miserable creatures with more attention than was expedient. To enforce
obedience, he frequently made use of his stick, and my remonstrances
could not restrain him from these sallies, which he called, in
pleasantry, his reigning sin. One day he had near paid for his cruelty
in a terrible manner. Arriving at a stage we found no horses; the man
upon whom the business this day devolved, had been guilty of the daring
crime to absent himself, in order to get hay. Two hours passed away,
and no one appeared; my courier at length resolved to go himself, with
my soldier, and seize the first horses they could find. In about half
an hour they returned, in a very angry humour, with a single horse,
for which they had been obliged to fight. While they were relating the
transaction, the man whom they accused of being the aggressor, ran to
complain to me of their having plucked off half his beard. At the same
moment I was surrounded by more than fifty persons, assembled from I
know not where, for as we entered the village, we could perceive no
one but the _starost_. They seemed to contend who should reproach him
most; I spoke a long time without being heard. My courier, instead of
assisting me in pacifying them, ran to the postillion, who returned
from the fields, and made his arm pay dearly for the delay he had
occasioned us. The man, whose beard had been torn off, prepared to
avenge his comrade, but the soldier, by order of the courier, prevented
him, and I was obliged to deliver him from his hands. By dint of
vociferation and entreaties I at last suspended the fury of the
combatants. I had great reason to applaud myself for my moderation;
the spectators were enraged at the treatment their neighbour received;
they would infallibly have murdered us, if I had not immediately
ordered my two indiscreet attendants to return to the carriage, and the
postillion to make haste and harness the horses. The crowd was desirous
of pursuing them, but at last I succeeded in appeasing it, and they
escaped with a few invectives. I hastened to my kibitk, and did not
think myself safe till I was out of their reach.
I trembled lest this event should circulate; in the mean time, till my
arrival at Tomsk, a town at the end of this desert, I saw not the least
appearance of commotion. My people were eager to carry their complaints
before the inspector general, and to my great mortification they
appealed to me as a witness. This officer explained to me the dangerous
influence the affair would produce upon the maintenance of order and
subordination, if these exiles of Baraba were not severely punished;
he accordingly prepared to set out for the spot, to make an example of
them.
My visit to the governor of Tomsk soon consoled me for this
disagreeable adventure. I found him to be a Frenchman, of the name
of _Villeneuve_: his rank was that of colonel; I was received by him
as a countryman, and I need say no more to express our mutual joy at
meeting. I conceived myself to be already in France.
The town of Tomsk is tolerably neat; it is partly upon an eminence,
where the house of the governor predominates, and the other part
descends to the river Tom. I only staid while my wheels were repairing.
I met many companies of exiles, or galley slaves[113], and I was
advised to be on my guard against them. As individuals frequently
escape, the peasants are obliged to pursue them as much from duty as
for their own safety. Nothing is in reality more easy than for these
exiles to make their escape on the road; they are well guarded, it is
true, but they are never fettered. I have seen in woods as many as
eighty destined to the same place; they were divided into companies
of four, five, or six men and women, who followed at the distance
sometimes of two or three wersts. They are afterwards distributed in
the different mines of Siberia: these were going to Nertschinsk.
I crossed the principal rivers of this province, as the Oka, the
Yenisei, the Tom, the Obi, which the Russians call the _Ob_. On the
last I ran a considerable risk in a small ferry, which was in so
wretched a condition, that in the middle of the river it filled with
water. We should have found some difficulty in saving ourselves, but
for a smaller boat, that I had had the precaution to fasten to the
ferry, and others that were quickly brought to our succour by the
inhabitants on the opposite side.
Before I arrived at Tobolsk, I passed the Irtisch twice, the last time
near the mouth of the Tobol. This capital, situated between these two
rivers, would have been one of the most beautiful towns of Siberia,
but a fire has made such havock as to reduce the greater part of it to
ashes. Prior to this event, it was in two divisions, the upper town
and the lower town; the one, built upon the platform of a mountain,
presented many beautiful edifices of stone; the other was made up of
wooden houses, which were the first devoured by the flames. By degrees
the fire reached the upper part of the town and the stone houses,
where it left nothing but the walls. I made no stay at this melancholy
scene; the impression it made upon me was equally deep and forcible,
and I shall never forget the air of consternation that was visible
in the inhabitants, who, from the highest to the lowest, laboured
indefatigably, but in mournful silence, to repair their losses. Already
the ravages begin to disappear, and the foundations of some houses and
shops, all rebuilding of stone, arise above the surface: it is probable
that the rest of the town will have the same solidity.
