The third day they either found their mistake, or had intelligence of us, and came pouring in upon us towards the dusk of the evening. We had, to our great satisfaction, just pitched upon a place for our camp, which was very convenient for the night; for as we were upon a desert, though but at the beginning of it, that was above five hundred miles over, we had no towns to lodge at, and, indeed, expected none but the city of Jarawena, which we had yet two days march to; the desert, however, had some few woods in it on this side, and little river, which ran all into the great river Udda. It was in a narrow strait, between two small but very thick woods, that we pitched our little camp for that night, expecting to be attacked in the night.
Nobody knew but ourselves what we were pursued for; but as it was usual for the Mogul Tartars to go about in troops in that desert, so the caravans always fortify themselves every night against them, as against armies of robbers; and it was therefore no new thing to be pursued.
But we had this night, of all the nights of our travels, a most advantageous camp; for we lay between two woods, with a little rivulet running just before our front; so that we could not be surrounded or attacked any way, but in our front or rear: we took care alsoto make our front as strong as we could, by placing our packs, with our camels and horses, all in a line on the side of the river, and we felled some trees in our rear.
In this posture we encamped for the night; but the enemy was upon us before we had finished our situation: they did not come on us like thieves, as we expected, but sent three messengers to us, to demand the men to be delivered to them, that had abused their priests, and burnt their god Cham-Chi-Thaungu, that they might burn them with fire; and, upon this, they said, they would go away, and do us no farther harm, otherwise they would burn us all with fire. Our men looked very blank at this message, and began to stare at one another, to see who looked with most guilt in their faces, but,nobodywas the word, nobody did it. The leader of the caravan sent word, he was well assured it was not done, by any of our camp; that we were peaceable merchants, travelling on our business; that we had done no harm to them, or to any one else; and therefore they must look farther for their enemies, who had injured them, for we were not the people; so desired them not to disturb us; for, if they did, we should defend ourselves.
They were far from being satisfied with this for an answer, and a great crowd of them came down in the morning, by break of day, to our camp; but, seeing us in such an advantageous situation, they durst come no farther than the brook in our front, where they stood, and shewed us such a number, as, indeed, terrified us very much; for those that spoke least of them, spoke of ten thousand. Here they stood, and looked at us awhile, and then setting up a great howl, they let fly a cloud of arrows among us; but we were well enough fortified for that, for we were sheltered under our baggage; and I do not remember that one man of us was hurt.
Some time after this we saw them move a little to our right, and expected them on the rear, when a cunning fellow, a Cossack, as they call them, of Jarawena,in the pay of the Muscovites, calling to the leader of the caravan, said to him, “I will send all these people away to Sibeilka.” This was a city four or five days journey at least to the south, and rather behind us. So he takes his bow and arrows, and, getting on horseback, he rides away from our rear directly, as it were, back to Nertzinskay; after this, he takes a great circuit about, and comes to the army of the Tartars, as if he had been sent express to tell them a long story, that the people who had burnt their Cham-Chi-Thaungu were gone to Sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called them; that is to say, Christians; and that they were resolved to burn the god Seal Isarg, belonging to the Tonguses.
As this fellow was a mere Tartar, and perfectly spoke their language, he counterfeited so well, that they all took it from him, and away they drove, in a most violent hurry, to Sibeilka, which, it seems, was five days journey to the south; and in less than three hours they were entirely out of our sight, and we never heard any more of them, nor ever knew whether they went to that other place called Sibeilka or no.
So we passed safely on to the city of Jarawena, where there was a garrison of Muscovites; and there we rested five days, the caravan being exceedingly fatigued with the last day’s march, and with want of rest in the night.
From this city we had a frightful desert, which held us three-and-twenty days march. We furnished ourselves with some tents here, for the better accommodating ourselves in the night; and the leader of the caravan procured sixteen carriages, or waggons, of the country, for carrying our water and provisions; and these carriages were our defence every night round our little camp; so that had the Tartars appeared, unless they had been very numerous indeed, they would not have been able to hurt us.
We may well be supposed to want rest again after this long journey; for in this desert we saw neitherhouse or tree, or scarce a bush: we saw, indeed, abundance of the sable-hunters, as they called them. These are all Tartars of the Mogul Tartary, of which this country is a part; and they frequently attack small caravans; but we saw no numbers of them together. I was curious to see the sable skins they catched; but I could never speak with any of them; for they durst not come near us; neither durst we straggle from our company to go near them.
After we had passed this desert, we came into a country pretty well inhabited; that is to say, we found towns and castles settled by the czar of Muscovy, with garrisons of stationary soldiers to protect the caravans, and defend the country against the Tartars, who would otherwise make it very dangerous travelling; and his czarish majesty has given such strict orders for the well guarding the caravans and merchants, that if there are any Tartars heard of in the country, detachments of the garrison are always sent to see travellers safe from station to station.
And thus the governor of Adinskoy, whom I had an opportunity to make a visit to, by means of the Scots merchant, who was acquainted with him, offered us a guard of fifty men, if we thought there was any danger, to the next station.
