224

CHAP.

V.

TAMERLANE REWARDS HIS ARMY.

Timur, when certain of this result; dismounting from his horse, humbly knelt down before God, acknowledging that through his goodness alone he had gained the victory. The Emperor's sons and other princes fell on their knees, congratulated his majesty, and cast upon him gold and jewels. The monarch embraced them, and loaded them with praises and thanks. He distributed treasures on the most distinguished: and presented the emir Sheik Noureddin, who had with so much zeal exposed his person to save his sovereign's life, with a horse of great price, a vest of gold brocade, a belt set with precious stones, and a hundred thousand dinars copeghi; besides honorable promotion in the army *.

In order that every one might be contented, his majesty made also a general promotion of all the officers in the army †".

Timur, leaving the baggage and the great booty which was captured, went with his best troops in pursuit of Toctamish; but, on his arrival at the Volga, finding that the fugitive monarch had crossed the river, Timur invested Coraitchac Aglen with the crown of Capschac, and the whole empire of Touschi ‡.

The army pressed on in pursuit, northward, to Oukek, the last town

with George Lamb, Esq. on their journey from Bombay, in 1824, passed over the extensive desert plain upon which this great battle was fought: it is between Kislar and Mosdok. The number of Tumuli which were in view, was immense: and they were visible as far as the eye could reach: they were of different sizes, but perhaps none above twenty-five feet in height. The soil was barren earth; and here and there some straggling weeds, like worm-wood.

* About thirty-three thousand pounds. A dinar copeghi is seven livres ten sous, French money. Sherefeddin, Vol. 11. p. 147, note.

+ Sherefeddin, B. III. Ch. LIII.

Petis de la Croix, p.389, asserts, that notwithstanding this installation, Schady Bec succeeded to the throne in 1395. Toctamish fled for refuge to the Duke of Lithuania: returned to dispute the throne, and, at last, perished in the wilds of Siberia.

TAMERLANE INVADES RUSSIA.

225

V.

of the dependence of Serai; and thence into the impenetrable forests CHAP. of Boular. The army marched on the west side of the river to the place where it had ravaged the country in 1391, which is near the Icy Sea. On their return, the soldiers acquired an immense plunder in gold, silver, pearls, rubies, furs, and several wild animals unknown among the Zagataians. Many young persons of both sexes were also brought away captive *.

As Timur's courage was not satisfied with an enterprise till he had carried it to the utmost perfection, he was not content with having chased Toctamich from his empire and destroyed his army: he therefore resolved to reduce to obedience the nations of these western frontiers. According to this generous sentiment, he sent forward the Emir Osman, who cut the Usbec Tartars to pieces, and pillaged their houses t. The toman of Actao, the Usbec, abandoned the country, and fixed themselves in the plains of Isra Yaca, near Natolia.

Timur then went in person towards Grand Russia, plundering the cities as he went, defeating and cutting in pieces the princes and governors, as far as the borders of Rezan, with an army of four hundred thousand men.

Appearing to take the road to Moscow, which had not recovered from the devastations committed by Toctamich, the inhabitants of that unfortunate city were in despair. The Grand Duke, Vassili II. resolved to encounter the storm, and pitched his camp on the borders of the Oka. Against Timur's mighty force there could be no hope.

* Sherefeddin, Vol. I. p. 499.

The reader will recollect that these generous proceedings are described by a subject of Timur.

Sberefeddin has asserted that Timur took Moscow; and many authors have copied him: but Toctamich had plundered Moscow a few years before Timur's invasion, and he did not go to that city. See Levesque; and Gibbon, Vol. VI. p. 338.

G G

226

CHAP.

V.

CAZAN, ASTRACHAN, AND SIBIR, CONQUERED BY RUSSIA. Contrary to all expectation, Timur changed his course, and turned his face homeward*. His troops were enriched with ingots of gold, silver, linen cloth woven with great neatness and skill, skins covered with spots, in considerable loads, the most beautiful sables, ermines, and other furs in such quantities as to supply the captors for their own and their children's lives. In Little Russia, the army took prodigious droves of cattle, an infinite number of colts which had not yet been shod, besides abundance of beautiful girls and women of all ages.

