Homes on eight-foot wheels
Editorial contextWhen the camp moves, Perry says, women and children ride in covered carriages on two great wheels about eight feet across, high enough to ford small rivers, and they live in these as well as in their tents 'like as in Houses'. Bactrian camels ('dromedaries') pull them. People of rank have several such carriages for baggage and servants.
…Wives and their Children are drawn on covered Machines fixed on two large Wheels of about 8 Foot diameter, … so that they can easily ford over small Rivers; in which, as well as their Tents, they live like as in Houses; and Persons of Distinction have several of these for their Baggage and Retinue. They are drawn by Dromedaries,
About Kalmyks and other steppe Tartars
Some Tartars in houses, others in tents
Editorial contextPerry sorts the Tartars into those who live in houses and stay put all year (the 'Bogdoi', Uzbek and Bukharan Tartars towards China) and those who live in tents and migrate north and south with the seasons (the Kalmyks and western hordes). He compares the nomads' life to the patriarchs in Moses: they neither plough nor sow.
The Bogdoi, Yousbeck, and Bucharsky Tartars, more towards China, live in Houses, and continue Winter and Summer in the same place; but the Cullmick, and several Hordes of Western Tartars, who border more towards the C'zar's Dominions, live in Tents, and move Northward and Southward, according to the Seasons of the Year,
About Manchus ('Bogdoi'), Uzbeks and Bukharans versus Kalmyks and western hordes
Keep in mind
He saw the Kalmyks himself; what he says of the Uzbeks and 'Bogdoi' is from report.
Raiders with two horses each
Editorial contextPerry explains why the rich land west of the lower Volga lay empty: raids by the Kuban Tartars, who plundered and burned villages and carried off cattle and people. They came in summer, each man with two horses to change as he rode, with sentries all round, and were gone before the Russians could react. A page later he tells how three to four thousand of them reached his own camp at dawn and drove off about 1400 horses.
The said Tartars when they make their Incursions, it is usually in the Summer time, when there is Grass enough on the Ground; and each Man for Expedition sake takes two Horses, which they change as they ride, sometimes sitting upon one, and sometimes upon another. They always travel with Centinels at a convenient Distance from all Sides of their main Body,
About Kuban Tartars (Nogais of the Kuban)
'If their religion be right, why do they not do right?'
Editorial contextHalf the labourers on Perry's canal were Mordva and Cheremis 'Tartars', long under Russian rule. Asked why they would not be baptized, they told him that images terrified them, because God is one and cannot be pictured, and he lives in heaven. They taunted Russians with the question, 'if their Religion be right, why do they not do right?' Perry adds that he found them more honest than the Russians.
…they say, that the Ruses using of Images, is a Terror to them to think of embracing their Religion; for that there is but one God, and that he cannot be pictured or described by Men; they look up towards the Heavens, and say, that he resides there, and of whom they are afraid to do Evil;
About Mordva, 'Morsie' and Cheremis (Mari), whom Perry calls Tartars
Keep in mind
Perry's 'Tartars' here are mainly Finnic peoples (Mordvins, Mari), not Turkic Tatars.
The 'Bogdoi Tartars' who rule China
Editorial contextDescribing the borders of Siberia, Perry notes that the Great Wall was built against the 'bordering Tartars', who about seventy years before had conquered China anyway, and that the 'Chams of Great Tartary', called the Bogdoi Tartars, were still emperors of China. 'Bogdoi' comes from the Mongol title Bogd Khan used for the Qing emperor.
…to defend them from the Incursions of the bordering Tartars, who have notwithstanding, about 70 Years since, made themselves Masters of the Countrey; and the Chams of Great Tartary, who are called the Bogdi Tartars, continue Emperors of China to this Day.
About Manchus (the Qing dynasty)
A great khan at Samarkand, heir of Tamerlane
Editorial contextPerry reports that the lands between Siberia and the Caspian hold many hordes of Tartars, each with its own chief, but many recognise one principal khan at Samarkand said to descend from Tamerlane. He adds that their religion is close to Islam, except that they eat horse meat, which the Turks and Crimean Tartars refuse. By 1700 Samarkand had no such overlord; this is hearsay.
Many of them acknowledge one principal Cham as their Chief, who has his Residence at Samarcand, … and derives his Pedigree, as 'tis said, from the Great Tamerlane.
About Bukharans, Mongols, Kalmyks and other 'Hordes of Tartars'
Keep in mind
Hearsay; Perry never went east of the Volga steppe.
Barrels of gold, some of them fake
Editorial contextPerry repeats the story of why Prince Vasily Golitsyn's army turned back from the Crimea in 1689: the Tatars brought him barrels of gold ducats, 'amongst which, as 'tis said, there were many Counters', and he made peace in the field. On the page before, he reports that the Crimean khan would inherit the Ottoman throne if the sultan's male line failed.
…being tempted by a great Sum of Ducats of Gold, which they brought to him in Barrels (amongst which, as 'tis said, there were many Counters) he concluded Conditions of Peace in the Field, and withdrew his Army.
About Crimean Tatars
Keep in mind
Court rumour, marked as such by Perry ('as 'tis said').