Part 12 (1/2)
We now launched into the greatest piece of solid earth that is to be found in any part of the world; we had, at least, twelve thousand miles to the sea eastward; two thousand to the bottom of the Baltic Sea ard; and above three thousand, if we left that sea, and went on west, to the British and French channels: we had full five thousand ht hundred to the Frozen Sea north
We advanced frouna by easy and ed to the care the Czar has taken to have cities and towns built in as many places as it is possible to place the like the stationary soldiers placed by the Romans in the remotest countries of their empire; some of which I had read of were placed in Britain, for the security of co of travellers Thus it was here; for wherever we caovernors were Russians, and professed Christians, yet the inhabitants werethe sun, moon, and stars, or all the host of heaven; and not only so, but were, of all the heathens and pagans that ever I met with, the most barbarous, except only that they did not eat men's flesh
Souna, where we enter the Muscovite doether, called Nortziousky, in which is a continued desert or forest, which cost us twenty days to travel over In a village near the last of these places I had the curiosity to go and see their way of living, which is reat sacrifice that day; for there stood out, upon an old stump of a tree, a diabolical kind of idol made of wood; it was dressed up, too, in the arreat Tartar bonnet on the head, with two horns growing through it; it was about eight feet high, yet had no feet or legs, nor any other proportion of parts
This scarecroas set up at the outer side of the village; and when I came near to it there were sixteen or seventeen creatures all lying flat upon the ground round this hideous block of wood; I saw no s, like the idol, and at first I really thought they had been so; but, when I came a little nearer, they started up upon their feet, and raised a howl, as if it had been so many deep-mouthed hounds, and walked away, as if they were displeased at our disturbing them A little way off from the idol, and at the door of a hut,knives in their hands; and in thebullock These, it see of an idol; the threeto it, and the seventeen prostrated wretches were the people who brought the offering, and were offering their prayers to that stock
I confess I was more oblin than ever I was at anything in e, I rode up to the hideous idol, and with my sword made a stroke at the bonnet that was on its head, and cut it in two; and one of ourhold of the sheepskin that covered it, pulled at it, when, behold, a e, and two or three hundred people calad to scour for it, for some had bows and arrows; but I resolved froain Our caravan rested three nights at the tohich was about four miles off, in order to provide so been la march over the last desert; so we had son in execution I coe I had sufficient testination I had since thought that huet but four or five o and destroy that vile, abominable idol, and let them see that it had no power to help itself, and consequently could not be an object of worshi+p, or to be prayed to, much less help them that offered sacrifices to it
He at first objected to norance of the people, they could not be brought to profit by the lesson I e of the country and its custo offence to these brutal idol worshi+ppers This somewhat stayed my purpose, but I was still uneasy all that day to putthe Scots ain called upon him to aid me in it When he found hts, he could not but applaud the design, and told o witha stout fellow, one of his countryo also with us; ”and one,” said he, ”as faainst such devilish things as these” So we agreed to go, only we three and mynight about ht it better to delay it till the next night, because the caravan being to set forward in the ive them any satisfaction upon us ere out of his power The Scots merchant, as steady in his resolution for the enterprise as bold in executing, brought own of sheepskins, and a bonnet, with a bow and arrows, and had provided the same for himself and his countryman, that the people, if they saw us, should not deter up sounpowder, and such other ood quantity of tar in a little pot, about an hour after night we set out upon our expedition
We caht, and found that the people had not the least suspicion of danger attending their idol The night was cloudy: yet the h to see that the idol stood just in the same posture and place that it did before The people seereat hut, wherethe three priests,a light, and going up close to the door, we heard people talking as if there were five or six of them; we concluded, therefore, that if we set wildfire to the idol, those men would come out immediately, and run up to the place to rescue it from destruction; and what to do with the it away, and setting fire to it at a distance; but e cae, so ere at a loss again The second Scots the creatures that were there on the head when they ca them, if it were possible to avoid it ”Well, then,” said the Scots merchant, ”I will tell you ill do: ill try to make them prisoners, tie their hands, and make them stand and see their idol destroyed”
As it happened, we had twine or packthread enough about us, which we used to tie our firelocks together with; so we resolved to attack these people first, and with as little noise as we could The first thing we did, we knocked at the door, when one of the priests co to it, we immediately seized upon him, stopped his mouth, and tied his hands behind hiht not ether, and left hiround
Two of us then waited at the door, expecting that another would co till the thirdout, we knocked again gently, and immediately out came two more, and we served theo all with them, and lay the back, we found two more were come out of the door, and a third stood behind them within the door
We seized the two, and i out,out a composition we had made that would only s thee of the two ether also by the arm, led them away to the idol, and left the haste back to us
When the fuze we had thrown in had filled the hut with so much smoke that they were al of another kind, which fla it in, we found there were but four people, who, as we supposed, had been about some of their diabolical sacrifices They appeared, in short, frightened to death, at least so as to sit tre and stupid, and not able to speak either, for the smoke