In quitting it I passed the Irtisch a third time to reach
Catherinebourg, or Yekaterinbourg, where I stayed twenty-four hours,
that my carriage might again be repaired. I employed the time in
visiting a gold mine in the neighbourhood, and the place where the
copper money is coined.
I refer the reader to the authors I have already cited, for a
description of the colonies of Tcheremisses, Tschouvaschis, Votiaguis,
and Tartars. I shall only say of these last, that the neatness of
the inside of their houses astonished me, doubtless because I had
been a little too much accustomed to the contrary defect among the
Kamtschadales, Koriacs, &c. These Tartars lead sedentary lives; they
are husbandmen, and have considerable quantities of corn and cattle:
the religion they profess is the Mahometan.
The head dress of the Tcheremisses struck me with its singularity; it
is a small shell of wood, eight or ten inches long, and four or five
broad, placed near the root of the hair upon the forehead, and the
upper part with an inclination forward. This is fastened with a knot,
and then covered with an handkerchief, white embroidered or figured,
and, out of preference, they chuse the most glaring colours and the
most crowded patterns. The handkerchief, which is very large, and
hangs loosely behind, is edged with a broad fringe, or lace of gold or
silver, in proportion to the wealth or luxury of the wearer. The rest
of their dress cannot better be compared than to a robe de chambre.
I met a caravan of Bohemians who asked me for money, and informed me
that they were going to people and cultivate a small canton on the
borders of the Wolga, near Saratoff.
The necessity of having my passport examined by the governor of Casan,
and the difficulty of procuring horses, as I arrived late, kept me in
this town till break of day. The Wolga, which washes its walls, renders
the situation pleasant; the houses are for the most part built of
wood, and the churches of stone. I was told that it is the see of an
archbishop.
Beyond the Wolga[114], a river famous for its navigation, and which
pours itself into the Caspian sea, I passed before the towns of
Rouzmodemiansk and Makarieff. The latter, celebrated for its linen
manufactures, is, property speaking, but a village. I was at a small
distance from it, and had just crossed a bridge, ill constructed, and
that trembled under my carriage, when my impatience was near costing
me my life. My postilion, animated by my repeated exhortations, drove
me with great rapidity[115]: on a sudden I heard something strike hard
against the box of my kibitk; I thrust out my head, and received a blow
that made me instantly fall back in my carriage. A cry, uttered by the
courier who rode with me, informed me that I was wounded. In reality a
stream of blood ran down my forehead: the carriage stopped, I alighted;
it was the circle of my wheel that was broken, the edge of which had
struck me with the greater violence, in consequence of our speed. On
putting my hand to the wound, it appeared large and deep: I conceived
that the skull was injured, and I considered myself as a dead man.
It is here I can say with truth, that language is too weak to describe
the excess of my despair. After surmounting so many obstacles, so many
perils; at the very gates of Petersburg, where I ardently longed to
embrace, in my arms, the best of fathers, whom I had not seen for four
years; on the eve of entering my native country, of acquitting myself
of my embassy, by delivering my important dispatches, and to be struck
by a mortal blow! The reflection overcame me; I felt my knees tremble
and my head turn round; the succours of my companions fortunately
brought me to life: I armed myself with courage, tied a bandage tight
about my head, the wheel was adjusted in the best manner it could, and
we soon gained the preceding stage to Nijenei-novogorod.
I left my kibitk in this village to the care of my soldier, with
orders to have it repaired, and to follow me immediately to the next
town. While my post carriage was harnessing, and my box put into it, I
entered a public house, and had some very strong brandy poured into my
wound, and a good compress placed on it, which enabled me to proceed to
Nijenei-novogorod, which was from twenty-five to thirty wersts.
The surgeon major, at whose house I stopped, was not at home, and in
order to wait for him, I was conducted into a most filthy habitation.
