h is intended to overawe the Kirghiz population. Here are the
bounds, more than once infringed by the half-subdued nomads, and there
was every reason to believe that Omsk was already in danger. The line of
military stations, that is to say, those Cossack posts which are ranged
in echelon from Omsk to Semipolatinsk, must have been broken in several
places. Now, it was to be feared that the "Grand Sultans," who govern
the Kirghiz districts would either voluntarily accept, or involuntarily
submit to, the dominion of Tartars, Mussulmen like themselves, and
that to the hate caused by slavery was not united the hate due to the
antagonism of the Greek and Mussulman religions. For some time, indeed,
the Tartars of Turkestan had endeavored, both by force and persuasion,
to subdue the Kirghiz hordes.

A few words only with respect to these Tartars. The Tartars belong more
especially to two distinct races, the Caucasian and the Mongolian. The
Caucasian race, which, as Abel de Remusat says, "is regarded in Europe
as the type of beauty in our species, because all the nations in this
part of the world have sprung from it," includes also the Turks and the
Persians. The purely Mongolian race comprises the Mongols, Manchoux, and
Thibetans.

The Tartars who now threatened the Russian Empire, belonged to the
Caucasian race, and occupied Turkestan. This immense country is divided
into different states, governed by Khans, and hence termed Khanats. The
principal khanats are those of Bokhara, Khokhand, Koondooz, etc. At this
period, the most important and the most formidable khanat was that of
Bokhara. Russia had already been several times at war with its chiefs,
who, for their own interests, had supported the independence of the
Kirghiz against the Muscovite dominion. The present chief, Feofar-Khan,
followed in the steps of his predecessors.

The khanat of Bokhara has a population of two million five hundred
thousand inhabitants, an army of sixty thousand men, trebled in time
of war, and thirty thousand horsemen. It is a rich country, with varied
animal, vegetable, and mineral products, and has been increased by the
accession of the territories of Balkh, Aukoi, and Meimaneh. It possesses
nineteen large towns. Bokhara, surrounded by a wall measuring more than
eight English miles, and flanked with towers, a glorious city, made
illustrious by Avicenna and other learned men of the tenth century, is
regarded as the center of Mussulman science,