320 SIBERIA 



The name of Muravieff is closely connected with the annexation 

 to Russia of the whole of the Amur. Muravieff was Governor- 

 General of Eastern Siberia, and was afterwards known as Count 

 Muravieff Amourski. Immediately on his arrival in the region 

 entrusted to his care, Muravieff clearly saw that without the 

 command of the great River Amur, which' flows through the 

 length of Siberia from the west to the east, and leads to a sea 

 free from ice^ the prospects of further development in Eastern 

 Siberia were very small. He set himself the task of acquiring the 

 whale of the territory through which this river flows, and success- 

 fully accomplished his purpose after inany difficulties and much 

 opposition. 



A treaty was subsequently signed in 1857, by iwhich the left 

 bank only of the Amur, from Argun to the mouth, was ceded to 

 Russia, and the right bank, as far as Ussuri, to China. Only 

 Russian and Chinese vessels were allowed to navigate the Amur, 

 Sungari, and Ussuri, the Manchurians inhabiting the left banks to 

 remain under the Manchurian Government. 



In i860 there were already as many as 12,000 Russian colonists 

 and 61 Cossack stations on the Amur. In the same year another 

 treaty was signed at Pekin, by which the Chinese Government 

 recognised the Russian rule over the River Amur and the entire 

 region of Ussuri, and thus restored to Russian possession the 

 whole of the territory previously acquired by Khabaroff and 

 Muravieff. 



The descendants of the ancient Siberians are a bold, free race. 

 The Russian serf, when liberated, mixed with them in Siberia, 

 and the descendants of this mixture are a self-reliant, strong-willed 

 people, with a striking individuality, and afford a great contrast to 

 the humble, man-fearing peasant of European Russia. The Siberians 

 will, some day, become a great nation like America. At one time 

 the Americans were made up of what might have been called 

 adventurers, but that bold, fearless character was a good founda- 

 tion for the future history of America, and it will be for Siberia. 

 The people are very much more free in Siberia, and if politics are 

 left alone the Siberian's life is the life of the brave and free. 



UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON. 



