RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN ASIA. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY. NAMES. EXTENT. BOUNDARIES. ORIGINAL POPULATION PROGRESSIVE GEOGRAPHY. HISTORICAL EPOCHS AND ANTIQUITIES. Extent. THIS large portion of the habitable globe extends almost the whole length of Asia, from about the 37th degree of longitude east of London, to more than 190 or 170° of western longitude. As the northern latitude is very high, the degree shall only be assumed at 30 miles; and the length may thus be computed at 4590 geographical miles. The greatest breadth from the cape of Ceveri Vostochnoi, called in some maps Taimura, to the Altaian chain of mountains on the south of the sea of Baikal, may be 28°, or 1680 geographical miles. In British miles the length may be roughly computed at 5350; and the breadth at 1960: an extent which will be found to exceed that of Europe*. Bounnaries. The furthest eastern boundary is that of Asia, and the seas of Kamchatka and Ochotsk; while the northern is the Arctic Ocean. On the west the frontiers correspond with those between Asia and Europe. The southern limits require more explanation. The river Cuban, part of the Caucasian chain, and an ideal line, divide the Russian territory from Turkey and Persia. The boundary then ascends along the north of the Caspian through the stepp Mr. Tooke, in his View of the Russian Empire, computes the whole, including the European part, at 9,200 English miles in length, and 2,400 in breadth. or desert of Issim, and the eastern shore of the river Ob, to where it issues from the Altaian mountains, when it meets the vast empire of China; and proceeds along that chain to the sources of the Onon, where it includes a considerable region called Daouria, extending about 200 miles in breadth, to the south of the mountains called Yablonnoy; the limit between Russia and Chinese Tatary being partly an ideal line, and partly the river Argoon, which jojned with the Onon, constitutes the great river Amur. Thence the boundary returns to the mountainous chain, and follows a branch of it to a promontory on the north of the mouth of the Amur. Original Population. The population of Asiatic Russia may be regarded as wholly primitive, except a few Russian colonies recently planted, and the Techuks in the part opposite to America, who have been supposed to have proceeded from that continent, as already mentioned, because their persons and customs are different from those of the other Asiatic tribes. Next to the Techuks, in the furthest north, are the Yukagirs, a branch of the Yakuts*, and yet further west the Samoieds. To the south of the Techucks are the Coriaks, a branch of the same race: and yet further south the Kamchadals, a distinct people, wko speak a different language. The Lamuts are a part of the Mandshurs or Tunguses, who have been vaguely called Tartars, or Tatars, though they neither belong to that race, nor to the Monguls. The Tunguses are widely diffused between the Yenesei and the Amur: and the southern tribes ruled by a khan or monarch, conquered Chiaa in the seventeenth century. The Ostiaks, and other tribes of Samoieds, have penetrated considerably to the south between the Yenesei and the Irtish, and are followed by various tribes of the Monguls, as the Calmucs, Burats, &c., and by those of the Tatars or Huns, as the Teluts, Kirguses, and others. The radically distinct languages amount to seven, independent of many dialects and mixturesf. Names. The vast extent of northern Asia was first known by the name of Sibir or Siberia; but this appellation seems gradually to pass into disuse. When the Monguls established a kingdom in these northern regions, the first residence of the princes was on the river Tura, on the spot where now stands the town of Tiumen, a!wut 180 miles south-west of Tobolsk^. But the khans afterwards moved to the eastern shore of the Irtish, where they founded the city of Isker near Tobolsk. This new residence was also called Sibir, from what etymon or cause is not explained; and the name of the city passed to the Mongul principality. When the Russians began the conquest of the country, being unconscious of its extent, the name of this western province was gradually diffused over half of Asia. The Yakuts are expelled Tatars from the south, as the Russian writers decide from their language, traditions, and manners. The tar greater part if the Mongols and Mandshurs are subject to China: and the Tatars are best observed in Independent Tatary. See the Hist, des Decouvertes Russes, &c. Berne 1779. \7H~. six vols. 8vo., being an abstract of the travels of Pallas, Gmelin, Ghiorghi, &c. Tooke's Russia, ii. 60. This is doubtful, Coxe, 182. Mullcr thinks the denomination vai usad the Pcrmians, a Finnish nation on the confines of Siberia. VOL. II. PROGRESSIVE GEOGRAPHY. The progressive geography of this vast part of Asia, commences at a recent period; nor was it disclosed to the attention of civilized Europe till the middle of the sixteenth century. It is indeed a singular circumstance in human affairs, that America may be said to have been discovered before Asia, though it be natural to suppose that the latter would have engaged a more deep and immediate interest, because the barbarous swarms in the extremity of Asia had repeatedly astonished and almost subjugated Europe. It has already been mentioned, that in 1242, the Monguls under Sheibani established a principality in the western part of Siberia, around Tobolsk, and the river Tura, whence this principality was sometimes styled that of Turan*. The history of this distant principality is obscure, and lost in the superior splendor of the other Mongul dynasties. Tro In the reign of Ivan Vasilivitch, the first of both these names, and by his conquest over the Tatars the founder of Russian greatness, some incursions were made as far as the river Ob, and some Mongul chiefs were brought prisoners to Moscow. But more than half a century elapsed before the real conquest of Siberia commenced in the reign of Ivan Vasilivitch II, who ascended the Russian throne in 1534. gonaff, a Russian merchant of Archangel, having opened a traffic for Siberian furs, the tzar was induced to attempt the conquest of the country which supplied them; and