ch consisted of two log cabins, Nikolayefsk numbered ten,
and Castries Bay had "four badly built huts."[13]

[Footnote 13: Ravenstein, Russians on the Amoor.]

In a remarkably short time we hear of the indefatigable Muravieff at
St. Petersburg urging the annexation of the Amoor. He was opposed by
the czar's ministers, but succeeded in convincing the emperor that
China could offer no resistance, and that the powers need not hear of
it until it was too late. Thus he secured large supplies of men and
money. In the beginning of 1857, he was back at his post, and on the
1st of June he dispatched Colonel Ushakof with six hundred men from
Shilkinsk, and soon after followed him with a brigade of Cossack
infantry and a regiment of cavalry, to garrison the forts which he
constructed at strategic points.

Seizing the opportunity of China's distress caused by the war with
England and France, Muravieff demanded the cession of the Amoor
Valley. The Chinese were helpless. On the 28th of May, 1858, a treaty
was signed at Aigun, giving to Russia the left bank of the Amoor down
to the Ussuri, and both banks below that confluent, besides the right
to navigate the Sungari and Ussuri rivers. Russia gave absolutely
nothing in return. Meanwhile Count Poutiatine had been sent from St.
Petersburg to watch the allies and to profit by any blunder which they
or the Chinese might make. Poutiatine stopped in Japan, claiming that
the Koreans had given him the privilege of establishing a coaling
station at Port Hamilton, but knowing that Great Britain would
certainly investigate his claim, he did not press it. He tried to
seize the Japanese Island Tsushima in the southern entrance to the (p. 272)
Japan Sea, and midway between Japan and Korea; but a polite and firm
invitation from the British admiral to leave that island, and the
admiral's insistence to remain until after he had left it, spoiled
that little game. Poutiatine then proceeded to China where he proposed
to help put down the Tai P'ing rebellion in return for the cession of
Manchuria to Russia. This handsome offer was politely declined. Once
again Muravieff hurried to St. Petersburg; upon his advice the newly
acquired territory was officially annexed, and, by ukase of October
31, joined to the littoral of the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamtschatka under
the name of Maritime Province of Eastern Siberia, with Nikolayevsk as
capital. Muravieff remained in supreme command.

The tir