e establishment and extent of the first Tartar or Mogul empire.
The descendants of Cublai gave themselves up to luxury in the palace of
Peking, amidst a mischievous crowd of eunuchs, concubines, and astrologers,
and their Mogul army, dissolved and dispersed in a vast and populous
country, forgot the discipline and bravery of their ancestors. The
secondary Mogul sovereigns of the west, assumed entire independence; and
the great khan was satisfied with the empire of China and eastern Mongalia,
In 1367, one hundred and forty years after the death of Zingis, roused to
rebellion by a dreadful famine, in which thirteen millions of the
inhabitants of China perished, the native Chinese expelled their degenerate
Mogul oppressors, and the great khan became a wanderer in the desert. The
vast empire established by Zingis and his immediate successors was now
broken down into four vast fragments, each a powerful empire, Mongalia,
Kipzak, Zagtai or Transoxiana, and Persia; and these four khans often
contended with each other. On their ruins in lesser Asia, arose the
formidable, more permanent, and still subsisting empire of the Ottoman
Turks, whose youthful energies threatened the subversion of the last
remains of the Greek empire, which they at last effected, and might perhaps
have conquered the whole of Western Europe, if their progress had not been
arrested by the power of a new Mogul dynasty.

In the distribution of the vast empire of Zingis, we have already seen that
Zagathai, one of his sons, received the subordinate rule of Transoxiana, or
the rich country on the rivers Jihon or Amu, and the Sir or Sihon, the Oxus
and Jaxartes of the ancients. This extensive and fertile country, now
called Western Turkestan, Great Bucharia, Kharism, Chorassan, and Balk,
with some other smaller territories, is bounded on the west by the Caspian,
on the east by the Belur-tag or Imaus, on the north by the deserts of
western Tartary, and on the south by the mountains of the Hindoo-koh, and
the desert of Margiana. The descendants of Zagatai were long considered as
the khans or sovereigns of this fair empire, which fell into civil war and
anarchy, through the divisions and subdivisions of the hordes, the
uncertain laws of succession, and the ambition of the ministers of state,
who reduced their degenerate masters to mere state puppets, and elevated or
deposed successive khans at their pleasure; and the divided and distracted
country was subjected or op