Born 1690.—Died about 1780.
BELL seems to have been born about the year 1690, at Antermony, in
Scotland. He was possessed, even from his earliest years, by a strong
passion for travel; but his passion, together with a large portion of
shrewdness and sagacity, constituting the better part of his
inheritance, he judiciously applied himself to the study of medicine and
surgery, a knowledge of which, in all semi-barbarous countries, is
frequently of more avail to the traveller even than wealth. It does not
appear whether Bell was directed in the choice of his scene by
preference or by chance. However, as all Europe was at that period
filled with admiration of the projects of Peter the First, whose
reputation for munificence drew crowds of adventurers by a species of
magnetic attraction towards the north, it is probable that a desire of
personal aggrandizement united with a thirst of knowledge in urging our
traveller in the direction of Petersburg. But be this as it may, having
obtained from several respectable persons recommendatory letters to Dr.
Areskine, chief physician and privy counsellor to the czar Peter the
First, he embarked at London in July, 1714, for St. Petersburg. On his
arrival he was received in a very friendly manner by Dr. Areskine, to
whom he communicated his intentions of availing himself of the first
opportunity which should offer of visiting some portions of Asia. The
desired occasion soon presented itself. The czar, preparing at this
period to send an embassy into Persia, appointed Aremy Petrovich
Valensky, a captain of the guards, to conduct the mission; and this
gentleman applying to Dr. Areskine to recommend him a medical attendant,
Bell was immediately brought forward by his countryman, and received, on
his favourable testimony, into the ambassador’s suite. Through the same
interest, he was likewise at once formally introduced into the service
of the czar.
Bell set out from Petersburg on the 15th of July, 1715, accompanied by a
part of the ambassador’s suite, and for some time directing his course
along the western bank of the Neva, encamped in the evening on a small
stream which falls into that river, and passed the night in a wagon.
Next day they embarked on the Volchovu, the banks of which were covered
with villages and fruitful cornfields, interspersed with woods, and
continued their journey by water until they approached Novogorod, where
they quitted their “moving road,” as Pascal terms a river, and proceeded
on horseback. At Iver, Bell beheld the mighty stream of the Volga, the
navigation of which from this town to the Caspian Sea is interrupted by
no cataract, and whose waters abound with an extraordinary variety of
the finest fish in the world.
From this place they proceeded towards the ancient capital of the
empire, through a plain but agreeable country, covered with rich
harvests, which infallibly produce a pleasing effect upon the mind, and
dotted with small tufted groves, the verdure of which contrasted
admirably with the yellow grain waving at their feet. On reaching the
village from which the first view of Moscow was obtained, Bell observes,
that “at this distance few cities in the world make a finer appearance,
for it stands on a rising ground, and contains many stately churches and
monasteries, whose steeples and cupolas are generally covered either
with copper gilt or tin plates, which shine like gold and silver in the
sun.”
The Kremlin, to which Bishop Heber was fond of comparing some of the old
Mohammedan edifices of Hindostan, appears to have excited no very
particular admiration in Bell, who merely observes that it was
compounded of a number of buildings added to one another at different
times, and that some of the apartments were remarkably spacious. Here
they embarked on the Moskwa, and dropping slowly down the stream,
entered the Volga a little below Nishna. The river at this place is of
very great breadth, and, the wind blowing from the north, they were
driven along with prodigious velocity. Signs of the approach of winter
now began to appear, for it was the latter end of October; the Volga was
suddenly filled with floating ice, which, united with its powerful
current, and the force of the wind, rendered their position exceedingly
dangerous. They, however, continued their voyage, and arrived on the 3d
of November at Zabackzar, a considerable town on the right bank of the
river, a little above Kazan.
In this part of Russia, according to Bell, the best and largest falcons
in the world are caught, which being highly valued for their strength
and beauty, particularly by the Turks and Persians, are sold to those
nations at extravagant prices. They are not, as might have been
expected, taken from the nest; but after they are full grown, when their
natural instincts have been developed by exercise, and their physical
powers have acquired, by struggling with storms and tempests, their
utmost maturity and vigour. They are then taught to fly at swans, geese,
herons, hares, and even antelopes; and our traveller saw one of them
take a wild duck out of the water when nothing but her bill, which she
had put up for air, could be perceived. Many of these falcons are as
white as doves. Bell afterward saw in Kûdistan the beautiful species of
hawk called _cherkh_, which the Persians and Arabs train for antelope
hunting. This is done by stuffing the skin of one of these animals, and
placing the food of the hawk between its horns, which afterward, when
the bird comes to be employed in the chase, induces it to pounce upon
the head of the antelope, and either strike it to the ground, or retard
its movements until the greyhounds come up. Sir John Malcolm, who
witnessed this singular sport at Abusheher, observes that “the huntsmen
proceed to a large plain, or rather desert, near the seaside; they have
hawks and greyhounds, the former carried in the usual manner on the hand
of the huntsman, the latter led in a leash by a horseman, generally the
same who carries the hawk. When the antelope is seen they endeavour to
get as near as possible; but the animal, the moment it observes them,
goes off at a rate that seems swifter than the wind; the horses are
instantly at full speed, having slipped the dogs. If it is a single deer
they at the same time fly the hawks; but if a herd, they wait till the
dogs have fixed upon a particular antelope. The hawks, skimming along
near the ground, soon reach the deer, at whose head they pounce in
succession, and sometimes with a violence that knocks it over.”
The Persian style of hare hunting, which few travellers have noticed, is
scarcely less interesting, and is thus described by Sir John Malcolm.
“When at Shirez the elchee (ambassador) had received a present of a very
fine shâh-bâz, or royal falcon. Before going out I had been amused at
seeing Nuttee Beg, our head falconer, a man of great experience in his
department, put upon this bird a pair of leathers, which he fitted to
its thighs with as much care as if he had been the tailor of a
fashionable horseman. I inquired the reason of so unusual a proceeding.
‘You will learn that,’ said the consequential master of the hawks, ‘when
you see our sport;’ and I was convinced, at the period he predicted, of
the old fellow’s knowledge of his business. The first hare seized by the
falcon was very strong, and the ground rough. While the bird kept the
claws of one foot fastened in the back of its prey, the other was
dragged along the ground, till it had an opportunity to lay hold of a
tuft of grass, by which it was enabled to stop the course of the hare,
whose efforts to escape, I do think, would have torn the hawk asunder,
if it had not been provided with the leathern defences which have been
mentioned. The next time the falcon was flown gave us proof of that
extraordinary courage which its whole appearance, and particularly its
eye, denoted. It had stopped and quite disabled the second hare by the
first pounce, when two greyhounds, which had been slipped by mistake,
came up, and endeavoured to seize it. They were, however, repulsed by
the falcon, whose boldness and celerity in attacking the dogs, and
securing its prey, excited our admiration and astonishment.” Bell was
informed of a circumstance, while travelling in Kûrdistan, which raises
still higher our admiration of the falcon’s courage; for it is trained
by the Tartars to fly at foxes and even wolves.
But to return to the Volga: On arriving on the 5th of November at Kazan,
they found that the winter had set in, that the Volga was filled with
floating ice, and that, therefore, since the nations inhabiting both
banks of the river were hostile to Russia, or extremely barbarous in
their manners, it would be necessary to defer the prosecution of their
journey until the following spring. This afforded Bell ample leisure for
the conducting of his researches into the manners, character, and
religion of the neighbouring tribes. Here he found two Swedish generals,
Hamilton and Rosen, taken prisoners at the battle of Pultowa, and exiled
by the barbarous policy of the czar to these remote regions; but,
excepting that they were exiles, they had no great reason to complain of
their treatment, for they were allowed to share in whatever amusements
and pleasures the place afforded, and were by no means subjected to a
rigorous confinement.
