assacring and burning with savage
cruelty. For five years the war raged in Kezan, with every
accompaniment of ferocity and misery. The country was devastated and
almost depopulated. Hardly a chief of note was left alive. The horrors
of war then ceased. The Russians took possession of the country,
filled it with their own emigrants, reared churches, established
Christianity, and spread over the community the protection of Russian
law. Most of the Kezanians who remained embraced Christianity, and
from that time Kezan, the ancient Bulgaria, has remained an integral
portion of the Russian empire.

Soon after, a new conquest, more easy, but not less glorious, was
added to that of Kezan. The city and province of Astrachan, situated
at the mouth of the Volga as it enters the Caspian, had existed from
the remotest antiquity, enjoying wealth and renown, even before the
foundation of the Russian empire. In the third century of the
Christian era, it was celebrated for its commerce, and it became one
of the favorite capitals of the all-conquering Tartars. Russia, being
now in possession of all the upper waters of the Volga, decided to
extend their dominions down the river to the Caspian. It was not
difficult to find ample causes of complaint against pagan and barbaric
hordes, whose only profession was robbery and war.

Early in the spring of 1554 a numerous and choice army descended the
Volga in bateaux to the delta on which Astrachan is built. The low
lands, intersected by the branching stream, is composed of innumerable
islands. The inhabitants of the city, abandoning the capital entirely,
took refuge among these islands, where they enjoyed great advantages
in repelling assailants. The Russians took possession of the city,
prosecuted the war vigorously through the summer, and the tzar, on the
20th of October, which was his birthday, received the gratifying
intelligence that every foe was quelled, and that the Russian
government was firmly established on the shores of the Caspian. Well
might Russia now be proud of its territorial greatness. The opening of
these new realms encouraged commerce, promoted wealth, and developed
to an extraordinary degree the resources of the empire.

England was, at that time, far beyond the bounds of the political
horizon of Russia. In fact, the Russians hardly knew that there was
such a nation. Great Britain was not, at that time, a maritime power
of the first order. Spain, Portugal, Venice and Ge