Excerpt from The Russian Settlement in California Known as Fort Ross; Founded 1812, Abandoned 1841: Why the Russians Came and Why They LeftThe story of the rapid con quest oi Siberia, beginning with the advance of Yermak, the robber chief, across the Ural mountains in the sixteenth century, ending with the discovery of the northwest coast of America by Admiral Behring of the Russian navy, is one of the most remarkable achievements in the conquest and occupation of a country in the annals of history.Behring discovered the fur seal as well as the proximity of the Asiatic and American continents. In the course of time the rumors of the discoveries reached the Europe an capitals of London and Madrid. It had a long way to travel over land to St. Petersburg. Once started, the rumors soon reached the sharp ears of the diplomatists and were promptly reported to their home governments.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.