chased him off the Volga and that he took refuge on the Kama River, where Stroganof's concessions lay, and proceeded with him to accomplish the overthrow of Sibir. Undoubtedly both these men worked together for the common end, for Stroganof had the knowledge of the country and Yermak the dashing energy. Both were jointly responsible for the result, but on Yermak has fallen the glamour of the popular hero. With Stroganof's aid, Yermak prepared an expedition to Sibir in 1579, and after eighteen months of great hardship he reached the Tara River with 500 men, only a fraction of the force. Undaunted, however, he met the overwhelmingly superior force of Kuchum Khan on the Tobol River, utterly defeated it, while the khan fled, entered Sibir in triumph in September 1518. The Tartars everywhere submitted, and Yermak found himself transformed from a Cossack freebooter to an autocrat as powerful as the Tsar of Moscow.
But Yermak's triumph was short-lived. The Tartars, who had only retreated into the forest, proceeded to harass the little band of Cossacks. One night, as Yermak was returning to Sibir, after an expedition to reduce an outlying Tartar stronghold, he was surrounded on an island in the Irtish River, his Cossack band was annihilated and he, according to tradition, committed suicide by drowning. This calamity destroyed for a time the power of Russia in Siberia, but in 1587 we hear of a certain Cossack of the name of Chalkoff being sent by the Tsar of Moscow to accomplish the recapture of Sibir. So the Khan Kuchum had not time to recover his power before he was again confronted with these formidable Cossacks, and this time he finally suc-
