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Here ends the tale of the Kalmuck wanderings in the Desert; for any subsequent marches which awaited them, were neither long nor painful. Every possible alleviation and refreshment for their exhausted bodies had been already provided by Kien Long with the most princely munificence; and lands of great fertility were immediately assigned to them in ample extent along the river Ily, not very far from the point at which they had first emerged from the wilderness of Kobi. But the beneficent attention of the Chinese Emperor may be best stated in his own words, as translated into French by one of the Jesuit missionaries:–“La nation des Torgotes (savoir les Kalmuques) arriva a Ily, toute delabree, n’ayant ni de quoi vivre, ni de quoi se vetir. Je l’avais prevu; et j’avais ordonne de faire en tout genre les provisions necessaires pour pouvoir les secourir promptement; c’est ce qui a ete execute. On a fait la division des terres; et on a assigne a chaque famille une portion suffisante pour pouvoir servir a son entretien, soit en la cultivant, soit en y nourissant des bestiaux. On a donne a chaque particulier des etoffes pour l’habiller, des grains pour se nourrir pendant l’espace d’une annee, des ustensiles pour le menage et d’autres choses necessaires: et outre cela plusieurs onces d’argent, pour se pourvoir de ce qu’on aurait pu oublier. On a designe des lieux particuliers, fertiles en paturages; et on leur a donne des boeufs, moutons, etc. pour qu’ils pussent dans la suite travailler par euxmemes a leur entretien et a leur bienetre.”

These are the words of the Emperor himself, speaking in his own person of his own paternal cares; but another Chinese, treating the same subject, records the munificence of this prince in terms which proclaim still more forcibly the disinterested generosity which prompted, and the delicate considerateness which conducted this extensive bounty. He has been speaking of the Kalmucks, and he goes on thus:–“Lorsqu’ils arriverent sur nos frontieres (au nombre de plusieurs centaines de mille), quoique la fatigue extreme, la faim, la soif, et toutes les autres incommodites inseparables d’une tres-longue et tres penible route en eussent fait perir presque autant, ils etaient reduits a la derniere misere: ils manquaient de tout. Il” (viz. l’Empereur, Kien Long) “leur fit preparer des logemens conformes a leur maniere de vivre; il leur fit distribuer des aliments et des habits; il leur fit donner des boeufs, des moutons, et des ustensiles, pour les mettre en etat de former des troupeaux et de cultiver la terre, et tout cela a ses propres frais, qui se sont montes a des sommes immenses, sans compter l’argent qu’il a donne a chaque chef-de-famille, pour pourvoir a la subsistance de sa femme et de ses enfans.”

Thus, after their memorable year of misery, the Kalmucks were replaced in territorial possessions, and in comfort equal perhaps, or even superior, to that which they had enjoyed in Russia, and with superior political advantages. But, if equal or superior, their condition was no longer the same; if not in degree, their social prosperity had altered in quality; for instead of being a purely pastoral and vagrant people, they were now in circumstances which obliged them to become essentially dependent upon agriculture; and thus far raised in social rank, that by the natural course of their habits and the necessities of life they were effectually reclaimed from roving, and from the savage customs connected with so unsettled a life. They gained also in political privileges, chiefly through the immunity from military service which their new relations enabled them to obtain. These were circumstances of advantage and gain. But one great disadvantage there was, amply to overbalance all other possible gain; the chances were lost or were removed to an incalculable distance for their conversion to Christianity, without which in these times there is no absolute advance possible on the path of true civilization.

One word remains to be said upon the personal interests concerned in this great drama. The catastrophe in this respect was remarkable and complete. Oubacha, with all his goodness and incapacity of suspecting, had, since the mysterious affair on the banks of the Torgau, felt his mind alienated from his cousin; he revolted from the man that would have murdered him; and he had displayed his caution so visibly as to provoke a reaction in the bearing of Zebek-Dorchi, and a displeasure which all his dissimulation could not hide. This had produced a feud, which, by keeping them aloof, had probably saved the life of Oubacha; for the friendship of Zebek-Dorchi was more fatal than his open enmity. After the settlement on the Ily this feud continued to advance, until it came under the notice of the Emperor, on occasion of a visit which all the Tartar chieftains made to his Majesty at his hunting-lodge in 1772. The Emperor informed himself accurately of all the particulars connected with the transaction–of all the rights and claims put forward–and of the way in which they would severally affect the interests of the Kalmuck people. The consequence was, that he adopted the cause of Oubacha, and repressed the pretensions of Zebek- Dorchi, who, on his part, so deeply resented this discountenance to his ambitious projects, that in conjunction with other chiefs he had the presumption even to weave nets of treason against the Emperor himself. Plots were laid–were detected–were baffled–counterplots were constructed upon the same basis, and with the benefit of the opportunities thus offered.