Petersburg to render homage. With
the Central Asian khanates there was no connection except that of
trade, but as regarded the Turcomans, who, it is said, had
frequently asked for Russian protection, intercourse was
discouraged, as they could not be trusted "within the lines," being
simply bandits.
The Emperor Paul imagined that the steppes offered a good road to
Southern Asia, and desiring to expel the English from India, in the
year 1800 he despatched a large number of Don Cossacks, under
Orloff, through the districts of the Little Horde. At the time a
treaty was concluded with Napoleon, then First Consul, by virtue of
which a combined Russo-French army was to disembark at Asterabad and
march from thence into India by way of Khorassan and Afghanistan.
The death of the Emperor of Russia put an end to this plan.
During the reign of Alexander I, Central Asia was suffered to rest,
and even the Chinese made raids into Russian territory without
interruption. In the third decade of the present century, however,
several advanced military settlements of Cossacks were founded.
"Thus," says M. Veniukoff, "was inaugurated the policy which
afterward guided us in the steppe, the foundation of advanced
settlements and towns (at first forts, afterwards _stanitsas_
[Footnote: Cossack settlements.
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