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nations. This last decree is not less important as throwing some light on the character of the man who held the whole of the Asiatic continent in awe by the magnitude of his exploits.

Several stories have been handed down of the circumstances attending the death of the Mongol hero, but the most probable version is that he died a natural death in his camp on the Shansi frontier, on the 27th of August, A.D. 1227. He was therefore about sixty-five years of age, and during more than fifty of these he had been engaged in conducting wars which partook originally of the character of marauding expeditions, but in the end assumed all the proportions of vast conquests. The area of the undertakings conducted under his eye was more vast, and included a greater number of countries than in the case of any other conqueror. Not a country from the Euxine to the China Sea escaped the tramp of the Mongol horsemen, and, if we include the achievements of his immediate successors, the conquest of Russia, Poland, and Hungary, the plundering of Bulgaria, Roumania and Bosnia, the final subjection of China and its southern tributaries must be added to complete the tale of Mongol triumph. The sphere of Mongol influence extended beyond this large portion of the earth's surface, just as the consequences of an explosion cannot be restricted to the immediate scene of the disaster. If we may include the remarkable achievements of his descendant Baber, and of that prince's grandson Akbar, in India three centuries later, not a country in Asia enjoyed immunity from the effect of their successes. Perhaps the most important result of their great outpouring into Western Asia, which certainly was the arrest of the Mahomedan career in Central Asia, and the diversion of the current of the fanatical propagators of the Prophet's creed against Europe, is not yet as fully recognized as it should be.

The doubt has been already expressed whether the Mongols would ever have risen to higher rank than that of a nomad tribe but for the appearance of Genghis. Leaving that supposition in the category of other interesting but problematical conjectures, it may be asserted that Genghis represented in their highest forms all the qualities which

entitled his race to exercise governing authority. He was, moreover, a military genius of the very first order, and it may be questioned whether either Cæsar or Napoleon can, as commanders, be placed on a par with him. The manner in which he moved large bodies of men over vast distances without an apparent effort, the judgment he showed in the conduct of several wars in countries far apart from each other, his strategy in unknown regions, always on the alert yet never allowing hesitation or over-caution to interfere with his enterprise, the sieges which he brought to a successful termination, his brilliant victories, a succession of "suns of Austerlitz"-all combined, make up the picture of a career to which Europe can offer nothing that will surpass, if indeed she has anything to bear comparison with it.

After the lapse of centuries, and in spite of the indifference with which the great figures of Asiatic history have been treated, the name of Genghis preserves its magic spell. It is still a name to conjure with, when recording the great revolutions of a period which beheld the death of the old system in China, and the advent in that country of a newer and more vigorous government, which, slowly acquiring shape in the hands of Kublai, and a more national form under the Mings, attained the pinnacle of its utility and its strength under the greater Emperors of the Manchu dynasty. But great as is the reputation Genghis has acquired, it is probably short of his merits. He is remembered as a relentless and irresistible conqueror, a human scourge; but he was much more. He was one of the greatest instruments of destiny, one of the most remarkable moulders of the fate of nations to be met with in the history of the world. His name still overshadows Asia with its fame, and the tribute of our admiration cannot be denied.

The death of Genghis did not interfere with the progress of the war against the Kins. With his dying breath he gave instructions for turning the fortress of Tunkwan, which still effectually guarded the approaches to the province of Honan where the Kins had concentrated their strength for a final effort. His successor Ogotai resolved to prosecute the war with the greatest energy, but a brief period of inaction

necessarily ensued, and the Kins availed themselves of it to assume the offensive. In a battle which took place between two small detachments the Kins were victorious, and as this was the first success they had obtained in the field for twenty years, its details were greatly exaggerated. Its importance was very trivial, and it had nothing more than a local effect. In A.D. 1229, when the ceremony attending the proclamation of a new khan was finished, Ogotai announced his intention of concluding the long war by the final overthrow of the Kins; and he showed the decision of his character by dividing the territory already conquered from them into ten depart

ments.

