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vention confirm his statement, for it provided that the Russians should abandon Albazin and Manchuria, which they had held as their own for over thirty years, and it gave nothing in return except freedom of trade across the northern border. Other Russian envoys visited China at intervals. One of them (Ysbrandt Ides, 1692) took a year and eight months to cross the wastes and wilds of Central Asia, and another, who followed twenty-seven years later, found himself involved in the old dispute which had caused the failure of one of his predecessors, the dispute about kowtowing^[1] to the Emperor. The Dutch conformed quietly with Chinese customs in this matter, but the Russians showed a different spirit. Ismailoff, the ambassador of 1719, refused to "kowtow" unless it was agreed that a Chinese envoy visiting St. Petersburg should comply with Russian forms of etiquette. The Chinese never sent envoys, so they could accept this compromise with light hearts, and Ismailoff "saved his face."^[2] A second treaty was negotiated between China and Russia in 1727. It is remarkable as having remained in operation no less than one hundred and thirty-one years, the longest life ever enjoyed by an international convention. Catherine was then on the throne of Russia, and Count Vladislavitch served her as ambassador to the Middle Kingdom. He obtained the latter's consent to the permanent establishment of a mission of the Greek church in Peking; six ecclesi-