3i8 The National Geographic Magazine 



quest was to bring the domain under a 

 single master, either an individual or a 

 nation, so that throughout the wide 

 extent only one authority' should be ac- 

 knowledged. This was to be a con- 

 quest by force over the barbarians and 

 scattered tribes which constituted its 

 onl}^ inhabitants. It was possible when- 

 ever sufficient force from outside should 

 be employed . The second conquest was 

 that over inhospitable and hostile na- 

 ture, over distance and climatic condi- 

 tions. It was to introduce a national 

 element and make a cold and repellent 

 region pulsate with the warmth and 

 energy of national impulse and life. It 

 was to conquer the wilderness by civili- 

 zation, but a wilderness which the civili- 

 ization of even the recent past would 

 have been unable to subdue. Through 

 the centuries for this second conquest 

 the land had been waiting. Civiliza- 

 tion has been well defined as the victory 

 of mind over external obstacles. Not 

 till the close of the nineteenth centurj^ 

 had science furnished civilization the 

 arms for the subjugation of Siberia. 



THE FIRST CONQUEST 



It is of interest and significance to us 

 Americans when recalling our colonial 

 history to observe how while one wave 

 pressed outward across the Atlantic an- 

 other wave pressed eastward into Asia. 

 The stream of European conquest which 

 reached the American vshores from west- 

 ern Europe was paralleled in Siberia by 

 a contemporaneous stream of conquest 

 from eastern Europe. 



In 1558 the English Elizabeth began 

 her memorable reign. That same year 

 Ivan the Awful gave Gregori Strogonoff 

 twenty square miles of desert land upon 

 the River Kama, with permission to at- 

 tack anything toward the east. " The 

 Good Companies of the Don," a euphe- 

 mistic name for the mob of brigands 

 and outlaws, furnished an arm3^ Irmak 

 Timofeeff, the more than Pizarro or 



Cortez of the Slavs, became chief com- 

 mander of their wild forces. Having 

 no seas to cross, there was no need for 

 him to embark and disembark his troops. 

 He could always be marching on. In 

 1580 the brigand chief attacked and 

 carried by assault Sbir, the capital of a 

 powerful descendant of Genghis Khan. 

 Ever since the province has been called 

 Sibir, or Siberia, from the name of the 

 conquered capital. Streams of Cossacks 

 followed and spread in every direction 

 from the path he had marked out. In 

 1649 Khabaroff, with three cannon and 

 one hundred and fifty men, marched to 

 the extreme east and occupied the Amur 

 Basin. That territory then owed a 

 nominal allegiance to China, and from 

 it the Russian adventurers were com- 

 pelled to retire by the treaty of Nev- 

 shink. Meanwhile resolute explorers 

 and pioneers had been pushing north- 

 ward and eastward all over the trackless 

 waste which lay between Russia and the 

 Pacific. Meanwhile in America men 

 as dauntless and determined had been 

 pushing westward from the Atlantic in 

 continuous warfare with nature and the 

 Indians. 



Nicolas Nicolaievitch Muravieff was 

 made governor of eastern Siberia in 

 1847. He was the son of an illustrious 

 father and one of five illustrious broth- 

 ers, all of whom served Russia well. 

 He realized that what the Nile is to 

 Eg3^pt the Amur is to Siberia. It was 

 then an almost unknown river. In 

 obedience to his orders, Lieutenant Ne- 

 velsky made forty-five ineffectual at- 

 tempts to find its mouth.' He succeeded 

 only at the forty-sixth. Herein is illus- 

 trated both the geographic ignorance of 

 the time and the tireless persistence of 

 the Russian. 



Muravieff sent to the Chinese Gov- 

 ernment at Pekin asking permission to 

 navigate the river. Without waiting 

 for an answer that would probably never 

 come, he embarked upon its bosom Maj^ 

 18, 1854. It was the time of the Cri- 



