d in the
following terms: "Go in peace to scour the country of Siberia and put to
flight the impious Kutchum." After having taken the oath of valor and
chastity, Iermak set out, on September 1, 1581, at the sound of warlike
trumpets, on the Tchusovaya, and directed his march toward the Ural
Mountains, preparing himself for great activity, without counting upon
any assistance. This expedition was even made without the knowledge of
the Czar, for the Stroganoffs, who had obtained the grant of the
countries situated on the other side of the chain of rocky mountains,
thought themselves able to dispense with soliciting of the Czar a new
sanction for their important enterprise. We shall see that Ivan did not
share this opinion.

At the moment when the states of Kutchum were to become the conquest of
the Russian Pizarro--as redoubtable for the savages as he of Spain, but
less terrible for humanity--the Prince of Pelim with the Vogulitches,
the Ostiaks, the Siberian Tartars, and the Bashkirs made a sudden
irruption upon the borders of the Kama. He destroyed the Russian
colonies near Tcherdin, Ussolie, as well as many other new fortresses of
the Stroganoffs, and put to death or dragged into captivity a great
number of Christians who were deprived of defenders. But at the news of
the march of the Cossacks against Siberia he left our frontiers to fly
to the defence of his own states.

The crime of these depredations was laid to the Stroganoffs. Upon a
report of Basile Pilepitsin, Governor of Tcherdin, Ivan wrote him that
he was either unable on unwilling to look after the frontiers. "You have
taken upon yourself," he added, "to recall proscribed Cossacks, true
bandits, whom you have sent to make war upon Siberia. This enterprise,
suited to irritate the Prince of Pelim and the sultan Kutchum, is a
treason worthy of the last punishment! I command you to cause Iermak and
his companions to start without delay for Perm and Ussolie on the Kama,
where they may be able to efface their faults by forcing the Ostiaks and
the Vogulitches to submission. You may retain at the most one hundred
Cossacks for the security of your little towns. In case you shall not
execute my commands to the letter, if in the future Perm has still to
suffer the attacks of the Prince of Pelim or of the Sultan of Siberia, I
shall overwhelm you with the weight of my disgrace and I shall have all
those traitors of Cossacks hanged." This menacing despatch made the
Stro