Vassili Poyarkov

Vassili Danilovich Poyarkov (Василий Данилович Поярков in Russian, ? - after 1668) was a Russian explorer.

In 1643, Poyarkov and his expedition of approx. 150 men started out from Yakutsk. They were sent by the voevada of Yakutsk, the Russian local governor to explore that close area of China. Russia looked up for China's wealth to solve its problem of scarcity. Poyarkov traveled over the rivers Lena, Aldan, Uchur, Gonam and then, crossing the watershed, reached the Zeya River and later Amur. He started out by camping at the Amur river for two years, where his men bullied and molested local population. the locals ran away and refused supply, a step that let the Russian explores open to harsh circumstances. Many of them perished because of hunger and freeze, and some of them resorted to cannibalism to survive. Having left the mouth of Amur, Poryakov sailed the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk and reached the mouth of the Ulia River. After the winter of 1645, he made his way through the upper reaches of the Maya River and returned to Yakutsk in 1646, sailing over the rivers of the Lena basin. Poyarkov collected valuable data on the nature and population of the vast regions of the Far East.