R U S S I A A N D C H I N A. 205 



Chinefe, to return. His difmiffion was owing, partly, 

 to a fudden caprice of that fufpicious people, and partly 

 to a mifunderftanding, which had recently broke out 

 between the two courts, in relation to fome Mongol tribes 

 who bordered upon Siberia. A fmall number of thefe 

 Mongols had put themfelves under the protedlion of 

 Rullia, and were immediately demanded by the Chinefe ; 

 but the Ruffians refufed compliance, under pretence that 

 no article in the treaty of Nerfliinfk could, with any ap- 

 pearance of probability, be conftrued as extending to the 

 Mongols. The Chinefe were inccnfed at this rcfufal ; 

 and their refentment was ftill further inflamed by the: 

 diforderly conduct of the Ruffian traders, who, freed' 

 from all controul by the departure of their agent, had 

 indulged, without reilraint, their ufual propenfity to 

 excefs. This concurrence of unlucky incidents extorted, 

 in 1722, an order from Camhi for the total expulfion of ^'!,"'f / ^'^" 



' ' r pel led iroin 



the Ruffians from the Chinefe and Mongol territories. 

 Thefe orders were regoroufly executed ; and all inter- 

 courfe between the two nations immediately ceafed. 



Affairs continued in this ifate until the year I7 27,.J:'""''^""^;,°^ 

 when the count Sava Vladiflavitch Ragufinlki, a Dalma- 

 tian in the fervice of Ruffia, was difpatched to Pekin: 

 His orders were at all events to compofe the differences 

 between the two courts relating to the Mongol tribes ; to 



fettle- 



