Latest / Adventure Books Library / 16 - The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
Transcript
- 0:00Chapter fifteen, description of an idol which they destroy. Early in the morning,
- 0:07when marching from a little town called Changu, we had a river to
- 0:11pass which we were obliged to ferry, and had the Tartars had any intelligence,
- 0:16then had been the time to have attacked us, when the caravan being
- 0:20over the rear guard was behind, but they did not appear there. About
- 0:24three hours after, when we were entered upon a desert of about fifteen or
- 0:28sixteen miles over, we knew by a cloud of dust they raised that the
- 0:33enemy was at hand, and presently they came upon the spur our. Chinese
- 0:38guards in the front, who had talked so big the day before, began
- 0:42to stagger, and the soldiers frequently looked behind them, a certain sign in
- 0:47a soldier that he is just ready to run away. My old pilot was
- 0:51of my mind, and being near me, called out senoring Glaze. These
- 0:55fellows must be encouraged or they will ruin us all. For if the Tartars
- 0:59come, they will never stand it. I am of your mind, said
- 1:03I. But what must be done done, says he. Let fifty of
- 1:06our men advance and flank them on each wing and encourage them. They will
- 1:11fight like brave fellows in brave company. But without this they will every man
- 1:15turn his back. Immediately, I rode up to our leader and told him
- 1:19who was exactly of our mind. Accordingly, fifty of us marched to the
- 1:23right wing, and fifty to the left, and the rest made a line
- 1:27of rescue. And so we marched, leaving the last two hundred men to
- 1:30make a body of themselves and to guard the camels, only that if need
- 1:36were they should send a hundred men to assist the last fifty. At last
- 1:41the tartars came on, and an innumerable company they were. How many we
- 1:46could not tell, but ten thousand, we thought at the least. A
- 1:49party of them came on first and viewed our posture, traversing the ground in
- 1:53the front of our line, And as we found them within gunshot, our
- 1:57leader ordered the two wings to advance swiftly, and gave them a salvo on
- 2:01each wing with their shot, which was done. They then went off.
- 2:06I suppose to give an account of the reception they were liked to meet with.
- 2:09Indeed, that salute cloyd their stomachs, for they immediately halted, stood
- 2:15awhile to consider of it, and wheeling off to the left. They gave
- 2:19over their design for that time, which was very agreeable to our circumstances.
- 2:23Two days after we came to the city of naun or Naom. We thanked
- 2:29the governor for his care of us, and collected to the value of a
- 2:32hundred crowns or thereabouts, which we gave to the soldiers sent to guard us.
- 2:37And here we rested one day. This is a garrison, indeed,
- 2:40and there were nine hundred soldiers kept here. But the reason of it was
- 2:45that formerly the Muscovite frontiers lay nearer to them than they now do. The
- 2:50Muscovites having abandoned that part of the country which lies from this city west for
- 2:54about two hundred miles, as desolate and unfit for use, and Morris especially
- 3:00being so very remote and so difficult to send troops thither for its defense,
- 3:05for we were yet above two thousand miles from Muscovie, properly so called.
- 3:09After this we passed several great rivers and two dreadful deserts, one of which
- 3:15we were sixteen days passing over, And on the thirteenth of April we came
- 3:19to the frontiers of the Muscovite dominions. I think the first town or fortress,
- 3:23whichever it may be called, that belonged to the Tsar was called Arguna,
- 3:29being on the west side of the river Arguna. I could not but
- 3:32feel great satisfaction that I was arrived in a country governed by Christians. For
- 3:38though the Muscovites do, in my opinion, but just deserve the name of
- 3:42Christians, yet such they pretend to be, and are very devout in their
- 3:46way. It would certainly occur to any reflecting man who travels the world as
- 3:50I have done. What a blessing it is to be brought into the world
- 3:53where the name of God and a Redeemer is known, adored, and worshiped,
- 3:58And not where the peace people, given up to strong delusions, worship
- 4:01the devil and prostrate themselves to monsters, elements, horrid shaped animals and monstrous
- 4:08images. Not a town or city we passed through, but had their pagodas,
- 4:13their idols and their temples, and ignorant people worshiping even the works of
- 4:17their own hands. Now we came where at last a face of the Christian
- 4:21worship appeared, where the knee was bowed to Jesus, and whether ignorantly or
- 4:27not. Yet the Christian religion was owned, and the name of the True
- 4:30God was called upon and adored, And it made my soul rejoice to see
- 4:34it. I saluted the brave Scots merchant with my first acknowledgment of this,
- 4:40and taking him by the hand, I said to him, Blessed be God,
- 4:44we are once again amongst Christians. He smiled and answered, do not
- 4:48rejoice too soon, countrymen. These Muscovites a but an odds or are Christians.
