sent out to examine the roads, conceived them to be impassable, at
least with dogs. From their report, the daily increase of the thaw
deprived me of all hope of advancing farther, unless by means of rein
deer, and M. Kokh therefore sent an express to a horde of wandering
Toungouses that had left Okotsk a few days before, to procure me a
supply of these animals.
Having taken these measures, the major accompanied me to Boulguin,
the country house of Madame Kasloff, who received me as the friend
of her husband, and the companion of his dangers. The object of her
affections was the subject of our whole conversation. She demanded an
account of all our difficulties at the period of our separation. It was
in vain that I attempted to soften in my description such circumstances
as were calculated to impress themselves too forcibly; her sensibility
told her that it was from an unwillingness to give her pain, and it
only alarmed her the more. I did not well know how to console her,
for I was not myself without anxiety respecting this valuable man;
but assisted by M. Kokh, I assumed with tolerable success an air of
serenity. I had recourse to conjectures; and the major, on his part,
mentioned a variety of consoling expedients; and at last we restored
tranquillity to the mind of this affectionate wife, by flattering her
with the speedy arrival of M. Kasloff. This lady was born at Okotsk,
and appeared to have had the best education; she spoke the French
language with elegance. In the solitude of her retreat, her chief
happiness was placed in educating a daughter about three years old, the
express image of her father.
Having made all my visits to the officers of the garrison, I returned
to Boulguin to dine with Mrs. Kasloff, as I had promised, when she gave
me letters to her relations at Moscow.
The next day our express arrived, but he had not been able to overtake
the Toungouses, who had separated, and were dispersed through the
country. Here ended of course our hope of rein deer. Meanwhile it
seemed necessary that I should not defer my departure, as the roads
became worse every day. The longer I wait, said I to myself, the less
capable shall I be of reaching the cross of Yudoma before the rivers
are entirely broken up, and the greater will be the risk of my being
stopped by the floods. Filled with these reflections, I renewed my
entreaties that M. Kokh would allow me to proceed. It was in vain he
alledged the many disagreeable circumstances I should experience, the
obstacles I should encounter, the dangers to which I should be exposed,
from the season being too far advanced to travel with sledges; I
persisted in my resolution. At last he complied, and promised to give
the necessary orders, that nothing might prevent my setting off the
next day, upon condition that I would return the moment I found myself
in any imminent danger. I was glad to obtain my liberty, and consented
to all that he proposed. I spent the remainder of the day in walking
about the town in order to give a description of it, accompanied by a
number of persons who were able to assist my enquiries.
Longer than it is wide, the town of Okotsk extends nearly in a direct
line from east to west; the sea is at the south within a hundred yards
of the houses, and the interval between consists of a flinty strand; at
the north the walls are washed by the Okhota; to the east is the mouth
of this river, that is, at the extremity of a neck of land upon which
the town is built, and that extends from thence to the west. The town
has nothing in it extraordinary; the structure of the houses has little
variety, as they are only isbas, a few of which, situated to the east,
are larger and more commodious than the rest, and are destined for the
use of the officers. M. Kokh lives at the other end of the town; the
gate of his court yard opens into the high street, the regularity of
which is broken by a square, in which are the house of the governor,
and the sessions-house, both of them under the same roof. Opposite
to them is the guard-house, and on the left side of the square the
parish church. These buildings have no very splendid appearance. They
were formerly enclosed with palisades, of which there are still some
vestiges. The remains of a gate to the west of the government house,
shews that this was what they called a fortress. Behind it is a street
reaching almost to the river, inhabited by tradesmen, whose shops,
regularly arranged, line each side of the street.
The port is so very insignificant, that I could not have called it
by this name, if I had not counted in it seven or eight vessels or
galliots, some of them belonging to the crown, and others to merchants,
who carry on a fur trade with America. The port is to the east,
almost at the extremity of the town, and near the river, by a kind
of appendage to which it is formed. Upon the invitation of M. Hall,
lieutenant in the navy, I accompanied him to the dock to see two small
ships that were building for the voyage of discovery intrusted to M.