It was not until the beginning of June that they were enabled to
continue their voyage. They then began once more to descend the stream,
which they did with great velocity; and making a short stay at Samara
and Astrakhan, proceeded on their voyage, entered the Caspian, and on
the 30th of August arrived at Niezabad, where, there being neither
harbour nor creek, they hauled up their flat-bottomed vessels on the
beach. Here an accident occurred to one of Bell’s companions, which
strikingly illustrates the facility with which the imagination, when
strongly excited, overthrows the other faculties of the mind. The ship
in which the secretary of the embassy was embarked did not arrive until
several hours after the others had been drawn on shore, by which time
the wind had begun to blow with great violence, while the sea broke
tremendously upon the beach. Not being able, under such circumstances,
to reach the land, they at first cast anchor in the open road; but the
gale increasing, even this position was considered dangerous, so that
they quickly slipped their cable and put out to sea. The secretary and
the other gentlemen on board, however, not greatly admiring their
situation, and willing, from their extreme impatience to be once more on
terra firma, to run even a considerable risk in endeavouring to effect
their purpose, ordered the master of the ship, a Dutchman in the service
of the czar, to run her ashore at all hazards, engaging themselves to be
accountable for the consequences. But when the ship had approached
within a certain distance of the land, the sea ran so high that no boat
could be hoisted out. The secretary’s fear of the sea increasing with
the obstacles to his landing, he at length prevailed upon a sailor, at
the peril of his life, to carry him ashore on his back, which, in spite
of all difficulties, the man actually performed; “but his clothes being
drenched with salt water, and the road lying through deep sands, he was
soon fatigued, and therefore retired nearer to the woods, in hopes of
finding a more smooth and easy path. He discovered what he sought; but
instead of leading him to the ships, it carried him away from the shore
and the right course, into thick encumbered wood; and in these
circumstances night overtook him, utterly ignorant of the dismal and
dangerous wild into which he had wandered. Thus destitute of all
assistance, he climbed a tree to save himself from the wild beasts with
which these woods abound; and in this situation continued all the night,
and till noon next day; for the people in his own ship never doubted of
his having safely reached our tents; while we, on the contrary, had not
the least suspicion of his having come on shore. At last, however, about
noon, his servant came, inquiring for his master, who, he told us, left
the ship the night before. This account filled us all with anxiety and
apprehension; as we certainly concluded he would be torn to pieces by
the wild beasts, or murdered by the savages who inhabit this coast.
Immediate order was given for all our people to repair to the woods in
search of him. He was at last found wandering from path to path, without
knowing one direction from another. When he came to the tents he looked
ghastly and wild, and related many strange stories of what he had heard
in the night. All possible care was taken to alleviate his distress.
During his sleep, which was very discomposed, he often started, groaned,
and spoke; and even after he awaked, he persisted in affirming that
there were numbers of people round the tree in the night, talking
different languages. The imagination, no doubt, will naturally have a
strong effect on any man in such uncommon circumstances; for, though the
secretary was a man of penetration and sound judgment, in vain did we
endeavour to undeceive him, by representing that it was nothing but the
jackals which made the noise he had heard.” In fact, he never recovered
his former sagacity and soundness of mind: and the accident may even be
supposed to have hastened his death, which took place not long
afterward.
From Niezabad they proceeded to Shamakia, where the inhabitants, to whom
the Muscovites were novelties at that time, crowded the tops of their
houses to behold them. The time of their stay was spent in the way usual
with ambassadors; that is, in attempts of politeness, affecting state,
and in disputes with the Khan of Shamakia. At length, however, all these
were ended, and they departed. The suite of the ambassador was numerous;
for in the East a man’s dignity is estimated by the camel-loads of
people at his heels: one hundred and sixty camels, nearly two hundred
horses and mules, which, if common sense were constituted judge of the
matter, would be thought amply sufficient to bear the czar’s compliments
and a letter to the shah.
On entering Kûrdistan, Bell, from whose mind the “rugged Russian bears,”
jackals, and other nuisances, had not chased away all classical
reminiscences, seems to have experienced some pleasure at the idea of
traversing, though in a contrary direction, the same track which was
pursued by Xenophon and the Ten Thousand in their retreat from
Babylonia.[5] The Kûrds, the ancient Karduchi, were still, he says,
reckoned a brave people; and, in fact, would be extremely disposed, if
any thing were to be gained by it, to harass any body of men, whether
small or great, who passed through their country. On the day before they
arrived at Tabriz they crossed a ridge of mountains, from which, as he
was informed by an Armenian, the snowy peaks of Ararat, or Agri Dag,
might be seen in clear weather.
Footnote 5:
This must be understood _cum grano_. The Greeks never approached quite
so near the Caspian as Bell’s route. See the _Anabasis_.
From Tabriz they set out in the heart of winter, the country being
covered with deep snow, and the roads, in consequence, almost
impassable. The bright reflection of the sunbeams from the snow produced
an extraordinary effect upon the Russians. Their faces swelled, and many
of them were afflicted with ophthalmia. But the Persians themselves are
liable to the latter inconvenience, and, in order to guard against it,
wear a network fillet of black horsehair over the eyes; which Bell
found, upon trial, to be an effectual preventive. This contrivance, I
imagine, might be made use of with equal success in traversing the sands
of Egypt or Arabia.
As they proceeded southward they quickly escaped from the regions of
snow, and on reaching Sarva, a small town a little to the north of Koom,
found the pomegranate-trees already in blossom on the 22d of February.
The Persians, at least that part of them who make any claim to
civilization, are a pleasant people to travel among. For if, in classic
lands,
Not a mountain reared its head unsung,
no mountain, no, nor valley neither, rears or lowers its head without
having some particular legend attached to it. Near Koom you are shown a
hill from which no one who has been mad enough to reach the top ever
descended; and are told a lamentable story of a young page sent up with
a lighted torch in his hand by Shah Abbas, who, of course, never
returned, but may yet perhaps come down with his torch unconsumed, upon
the re-advent of the Twelfth Imam. At Kashan your imagination is excited
by being placed in apartments, the floors of which are almost paved with
scorpions, the sting of every one of which is more deadly than the sword
of Rûstam, or the lance of Afrasiab. But these reptiles, like the spear
of Achilles, undo, as it were, with one hand what they perform with the
other; for when they have darted their poison into the frame, they
yield, on being caught and fried, though not alive, I hope, an oil which
the Persians reckon an infallible antidote to their venom. The only
advantage which seems to be derived from this energetic little reptile
is, that it enriches the Persian language with a new variety of that
rhetorical figure of speech called commination, or cursing; for when any
person is desirous of concentrating his wrath in a single imprecation,
instead of having recourse to that convenient but vulgar demon who takes
our enemies off our hands in Europe, he arms his wishes with the sting
of a Kashan scorpion, and flings that at the head of his adversaries.
The embassy arrived at Ispahan on the 14th of March; and the shah’s
court immediately put itself in training for a grand theatrical
exhibition, in order to impress the barbarians with a favourable idea of
the greatness of the Asylum of the Universe. While the stage decorations
were preparing, our traveller, who entertained a reasonable respect for
royal pomp and magnificence, employed himself in observing the city and
its environs; and when the important day came, accompanied the
ambassador into the presence of the shah. Every thing passed off in the
usual style. Exhibitions of elephants caparisoned with gold and silver
stuffs; lions led in massive chains of gold; twenty horses superbly
caparisoned, having all their saddles and bridles ornamented with gold
and silver, and set with sapphires, emeralds, and other precious stones,
while the stakes by which they were fastened, and the mallets with which
those stakes were driven into the earth, were of solid gold: such were
the sights beheld within the precincts of the palace. On the outside,
however, poverty, ignorance, and starvation exhibited their gaunt,
phantom visages among the crowd, scaring the eyeballs of those who were
not too much dazzled by the gorgeous apparatus of tyranny, to discover
the real nature of the materials out of which they were forged.
