ints, and the gain of
the individual had to be so completely sacrificed for the advantage of
the many, that at first the establishment of this code of order had
rather the effect of driving his followers from him, than of attracting
to his standard zealots capable of the conquest of a world. It was not
until the year 1203, when he was nearly forty-nine years of age, that
Genghis Khan succeeded in bringing all the Mongol tribes under his
leadership. No sooner had he accomplished this much than he embarked on
military enterprises, which, in the course of a very few years, placed
the greater part of Asia at his disposal. Having subjugated various
Tartar and Tangut tribes, he included them in his military organization,
and by making them embrace his system of compulsory service in the army,
he found himself in the possession of an enormous following. Genghis
Khan therefore ruled at the time we have specified over Kashgar,
including Khoten, Jungaria, and the Tangut country; and there was no
force capable of opposing his except, in the east China, and in the west
the government of Khiva, at this period omnipotent in Western Turkestan.
The rumours which reached the Shah of Khwaresm of the formation of this
new confederacy in Mugholistan induced him to send an embassy to
discover the true facts of the case, and accordingly, while Genghis Khan
was prosecuting a war against the Chinese, there arrived in his camp the
emissaries of Western Asia. Haughty and imperious as this conqueror
undoubtedly was, he received the embassy affably, and with expressions
of the deepest friendship. He sent them back with rich presents and the
following characteristic message:--"I am King of the East. Thou art King
of the West. Let merchants come and go between us and exchange the
products of our countries." In furtherance of this wish he sent a
mission composed of merchants and officials to represent the advantages
that would be derived from mutual intercourse. But the Shah of Khiva,
either incredulous of the formidableness of the adversary with whom he
had to deal, or mistaking his own strength, did not reciprocate the
amicable expressions of Genghis Khan, nor, when the merchants who had
been despatched to his country were murdered, did he make any offer of
reparation. Such treatment would not be tolerated by any civilized ruler
of the nineteenth century, much less was it brooked by an irresponsible
conqueror, whose will was his sole law, in the thir