This officer was to be joined on
his route by ten thousand Bashkirs, and pretty nearly the 5
same amount of Kirghises--both hereditary enemies of
the Kalmucks--both exasperated to a point of madness
by the bloody trophies which Oubacha and Momotbacha
had, in late years, won from such of their compatriots as
served under the Sultan. The Czarina's yoke these wild 10
nations bore with submissive patience, but not the hands
by which it had been imposed; and accordingly, catching
with eagerness at the present occasion offered to their
vengeance, they sent an assurance to the Czarina of their
perfect obedience to her commands, and at the same time 15
a message significantly declaring in what spirit they meant
to execute them--viz. "that they would not trouble her
Majesty with prisoners."
Here then arose, as before with the Cossacks, a race
for the Kalmucks with the regular armies of Russia, and 20
concurrently with nations as fierce and semi-humanized
as themselves, besides that they were stung into threefold
activity by the furies of mortified pride and military
abasement, under the eyes of the Turkish Sultan. The
forces, and more especially the artillery, of Russia were 25
far too overwhelming to permit the thought of a regular
opposition in pitched battles, even with a less dilapidated
state of their resources than they could reasonably expect
at the period of their arrival on the Torgau.
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