40

IMPERIAL MARRIAGE FEAST.-WAR.

CHAP. lect the troops, and to clothe them in coats lined with sheep skins, and to cover the horses with felt.

I.

The preparations for war did not stop the diversions of the court. There were many marriages between the princes and princesses of the imperial family. Public feasts, suitable to their quality, and many horse races were exhibited. The soldiers who were laden with plunder, purchased and married the handsomest maidens.

Some troops marched to Tangut. Schidascou was startled at the news, not expecting them till spring. The weather is not warm in Tangut till June. The Mogul troops did not advance for fear of being surprised. The Emperor reviewed his army, and sent a hundred thousand troops for China, fearing a revolt if he should not be successful. He then marched with the rest to Tangut. He found that he should have, when joined with the forces already there, three hundred and fifty thousand. His army was divided into ten bodies. Zagatai and Octai commanded the two first. Hubbi, Suida, Caraschar, and other distinguished generals, commanded the rest. But all of them were subject to prince Tuli. There was a flying camp for the instruction of his grandsons, Kublai and Hulacou.

The army crossed a desert of forty days' journey, took the city of Azine, and reposed.

Schidascou had five hundred thousand troops mostly furnished by the Chinese of Manji. Genghis, whose troops were from Carisme, India*, Geta, and other places, and much inferior in number, advanced, thinking he had the advantage of discipline over inexperienced soldiers. The Mogul officers, though very rich, and the troops also, were, by Genghis's orders, dressed very plainly. Schidascou's were in clothes of gold, silver, and silk.

Meaning the contiguous countries west of the Indus.

GREAT DEFEAT OF THE KING OF TANGUT.

1

I.

Schidascou sent a hundred thousand horse to attack the vanguard CHAP. of the Moguls, but they could not make any impression on them; and they retired to the main army with loss.

Genghis advanced, and the armies came in sight of each other. Schidascou's army covered a large space. Genghis took a position on an extensive lake, still quite frozen. The Moguls had quickly the advantage, but the generals Mayan Khan and the prince of Jurge withstood their fury; and, charging the two wings of the Emperor's army, killed thirty thousand of his troops. This success was fatal; for, believing the Moguls defeated, they continued the fight without keeping their ranks; and the corps de reserve coming up, Schidascou, who shewed extraordinary bravery, was vanquished. It is said, that he lost three hundred thousand soldiers on that dreadful day. After this victory, Genghis marched against the Turks of Jurge, who submitted. He passed the next winter in the west of Tangut, meaning to conquer Southern China.

News arrived of the death of the Calif of Bagdat. New levies were ordered; and Genghis secured to himself the countries dependant on Tangut. There needed so fertile a country, and of such vast extent, to subsist so numerous an army for so long a time. The conquest of the rest of China appeared not difficult to Genghis; and he said, that he now wished for nothing more than the good of his subjects. But his prosperity and joy were to be turned into sorrow. While he was diverting himself in the midst of his family, he was informed by a courier from Capschac of the death of Touschi Khan, his eldest son. The whole court was afflicted. The Emperor shewed at first much constancy of mind; but fatherly affection got the better of him, aud he fell into a profound melancholy.

An officer arrived from Schidascou to entreat that the Emperor would forgive his revolt, and accept his services. Genghis gave him

G

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42

GENGHIS KHAN'S GRIEF AND DEATH.

CHAP. audience, and promised to grant Schidascou his friendship. The ar

I.

my was encamped near a forest, in a marshy country, on the road to China. The Camp, of tents and moving houses, had the appearance of a large city.

Genghis, finding himself extremely ill, ordered all his sons, their children, and the princes of the blood, into his presence. He placed himself upright, notwithstanding his pain; and, with his usual majestic look, which commanded awe and respect, even from his children and the sovereigns of the East, he told them, that he found his spirits sunk, and that he must prepare for death. "I leave you," said he, "the greatest empire in the world; if you would preserve it, be united, and observe the laws which I have established; but, if you walk in the paths of dissention, your subjects, that is to say, your enemies, will soon be masters of your empire." He named his third son, prince Octai, for his successor, as Khan of Khans; and all the rest, bowing the knee, cried-" What the great Genghis Khan ordains is just, and shall be obeyed without disputing." The Emperor died A.D. 1226. towards the latter end of the year, in the seventy-third year of his

age.