I thought long before this, that as we came nearer to Europe we should find the country better peopled, and the people more civilized; but I found myself mistaken in both, for we had yet the nation of the Tonguses to pass through; where we saw the same tokens of paganism and barbarity, or worse, than before; only as they were conquered by the Muscovites, and entirely reduced, they were not so dangerous; but for the rudeness of manners, idolatry, and polytheism, no people in the world ever went beyond them. They are clothed all in skins of beasts, and their houses are built of the same. You know not a man from a woman, neither by the ruggedness of their countenances, or their clothes; and in the winter, when the groundis covered with snow, they live under ground, in houses like vaults, which have cavities or caves going from one to another.
If the Tartars had their Cham-Chi-Thaungu for a whole village, or country, these had idols in every hut and every cave; besides, they worship the stars, the sun, the water, the snow; and, in a word, every thing that they do not understand, and they understand but very little; so that almost every element, every uncommon thing, sets them a-sacrificing.
But I am no more to describe people than countries, any farther than my own story comes to be concerned in them. I met with nothing peculiar to myself in all this country, which I reckon was, from the desert which I spoke of last, at least four hundred miles, half of it being another desert, which took us up twelve days severe travelling, without house, tree, or bush; but we were obliged again to carry our own provisions, as well water as bread. After we were out of this desert, and had travelled two days, we came to Janezay, a Muscovite city or station, on the great river Janezay. This river, they told us, parted Europe from Asia, though our map-makers, as I am told, do not agree to it; however, it is certainly the eastern boundary of the ancient Siberia, which now makes a province only of the vast Muscovite empire, but is itself equal in bigness to the whole empire of Germany.
And yet here I observed ignorance and paganism, still prevailed, except in the Muscovite garrisons. All the country between the river Oby and the river Janezay is as entirely pagan, and the people as barbarous, as the remotest of the Tartars; nay, as any nation, for aught I know, in Asia or America. I also found, which I observed to the Muscovite governors, whom I had opportunity to converse with, that the pagans are not much the wiser, or the nearer Christianity, for being under the Muscovite government; which they acknowledged was true enough, but, they said, it was none of their business; that if the czar expected to convert his Siberian, or Tonguese, or Tartar subjects,it should be done by sending clergymen among them, not soldiers; and they added, with more sincerity than I expected, that they found it was not so much the concern of their monarch to make the people Christians, as it was to make them subjects.
From this river to the great river Oby, we crossed a wild uncultivated country; I cannot say ’tis a barbarous soil; ’tis only barren of people, and wants good management; otherwise it is in itself a most pleasant, fruitful, and agreeable country. What inhabitants we found in it are all pagans, except such as are sent among them from Russia; for this is the country, I mean on both sides the river Oby, whither the Muscovite criminals, that are not put to death, are banished, and from whence it is next to impossible they should ever come away.
I have nothing material to say of my particular affairs, till I came to Tobolski, the capital of Siberia, where I continued some time on the following occasion:—
We had been now almost seven months on our journey, and winter began to come on apace; whereupon my partner and I called a council about our particular affairs, in which we found it proper, considering that we were bound for England, and not for Moscow, to consider how to dispose of ourselves. They told us of sledges and rein-deer to carry us over the snow in the winter-time; and, indeed, they have such things, as it would be incredible to relate the particulars of, by which means the Russians travel more in the winter than they can in summer; because in these sledges they are able to run night and day: the snow being frozen, is one universal covering to nature, by which the hills, the vales, the rivers, the lakes, are all smooth, and hard as a stone; and they run upon the surface, without any regard to what is underneath.
But I had no occasion to push at a winter journey of this kind; I was bound to England, not to Moscow, and my route lay two ways: either I must go on as the caravan went, till I came to Jarislaw, and then gooff west for Narva, and the gulf of Finland, and so either by sea or land to Dantzic, where I might possibly sell my China cargo to good advantage; or I must leave the caravan at a little town on the Dwina, from whence I had but six days by water to Archangel, and from thence might be sure of shipping, either to England, Holland, or Hamburgh.
Now to go any of these journies in the winter would have been preposterous; for as to Dantzic, the Baltic would be frozen up, and I could not get passage; and to go by land in those countries, was far less safe than among the Mogul Tartars; likewise to Archangel, in October all the ships would be gone from thence, and even the merchants, who dwell there in summer, retire south to Moscow in the winter, when the ships are gone; so that I should have nothing but extremity of cold to encounter, with a scarcity of provisions, and must lie there in an empty town all the winter: so that, upon the whole, I thought it much my better way to let the caravan go, and to make provision to winter where I was, viz. at Tobolski, in Siberia, in the latitude of sixty degrees, where I was sure of three things to wear out a cold winter with, viz. plenty of provisions, such as the country afforded, a warm house, with fuel enough, and excellent company; of all which I shall give a full account in its place.
