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A Chronological History of North-Eastern Voyages of Discovery
A Chronological History of NorthEastern Voyages of Discovery Author:James Burney Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. III. Of the general extension of the Russian Empire. The River Amur. Commencement of intercourse between the Russians and the Chinese. /JMERICA, from... more » its first discovery by Chap. ' Europeans, was supposed by them to be — a land distinct from their own native continent, whence arose the appellation given to it of the New World. The failure of many attempts to discover a Northern passage to India, at length suggested the possibility thai the Old and New World formed but one continent. The solution of this problem, as far as regards a North-eastern navigation to India, has been more naturally the business of the Russians than of any other people, as well for the superior benefit which Avould accrue to them from a practicable navigation round their coasts from the European to the Tartarean and Indian sea, should such be found, as on account of the greater facilities possessed .by them for prosecuting the discovery, by the northern inhabitants of Siberia especially, ia their advanced situation, and in being natives inured to that rude Climate. Chap. The Czars of Moscovy assumed the title of '—-—' Lords of Siberia as early as the year 1558, not ofthe"" then meaning by Siberia, as since, all the north- Empire! ern parts of Asia known and unknown to them . In the second voyage of W. Barentsz, it is seen that the country eastward of the River Jenesei was not then under the dominion of the Czars of Moscovy ; and in Tooke's History of Russia, the year 1620 is marked as the time when the people inhabiting the country in the neighbourhood of the Jenesei, submitted or were subjected to the Russians. The maps of that date did not pretend to show any thing with certainty beyond that river, andSiberia appeared eastward without boundary, lost in unknown desarts. Since that time, t...« less