128 Of the Checks to Population Bk. i. 



guls, do not make use of slaves, and are said in 

 general to lead a much more peaceable and harm- 

 less life, contenting themselves with the produce 

 of their herds and flocks, which form their sole 

 riches. They rarely make war for the sake of 

 plunder; and seldom invade the territory of their 

 neighbours, unlest to revenge a prior attack. 

 They are not however without destructive wars. 

 The inroads of the Mahometan Tartars oblige 

 them to constant defence and retaliation; and 

 feuds subsist between the kindred tribes of the 

 Kalmucks and Moguls, which, fomented by the 

 artful policy of the emperor of China, are carried 

 on with such animosity as to threaten the entire 

 destruction of one or other of these nations.* 



The Bedoweens of Arabia and Syria do not live 

 in greater tranquillity than the inhabitants of 

 Grand Tartary. The very nature of the pastoral 

 state seems to furnish perpetual occasions for war. 

 The pastures, which a tribe uses at one period, 

 form but a small part of its possessions. A large 

 range of territory is successively occupied in the 

 course of the year; and, as the whole of this is 

 absolutely necessary for the annual subsistence of 

 the tribe, and is considered as appropriated, every 

 violation of it, though the tribe may be at a great 

 distance, is held to be a just cause of war.| Al- 



* Geneal. Hist. Tart. vol. ii. p. 545. 



t Us se disputeront la terre iuculte, comme parmi nous les cl- 

 toyens se disputent les heritages. Ainsi ils trouveront de fre- 

 quentes occasions de guerre pour la nourriture de leurs bestiaux, 

 &c. * * * * ils auront autant de choses a regler par le droit des 