I was now in a quite different climate from my beloved island, where I never felt cold, except when I had my ague; on the contrary, I had much to do to bear my clothes on my back, and never made any fire but without doors, for my necessity, in dressing my food, &c. Now I made me three good vests, with large robes or gowns over them, to hang down to the feet, and button close to the wrists, and all these lined with furs, to make them sufficiently warm.
As to a warm house, I must confess, I greatly dislike our way in England, of making fires in every room in the house, in open chimnies, which, when thefire was out, always kept the air in the room cold as the climate. But taking an apartment in a good house in the town, I ordered a chimney to be built like a furnace, in the centre of six several rooms, like a stove; the funnel to carry the smoke went up one way, the door to come at the fire went in another, and all the rooms were kept equally warm, but no fire seen; like as they heat the bagnios in England.
By this means we had always the same climate in all the rooms, and an equal heat was preserved; and how cold soever it was without, it was always warm within; and yet we saw no fire, nor were ever incommoded with any smoke.
The most wonderful thing of all was, that it should be possible to meet with good company here, in a country so barbarous as that of the most northerly part of Europe, near the Frozen ocean, and within but a very few degrees of Nova Zembla.
But this being the country where the state criminals of Muscovy, as I observed before, are all banished; this city was full of noblemen, princes, gentlemen, colonels, and, in short, all degrees of the nobility, gentry, soldiery, and courtiers of Muscovy. Here were the famous prince Galilfken, or Galoffken, and his son; the old general Robostisky, and several other persons of note, and some ladies.
By means of my Scots merchant, whom, nevertheless, I parted with here, I made an acquaintance with several of these gentlemen, and some of them of the first rank; and from these, in the long winter nights, in which I staid here, I received several agreeable visits. It was talking one night with a certain prince, one of the banished ministers of state belonging to the czar of Muscovy, that my talk of my particular case began. He had been telling me abundance of fine things, of the greatness, the magnificence, and dominions, and the absolute power of the emperor of the Russians. I interrupted him, and told him, I was a greater and more powerful prince than ever the czar of Muscovy was, though my dominions were not solarge, or my people so many. The Russian grandee looked a little surprised, and fixing his eyes steadily upon me, began to wonder what I meant.
I told him his wonder would cease when I had explained myself. First, I told him, I had the absolute disposal of the lives and fortunes of all my subjects: that notwithstanding my absolute power, I had not one person disaffected to my government or to my person, in all my dominions. He shook his head at that, and said, there, indeed, I outdid the czar of Muscovy. I told him, that all the lands in my kingdom were my own, and all my subjects were not only my tenants, but tenants at will; that they would all fight for me to the last drop; and that never tyrant, for such I acknowledged myself to be, was ever so universally beloved, and yet so horribly feared, by his subjects.
After amusing them with these riddles in government for awhile, I opened the case, and told them the story at large of my living in the island, and how I managed both myself and the people there that were under me, just as I have since minuted it down. They were exceedingly taken with the story, and especially the prince, who told me with a sigh, that the true greatness of life was to be master of ourselves; that he would not have changed such a state of life as mine, to have been czar of Muscovy, and that he found more felicity in the retirement he seemed to be banished to there, than ever he found in the highest authority he enjoyed in the court of his master the czar: that the height of human wisdom was to bring our tempers down to our circumstances, and to make a calm within, under the weight of the greatest storm, without. When he came first hither, he said, he used to tear the hair from his head, and the clothes from his back, as others had done before him; but a little time and consideration had made him look into himself, as well as round himself, to things without: that he found the mind of man, if it was but once brought to reflect upon the state of universal life, and howlittle this world was concerned in its true felicity, was perfectly capable of making a felicity for itself, fully satisfying to itself, and suitable to its own best ends and desires, with but very little assistance from the world; that air to breathe in, food to sustain life, clothes for warmth, and liberty for exercise, in order to health, completed, in his opinion, all that the world could do for us: and though the greatness, the authority, the riches, and the pleasures, which some enjoyed in the world, and which he had enjoyed his share of, had much in them that was agreeable to us, yet he observed, that all those things chiefly gratified the coarsest of our affections; such as our ambition, our particular pride, our avarice, our vanity, and our sensuality; all which were, indeed, the mere product of the worst part of man, were in themselves crimes, and had in them the seeds of all manner of crimes; but neither were related to, or concerned with, any of those virtues that constituted us wise men, or of those graces which distinguished us as Christians; that being now deprived of all the fancied felicity which he enjoyed in the full exercise of all those vices, he said, he was at leisure to look upon the dark side of them, where he found all manner of deformity; and was now convinced, that virtue only makes a man truly wise, rich, and great, and preserves him in the way to a superior happiness in a future state; and in this, he said, they were more happy in their banishment, than all their enemies were, who had the full possession of all the wealth and power that they (the banished) had left behind them.
