Nikolai Murav'ev-Amurskii, excerpt from Report On The Activities Of Nevel'skoi
Although fur-seeking Russians reached the Pacific as early as 1647, for nearly two centuries their main route to the Sea of Okhotsk and beyond followed the Lena River from Lake Baikal northeast to Iakutsk and then overland to the coast. Not only was this the easiest route, it avoided problems with the Manchu (regarding the Amur River valley to the south as a protected preserve., they had negotiated its inviolability in the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk). By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the situation had changed dramatically. Competition among European powers for colonies began to threaten Russia's ill-defined position in the Pacific. By way of solidifying its claims, St. Petersburg ordered Captain of the First Rank (later Admiral) Gennadii Nevel'skoi to survey Far Eastern coastal waters including the mouth and upper stretches of the Amur. Nevel'skii completed his epic first voyage in 1850. The text below is excerpted from the official report of the Governor-General of Siberia at the time, N. N. Murav'ev (later Murav'ev-Amurskii, for his services in the region) on Nevel'skoi's activities.
1. What happened at Nevel'skoi's first contact with the Gil'iaki? Do you think they really appealed for protection, or might ritual greeting have been misunderstood (or misrepresented) by Nevel'skoi?
2. What happened at Nevel'skoi's first contact with the Manchurians (Manchu)? What point do you think Murav'ev is trying to make by recounting the story?
3. What general conclusions does Murav'ev draw from Nevel'skoi's report?
4. What specific recommendations does Murav'ev make on their basis to his superiors, and why?
Nevel'skii made a final checkup of the new entrance into the mouth of the Amur River from the northern side of the estuary, using whale boats and the brig "Okhotsk" itself. Having given the appropriate orders for building winter quarters in Petrovsk, (1) he found it necessary to take whale boats and kayaks up the Amur River for local observation and description. He wished to find out how much farther up it was possible to go, and to verify personally the disposition toward us of the Gil'iak tribes (2) inhabiting both banks of this river....
...
Everywhere the Gil'iaki repeatedly requested us not to abandon them but to protect them. They brought him fresh fish, millet, and arak [a strong alcoholic beverage]. Nevel'skoi treated them to kasha [buckwheat cereal] with butter, and tea, and made them gifts of earrings, rings, beads, knives, and so on.
In the village at Cape Ogi (3), on the right bank of the Amur, about 120 kilometers from the mouth, there came to visit him an elderly Gil'iak named Chedano, with all his family. Chedano brought rice, sturgeon, and arak. He also told Nevel'skii how glad they were that Russians were trading with them and protecting them, so that now the Manchurians would be afraid to mistreat them.. To the question: "What right have the Manchurians to mistreat you?" the old man replied: "Only because they are stronger.... We Gil'iaki, Neidal'tsy (4) and Samogiri (5) are foreign to them, to be sure, and they do not stop to think about this."
....
Returning to the Amur, Nevel'skii crossed to the right-bank village of Tyrs. (6) There he encountered in the river eight big boats, which Chedano told him (with apprehension) were full of Manchurians. Indeed, a large crowd of people appeared on the bank.. There were nearly 80 men, with clean-shaven foreheads and pigtails. Some were armed with bows and arrows, others with slow-match firearms.
Having seen Nevel'skoi, this crowd approached him. At its head was an elderly man with the appearance of a leader. Even before this, Nevel'skoi had ordered his oarsmen to remain on the boat and to be ready for anything, but to spread out their wares as if displaying them for sale.
Approaching Nevel'skii, the elderly Manchurian asked him arrogantly who he was. Nevel'skoi replied with the same question. When the former answered that he was a Manchurian, the latter said he was a Russian.
The Manchurian scrutinized him with distrust, and after conversing with his people, asked: "Why are you here?"
Nevel'skoi, pointing to the wares, replied: "For the same reason you are here, don't you see!"
"We have come to trade with the Gil'iaki," said the Manchurian.
"You came from higher up the river," retorted Nevel'skoi. "With the same purpose, we have come from the sea.”
"This is a foreign land," said the Manchurian.
"Whose land is this?" asked Nevel'skoi. The Manchurian, without replying, arrogantly stroked his mustache. He started to sit down on a fabric-covered stump which was brought for him. Nevel'skoi seized him by the breast and said: "We are both merchants and therefore should converse with both of us either standing or sitting."
The Manchurian was taken aback and rose. The Gil'iaki also gave Nevel'skoi a stump, and then both sat down. Meanwhile, the crowd of Manchurians surrounded them. The Gil'iaki, Neidal'tsy, and Samogiri melted away, and with Nevel'skoi there remained only two Gil'iaki and a Tungus (7) interpreter.
"Whose land is this?" repeated Nevel'skoi.
"We are trading here," replied the Manchurian. "This is the land of the Gil'iaki, so why are you here and who are you?" At this, the Manchurians gazed intently at Nevel'skoi's clothes and at the oarsmen on the boat, and conversed among themselves.
Nevel'skoi answered the Manchurian: "We do not think this is the place or time to quarrel. We are both merchants, come to trade. Therefore we should live in friendship and bring one another products to our mutual advantage."
Then the Manchurian, insolently pointing to the crowd that closely surrounded Nevel'skoi, said: "We are many, and you are few."
Two Gil'iaki, formerly on either side of Nevel'skoi, grabbed their knives. From his pocket, Nevel'skoi produced his double-barreled pistol. He put it against the forehead of the Manchurian, and said "Who dares to touch me now?"
