CHAP. which, from their uncommon magnitude, will intereft a philofophic mind in the hiftory of blood'. LXIV. Zingis emperor of the Mo Tartars, A. D. 1206 1227. From the fpacious highlands between China, Siberia, and the Cafpian Sea, the tide of emi guls and gration and war has repeatedly been poured. These ancient feats of the Huns and Turks were occupied in the twelfth century by many paftoral tribes, of the fame defcent and fimilar manners, which were united and led to conqueft by the formidable Zingis. In his afcent to greatness, that Barbarian (whofe private appellation was Temugin) had trampled on the necks of his equals. His birth was noble: but it was in the pride of victory, that the prince or people deduced his feventh ancestor from the immaculate conception of a virgin. His father had reigned over thirteen hords, which composed about thirty or forty thousand families: above two-thirds refufed to pay tithes or obedience to his infant fon and at the age of thirteen, Temugin fought a battle against his rebellious fubjects. The future conqueror of Afia was reduced to fly and to obey: but he rose fuperior to his fortune, and in his fortieth year he had established his fame and dominion over the circumjacent tribes. In a ftate of fociety, in which policy is rude and valour is univerfal, the afcendant of one man must be founded on his power and refolution to punish The reader is invited to review the chapters of the fourth and fixth volumes; the manners of pastoral nations, the conquefts of Attila and the Huns, which were compofed at a time when I entertained the wifh, rather than the hope, of concluding my history. LXIV. his enemies and recompenfe his friends. His first CHAP. military league was ratified by the fimple rites of facrificing an horfe and tafting of a running ftream: Temugin pledged himself to divide with his followers the fweets and the bitters of life; and, when he had shared among them his horses and apparel, he was rich in their gratitude and his own hopes. After his first victory, he placed feventy chaldrons on the fire, and seventy of the moft guilty rebels were caft headlong into the boiling water. The fphere of his attraction was continually enlarged by the ruin of the proud and the fubmiffion of the prudent; and the bold. eft chieftains might tremble, when they beheld, enchafed in filver, the skull of the khan of the Keraites; who, under the name of Prefter John, had correfponded with the Roman pontiff and the princes of Europe. The ambition of Temugin condefcended to employ the arts of fuperftition; and it was from a naked prophet, who could afcend to heaven on a white horfe, that he accepted the title of Zingis', the most great; The khans of the Keraites were moft probably incapable of reading the pompous epiftles composed in their name by the Neftorian miffionaries, who endowed them with the fabulous wonders of an Indian kingdom. Perhaps these Tartars (the Presbyter or Prieft John) had submitted to the rites of baptism and ordination (Affemann. Bibliot. Orient. tom. iii. P. ii. p. 487503.). : 3 Since the hiftory and tragedy of Voltaire, Gengis, at leaft in French, feems to be the more fashionable fpelling but Abulghazi Khan must have known the true name of his ancestor. His etymology appears juft: Zin, in the Mogul tongue, fignifies great, and gis is the fuperlative termination (Hift. Genealogique LXIV. CHAP. great; and a divine right to the conqueft and dominion of the earth. In a general couroultai, or diet, he was feated on a felt, which was long afterwards revered as a relic, and folemnly proclaimed great khan, or emperor, of the Moguls and Tartars. Of these kindred, though rival, names, the former had given birth to the Imperial race; and the latter has been extended, by accident or error, over the fpacious wilderness of the north. His laws. The code of laws which Zingis dictated to his fubjects, was adapted to the prefervation of domestic peace, and the exercise of foreign hoftility. The punishment of death was inflicted on the crimes of adultery, murder, perjury, and the capital thefts of an horse or ox; and the fiercest of men were mild and just in their intercourse with each other. The future election of the great khan was vested in the princes of his family and the heads of the tribes; and the regulations of the chace were effential to the pleasures and plenty of a Tartar camp. The victorious nation was held facred from all fervile labours, which des Tatars, part iii. p. 194, 195.). From the fame idea of magnitude, the appellation of Zingis is bestowed on the ocean. 