“Nor, Sir,” said he, “do I bring my mind to this politically, by the necessity of my circumstances, which some call miserable; but if I know any thing of myself, I would not go back, no not though my master, the czar, should call me, and offer to reinstate me in all my former grandeur; I say, I would no more go back to it, than I believe my soul, when it shall be delivered from this prison of the body, and has had a taste of the glorious state beyond life, wouldcome back to the gaol of flesh and blood it is now enclosed in, and leave Heaven to deal in the dirt and grime of human affairs.”
He spake this with so much warmth in his temper, so much earnestness and motion of his spirits, which were apparent in his countenance, that it was evident it was the true sense of his soul; and indeed there was no room to doubt his sincerity.
I told him, I once thought myself a kind of a monarch in my old station, of which I had given him an account, but that I thought he was not a monarch only, but a great conqueror; for that he that has got a victory over his own exorbitant desires, and has the absolute dominion over himself, and whose reason entirely governs his will, is certainly greater than he that conquers a city. “But, my lord,” said I, “shall I take the liberty to ask you a question?”—“With all my heart,” said he. “If the door of your liberty was opened,” said I, “would not you take hold of it to deliver yourself from this exile?”
“Hold,” said he, “your question is subtle, and requires some serious just distinctions to give it a sincere answer; and I’ll give it you from the bottom of my heart. Nothing that I know of in this world would move me to deliver myself from the state of banishment, except these two: first, the enjoyment of my relations; and secondly, a little warmer climate. But I protest to you, that to go back to the pomp of the court, the glory, the power, the hurry of a minister of state; the wealth, the gaiety, and the pleasures, that is to say, follies of a courtier; if my master should send me word this moment, that he restores me to all he banished me from, I protest, if I know myself at all, I would not leave this wilderness, these deserts, and these frozen lakes, for the palace of Moscow.”
“But, my lord,” said I, “perhaps you not only are banished from the pleasures of the court, and from the power, and authority, and wealth, you enjoyed before, but you may be absent too from some of the conveniencies of life; your estate, perhaps, confiscated,and your effects plundered; and the supplies left you here may not be suitable to the ordinary demands of life.”
“Ay,” said he, “that is, as you suppose me to be a lord, or a prince, &c. So indeed I am; but you are now to consider me only as a man, a human creature, not at all distinguished from another; and so I can suffer no want, unless I should be visited with sickness and distempers. However, to put the question out of dispute; you see our manner; we are in this place five persons of rank; we live perfectly retired; as suited to a state of banishment; we have something rescued from the shipwreck of our fortunes, which keeps us from the mere necessity of hunting for our food; but the poor soldiers who are here, without that help, live in as much plenty as we. They go into the woods, and catch sables and foxes; the labour of a month will maintain them a year; and as the way of living is not expensive, so it is not hard to get sufficient to ourselves: so that objection is out of doors.”
I have no room to give a full account of the most agreeable conversation I had with this truly great man; in all which he shewed, that his mind was so inspired with a superior knowledge of things, so supported by religion, as well as by a vast share of wisdom, that his contempt of the world was really as much as he had expressed, and that he was always the same to the last, as will appear in the story I am going to tell.
I had been here eight months, and a dark dreadful winter I thought it to be. The cold was so intense, that I could not so much as look abroad without being wrapt in furs, and a mask of fur before my face, or rather a hood, with only a hole for breath, and two for sight. The little daylight we had, as we reckoned, for three months, not above five hours a day, or six at most; only that the snow lying on the ground continually, and the weather being clear, it was never quite dark. Our horses were kept (or rather starved)under ground; and as for our servants, (for we hired servants here to look after our horses and ourselves) we had every now and then their fingers and toes to thaw, and take care of, lest they should mortify and fall off.
It is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being close, the walls thick, the lights small, and the glass all double. Our food was chiefly the flesh of deer, dried and cured in the season; good bread enough, but baked as biscuits; dried fish of several sorts, and some flesh of mutton, and of buffaloes, which is pretty good beef. All the stores of provision for the winter are laid up in the summer, and well cured. Our drink was water mixed with aqua vitæ instead of brandy; and, for a treat, mead instead of wine; which, however, they have excellent good. The hunters, who ventured abroad all weathers, frequently brought us in fresh venison, very fat and good; and sometimes bear’s flesh, but we did not much care for the last. We had a good stock of tea, with which we treated our friends as above; and, in a word, we lived very cheerfully and well, all things considered.
It was now March, and the days grown considerably longer, and the weather at least tolerable; so other travellers began to prepare sledges to carry them over the snow, and to get things ready to be going; but my measures being fixed, as I have said, for Archangel, and not for Muscovy or the Baltic, I made no motion, knowing very well, that the ships from the south do not set out for that part of the world till May or June; and that if I was there at the beginning of August, it would be as soon as any ships would be ready to go away; and therefore, I say, I made no haste to be gone, as others did; in a word, I saw a great many people, nay, all the travellers, go away before me. It seems, every year they go from thence to Moscow for trade; viz. to carry furs, and buy necessaries with them, which they bring back to furnish their shops; also others went on the same errand to Archangel; but then they also, being to come backagain above eight hundred miles, went all out before me.
