Thus it will be seen that, at the time of the gradual
occupation of the Irtish by the Russians, they had to
contend with an enemy of some importance. A t that
time the Khan of Sungaria ruled over Tashkend,
Turkistan, and Sairam, all of which he had taken from
the Khans of the Kirghese Kazaks, ancl he had carried
on war so successfully with the Chinese as to drive
them to the Russians for succour.
The end of the Kalmuks, however, was near. I
have already mentioned that Amursana, with the help
of the Chinese, became ruler of Sungaria in 1755, in
which position he expected to reign independently,
whereas he found that he was merely to hold an
honorary rank under the Chinese, who proceeded to
divide the Oirat territory into four provinces, to be
placed under Chinese administration. Upon this
Amursana incited his subjects to rebel, and the Chinese,
bent on getting rid of the troublesome Kalmuks, determined
to slaughter them wholesale. The massacre
was so indiscriminately pursued that, of a population
in 1756 of 600,000 souls, scarce one Sungarian remained,
those few not killed having fled to the
Russians or the Kirghese.
Thus perished the Sungarian kingdom, of which
now almost the only memorials in the country are
tumuli or circular mounds, from 10 to 100 feet in
diameter, that are found in numbers between Sergiopol
and Kopal. They are surrounded by rows of stones,
and in some cases have on them rudely-carved figures
of recumbent warriors. The figures represent men
with thick mustaches, but without beards, holding in
the right hand a cup, and grasping with their left a
double-handled sword stuck into the belt, whilst at
the back of the head are a number of small plaits of
hair, quite unlike the long tresses worn by the Mongols
of the present day.
We come now to the third of the peoples with
whom the Russians were brought in contact in annexing
the Irtish. A t the time just mentioned, when
the Chinese were committing everything in Sungaria
to fire and the sword, the Russians deemed it prudent
to place their frontier in a defensive condition ; especially
as it was observed that, if the Chinese junks
sailed out of Lake Zaisan with hostile intentions, their
progress could not be checked by the forts along the
Irtish, nor was there adequate protection either for
the Altai mines, or for the Teleuts who nomadized
in the vicinity of the Teletsk lake. It was decided,
therefore, to extend the line along the Irtish from
Ust-Kamenogorsk to the River Bukhtarma, to which
it was thought the Chinese could not object, if the
Russians did not establish themselves on the Zaisan.
The Bukhtarminsk fort accordingly was erected in
1760, and in 1764 an expedition was despatched for the
survey of the Zaisan, the officers returning with the
conviction that a Chinese flotilla was not dangerous to
Russia from that quarter. Nor did the Chinese offer
hostilities, though they appear to have kept an eye on
the Russian proceedings. Many years afterwards, in
1822, the Cossack fisheries were extended to the
Zaisan, and subsequently established to the exclusion
of all others.
It was thought by the Siberian authorities that the
forts of Bukhtarminsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk would
answer as good central points for trade with China,
India, and Tatary, and certain immunities were
granted to merchants on goods passing through Bukhtarminsk,
but the result was not satisfactory. Nor