Eight days after the Emperor's decease, which was kept secret, Schidascou, accompanied by his children and some lords, arrived. An appearance of rejoicing, as if for the Emperor's recovery, was put on, to inveigle him into the camp. He and his party were all put to death, according to orders left by Genghis *. By this bloody treachery, Tangut was annexed to the empire of the Moguls. After this,

• Abul Ghazi relates, (p. 144), that Genghis received the envoy with great civility, but did not put himself under any positive engagement with respect to Schidascou; who was afterwards besieged in his capital, (Campion), captured, and put to death, but Genghis's unsparing cruelties sanction the suspicion of any political enormity whatever.

TOMB OF GENGHIS KHAN.-DIVISION OF HIS EMPIRE.

I.

the Emperor's decease was made public, and the grief and consterna- CHAP. tion were general.

The Grand Khan was buried with the utmost respect and magnificence, with all the pompous ceremonies of the Mogul religion. His corpse was interred according to his own desire, under a tree of singular height and beauty, where, in his return from the chase, some days before he fell sick, he had rested himself with much satisfaction. A most noble monument was erected upon his grave. The people who came to visit the tomb, planted other trees around it; which so artfully covered it, and in such beautiful order, as rendered it, in time, one of the finest monuments in the world. It is in latitude 39°, longitude 108° north of the great wall. There was a great resort of sovereigns to the court for six months, to comfort the afflicted princes.

Genghis Khan had numerous wives and concubines. The five daughters of Oungh Khan, of the King of China, of the Khans of the Naimans, Congorat, and the Merkites, principally shared his esteem; the daughter of the last was a remarkable beauty. He left a prodigiously numerous progeny; but his four favourite sons and successors were all born of one mother, Purta Cougine, the Congorat Khan's daughter: the rest of the princes were appointed and limited to petty governments.

Touschi, was the eldest of Purta Cougine's sons, the second was Zagatai, the third Octai, and the fourth Tuli. Genghis having studied their tempers, had appointed Touschi to be Master Huntsman of the empire, the most considerable post; the Mongols being obliged to exercise themselves in the Huntings. Zagatai, was chief judge, and director of all the courts of justice in the empire. Octai from his prudence and wisdom, was chief counsellor. The affairs of war were committed to Tuli, and he was paymaster to the royal camp or golden horde. At the death of Genghis, the empire remained, nearly, as he had divided it during his life.

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44

CHAP.

I.

DIVISION OF GENGHIS'S EMPIRE.

Touschi, the eldest son, just deceased, was succeeded in the sove reignty of Capschac by Batou his eldest son; a name terrible to Russia, and alarming even to Europe*. For a description of Capschac, see Chapter II.

Zagatai had for his part Transoxiana, the country of the Yugures, Cashgar, Badachshan and Balc.

Tuli had Chorassan, Persia, and India (so called) west of the Indus. He died while in Catai (or Cathay), with Octai, in 1229.

Octai, the new Grand Khan, kept for his division Catai or the northern half of China, the conquest of which he completed, Tangut, Corea and eastern Siberia. His army consisted of fifteen hundred thousand troops. He usually resided at Olougyourt, a city not far from Caracorum, where he made a park for game, many miles in circuit, and greatly embellished both these cities†. Octai was, according to eastern historians, a more virtuous and enlightened monarch than Genghis. He had much warfare and some success against the Chinese of Manji; and his armies subdued the Sultan of Iconium and overran Asia Minor. "Octai died," says Mr Tooke, "in consequence of a propensity worthy of this universal despot, (the effects of a fit of drunkenness); and his death saved Asia for a time, and Europe for ever. An interregnum of four years succeeded. The widow of Octai (the celebrated Tourakina Catun), by whose intrigues that prince was thwarted in all his ordinances, now set herself up as regent of the empire; in which office she was continually making innovations, that tended to general mischief.

* A. D. 1238. The inhabitants of Gothia and Frize were prevented, by their fear of the Tartars, from sending as usual their ships to the herring fishery on the coast of England: and, as there was no exportation, forty or fifty of these fish were sold for a shilling. Gibbon, Ch. LXIV. note 28, (from Mat. Paris, p. 396). + This khan's name is spelt sometimes Ugadai, Occadai.

Levesque, Vol. II. p. 78, Vol. VII. p. 18, says, "he finished the conquest of China:" but it was only Catai, or the northern division, as will appear in Ch. II.