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 Her commerce had to be established over a long land route. Besides, Russia had become a coterminous neighbor of China, and it was necessary to establish some kind of political relations. By 1637 the Cossacks had advanced across Siberia and stood on the shores of the Pacific at the Sea of Okhotsk. The Amur River had become a part of the boundary, and Mongolia and Manchuria touched the Russian frontier. The aggressive spirit of the Czar's representatives soon brought them into conflict with the Chinese, resulting in a state of war, in which the Russians were worsted and sought for a peaceful adjustment. This brought about the treaty of Nipchu or Neverchinsk, signed in 1689; and as it was the first treaty negotiated by the emperor of China upon terms of equality with a European power, it calls for more than a passing notice.

The negotiations took place on the frontier, and in the presence of the armies of both contestants. The Chinese plenipotentiaries were accompanied by two Catholic missionaries, who acted both as advisers and interpreters, and exercised an important influence on the result. The negotiations were quite prolonged, each party indulging in very wordy discussions. The final scene of the signature of the treaty was enacted in a tent erected for the ceremony, midway between the two armies. The treaty was read aloud, and each party signed and sealed the two copies that were to be delivered to the other, viz., by the Chinese, one in their own language, and a second in Latin; by the Russians, one in their language, and a second in Latin; but the Latin copies only were sealed with the seals of both