When the ambassador was presented to the shah, he made a speech to him
in Russian; the “Asylum of the Universe” replied in Persian; and since
neither of them understood one word of what was said to him by the
other, their speeches must have been exceedingly interesting. However, a
third person, “doctus utriusque linguæ,” clothed the shah’s ideas in
Russian for the benefit of the ambassador, while he presented the
thoughts of the latter, or at least something like them, to the shah, in
the mellifluous language of Persia. All this while music, which the
traveller did not find inharmonious, was played in the audience-chamber,
and the mufti was reading aloud various portions of the Koran. Whether
this was intended to show how indifferent, respecting all secular
concerns, the holy men of Persia were, or to throw an air of religion
over the transaction, or, finally, to exorcise all such devils as might
be supposed to accompany such a rabble of Franks, Bell did not inquire;
which, I think, was a great oversight. An entertainment, which all
parties thought more agreeable than the speeches, followed next. The
shah himself, according to ancient usage, was served before his guests;
but the ambassador had the honour of being next attended to. Every
article of the feast was served up in large gold or china dishes, but,
according to the custom of the East, fingers were substituted for knives
and forks, and these, as among the ancient Greeks, were wiped with large
thin cakes of bread, instead of napkins.
The dinner to which they were shortly after invited by the keeper of the
great seal was more magnificent than that given them by the shah. “Soon
after we entered,” says Bell, “there were served up a great variety of
sweetmeats, and all kinds of fruit that the climate afforded. Coffee and
sherbet were carried about by turns. We were placed cross-legged on the
carpets, except the ambassador, who had a seat. During this part of the
feast we were entertained with vocal and instrumental music, dancing
boys, tumblers, puppets, and jugglers. All the performers executed their
parts with great dexterity. Two of them counterfeited a quarrel, one
beat off the other’s turban with his foot, out of which dropped about
fifteen or twenty large serpents, which ran or crawled about the room.
One of them came towards me with great speed, which soon obliged me to
quit my place. On seeing us alarmed, they told us the creatures were
altogether inoffensive, as their teeth had been all drawn out. The
fellow went about the room, and gathered them again into his turban,
like so many eels. The victuals were now served in a neat and elegant
manner. Every thing was well dressed in the Persian fashion. Our host
was very cheerful, and contributed every thing in his power to please
his guests. He excused himself handsomely enough for not having wine, as
it was not then used at court.”
Two days after this the ambassador received intimation, that the
business of the embassy being concluded, he might depart when he
pleased; but the Russ, who seems to have relished the pilaus of Ispahan,
would have been better pleased to have remained where he was the whole
year. However, it being clear that the disciples of Ali by no means
participated in his feelings, he unwillingly prepared to encounter once
more his native fogs and snows. They left Ispahan on the 1st of
September, and proceeded through Kasbin and Ghilān towards Shamakia. At
Kasbin many of the ambassador’s suite, and Bell among the number, were
attacked by a pestilential fever, which appears to have been the plague;
but they all, excepting one person, recovered. They, however, lost
twenty-two of their number before they finally quitted the Persian
dominions.
It being the depth of winter when the ambassador arrived at Shamakia, he
resolved to remain there until the following summer, time, in his
opinion, being of little value. Accordingly it was not until the 26th of
June that they embarked on the Caspian. Their journey homewards was long
and tedious; but they at length reached Petersburg on the 30th of
December, 1718; having consumed nearly three years and a half in going
to and returning from Ispahan.
Bell observes that Peter, who was in the capital when they arrived, was
said to be well satisfied with the conduct of his ambassador, whose
principal business was to cultivate and cement amity and a good
understanding between the two crowns of Russia and Persia. The city,
notwithstanding the Swedish war, which had lasted nearly twenty years,
had been greatly improved and adorned during his short absence; and its
appearance had been so greatly changed, that he could scarcely imagine
himself, he says, in the same place. Other changes had likewise taken
place in that short interval. His friend Dr. Areskine was, he found, no
more, having died about six weeks previous to his arrival. However, he
was kindly received by his other friends, as well Russian as English;
and he mentions it as a circumstance worthy of remark, that he met among
the former with many persons of much worth and honour.
Captain Valensky, the Persian ambassador, having contracted a friendship
for him during their journey, continued to regard him with the same
feelings after their return; and when, on hearing that the czar was
about to despatch an embassy to China, Bell expressed an ardent desire
to accompany it, recommended him in such a manner to the ambassador,
Captain Ismailoff, as not only procured his reception into the suite of
the mission, but the friendship of that worthy man for the remainder of
his life.
Our traveller set out from Petersburg on his way to China on the 14th of
July, 1719, and proceeded through Moscow to Kazan, where he awaited the
setting in of winter, the journey through Siberia being to be performed
in sledges. The poor Swedish generals who had been taken prisoners at
Pultowa were still here, regretting, naturally enough, but unavailingly,
their long detention from their native land. On the 24th of November,
the snow having fallen sufficiently to smooth the roads, Bell and a
portion of the ambassador’s suite departed from Kazan. Their road lay
through a fertile country, producing abundance of cattle, corn, and
honey, and covered, in many places, by vast woods of tall oaks, fir, and
birch. The beehives used here were of a remarkable form. The
inhabitants, says Bell, take the trunk of a lime-tree, aspen, or any
soft wood, of about five or six feet long; having scooped it hollow,
they make a large aperture in one side, about a foot in length and four
inches broad; they then fix cross rods within the trunk for the bees to
build upon, and having done this, close up the place carefully with a
board, leaving small notches for the bees to go in and out. These hives
are planted in proper places at the side of a wood, and tied to a tree
with strong withes, to prevent their being destroyed by the bears, who
are great devourers of honey. Bell learned, moreover, that the peasantry
in these parts had a method of extracting the honey without destroying
the bees; but the persons who gave him the information described the
process so indistinctly that he could not understand it.
Their road now lay for many days through dark woods, interspersed at
wide intervals with villages and cornfields. The cold daily became more
and more intense; thick fogs hung upon the ground; the frost penetrated
everywhere. The fingers and toes of those most exposed were frozen, and
could only be restored to animation by being rubbed with snow. At
length, on the 9th of December, they arrived at Solekampsky, famous for
its great salt-works, which, if necessary, could not only have furnished
all Russia, but several other countries also, with salt. Vast strata of
salt-rocks seem here to extend on all sides at a certain distance from
the surface. Pits are sunk to these rocks, and are quickly filled with
water, which, being drawn off and boiled in large caldrons, the salt is
deposited at the bottom. The vein of salt-rock sometimes runs under the
river Kama, in which case it is reached by sinking wooden towers in the
stream, as they do when building the piers of a bridge, and piercing
through these to the necessary depth. The salt water then springs up,
fills the wooden tower, and is pumped off as before. Prodigious strata
of this kind of rock traversing the bed of the ocean, may, perhaps, be
the cause of the saltness of its waters.
