then rendered tributary ; and as the Ruffians extended
their conquefts, this appellation was afterwards applied
to the whole tradl of country which now bears that
name.
For fbme time after the above-mentioned expedition,
"the Tzar does not appear to have made any attempts towards
recovering his loft authority in thofe diftant regions.
But his attention was again, turned to that quarter
by a concurrence of incidents ; which, though begun
without his immediate interpofition, terminated in avail:
acceffion of territory.
Srrogonoff Strogonoff, in recommence for having firft opened a
forms Settle-. o
ments upon t d e the inhabitants of Siberia, obtained from the
TcUuifovaia. Tzar large grants of land ; accordingly he founded colonies
upon the banks of the rivers Kama and Tchuffovaia ;
and thefe fettlements gave rife to the entire fubjedtion of
Siberia by the refuge which they not long afterwards afforded
to Yermac Timofeeffi .
This perfon was nothing more than a fugitive Coflac
of the Don, and chief of a troop of banditti who infefted
the ffiores of the Gafpian fea. But as he was the inftru-
ment by which fuch a vaft extent of dominion was added
to the Ruffian Empire, it will not be uninterefting to
develop the principal circumftances, which brought this
Coflac
Coflac from the fhores of the Gafpian to the banks of the
Kama; and to trace the progrefs which he afterwards
made in the diftant regions o f Siberia.
By the victories which the Tzar Ivan Vaffilievitch had
gained over the Tatars of Cafan and Aftracan, that monarch
extended his dominions' as far as the Cafpian Sea ;
and thereby eftabliffied a commerce with the Perfians and
Bucharians.. But as the merchants who traded to thofe dTri"vemna 5fr o“m
parts were continually pillaged, by the Coflac,s o f the 1$ l f e f ’
feaf '
Don ; and as the roads which lay by the fide of that a . ’ d . i 5n , .
river, and of the Volga, were infefted with thofe banditti
; the Tzar fent a confiderable force againft them..
Accordingly, they were attacked and routed ; part were
flain, part made prifoners, and the reft efcaped by flight.
Among the latter was a corps of fix thoufand Coflacs,
under the command of the above-mentioned. Yermac
Timofeeff *.
That celebrated adventurer, being driven from his 0^00?<£
ufual haunts, retired, with his followers,, into the interior s«demfmL
part of the province of Cafan. From thence he directed
his courfe along the banks of the Kama, until he came
to Orel +. That place was one of the Ruffian fettlements
recently planted, and was governed by Maxim grandfon
* S. R. G. VI. p.,232. Fif. Sib. Gef. I.
' f S. R. G. VI. p. 233. E-185-
of