USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 5
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The last English expedition in search of the north- east passage, undertaken in the sixteenth century, consisted of two barks which sailed from England early in 1580, and were fortunate enough to pass beyond the straits of Vaigatz, but made no new discoveries and brought but a moderate return to their owners. The Russians meanwhile kept up a vigorous coasting- trade, their ill-shaped and ill-appointed craft generally being found far in advance of their more pretentious competitors.
In 1594 the states-general of Holland offered a premium of twenty-five thousand florins to the lucky navigator who should open the much desired high- way. A squadron of four small vessels commanded by Cornelis Nay was the first to enter for the prize. A merchant named Linschoten, possessed of con- siderable scientific attainments, accompanied the ex-
11
THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE.
pedition as commercial agent, and Willem Barentz, who commanded one of the vessels, acted as pilot. They sailed from Holland on the 15th of June 1594, and arrived safely at the bay of Kilduyn, on the coast of Lapland. Here they separated, Nay heading for Vaigatz Straits and Barentz choosing a more northerly route. The latter discovered and named Ys Hoek, or Ice Cape, the northern extremity of Novaia Zemlia, while the other vessels passed through the straits, where they met with numerous Russian lodkas, or small craft. This southern division entered the sea of Kara, called by Linschoten the sea of Tar- tary, on the 1st of August. Wooden crosses were observed at various points of the coast, and the inhab- itants bore evidence of intercourse with the Russians by their manner of salutation. The Samoiedes had come in contact with the advancing Muscovites in the interior as well as on the coast.
On the 11th of August, when their astronomical observations placed the vessels fifty leagues to the eastward of the straits, with land still in sight toward the east, this part of the expedition turned back, evi- dently apprehensive of sharing the fate of their Eng- lish predecessors, who had been unfortunate in those latitudes. The two divisions fell in with each other on the homeward voyage, and arrived at Amsterdam on the 25th of September of the same year.
A second expedition sailed from Amsterdam on the same errand in 1595. It consisted of not less than seven vessels. Willem Barentz was chief in com- mand, assisted by Heemskerk, Linschoten, and Cor- nelis Rijp. The departure of this squadron was for some reason delayed until July, and after weather- ing the North Cape a few of the vessels sailed di- rectly for the White Sea to trade, while the others proceeded through the straits of Vaigatz. They met, as usual, with Russian lodkas, and for the first time definite information was obtained of the great river Yenissei, which the Russians had already reached
12
INTRODUCTORY.
by land. After prolonged battling against ice and contrary winds and currents, the expedition turned back on the 15th of September and made sail for Amsterdam.
After this second failure the states-general washed their hands of further enterprise in that direction, but the city of Amsterdam still showed some faith in ultimate success by fitting out two ships and intrust- ing them respectively to Barentz and Rijp. This expedition made an early start, sailing on the 22d of May 1596. Their course was shaped in accordance with Barentz' theory that more to the north there was a better chance of finding an open sea. On the 9th of June they discovered Bear Island in latitude 74° 30'. Still keeping on their first course they again encountered land in latitude 79° 30', Spitzbergen, and in July the two vessels separated in search of a clear channel to the east. On the 26th of August Barentz was forced by a gale into a bay on the east coast of Novaia Zemlia, on which occasion the ice seriously damaged his vessel. Here the venturesome Hol- landers constructed a house and passed a winter full of misery, a continued struggle with famishing bears and the deadly cold. Toward spring the castaways constructed two open boats out of remnants of the wreck, fitted them out as well as they could, and put to sea on the 14th of June 1597. Six days later Barentz died. In July the unfortunates fell in with some Russian lodkas and obtained provisions. They finally reached Kilduyn Bay in Lapland, one of the rendezvous of White Sea traders. Several Dutch vessels were anchored there, and one of them was commanded by Rijp, who had returned to Amster- dam and sailed again on a private enterprise. He extended all possible aid to his former companions and obtained passage for them on several vessels. This put an end in Holland to explorations in search of a northern route to India, until the attempts of Hudson in 1608-9. The problem was partially solved by
13
THE FEAT ACCOMPLISHED.
Deshnef's obscure voyage in 1648, and after another failure by Wood in 1676, Russia made the attempt, Vitus Bering starting from Kamchatka; afterward were the efforts of Shalaürof and of Billings. Finally a Swedish expedition under Nordenskjöld accom- plished the feat in 1879, after wintering on the Arc- tic coast.
CHAPTER Il.
THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS. 1578-1724.