There are extensive mines of excellent iron-ore in the same
neighbourhood; where is likewise found the asbestos fossil, from which
the incombustible linen is manufactured. The value of this laniferous
stone is said to have been discovered by a sportsman, who, happening one
day to be in want of wadding in the woods, and observing the threadlike
fibres of this fossil, plucked some of them off for that use; and
finding that the gunpowder had no effect upon them, communicated the
fact to others, which led to those inquiries and experiments by which
its extraordinary properties were discovered.
From Solekampsky they proceeded to the Oural Mountains, which divide
Russia from Siberia. These are covered in all directions by vast
forests, excepting in a few valleys where they have been felled by man,
where our traveller found the landscape beautiful even in the depth of
winter. On descending their eastern slope into the plains, a milder
prospect, woods, villages, cornfields, and meadows, met the eye; but
winter still reigned over all, binding up the streams, whirling his
snow-drifts over the plain, or clothing the forests with frost and
icicles. The fogs, however, had disappeared; and as far as the eye could
reach, all was snow below and sunshine above. On the 16th of December
the gilded crosses and cupolas of Tobolsk were discovered, rising in the
distance above the snowy plain; and in the evening of the same day they
found themselves agreeably lodged within its walls.
Here, as well as in most of the towns through which they had passed,
they found a number of Swedish officers of distinction; among the rest
Dittmar, secretary to Charles XII.; and Bell observes that they were
permitted to enjoy a considerable share of liberty. They could walk
about where they pleased, hunt in the woods, and even make long journeys
to visit their countrymen at distant places. He, in fact, so indulgent
to tyranny had his residence in Russia rendered him, thought “his
majesty” was showing them an especial favour by cantoning them in those
parts where they could live well at a small expense, and enjoy all the
liberty which persons in their circumstances could expect.
Whatever may be our opinion of the conduct of Peter, whom the childish
folly of some writers has denominated _the Great_, it must be confessed,
that as far as his own interests were concerned, the exiling of these
officers into Siberia was a judicious step, as it tended powerfully to
civilize, that is, to render more taxable, the wild and ignorant
inhabitants of that vast country. Several of the Swedish exiles were
persons who had received a superior education. Not being able quickly to
conform to the gross tastes of those who surrounded them, they therefore
laboured by every means in their power to diffuse a relish for their own
more liberal preferences; and as they very fortunately reckoned painting
and music,—arts which, addressing themselves partly to the senses,
possess a certain charm even for savages,—among their accomplishments,
they succeeded by their pictures and concerts in subduing the ferocity
of their masters. Still further to extend their influence, they
sometimes amused themselves with teaching a select portion of the youth
of both sexes the French and German languages; and as ingenuous youth
has all the world over a reverence for those who introduce it into the
paths of knowledge, the purpose of the Swedes was amply accomplished,
and they enjoyed the affection of powerful and honourable friends.
To a sportsman the neighbourhood of Tobolsk affords endless amusement.
Here are found every species of game compatible with the nature of the
climate: the urhan, the heathcock, the partridge, which in winter turns
white as a dove, woodcocks, snipes, and a prodigious variety of
water-fowl. Vast flights of snowbirds, which are about the size of a
lark, come to Siberia in autumn, and disappear in spring. In colour many
of these birds are as white as snow, while others are speckled or brown.
Bears, wolves, lynxes, several kinds of foxes, squirrels, ermines,
sables, and martens, abound in the woods. The ermines generally burrow
in the open field, where they are caught in traps baited with a morsel
of flesh. These animals are caught only in winter, when their fur is
white and most valuable. They turn brown in summer. The hares, likewise,
and the foxes of these northern regions, imitate the changes of mother
earth; and in winter are clad in furs resembling in colour the snows
over which they run.
During his stay at Tobolsk, Bell made numerous inquiries respecting the
religion and manners of the Tartars inhabiting the region lying between
the Caspian and Mongolia; and learned, among other particulars, that in
an ancient palace, the construction of which some attributed to Timour,
others to Genghis Khan, there were preserved numerous scrolls of glazed
paper, fairly written in many instances in gilt characters. Some of
these scrolls were said to be black, though the far greater number were
white. They were written in the Kalmuck language. While our traveller
was busy in these inquiries, a soldier suddenly presented himself before
him in the street with a bundle of these scrolls in his hand; which, as
the man offered them for a small sum, he purchased, and brought home to
England. They were here distributed among our traveller’s learned
friends; and as Sir Hans Sloane was reckoned among the number, they will
eventually find their way, I presume, to the British Museum. But whether
or not any of them have as yet been translated, I have not been able to
discover. Two similar scrolls, sent by Peter I. to Paris, were
immediately turned into French by the _savans_ of that capital, to whom
no language comes amiss, from that of the ancient Egyptians and Parsees
to that of modern sparrows, and were said to be merely a commission to a
lama, or priest, and a form of prayer. Whether this interpretation may
be depended on, says Bell, I shall not determine.
On the 9th of January, 1720, they set out from Tobolsk. Their road now
led them through numerous Tartar villages, where the houses were
constructed with wood and moss, with thin pieces of ice fixed in holes
in the walls instead of windows. The whole country, as far as the eye
could reach, consisted of level marshy grounds, sprinkled with lakes,
and overgrown with tall woods of aspen, alder, willows, and other
aquatic trees, among which our traveller remarked a species of large
birch, with a bark as smooth and white as paper.
Pursuing their journey with the utmost rapidity, they arrived on the 4th
of February at Tomsk, where Bell, as usual, immediately set on foot the
most active inquiries respecting the neighbouring regions and their
inhabitants. From the citadel of Tomsk, which is situated on an
eminence, a chain of hills is discovered towards the south, beyond
which, our traveller was informed, in a vast plain, many tombs and
burying-places were found. His information throws much interesting light
on a passage of Herodotus. This great historian relates, in his fourth
book, that when the ancient Scythians interred their king, they were
accustomed to strangle upon his body his favourite concubines, his
cupbearer, his cook, and other favourite personages; and we learn from
other authors, that together with the bones of these, cups, vases, and
other vessels of gold were deposited with the royal corpse in the tomb.
Rites not greatly dissimilar took place in the heroic ages among the
Greeks; for we find men and horses sacrificed upon the funeral pile of
Patroclus in the Iliad, and Achilles placing the white bones of his
friend in a χρυσέη φιάλη, or golden vase, to be afterward deposited with
his own in the same mound.
The tombs discovered in the great plains south of Tomsk in all
probability were those of ancient Scythian chiefs and kings; but if so,
the spot must have been regarded as the common cemetery of the race, to
which the bodies of all persons above a certain rank were to be borne,
for the number of barrows formed there was immense. Numerous individuals
annually resorted hither from Tomsk and other places to search for
treasure among these ancient graves, and they constantly found among the
ashes of the dead large quantities of gold, silver, brass, and
occasionally precious stones; hilts of swords, armour, saddle-ornaments,
bits, and horse-trappings, together with the bones of horses and
elephants, were sometimes met with. From which Bell infers, that when
any general or person of distinction was interred, it was customary to
bury all his arms, his favourite horse, and servant with him in the same
grave; and this practice prevails to this day, he adds, among the
Kalmucks and other Tartars. He was shown several pieces of armour and
other curiosities which were dug out of these tombs, particularly a
small equestrian statue of brass or bronze of no mean design or
workmanship; together with figures of deer cast in pure gold, which were
divided in the middle, and pierced by small holes, as if intended to be
used as ornaments to a quiver, or to the furniture of a horse.
In the woods of this part of Siberia there is a species of wild ass,
strikingly resembling the African zebra, having their hair waved white
and brown, like that of a tiger. Bell saw several of their skins.
