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Tavasts as well as Carelians, had only occupied the
southern coast, including Southern Tavastland, and,
generally speaking, the valleys of the great rivers, the
Vuoksi (which flows into the Ladoga Lake), the
Kymmene (which flows into the Gulf of Finland), and the
Kumo (which flows into the Gulf of Bothnia). We
find evidence that there were formerly more farms
and villages in these districts than at present. Up
to a relatively late date there were no settlements
beyond the region of the great inland lakes which are
found in the southern part of the country. They had
extended no farther than Savolaks, the district
comprising the islands in the enormous Lake of Saima and
other neighbouring lakes, the islands on the Bothnian
coast as far as Western Satakunta (a name which
means “the hundred townships”) and those on the
coast north of this country. The Swedes had settled
here after the crusades, and the mediæval “Stora Rim
Chrönikan” (Great Rhymed Chronicle), speaking of
the Crusades of Birger Jarl, in 1249, says: “They
put into the country Christian men; where I expect
they still remain.” In these parts we meet the same
geographical names as in Sweden, Denmark, and
Danish England, such as Ulfsby, Carleby, and others.
On the other hand, Northern Tavastland, Eastern
Satakunta, and the interior of Ostrobothnia, were colonised
at a much later date. In Northern Carelia the scanty
population was more closely connected with the
Russian principality of Novgorod. In the year 1500
there was only one Greek church built in these parts;
at that time, and far into the sixteenth century,
paganism still existed. For some time there was
raiding and fighting between the Tavasts and Carelians,
and these latter suffered also from the Russians, who
were then under the suzerainty of the Mongolian
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