It was my intention, on going to rest, to have awakened about ten
o’clock at night in order to set out early; but the severe fatigue
we had undergone the day before made me sleep soundly until after
midnight. On awaking I called aloud for some time before any one
came. At length one of my Chinese servants entered my tent, and told
me the Tongusees were nowhere to be found! I now roused my guide
and the Karaikee, when, to our grief and astonishment, we perceived
these unfeeling rascals had gone off in the night, not leaving us
even a single deer for food, and returning by the road they came.
We were now five in number, namely, the Cossack, a Karaikee, two
Chinese servants, and myself, left, with all our baggage, on one of
the highest mountains in Siberia, in a wild, uninhabited country! We
had already been twelve days from Towisk, and had therefore every
reason to believe we were not more than three or four days’ march
from some Tongusee tabboon; but, as we were all totally ignorant of
the road, it was difficult to decide which way to direct our course.
The Cossack, who did not deserve the name, was a perfect woman in
character, more alarmed than anybody else, frightening the young
Karaikee and my servants, and proposing a hundred different schemes.
I would not listen to any of them, until I had weighed the matter
maturely, and examined well the country about us. The first thing,
however, was to see what stock of provisions we had. I found it to
consist of a few pounds of reindeer meat almost spoiled, two or
three pounds of rice, a small quantity of Manilla sweet chocolate,
our biscuits reduced in number to twelve, about the size of a dollar
each, two or three small lumps of sugar remaining, and a very small
quantity indeed of salt and pepper, but fortunately a little box full
of good tea. After this review of our provisions, I felt assured
that, with rigid economy, we could keep our bodies and souls together
for at least twelve or fifteen days. In the mean time it was highly
probable I should be able to shoot something to assist in preventing
us from starving. I had a map of Kamtchatka that included the shores
of the Ochotsk Sea, on the Siberian side, as far as Zamsk, and,
assisted by a pocket-compass, showed me on which side the sea lay.
But the Cossack declared he had seen it the day before from the
mountain on the opposite side of the rivulet. I therefore determined
we should go together to a high peak only a few versts distant, to
assure ourselves whether it was or was not the sea that he had seen.
When about to depart we looked in vain for our snow-shoes, of which
it appeared those fellows had robbed us to prevent our overtaking
them suddenly. About six o’clock on the morning of the 17th we left
the encampment, and, although we kept in the tracks of the reindeer,
we sunk above our knees at every step and suffered the severest
fatigue before attaining the height from whence we expected to behold
the sea. At the first view the expanse appeared to me no more than an
immense extent of low ground covered with fog. The Cossack persisted
to the contrary and showed me a valley on the opposite side where
we could distinguish the trees and which appeared so very different
from that before us that I was induced to give in to his opinion of
its being the ocean. Not feeling perfectly satisfied, however, on the
subject I told him we must visit, on the following morning, the ridge
of mountains that surrounded us in the form of a crescent, about
thirty versts in extent. This, I added, might be easily accomplished
by making ourselves snow-shoes with the boards of our sledges. He
seemed lost, and wavering every minute, sometimes proposing one
thing and sometimes another, and at length asked that he and the
Karaikee might go in search of reindeer men, while we remained on the
mountain to await their return. I was obliged to put a stop to any
further proposals of that kind by telling him that I was perfectly
aware of his cowardice and deceit, and that, as I was ignorant of
the character of the Karaikee, I should watch them both narrowly.
“You see,” said I, “how I am armed, and I shall put the first man to
death who attempts anything improper or disobeys my orders.” This
threat had the desired effect; he became instantly more obedient.
On my return to the tent I armed my Chinese servants, privately
desiring them to keep a strict watch on the other two, as I had
reason to believe they wished to rob us of our provisions and make
their escape. At night, before I went to sleep, I collected all the
provisions together, also my little axe, knife, guns, and pistols,
and slept near them. The Karaikee and Cossack I placed in the middle
of the tent, and my Chinese servants at each side of them.
I should have premised that previously to going to rest I visited
another height, about two versts off, on the same side as that where
our tent stood. Though I could not discover the sea I had the good
fortune to find my snow-shoes amongst the bushes, the Tongusees
having hidden them purposely.
On the 18th of May, at three o’clock in the morning, we set out on
our excursion after I had armed myself with two guns, in full hopes
that, as we had seen some tracks in coming up the mountain, we
should have the good fortune to meet with a bear. With much labor
and fatigue we contrived to climb the summit of the highest mountain
of the opposite ridge. We had now an extensive view of the country
around us and were most wofully disappointed in beholding the sea
that we thought we had seen the day before transmuted into trees,
hills, and plains! We now found ourselves immediately opposite our
tent, having a steep descent to make, a rivulet of considerable size
to cross in the valley, and the high mountain to ascend on which it
stood. As the snow was soft and my snow-shoes large I drew them both
together, and, sitting down on them, held my two guns with my left
arm, the butts resting on the snow-shoes, and with a short stick
in my right hand to guide myself I went down with the rapidity of
lightning. The Cossack followed safely in my path.