were abandoned in my present state, I should be taken as in a snare, unable to defend myself. Notwithstanding, you see that the Almighty has subjected nations to my sway; that he has opened for me inaccessible places; filled the earth with the terror of my name; and has made kings and princes fall before me. Can such signal victories proceed from any one but God? What am I, but a poor wretched being, possessing of myself neither power nor talents proportioned to my achievments ?"

Timour left behind him fifty three descendants, thirty-six males, and seventeen females. As soon as his death was known, the empresses, and great ladies at court, beat their faces, and tore their hair; their lords rent their clothes, and flinging themselves on the ground, passed the night in lamentation. On the next day, the body was washed and embalmed with camphor, musk and rose water, then sewed up in linen, and laid in a coffin of ebony. Whatever might be the blessings of Timour's administration, they evaporated with his life. To reign rather than to govern, was the ambition of his children and grandchildren; the enemies of each other, and of the people. A fragment of the empire was upheld with some glory by Sharokh his youngest son, but after his decease, the scene was again involved in darkness and blood. His conquests were astonishingly rapid ; but they were as rapidly lost by his successors. Baber, one of his decendants, being expelled from his native dominions, founded the empire of the Monguls in India. But this experienced the general fate of the other Mongalian states, and perished by dismemberment. Such, were the singular events of the rise and fall of the Mongalo Tartarian empire-such the catastrophe of this extraordinary people, which, (except in some ruined cities and sepulchres) has now scarcely any memorial left of its former greatness; and we can only recollect, that it was once a nation, which domineered over the world. The rapidity of the Mongul conquests have astonished posterity; but to account for so extraordinary an historical phenomenon, we must consider the state of both Asia and Europe in those calamitous times. Within the whole sweep of their ravages, there was not one well

compacted and warlike state capable of resisting an enemy, whose system of universal pillage attracted innumerable hordes of desperate adventurers to his standard. In order to maintain their extensive conquests, numerous colonies were necessary new states were formed in different countries ;—in consequence of which, an almost general transplantation and migration of the Mongul and Tartar nations took place. These were in process of time, and in consequence of their divisions, subdued by those whom they had formerly conquered; and of course they became gradually mixed with other nations, particularly Russians, Turks, Chinese and Persians, and sunk into the general mass of foreign population; so that their ancient stems were left few in number; and their original seats almost a desert. The progress and decline of knowledge and taste among the Monguls and the Tartars, corresponded with the prosperity and fall of their empire. The ruin of their cities, their sepulchral monuments, and other remains of their ancient greatness seen in Siberia, and in the districts near the Yaik, and the Volga, show, that during the prosperous state of their short lived empire, they had acquired some knowledge of the arts, and some taste for magnificence; but their colonies having been subdued, and gradually swallowed up in the vortex of other nations, the remaining unmixed tribes sunk into that state of barbarism and ignorance, from which they had partially emerged.

Before the middle of the sixteenth century, Siberia was scarcely known to Russia, any more than to the rest of Europe. But in the course of the next century, the Tartars were every where reduced to subjection. The Russians extended their conquests on every side, and the whole of Siberia, as far as the Eastern Ocean, was annexed to the empire of the czars. A still larger extent of territory would perhaps have been added to their dominions, and all the tribes of independent Tartary, from the south-eastern extremity of the Russian empire to the wall of China, would have experienced the same fate as the Siberian hordes, if the court of Pekin had not interposed. The approaches of the Russians towards the Chinese frontiers, occasioned a war between Russia and China.

