falling a prey to insanity, he was guilty of excesses which weakened his authority and emboldened the Mongols to make a fresh bid for supremacy. The Khān Dawlat Giray appeared before Moscow in 1571 with 120,000 followers and burnt the suburbs.1 But the Kremlin again held out, and the nomads retreated to the Volga, never to return. Thus was Russia delivered from an influence which had paralysed her energies, and was free to work out her destinies. We shall see how profoundly they were affected by the action of the Mongolian restlessness on the dreamy, sluggish nature of the Slav.

1 For further details consult Howorth's Mongols, pt. ii. div. i. p. 507.

CHAPTER II

CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF ASIA

THE Ural range had hitherto been the eastern boundary of Russia. Beyond lay a region of steppes and rivers, peopled towards the polar seas by tribes of Tartar and Esquimaux origin, employed in hunting; and on the southern frontier, by Kirghiz and Kalmak nomads. Under Vassili III. (1505-1533) the Western Urals were annexed to the nascent empire, and peopled by Yaik Cossacks, a race addicted to raiding and pillage.1 These freebooters recognised no natural barriers. Crossing the mountain-chain, they attacked the Ostiaks, Samoyeds, and Kirghiz who had hitherto roamed unchallenged over the wind-swept plains. The collision was disastrous for the invaders, and the frontier became a prey to anarchy. Meantime the Tsar, Ivan the Terrible, had bestowed a huge tract of land in the Urals on his favourite, Strogonoff, who at once began to exploit its rich deposits of gold. His schemes were rendered abortive by the incursions of tribesmen from the west, and Strogonoff, in despair, summoned a Cossack named Iermak to his aid. The new ally was promised a free pardon for his numerous outrages, and his followers were supplied with firearms from Russian arsenals. Thus equipped Iermak made short work of the invaders, and

1 Russia in Central Asia, by Hugo Stumm, pp. 2, 3; En Asie Centrale, by N. Ney, p. 203.

in 1587 captured Sibir, the capital of Kushan Khān, chief of the Kirghiz. In 1604 Tobolsk was built and fortified on a site twelve miles from the town which gave its name to the entire country. The victorious Cossacks plunged deeper into the hitherto unknown regions, and came to blows with the Kirghiz, who ranged the steppes between Lake Balkash and the Urals on the northern shore of the Aral Sea. Hearing vague rumours of the wealth of Khiva or Khwārazm, a Khānate embracing the fertile embouchure of the Amu Daryā, a band of Cossacks swooped down on Urgenj, its capital, at a time when the Khān and his warriors were absent on a distant expedition.

The city fell an easy prey, and they bent their steps homewards, dragging with them a vast amount of booty, and a thousand of the most beautiful inmates of Khivan harems. Their cupidity was their ruin, for they were overtaken by the incensed husbands, and cut to pieces. A still worse fate was encountered during a later raid; for the Cossacks who undertook it lost their way, and were overtaken by winter on the wind-swept shores of the Aral. To such straits were they reduced that they had recourse to cannibalism.1 But the stream of Russian immigration continued steadily eastwards. Irkutsk was

founded in 1661, and before the end of the century the northern limits were pushed forward to the polar ice. The southern boundary, however, was conterminous with steppes occupied with Mongolian nomads, and was open to their incursions. No part of his immense empire escaped the notice of Peter the Great. In the brief leisure left him by his self-imposed task of reform he did not neglect his Siberian possessions. He perceived

1 The Cossacks have never been able to shake off the stigma imprinted by this dire necessity. They are still called “Man-eaters" in many parts of Central Asia.

2 En Asie Centrale, by N. Ney, pp. 203-5.

the necessity of giving them a defensible frontier, and of securing commercial relations with the Khanates of Khiva and Bokhārā, in order to pave the way for an intercourse with China and the Indies. With this aim in view he took counsel of an adventurer named Khwāja Nefes, who had studied in Samarkand and Bokharan colleges, and was well acquainted with the politics of the Khānates. Under his promptings, Peter sent congratulations to the Khan of Khiva on his accession. His overtures were welcomed by that sovereign, who was hard pressed by the legions of Bokhārā. He sent an embassy to Peter,1 offering to accept his suzerainty in return for protection against his powerful neighbours. The great reformer had too many cares nearer home to permit of his taking immediate action on this tempting offer, and it was not till 1714 that he was reminded of his distant vassal's existence by another embassy, the object of which was to induce the Tsar to build a chain of forts on the east of the Caspian as a protection against Turkoman raids. Peter was now convinced that the time had come for effective interference in Central Asian affairs. He cast about him for an instrument, and found one in a young Circassian chieftain who had changed his name from Dawlat Giray to Bekovitch Cherkaski on his conversion and baptism, and had been given a commission in the famous Preobajinski regiment, with the title of prince. The Tsar appointed him to the command of an exploring expedition, the objects of which were enumerated in a decree of the 29th May 1714. Bekovitch was enjoined to congratulate the Khan of Khiva on his accession, and to confirm him in his acknowledgment of Russian suzerainty. He was to explore the lower reaches of the Sir Darya for gold, and ascertain whether it was practicable to reopen the old 1 Stumm, p. 5.

course of that river into the Caspian on the south of the Balkan range. Bekovitch's voyage of discovery began in 1715. He sailed along the east coast of the Caspian, landing at the extremity of the Mangishlāk peninsula, and erected a fort to serve as a base for his advance into the desert. The former bed of the Amū Darya was examined, and a report was submitted to the Tsar. Peter instructed his lieutenant to build a strong place on the banks of the old channel, and to induce the Khan of Khiva to join in thoroughly investigating its course, in view of a possible diversion of the great waterway. Mercantile expeditions were also to be sent to Bokhārā and India. While preparations were in progress for a second expedition, the friendly Khān died, and his successor was reported to be ill-disposed towards Russia.

Nothing daunted, the intrepid adventurer set out in 1717 for Garieff, on the river Ural, at the head of a force of 4000 men, with engineers and marine officers. After struggling across the wind-swept desert of Ust Urt, he reached a lake known as Bara Kilmas, about 200 miles north-west of Khiva. Here he rested his travel-worn troops, and built a fort with a solidity which has resisted the elements for 180 years. The suspicions of the Khan that Russia contemplated the annexation of his country were confirmed by the strength of Bekovitch's expedition, and the measures adopted by him. But, feeling that his ill-disciplined forces were no match for those of comparative civilisation, he had recourse to treachery. Bekovitch was lulled into security by promises of aid and alliance, and was persuaded to divide his little army into weak detachments, on the plea that it would be easier to furnish them with provisions. Then the Khan fell upon the isolated Russian posts and crushed them in detail. Not a man escaped to give news of the