Billings. The sailors, soldiers, and carpenters, had been sent out at
a very considerable expence; and the armament, which goes on rapidly,
must cost the empress an immense sum.
Faithful to his promise, M. Kokh had made all the preparations for
my departure, and 10 May in the evening, my sledges being loaded and
harnessed, I took leave of him and the rest of the officers, who
expressed their desire of seeing me return.
My company was augmented by two men, who were to serve me as pilots on
the river Yudoma. I travelled all night, notwithstanding the wretched
state of the roads, which corresponded with the report that had been
made. They were completely covered with water, and in some places, the
woods in particular, it reached to the bellies of our dogs. The wind
continued south, the sky became more clouded, and every thing indicated
that the thaw was not likely to cease.
In the mean time, having crossed the river Okhota, I arrived without
accident to the village of Medvejé-golova, or _bear’s-head_, which
is forty-five wersts from Okotsk, and is inhabited by Russians and
Yakouts. I entered very early in the morning, but our dogs were so
weary that I was obliged to spend the day and even the night there,
being unable to procure a fresh supply.
I had hoped to be at Moundoukan the next day, which is twenty wersts
from the preceding ostrog. Half way a part of our dogs refused to
draw, and we reluctantly ventured upon a river that seemed to offer us
a more commodious way. We had scarcely advanced a few paces, when we
heard a sudden crack under our sledges; the next moment I felt myself
gently sink, but a piece of ice still kept me up. It broke a second
time, and my skates became almost invisible. Every effort to extricate
myself would have been fruitless, as the least motion must have carried
me forward and plunged me into the water. Fortunately it was only
four feet deep; by their exertions, my people at last drew me from
my embarassment, but they were nearly as much in want of assistance
themselves. Deaf to the remonstrances of my conductors, I was desirous
of proceeding, but we soon found it necessary mutually to aid each
other in gaining the bank. Meanwhile the snow melted so rapidly, that
our dogs paddled in the water without advancing a step, and fell one
upon another exhausted with fatigue.
Among my guides was a serjeant, whom M. Kokh had given me for my
better security. His reputation for courage and experience led me to
consider him as my compass and guardian, and I kept my eye fixed upon
him, observing his motions and studying his countenance, which had
hitherto been inflexibly composed. In the midst of the murmurs of the
rest of my company, he had not uttered a word nor altered a muscle of
his face, so as to discover any emotion. I naturally construed this
silence into a disavowal of the fears with which they attempted to
fill me, and his tranquillity as an encouragement to go on. Never had
my astonishment been greater than to see him suddenly stop, protesting
that he would not proceed a step farther. I interrogated him, and urged
him to explain himself. “I can no longer be silent,” he answered,
“influenced by a sentiment of vanity, and a desire to display superior
courage, I have hitherto withheld from giving my opinion respecting the
hazardous measure you are desirous of pursuing; but the more I admire
your intrepidity, the more I think myself bound to prevent the fatal
consequences it may occasion, and to inform you of the many dangers and
obstacles that will every instant spring up before you. The majority
of the rivers are already disencumbered of their ice, and could you so
far succeed as to pass them, you would soon be overtaken and surrounded
by the floods. What will then be your resource? To seek an asylum on a
mountain or in a forest, if you should be fortunate enough to meet with
one. Like the inhabitants[51] of these cantons in such circumstances,
can you build yourself a cabin on the tops of the trees, there to
remain a fortnight or three weeks till the waters shall subside? And
are you sure that even in this lofty retreat they will not reach you,
or force you down, together with the tree that serves as your support?
Are you sure that your stock of provisions will preserve you, during
this interval, from the apprehensions of famine? If this summary view
of the calamities that await you are not sufficient to intimidate you,
proceed; you are your own master; I have done my duty, and must beg
leave to quit you.”
