Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/199

Rh that they conferred their government upon foreigners, who differed from them in religion, manners, and language. It happened, then, that as the Russians had contentions among themselves from time to time concerning the sovereignty, and the opposite parties, inflamed with hatred against each other, were carrying their quarrels to the highest pitch of malignity, one Gostomissel, a man of prudence and great authority in Novogorod, advised, as a conciliatory measure, that they should send to the Waregi, and request three brothers, who were there held in high estimation, to undertake the government. His advice meeting with a ready approval, ambassadors were sent to fetch the brother princes, who, upon their arrival, divided between them the government thus voluntarily conceded. Rurick obtained the principality of Novogorod, and fixed his residence in Ladoga, thirty-six German miles below great Novogorod. Sinaus settled himself at the White Lake [Bielosero] and Truvor, in the town of Svortzech [Isborsk], in the principality of Plescov. The Russians boast that these brothers derived their origin from the Romans, from whom even the present prince of Russia asserts that he is sprung. The entrance of these brothers into Russia took place, according to the annals, in the year of the world 6370 (862). Two of them dying without heirs, Rurick, the survivor, came into possession of all the principalities, and divided his fortresses among his friends and relatives. Upon his death-bed, he entrusted his youthful son, named Igor, together with the kingdom, to the care of one of his kinsmen, named Oleg, who increased the latter by the conquest of many provinces. Carrying his arms as far as Greece, he laid siege even to Constantinople, and after a reign of thirty-three years, died of an injury caused by the bite of a poisonous snake, through accidentally planting his foot on the skull of his horse after it had been some time dead. Upon the death of Oleg, Igor, who had married a wife from Plescov, named Olga, took the