SIBERIA THE RUSSIAN CANAAN-FROM THE BLACK AND CASPIAN SEAS OVER THE URAL MOUNTAINS-STROGANOF, THE SALT-MINER-VISIT OF YER- MAK-OCCUPATION OF THE OB BY THE COSSACKS-CHARACTER OF THE CONQUERORS-THEIR OSTROG ON THE TOBOL-THE STRAIGHT LINE OF MARCH THENCE TO OKHOTSK ON THE PACIFIC-THE PROMYSHLENIKI- LENA RIVER REACHED-TEN COSSACKS AGAINST TEN THOUSAND-YA- KUTSKI OSTROG-EXPLORATION OF THE AMOOR-DISCOVERIES ON THE ARCTIC SEABOARD-IVORY VERSUS SKINS-THE LAND OF THE CHUKCHI INVADED-OKHOTSK ESTABLISHED-KAMCHATKA OCCUPIED-RUMORS OF REALMS BEYOND.
WHILE the maritime nations of north-western Eu- rope were thus sending ship after ship into the Arctic ice-fields in the hope of finding a north-eastern passage to India, the Russians were slowly but surely forcing their way over Siberian rivers and steppes, and even along the Arctic coast from river-mouth to river- mouth, and that not in search of any India, or other grand attainment, but only after skins, and to get far- ther and farther from parental despotism. Their an- cient homes had not been abodes of peace, and no tender reminiscences or patriotic ties bound them to the soil of Russia. It was rather a yearning for per- sonal freedom, next after the consideration of the sobol, that drew the poor Slav farther and farther through forests and swamps away from his place of birth; he did not care to band for general indepen- dence. Rulers were of God, the church said, and he would not oppose them, but he would if possible es- cape. In view of these peculiar tendencies the open-
1
(14)
15
A CENTURY SABLE-HUNT.
ing of the boundless expanse toward the east was a blessing not only to the oppressed but to the oppress- ors. The turbulent spirits, who might have caused trouble at home, in early times found their way to Siberia voluntarily, while later the ‘paternal ' govern- ment gathered strength enough to send them there.
A century sable-hunt half round the world this re- markable movement might be called. It was at once a discovery and a conquest, which was to carry Cos- sack and Russian across the vast continent, and across the narrowed Pacific to the fire-breathing islands, and the glistening mountains and majestic forests of Alaska. The shores of the Black and Caspian seas was the starting-point. Russia's eastern bound was then the Ural Mountains. Anika Stroganof set up salt-works there, and the people at the east brought him furs to trade. They were pretty little skins, and yielded the salt-miner a large profit; so he sent his traders as far as the great river Ob for them. And the autocrat of the empire smiled on these proceed- ings, and gave the salt-merchant lands, and allowed his descendants to become a power and call them- selves counts.
In 1578 the grandson of the first Stroganof received a visit from a Cossack chieftain or ataman, named Yermak Timofeief, who with his followers had in Cossack fashion led a life of war and plunder, and was then flying from justice as administered by Ivan Vassilievich II.
Yermak's mounted followers numbered a thousand, and Stroganof was anxious they should move on; so he told them of places toward the east, fine spots for robber-knights to seize and settle on, and he sent men to guide them thither. This was in 1578. At the river Ob the Cossacks found a little Tartar sover- eignty, a fragment of the great monarchy of Genghis Khan. The warlike spirit with which Tamerlane had once inspired the Tartars had long since fled. Their little kingdom, in which cattle-herding, the chase, and
16
THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS.
traffic were the only pursuits, now remained only because none had come to conquer them. The Cos- sacks were in the full flush of national development. They had ever been apt learners from the Tartars, against whom they had often served the Muscovites as advance guard. Now Yermak was in a strait. Behind him was the wrathful tsar, to fall into whose hands was certain death. Though his numbers were small, he must fight for it. Attacking the Tartars, in due time he became master of their capital city, though at the cost of half his little army. And now he must have more men. Perhaps he might buy friendship of the tsar. A rich gift of sables, with in- formation that he had conquered for him the kingdom of Kutchum Khan, accomplished the purpose. Re- enforcements and confirmation of rulership were the response. Thus was begun the long journey of the Russians across the continent.
