Czar did not choose to emigrate, the Cossacks left their country for their country’s good.  Headed by one Yermak, they retired to the vicinity of the Ural mountains, where they started a marauding business with limited liability and restricted capital.  Crossing the Urals, Yermak subjugated the country west of the Irtish and founded a fortress on the site of Sibeer.  He overpowered all the Tartars in his vicinity, and received a pardon for himself and men in return for his conquest.  The czar, as a mark of special fondness, sent Yermak a suit of armor from his own wardrobe.  Yermak went one day to dine with some Tartar chiefs, and was arrayed for the first time in his new store clothes.  One tradition says he was treacherously killed by the Tartars on this occasion, and thrown in the river.  Another story says he fell in by accident, and the weight of his armor drowned him.  A monument at Tobolsk commemorates his deeds.

No leader rose to fill Yermak’s place, and the Russians became divided into several independent bands.  They had the good sense not to quarrel, and remained firm in the pursuit of conquest.  They pushed eastward from the Irtish and founded Tomsk in 1604.  Ten years later the Tartars united and attempted to expel the Russians.  They surrounded Tomsk and besieged it for a long time.  Russia was then distracted by civil commotions and the war with the Poles, and could not assist the Cossacks.  The latter held out with great bravery, and at length gained a decisive victory.  From that time the Tartars made no serious and organized resistance.

Subsequent expeditions for Siberian conquest generally originated at Tomsk.  Cossacks pushed to the north, south, and east, forming settlements in the valley of the Yenesei and among the Yakuts of the Lena.  In 1639 they reached the shores of the Ohotsk sea, and took possession of all Eastern Siberia to the Aldan mountains.

I believe history has no parallel to some features of this conquest.  A robber-chieftain with a few hundred followers,—­himself and his men under ban, and, literally, the first exiles to Siberia—­passes from Europe to Asia.  In seventy years these Cossacks and their descendants, with, little aid from others, conquered a region containing nearly five million square miles.  Everywhere displaying a spirit of adventure and determined bravery, they reduced the Tartars to the most perfect submission.  The cost of their expeditions was entirely borne by individuals who sought remuneration in the lucrative trade they opened.  The captured territory became Russian, though the government had neither paid for nor controlled the conquest.

I saw the portrait and bust of Yermak, but no one could assure me of their fidelity.  The face was thoroughly Russian, and the lines of character were such as one might expect from the history of the man.  He was represented in the suit of armor he wore at his death.

[Illustration:  TAIL PIECE]