no inquietude, gave themselves up to the pleasures of the chase in the
neighborhood of the town. But Kutchum had drawn near, in spite of his
wound, Mahmetkul had already remounted his horse, and on December 5th he
unexpectedly fell on twenty Russians fishing in the Lake of Abalak, and
massacred them all. As soon as Iermak heard of this surprise, he rushed
in pursuit of the enemy, overtook them near Abalak, at the place where
the borough town of Chamehin now stands, attacked and dispersed them.
Then, having removed the bodies of his companions-in-arms, he buried
them, with military honors, on the cope of Sauskan, near Isker, in the
old cemetery of the Khans. The intensity of the cold, the dangerous
snowstorms, the short winter days of these northern countries, did not
permit him to think of new enterprises of any importance before the
return of spring. While waiting, the peaceful submission of two princes
of the Vogulitches, Ichberdei and Suklem, served soon to expand the
possessions of the Cossacks. The first had his domains beyond the marsh
of Eskalbin, on the banks of the Kuda or the Tavda. The second lived in
the vicinity of Tobolsk. Both voluntarily offered to pay the _yassak_,
or tribute in sable-skins, and took the oath of allegiance to Russia.
Ichberdei was able to secure the special friendship of the Cossacks, to
whom he gave his services as counsellor and guide in the unknown places.
So the affairs of internal administration, the collecting of tribute,
hunting and fishing, the returns from which were indispensable in a
country without architecture, occupied Iermak until the month of April.
Then a mirza informed him that the bold Mahmetkul had again approached
the Irtysh and encamped near Vagai with a small band. The occasion was
favorable; but in order to exterminate this indefatigable enemy, secrecy
and celerity were more necessary than force. Consequently the Cossack
leaders, having chosen sixty of their braves, furtively approached the
camp of the Tartars, cut the throats of many in their sleep, took
Mahmetkul prisoner, and led him in triumph to Isker. This capture caused
Iermak great joy, for he was rid of an enemy full of audacity and
courage, whom he might consider as an important hostage in his relations
with the fugitive Kutchum. Although Mahmetkul was covered with the blood
of Iermak's brothers-in-arms, the latter, abjuring all idea of personal
vengeance, treated him with flattering consideration, while yet holding
him under close watch. As Iermak already had his spies in the distant
sections of Isker, he learned that Kutchum, struck with the reverses of
Mahmetkul, was wandering in the deserts beyond the Ischim. This usurper
was about to be attacked by Seidek--son of Bekbulat, Prince of Siberia,
one of his victims--who was marching against him with numerous bands of
Usbeks. Upon another side he found himself weakened by the defection of
the mirza Karatcha, who, abandoning him in his misfortune, had drawn
away a great part of his troops, and was getting ready to encamp in the
country of Lym, near a large lake, above the junction of the Tara with
the Irtysh. The news was of the nature to cause a lively satisfaction to
the leader of the Cossacks, whose new enterprises were to be favored by
the weakness of the principal enemy of Russia, as well as by the
approach of spring.
Iermak, leaving a part of his troop at Isker, embarked with the other
part on the Irtysh, which he descended, navigating toward the north. The
tribes of the neighborhood already recognized his power, so that he
advanced without obstacles as far as the mouth of the Armidzianka, where
he was stopped by Tartars who were still independent, and who, ensconced
in a fortress, refused to surrender. The fortress was taken by assault,
and the Cossack leaders shot or hanged the principal authors of an
obstinacy dangerous for the Russians. Terrified, the rest of the
inhabitants swore submission and fidelity to Russia, kissing a sabre
dipped in blood. The present cantons of Ratzin, Karbin, and Turtass
dared oppose no resistance. Farther on began the encampments of the
Ostiaks and the Vogules of the Kuda. There, on the steep bank of the
Irtysh their prince Demian, who had taken refuge in a fort with two
thousand warriors ready to fight, rejected all Icrmak's propositions.
According to the report of the annalist: "This little town possessed
within its walls a golden idol which was supposed to have been brought
from ancient Russia at the epoch when she embraced Christianity. The
Ostiaks kept it in a vase filled with water which they drank to revive
their courage. The Cossack leaders, having driven away the besieged
forces with their artillery, entered the town, but they could not
discover this precious idol."
