APPENDIX II 317 



to invite the Cossacks to enter their service. The latter, equipped 



and under the leadership of Yermack, started across the Ural 



Mountains, and, in 1580, on the banks of Tura, defeated the Tartar 



princelet — Yepancha — and took by storm the town now known as 



Tumen. In the spring of the following year Yermack moved to the 



capital of the Kuchum kingdom, the town of Isker, or Siberia. 



Having navigated the Tura, Tobol, and Irtish in barges, the Cossacks 



reached the Khan's residence, and after a fierce fight took possession 



of it on the 26th October, 1581. Yermack immediately sent his 



trusty associate — Koltso — with the news of this conquest to Moscow, 



supplied him with costly furs, and commanded him " to humbly 



acquaint the Lord Ivan Vasilievitch the Terrible of the acquisition 



of the new Siberian kingdom." The Tsar forgave Yermack his 



former crimes, presented him with a cloak and medal, and sent the 



leader — Glukhov — to his assistance. Yermack, however, was not 



long fated to rule Siberia. In 1584 he perished, together with his 



band, in a fight with the Tartars on the banks of the river Irtish. 



In Moscow, meanwhile, nothing was known of Yermack's death, and 



in 1586 a fresh reinforcement of 300 men arrived on the Tura. 



They founded there the town Tumen, and began to spread Russian 



authority over the Siberian natives. In 1587 another 500 men were 



sent from Moscow, and orders were given to build a Russian town 



— Tobolsk — in place of the ruined capital of the Kuchum kingdom. 



As soon as the Siberian kingdom was united with the Russian 



possessions, the Government concerned itself with its colonisation, 



and established strongholds against attacks. The strongholds 



founded beyond the Ural Mountains in the sixteenth century were. 



besides the already-mentioned Tumen and Tobolsk, Verhoturee, 



Polim, Beriozovo, Surgoot, and others. In the seventeenth century 



the Russian dominions rapidly extended farther and farther east. 



From 1604 many strongholds subsequently grew into towns, 



amongst others Tomsk, Yeniseisk, Kainsk, Krasnoyarsk, Yakutzk, 



Irkutzk, and Nerchinsk, and Russian power was extended over the 



basins of the great rivers of Siberia, the Obi, Yenisei, and Lena, and 



along the coast of the Arctic Ocean, the Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka, 



and the Amur river. 



The name which is most commonly associated with the exploits 

 on the River Amur is that of a Cossack — Yerofei Khabaroff. This 

 man, who occupied himself with corn-growing and salt-boiling, 

 resolved at his own cost to subjugate the Amur country. Having 

 obtained authority from the Chief of Yakutsk, he, in 1649 and 1650, 

 reached Amur and destroyed a few native towns. After convincing 

 himself of the riches the country contained, he returned to person- 

 ally excite interest in and draw attention to that hitherto unknown 



