Farther on in the canton of Tzingal, at the place where
the Irtysh, contracted by the mountains, precipitates its rapid course,
a multitude of armed men awaited the Cossacks. But a discharge of
musketry put them to flight, and the Cossacks took the little town of
Nazym, where they found only women and children, stricken with terror
and awaiting death. Iermak treated them with so much kindness that their
fathers and husbands did not delay in coming to find him with a tribute.
After reducing the cantons of Tarkhan to submission, the Cossacks
entered the country of the most considerable of the Ostiak princes,
named Samar. Allied with eight hundred other little princes, he was
waiting for the Russians with firmness, in order to decide, by a battle,
the lot of all the ancient country of Yugorie. Samar boasted of his
courage and of his strength, but he forgot prudence, for he, his army
and his guards, were plunged in sleep when at the hour of dawn the
Cossacks attacked his camp. Awakened by the tumult, he rose, seized his
arms, and fell, shot to death at the first volley. In an instant his
troops dispersed, and the inhabitants agreed to pay tribute to Russia.
Already Iermak had reached the shore of the Obi, an important river,
concerning the course of which the ancient Novgorodians had some
notions, but whose source and mouth, according to the Muscovite
travellers of 1567, were hidden in unknown regions.
Pages:
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343