The conquerers now continued their navigation. They perceived a crowd of
soothsayers who were offering a sacrifice to their famous idol of
Ratscha, conjuring it to save them from these terrible strangers. The
idol remained mute, the Russians advanced with their "thunder," and the
frightened soothsayers ran to hide themselves in the thickness of the
forests. It is there that the colony of Ratscha is found to-day, above
the Demiansk. Farther on in the canton of Tzingal, at the place where
the Irtysh, contracted by the mountains, precipitates its rapid course,
a multitude of armed men awaited the Cossacks. But a discharge of
musketry put them to flight, and the Cossacks took the little town of
Nazym, where they found only women and children, stricken with terror
and awaiting death. Iermak treated them with so much kindness that their
fathers and husbands did not delay in coming to find him with a tribute.
After reducing the cantons of Tarkhan to submission, the Cossacks
entered the country of the most considerable of the Ostiak princes,
named Samar. Allied with eight hundred other little princes, he was
waiting for the Russians with firmness, in order to decide, by a battle,
the lot of all the ancient country of Yugorie. Samar boasted of his
courage and of his strength, but he forgot prudence, for he, his army
and his guards, were plunged in sleep when at the hour of dawn the
Cossacks attacked his camp. Awakened by the tumult, he rose, seized his
arms, and fell, shot to death at the first volley. In an instant his
troops dispersed, and the inhabitants agreed to pay tribute to Russia.
Already Iermak had reached the shore of the Obi, an important river,
concerning the course of which the ancient Novgorodians had some
notions, but whose source and mouth, according to the Muscovite
travellers of 1567, were hidden in unknown regions. Master of Nazym,
principal town of the Ostiaks, and of many other fortresses, having in
his power the Prince of Siberia, Iermak had to deplore the loss of one
of his brave companions-in-arms, the hetman Necetas Pan, killed in an
assault with some of the most intrepid Cossacks.
He did not desire to penetrate farther into a country which only
presented frozen deserts to him, places of desolation where during the
summer the burning rays of the sun hardly warmed the surface of immense
marshes covered with moss, and where bogs, hardened by the frost and
strewed with the bones of mammoths, presented the aspect of a vast
cemetery. Iermak appointed Alatscha, an Ostiak prince, as chief of the
tribes of the Obi. Then he again took the road of the capital of
Siberia, treated as a conqueror and a sovereign by his tributaries. He
was received everywhere with demonstrations of absolute submission, as a
redoubtable warrior endowed with a supernatural strength of soul. To the
sound of warlike music, the Cossacks ascended the rivers. They
disembarked clad in their finest raiment in order to astonish the
inhabitants by their riches. Having thus assured the domination of
Russia from Berezoff to Tobol, Iermak, satisfied and tranquil, arrived
safely at Isker.
Then only he announced to the Stroganoffs that with the aid of God he
had been able to conquer the Sultan, had taken his capital, his states,
his nephew, and had made his people take the oath of allegiance to
Russia. At the same time he wrote to the Czar that his poor Cossacks,
proscribed, troubled in conscience and given up to repentance, had
braved death to reunite a vast state to Russia, in the name of Christ
and of their great monarch, for ages upon ages and for as long a time as
it might please God to prolong the existence of the universe. "They
awaited," he added, "the orders of the Russian waywodes, to whom they
were ready to deliver over the kingdom of Siberia, without any sort of
condition, disposed to die for glory or upon a scaffold, according as it
should please God and their master." Charged with this missive, the
second of the leaders, John Koltzo, first companion of Iermak in the
combats and in the councils, departed for Moscow, where he had been
condemned to severe punishment as a state criminal, without fearing the
solemn decree which threatened his life.
Here we anticipate a question which seems natural enough. In announcing
so late his successes to the Stroganoffs, did not Iermak, influenced by
the easy conquest of Siberia, think, as some historians suppose, of
reigning independently over that country? Although conqueror, his forces
were diminishing every day, and was not the need of aid the only and
true motive for his bearing toward Ivan? But how can it be imagined that
this prudent leader should not have foreseen, at the beginning of his
expedition, that a handful of rash men, abandoned by Russia, would in
three or four years have been annihilated by battles or diseases; that
in a rigorous climate they would succumb amid deserts and thick forests,
impenetrable refuges of a savage and fierce population, whom fire-arms
only could force to pay tribute to strangers? It is more probable that,
not having been an eye-witness of the facts, the annalist established
upon hypothesis the order in which they succeeded each other. Perhaps
Iermak feared to boast too soon of his success, desiring, above all, to
achieve the conquest of Siberia, which he thought he had done in driving
Kutchum into the deserts and in establishing the limits of the Muscovite
empire on the banks of the Obi.
