UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



of Rufiia, Alexis his Ton, Teodore or Theodore, 

 and Ivan, or John V. to the year 1696, when, 

 r I. furnamed the Great, came to the 

 throne : a monarch who made the moft affonifh- 

 ing, and at the lame time the moft happy efforts, 

 toward the civilizing of the Ruffian nation. This 

 great m;n died in 1725-, and the throne of 

 Ruftia has been fince filkd by Catherine, the 

 widow of the emperor Peter-, by Peter II. his 

 grandfon , by Ann, the daughter of John V. by 

 John VI. grandfon of John V. by Llizabeth Pe- 

 trowna, daughter of Peter the Great , by Peter 

 III. grandfon of Peter, and laftly, by the auguft 

 Catherine II. now reigning. 



XXVII. If the ColTacks, Calmacs, the inha- 

 bitants of Siberia and the Ukraine, the Samoeids, 

 &c. have any hiilory, it mud be compre- 

 hended under that of Rufiia. It will not be ex- 

 pedted that we fhould lole ourfelves in thefe de- 

 farts. We ;mi(l here lay a tew words, however, 

 concerning the Tartars. Tartary in Afia, which 

 they call Great 'fartary^ is an immenfe country, 

 that is as imperfectly known to geographers, as 

 the fuccefiion of its love reigns is to hillorians 

 and chronologies. It was thefe Tartars, how- 

 ever, that in the year 1380 made themfelves maf- 

 ters of China \ and it was then that the family- 

 named Ivan began to reign there. There were 

 nine Tartarian emperors of that houfe, which 

 lafted 89 years. In 1369 the Tartars were 

 drove out of China , but in 1645 they re-en- 

 tered^ 