The desire of not being known, and the uncertainty I was in respecting
my wound, induced me not to announce myself to the governor. In the
afternoon I returned to the surgeon’s, but to no purpose. Impatient
of suffering, without knowing what might be the effect of my wound, I
asked if there was no one else who could assist me, and they mentioned
a _podleker_, or surgeon’s mate, who, after many difficulties on
his part, came to me. His address gave me no favourable impression
respecting his talents and sobriety; it had all the bluntness and
tottering gait of a drunken man. In the mean time the necessity of
having my wound probed, overcame the repugnance I felt of trusting
myself to such hands; but the wretch had forgotten his instruments. Who
would suppose that a pin was the probe he borrowed? Having examined it,
he informed me, in a fluttering manner, that my skull was laid open,
but not at all fractured, and that with the application of brandy and
water I might continue my journey; he then advised me to be blooded.
The idea of trusting my arm to such a drunkard made me shudder. Having
thanked, paid, and dismissed him, I got into my carriage, happy to be
rid both of the operation and the operator.
Nijenei-novogorod is situated, as every one knows, upon the Wolga,
and is similar to all the Russian towns. When I passed through it, it
boasted of the honour of having a company of national comedians.
Leaving Vladimer, I came to Moscow. M. de Boffe was anxious to have
my wound examined by the most skillful surgeons. Their report gave me
confidence, though the pains in my head were tolerably acute. I found
myself the more consoled by the removal of my fears, as I learned at
the same time a circumstance very much calculated to increase them. M.
de Boffe told me that my father was not at Petersburg: if therefore I
had been dangerously wounded, and this town had been the termination of
my career, I should have been deprived of the consolation of ending my
life in the arms of him to whom I owed it.
My carriage being in a shattered condition, I left it at Moscow,
and sat off in one of the common post carriages; but they were so
small and so incommodious, as not even to shelter me from the rain.
I passed by Tver, Vonischnei-volotschok, Novogorod, and Sophia
near Tsarskocelo[116], and I entered Petersburg in the night of 22
September, having travelled six thousand wersts in forty days, eight of
which were lost in the unavoidable delays I had experienced.
Agreeably to the instruction of count de la Perouse, I delivered my
packets into the hands of count de Segur, minister plenipotentiary from
the court of France to the empress. I had the pleasure of seeing him on
his arrival in Russia, and I count it among the happy events of my life
that I now found him at Petersburg, to console me for the absence of my
father. This minister not only received me in the most gracious manner,
but interested himself in my health with every mark of affection. He
offered one of his couriers to accompany and take care of me during
the remainder of my journey. Meanwhile as the skill of his surgeon had
effected my cure, I thanked the count for his obliging offer, but was
unwilling to deprive him of a man who might be necessary to him.
Charged with his dispatches, I left Petersburg the 26, between
eleven and twelve at night. At Remer, as the weather was foul, I was
eight hours in engaging watermen to take me across an arm of the sea
called _Courich-haff_. I slept at Berlin, count d’Esterno, minister
plenipotentiary of the king to this court, being also desirous of
sending dispatches by me; I was well requited for this trifling delay,
by the flattering things which it occasioned me from this minister.
At length I saw my native country, and 17 October at three o’clock
in the afternoon, I arrived at Versailles. I alighted at the house of
count de la Luzerne, minister and secretary of state for the marine
department. I had not the happiness of being known to him, but the
very kind reception he gave me, instantly prepared my heart for the
gratitude, which on so many accounts I owe him. To his favour, upon
which I set the highest value, I am indebted for the honour of having
been presented, the same day, to his majesty, who condescended to
interrogate me respecting various circumstances of my expedition;
expressed a desire to know the particulars; and recompensed me the
next day by appointing me consul at Cronstadt; a recompence so much
the dearer, as it reminded me of the eulogiums that had been bestowed
on the zeal of all my family, in the civil and political offices with
which they had been entrusted.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES
[1] During my stay at Poustaretsk, the governor had dismissed our
Kamtschadale guides. Some of them belonged to the environs of
Bolcheretsk, and were four hundred leagues distant from their home.