This blunt remonstrance, and the terrible prediction it contained, did
not fail to make a strong impression on my mind, and I considered that
I could not do better than return immediately to Okotsk, from which we
were only fifty-five wersts distant.
We reached Medvejé-golova the same evening, where I stayed till four
o’clock in the afternoon of the next day. From thence to the river
Okhota I felt no other inconvenience than that of travelling very
slowly, but to compensate for this short respite, we experienced, when
we came to cross the river, new perils and new alarms. I confess that
I was equally terrified with my people, and dared neither measure with
my eye the width of the river, nor lose sight for a moment of the trace
of my sledge. The instability of the ice, which was moved up and down
by the current, made me apprehensive that it could not bear the weight
of so many passengers, and I expected every instant that an abyss would
open and swallow up some of us. At length having gained the bank, we
counted over the company one after another, to convince ourselves that
no one was lost, and the pleasure of having escaped this tremendous
danger, gave wings to the remainder of our journey to Okotsk, where we
arrived the 14 at noon.
So speedy a return, occasioned some pleasantries on the part of M.
Kokh and the other officers; each reminded me of his prediction; but
I was less confused at the folly of my attempt, than mortified and
distressed at its failure. I calculated with grief that my stay in this
town would not perhaps be less than a month. Engrossed by a thousand
melancholy ideas, I was for some time incapable of returning any
answer to the demonstrations of joy and friendship which were heaped
upon me. All the obstacles I had met with from my first landing at
the port of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, occurred at once to my mind,
and I conceived that the invincible hand of fate opposed itself to
the success of my embassy. It was to no purpose that I employed every
means of being expeditious; it was to no purpose that I had pushed
my zeal to rashness, and on many occasions hazarded both my life and
my dispatches. What a distance was I still from Petersburg! In the
mean time six months are frequently known to be sufficient for this
journey; and a vessel leaving Bolcheretsk in July, will, if it meet
with no accident, commonly arrive at Okotsk in three weeks or a month,
and sometimes in twelve or fifteen days. From Okotsk to Yakoutsk, on
horseback, is only the business of a month, and in like manner from
Yakoutsk to Irkoutsk, whether we sail down, the Lena, or ride along
its banks. At Irkoutsk it will probably be necessary to wait six weeks
till the frost sets in, and by means of sledges it is easy travelling
to Petersburg in a similar portion of time; the governor general has
performed it in twenty eight days.
It is impossible to express my impatience and despair, when I
contrasted the tediousness of my journey with this expeditious mode
of travelling. Eight months had already elapsed, and I was no farther
than Okotsk. It is true, I had no choice of season, and had been
detained nearly three months at Bolcheretsk; obliged beside to make by
land the tour of the peninsula of Kamtschatka, I had had to contend
with tempests and a thousand obstacles, each more grievous than the
preceding. These delays had been equally involuntary and unavoidable;
and though they may be pleaded in my justification, they do not remove
the regret that is inseparable from the recollection of them. It is
always distressing not to be able to execute the trust reposed in
us, particularly when it is known, that at a different season, and
under other circumstances, the task would have been easy; but it is
still more distressing, when attended with the anxiety to see our
native country and our dearest friends. Such were the reflections
which agitated my mind on my return to Okotsk; and for many days they
poisoned the pleasures that every one was desirous of procuring me. At
length, however, the attentions I experienced, and the amusements that
poured in upon me on all sides, dispelled my chagrin, and there was no
longer any merit in my resignation.
Among the officers of the garrison, I owed peculiar obligations to M.
Loftsoff, inspector general. He gave instant orders that the belt of
their wretched horses should be collected from the environs, and kept
in readiness to set off at a moment’s warning[52]. This precaution
enabled me to seize the first favourable opportunity, which, I
flattered myself, would be sooner than they gave me reason to expect.
