The Tartars are covetous, irascible, deceitful, and merciless, beyond all men; yet, through the rigour of discipline which is exercised by their superiors, they are restrained from brawls and mutual strife. They esteem the ancient founders and fathers of their tribes as Gods, in whose honour they celebrate solemn feasts at certain fixed times; and these deities are very numerous, though only four are considered as general gods of the nation. They consider all things as created for their sole use, and do not therefore think themselves cruel or unjust in wasting and destroying the surrounding nations, whom they esteem rebels against their legitimate authority. Their bodies, though lean, are hardy and strong, with broad chests, and square high shoulders, strong, well knit joints and firm sinews, thick and large thighs, with short legs, so that, being equal to us in stature, what they want in their legs is supplied in the upper part of their bodies. Their faces are pale, with short flat noses, their eyes black and inconstant, having large eyebrows, extending down to the nose; long sharp chins, their upper jaws low and declining, their teeth long and thin, their countenances distorted, fierce and terrible.

In ancient times their country, which is situated far beyond Chaldea, was utterly waste and barren, from whence they have expelled the lions, bears, and other wild beasts. Of the tanned hides of beasts they make for themselves light but impenetrable armour, and their backs are only slightly armed, that they may not flee in battle. They use small but strong horses, which are maintained with little provender. In fight they use javelins, maces, battle-axes, and swords, but are particularly expert in the use of bows and arrows. When engaged in battle they never retire till they see the chief standard of their general give back. When vanquished they ask no quarter, and in victory they shew no compassion; and though many millions in number, they all persist as one man, in resolving to subdue the whole world under their dominion. They have 60,000 couriers who are sent before upon light horses to prepare a place for the army to encamp, and these will gallop in one night as far as our troops can march in three days. When they invade a country, they suddenly diffuse themselves over the whole land, surprising the people unarmed, unprovided, and dispersed, and make such horrible slaughter and devastation, that the king or prince of the invaded land cannot collect a sufficient force to give them battle.

Sometimes they say, they intend to go to Cologne to bring home the three wise kings into their own country; sometimes they propose to punish the avarice and pride of the Romans, who formerly oppressed them; sometimes to conquer the barbarous nations of the north; sometimes to moderate the fury of the Germans with their own mildness; sometimes in derision they say that they intend going in pilgrimage to the shrine of St James in Galicia. By means of these pretences, some indiscreet governors of provinces have entered into league with them, and have, granted them free passage through their territories; but which leagues they have ever violated, to the certain ruin and destruction of these princes and their unhappy countries.

Our limits do not admit of any detailed account of the history of those numerous and warlike pastoral nations, which in all ages have occupied the vast bounds of that region, which has been usually denominated Scythia by the ancients, and Tartary by the moderns: yet it seems necessary to give in this place, a comprehensive sketch of the revolutions which have so strikingly characterized that storehouse of devastating conquerors, to elucidate the various travels into Tartary which are contained in this first book of our work; and in this division of our plan, we have been chiefly guided by the masterly delineations on the same subject, of the eloquent historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire209.

In their navigation of the Euxine, and by planting colonies on its coasts, the Greeks became acquainted with Western Scythia, extending from the Danube, along the northern frontiers of Thrace, to mount Caucasus. The great extent of the ancient Persian Empire, which reached at one period from the Danube to the Indus, exposed its whole northern frontier to the Scythian nations, as far to the east as the mountains of Imaus or Caf, now called the Belur-tag. The still more eastern parts of Scythia or Tartary were known of old to the Chinese, and stretch to the utmost north-eastern bounds of Asia. Thus from the Danube and Carpathian mountains, in long. 26°. E, to the promontory of Tschuts-koi-nos, or the East Cape of Asia, in long. 190°. E. this vast region extends in length 160 degrees of longitude, or not less than 8000 miles. Its southern boundaries are more difficultly ascertainable: but, except where they are pressed northwards by the anciently civilized empire of China, these may be assumed at a medium on the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude; from, whence Scythia or Tartary extends in breadth to the extremity of the frozen north.

Next to the nomadic nations of Western Scythia, who encountered and baffled the arms of Darius, King of Persia, under the general name of Scythians, who were perhaps congeneric, or the same with those afterwards known by the name of Goths, the dreaded name of the Huns became known to the declining Roman Empire. But our object does not require us to attempt to trace the history of these nations, under their various appellations of Huns, Topa, Geougen, Turks, Chozars, and others, till the establishment of the vast empire of Zingis connected the history and devastating conquests of the Tartars with the affairs of modern Europe210.

In the beginning of the thirteenth century, Temugin, the son of a Mogul chief, laid the foundations of a vast empire in the north east of Tartary or Mongolia. His father had reigned over thirteen hordes or tribes of the Moguls, Moals, or Monguls: and as it was not customary for these warlike tribes to submit to be ruled over by a boy, Temugen, who at the death of his father was only thirteen years of age, had to contend with his revolted, subjects, and had to obey a conqueror of his own nation. In a new attempt to recover the command over the subjects of his, father, he was more successful: and under the new appellation of Zingis, which signifies most great, he became the conqueror of an empire of prodigious extent. In person, or by means of his lieutenants, he successfully reduced the nations, tribes, or hordes of Tartary or Scythia, from China to the Volga, and established his undisputed authority over the whole pastoral world. He afterwards subjugated the five northern provinces of China, which were long imperfectly known under the name of Kathay; and successively reduced Carisme or Transoxiana, now great Bucharia, Chorassan, and Persia: and he died in 1227, after having exhorted and instructed his sons to persevere in the career of conquest, and more particularly to complete the conquest of China.

The vast empire established by Zingis, was apportioned among his four principal sons, Toushi, Zagatai, Octai, and Tuli, who had been respectively his great huntsman, chief judge, prime minister, and grand general. Firmly united among themselves, and faithful to their own and the public interest, three of these brothers, and their families and descendants, were satisfied with subordinate command; and Octai, by general consent of the maols, or nobles, was proclaimed Khan, or emperor of the Moguls and Tartars. Octai was succeeded by his son Gayuk; after whose death, the empire devolved successively on his cousins Mangou or Mangu, and Cublai, the sons of Tuli, and the grandsons of Zingis. During the sixty-eight years of the reigns of these four successors of Zingis, the Moguls subdued almost all Asia, and a considerable portion of Europe. The great Khan at first established his royal court at Kara-kum in the desert, and followed the Tarter custom of moving about with the golden horde, attended by numerous flocks and herds, according to the changes of the season: but Mangu-Khan, and Cublai-Khan, established their principal seat of empire in the new city of Pe-king, or Khan-balu, and perfected the conquest of China, reducing Corea, Tonkin, Cochin-china, Pegu, Bengal, and Thibet, to different degrees of subjection, or tribute, under the direct influence of the great Khan, and his peculiar lieutenants.