Vast as is the area of Siberia its several parts are remarkably similar. Plants, animals, and men; cli- mate, conditions, and customs, are more alike than on the other side of the strait of Bering. The country and its contents are upon a dead level. A net-work of navigation is formed by the upper branches of rivers flowing into the frozen sea through the tundras, or ice-morass, of the north, so that the same kind of boats and sledges carry the traveller across the whole coun- try. The fierce and cunning Cossacks of Russia were in marked contrast to the disunited semi-nomads of Siberia, busy as they were taming the reindeer, hunt- ing with dogs, or fighting with the bow and arrow and lance; and if they could conquer the Tartars of the Ob there was no reason why they could not march on to the Pacific.
They were a singular people, brave as Spaniards and tough as gypsies. Their weapons, the later Eu- ropean kind, of iron and gunpowder, gave them a vast superiority over the tribes of Siberia, and their boats
1
17
THE SIBERIAN LINE OF OSTROGS.
and horses seem to have been made for the purpose. The latter were small and enduring, adequate to the long day's march, and like their masters accustomed to cold, hunger, thirst, and continuous fatigue. Like the chamois and reindeer they would scrape off the snow from their scanty nourishment, or if grass was wanting they were glad to get frozen fish to eat.
The invaders found it well to divide their forces, and advance in small scattered bodies, a dozen war- riors sometimes subjugating a tribe; then again some hundreds were required for the occupation of a river- territory or a kingdom. There was no need of a large united army, or of any great discipline. This also suited Cossack ideas and habits, as they were repub- lican in their way. Born equal, they everywhere met on a common footing. They chose their atamans and sotniks, or centurions, who, if they did not rule to suit, were quickly deposed and others elected. The highest position was open to the humblest aspirant.
It was on the Tobol that the Cossacks and Rus- · sians built their first ostrog, or fort, which later became Tobolsk, the head-quarters of their organized govern- ment, and the starting-point of their expeditions. Thence their conquering march was straight through the middle of Siberia, the line being equidistant from the mountains of the south and the morasses of the north, and it later became the principal line of traffic. On this line, cutting through the various river re- gions, the chief colonies of the country were founded. Eastward from Tobolsk, in the territory of the river Ob, the city of Tomsk; eastward from this, on the Yenissei, the city of Yenisseisk; then Irkutsk and Yakutsk in the Lena district, and finally, on the shores of the Pacific, Okhotsk, which stands upon about the same parallel as that of the starting-point. These cities grew successively one out of the other, and for every new river province the last served as a point d'appui for the various enterprises, military HIST. ALASKA. 2
18
THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS.
or commercial. At every important river a halt was made, during which they settled themselves more firmly, and organized their new territory. They built boats, explored up the rivers, and down them even to the frozen ocean, where they founded little settle- ments.
The Cossacks themselves were a light troop, but they were preceded by a still lighter, a flying advance guard, called the promyshleniki, a kind of Russian coureurs des bois. They were freebooters who hunted on their own account and at their own risk. No one could control them. They flitted everywhere in the woods and morasses, companions of wild beasts. They made the several first discoveries in Siberia, and brought home the earliest information of hitherto unknown parts.
In the spring of 1628 the Cossacks reached Lena River. The party consisted of ten men under Vassili Bugor, who had crossed over from the Yenissei on snow-shoes. Arrived at the Lena, the great central stream, lying midway between the beginning and end of their century-march, they built a boat and went down and up the river for some distance, spreading dismay and collecting their tribute of sable-skins. Ten Cossacks against the inhabitants of that great valley! I know of nothing in American history that equals it. After making the people swear submission, Bugor posted two of his men at the middle point on the river, and two each at points two hundred miles above and two hundred miles below. After three years of bluster and traffic Bugor returned to the Yenissei. In 1632 a Cossack chieftain named Beke- tof sailed far down the Lena and built the first ostrog on this river, among the Yakut nation. . This was the Yakutski Ostrog, out of which rose later the city of Yakutsk, the capital of eastern Siberia, and which finally served as head-quarters for expeditions to the Arctic and to the Pacific. From the Lena, Siberia
19
FROM RIVER TO RIVER.
extends, gradually narrowing, about five or six hun- dred leagues further to the east. The length of the rivers decreases with the breadth of the land, and the mighty Lena is followed by the smaller Yana, Indi- girka, Kolima, and at last, in the farthest corner by the Anadir which empties into the Pacific. The dis-
AMERICA
ARCTIC OCEAN
Bering Strait
EST CAWNENCE 10
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Kolima Da
CHUK
R.Anadir
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KARAGINEI.
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EASTERN SIBERIA.
covery of these more distant rivers of Siberia began in 1638. Some Cossacks, under the leadership of a certain Busa, reached the Yana by water from the mouth of the Lena, while others, under the sotnik Ivanof, penetrated on horseback to its sources from
Bolsheretsks
C Lopaka
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Penshinsk Gul
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20
THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS.