Transported with joy at the news they had just received from the
hetmans, the Stroganoffs set out at once for Moscow, eager to
communicate to the Czar all the details of this glorious enterprise.
They urged him to finish the reduction of Siberia, simple private
citizens like themselves not possessing the means to preserve so vast a
conquest. The envoys of Iermak, John Koltzo and his companions, also
appeared before the Prince to offer him the realm of Siberia, as well as
the precious furs of sables, black foxes, and castors.
These were, since a long time, the first transports of joy in gloomy
Moscow. The Czar and the nation seemed to wake up. At court, on the
great square, was repeated with intoxication, "God has sent a new empire
to Russia!" Bells were rung, solemn thanks were returned to heaven, as
at the epoch of Kazan and of Astrakhan, the happy time of the Czar's
youth! Rumor exaggerated the glory of this conquest.
There was no talk but of huge armies destroyed by the Cossacks, of a
great number of peoples subjected by their valor, of the immense riches
which they had found. In a word, Siberia seemed to have fallen from the
sky for the Russians, and, to set off still further Iermak's success, it
was forgotten that from time immemorial this country had been known to
the Russians. The disgrace of the Cossacks gave place to honors. John
Koltzo, bowing his head in humility before the Czar and the boyars,
heard nothing but expressions of good-will, and of praise for his
conduct and the name of valiant warrior. Greatly moved, he kissed the
hand of the Czar, who caused to be given to him, as well as to the other
envoys of Siberia, silver, cloth, and stuffs of value. Ivan immediately
sent to Iermak Prince Simeon Bolkovsky and the officer John Glukoff with
five hundred strelitz (infantry). He authorized John Koltzo to raise
volunteers to go and establish himself in the new countries of Tobol,
and ordered the Bishop of Vologda to send ten priests thither for the
purpose of celebrating divine service. Prince Bolkovsky was ordered to
take, in the spring, the boats of the Stroganoffs and embark on the
Tchusovaya (river), to follow the traces of the hero of Siberia. These
illustrious citizens, the real authors of this important acquisition to
Russia, yielded it to the state. But in recompense, and as a reward for
their services and their zeal, Ivan made to Simeon Bolkovsky a
concession of two borough towns, the Great and Little Sol, on the Volga.
Maxime and Necetas obtained the privilege of carrying on commerce in all
their cities without paying any tax or duty.
While awaiting good news from Russia, the conquerors of Siberia did not
give themselves up to a sterile repose. They advanced by the Tavda as
far as the country of the Vogulitches, and near the mouth of that river
where the Tartar princes Labutan and Petschenieg held sway. In a bloody
engagement Iermak put them to flight on the shores of a lake; and the
annalist reports that at his time many human bones were still to be seen
there. But the timid inhabitants of the cantons of Koschutz and of
Tabarin paid the tribute demanded by the Cossack leader without a
murmur. These peaceful savages lived in an absolute independence, having
neither princes nor chiefs. They only gave their respect to certain rich
men, whose wisdom was generally recognized, and took them as judges in
their quarrels. They yielded an equal esteem to some pretended
soothsayers. One of these, gazing upon Iermak with a holy terror,
predicted long glory for him, but kept silence about his approaching
death. Here fable creates new giants among the dwarfs of Vogulie, who
are scarcely two archines in height. According to one of these stories,
the Russians saw with surprise, near the town of Tabarin, a giant two
fathoms tall, who seized a dozen men at a time and smothered them in his
arms. Not being able to take him alive, they killed him with gunshots.
On the whole, the relation of this latter expedition is not very
authentic, and is only found in the supplement to the _Chronicles of
Siberia_. One may also read there that, after having reached the
marshes and forests of Pelim, dispersed the Vogulitches, and made
numerous prisoners, Iermak sought to gather from the latter certain
information regarding the roads which lead from the banks of the Upper
Tavda to Perm, across a chain of rocky mountains, in order to discover a
less dangerous and less difficult communication with Russia, but that it
was impossible to open a road in deserts swampy in summer and buried
under deep snows in winter. Iermak succeeded in increasing the number of
his tributaries, and in extending his domains as far as the shore of
Sosva, in the ancient country of Yugorie. He had enclosed in their
limits the country of Kondinie, little known up to that time, although
long placed among the titles of the Muscovite sovereigns. He then
returned to the capital of Siberia, where he awaited the recompense of
his glorious works.
