driven with great loss by the Kalmuks, so that he
had to retire towards Tobolsk, but halted on his
way at the mouth of the River Om, and there in
the following spring built the fortress of Omsk. In
1718 the first fortress was built at Semipolatinsk, and
in the following year two officers— Urasof and Somof
— having received the Emperor’s orders to proceed
on an expedition to Yarkand, surveyed the shores of
Lake Zaisan, and the banks of the U pper and Lower
Irtish. In the same year Prince Gagarin was ordered
by an ukase to survey the Kalmuk lands, to ascertain
the number of troops, and to induce the local chiefs
to take the oath of allegiance.
With a view to this, and to build a fort on Lake
Zaisan, General Likhareff was despatched in 1720 up
the Irtish, with 34 flat-bottomed boats and 44-0
soldiers. He reached Nor Zaisan, and was ascending
for 12 days the Upper Irtish, beyond the parts visited
by Urasof and Somof, when he met with Galdan
Cheren, son of Tsevan-Rabdan, who, with 20,000
Kalmuks, was watching his frontier against the
Chinese. Likhareff, after a skirmish, managed to
hoodwink the Kalmuks as to his intentions, and then
turned back, building on his way Ust-Kamenogorsk,
in 1720; after which the Tsar, disappointed again of
his gold-dust, sent orders next year, according to
Zemlianitsyn,* that the Yamyshef fortress was to be
strengthened, that they were “ to make peace with the
head of the Kalmuks, and take a company of merchants
to him, to the Chinese towns Selim and Daba,
and to the dwelling of the Dalai-Lama; further, that
these merchants were not to labour for gain, but that
* “ Historical Sketch of Semipolatinsk and its Trade,” by J. Zemlianitsyn,
Turkistan Annual, 1876, to which I am greatly indebted in
the compilation of this chapter.
skilled persons were to accompany them to purchase,
or even to examine the gold, where it was found, and
in what quantity, also the roads leading thereto, and
finally, even though it should be with difficulty, to
seize that place.” Peter the Great died before his
gold robbery could be carried out, but in this way was
commenced the line of forts on the Irtish. In 1722
another small wooden fortified building, called Kalnsk,
was erected on the Barabinski S teppe ; and 15 years
later a line of forts was extended, under the name of
the New Siberian or I shim line, westwards all across
the Steppe to the advanced posts of Orenburg, which
line was connected with the Irtish in 1752.
Semipolatinsk was no sooner founded than there
flocked to it, as to Yamyshef, Kalmuks, Bukhariots, and
other Asiatics, for the purposes of trade, which so
increased that in 1733 commissioners were appointed
for the Semipolatinsk Customs. In the previous year
the Russian Government had sent an ambassador to
Galdan Cheren, the ruler of Sungaria, then living on
the Ili, with proposals respecting the abolition of
Customs between the two nations, whereupon Galdan
Cheren sent an embassy to the Russian capital, which
returned through Tobolsk in 1736, with presents,
besides goods purchased in Moscow, to the value of
,£1,300. Ten years later another Sungarian embassy
went to Moscow, whereupon the Imperial Government
repeated its desire for continuance of trade, and ordered
the Siberian frontier authorities to maintain friendly
relations with the Kalmuks, and not to give them any
offence ; but when the ambassadors returned, it was
explained to them at Tobolsk that Sungarian subjects
could come only for trading purposes to the forts of
Yamyshef and Semipolatinsk.
v o l . 1. ' 9