Numerous wild horses of a fine chestnut colour were likewise found, but
could not, he says, be tamed, even if taken when foals. The Kalmucks,
however, continued to make some use of them: for, not being able to
ride, they killed and ate them, and used their skins as couches to sleep
upon.
Proceeding eastward from Tomsk they arrived in about a fortnight on the
banks of the river Tongusta, where the country on both sides being
covered with impenetrable woods, it was necessary to make their way
along the frozen stream, while the biting winds continued to whirl and
drift about the snow in their path. Occasionally single houses or small
villages were found upon the banks. One day, during their progress along
this river, they met a prodigious flock of hares, all as white as the
snow on which they walked, slowly descending the stream; and Bell was
informed that these animals are frequently seen travelling south in much
greater numbers.
They were now in the country of the Tongusy, a people who have no fixed
dwellings, but roam at pleasure through the woods, erecting where they
make any stay a few spars, inclining to each other above, and covering
them with pieces of birchen bark sewed together, with a small hole at
the top. The men, however, are brave, and the women virtuous. They
practise tattooing. Their religion consists in the worship of the sun
and moon. Their dress is of fur. Their arms, the bow and arrow, the
lance, and a species of hatchet. In winter they travel over the frozen
snow with shoes, the soles of which are of wood, and about five feet in
length, and five or six inches broad, inclining to a point before and
square behind. The feet are slipped into a thong fastened in the middle;
and with these they can move over the deepest snow without sinking. But
as these are suited only to the plains, they have a different kind for
ascending the hills, with the skins of seals glued to the boards, having
the hair inclining backwards, which prevents the sliding of the shoes.
With these they climb hills with the greatest facility, and having
reached the summit, dart down the opposite slope with astonishing
rapidity.
Such are the great sable hunters of Siberia, who feed indifferently on
the bear, the fox, and the wolf. The sables, says Bell, are not caught
in the same manner as other animals. The fur is so tender, that the
least mark of an arrow, or ruffling of the hair, spoils the sale of the
skin. In hunting them they only use a little dog and a net. When a
hunter discovers the track of a sable upon the snow, he follows it
sometimes for several days unintermittingly, until the poor animal,
quite tired, takes refuge in some tall tree, for it can climb like a
cat. The hunter then spreads his net round the tree, and kindles a fire,
when the sable, unable to endure the smoke, immediately descends, and is
caught in the net. These hunters, when hard pressed by hunger, have
recourse to a practice analogous to that of many South Sea islanders
under similar circumstances: taking two thin pieces of board, they place
one on the pit of the stomach, the other on the back, and gradually
drawing together the extremities, allay in some degree the cravings of
appetite. The winters here are long, and the cold so intense that the
earth never thaws, even in summer, beyond two feet and a half below the
surface. When they dig to the depth of three feet for the purpose of
burying their dead, they find the earth frozen; and in these graves the
bodies remain unconsumed, and will do so, says the traveller, to the day
of judgment.
On the 17th of March, the weather, as they began to approach the Baikal
lake, changed so suddenly from winter to spring that they almost
imagined themselves dropped imperceptibly into another climate. They
therefore abandoned their sledges, which, as the snow was gone, were now
become useless, and proceeded on horseback. Next day they arrived at
Irkutsk on the river Angara. Here they remained until the 15th of May,
waiting for the melting of the ice on the lake; and amusing themselves
in the meanwhile with hunting, and observing the country and its
inhabitants.
When the season was thought to be sufficiently far advanced, they
proceeded up the banks of the river, until they discovered the lake
bursting out between two high rocks, and tumbling down over enormous
stones which lie quite across the channel of the river, which is here a
mile in breadth. The sublimity of the scene, which is magnificent beyond
description, is heightened exceedingly by the dashing and roaring of the
waters, which impress the beholder with ideas of the irresistible power
and grandeur of nature, the privilege to contemplate which elevates and
ennobles him in his own estimation. And this, in reality, is the
principal source of the pleasure we derive from the view of stupendous
mountains, the tempestuous ocean, cataracts, volcanoes, or
conflagrations.
They now embarked on the Baikal, which, as Gibbon facetiously observes,
disdains the modest appellation of a lake, and on receding from the land
enjoyed a full prospect of its western shores, rising abruptly into
rocky pinnacles capped with snow, and towering far above every thing
around them. These stretched away immeasurably towards the north, until
they were lost in the distance. On the south the view was bounded by
hills of gentler elevation, whose tops, for the most part, were covered
with wood. Their passage was tedious, for on approaching the mouth of
the Selinga they found the whole shore skirted by long reefs of floating
icebergs, between which they forced their way with considerable
difficulty. However, they at length entered the Selinga, and ascending
partly in their boats and partly on horseback along its banks, arrived
safely at Selinguisky on the 29th of May.
At this town, which, like the ancient Chalcedony on the Bosphorus, may
be termed the “City of the Blind,” being built upon an inconvenient spot
in the neighbourhood of an excellent one, they were to remain until the
court of Pekin, which had been informed of their approach, should send
an officer to conduct them over the frontiers. In the mean time every
person amused himself according to his taste. Our honest and intelligent
traveller, as he is very properly denominated by Gibbon, whose chief
pleasure consisted in observing the manners of mankind, had here an
ample field before him, in a variety of characters affording the most
striking moral contrasts, from the Hindoo Yoghee, who bought live fishes
on the banks of a stream in order to enjoy the pleasure of setting them
swimming again, to the fierce, tough-nerved Mongol, who could view
death, whether inflicted on man or beast, without exhibiting the least
horror or emotion. With one of the chiefs of this warlike nation, who,
by temperance and exercise, had contrived to reach his eightieth year
with much of the vigour and energy of youth about him, they had a
splendid hunting-match, which, as conducted by the Tartars, may justly,
as our great historian remarks, be considered as the image and the
school of war.
The Chinese, who are as dilatory in their movements as the ancient
Spartans, allowed them ample time to amuse themselves, for it was not
until the 24th of August that their conductor arrived. On the 8th of
September they departed, and arriving in a few days on the banks of the
Saratzyn, the small rivulet which divides the Russian empire from
Chinese Mongolia,
But these between a silver streamlet glides,
And scarce a name distinguisheth the brook,
Though rival kingdoms press its verdant sides,
they crossed over, and found themselves in the “Celestial Empire!”
Previously, however, a little incident occurred perfectly characteristic
of the Chinese. Their conductor, observing some women walking in the
fields, and fearing, apparently, that their petticoats would set all
Pekin on fire, inquired with alarm to whom they belonged, and whither
they were travelling. “To China,” replied the ambassador. At this the
worshipper of Fo’s terrors were increased: he replied that they had
women enough in Pekin already, and that, as there never had been a
European woman in China, he would not, without a special order from the
emperor, be answerable for introducing the first; but that, if his
excellency desired it, he would despatch a courier to learn the
emperor’s pleasure. As this would have retarded their movements another
six weeks, the ambassador, who had not the wit to disguise the ladies in
men’s apparel, sent them back to Selinguisky, and continued his journey
without them.
They now entered upon that vast table-land which was found by the
Jesuits to be three thousand geometrical paces above the level of the
sea, from which the mountains forming its southern boundary serve but as
steps by which the traveller may descend to the low plains of China. The
small undulations or eminences which break the uniformity of these vast
steppes are covered with the rhubarb plant, which grows there
spontaneously, and is propagated more rapidly by the aid of the marmot,
which, burrowing in prodigious numbers at its roots, loosens the mould,
and prepares it for the reception of the seeds. The roots are dug up for
exportation by the Mongols, who carelessly bore holes through them, and
hang them about their tents or on the horns of their sheep to dry.
After passing the Tula, no river again occurred north of the Great Wall.
