It has been estimated that the ambition of this one man cost the lives of between five and six millions of the human family.

He nominated as his successor his oldest son Octai, and enjoined it upon him never to make peace but with vanquished nations.

Ambitious of being the conqueror of the world, Octai ravaged with his armies the whole of northern China.

In the heart of Tartary he reared his palace, embellished with the highest attainments of Chinese art.
Raising an army of three hundred thousand men, the Tartar sovereign placed his nephew Bati in command, and ordered him to bring into subjection all the nations on the northern shores of the Caspian Sea, and then to continue his conquests throughout all the expanse of northern Russia.

A bloody strife of three years planted his banners upon every cliff and through all the defiles of the Ural mountains, and then the victor plunging down the western declivities of this great natural barrier between Europe and Asia, established his troops, for winter quarters, in the valley of the Volga.