- 4:54And but for the name of it you may see very little of the
- 4:57substance for some months further of our journey, well, says I. But
- 5:00still it is better than paganism and worshiping of devils. Why, I will
- 5:04tell you, says he. Except their Russian soldiers in the garrisons, and
- 5:09a few of the inhabitants of the cities upon their road. All the rest
- 5:13of this country, for about a thousand miles farther, is inhabited by the
- 5:17worst and most ignorant of pagans. And so indeed we found it. We
- 5:23now launched into the greatest piece of solid earth that is to be found in
- 5:27any part of the world. We had at least twelve thousand miles to the
- 5:30sea eastward, two thousand to the bottom of the Baltic Sea westward, and
- 5:35above three thousand. If we left that sea and went on west to the
- 5:40British and French channels, we had full five thousand miles to the Indian or
- 5:45Persian Sea south, and about eight hundred to the frozen Sea north. We
- 5:49advanced from the River Arguna by easy and moderate journeys, and were very visibly
- 5:56obliged to the care. The Czar has taken to have cities and towns built
- 6:00in as many places as it is possible to place them where his soldiers keep
- 6:03garrison, something like the stationary soldiers placed by the Romans in the remotest countries
- 6:09of their empire, some of which I had read of, were placed in
- 6:12Britain for the security of commerce and for the lodging of travelers. Thus it
- 6:17was here for wherever we came. Though at these towns and stations the garrisons
- 6:21and governors were Russians and professed Christians, Yet the inhabitants were mere pagans,
- 6:28sacrificing to idols and worshiping the sun, moon and stars, or all the
- 6:32host of heaven. And not only so, but were of all the heathens
- 6:36and pagans that ever I met with the most barbarous, except only that they
- 6:42did not eat men's flesh. Some instances of this we met within the country
- 6:47between Arguna, where we enter the Muscovite dominions, and a city of Tartars
- 6:51and Russians together called Nortzyutsky, in which is a continued desert door forest,
- 6:58which caused us twenty days to travel. In a village near the last of
- 7:01these places, I had the curiosity to go and see their way of living,
- 7:05which is most brutish and unsufferable. They had. I suppose a great
- 7:10sacrifice that day, for there stood out upon an old stump of a tree,
- 7:15a diabolical kind of idol made of wood. It was dressed up,
- 7:18too, in the most filthy manner. Its upper garment was of sheepskins,
- 7:23with the wool outward, a great tartar bonnet on the head with two horns
- 7:28growing through it. It was about eight feet high, yet had no feet
- 7:31or legs, nor any other proportion of parts. This scarecrow was set up
- 7:36at the outer side of the village, and when I came near to it,
- 7:40there were sixteen or seventeen creatures, all lying flat upon the ground round
- 7:45this hideous block of wood. I saw no motion among them, any more
- 7:49than if they had been all logs like the idol, And at first I
- 7:53really thought they had been so. But when I came a little nearer,
- 7:57they started up upon their feet and raised a howl, as if it had
- 8:01been so many deep mouthed hounds, and walked away, as if they were
- 8:05displeased at our disturbing them. A little way off from the idol, and
- 8:09at the door of a hut made of sheep and cowskins dried, stood three
- 8:13men with long knives in their hands, and in the middle of the tent
- 8:16appeared three sheep killed and one young bullock. These, it seems, were
- 8:22sacrifices to that senseless log of an idol. The three men were priests belonging
- 8:26to it, and the seventeen prostrated wretches were the people who brought the offering
- 8:31and were offering their prayers to that stock. I confess I was more moved
- 8:35at their stupidity and brutish worship of a hobgoblin than ever I was at anything
- 8:41in my life, and overcome with rage I rode up to the hideous idol,
- 8:46and with my sword made a stroke at the bonnet that was on its
- 8:48head and cut it in two. And one of our men that was with
- 8:52me, taking hold of the sheepskin that covered it, pulled at it.
