58 MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 



the world has ever seen. China, India, Persia, and 

 the whole of Tartary, were necessarily subjected to 

 its sway ; Russia, too, was rendered tributary, and 

 irruptions were made into Poland and Hungary. 

 In a very few ages, however, the fortunes of these 

 invaders became changed: they were driven from 

 China and Persia; they were extirpated in India, 

 subjugated by the Russians in the western part of 

 their ancient conquests, and by the Chinese in the 

 country of their origin; and since that time they 

 have been able to preserve only a few independent 

 establishments in some districts to the west of the 

 Caspian, where they follow a pastoral life, a great 

 number wandering, as did their ancestors, over the 

 immense deserts of central Asia, expecting that the 

 discord or the decay of neighbouring empires may 

 permit some enterprising adventurer again to sum- 

 mon them to new conquests. It is this desire that 

 Russia and China seek to thwart, by sowing dis- 

 sension among them, by reducing their number, 

 and by sometimes transplanting them to enormous 

 distances, when they have a pretext after a meeting 

 or rebellion. And, nevertheless, in this persecuted 

 state, these unfortunate men maintain all the pride 

 of rank and nobility ; they preserve their long gene- 

 alogies, and their princes cabal against each other, 

 and intrigue at the court of their chief for the aug- 

 mentation of authority. The grand Lama, too, who 

 rules over their consciences through the agency of 

 a religious corps, confers, by his patents, what is 

 esteemed a sacred character on this authority ; and 