Yakutsk. Here they heard of the Indigirka, and the year following they trotted on to the river.
In 1639 the rugged mountains on the eastern bor- der of Siberia were crossed on horseback and on snow-shoes, and an ostrog was built on the sea-shore to which the name of Okhotsk was given. Thus the Pacific Ocean was first reached by the Russians on the shore of the Okhotsk Sea, a place destined to play an important part in the advance toward America. The discovery was achieved by Andreï Kopilof, a Cossack leader, who made his way thither from the Lena at the head of a small party, thus completing the march across the continent of Asia, in its broadest part, in about sixty years from the time of Yermak's visit to Stroganof.
The ascent of the Lena brought the Russians to Lake Baikal, and showed them another route to the Pacific, through China by way of the Amoor. The rich silver deposits in that quarter drew population from the north-western ostrogs, something after the manner of a California mining rush. The Mantchoo Tartars were most of them absent from home at the time, completing their conquest of the celestial empire, which left the Amoor region comparatively defence- less. On the return of the Tartars the Russians were obliged to relinquish some of their pretensions, though they retained their hold on the mines, and continued trade with China. In 1643 Vassili Posharkof set out from Yakutsk with one hundred and thirty-two men, and following the course of the Amoor to its mouth, and thence proceeding north and westward some dis- tance along the coast, returned to Yakutsk in 1646 by a different route, and one direct from the Okhotsk Sea.
Sixteen Cossacks on the Indigirka took captive the ruling prince of the country. On their neighing steeds
21
EASTERN SIBERIAN SEABOARD.
they charged his forces, armed with only bows and arrows, and vanquished them with great slaughter. In 1640 they had completed the conquest of the whole river, eight hundred miles long. Forthwith they again began to listen to tales of new streams in the east, of the Aliseia and the Kolima. Strengthened by addi- tional troops they proceeded in 1646 to subdue this region. East of the Kolima, where Siberia approaches its termination, dwelt the warlike Chukchi, the Tschuk- tschi of German writers. Their land did not allure with sables or silver-mines, but a new attraction was found for the European. Dating existence from pri- meval revulsions, were found on the shores and along the banks of rivers vast deposits of fossil ivory, the tusks of the ancient mammoth elephant. Similar de- posits had been found before in other parts of Siberia, but the largest were in the far north-east along the shores of the land of the Chukchi. This substance, which was called precious and a staple, exercised a powerful influence in the conquest of Siberia and in attracting emigrants to the north. Even at the pres- ent day it plays an important part in Siberian traffic, and is also found in the northern regions of America.
Isaï Ignatief, with a company of promyshleniki, set out in search of mammoth tusks toward the Chuk- chi country. From the mouth of the Kolima he proceeded a short distance along the Arctic seaboard in boats. The natives were shy at first, but after some traffic they told the Russians of a large moun- tainous land which lay westward and toward the north pole, and the outline of whose coasts could be seen from time to time from the Siberian shore. This land, they said, was rich in ivory, and there were the most beautiful tusks heaped up there in huge banks and mounds. Many believed that it was peopled and connected with Novaia Zemlia in the west and with America in the east.
With a daring which the well prepared Arctic ex- plorer of our time can scarcely understand, the Rus-
22
THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS.
sians committed themselves to their fragile lodki, or open sail-boats, of rough planks tied together with thongs, and struck out for that land of ivory toward the north pole. They sailed without compass out into that sea; they battled with the ice found there; their barks were shattered; they were frozen in at sea hundreds of versts from land. They even wintered there that they might advance a little farther the fol- lowing summer. What can science or modern adven- ture show as a parallel? Lost on a wilderness of ice, all warmth departed, hungry, ill-clothed, with scarcely any shelter, yet still determined to achieve the land of ivory. Perhaps some of them did reach it; let us hope so, and that they obtained their fill of ivory. Nearly two centuries later the first light concerning this land came through the travels of Baron Wrangell, when it was recognized as a group of islands and named New Siberia.