- 8:56When behold a most hideous outcry ran through the village, and two or three
- 9:01hundred people came about my ears, so that I was glad to scour for
- 9:05it, for some had bows and arrows, but I resolved from that moment
- 9:09to visit them again. Our caravan rested three knights at the town, which
- 9:13was about four miles off, in order to provide some horses, which they
- 9:16wanted. Several of the horses having been lamed and jaded with the long march
- 9:22over the last desert, so we had some leisure here to put my design
- 9:26in execution. I communicated it to the Scot's merchant, of whose courage I
- 9:30had sufficient testimony. I told him what I had seen, and with what
- 9:33indignation I had since thought that human nature could be so degenerate. I told
- 9:39him, if I could get but four or five men well armed to go
- 9:43with me, I was resolved to go and destroy that vile abominable idol,
- 9:48and let them see that it had no power to help itself, and consequently
- 9:52could not be an object of worship or to be prayed to, much less
- 9:56help them that offered sacrifices to it. He at first objected to my plan
- 10:01as useless, seeing that owing to the gross ignorance of the people, they
- 10:07could not be brought to profit by the lesson I meant to teach them,
- 10:09and added that from his knowledge of the country and its customs, he feared
- 10:15we should fall into great peril by giving offense to these brutal, idle worshipers.
- 10:18This somewhat stayed my purpose, but I was still uneasy all that day
- 10:22to put my project in execution, and that evening, meeting the Scot's merchant
- 10:28in our walk about the town, I again called upon him to aid me
- 10:31in it. When he found me resolute, he said that on further thoughts
- 10:35he could not but applaud the design, and told me I should not go
- 10:39alone, but he would go with me. But he would go first and
- 10:43bring a stout fellow, one of his countrymen, to go also with us.
- 10:46And one said he as famous for his zeal as you can desire any
- 10:50one to be against such devilish things as these. So we agreed to go
- 10:56only we three and my manservant and resorl to put it in execution the following
- 11:01night about midnight, with all possible secrecy. We thought it better to delay
- 11:07it till the next night, because the caravan being to set forward in the
- 11:11morning, we supposed the governor could not pretend to give them any satisfaction upon
- 11:16us when we were out of his power. The Scot's merchant, as steady
- 11:20in his resolution for the enterprise as bold in executing, brought me a tartar's
- 11:24robe or gown of sheepskins and a bonnet with a bow and arrows, and
- 11:28had provided the same for himself and his countrymen, that the people, if
- 11:33they saw us, should not determine who we were. All the first night
- 11:37we spent in mixing up some combustible matter with aqua vitai, gunpowder, and
- 11:43such other materials as we could get, and having a good quantity of tar
- 11:46in a little pot. About an hour after night, we set out upon
- 11:50our expedition. We came to the place about eleven o'clock at night, and
- 11:56found that the people had not the least suspicion of danger attending their own.
- 12:00The night was cloudy, yet the moon gave us light enough to see that
- 12:03the idol stood just in the same posture and place that it did before.
- 12:07The people seemed to be all at their rest, only that in the great
- 12:11hut where we saw the three priests, we saw a light, and going
- 12:15up close to the door, we heard people talking as if there were five
- 12:18or six of them. We concluded therefore, that if we set wildfire to
- 12:22the idol, those men would come out immediately and run up to the place
- 12:26to rescue it from destruction. And what to do with them we knew not
- 12:31once. We thought of carrying it away and setting fire to it at a
- 12:35distance, but when we came to handle it we found it too bulky for
- 12:39our carriage, so we were at a loss again. The second scotsman was
- 12:43for setting fire to the hut and knocking the creatures that were there on the
- 12:46head when they came out. But I could not join with that. I
- 12:50was against killing them if it were possible to avoid it. Well, then
- 12:54said the Scots merchant, I will tell you what we will do. We
- 12:58will try to make them tie their hands and make them stand and see their
- 13:03idle destroyed. As it happened, we had twine or pack thread enough about
- 13:07us, which we used to tie our firelocks together with. So we resolved
- 13:13to attack these people first, and with as little noise as we could.
