of the Eleuths.  He took secret measures for securing the flight which he meditated, and sought safety, with all his people, in the territories which are under the dominion of the Russians.  These permitted them to establish themselves in the country of Etchil [the country between the Volga and the Jaik, a little to the north of the Caspian Sea]....  Oubache, the present Khan of the Torgouths, is the youngest grandson of Ayouki.  The Russians never ceasing to require him to furnish soldiers for incorporation into their armies, and having at last carried off his own son to serve them as a hostage, and being besides of a religion different from his, and paying no respect to that of the Lamas, which the Torgouths profess, Oubache and his people at last determined to shake off a yoke which was becoming daily more and more insupportable.  After having secretly deliberated among themselves, they concluded that they must abandon a residence where they had so much to suffer, in order to come and live more at ease in those parts of the dominion of China where the religion professed is that of Fo.  At the commencement of the eleventh month of last year [December, 1770] they took the road, with their wives, their children, and all their baggage, traversed the country of the Hasaks [Cossacks], skirted Lake Palkache-nor and the adjacent deserts; and, about the end of the sixth month of this year [in August, 1771], after having passed over more than ten thousand lys during the space of the eight whole months of their journey, they arrived at last on the frontiers of Charapen, not far from the borders of Ily.  I knew already that the Torgouths were on the march to come and make submission to me.  The news was brought me not long after their departure from Etchil.  I then reflected that, as Ileton, general of the troops that are at Ily, was already charged with other very important affairs, it was to be feared that he would not be able to regulate with all the requisite attention those which concerned these new refugees.  Chouhede, one of the councillors of the general, was at Ouche, charged with keeping order among the Mahometans there.  As he found it within his power to give his attention to the Torgouths, I ordered him to repair to Ily and do his best for their solid settlement....  At the same time I did not neglect any of the precautions that seemed to me necessary.  I ordered Chouhede to raise small forts and redoubts at the most important points, and to cause all the passes to be carefully guarded; and I enjoined on him the duty of himself getting ready the necessary provisions of every kind inside these defences....  The Torgouths arrived, and on arriving found lodgings ready, means of sustenance, and all the conveniences they could have found in their own proper dwellings.  This is not all.  Those principal men among them who had to come personally to do me homage had their expenses paid, and were honorably conducted, by the imperial post-road, to