In short, about the latter end of May I began to make all ready to pack up; and as I was doing this, it occurred to me, that seeing all these people were banished by the czar of Muscovy to Siberia, and yet, when they came there, were at liberty to go whither they would; why did they not then go away to any part of the world wherever they thought fit? and I began to examine what should hinder them from making such an attempt.
But my wonder was over, when I entreated upon that subject with the person I have mentioned, who answered me thus: “Consider, first,” said he, “the place where we are; and, secondly, the condition we are in; especially,” said he, “the generality of the people who are banished hither. We are surrounded,” said he, “with stronger things than bars and bolts: on the north side is an unnavigable ocean, where ship never sailed, and boat never swam; neither, if we had both, could we know whither to go with them. Every other way,” said he, “we have above a thousand miles to pass through the czar’s own dominions, and by ways utterly impassable, except by the roads made by the government, and through the towns garrisoned by its troops; so that we could neither pass undiscovered by the road, or subsist any other way: so that it is in vain to attempt it.”
I was silenced indeed, at once, and found that they were in a prison, every jot as secure as if they had been locked up in the castle of Moscow; however, it came into my thoughts, that I might certainly be made an instrument to procure the escape of this excellent person, and that it was very easy for me to carry him away, there being no guard over him in the country; and as I was not going to Moscow, but to Archangel, and that I went in the nature of a caravan, by which I was not obliged to lie in the stationary towns in the desert, but could encamp every night where I would, might easily pass uninterrupted to Archangel,where I could immediately secure him on board an English or Dutch ship, and carry him off safe along with me; and as to his subsistence, and other particulars, that should be my care, till he should better supply himself.
He heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on me all the while I spoke; nay, I could see in his very face, that what I said put his spirits into an exceeding ferment; his colour frequently changed, his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, that it might be even perceived in his countenance; nor could he immediately answer me when I had done, and, as it were, expected what he would say to it; and after he had paused a little, he embraced me, and said, “How unhappy are we! unguided creatures as we are, that even our greatest acts of friendship are made snares to us, and we are made tempters of one another! My dear friend,” said he, “your offer is so sincere, has such kindness in it, is so disinterested in itself, and is so calculated for my advantage, that I must have very little knowledge of the world, if I did not both wonder at it, and acknowledge the obligation I have upon me to you for it: but did you believe I was sincere in what I have so often said to you of my contempt of the world? Did you believe I spoke my very soul to you, and that I had really maintained that degree of felicity here, that had placed me above all that the world could give me, or do for me? Did you believe I was sincere, when I told you I would not go back, if I was recalled even to be all that once I was in the court, and with the favour of the czar my master? Did you believe me, my friend, to be an honest man, or did you think me to be a boasting hypocrite?” Here he stopped, as if he would hear what I would say; but, indeed, I soon after perceived, that he stopped because his spirits were in motion: his heart was full of struggles, and he could not go on. I was, I confess, astonished at the thing, as well as at the man, and I used some arguments with him to urge him to set himself free; that he ought to look uponthis as a door opened by Heaven for his deliverance, and a summons by Providence, who has the care and good disposition of all events, to do himself good, and to render himself useful in the world.
He had by this time recovered himself. “How do you know, Sir,” said he, warmly, “but that, instead of a summons from Heaven, it may be a feint of another instrument, representing, in all the alluring colours to me, the show of felicity as a deliverance, which may in itself be my snare, and tend directly to my ruin? Here I am free from the temptation of returning to my former miserable greatness; there I am not sure, but that all the seeds of pride, ambition, avarice, and luxury, which I know remain in my nature, may revive and take root, and, in a word, again overwhelm me; and then the happy prisoner, whom you see now master of his soul’s liberty, shall be the miserable slave of his own senses, in the full possession of all personal liberty. Dear Sir, let me remain in this blessed confinement, banished from the crimes of life, rather than purchase a show of freedom at the expense of the liberty of my reason, and at the expense of the future happiness which now I have in my view, but shall then, I fear, quickly lose sight of; for I am but flesh, a man, a mere man, have passions and affections as likely to possess and overthrow me as any man: O be not my friend and my tempter both together!”
If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and stood silent, looking at him; and, indeed, admired what I saw. The struggle in his soul was so great, that, though the weather was extremely cold, it put him into a most violent sweat, and I found he wanted to give vent to his mind; so I said a word or two, that I would leave him to consider of it, and wait on him again; and then I withdrew to my own apartment.
About two hours after, I heard somebody at or near the door of the room, and I was going to open the door; but he had opened it, and come in: “Mydear friend,” said he, “you had almost overset me, but I am recovered: do not take it ill that I do not close with your offer; I assure you, it is not for want of a sense of the kindness of it in you; and I come to make the most sincere acknowledgment of it to you; but, I hope, I have got the victory over myself.”