- 13:16The first thing we did we knocked at the door. When one of the
- 13:20priests coming to it, we immediately seized upon him, stopped his mouth,
- 13:24and tied his hands behind him, and led him to the idol, where
- 13:28we gagged him that he might not make a noise, tied his feet also
- 13:31together, and left him on the ground. Two of us then waited at
- 13:37the door, expecting that another would come out to see what the matter was.
- 13:41But we waited so long till the third man came back to us,
- 13:43and then nobody coming out. We knocked again gently, and immediately out came
- 13:48two more, and we served them just in the same manner, but were
- 13:52obliged to go all with them and lay them down by the idol some distance
- 13:56from one another. When going back, we found two more were come out
- 14:01of the door, and a third stood behind them within the door. We
- 14:03seized the two and immediately tied them. When the third, stepping back and
- 14:09crying out my Scot's merchant went in after them, and, taking out a
- 14:13composition we had made that would only smoke and stink, he set fire to
- 14:16it and threw it in among them. By that time the other Scotsman and
- 14:22my man, taking charge of the two men already bound and tied together also
- 14:26by the arm, led them away to the idol, and left them there
- 14:30to see if their idol would relieve them, making haste back to us.
- 14:35When the fuse we had thrown in had filled the hut with so much smoke
- 14:37that they were almost suffocated. We threw in a small leather bag of another
- 14:41kind, which flamed like a candle, and following it in we found there
- 14:46were but four people, who, as we supposed, had been about some
- 14:50of their diabolical sacrifices. They appeared, in short frightened to death, at
- 14:56least so as to sit trembling and stupid, and not able to se speak
- 15:00either for the smoke. We quickly took them from the hut, where the
- 15:03smoke soon drove us out bound them as we had done the other, and
- 15:07all without any noise. Then we carried them all together to the idol.
- 15:13When we came there we fell to work with him. First we daubed him
- 15:16all over, and his robes also with tar and tallow mixed with brimstone.
- 15:22Then we stopped his eyes and ears and mouth full of gunpowder, and wrapped
- 15:26up a great piece of wildfire in his bonnet, Then sticking all the combustibles
- 15:30we had brought with us upon him, we looked about to see if we
- 15:33could find anything else to help to burn him. When my scotsmen remembered that
- 15:37by the hut where the men were there lay a heap of dry forage away.
- 15:41He and the other scotsmen ran and fetched their arms full of that.
- 15:46When we had done this, we took all our prisoners and brought them,
- 15:48having untied their feet and UnGagged their mouths, and made them stand up,
- 15:54and set them before their monstrous idol, and then set fire to the hole.
- 15:58We staid by it a quarter of an hour or thereabouts, till the
- 16:03powder in the eyes and mouth and ears of the idol blew up, and
- 16:06as we could perceive, had split all together, and in a word,
- 16:10till we saw it burned, so that it would soon be quite consumed.
- 16:14We then began to think of going away, But the Scotsmen said no,
- 16:18we must not go, for these poor deluded wretches will all throw themselves into
- 16:22the fire and burn themselves with the idol. So we resolved to stay till
- 16:26the forage has burned down two and then came away and left them. After
- 16:32the feat was performed, we appeared in the morning among our fellow travelers,
- 16:36exceedingly busy in getting ready for our journey. Nor could any man suppose that
- 16:40we had been anywhere but in our beds. But the affair did not end.
