If his bullet only killed
one of them, the frightful detonation of his gun put to flight twenty or
thirty. In the first combat, held on the bank of the Tobol, at a place
called Babassan, Iermak, under shelter of intrenchments, checked by some
discharges of musketry the impetuosity of ten thousand men of
Mahmetkul's cavalry, who rushed forward to crush him. He at once attacks
them himself, carries off a complete victory, and, opened, as far as the
mouth of the Tobol, a route whose perils were not yet all dissipated.
Indeed, from the height of the steep banks of the river called
Dolojai-Yar the natives poured a shower of arrows on the boats of the
Cossacks.
Another less important affair took place sixteen versts from Irtysh, in
a country governed by a tribal chief named Karatcha, situated on the
shore of a lake which up to to-day bears the name of this intimate
counsellor of the sovereign of Siberia. Iermak having made himself
master of the enemy's camp, found rich booty there, consisting of
provisions of all kinds, as well as a large number of tuns of honey,
intended for the consumption of the sovereign.
The third combat, on the Irtysh, was bloody, and stubbornly fought. It
cost some companions of Iermak their lives, and served to prove how dear
even to barbarians is the independence of their fatherland; for the
defenders of Siberia displayed resolution and intrepidity.
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