emperor, either it is built upon some confusion between him and the Byzantine Caesars, as though the former, being of the same religion with the latter (and occupying in part the same longitudes, though in different latitudes), might be considered as his modern successor; or else it refers simply to the Greek form of Christianity professed by the Russian Emperor and Church. _
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