- 16:45So the next day came a great number of the country people to the
- 16:48town gates, and, in a most outrageous manner, demanded satisfaction of the
- 16:52Russian governor for the insulting their priests and burning their great cham Chiitongo. The
- 16:57people of Nurzingkee were at first in great consternation, for they said the Tartars
- 17:03were already no less than thirty thousand strong. The Russian governor sent out messengers
- 17:07to appease them, assuring them that he knew nothing of it, and that
- 17:11there had not a soul in his garrison been abroad, so that it could
- 17:15not be from anybody there. But if they could let him know who did
- 17:18it, they should be exemplarily punished. They returned haughtily that all the country
- 17:23reverenced the great cham Chitungu, who dwelt in the sun, and no mortal
- 17:29would have dared to offer violence to his image, but some Christian miscreant,
- 17:33and they therefore resolved to denounce war against him and all the Russians, who
- 17:37they said were miscreants and Christians. The governor, unwilling to make a breach
- 17:44or to have any cause of war alleged to be given by him. The
- 17:48Czar, having strictly charged him to treat the conquered country with gentleness, gave
- 17:52them all the good words he could. At last, he told them there
- 17:56was a caravan gone towards Russia that morning, and perhaps it was some of
- 18:00them who had done this injury, and that if they would be satisfied with
- 18:03that, he would send after them to inquire into it. This seemed to
- 18:07appease them a little, and accordingly the Governor sent after us and gave us
- 18:12a particular account how the thing was, intimating withal that if any in our
- 18:17caravan had done it, they should make their escape, but that whether we
- 18:21had done it or no, we should make all the haste forward that was
- 18:25possible, and that in the meantime he would keep them in play as long
- 18:29as he could. This was very friendly in the governor. However, when
- 18:33it came to the caravan, there was nobody knew anything of the matter,
- 18:37And as for us, that we were guilty, we were least of all
- 18:41suspected. However, the captain of the caravan for the time took the hint
- 18:45that the governor gave us, and we traveled two days and two nights without
- 18:48any considerable stop, and then we lay at a village called Plothos. Nor
- 18:53did we make any long stop here, but hastened on towards Jarrowena, another
- 18:57Muscovite colony, and where we expected we should be safe. But upon the
- 19:03second day's march from Plothos, by the clouds of dust behind us at a
- 19:07great distance, it was plain we were pursued. We had entered a vast
- 19:11desert and had passed by a great lake called Shanksoser, when we perceived a
- 19:15large body of horse appear on the other side of the lake to the north.
- 19:18We traveling west. We observed they went away west as we did.
- 19:23But had supposed we would have taken that side of the lake, whereas we
- 19:27very happily took the south side. And in two days more they disappeared again,
- 19:33for they, believing we were still before them, pushed on till they
- 19:36came to the Uda, a very great river when it passes farther north.
- 19:41But when we came to it we found it narrow and fordable. The third
- 19:45day they had either found their mistake or had intelligence of us, and came
- 19:48pouring in upon us towards dusk. We had, to our great satisfaction,
- 19:53just pitched upon a convenient place for our camp, for as we had just
- 19:57entered upon a desert above five one hundred miles over where we had no towns
- 20:02to lodge at, and indeed expected none but the city Jarawena, which we
- 20:07had yet two days march to the desert, however, had some few woods
- 20:11in it on this side, and little rivers which ran all into the great
- 20:15river Udda. It was in a narrow strait between little but very thick woods
- 20:19that we pitched our camp that night, expecting to be attacked before morning.
- 20:25As it was usual for the Mogul Tartars to go about in troops in that
- 20:29desert, so the caravans always fortify themselves every night against them, as against
- 20:33armies of robbers, And it was therefore no new thing to be pursued.
- 20:38But we had this night a most advantageous camp, for as we lay between
- 20:42two woods, with a little rivulet running just before our front, we could
- 20:48not be surrounded or attacked any way. But in our front or rear.
