Esthonia, called by the natives Wiroma, the most northerly of the Baltic provinces of Russia, is bounded S by Livonia, W. and N. by the Baltic. Area, 7818 sq. m.; pop. 415,000. A large part of the surface is covered with forests, moors, and small lakes; rivers are numerous, but mostly small and sluggish in flow ; erratic boulders of granite are common everywhere. The chief town is Revel (q.v.). The population consists of two divisions, the Esths and the Esthlanders. The latter are a mixed race of immigrants, the German element strongly preponderating. The Esths, a people of Finnish race, constitute the peasantry, some 290,000 in number, and the original possessors of the soil. About 440,000 of this people are also found in Livonia, and 11,500 more in the governments of St Petersburg, Pskov, and Vitebsk. In spite of six centuries of slavery to their German lords, the Esths have preserved their national characteristics - language, customs, clothing, dwelling, physical attributes. In religion they are mostly Lutherans, though the Russians are making strenuous efforts to bring them over to the Greek Church. Esthonia was conquered by Waldemar II. of Denmark in 1219 ; but in 1346 it was sold to the Teutonic Knights, and incorporated with Livonia. From 1561 it belonged to Sweden, in 1710 it was seized by Peter the Great. Serfdom was abolished in Livonia in 1816, and in Esthonia in 1819.