The mode of travelling here resembles, in some degree, that which
prevails in the deserts of Arabia and Africa, except that the walls are
more frequent, and the danger from marauders little or none. Their food,
after the first few days, consisted of mutton only; but as this was of
an excellent quality, the circumstance was not considered as a great
hardship. In the course of their journey they traversed a large plain,
thickly strewed with transparent red and yellow pebbles, which glittered
beautifully in the sun, and were said to be cornelians and yellow
sapphires, being hard, and taking a fine polish. The few Mongols whom
they found wandering with their flocks and herds over the waste,
appeared more contented and happy than the possessors of the most
fertile soil; and this being the primitive, the freest, and perhaps the
most natural condition of man, the circumstance ought not to excite our
astonishment. The mere act of locomotion is pleasant to man, and in
pastoral tribes, accustomed to wandering from their infancy, it becomes
a passion, the gratification of which is happiness.
“On the 2d of November, about noon,” says Bell, “we could perceive the
famous wall, running along the tops of the mountains, towards the
north-east. One of our people cried out ‘land!’ as if we had been all
this while at sea. It was now, as nearly as I can compute, about forty
English miles from us, and appeared white at this distance.” The nearer
they approached the mountains, the more were they astonished at the
grandeur of this wall, which, as Voltaire very justly observes, makes no
inconsiderable figure even upon the map of the world. “The appearance of
it,” says our traveller, “running from one high rock to another, with
square towers at certain intervals, even at this distance, is most
magnificent.” In two days they arrived at the foot of this mighty
barrier, and entered through a great gate into China. Here a thousand
men were perpetually on guard, by the officers commanding whom they were
received with much politeness, and invited to tea.
“The long, or endless wall, as it is commonly called,” says our
traveller, who has given the best account I have yet met with of this
prodigious undertaking, “encompasses all the north and west parts of
China. It was built about six hundred years ago by one of the emperors,
to prevent the frequent incursions of the Mongols, and other western
Tartars, who made a practice of assembling numerous troops of horse, and
invading the country in different places. The Chinese frontiers were too
extensive to be guarded against such bold and numerous enemies, who,
after plundering and destroying a wealthy country, returned to their own
loaded with spoils.
“The Chinese, finding all precautions ineffectual to put a stop to the
inroads of such barbarians, at last resolved to build this famous wall.
It begins in the province of Leotong, at the bottom of the bay of
Nankin, and proceeds across rivers and over the tops of the highest
mountains without interruption, keeping nearly along the circular ridge
of barren rocks that surround the country to the north and west; and
after running southward about twelve hundred English miles, ends in
impassable mountains and sandy deserts.
“The foundation consists of large blocks of square stones laid in
mortar; but the rest of the wall is built of brick. The whole is so
strong and well built as to need almost no repair, and in such a dry
climate may remain in this condition for many ages. Its height and
breadth are not equal in every place; nor, indeed, is it necessary they
should. When carried over steep rocks, where no horse can pass, it is
about fifteen or twenty feet high, and broad in proportion; but when
running through a valley, or crossing a river, there you see a strong
wall, about thirty feet high, with square towers at the distance of a
bowshot from one another, and embrasures at equal distances. The top of
the wall is flat, and paved with broad freestones; and where it rises
over a rock, or any eminence, you ascend by a fine easy stone stair. The
bridges over rivers and torrents are exceedingly neat, being both well
contrived and executed. They have two stories of arches, one above
another, to afford sufficient passage for the waters on sudden rains and
floods.”[6]
Footnote 6:
Authors are not at all agreed respecting the period at which this wall
was erected. Gibbon, relying apparently on the testimony of Duhalde
(Description de la China, tom. ii. p. 45) and Deguignes (Hist. des
Huns, tom. ii. p. 59), gives the third century before the Christian
era as the date of its construction, and assigns it a length of
fifteen hundred miles.—(History, vol. iv. p. 361.) Du Pauw, an
ingenious but conceited and coxcombical writer, makes no objection to
the antiquity of the work, but reduces its length to about four
hundred and fifty miles; and this without citing any authority, or
even stating his reasons, except that he does not choose to consider
the western branch, which, he tells us, is built of earth, worthy the
name of a wall.—(Recherch. Phil. sur les Egypt. et Chin. tom. ii. p.
77-79.) For my own part, I am inclined to agree with those writers who
think it an entirely modern work, erected since the thirteenth
century; for the silence of Marco Polo appears to me absolutely
decisive. Du Pauw’s supposition that he could have entered China from
Mongolia, that is, passed through the wall, and lived eighteen years
in the country, which he traversed in every direction, without once
hearing of its existence, is too absurd even for refutation. That he
abstained from describing it, lest he should excite a suspicion of the
truth of his narrative, though somewhat more probable perhaps, does
not upon the whole seem credible. If it existed in his time, I can
account for his silence, or rather for the absence of all mention of
it in his travels, as they at present exist, only by supposing that
the passage in which this extraordinary work was alluded to, was, like
many other passages, omitted from ignorant incredulity by
transcribers, and so lost. Thus, too, we may account for no mention of
tea being found in his travels.
Bell was, moreover, informed by the Chinese that this wall was completed
within the space of five years, every sixth man in the empire having
been compelled to work at it or find a substitute. But if the date of
its erection is altogether uncertain, we may very well be permitted to
indulge our skepticism respecting such circumstances as tend to increase
the marvellousness of the undertaking. It is far more probable that it
is the work of ages, and that numerous and long interruptions occurred
in the prosecution of the design. With respect to its utility, I
likewise dissent altogether from the opinion of our traveller, who, in
comparing it with the pyramids, styles the latter “a work of vanity.”
Had Bell believed, as I do, that the pyramids were temples, he would,
however, have been the last man in the world to have thus characterized
them; but with respect to the long wall, it may be proved to have been
not only useless, but pernicious, since the imaginary security it
afforded encouraged those unwarlike habits to which the Chinese are
naturally addicted; and thus, when the Tartars overleaped this
contemptible obstacle to valour, and challenged them to defend their
empire by arms, they discovered that soldiers are the only wall which a
wise people should oppose to its enemies, all other defences being found
upon trial to be utterly vain. No country, no, not even Hindostan
itself, has been more frequently conquered than China; nor has any
region of the earth been more frequently desolated and drenched with
blood by civil wars and rebellions; and if ever circumstances should
render it necessary for us to extend our conquests in Asia beyond the
Burrampooter on the north-east, it would be seen with what ease the
Hindoo Sipahees, who subdued Tippoo Sultan, the Rohillas, Rajpoots,
Patans, and Burmese, would rout and subdue the feeble and inefficient
troops of China.
But to proceed with our traveller. All the way to Pekin they observed
terrible marks of the destructive power of earthquakes in these
countries; many of the towns having been half-destroyed by one which had
happened the preceding year,[7] when great numbers of people were buried
beneath the ruins. The country appeared to be well cultivated, and the
towns and villages numerous, but not in any remarkable degree. They
reached Pekin on the 18th of November.
Footnote 7:
Du Pauw shows by his use of this passage how little his accuracy is to
be depended on. Bell says, “above one-half being thereby laid in
ruins;” which our sophist thus translates into French:—“Il ne reste
_point une habitation sur pied!_” and then audaciously refers to his
authority, which he styles “Antermony Journal.”