By this campaign the power of Toctamich, and of the kingdom of Capschac, were considerably shaken; it was therefore a fortunate event for Russia. The sons of Toctamich, and other princes, reigned in rapid succession, and, by their dissensions, paved the way for the A. D. 1475. Russian conquests. Ivan III. being required by an order under the great seal of Akhmet, khan of the Golden Horde, to pay the accustomed tribute; he treated the orders with contempt, and put the deputy to death. The next year Akhmet entered Russia, ravaged the frontiers, and reached the river Oka, where he was surprised at the sight of a formidable army; at the discovery of which he retraced his steps, and no sooner reached his own territory than his troops became victims of the plague.

A. D. 1552.

Cazan, after a terrible siege, was taken by storm by Ivan IV. and the country subdued. The Russian monarch, when he entered Cazan, wept at the horrid sight of the heaps of the slaint.

* Levesque, Vol. II. p. 267.

† Jerome Bowes was sent by Queen Elizabeth, as ambassador, to Ivan, who was the first who took the title of Czar. To conform to the etiquette of the times, he remained with his hat on at the first audience. Some one represented the danger of such conduct, and the evils he might bring on himself by it. "I am not unacquainted with them," said he; "but I am the ambassador of a Queen, who will revenge any affront offered to her in the person of her minister." The Czar, far from being offended, presented him to the assembly. "Behold,” said he, "a brave

THE MOGULS SUBDUED BY RUSSIA.

227

Astrachan falls; and the Tartar domination in these quarters CHAP.

ends.

V.

A. D. 1554.

The conquest of Sibir, near Tobolsk, was effected; after having A. D. 1586. been in possession of the descendants of Genghis Khan about three hundred and fifty years*.

When king James's ambassador, Sir Thomas Smith, was at Mos- A.D. 1604. cow, in 1604, the Emperor Boris's table was served by two hundred noblemen in coats of gold. The prince's table was served by the

young

dukes of Cazan, Astrachan, Siberia, Tartaria, and Circassia +.

By the middle of the seventeenth century, most part of Siberia was A.D. 1650. reduced; and about the year 1711 Kamtschatka was added to the

Russian Empire.

The Crimea, the last possession of the descendants of Genghis A.D. 1784. Khan, in the kingdom of Capschac and in Siberia, fell to Russia, about five hundred and fifty years after the conquest of those countries by the Mongols.

man, who has the courage to uphold the honour of his sovereign with dignity. Who among you would do as much for me?"-Clausen.

*

Levesque, Vol. III.

+ Milton's Historical Works, Vol. II. p. 147.

CHAPTER VI.

VI.

Fossil remains of Elephants, Rhinoceroses, and Buffaloes, found in Siberia and Russia.- -Remarks on the Elephant found in the Ice at the Mouth of the Lena.- -Sublime Scenery.- -Ruins of Ancient Forts.- Happiness of the Natives.- Numerous Errors arising from Europeans having transferred the word Mammoth, the Siberian Name of the Walrus, to the Remains of Elephants, Whales, &c.

CHAP. "THE celebrated Bayer conjectures, that the bones and teeth found in Siberia belonged to elephants, common in that country, during the wars of the Mongol monarchs with the Persians and Indians; and this plausible supposition is in some measure corroborated by the discovery of a whole skeleton of an elephant in one of the tombs of Siberia. Pallas refutes this, by the consideration that the elephants employed in all the armies of India, could never have afforded the vast quantities of teeth which have been discovered *."

66

Many persons go from Tomsk (lat. 56° 30′) to the graves, eight or ten days journey, where they dig, and find, among the ashes of the dead, gold, silver, brass, precious stones, armour, sword-hilts, bones of horses, and sometimes of elephants. It appears that many warriors must

.

* Coxe's Travels, Vol. III. p. 170.