APPENDIX II 319 



fled to the new countries in search of better conditions and greater 

 freedom. In later years political and other exiles have considerably 

 added to the growth of the population. 



The settlement of Siberia necessitated its exploration, and in the 

 course of the eighteenth century the Emperor Peter the Great 

 initiated this matter. 



An attempt to establish regular sea communication with Kam- 

 chatka having failed for want of ships, Peter the Great sent Swedish 

 prisoners acquainted with shipbuilding to Okhotsk, and by this 

 means a regular communication between Okhotsk and Kamchatka 

 was established. 



Peter the Great then interested himself to discover whether ornot 

 a sea passage leads into the Arctic Ocean between the Asiatic and 

 American continents. An expedition for this purpose left St. Peters- 

 burg in 1725, the year of Peter the Great's death, and, after a period 

 of three years, reached Kamchatka through Siberia. The existence 

 of a strait between Asia and America was thus proved. 



A land expedition to explore the whole of Siberia, under the 

 leadership of the best men of science of that time, was carried out 

 from 1733 to 1743. A further expedition from Okhotsk to Japan and 

 the Kurile Islands was also attended with great success. 



In the second half of the eighteenth century, during the reign of 

 the enlightened Empress Catherine II., a new and brilliant era in 

 the history of the geographical and scientific exploration of Siberia 

 began. 



Particular attention was directed to the exploration of the southern 

 districts, and also of the extreme east, the Behring Sea, and the 

 north-western corner of America. 



From 1789 to 1799 many islands in the Behring Sea were dis- 

 covered, and Russian settlements arose upon them, as well as on the 

 peninsula of Alaska, which had been discovered in 1770. 



In 1799 a great company was formed in St. Petersburg, under the 

 name of the Russian American Company, for the purpose of working 

 Russian possessions on the American continent and on the shores 

 and islands of Behring Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. This Company 

 was granted many privileges, to secure which a convention was 

 made with the United States in 1820 and with Great Britain in 1825. 

 The Company existed until 1867, when the Emperor, wishing to 

 cement the good relations which existed between his Government 

 and the United States, surrendered the whole territory, with its ad- 

 jacent islands, to America. On the 2Sth April, 1875, Russia entered 

 into an agreement with Japan, by which the latter surrendered to 

 Russia the island of Sakhalin, receiving for it the group of Kurile 

 Islands, 



