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 
iruptions 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 