in 1558 had added to his titles that of lord of Sibir, or Siberia. Yermac, a Cossac chief, being forced by the Russian conquests in the south to take refuge near the river Kama with 6000 of his followers, he afterwards directed his arms against Kutchum the Mongul khan of Sibir, whom he defeated and expelled; but perceiving that his power was precarious, in 1582, he claimed and obtained the protection of Russia. Yermac soon after perished, and the Russians retreated; but towards the beginning of the seventeenth century they had firm establishments, and one Cyprian was appointed first archbishop of Sibir in 1621, residing at Tobolsk, where he drew up a narrative of the conquest. Towards the middle of the seventh century the Russians had extended as far cast as the river Amur; but Kamchatka was not finally reduced till the year 1711. Beering and other navigators afterwards proceeded to discover the other extreme parts of Asia. In his first voyage of 1728, Beering coasted the eastern shore of Siberia as high as latitude 67° 18', but his important discoveries were made during his voyage of 1741. The Aleutian isles were visited in 1745; and in the reign of the late empress, other important discoveries followed, which were completed by those of Cook. In the south the Mongul kingdom of Cazan having been subdued in 1552, and that of Astracan in 1554, and the Russian monarchy extended to the Caspian sea; a considerable accession was added to the progressive geography by the chart of that sea drawn by command of Peter the Great. It hence appeared that all geographers, ancient and modern, had mistaken the very form of the Caspian, which extends greatly from north to south instead of spreading from east to west, as formerly delineated. In the reign of the late empress many important additions were made to the progressive geography by Pallas and other This must not be confounded with the Touran (or Tatary) of the Persiam f Coxe's Russia, Dis. p. 177. scientific travellers, and a Russian atlas was published, which may he regarded as nearly complete. Historical Epochs. The Russian power in Asia is of such recent origin, that it affords few historical epochs except those which hare been already mentioned in the progressive geography. The history of Capschak, or the kingdom of Astracan, before and after the conquest of the Monguls, is obscure and uninteresting; nor can that of Cazan or Kazan, a more northern and barbarous state, claim superior attention. The city of Kazan was built in 1257, and became the capital of a small independent Mongul principality, partly in Europe and partly in Asia, A. D. 1441. The Russians assert that they possessed Astracan before the invasion of the Monguls, in the thirteenth century; but while even this is doubtful, other parts of the history of Asiatic Russia cannot be supposed to be very clearf. The acquisitions' on the frontiers of Turkey and Persia are recent and well known events. As the Russian empire in Asia borders for a great extent upon Chinese Tatary, or rather the Monguls and Mandshurs, who acknowledge the protection and supremacy of China, it may be proper here to commemorate a few events which have arisen from this proximity. It has already been observed, that about the middle of the seventeenth century, the Russians had advanced to the river Amur; here they subdued some Tungusian tribes, and built some small fortresses. The Chinese monarch, Camhi, having formed a similar design, the two great powers unavoidably clashed; open hostilities commenced about 1680, and the Chinese destroyed the Russian forts. In August 1689, the treaty of Nershinsk, so called from the town in Daouria, was signed by the Russian and Chinese plenipotentiaries, and the limits specified were a chain of mountains far to the north of the Amur, and the source of the small river Gorbitza, thence to where that river joins the Amur, and lastly along the Argoon or Argounia, &c. By this treaty the Russians assert that they not only lost a wide territory, but also the navigation of the river Amur, which would have been of great consequence to their remote possessions in Asia: yet the advantage was gained of a commercial intercourse with the Chinese. In 1727, the limits were continued westward from the source of the Argoon to the mountain Sabyntaban, near the conflux of two rivers with the Yenesei, the boundary being thus ascertained between the Russians and the Monguls subject to China. The trade with China has been latterly conducted at Zuruchaitu, on the river Argoon, lat. 50. long. 117., and at Kiachta, about ninety miles south of the sea of Baikal, lat. 51. long. Capschak once spread through the whole Mongul conquests in Muscovy, including the Crimea, Astracan, Cazan, and Kipzak, on the north of the Caspian. The curious genealogical history of the Tatars by Abulgasi-Chan gives little information concerning the northern dynasties. The manuscript was brought from Siberia by Baron Strahleuberg, one of the Swedish prisoners, and the French translation, published 1726. is said to be by one De Verannes, but perhaps by M. Bentink. The long and instructive notes by M. Bentink were collected apart, and form the description of Tatary in the Recueil des Voyages du Nord, tome x, and the Histoiic Generale cks Yoyajes, tome vii. Cose, 200. Du Halde, iy. 106*. This boundary between two states is the most extensive on the globe, reaching from about the sixty-fifth to the 145th degree of longitude; eighty degrees (lat. fifty) computed at thirty nine geographical miles, will yield the result of 3120 miles. Its history therefore, becomes singular and interesting; but it is probable that the Russians will insist upon extending the boundary to the river Amur, which would form a natural limit, as there are no chains of mountains in a proper direction further to the south between their empire and China. The most curious antiquities seem to be the stone tombs which abound in some stepps, particularly near the river Yenesei, representing in rude sculpture human faces, camels, horsemen with lances, and other objects. Here arc found, besides human bones, those of horses and oxen, with fragments of pottery and ornaments of dressf. Mr. Coxe, p. 212, unaccounably says thirty-five degrees north lat. |