Mrs. Kasloff, informed of my return, had the kindness to send me every
day an abundance of milk, which she knew had been prescribed by M.
Allegretti, as the only food that could relieve my breast. I was the
more obliged by this attention, as it was not possible to procure milk
at Okotsk at any price.
In a few days I heard news that gave me real pleasure. An express from
Ingiga informed us of M. Kasloff’s arrival in that settlement; but he
had brought no letter from the governor; and our joy soon gave place to
anxiety. In what situation had he arrived? Why had he not written? His
health perhaps would not permit him? We all questioned the messenger
in turns, and it was with difficulty he could convince us of his
safety; but the probability of his account, its invariable uniformity,
and our own hopes, so natural, when the person in question is dear to
us, persuaded us at last that our fears were vain; and in spite of
my melancholy experience of the difficulties of the route, and the
unfavourableness of the season, blinded by my attachment, I frequently
deceived myself, and lessened the obstacles, from my desire to see him
before my departure.
Okotsk being the seat of administration, and the entrepôt of the
Russian commerce in this country, I found myself at the fountain
head of knowledge respecting these subjects. The society in which I
lived, offered me a thousand opportunities of instruction, which it
was impossible not to embrace. I first applied myself to the study of
commerce, by enquiring into the causes that gave rise to, that favoured
and increased the enterprises of the Russian colonies in this quarter
of the world. I was assisted in my enquiries by the most enlightened
persons and the best informed merchants; and to ascertain the truth
of their accounts, I frequently contrasted them with each other, and
compared them with the assertions of Coxe. I beg leave to transcribe,
in this place, the notes which I minuted down for my own information.
If they should contain any details sufficiently interesting to obtain
pardon for the digression, I shall have gained my end, and be amply
rewarded for my labour.
By the conquest of the eastern part of Siberia, the Russians came into
possession of the fruitful mines with which it abounds, and which were
held in no estimation by the inhabitants. To the extraction of iron,
the conquerors added that of silver, gold, and other precious metals,
the eternal objects of the avarice of mankind. The discovery of these
new sources of wealth, enflamed the courage of the adventurers; the
result was, that they were desirous of extending their dominion still
farther, and their eager regards reached beyond Irkoutsk, which ought
on this side to have bounded their empire.
Upon their first incursions into the neighbouring countries, they
perceived, with regret, that they had not the same advantages to hope
for. Nature appeared every where to have acted as a step-mother. The
sterility of the soil, which equalled the rigour of the climate,
and the stupid sloth of the savage inhabitants, who were chiefly
hunters, herdsmen, or ichthyophagi, men who subsist on fish, offered
no flattering resources to industry, and was directly calculated to
check all speculative ideas. But ingenious avarice knew how to acquire
wealth even here. The view of the clothing of the savages, suggested
instantly the idea of robbing them of it, and the emigrants calculated
the possibility of succeeding by the lure of exchange, and the immense
profit that would accrue from this branch of commerce, when it was once
in their possession.
As they proceeded farther to the east of Asia, it was remarked that
the furs were more beautiful; and this was sufficient to persuade
Russia that it was her interest and glory to subject every part of this
vast country to the obedience of her laws. Hitherto it had been the
theatre of the piracies of a herd of Cossacs and Tartars, with whom
some Russians, instigated by the same spirit of plunder, had united
themselves. The success of their attempts being known, the allurement
of riches attracted a greater number of emigrants, whose audacity
increased in proportion to the resistance they met with from the
indigenes. In vain had nature placed these savages in barren deserts,
in the midst of forests, where their independence seemed to be out of
the reach of attack; in vain had she given them frosts, mountains, and
seas of ice as barriers; every thing is surmountable by ambition, a
rage for conquest, and a thirst for riches. The courage of the natives
incited them every day to fresh combats, but it could not save them
from oppression; the conquerors, if I may so speak, sprung up again
in proportion as they perished in these bloody contests. Frequent
reinforcements, countenanced by the government, repaired these losses,
and gave no time to the vanquished to recover from the surprise and
shame of having yielded to a handful of foreigners, whose usurpations
became more enormous on every victory. By force of arms they were
already masters of the whole territory as far as Okotsk, and northward
had advanced to the banks of the Anadir.
