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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

the occafional hints of others , diffident information maybe gathered to fatisfy us, that the circulation of Eafterngoods by thefe caravans is very exter.five. The fameintercotirfe which was anciently kept up by the pro-vinces in the North-eaft of Afia with Indoftan and China ,and which i formerly defcribed , ftiil fublifts. Among ailthe numerous rribes of Tartars , even of thole whichretain their naftoral manners in greateft purity , thedemand for the productions of thefe two countries isvery coofiderable. Voyages de Pallas, tom. i. p. 357,&c. tom. ii p. 422. In order to fupply them withthefe, caravans fet out annually from Boghar, (Hakluyt,vol. i. p. tta ) Samarcand, Thibet , and feveral otherplaces , and return with large cargoes of Indian andChinefe goods. But the trade carried on between Ruffiaar d China in this part of Afia is by far the molt extenfiveand belt known. Some connexion of this kind, it isprnbuole, was kept up between them from the earlieltperiod, but it increafed greatly after the interior parts ofRuffia were rendered more acceifible by the conqueits ofZingis Khan and Tamerlane . The commercial nations ofEurope were fo well acquainted with the mode of carryingon this trade, that foon after the Portuguefe had openedthe communication with the Eait by the Cape of GoodHope , an attempt was made in order to diminifh theadvantages which they derived from this difcovery, toprevail on the Ruffians to convey Indian and Chinefecommodities through the whole extent of their empire,partly by land-carriage and partly by means of navigablerivers, to fome port on the Baltic, from which theymight be diltributed through every part of Eurone.Ramufio, Raccolta di Viaggj, vol. i. p. 574. B. Thisfcheme, too great for the monarch then on the throne ofRuffia to carry into execution, was rendered practicableby the conqueits of Ivan Bafilowitz, and the genius ofPeter the Great . Though the capitals of the two empireswere fituated at the immenfe diftance of fix thoufand threehundred and feventy-e'ght miles from each other, andthe route lay for above four hundred miles through an