“My lord,” said I, “I hope you are fully satisfied, that you did not resist the call of Heaven.”—“Sir,” said he, “if it had been from Heaven, the same power would have influenced me to accept it; but I hope, and am fully satisfied, that it is from Heaven that I decline it; and I have an infinite satisfaction in the parting, that you shall leave me an honest man still, though not a free man.”
I had nothing to do but to acquiesce, and make profession to him of my having no end in it, but a sincere desire to serve him. He embraced me very passionately, and assured me, he was sensible of that, and should always acknowledge it: and with that he offered me a very fine present of sables, too much indeed for me to accept from a man in his circumstances; and I would have avoided them, but he would not be refused.
The next morning I sent my servant to his lordship, with a small present of tea, two pieces of China damask, and four little wedges of Japan gold, which, did not all weigh above six ounces, or thereabouts; but were far short of the value of his sables, which indeed, when I came to England, I found worth near two hundred pounds. He accepted the tea, and one piece of the damask, and one of the pieces of gold, which had a fine stamp upon it, of the Japan coinage, which I found he took for the rarity of it, but would not take any more; and sent word by my servant, that he desired to speak with me.
When I came to him, he told me, I knew what had passed between us, and hoped I would not move him any more in that affair; but that, since I made such a generous offer to him, he asked me, if I had kindness enough to offer the same to another personthat he would name to me, in whom he had a great share of concern. I told him, that I could not say I inclined to do so much for any one but himself, for whom I had a particular value, and should have been glad to have been the instrument of his deliverance: however, if he would please to name the person to me, I would give him my answer, and hoped he would not be displeased with me, if he was with my answer. He told me, it was only his son, who, though I had not seen, yet was in the same condition with himself, and above two hundred miles from him, on the other side the Oby; but that, if I consented, he would send for him.
I made no hesitation, but told him I would do it. I made some ceremony in letting him understand that it was wholly on his account; and that seeing I could not prevail on him, I would shew my respect to him by my concern for his son: but these things are too tedious to repeat here. He sent away the next day for his son, and in about twenty days he came back with the messenger, bringing six or seven horses loaded with very rich furs, and which, in the whole, amounted to a very great value.
His servants brought the horses into the town, but left the young lord at a distance till night, when he cameincognitointo our apartment, and his father presented him to me; and, in short, we concerted there the manner of our travelling, and every thing proper for the journey.
I had bought a considerable quantity of sables, black fox-skins, fine ermines, and such other furs that are very rich; I say, I had bought them in that city for exchange for some of the goods brought from China; in particular, for the cloves and nutmegs, of which I sold the greatest part here; and the rest afterwards at Archangel, for a much better price than I could have done at Louden; and my partner, who was sensible of the profit, and whose business, more particularly than mine, was merchandise, was mightily pleased with our stay, on account of the traffic we made here.
It was in the beginning of June when I left this remote place, a city, I believe, little heard of in the world; and, indeed, it is so far out of the road of commerce, that I know not how it should be much talked of. We were now come to a very small caravan, being only thirty-two horses and camels in all, and all of them passed for mine, though my new guest was proprietor of eleven of them. It was most natural also, that I should take more servants with me than I had before, and the young lord passed for my steward; what great man I passed for myself I know not, neither did it concern me to inquire. We had here the worst and the largest desert to pass over that we met with in all the journey; indeed I call it the worst, because the way was very deep in some places, and very uneven in others; the best we had to say for it was, that we thought we had no troops of Tartars and robbers to fear, and that they never came on this side the river Oby, or at least but very seldom; but we found it otherwise.
My young lord had with him a faithful Muscovite servant, or rather a Siberian servant, who was perfectly acquainted with the country; and who led us by private roads, that we avoided coming into the principal towns and cities upon the great road, such as Tumen, Soloy Kamaskoy, and several others; because the Muscovite garrisons, which are kept there, are very curious and strict in their observation upon travellers, and searching lest any of the banished persons of note should make their escape that way into Muscovy; but by this means, as we were kept out of the cities, so our whole journey was a desert, and we were obliged to encamp and lie in our tents, when we might have had good accommodation in the cities on the way: this the young lord was so sensible of, that he would not allow us to lie abroad, when we came to several cities on the way; but lay abroad himself, with his servant, in the woods, and met us always at the appointed places.
We were just entered Europe, having passed theriver Kama, which, in these parts, is the boundary between Europe and Asia; and the first city on the European side was called Soloy Kamaskoy, which is as much as to say, the great city on the river Kama; and here we thought to have seen some evident alteration in the people, their manners, their habit, their religion, and their business; but we were mistaken; for as we had a vast desert to pass, which, by relation, is near seven hundred miles long in some places, but not above two hundred miles over where we passed it; so, till we came past that horrible place, we found very little difference between that country and the Mogul Tartary; the people mostly Pagans, and little better than the savages of America; their houses and towns full of idols, and their way of living wholly barbarous, except in the cities as above, and the villages near them; where they are Christians, as they call themselves, of the Greek church; but even these have their religion mingled with so many relics of superstition, that it is scarce to be known in some places from mere sorcery and witchcraft.
