ong the skirts of the northern
hills; nor could this rapid campaign of one year justify the strange
foresight of his emirs, that their children in a warm climate would
degenerate into a race of Hindus.

It was on the banks of the Ganges that Timur was informed, by his speedy
messengers, of the disturbances which had arisen on the confines of
Georgia and Anatolia, of the revolt of the Christians, and the ambitious
designs of the sultan Bajazet. His vigor of mind and body was not
impaired by sixty-three years and innumerable fatigues; and, after
enjoying some tranquil months in the palace of Samarkand, he proclaimed
a new expedition of seven years into the western countries of Asia. To
the soldiers who had served in the Indian war he granted the choice of
remaining at home or following their prince; but the troops of all the
provinces and kingdoms of Persia were commanded to assemble at Ispahan
and wait the arrival of the imperial standard. It was first directed
against the Christians of Georgia, who were strong only in their rocks,
their castles, and the winter season; but these obstacles were overcome
by the zeal and perseverance of Timur: the rebels submitted to the
tribute or the _Koran_; and if both religions boasted of their martyrs,
that name is more justly due to the Christian prisoners, who were
offered the choice of abjuration or death.

On his descent from the hills the Emperor gave audience to the first
ambassadors of Bajazet, and opened the hostile correspondence of
complaints and menaces, which fermented two years before the final
explosion. Between two jealous and haughty neighbors, the motives of
quarrel will seldom be wanting. The Mongol and Ottoman conquests now
touched each other in the neighborhood of Erzerum and the Euphrates; nor
had the doubtful limit been ascertained by time and treaty. Each of
these ambitious monarchs might accuse his rival of violating his
territory, of threatening his vassals and protecting his rebels; and, by
the name of rebels, each understood the fugitive princes, whose kingdoms
he had usurped and whose life or liberty he implacably pursued. In their
victorious career Timur was impatient of an equal, and Bajazet was
ignorant of a superior.

In his first expedition, Timur was satisfied with the siege and
destruction of Sebaste, a strong city on the borders of Anatolia. He
then turned aside to the invasion of Syria and Egypt, where the military
republic of the mamelukes stil