faith of treaties; in war, she
dictates of humanity; and their memorable victory over Peroses,
or Firuz, displayed the moderation, as well as the valor, of the
Barbarians. The second division of their countrymen, the Huns, who
gradually advanced towards the North-west, were exercised by the
hardships of a colder climate, and a more laborious march. Necessity
compelled them to exchange the silks of China for the furs of Siberia;
the imperfect rudiments of civilized life were obliterated; and the
native fierceness of the Huns was exasperated by their intercourse with
the savage tribes, who were compared, with some propriety, to the
wild beasts of the desert. Their independent spirit soon rejected the
hereditary succession of the Tanjous; and while each horde was governed
by its peculiar mursa, their tumultuary council directed the public
measures of the whole nation. As late as the thirteenth century, their
transient residence on the eastern banks of the Volga was attested by
the name of Great Hungary. In the winter, they descended with their
flocks and herds towards the mouth of that mighty river; and their
summer excursions reached as high as the latitude of Saratoff, or
perhaps the conflux of the Kama. Such at least were the recent limits of
the black Calmucks, who remained about a century under the protection
of Russia; and who have since returned to their native seats on the
frontiers of the Chinese empire. The march, and the return, of those
wandering Tartars, whose united camp consists of fifty thousand tents or
families, illustrate the distant emigrations of the ancient Huns.

It is impossible to fill the dark interval of time, which elapsed, after
the Huns of the Volga were lost in the eyes of the Chinese, and before
they showed themselves to those of the Romans. There is some reason,
however, to apprehend, that the same force which had driven them from
their native seats, still continued to impel their march towards the
frontiers of Europe. The power of the Sienpi, their implacable enemies,
which extended above three thousand miles from East to West, must
have gradually oppressed them by the weight and terror of a formidable
neighborhood; and the flight of the tribes of Scythia would inevitably
tend to increase the strength or to contract the territories, of the
Huns. The harsh and obscure appellations of those tribes would offend
the ear, without informing the understanding, of the reader; but I
cannot suppress