In passing this forest, I thought indeed we must, after all our dangers were, in our imagination, escaped, as before, have been plundered and robbed, and perhaps murdered, by a troop of thieves: of what country they were; whether the roving bands of the Ostiachi, a kind of Tartars, or wild people on the banks of the Oby, had ranged thus far; or whether they were the sable-hunters of Siberia, I am yet at a loss to know; but they were all on horseback, carried bows and arrows, and were at first about five-and-forty in number. They came so near to us as within about two musket shot; and, asking no questions, they surrounded us with their horses, and looked very earnestly upon us twice. At length they placed themselves just in our way; upon which we drew up in a little line before our camels, being not above sixteen men in all; and being drawn up thus, we halted, and sent out the Siberian servant who attended his lord, to see who they were: his master was the morewilling to let him go, because he was not a little apprehensive that they were a Siberian troop sent out after him. The man came up near them with a flag of truce, and called to them; but though he spoke several of their languages, or dialects of languages rather, he could not understand a word they said: however, after some signs to him not to come nearer to them at his peril, so he said he understood them to mean, offering to shoot at him if he advanced, the fellow came back no wiser than he went, only that by their dress, he said, he believed them to be some Tartars of Kalmuck, or of the Circassian hordes; and that there must be more of them on the great desert, though he never heard that ever any of them were seen so far north before.
This was small comfort to us; however, we had no remedy: there was on our left hand, at about a quarter of a mile’s distance, a little grove or clump of trees, which stood close together, and very near the road; I immediately resolved we should advance to those trees, and fortify ourselves as well as we could there; for, first, I considered that the trees would in a great measure cover us from their arrows; and in the next place, they could not come to charge us in a body: it was, indeed, my old Portuguese pilot who proposed it; and who had this excellency attending him, namely, that he was always readiest and most apt to direct and encourage us in cases of the most danger. We advanced immediately with what speed we could, and gained that little wood, the Tartars, or thieves, for we knew not what to call them, keeping their stand, and not attempting to hinder us. When we came thither, we found, to our great satisfaction, that it was a swampy, springy piece of ground, and, on the other side, a great spring of water, which, running out in a little rill or brook, was a little farther joined by another of the like bigness; and was, in short, the head or source of a considerable river, called afterwards the Wirtska. The trees which grew about this spring were not in all above two hundred, butwere very large, and stood pretty thick; so that as soon as we got in, we saw ourselves perfectly safe from the enemy, unless they alighted and attacked us on foot.
But to make this more difficult, our Portuguese, with indefatigable application, cut down great arms of the trees, and laid them hanging, not cut quite off, from one tree to another; so that he made a continued fence almost round us.
We staid here, waiting the motion of the enemy some hours, without perceiving they made any offer to stir; when about two hours before night, they came down directly upon us; and, though we had not perceived it, we found they had been joined by some more of the same, so that they were near fourscore horse, whereof, however, we fancied some were women. They came in till they were within half a shot of our little wood, when we fired one musket without ball, and called to them in the Russian tongue, to know what they wanted, and bid them keep off; but, as if they knew nothing of what we said, they came on with a double fury directly to the wood-side, not imagining we were so barricaded, that they could not break in. Our old pilot was our captain, as well as he had been our engineer; and desired of us, not to fire upon them till they came within pistol shot, that we might be sure to kill; and that, when we did fire, we should be sure to take good aim. We bade him give the word of command; which he delayed so long, that they were, some of them, within two pikes length of us when we fired.
We aimed so true, (or Providence directed our shot so sure) that we killed fourteen of them at the first volley, and wounded several others, as also several of their horses; for we had all of us loaded our pieces with two or three bullets apiece at least.
They were terribly surprised with our fire, and retreated immediately about one hundred rods from us; in which time we loaded our pieces again, and, seeing them keep that distance, we sallied out, and caughtfour or five of their horses, whose riders, we supposed, were killed; and coming up to the dead, we could easily perceive they were Tartars, but knew not from what country, or how they came to make an excursion such an unusual length.
About an hour after, they made a motion to attack us again, and rode round our little wood, to see where else they might break in; but finding us always ready to face them, they went off again, and we resolved not to stir from the place for that night.
We slept but little, you may be sure; but spent the most part of the night in strengthening our situation, and barricading the entrances into the wood; and, keeping a strict watch, we waited for daylight, and, when it came, it gave us a very unwelcome discovery indeed: for the enemy, who we thought were discouraged with the reception they had met with, were now increased to no less than three hundred, and had set up eleven or twelve huts and tents, as if they were resolved to besiege us; and this little camp they had pitched, was upon the open plain, at about three quarters of a mile from us. We were indeed surprised at this discovery; and now, I confess, I gave myself over for lost, and all that I had. The loss of my effects did not lie so near me (though they were very considerable) as the thoughts of falling into the hands of such barbarians, at the latter end of my journey, after so many difficulties and hazards as I had gone through; and even in sight of our port, where we expected safety and deliverance. As for my partner, he was raging: he declared, that to lose his goods would be his ruin; and he would rather die than be starved; and he was for fighting to the last drop.