Bell had now reached the goal of his wishes, and upon the whole was not
disappointed. Long accustomed to the sight of savages immersed in
ignorance and barbarism, he found the Chinese, by comparison, highly
civilized. They drank tea, cultivated fine fruits, manufactured
excellent silks, paper, and porcelain, and accumulated considerable
wealth; but, before they were taught by the Jesuits, scarcely understood
sufficient astronomy to enable them to calculate an eclipse, were
ignorant of the art of founding cannon, of building chimneys, of making
clocks and watches; and, what was infinitely worse than all this, they
were under so little moral restraint that men incapable of maintaining a
family married several wives with the execrable design of exposing or
murdering their offspring. The existence of foundling hospitals in
civilized countries proves that there everywhere exist individuals to
whom the offshoots of their own being are objects of no solicitude;
ancient nations, too, sometimes exposed weak or deformed children; but
no people, as far as I have been able to discover, ever arrived at that
pitch of depravity which distinguishes the Chinese, “among whom,” says
Sir George Staunton, “habit seems to have familiarized a notion that
life only becomes truly precious, and inattention to it criminal, after
it has continued long enough to be endowed with a mind and sentiment;
but that mere dawning existence may be suffered to be lost without
scruple, though it cannot without reluctance.”
In the fine arts the Chinese have made but little progress, having no
knowledge of sculpture, and very little of painting. Their literature,
it is very clear, contains none of those splendid creations of genius
which we might expect to find among a people partly civilized during so
many ages, and which actually exist in the languages of Persia and
Hindostan. Their popular religion is the grossest and most corrupt form
of Buddhism; and even this, as well as their philosophy and arts, such
as they are, they originally borrowed from Hindostan, which seems in
antiquity to have been the great workshop where all the fantastic
systems, religious and philosophical, which were current among the
heathen were fabricated.
Captain Ismailoff seems, like Lord Amherst, to have felt a peculiar
antipathy to the practice of bowing nine times before the Chinese
emperor; but at length, after many struggles with their prejudices,
consented to conform to ancient usage. The first audience was granted
him at one of the emperor’s country palaces, where, when he arrived,
though the morning was cold and frosty, he found all the ministers of
state and officers belonging to the court seated cross-legged upon their
fur cushions in the open air,—an exhibition probably intended to serve
as a reproof to the insolent barbarian who could object to bow nine
times before a prince at whose door the greatest men in the Celestial
Empire were contented to sit cross-legged in the frost! Nothing of that
magnificence which Marco Polo found at the court of Kublai Khan was
discoverable in that of Kamhi, where, on the contrary, the only
circumstances truly remarkable were the extreme plainness of every thing
and the affability and calm good sense of the aged monarch, who, in
insisting on the observance of ancient forms and ceremonies, was
actuated, it was clear, by no motives of paltry vanity.
Though Gibbon, with all his disposition to skepticism, allowed to Pekin
a population of two millions, it would appear from Bell’s account, who
says he rode round it at an easy trot in four hours, to be inferior to
London in size; and no one who is acquainted with the form of Chinese
houses, which are never more than one story high, and who reflects upon
the extent of the imperial gardens, together with all the other gardens
included within the walls, will doubt for a moment that it is vastly
less populous. Upon the accounts of the Chinese themselves no reliance
whatever can be placed. They are greater proficients in lying than the
ancient Cretans; and on the subject of population have deluded European
travellers with fables so monstrous, that there is nothing in Gulliver
more repugnant to common sense. To maintain the one-half of the
population to which their empire makes pretensions would demand a
progress in civilization and the arts of life of which hitherto they
have not even dreamed; but a paper population costs nothing. Three
hundred and thirty-three millions are as easily written as one hundred
and nineteen millions. But if we reflect for a moment on the vast
deserts, the barren mountains, the impenetrable woods which the Jesuits,
when scattered and terrified into their senses by persecution, found in
almost every part of this richly-cultivated country, and were enabled to
conceal themselves in for months, we shall perhaps be disposed to
conclude, that in proportion to its extent China is less populous than
Hindostan, which yet does not, in all probability, contain one-fourth of
the population it might be made to support if properly cultivated.
The object of the mission, which indeed seems to have been of little
importance, having been accomplished, the ambassador prepared to depart.
The aged emperor, however, who appears to have possessed a thoroughly
benevolent and polished mind, was desirous of presenting them before
they took their leave with the splendid spectacle of a Mongol hunt, of
such a one at least as could be represented in a park of two or three
days’ journey in extent. On the 21st of February, therefore, the day
appointed for the hunt, horses were brought them at one o’clock in the
morning, the Chinese resolving that no time should be lost. They reached
the royal park about daybreak, where, in a summer-house erected in the
forest, they found the emperor, who had risen long before their arrival.
Here they breakfasted. Before the south front of the summer-house there
was a large canal, with several fish-ponds filled with clear water,
which greatly beautified the scene; and all around, at convenient
distances, stood a thousand tents in which the courtiers had slept.
“The signal was then given,” says Bell, “that the emperor was coming;
upon which all the great men drew up in lines, from the bottom of the
stairs to the road leading to the forest, all on foot, dressed in their
hunting-habits, the same with those used by the officers and cavalry of
the army when in the field, and armed with bows and arrows. We had a
proper place assigned us, and made our bows to his majesty, who returned
a gracious smile, with signs to follow him. He was seated cross-legged
in an open machine carried by four men with long poles rested on their
shoulders. Before him lay a fowling-piece, a bow, and a sheaf of arrows.
This has been his hunting equipage for some years, since he left off
riding.... As soon as the emperor had passed, the company mounted and
followed him at some distance till we came into the open forest, where
all formed into a semicircle, in the centre of which was the emperor,
having on his left-hand (the place of honour in China) about eight or
ten of his sons and grandsons, and the ambassador on his right, about
fifty paces distant. Close by him were the master of the chase with some
greyhounds and the grand falconer with his hawks. I could not but admire
the beauty of these fine birds. Many of them were as white as doves,
having one or two black feathers in their wings or tails. They are
brought from Siberia, or places to the north of the river Amoor.
“Our wings being extended, there were many hares started, which the
company endeavoured to drive towards the emperor, who killed many of
them with arrows as they passed; those he missed he made a sign to some
of the princes to pursue, who also killed several of them with arrows;
but no other person was permitted to draw a bow or stir from the line.
“From the open field we continued our route westward to a place among
thickets and tall reeds, where we sprung a number of pheasants,
partridges, and quails. His majesty then laid aside his bow and arrows,
and carried a hawk on his hand, which he flew as occasion offered. The
hawks generally raked in the pheasants while flying; but if they took to
the reeds or bushes they soon caught them.
“After proceeding about two or three miles farther into the forest we
came to a tall wood, where we found several sorts of deer. The young men
went in and beat the woods, while the rest of the company remained
without. We saw much game pass us, but nobody drew a bow until the
emperor had killed a stag, which he did very dexterously with a
broad-headed arrow; after which the princes had leave to kill several
bucks, among which was one of that species that bears the musk, called
_kaberda_ in Siberia.
“We had now been six hours on horseback, and I reckon had travelled
about fifteen English miles, but no end of the forest yet appeared. We
turned short from this wood southward, till coming to some marshes
overgrown with tall reeds we roused a great many wild boars; but as it
was not the season for killing them they all escaped. The hunting of
these fierce animals is reckoned the most dangerous of all kinds of
sport except the chase of lions and tigers. Every one endeavoured to
avoid them, and several of them ran furiously through the thickest
troops of horse. The emperor was so cautious as to have a company of men
armed with lances to guard his machine.