John Koltzo had arrived at Isker, charged with the bounties of the Czar,
followed by Prince Bolkovsky with his warriors. The former gave rich
presents to the leaders as well as to the soldiers. He was the bearer,
for Iermak, of two cuirasses, a cup of silver, and a cloak which the
Czar had worn himself. In a letter full of goodness, Ivan announced to
the Cossacks his entire forgetfulness of their faults and the eternal
recognition of Russia for their important services. He affirmed that he
appointed Iermak prince of Siberia, commanding him to administer and
govern that country, as he had already done up to that time; to
establish order there, and, in fine, to consolidate there the supreme
power of the Czar. On their side, the Cossacks rendered honors to the
waywodes of Ivan as well as to all the strelitz. They made them presents
of sables and treated them with all the luxury which their position
permitted, preparing together for new enterprises. However, this
happiness of Iermak and his companions was not of long duration; we
touch upon the beginning of their reverses.
In the first place, a fearful scurvy showed itself among the troops, a
disease common to those who arrive in cold and damp climates, in savage
and almost uninhabited countries. The strelitz were attacked first. Soon
it was communicated to the Cossacks, many of whom lost their strength
and their life. Next, winter brought a great dearth of food. The
excessive cold, tempests, snow-storms, hindered the hunting and fishing
as well as the arrival of grain from the neighboring encampments, some
inhabitants of which occupied themselves with a poorly productive
agriculture. Famine began to be felt; disease made progress and
continually took off many victims, among whom was Prince Bolkovsky. They
gave him an honorable funeral at Isker. The general weakness seized the
heart of Iermak also. He feared not death, long accustomed to brave it,
but he was afflicted with the idea of losing his conquest, of betraying
the hopes of the Czar and of Russia. Happily this calamity ceased with
spring. The atmospheric heat helped the cure of the diseases, and
convoys of provisions restored plenty among the Russians. Then Iermak
made Prince Mahmetkul start for Moscow, announcing to the Czar that,
while all was going on well in Siberia, yet he asked immediately for
more considerable aids than the first, in order to preserve his
conquests and to be able to make new ones. Mahmetkul, faithful observer
of the law of Mahomet, served afterward in the Russian armies.
Iermak resolved to intimidate his enemies and to guarantee his safety
for the future. To this effect, although he had but a feeble troop left,
he undertook to pursue Karatcha, ascending the Irtysh in order to extend
the possessions of Russia toward the east. He overthrew Prince Beghiche
and captured his city, of which the ruins may still be seen on the
shores of a sinuous lake, near the mouth of the Vogai. He made himself
master of all the country which stretches as far as the Ischim,
terrifying by his vengeance those who dared resist him, and sparing
those who lay down their arms. In the country of Sargaty there lived an
illustrious old man, a former Tartar chief, a hereditary judge of all
the tribes since the first khan of Siberia. He made the act of
submission as well as Prince Etichai, who governed the city of Tehend.
The latter, bearing tribute to Iermak, presented his young daughter,
betrothed to the son of Kutchum. But the hetman, a rigid observer of the
laws of chastity, sent the young girl home. Near the mouth of the
Ischim, a bloody quarrel arose between the soldiers of Iermak and the
wild inhabitants of that wretched country, in which five brave Cossacks
lost their lives. Their memory is still celebrated in the melancholy
songs of Siberia. The little town of Tachatkan also fell into the power
of the Russians. Their chief did not judge it advisable to attack a more
important place, founded by Kutchum, on the banks of the lake Aussaklu.
He penetrated as far as the shore of Chische, where the deserts begin;
imposed tributes on this new conquest, and returned to take to Isker the
spoils which were to be his last trophies.
