(i Hill I.I \. 



(!apo Dczlmicv, sailcl ilimiij/li iIk- wlinlc of tin- straits tliviilinn; Asia from America and subse- 

 i|ii('iilly oallcil alicr Hr'n-ml aiiil fjiinfil tjic Cliiikotsk Cafio. Ilfif' tlio fX|MMlltioM fiio<)iiiit<'r«-<l 

 a scvcif storm, iliiriii^' \vlii<li Ankiiiiiliiiov's vcssoj {icrisjicd, Imt liis new w.ts <listribul<Mi 

 aiMiiii^' till' vessels nf Itezliiiiev ami Alexecv. Oil the ^JOtli "iC September llie Russians landed, 

 lull here hail a skirmish with the ('hiik<|iis in wliieli Fedut Alexeev was woimdod. After tills 

 a liiL'litriil storm separated forever tiie vessels of Semi(tn Dezliiiiev and Feilot Aloxoev. 

 I»i/lmirv hravely slrll^'fJrled in the open sea with storms ami opposing wimls, which bore him 

 away to the soiilh of ihc entiy into the Anadyr hay, and finally ho w.ls ciLSt upon the coast 

 rif-'ht heyoiid Ciipc Oliiiinr near Ihe mouth of the river Oliiitora, that is, upon the limits of 

 KaiiK'hatka heiweeii 61" ami 60" X. L. I'roiii there Dezliiiiev and his twenty-five eompanions 

 made llicir way to Aiiadyi- where he foiimlcil a winter slalioii, whieh afterwards heeame the 

 Anadyr slr(lll^!llold, as liiiher arrived soon after by land Russians niider the command of 

 Semion Moloni from ilie Knjyuia. Dezhniov liimscdf returned to the Kolyma not earlier than 

 165i!. In the meanwhile Fedot Alexeev parted from Dezliiiiev by the storrn, according to 

 iiildiiiialioii nilh^cted subsequently by the dcscriber of Kamchatka, Krasheninnikov, traversed, 

 it Would seem, the whole of Kanichatka and perished on the river Tighiia, that is, on the 

 western shore of the peninsula. 



Only in 161)7 Kaiiirhalka was discovcreil afresh and occnpied by the Cossack Vladimir 

 Atlassov, who startinjLT from the Anadyr stronghold, destroyed four Koriak towns and having 

 founded on the river Kamchatka the stockaded fort of Xizhni-Kamchatsk reduced the whole 

 nf Kaiiu'lialka. 



At the same time the inovement of the Russians towards the coast went its course in 

 more southern latitudes. After the foundation on the middle course of the Lena of the Yakutsk 

 fort by Peter Beketov, parties of Russians began to ascend the Aldan and to reach the Sta- 

 novoi range. It was by this road, passing the Stanovoi range, that the Cossack Ivan Mosko- 

 vitin's party, sent in 1639 to impose y a s s a k upon all the Tungus tribes, came out upon ]}ie 

 river Ud and so reached the Sea of Okhotsk. After this, stockaded forts were founded at the 

 mouths of the Ud and Tuiigura, and in 1643 the Russians for the first time appear upon the 

 Amour. Equipped by the Yakutsk v o e v o d e the elder Vassili Poyarkov with 130 Cossacks 

 ascended the rivers Aldan, Uchur and Gonam, crossed the Stanovoi range and then came out 

 by the Erianda and Zeya upon the Amour and, descending the river, sailed into the Sea of 

 Okhotsk. Ill J 647 the Cossack Shelkovuikov crossed fruiii the mouths of the Amour to the 

 tnouth of the river Okhota and here founded the fort of Okhotsk. 



But it was the Cossack elder Yerofei Khabarov who specially distinguished himself 

 by his exploits upon the Amour. This intrepid Cossack who had formerly occupied himself at 

 one time with corn growing, at another with salt boiling, undertook at his own costs to 

 subjugate the Amour country. Having received the authorization from the Yakutsk vocvoda, 

 he in 1649 and 1650 reached the Amour by the rivers Olekma and Tunghir, destroyed a few 

 Daur cities and having personally convinced himself of the natural riches of the country vis- 

 ited by him, hurriedly returned to Yakutsk in order to there excite interest and attention to 

 the hitherto unknown country which was so remarkable in every respect. Having mustered a 

 party uf voliuiieers to the number of 150 men, and having received three guns from the 