“We continued the sport till about four o’clock, when we came to a high
artificial mount of a square figure, raised in the middle of a plain, on
the top of which were pitched about ten or twelve tents for the imperial
family. This mount had several winding paths leading to the top, planted
on each side with rows of trees in imitation of nature. To the south was
a large basin of water with a boat upon it, from whence, I suppose, the
earth has been taken that formed this mount. At some distance from the
mount tents were erected for the people of distinction and officers of
the court. About two hundred yards from it _we were lodged in some clean
huts covered with reeds_.”—[No mark that Kamhi held the czar’s
ambassador in very high estimation.]—“The emperor, from his situation,
had a view of all the tents and a great way farther into the forest. The
whole scene made a very pretty appearance.”
When they had dined and been interrogated respecting the degree of
admiration with which they had beheld the feats of the emperor and his
sons, which was of course superlative, the ambassador was informed that
he was to be entertained with a tiger-hunt, or rather “baiting,” as our
traveller terms it; three animals of that species having been kept for
some time in a cage for that purpose. “The hill where the emperor’s tent
stood was surrounded with several ranks of guards armed with long
spears. A guard also was placed before the ambassador’s and the rest of
the tents, to secure the whole encampment from the fury of these fierce
animals. The first was let out by a person mounted on a fleet horse, who
opened the door of the coop by means of a rope tied to it. The tiger
immediately left his cage, and seemed much pleased to find himself at
liberty. The horseman rode off at full speed, while the tiger (poor
fellow!) was rolling himself upon the grass. At last he rose, growled,
and walked about. The emperor fired twice at him with bullets, but the
distance being considerable missed him, though the pieces were well
pointed. Upon which his majesty sent to the ambassador to try his piece
upon him; which being charged with a single ball, he walked towards the
animal, accompanied by ten men armed with spears, in case of accidents,
till, being at a convenient distance, he took his aim and killed him on
the spot.”
The second and third tigers were despatched in a short time; and the
sportsmen, pluming themselves upon their magnificent achievements, sat
down in great good-humour to supper, as men always do when they have
performed any glorious action. The skin of the tiger slain by the
ambassador was sent him by the emperor, who observed, that by the laws
of hunting he had a right to it. The sport of the next day differed very
little from the preceding. They continued, however, advancing through
the forest without discovering any end to it, and passed the night in a
temple near another imperial summer-house. The extent of this immense
park, which was all enclosed by a high wall, may enable us to form some
idea of the quantity of useless land in China; for besides the number of
similar enclosures belonging to the imperial family, we may be sure
that, as far as possible, all the rich and great imitate the example of
the sovereign.
The ambassador now received his audience of leave, and, after making
several visits of ceremony, and receiving the curious but not valuable
presents intended for the czar, departed from Pekin. Their route from
the capital to the Great Wall, and thence across the deserts of Mongolia
to Selinguisky, though not precisely the same as that by which they had
come, afforded but few new objects, and was rendered interesting by no
striking incidents. The Baikal Lake being still frozen when they reached
it, they traversed it on light sledges upon the ice. They then embarked
upon the Angara, and descended by water to Yeniseisk. Proceeding thence
by land, they soon arrived upon the banks of the river Ket, where they
again took to their boats; and sailing down this melancholy stream,
bordered on both sides by the most gloomy forests, immerged into the
mighty stream of the Obe. They now sailed down this river to its
confluence with the Irtish, another noble stream, against the current of
which they made their way with much difficulty to Tobolsk. Here they
quitted their boats, and continued their journey on sledges. Winter was
rapidly invading the country. Snow, cold winds, frost, and short days
conspired to render their movements irksome; but they still pushed on
rapidly, and on the 5th of January, 1722, arrived at Moscow, where they
found the czar and all his court, who had recently removed thither from
Petersburg.
Peter, surrounded by his courtiers, the general officers, and the
nobility and gentry from all parts of the empire, was making great
preparations for the celebration of the festivals appointed to be
solemnized in commemoration of the peace concluded at Aland in 1721,
between Russia and Sweden, after a war of more than twenty years, when
our traveller arrived; and as he appears greatly to have admired the
policy of Peter on most occasions, he was particularly gratified at the
present exhibition. He observes that Peter, even in his amusements and
times of diversion, made use of all possible means of inspiring his
people with a love of what was useful; and as the Russians had a
peculiar aversion to shipping, his principal aim in the shows exhibited
at Moscow was to dispel that prejudice, by impressing upon their minds
that it was owing to his naval power that the peace had been obtained.
“The triumphant entry,” says Bell, “was made from a village about seven
miles from Moscow, called Seswedsky. The first of the cavalcade was a
galley finely carved and gilt, in which the rowers plied their oars as
on the water. The galley was commanded by the high-admiral of Russia.
Then came a frigate of sixteen small brass guns, with three masts,
completely rigged, manned with twelve or fourteen youths habited like
Dutch skippers, in black velvet, who trimmed the sails, and performed
all the manœuvres of a ship at sea. Then came most richly-decorated
barges, wherein sat the empress and the ladies of the court. There were
also pilot-boats heaving the lead, and above thirty other vessels,
pinnaces, wherries, &c., each filled with masqueraders in the dresses of
different nations. It was in the month of February, at which time all
the ground was covered with snow, and all the rivers frozen. All these
machines were placed on sledges, and were drawn by horses through all
the principal streets of Moscow. The ship required above forty horses to
draw it. In order to its passing under the gates the topmasts were
struck, and, when passed, set up again; besides which, the gateway was
dug as low as was necessary for admitting it to pass.”
As soon as these festivals were concluded, Peter, who had been invited
into Persia with an army by the shah, who required his aid against the
rebellious Afghans, prepared to march southward; and Bell, who was
thought to understand something of Persian manners, having spent some
time in the country, was engaged by the czar’s chief physician to
accompany the expedition. Accordingly, the troops having been embarked
on the Moskwa, they descended by water to the Caspian Sea, and made for
the shores of Daghestan, where they landed and encamped. They then
proceeded along the seashore to Derbend, where the fleet containing the
provisions, stores, &c. for the army was wrecked upon the beach. This
gave Peter a plausible excuse for returning home without affording the
shah the desired aid. Indeed, the whole expedition appears to have been
a mere piece of treachery got up for the purpose of obtaining possession
of Derbend; for “the emperor determined,” says Bell, “to leave things in
the state they were in, and to return again to Astrakhan by the same way
we came, _leaving a garrison at Derbend sufficient to secure the
advantage he had gained_.”
We now lose sight of our traveller for fifteen years, the whole of
which, however, he spent in Russia. In 1737 the war with Turkey, which
had begun in 1734, began to grow disagreeable to the Russian court, the
Ottomites, in spite of their barbarism, being more obstinate in the
field than their polished enemies of the north had anticipated. Under
these circumstances, it was thought advisable to negotiate a peace; but
as the Turks made no proposals, and as in time of war no subject of
Russia, or Germany, the ally of Russia, was admitted into the dominions
of the sultan, Bell, who appears to have been greatly respected both for
his character and abilities, was prevailed upon, “at the earnest desires
of Count Osterman, the chancellor of Russia, and of Mr. Rondeau, his
Britannic majesty’s minister at the court of Russia,” to undertake the
journey. He departed from Petersburg on the 6th of December, 1737, and
arrived at Constantinople on the 29th of the next month. With respect to
his commission, he merely observes that he punctually conformed to the
terms of his instructions. His negotiations did not detain him long. He
left Constantinople on the 8th of April, and on the 17th of May arrived
at Petersburg. Here he concludes his account of himself and his travels.
In the decline of his life he returned to Scotland, where he resided at
Antermony, his native place; and it was there that, surrounded
apparently by affluence, and enjoying the most ample leisure, he wrote
his excellent and interesting account of his travels, the first edition
of which appeared in 1762. His death took place in 1780.
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