Ignatief could hardly be said to have made the acquaintance of the Chukchi, so eager had he been after ivory. But better success attended the efforts of the Russians a little later. By order of the tsar Alexis, seven kotches, a small decked craft, were sent along the shore in search of the mouth of the river Anadir, whose head-waters had been sighted by the venturesome promyshleniki. The expedition set out from the mouth of the Kolima June 20, 1648. Of four of these vessels nothing further is mentioned; but we know that the remaining three were commanded respectively by Simeon Deshnef and Gerassim Anku- dinof, Cossack chiefs, and Fedot Alexeief, peredovchik, that is to say, leader of promyshleniki. Deshnef, who forwarded a detailed account of his adventures to Yakutsk, speaks but incidentally of what happened be- fore reaching Cape Chukotsk. Then he says: "This isthmus, is quite different from that which is bound by the River Tschukotschia west of the River Kolima. It lies between the north, and north-east, and turns
23
DESHNEF'S VOYAGE.
circular towards the river Anadir. On the Russian, that is, the west side of it, there falls a brook into the sea, by which the Tschuktschi have erected a scaffold like a tower of the bones of whales. Over- against the isthmus (it is not mentioned on which side) there are two islands in the sea, upon which were seen people of the Tschuktschi nation, thro' whose lips were run pieces of the teeth of the sea- horse. One might sail from the isthmus to the river Anadir, with a fair wind, in three days and nights, and it might be travelled by land within the same time." The kotche commanded by Ankudinof was wrecked at the cape, but the innates were saved by the other vessels. On the 20th of September Desh- nef and Alexeief made a landing and had an engage- ment with the Chukchi, during which Alexeief was wounded. After this the two kotches lost sight of each other and did not meet again. Deshnef drifted about until October, and at last he was also wrecked, as it appears, some distance to the south of the Ana- dir, in the vicinity of the river Olutorsk. He had only twenty-five men left, and with these he set out by land in search of the Anadir; but having no guide, he wandered about for ten weeks and at last reached its banks not far from the mouth. One half of his command started up the river, but hunger compelled them to return. The following summer Deshnef as- cended the Anadir in boats. He met with a tribe called the Ananli, made them tributary after con- siderable resistance, and founded the settlement of ostrog Anadirsk. Here he remained till 1650, when he was joined on the 23d of April by the Cossack Motora with a volunteer expedition from Kolimsk. Another expedition under Mikhaïl Stadukhin followed immediately after; but the latter, jealous of the suc- cesses already achieved by the others, went more to the southward for further discoveries and was never heard of again. Deshnef subsequently encountered a Yakut woman who had been with Fedot Alexeief
24
THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS.
and was told by her that Fedot and Ankudinof had been wrecked and that both had died of scurvy among the Koriaks.1 No mention is made by any of this party of having seen the American continent, though it is not impossible that some of them did see it. They were obliged to hug the Asiatic shore, and the opposite coast can be seen from there only on a clear day.
Another account of Deshnef's voyage places it at a still earlier date, between 1580 and 1590, but the inaccuracy of this is evident.2
Last of all this region to be unveiled was that narrow south-eastern strip of Siberia, the Kamchatka peninsula, which, about the size and shape of Italy, projects six hundred geographical miles from the con- tinent into Bering and Okhotsk seas. The Cossack Luka Morosko started from Anadirsk in 1669 with a roving band and penetrated far to the southward, but what he saw was not known until some time after- ward. The name Kamchatka was known in Yakutsk by report from 1690. Some years later the first party of riders set out thither under the leadership of the Cossack colonel, Atlassof, who passes for the actual
1 The voyage of Deshnef was almost forgotten when Muller found a record of it in Kolimsk. Morskoi Sbornik, 1764, 37-49; Jefferys' Muller's Voy., v .- ix.
" An anonymous article in a literary monthly published in St Petersburg in 1769 contains the following: 'The honor of having taken the first steps toward the discovery of these new islands (which on account of their number may justly be termed an archipelago) belongs to the tsar Ivan Vassilievich II. After having conquered the whole of Siberia he desired to know its boundaries north and east, and the tribes inhabiting those far-off regions. For this purpose he sent out an expedition, which only returned during the reign of his son and successor, Tsar Feodor Ivanovich, bringing the first news of the existence of the Polar Sea on the northern shore of Siberia, and another vast ocean in the east. In some of the old Siberian archives documents have been discovered which prove that the above-mentioned expedition made some important discoveries in the Arctic Sea, and, following along its shores to the north-east, one of the smaller vessels finally rounded the extreme point, Cape Chukotsk, and arrived safely on the coast of Kamchatka. The troubled times which came over Russia after this achievement during the lawless reigns of the usurper Boris Godunof, and of the False Dmitri after him, made it impossible to think of further explorations of the Kamchatka country, and even the name was almost forgotten after the lapse of a few years.' Yeshe- miassachnaia Sochinenia, March, 1769, 336-7.
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