Master of Nazym,
principal town of the Ostiaks, and of many other fortresses, having in
his power the Prince of Siberia, Iermak had to deplore the loss of one
of his brave companions-in-arms, the hetman Necetas Pan, killed in an
assault with some of the most intrepid Cossacks.
He did not desire to penetrate farther into a country which only
presented frozen deserts to him, places of desolation where during the
summer the burning rays of the sun hardly warmed the surface of immense
marshes covered with moss, and where bogs, hardened by the frost and
strewed with the bones of mammoths, presented the aspect of a vast
cemetery. Iermak appointed Alatscha, an Ostiak prince, as chief of the
tribes of the Obi. Then he again took the road of the capital of
Siberia, treated as a conqueror and a sovereign by his tributaries. He
was received everywhere with demonstrations of absolute submission, as a
redoubtable warrior endowed with a supernatural strength of soul. To the
sound of warlike music, the Cossacks ascended the rivers. They
disembarked clad in their finest raiment in order to astonish the
inhabitants by their riches. Having thus assured the domination of
Russia from Berezoff to Tobol, Iermak, satisfied and tranquil, arrived
safely at Isker.
Then only he announced to the Stroganoffs that with the aid of God he
had been able to conquer the Sultan, had taken his capital, his states,
his nephew, and had made his people take the oath of allegiance to
Russia.
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