Part 39 (1/2)
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, ould otherwise ; and his czarishthe caravans and merchants, that if there are any Tartars heard of in the country, detacharrison are always sent to see travellers safe froovernor of Adinskoy, whom I had an opportunity to make a visit to, by means of the Scots uard of fifty er, 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 uses to pass through; wherethe saanism 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 saedness of their countenances, or their clothes; and in the winter, when the ground is 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 Chae, or country, these had idols in every hut and every cave; besides, they worshi+p 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 al, sets the
But I am no more to describe people than countries, any farther thanpeculiar to myself in all this country, which I reckon was, from the desert which I spoke of last, at least four hundredanother desert, which took us up twelve days severe travelling, without house, tree, or bush; but ere obliged again to carry our own provisions, as ater as bread After ere out of this desert, and had travelled two days, we careat river Janezay This river, they told us, parted Europe froree to it; however, it is certainly the eastern boundary of the ancient Siberia, which now makes a province only of the vast Muscovite eness to the whole enorance and paganisarrisons All the country between the river Oby and the river Janezay is as entirely pagan, and the people as barbarous, as the reht I know, in Asia or Aovernors, whoans are notunder the Muscovite governh, 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 clergy 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 reat river Oby, we crossed a wild uncultivated country; I cannot say 'tis a barbarous soil; 'tis only barren of people, and wants good ement; otherwise it is in itself a reeable country What inhabitants we found in it are all pagans, except such as are sent a 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 i material to say of my particular affairs, till I came to Tobolski, the capital of Siberia, where I continued so occasion:--
We had been now alan to come on apace; whereupon my partner and I called a council about our particular affairs, in which we found it proper, considering that ere 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-tis, as it would be incredible to relate the particulars of, by which means the Russians travel more in the winter than they can in suht 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 o on as the caravan went, till I caulf of Finland, and so either by sea or land to Dantzic, where I e; or I must leave the caravan at a little town on the Dwina, froel, and froland, Holland, or Hao 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 ael, in October all the shi+ps would be gone from thence, and even the merchants, ell there in summer, retire south to Moscow in the winter, when the shi+ps 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 eht it o, 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 warh, and excellent coive 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 ue; on the contrary, I had much to do to bear my clothes on my back, and nevere robes or gowns over the down to the feet, and button close to the wrists, and all these lined with furs, to make them sufficiently warreatly dislike our way in England, offires in every room in the house, in open chimnies, which, when the fire was out, always kept the air in the rooood 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 warland
By this means we had always the same climate in all the rooms, and an equal heat was preserved; and how cold soever it ithout, it was alithin; and yetno fire, nor were ever inco of all was, that it should be possible to ood 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 Ze the country where the state criminals of Muscovy, as I observed before, are all banished; this city was full of noblerees of the nobility, gentry, soldiery, and courtiers of Muscovy Here were the faeneral Robostisky, and several other persons of note, and some ladies
By means of my Scots merchant, whom, nevertheless, I parted with here, I entlemen, and so winter nights, in which I staid here, I received several agreeable visits It was talking one night with a certain prince, one of the banishedto the czar of Muscovy, thatnificence, and dominions, and the absolute power of the emperor of the Russians I interrupted hireater and h e, or randee looked a little surprised, and fixing his eyes steadily upon an 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 allovernment 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 hidom were my own, and all my subjects were not only ht 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 aovernment for awhile, I opened the case, and told the in the island, and how I ed both myself and the people there that were under ly taken with the story, and especially the prince, who told reatness of life was to be ed such a state of life as mine, to have been czar of Muscovy, and that he found more felicity in the retirement he seehest authority he enjoyed in the court of hisour tempers down to our circureatest 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 s without: that he found the ht to reflect upon the state of universal life, and how little this world was concerned in its true felicity, was perfectly capable ofto 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 reeable 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 uished 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 reat, 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 the my mind to this politically, by the necessity of my circu of h my master, the czar, should call randeur; I say, I would no o back to it, than I believe my soul, when it shall be delivered frolorious state beyond life, would coaol 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 rooht iven hiht he was not a ot a victory over his own exorbitant desires, and has the absolute dooverns 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 soive it a sincere answer; and I'll give it you fro 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 waro back to the polory, the power, the hurry of a aiety, 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 uished 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 banish rescued from the shi+pwreck of our fortunes, which keeps us fro for our food; but the poor soldiers who are here, without that help, live in as o into the woods, and catch sables and foxes; the labour of ais not expensive, so it is not hard to get sufficient to ourselves: so that objection is out of doors”