FIRST COLONY OF ENGLAND BEYOND SEAS
A.D. 1583
MOSES HARVEY
In the Elizabethan era, when maritime discovery was being actively
pursued by England's adventurous spirits, Sir Humphrey Gilbert,
half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, the founder of Virginia, took
possession of Newfoundland, with feudal ceremony, in the name of the
Virgin Queen. Sir Humphrey's expedition was barren of results in the
way of colonization, and even in the way of discovery on the island;
while it proved fatal to its leader, and those who sailed with him
on the Squirrel, for on the return voyage to England the vessel
foundered at sea, and only the companion-ship, the Golden Hind,
reached the port of Falmouth, Devon. But the formal occupation of
Newfoundland at that early period makes it the most ancient colony
of the British crown, English settlement beginning shortly after Sir
Humphrey Gilbert's visit, though interrupted between the years 1692
and 1713 by French attempts at conquest.
Up to this time no attempt had been made to colonize Newfoundland or any
of the neighboring lands. The hardy fishermen of various nationalities,
among whom Englishmen were now much more numerous than formerly, were in
the habit of frequenting the shores of the island during the summer and
using the harbors and coves for the cure of their fish, returning home
with the products of their toil on the approach of winter. Eighty-six
years had passed away since Cabot's discovery, and we now arrive at the
year 1583, a memorable date in the history of Newfoundland. On August
5th of that year there were lying in the harbor of St. John's thirty-six
vessels belonging to various nations, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and
English, all employed in fishing. In addition to these there were four
English warships which had arrived the day before. They were the
Delight, the Golden Hind, the Swallow, and the Squirrel. Early on this
morning boats were lowered from the English ships, and the commanders
and officers went on shore. Soon a goodly company had assembled on the
beach, then lined by a few rough wooden huts and "flakes," or stages for
drying cod. The rude inmates of these huts gathered round the company
that landed from the English ships; and the captains and officers of the
other vessels were there by special summons. A very curious and motley
group was that which then stood on the beach of St. John's
harbor--swarthy, bronzed sailors and fishermen of Spain, Portugal, and
France, in the costumes of the sixteenth century. Soon a circle formed
round one commanding figure--a man of noble presence, wearing the richly
slashed and laced doublet, velvet cloak, trunk-hose, and gay hat and
feather which constituted the dress of gentlemen in the days of Queen
Elizabeth. This was no other than Sir Humphrey Gilbert, one of the
gallant knights of Devonshire. He unrolled a parchment scroll, and
proceeded to read the royal patent authorizing him to take possession of
Newfoundland on behalf of his royal mistress, and exercise jurisdiction
over it and all other possessions of the crown in the same quarter. Twig
and sod were presented to him in feudal fashion, and, in the name of
Queen Elizabeth, he solemnly annexed the island to the British Empire.
The banner of England was then twisted on a flag-staff; the royal arms,
cut in lead, were affixed to a wooden pillar, near the water's edge, and
the ceremony was complete. The grant gave Sir Humphrey Gilbert
jurisdiction for two hundred leagues in every direction, so that the
limits included Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, part of Labrador, as well as
the islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward Island--a
right royal principality.
This Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the first settler in Newfoundland, who, with
some two hundred fifty followers from Devonshire, had arrived with the
view of making the western wilderness a home for Englishmen, was a son
of Sir Otho Gilbert, of Compton castle, Torbay. His mother was a
Champernoun of purest Norman descent, and "could probably boast of
having in her veins the blood of Courtneys, Emperors of Byzant." Sir
Otho had three sons by this lady, John, Humphrey, and Adrian, who all
proved to be men of superior abilities. They were all three knighted by
Elizabeth, a distinction which, coming from the hands of the great
Queen, marked its recipient as a gentleman and a brave warrior. Sir Otho
died, and his widow married Walter Raleigh, a gentleman of ancient blood
but impoverished, and at the time living at Hayes, Devon. To her second
husband the fair Champernoun bore a son whose fame was destined to be
world-wide, and who, in a period more prolific of great men and great
events than any before or since, played a gallant part, and was also
knighted, as Sir Walter Raleigh, by Queen Bess. Thus Sir Humphrey
Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh were half-brothers, each being trained in
the simple and manly yet high-bred ways of English gentlemen. When
Humphrey Gilbert grew up he embraced the profession of arms, and won
high distinction in Continental and Irish wars. At length, in his mature
manhood, he and his distinguished half-brother Raleigh formed the design
of first colonizing Newfoundland, and then the neighboring islands and
continent. Hence we find him on August 5, 1583, standing on the beach in
the harbor of St. John's. Sir Walter Raleigh had embarked on the same
expedition, but a contagious disease broke out on board his ship which
compelled his return.