These poor creatures, almost all their dogs having died of fatigue and
hunger, were obliged to return on foot.
[2] All the wandering Koriacs avoided us in the same manner, that they
might not be obliged to assist us.
[3] These people are at the south of the Tchouktchis, upon the eastern
coast.
[4] This tent was made of linen; I had purchased it of M. Vorokoff
before I left Poustaretsk.
[5] This report had gained credit from the false representation of
Bogonoff, the engineer. He asserted, that the Koriacs had, by force of
arms, opposed his entrance into the river Pengina. When I mentioned it
to them, they protested, that so far from opposing the passage of this
engineer, they had treated him during his stay with great kindness and
friendship.
[6] This detachment had originally consisted of forty men; but at the
requisition of Kabechoff, ten Cossacs were added to it, who arrived at
Kaminoi with the supplies, which we have already mentioned.
[7] These people, informed that I was on my way to Ingiga, would, I
was told, probably come to meet me, were it merely from a spirit of
curiosity.
[8] See Vol. I. p. 225.
[9] My escort thus consisted of four men; this Golikoff, the soldier
who had accompanied me from Poustaretsk, and two others chosen from the
detachment as my guides: I thought it necessary however to add a Koriac
guide, as I conceived that he must be better acquainted with the road.
[10] The scarcity of dogs at Kaminoi, and the wretched state of mine,
had determined M. Schmaleff to let me have those belonging to the
detachment.
[11] The reader will recollect that I was then in a Kamtschadale dress.
[12] The perfidy of the Koriacs has almost always endeavoured to
inflame the enmity of the Tchoukchis against the Russians, either by
false reports, or by inciting them to attack such parties of Russians
whom they could not, or dared not, attack themselves. These artful
manœuvres have been the cause of the many acts of cruelty with which
the Tchoukchis have been reproached, but which form no part of their
character.
[13] That is, beyond the cape of Tchoukchi, known in maps by the name
of _Tchoukotskoi-nos_.
[14] The fear of being surprised in the night by the Koriacs occasions
this precaution.
[15] Polygamy is allowed by these people; one may say indeed that
they admit promiscuous cohabitation, for they are said to carry their
politeness so far as to offer their wives or daughters to their guests.
To refuse the offer would be an insult. I cannot answer for the truth
of this report.
[16] I had the greater reason to suspect him, as his mode of
introducing himself, reminded me of the expedients he had employed
the preceding year to detain a sailor, charged by government with
important dispatches. The sailor, anxious to arrive at the place of
his destination, was prepared to leave Pareiné, when Youltitka pressed
him to wait till the next day. He showed no disposition to comply, but
was desirous of proceeding immediately. The dispute became warm. The
enraged Koriac fell upon him, and would instantly have assassinated
him, if he had not been torn from his hands. He was bound, and kept in
confinement for three days. At length, after having suffered every sort
of ill treatment, Youltitka permitted him to go, with the hope perhaps
of putting an end to him more easily in his way; but the prey escaped
him.
[17] It is difficult to conceive of a man more completely ugly. Large
and squat, his whole face seamed with the small pox, and various
other scars, a sullen countenance, black hair, that joined enormous
eye-brows, under which there was only one eye, and that sunk in his
head, haggard and fierce; the other he had lost by accident: such is
the exact picture of this Koriac prince.
[18] This tribunal is called in Russia _nijenei-zemskoisoud_, or
inferior territorial tribunal. The judges are selected in turn from the
peasants in the ostrogs of each district. The exercise of their office
is limited to three years. These judges are called _zassédatels_.
[19] They use no kind of cloth or napkin for this purpose. They take a
stick, scrape it for a few minutes, and with the shavings they rub and
clean their dishes and other utensils used in their cooking.
[20] So they call these tempests.
[21] It is necessary to be incessantly on the watch for fear of a
surprise on the part of the neighbouring Koriacs, whose daring and
turbulent character leads them frequently to revolt, and to attack the
town at a time when it is least expected. When they come to Ingiga for
commercial purposes, they are not permitted to make any long stay.
[22] Called in Russia _kounits_.
[23] He was chiefly terrified by the fasts, which, with the Greeks, are
very rigid and very frequent.