The young lord, as gallant as ever flesh shewed itself, was for fighting to the last also; and my old pilot was of the opinion we were able to resist them all, in the situation we then were in: and thus we spent the day in debates of what we should do; but towards evening, we found that the number of our enemiesstill increased: perhaps, as they were abroad in several parties for prey, the first had sent out scouts to call for help, and to acquaint them of their booty; and we did not know but by the morning they might still be a greater number; so I began to inquire of those people we had brought from Tobolski, if there were no other, or more private ways, by which we might avoid them in the night, and perhaps either retreat to some town, or get help to guard us over the desert.
The Siberian, who was servant to the young lord, told us, if we designed to avoid them, and not fight, he would engage to carry us off in the night to a way that went north towards the river Petraz, by which he made no doubt but we might get away, and the Tartars never the wiser; but he said, his lord had told him he would not return, but would rather choose to fight. I told him, he mistook his lord; for that he was too wise a man to love fighting for the sake of it; that I knew his lord was brave enough by what he had shewed already; but that his lord knew better than to desire to have seventeen or eighteen men fight five hundred, unless an unavoidable necessity forced them to it; and that if he thought it possible for us to escape in the night, we had nothing else to do but to attempt it. He answered, if his lord gave him such order, he would lose his life if he did not perform it. We soon brought his lord to give that order, though privately, and we immediately prepared for the putting it in practice.
And first, as soon as it began to be dark, we kindled a fire in our little camp, which we kept burning, and prepared so as to make it burn all night, that the Tartars might conclude we were still there; but, as soon as it was dark, that is to say, so as we could see the stars, (for our guide would not stir before) having all our horses and camels ready loaded, we followed our new guide, who, I soon found, steered himself by the pole or north star, all the country being level for a long way.
After we had travelled two hours very hard, itbegan to be lighter still; not that it was quite dark all night, but the moon; began to rise; so that, in short, it was rather lighter than we wished it to be; but by six o’clock next morning we were gotten near forty miles, though the truth is, we almost spoiled our horses. Here we found a Russian village, named Kirmazinskoy, where we rested, and heard, nothing of the Kalmuck Tartars that day. About two hours before night we set out again, and travelled till eight the next morning, though not quite so hastily as before; and about seven o’clock we passed a little river, called Kirtza, and came to a good large town inhabited by Russians, and very populous, called Ozomya. There we heard, that several troops or herds of Kalmucks had been abroad upon the desert, but that we were now completely out of danger of them, which was to our great satisfaction, you may be sure. Here we were obliged to get some fresh horses, and having need enough of rest, we staid five days; and my partner and I agreed to give the honest Siberian, who brought us hither, the value of ten pistoles for his conducting us.
In five days more we came to Veussima, upon the river Witzogda, which running into the river Dwina, we were there very happily near the end of our travels by land, that river being navigable in seven days passage to Archangel. From hence we came to Lawrenskoy, where the river joins, the third of July; and provided ourselves with two luggage-boats, and a barge, for our convenience. We embarked the seventh, and arrived all safe at Archangel the eighteenth, having been a year, five months, and three days on the journey, including our stay of eight months and odd days at Tobolski.
We were obliged to stay at this place six weeks for the arrival of the ships, and must have tarried longer, had not a Hamburgher come in above a month sooner than any of the English ships; when after some consideration, that the city of Hamburgh might happen to be as good a market for our goods as London, we alltook freight with him; and having put our goods on board, it was most natural for me to put my steward, on board to take care of them; by which means my young lord had a sufficient opportunity to conceal himself, never coming on shore again in all the time we staid there; and this he did, that he might not be seen in the city, where some of the Moscow merchants would certainly have seen and discovered him.
We sailed from Archangel the twentieth of August the same year; and, after no extraordinary bad voyage, arrived in the Elbe the thirteenth of September. Here my partner and I found a very good sale for our goods, as well those of China, as the sables, &c. of Siberia; and dividing the produce of our effects my share amounted to 3475l. 17s. 3d. notwithstanding so many losses we had sustained, and charges we had been at; only remembering that I had included, in this, about 600l. worth of diamonds, which I had purchased at Bengal.
Here the young lord took his leave of us, and went up to the Elbe, in order to go to the court of Vienna, where he resolved to seek protection, and where he could correspond with those of his father’s friends who were left alive. He did not part without all the testimonies he could give of gratitude for the service I had done him, and his sense of my kindness to the prince his father.
To conclude: having staid near four months in Hamburgh, I came from thence over land to the Hague, where I embarked in the packet, and arrived in London the tenth of January 1705, having been gone from England ten years and nine months.
And here, resolving to harass myself no more, I am preparing for a longer journey than all these, having lived seventy-two years a life of infinite variety, and learnt sufficiently to know the value of retirement, and the blessing of ending our days in peace.