the son of a labourer, and for some time a servant in
a convent of bonzes, was the founder of the celebrated dynasty of the
Ming. They ascended the imperial throne in 1368, and reigned in the name
of Houng-Wou.

The Tartars were massacred in great numbers in the interior of China, and
the rest were driven back to their old country. The Emperor Young-Lo
pursued them three several times beyond the desert, more than 200 leagues
north of the Great Wall, in order to exterminate them. He could not,
however, effect this object, and, dying on his return from his third
expedition, his successors left the Tartars in peace beyond the desert,
whence they diffused themselves right and left. The principal chiefs of
the blood of Tchinggiskhan occupied, each with his people, a particular
district, and gave birth to various tribes, which all formed so many
petty kingdoms.

These fallen princes, ever tormented by the recollection of their ancient
power, appeared several times on the frontiers of the empire, and did not
cease to disquiet the Chinese princes, without, however, succeeding in
their attempts at invasion.

Towards the commencement of the seventeenth century, the Mantchou Tartars
having made themselves masters of China, the Mongols gradually submitted
to them, and placed themselves under their sovereignty. The Oelets, a
Mongol tribe, deriving their name from Oloutai, a celebrated warrior in
the fourteenth century, made frequent irruptions into the country of the
Khalkhas, and a sanguinary war arose between these two people. The
Emperor Khang-Hi, under the pretence of conciliating them, intervened in
their quarrel, put an end to the war by subjecting both parties, and
extended his domination in Tartary to the frontiers of Russia; the three
Khans of the Khalkhas came to make their submission to the Mantchou
Emperor, who convoked a grand meeting near Tolon-Noor. Each Khan
presented to him eight white horses, and one white camel; from which
circumstance this tribute was called, in the Mongol language,
_Yousoun-Dchayan_, (the nine white); it was agreed that they should bring
every year a similar present.

At the present time the Tartar nations, more or less subject to the sway
of the Mantchou emperors, are no longer what they were in the time of
Tchinggiskhan and Timour. Since that epoch Tartary has been disorganized
by so many revolutions; it has undergone such notable political and
geographical changes, that what trav