We quickly took them from the hut, where the smoke soon drove us out, bound them as we had done the other, and all without any noise Then we carried theether to the idol; e came there, we fell to ith him First, we daubed him all over, and his robes also, with tar, and tallow mixed with briunpowder, and wrapped up a great piece of wildfire in his bonnet; then sticking all the coht with us upon hi else to help to burn him; when my Scotsman remembered that by the hut, where the e; away he and the other Scotsman ran and fetched their arms full of that When we had done this, we took all our prisoners, and brought theed their mouths, and made them stand up, and set them before their monstrous idol, and then set fire to the whole
We stayed by it a quarter of an hour or thereabouts, till the powder in the eyes and mouth and ears of the idol blew up, and, as we could perceive, had split altogether; and in a word, tillit burned so that it would soon be quite consu away; but the Scotso, for these poor deluded wretches will all throw themselves into the fire, and burn thee has burned down too, and then came away and left the a ready for our journey; nor could any man suppose that we had been anywhere but in our beds
But the affair did not end so; the next day caates, and in a overnor for the insulting their priests and burning their great Chareat consternation, for they said the Tartars were already no less than thirty thousand strong The Russian governor sent outthe of it, and that there had not a soul in his garrison been abroad, so that it could not be from anybody there: but if they could let him knoho did it, they should be exehtily, that all the country reverenced the great Chau, elt in the sun, and no e but some Christian ainst him and all the Russians, who, they said, wereto iven by hied hiave theood words he could At last he told the, and perhaps it was some of them who had done them this injury; and that if they would be satisfied with that, he would send after them to inquire into it This seeovernor sent after us, and gave us a particular account how the thing was; inti withal, that if any in our caravan had done it they should make their escape; but that whether we had done it or no, we should make all the haste forward that was possible: and that, in theas he could
This was very friendly in the governor; however, when it ca of the uilty, ere least of all suspected However, the captain of the caravan for the tiave us, and we travelled two days and two nights without any considerable stop, and then we lay at a village called Plothus: nor did westop here, but hastened on towards Jarawena, another Muscovite colony, and where we expected we should be safe But upon the second day's reat distance, it was plain ere pursued We had entered a vast desert, and had passed by a great lake called Schanks Oser, e perceived a large body of horse appear on the other side of the lake, to the north, we travelling west
We observed they went aest, as we did, but had supposed ould have taken that side of the lake, whereas we very happily took the south side; and in two daysere still before thereat river when it passes farther north, but e came to it we found it narrow and fordable
The third day they had either found theirin upon us towards dusk We had, to our great satisfaction, just pitched upon a convenient place for our camp; for as we had just entered upon a desert above five hundred e at, and, indeed, expected none but the city Jarawena, which we had yet two days' march to; the desert, however, had some feoods in it on this side, and little rivers, which ran all into the great river Udda; it was in a narrow strait, between little but very thick woods, that we pitched our ca As it was usual for the Mogul Tartars to go about in troops in that desert, so the caravans always fortify theainst ar to be pursued But we had this night a eous camp: for as we lay between toods, with a little rivulet running just before our front, we could not be surrounded, or attacked any way but in our front or rear We took care also toour packs, with the camels and horses, all in a line, on the inside of the river, and felling some trees in our rear
In this posture we encaht; but the enemy was upon us before we had finished They did not coers to us, to demand the men to be delivered to them that had abused their priests and burned their idol, that they ht burn theo away, and do us no further harm, otherwise they would destroy us all
Our an to stare at one another to see who looked with the uilt in their faces; but nobody was the word--nobody did it The leader of the caravan sent word he ell assured that it was not done by any of our ca on our business; that we had done no harm to them or to any one else; and that, therefore, they must look further for the enemies who had injured them, for ere not the people; so they desired them not to disturb us, for if they did we should defend ourselves
They were far froreat crowd of the, by break of day, to our ca us so well posted, they durst come no farther than the brook in our front, where they stood in such number as to terrify us very much; indeed, some spoke of ten thousand Here they stood and looked at us a while, and then, setting up a great howl, let fly a crowd of arrows ae, and I do not remember that one of us was hurt
Soht, and expected the fellow, a Cossack of Jarawena, 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 right, 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 Nertsinskay; after this he takes a great circuit about, and comes directly on the army of the Tartars as if he had been sent express to tell the story that the people who had burned the Chaone to Sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called them--that is to say, Christians; and that they had resolved to burn the God Scal-Isar, belonging to the Tonguses As this felloas hie, he counterfeited so well that they all believed him, and away they drove in a violent hurry to Sibeilka In less than three hours they were entirely out of our sight, and we never heard any more of them, nor whether they went to Sibeilka or no So we passed away safely on to Jarawena, where there was a Russian garrison, and there we rested five days
Frohtful desert, which held us twenty-three days' march We furnished ourselves with so ourselves in the night; and the leader of the caravan procured sixteen waggons of the country, for carrying our water or 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 Wejourney; for in this desert we neither saw house nor tree, and scarce a bush; thoughabundance of the sable-hunters, who are all Tartars of Mogul Tartary; of which this country is a part; and they frequently attack sether