The banks of the river Amoor, where the Russians had constructed some forts, were the principal theatre of the war which the two rival empires carried on in those distant and desolate regions, where large armies could not subsist. Their forces, therefore, were few in number, and the events of the war of trifling importance. In 1689, a treaty of peace was concluded; the boundaries of the Russian and Chinese dominions were fixed; and a regular trade established between the two empires. The peninsula of Kamtschatka was in 1711, reduced under the dominion of Russia; and the first project, for making discoveries in the Eastern Ocean, was conceived and planned by Peter the Great, who, with his own hand drew up instructions for its execution. In pursuance of the plan laid down by that monarch, the celebrated Beering, having previously made several voyages of discovery in the tempestuous sea of Kamtschatka, undertook in 1741, the grand expedition, which has eventually been productive of so important advantages to the Russian commerce, in furnishing additional supplies of valuable furs. After Beering and Tschirikof had opened the way to the islands situated between Asia and America, private adventurers engaged with ardour in similar expeditions. Since that period, the prosecution of the new discoveries has been, almost entirely, carried on by individuals. The commercial intercourse, between Russia and China, has in the mean while undergone various regulations. For a considerable length of time it was greatly cramped by the restrictive operation of crown monopolies; but the late empress Catherine II., abolished all monopoly in the fur trade; and renounced, in favour of her subjects, the exclusive privilege which the government enjoyed of sending caravans to Pekin. In consequence of this patriotic measure, the profits of the trade have greatly increased; and Kiakta is become the center of commerce between Russia and China.

MISCELLANEOUS HISTORY.

THE religion of the Greek church is established in Asiatic as well as in European Russia. But although the Greek religion is widely diffused in those regions, its prevalence does not correspond with its extension. Many of the southern Tartars are Mahometans, and others profess the religion of the Dalai Lama. But the Eastern Tartars are generally attached to Schamanism, a system founded chiefly on three leading principles, the self-existence of matter, a spiritual world, and the general restitution of all things. They believe, that between men and God are the terigri or spirits of the air, who direct all sublunary affairs. As the Schamanians believe the existence of one Supreme beneficent Being, who commits the government of the universe to inferior divinities; so they also admit one chief infernal deity, with his subaltern agents. This malevolent being receives into the infernal regions all those, who have offended the priesthood.

Siberia is divided into the two great governments of Tobolsk in the west, and Irkutsk in the east. Although the Russian laws may in general be said to predominate, usages and ancient customs supply in a great measure, among different tribes, the place of legal institutions.

The commerce of Asiatic Russia has already been described in treating of Astrachan and Kiakta; its two principal foci by which it is carried on with Persia, Bucharia, India, and China. The Chinese trade is of very great importance to Russia. It is this commerce, which by opening so lucrative a market to the furs, renders Siberia, Kamtschatka, and the adjacent isles, so valuable to that empire. By this trade the Russians are also supplied with many valuable articles, which they would otherwise be obliged to purchase, at a much higher rate from the European nations.

The Mongols, the remains of that extraordinary people which formerly changed the destinies of a great part of the

world, are at present only nomadic; their herds consisting of horses, camels, oxen and sheep. When pasturage fails, they strike their tents, which generally happens ten or fifteen times in a year; proceeding in summer to the northern, and in winter to the southern wilds. The Mongols are somewhat short in stature, with a flat visage, small oblique eyes, thick lips, a short chin and little beard. Their hair is black, and their complexions a darkish brown; but the women are tolerably fair. The Mongols are docile, hospitable, beneficent, active and voluptuous. They are also remarkable for the quickness of their sight and apprehension. They are divided into Imaks, comprising from 150 to 300 families, and each Imak has its particular chief. The Kalmucks are of Mongalian descent, and in person and manners greatly resemble that people. They are divided into three classes, the nobles, the clergy, and the common people. On the first summons, every man is obliged to appear on horseback before the prince. Their weapons are bows, sabres, lances, and sometimes fire-arms; but they can make very little resistance against regular armies. The picture of the physical and moral circumstances, the manners and customs, the languages, dresses, dwellings, &c. of the various nations, which inhabit the Asiatic as well as the European part of the Russian empire, is too motley and various to admit of a particular delineation. So extraordinary a collection of nations and tribes united in one vast political body, is a curious phenomenon, and presents a singular spectacle; exhibiting all the various modifications, of which human nature is susceptible.