4 The name of Moguls has prevailed among the Orientals, and ftill adheres to the titular fovereign, the Great Mogul, of Hindoftan. 5 The Tartars (more properly Tatars) were defcended from Tatar Khan, the brother of Mogul Khan (fee Abulghazi, part i and ii.), and once formed a hord of 70,000 families on the borders of Kitay (p. 103-112.). In the great invafion of Europe (A. D. 1238), they seem to have led the vanguard; and the fimilitude of the name of Tartarei, recommended that of Tartars to the Latins (Matt. Paris, p. 398, &c.). L were LXIV. were abandoned to flaves and ftrangers; and CHAP. every labour was fervile except the profeffion of arms. The fervice and difcipline of the troops, who were armed with bows, fcymetars, and iron maces, and divided by hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands, were the inftitutions of a veteran commander. Each officer and foldier was made responsible, under pain of death, for the fafety and honour of his companions; and the spirit of conqueft breathed in the law, that peace fhould never be granted unless to a vanquished and fuppliant enemy. But it is the religion of Zingis that best deferves our wonder and applause. The Catholic inquifitors of Europe, who defended nonfenfe by cruelty, might have been confounded by the example of a Barbarian, who anticipated the leffons of philofophy, and established by his laws a fyftem of pure theifm and perfect tolera tion. His first and only article of faith was the existence of one God, the author of all good; who fills by his presence the heavens and earth, which he has created by his power. The Tartars and Moguls were addicted to the idols of their peculiar tribes; and many of them had been converted by the foreign miffionaries to the religions of Mofes, of Mahomet, and of Christ. These various systems in freedom and concord, were taught and practised within the precincts of the fame camp; and the Bonze, the Iman, the 6 A fingular conformity may be found between the religious laws of Zingis Khan and of Mr. Locke (Constitutions of Carolina, in his works, vol. iv. p. 535. 4° edition, 1777). LXIV. CHAP. Rabbi, the Neftorian and the Latin prieft, en.. joyed the fame honourable exemption from fervice and tribute: in the mosch of Bochara, the infolent victor might trample the koran under his horfes feet, but the calm legiflator refpected the prophets and pontiffs of the most hoftile fects. The reason of Zingis was not informed by books; the khan could neither read nor write; and, except the tribe of the Igours, the greateft 'part of the Moguls and Tartars were as illiterate as their fovereign. The memory of their exploits was preserved by tradition: fixty-eight years after the death of Zingis, thefe traditions were col lected and tranfcribed'; the brevity of their do meftic annals may be fupplied by the Chinese' 8 In the year 1294, by the command of Cazan, khan of Perfia, the fourth in defcent from Zingis. From thefe traditions, his vizir Fadlallah composed a Mogul history in the Perfian language, which has been uffed by Petit de la Croix (Hift, de Genghizcan, p. 537-539.). The Hiftoire Genealogique des Tatars (à Leyde, 1726, in 12me, 2 tomes) was tranflated by the Swedish prisoners in Siberia from the Mogul MS. of Abulgafi Bahadur Khan, a defcendant of Zingis, who reigned over the Ufbeks of Charafm, or Carizme (A. D. 1644-1663). He is of moft value and credit for the names, pedigrees, and manners of his nation. Of his nine parts, the rst defcends from Adam to Mogul Khan; the iid, from Mogul to Zingis; the iii, is the life of Zingis; the ivih, vth, vith, and viith, the general hiftory of his four fons, and their pofterity; the viiith and ixth, the particular history of the defcendants of Sheibani Khan, who reigned in Maurenahar and Charafm. & Hiftoire de Gentchifcan, et de toute la Dinaftie des Mongous fes Succeffeurs, Conquerans de la Chine; tirée de l'Hif toire de la Chine, par le R. P. Gaubil, de la Societé de Jesus, Miffionaire à Peking; à Paris, 1739, in 4to. This translation is ftamped with the Chinese character of domestic accuracy and fo reign ignorance, Perfiana |