[24] I have not the same complaint to make against the wandering
Koriacs. I found them in general more frank and obliging, and shall
presently give a proof of it.
[25] The wandering Koriacs were for a long time still more untractable.
The independence to which they were accustomed, and the natural
restlessness of their character, little disposed them to submit
to the yoke. The Russians, beside, from a love of conquest, were
perhaps not remarkable for moderation, and endeavoured probably to
make themselves feared rather than loved. It is certain that they
experienced the regret of seeing whole hordes suddenly disperse upon
the least appearance of oppression, and fly, as in concert, far from
the settlements where they hoped, by the attraction of commerce, to
fix them. These frequent flights took place till the arrival of major
Gaguen. By the mildness of his government, his repeated invitations,
and beneficial proposals, he has gradually brought back these fugitive
families. First one returned, then two, then three; the force of
example, and a kind of emulation operated upon others, and when I was
at Ingiga there were no less than eleven yourts in the neighbourhood of
that town.
But the skilful policy of major Gaguen has still more successfully
effected the views of the Czarina, by taking advantage of the necessary
commercial intercourse, gradually to establish between the Russians and
the Koriacs of both descriptions in the neighbourhood, a reciprocity of
good offices, a kind of agreement between individual and individual,
that reminds us of ancient hospitality, and that will one day
infallibly operate a revolution in the manners of this people.
If a Koriac be obliged by his business to pass the night in the town,
he demands a lodging of his Russian friend, and without farther
ceremony takes possession. His host considers it as his duty to receive
him, to study his inclinations, to anticipate his wants, and his
wishes; and in short, spares nothing in order to entertain him in the
best manner he can, that is, to make him completely drunk. Upon his
return home, he relates with pleasure the flattering reception he has
met with. He considers it as an obligation, a sacred debt, of which he
is anxious to acquit himself the first opportunity that offers. This is
a pleasing custom, particularly to a Russian soldier, who is obliged to
make frequent journeys to the neighbouring villages. The gratitude of
the Koriac towards his friend, does not confine itself to the affording
him a lodging, regaling him, and supplying him with provisions for
his excursion; he protects him, and becomes his defence against his
countrymen.
[26] All the Koriacs whom I met with on my way from Poustaretsk are
equally subject to famine with the inhabitants of that hamlet. The bark
of the birch tree mixed with the fat of the sea wolf, is then their
whole subsistence.
[27] The rivers near this ostrog are so small as to be entirely frozen
up as soon as the cold sets in, and during more than half the year the
inhabitants are obliged to drink melted snow or ice.
[28] It is used in the Russian houses to destroy insects.
[29] The enamorata probably is not always obdurate, but equally
impatient with her lover to put an end to this laborious novitiate, and
acknowledges herself touched, before it has taken place.
[30] It is also that of the Tchouktchis, and before the introduction of
Christianity was the system of the Kamtschadales.
[31] They believe also in inferior deities. Some they consider as
household gods, the guardians of their rustic habitations. These
idols, coarsely carved and blackened with smoke, are hung up in the
most conspicuous part of their yourts. They are dressed in the Koriac
mode, and adorned with bells, rings, and various other iron and copper
trinkets. The other inferior deities they consider as inhabiting
mountains, woods, and rivers, which reminds us of the nymphs in the
mythology of the ancient Greeks.
[32] I frequently perceived in the course of my journey the remains of
dogs and rein deer suspended on stakes, and testifying the devotion of
the sacrificers.
[33] I dismissed my conductors of course. I have not yet mentioned the
post charges. While I travelled with M. Kasloff, they were defrayed by
him, and I did not pay my share, till I came to quit him. The reader is
intitled to a note upon the subject, which I shall here give him.
These charges are called in Russia _progonn_: a courier pays two
kopecks per werst for every horse, and other travellers four kopecks.
A kopeck is equal to a French _sou_, or an English halfpenny. In
Kamtschatka and Siberia the expence is less by one half, and as dogs
are almost invariably made use of in the peninsula, they are charged at
so much per _podvod_, or team of five dogs. Three podvods, or fifteen
dogs, are considered as equal to one horse in Siberia, for which a
courier pays a kopeck per werst, and other travellers two kopecks.