The Manchurian leader and the whole retinue jumped aside and began to bow. Nevel'skoi then put the pistol back in his pocket. The Manchurian asked him, bowing from what was already some distance, "Are you really a Russian, as the Gil'iaki say? You are not a red head (that is, not English) from the vessel which was at Pogibi?" (8)
The Gil'iaki all shouted that he was a dzhengi, the top Russian from Iskai. (9) Nevel'skoi repeated his earlier statement that he was a Russian and trades with the Gil'iaki, and sees to it that the red heads should not come to them. He then he went up to the Manchurian, and having seized his hand, calmed him down. The Manchurian told him his name, summoned one of his men who had been at Kiakhta, (10) and showed him our silver coin. Meanwhile, Nevel'skoi's tent was set up and he invited some of the Manchurians into it to drink tea and wine with him. From this time on his relations with the Manchurians became quite friendly and frank....
...Having thus given an account of the present state of our affairs in Kamchatka and the Sea of Okhotsk, I must turn to the most important matters dealt with by Captain Nevel'skoi, which include:
1. The Gil'iaki tribes inhabiting the banks of the River Amur seek the protection and patronage of Your Imperial Majesty against the oppression they endure from their Manchurian neighbors and their fear of foreign visitors from the sea.
2. The Manchurians themselves admit that the Gil'iaki living on both banks of the Amur River do not belong to the Chinese Empire. They conduct open trade with them at the Manchurian boundary post of Mylka, situated on the right bank of the Amur, nearly 600 kilometers from its mouth.
3. The island of Sakhalin is populated by these selfsame Gil'iaki and Tungus, who have crossed from our domains on the mainland, and by the hairy Kuriltsy (the same tribe as those inhabiting our Kurile Islands). (11) All these tribes carry on trade with the Japanese, who sail on whaling boats to the southern parts of this island.
4. Most importantly, foreign warships this spring made a detailed investigation of the passage in the southern strait of the Amur estuary. It previously had been considered closed, and is shown on the maps as sandbars. This investigation was not without purpose and perspective, (by the way, proving many previous circumstances). Not only the Gil'iaki, but also the Manchurians themselves were uneasy about these visitsThe latter fear that the red heads (as they call the English) will penetrate the Amur and the navigable rivers in the interior of Manchuria which flow into the Amur. They admit to the Russians that they themselves are not strong enough to block this penetration, and find it likewise advantageous to them for the Russians to protect the entrance to the Amur River. They also want very much to carry on trade with us in those areas.
All these facts confirm our previous information about these matters, and all the dangers I described in 1848. At the same time they point to the necessity of acting with all possible speed, in order not to be forestalled in the estuary and mouths of the Amur by foreigners, who are as dangerous in this case to us as to the Chinese Empire.
In view of all this, I make bold to think that it would not be to our disadvantage to enter without delay into formal, secret negotiations on this subject with the Chinese government, and, at the same time, to hasten to take advantage of the attitude of the Gil'iaki to bring them under our protection, and to strengthen our posts wherever they have been established by every means the local administration will have at its disposal next summer in the Sea of Okhotsk, and to authorize those who are to implement this matter to enter into relations with the Chinese authorities on the other side of the border.
In conclusion, one may say that if, on the one hand, it is indispensable to act without delay, then, on the other hand, the most favorable consequences for us can be expected from all the above-mentioned conditions; and if the negotiations with the Chinese government are only conducted in accordance with the present state of affairs, and in ways basically and mutually advantageous, then perhaps, in this event, we shall achieve also our long-standing objective of navigation on the Amur, by pointing out to the Chinese that we must have the nearest and quickest communications with our posts at the mouth of the Amur.
I am not speaking of those advantages which we can derive from trade on the Amur with the Manchurians, which they so sincerely want, and about the possibility, in this event, also of beginning trade via Sakhalin with the Japanese.
N. N. Murav'ev
(1) The location is obscure. Possibly Petropavlovsk (na Kamchatke), a harbor and settlement on the southern tip of the Kamchatkan peninsula, or else Nikolaevsk (na Amure), a settlement founded in 1850 near the mouth of the Amur..
(2) Gil'iak = a dialect-defined subgroup of the Nivkh, an indigenous ethno-linguistic group of the lower Amur.
(3) The location is obscure. From context, somewhere to the north of the confluence of the Amur with its tributary the Amgun.
(4) Nedal'tsy = Negidaly, members of a distinct indigenous ethno-linguistic group now generally termed the Negidaly or Neghidaly.
(5) Samogiri = Samagiri, or speakers of Samagir (a dialect-defined subgroup of the indigenous people now generally known as the Nanai).
(6) Tyrs = Tyr, a village (still in existence) on the southern bank of the Amur, on the main channel at the edge of the swamp where it is joined by the Amgun River.
(7) Tungus = One of the names now given to the Altaic-type linguistic family that includes most indigenous Russian Far Eastern languages. It is unclear which of these peoples Murav'ev and Nevel'skii have in mind—possibly the Udihe, who inhabited the Khabarovsk region and the lower Ussurii River and who served as go-betweens between the Manchu and the ethno-linguistic groups further down the Amur.
(8) Pogibi = a settlement on the island of Sakhalin, at roughly the narrowest point of the Tatar Strait separating it from the mainland.
(9) Both terms are obscure. Dzhengi is possibly a Nivkh corruption of Chingis (as in Chingis Khan), signifying princely importance. Iskai is possibly a Nivkh term for Iakutsk.
(10) Kiakhta = border settlement south of Lake Baikal and a long-established point of contact between the Russian Empire to the north and Manchu China to the south.
(11) Kuril'tsy = Russian name for the Ainu, an indigenous people inhabiting northern Honshu and Hokkaido (Japan) and the Kurile Islands.
Source: Unattributed translation from Ivan Baruskov, Count N. N. Murav'ev-Arnurskii (Materials for a Biography), vol. 2 (Moscow, 1891), pp. 70-75, 78-79. Revised (syntax clarification, spelling changes, repunctuation, annotation, etc.) by Jon Bone.