nd Tartars. But the Russians forced the
barrier, and the Crimea became a Russian province. The victorious
army, however, soon encountered a foe whom no courage could vanquish.
The plague broke out in their camp, and spread through all Russia,
with desolation which seems incredible, although well authenticated.
In Moscow, not more than one fourth of the inhabitants were left
alive. More than sixty thousand died in that city in less than a year.
For days the dead lay in the streets where they had fallen, there not
being carts or people enough to carry them away. The pestilence
gradually subsided before the intensity of wintry frosts.

The devastations of war and of the plague rendered both the Russians
and Turks desirous of peace. On the 2d of August, 1772, the Russian
and Turkish plenipotentiaries met under tents, on a plain about
nineteen miles north of Bucharest, the capital of Wallachia. The
Russian ministers approached in four grand coaches, preceded by
hussars, and attended by one hundred and sixty servants in livery. The
Turkish ministers came on horseback, with about sixty servants, all
dressed in great simplicity. The two parties, however, could not
agree, and the conference was broken up. The negotiations were soon
resumed at Bucharest, but this attempt was also equally unsuccessful
with the first.

The plot for the partition of Poland was now ripe. Russia, Prussia
and Austria had agreed to march their armies into the kingdom and
divide a very large portion of the territory between them. It was as
high-handed a robbery as the world ever witnessed. There is some
consolation, however, in the reflection, that the masses of the people
in Poland were quite unaffected by the change. They were no more
oppressed by their new despots than they had been for ages by their
old ones. By this act, Russia annexed to her territory the enormous
addition of three thousand four hundred and forty square leagues,
sparsely inhabited, indeed, yet containing a population of one million
five hundred thousand. Austria obtained less territory, but nearly
twice as many inhabitants. Prussia obtained the contiguous provinces
she coveted, with about nine hundred thousand inhabitants. They still
left to the King of Poland, in this first partition, a small fragment
of his kingdom. The King of Prussia removed from his portion the first
year twelve thousand families, who were sent to populate the
uninhabited wilds of his hereditary dominions. A