In A.D. 1230, therefore, the Mongols returned in great force, under the command of the brothers Ogotai and Tuli, and their generals Yeliu Chutsai and Antchar; but whether it was that they were not led with the same skill as before, or that the Kins after their late victory fought with better heart, their old success apparently deserted them. In several encounters the Kins were successful, and a Mongol envoy who came to offer onerous terms of peace was roughly handled, and sent back with a message of defiance. In A.D. 1230, and again in 1231, the Mongols laid close siege to the town of Fongsian, but the garrison defended the place with resolution. The principal conduct of the siege operations was entrusted to Antchar, but the Kins continued to hold out, even after the repulse of an attempt to relieve the town. Antchar was compelled to change his tactics, and to leave a portion of his army to starve the defenders into submission while he overran the surrounding districts. On his return from this expedition he had the satisfaction of receiving the surrender of Fongsian, to the brave garrison of which he granted honourable terms. At the most the success of this campaign had been doubtful; but it had been conducted in a humane manner. The next was to be more decisive, but marked by the recurrence of some of the sanguinary incidents which had attended the previous undertakings of the Mongols.

In A.D. 1232, both Ogotai and Tuli took the active conduct of the war into their own hands. The former attacked. Honan-the last of the possessions of the Kins-from the

north by way of Hochung, while the latter, at the head of an army composed mainly of cavalry, marched through the difficult Han country of Southern Shensi and Northern Szchuen for the purpose of invading Honan from the west. Having overcome almost incredible difficulties, although by the violation of Sung territory, Tuli burst on the Kin garrisons with a fury resembling that of the mountain torrents of the inaccessible region through which he had forced his way; but the Kins recovering from their panic saw that they were only opposed by a handful of men exhausted by a long march under arduous circumstances. A desperate battle ensued near the Yu Mountain, when the Mongols were obliged to retreat from the field. Their destruction would have been inevitable but that the Kins fancied they had completed their work, and did not follow up this advantage with any vigour. It may have been that the rapid successes of Ogotai on the Hoangho compelled the recall of this army from the south-west for the defence of the capital. When Tuli found that he was not pressed he resumed his march through Honan. The annals of the period are full of the deeds of ferocity he committed-of the thousands he slaughtered among the garrisons he captured and the armies he defeated.

The two armies of Ogotai and Tuli at last joined each other in the neighbourhood of the capital, and the Kin forces were confined to this town and the few other fortresses that remained in their possession. An attempt to flood the country was foiled, and ten thousand labourers sent to break the dykes were massacred to the last man by the infuriated Mongols. In a great battle at Ynchow the Kin army suffered a crushing defeat, losing three of the most trusted of its generals. No further obstacle remained to prevent the siege of the capital. Before Kaifong was completely beleaguered, Ninkiassu, the Kin Emperor, fled with a portion of the garrison to Kouete on the borders of Kiangsu, but his flight only precipitated his fall. The garrison of Kaifong, although disheartened by the desertion of its leader, continued to offer a brave resistance. The Mongol commander Subutai pressed it hard with the fire of numerous catapults, from which were hurled stones of considerable size, and he also employed

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his prisoners in filling up the ditches of this city-fortress. The Kins were fighting for their lives, and in their desperation they succeeded for a long time in baffling the superior skill and persistency of the Mongol attack. At one stage in the siege operations Subutai was compelled to withdraw from before the town, but he speedily returned with renewed courage and force. After a siege, which lasted more than twelve months, the garrison of Kaifong reached the limit of its powers of resistance, and was fain to surrender almost at discretion. The spoil obtained by the victors was immense, and it is said that the inhabitants, and those who had taken refuge within its walls, reached the enormous number of fourteen hundred thousand families, or, at least, seven million persons. Subutai, true to the traditions of Genghis and Tuli, wished to put them all to the sword; but Yeliu Chutsai, who had already befriended the Chinese on several occasions, interceded with Ogotai, and obtained the rejection of his barbarous proposal.

The surrender of the capital did not deprive the Kins of all their means of defence; and the war continued in a desultory manner until the following year. It might even have gone on for a longer period but for the active intervention of the Sungs, who, in a fatuous spirit of indifference to the dangers that threatened them, assisted with all their power in making the triumph of the Mongols more complete. Ninkiassu in his supreme hour of distress had almost discovered a capable commander in Usien, when the Sung general Mongkong crossed the frontier and drove him into the mountains of Mateng. After this the result was no longer in doubt. On one side pressed by the Mongols, and on the other by the Sungs, Ninkiassu and the last of his army retired to Tsaichau, where they were soon closely beleaguered. The siege of this place was rendered famous by the valour shown by the last defenders of fallen royalty. Never did the abilities of the great Mongkong, in after years the mainstay of the Sungs, shine more conspicuously; never was the impetuosity of the Mongols more strikingly evinced than on this occasion. But, at the least, the Kins proved themselves worthy of their steel. In the end Ninkiassu, finding all hope in vain, wished