To secure so many advantages, a system of government and commerce was
necessary; and immediately forts were constructed and towns built.
These establishments, paltry as they were, opened an asylum to Russian,
and other commercial speculators, who were acquainted with the route
through these provinces. Here they could resort, when tired of their
perilous expedition, and derive succour against the insults of the
primitive inhabitants, who were always disposed to throw off the yoke
and make reprisals.
Independently of the vexations of every kind that were exercised
against them, doubtless without the knowledge of the court to which
they were become tributary, the natives frequently suffered still
farther from the treachery, cruelties, and all the excesses practised
by ferocious conquerors, when intoxicated with success, and goaded
on by the abuse of riches and power, and the hope of impunity. In
practising these barbarities, individuals were emboldened by the
example of their superiors, even of such as were appointed to stop
the disorders, which became at last so enormous as to excite the
indignation of the empress. The produce of the customs no longer flowed
with equal abundance into the treasury; the tributes were either
annihilated or diminished by the persons appointed to collect them.
Hence the frequent change of governors, whose depravity or incapacity
was justly accused, and merited at least an instant recall. Hence the
want of discipline among the troops, the confusion of all order among
the colonists, the daily accusations, the murders, and all the crimes
that anarchy engenders.
It happened exactly the same at Kamtschatka, when a chief of the
Cossacs[53] reduced the inhabitants of that peninsula to submit
themselves to the Russian yoke. How heavily did it at first bear upon
them! how many troubles, how many depredations, how many revolts did it
occasion! This intestine and cruel war ceased not till a better mode of
government was adopted.
A new order of things then took place; the rights of the indigenes
were more respected, the taxes were less arbitrary, every function
was more faithfully discharged. Freed from the shackles that loaded
it, commerce began to prosper, speculations multiplied, the wealthy
merchants of Russia sent their factors to Okotsk, and this town became
the metropolis to other settlements that gradually sprung up. The
eligibleness of its situation in the center of the conquered provinces,
gave it this preference, notwithstanding the smallness of the port; but
the navigation is almost entirely confined to coasting, and the ships
that trade to Kamtschatka are chiefly galliots.
The cargos which they brought back, that is, the valuable skins
obtained from the inhabitants by way of exchange, or as tribute, were
afterwards sent to the center of the empire, where they were sold under
the eyes, as it were, of government, and chiefly on its account. The
caprice of the purchasers, whether natives or foreigners, was the only
standard of the market: the art of the sellers was directed to raise
the price of their merchandise; but from the skill of the one, and the
eagerness of the other, no real benefit accrued, except to the revenue,
in consequence of the enormous duties levied upon every thing that is
bought and sold.
In the mean time Okotsk flourished, and the number of merchant ships
that arrived in and sailed out of the port increased every day: more
considerable connections gave rise to more extensive views.
Russian caravans, leaving Siberia behind them, passed from desert to
desert to the very borders of China. After some warm contests, and a
variety of treaties infringed and broken, it was at last settled that
the two nations should trade together on the frontiers. This privilege,
which China had not granted to any of the neighbouring powers, was
calculated to give to Russian commerce[54] an unbounded extension.
The merchants were no sooner informed of this new market for the
sale of their furs, than they exerted themselves to procure a greater
abundance. Their vessels, entrusted to pilots chosen from government
ships, sailed for the east of Kamtschatka. These navigators, more
daring than skilful, were fortunate beyond what they had reason to
expect; they not only discovered some unknown islands, but returned
from their voyage loaded with so considerable a cargo of most beautiful
skins, that the court of Petersburg considered herself as bound to
bestow a more particular attention to these discoveries.