- 20:52We took care also to make our front as strong as we could, by
- 20:56placing our packs with the camels and horses all in a line on the inside
- 21:00of the river, and felling some trees in our rear. In this posture
- 21:04we encamped for the night, but the enemy was upon us before we had
- 21:08finished. They did not come on like thieves, as we expected, but
- 21:12sent three messengers to us to demand the men to be delivered to them that
- 21:17had abused their priests and burned their idol, that they might burn them with
- 21:21fire. And upon this they said they would go away and do us no
- 21:26further harm, otherwise they would destroy us. All our men looked very blank
- 21:30at this message, and began to stare at one another to see who looked
- 21:33with the most guilt in their faces. But nobody was the word. Nobody
- 21:37did it The leader of the caravan sent word. He was well assured that
- 21:41it was not done by any of our camp, that we were peaceful merchants
- 21:45traveling on our business, that we had done no harm to them or to
- 21:49anyone else, and that therefore they must look further for the enemies who had
- 21:53injured them, for we were not the people. So they desired them not
- 21:57to disturb us. If they did, we should defend ourselves. They were
- 22:03far from being satisfied with this for an answer, and a great crowd of
- 22:07them came running down in the morning by break of day to our camp,
- 22:11But seeing us so well posted, they durst come no farther than the brook
- 22:15in our front, where they stood in such number as to terrify us very
- 22:18much. Indeed some spoke of ten thousand. Here they stood and looked at
- 22:23us awhile, and then, setting up a great howl, let fly a
- 22:27crowd of arrows among us. But we were well enough sheltered under our baggage,
- 22:33and I do not remember that one of us was hurt. Some time
- 22:37after this, we saw them move a little to our right, and expected
- 22:40them on the rear, when a cunning fellow, a cossack of Jarawena,
- 22:44calling to the leader of the caravan, said to him, I will send
- 22:48all these people away to Sibeka. This was a city four or five days
- 22:52journey at least to the right and rather behind us. So he takes his
- 22:56bow and arrows, and getting on horseback, he rides away from air reared,
- 23:00directly as it were, back to Nurzinsky. After this he takes a
- 23:03great circle about and comes directly on the army of the Tartars, as if
- 23:07he had been sent express to tell them a long story, that the people
- 23:11who had burned the cham Chitongu were gone to Sibeilka with a caravan of miscreants,
- 23:17as he called them, that is to say, Christians, and that
- 23:21they had resolved to burn the god Skalisar belonging to the Tonguses. As this
- 23:26fellow was himself a Tartar and perfectly spoke their language, he counterfeited so well
- 23:30that they all believed him, and away they drove in a violent hurry to
- 23:34Sibeilka. In less than three hours. They were entirely out of our sight,
- 23:40and we never heard any more of them, nor whether they went to
- 23:42Sibeilka or no. So we passed away safely on to Jarawena, where there
- 23:48was a Russian garrison, and there we rested. Five days. From this
- 23:52city we had a frightful desert which held us twenty three days March. We
- 23:56furnished ourselves with some tents here for the better accommodating ourselves in the night,
- 24:03and the leader of the caravan procured sixteen wagons of the country for carrying our
- 24:07water or provisions, and these carriages were our defense every night round our little
- 24:12camp. So that had the tartars appeared, unless they had been very numerous,
- 24:17indeed, they would not have been able to hurt us. We may
- 24:19well be supposed to have wanted rest again after this long journey, for in
- 24:23this desert we neither saw a house nor tree, and scarce a bush.
- 24:29Though we saw abundance of the sable hunters, who are all tartars of Mogul
- 24:33Tartary, of which this country is a part, and they frequently attack small
- 24:37caravans, but we saw no numbers of them together. After we had passed
- 24:42this desert, we came into a country pretty well inhabited, that is to
- 24:47say, we found towns and castles settled by the tsar, with garrisons of
- 24:51stationary soldiers to protect the caravans and defend the country against the Tartars who would
- 24:56otherwise make it very dangerous traveling. And his Tzarish Majesty has given such strict
- 25:02orders for the well guarding the caravans that if there are any Tartars heard of
- 25:07in the country, detachments of the garrison are always sent to see the travelers
- 25:11safe from station to station. Thus, the Governor of Adinskoy, whom I
- 25:15had an opportunity to make a visit to by means of the Scots merchant who
- 25:19was acquainted with him, offered us a guard of fifty men if we thought
- 25:23there was any danger to the next station. I thought long before this that
- 25:29as we came nearer to Europe, we should find the country better inhabited and
- 25:33the people more civilized. But I found myself mistaken in both, for we
- 25:37had yet the nation of the Tonguses to pass through, where we saw the
- 25:41same tokens of paganism and barbarity as before, only as they were conquered by
- 25:45the Muscovites, they were not so dangerous, but for rudeness of manners and
- 25:51idolatry. No people in the world ever went beyond them. They are all
- 25:55clothed in skins of beasts, and their houses are built of the same.
- 26:00I know not a man from a woman, neither by the ruggedness of their
- 26:03countenance nor their clothes. And in the winter, when the ground is covered
- 26:07with snow, they live underground in vaults which have cavities going from one to
- 26:11another. If the Tartars had their cham Chitongu for a whole village or country,
- 26:17these had idols in every hut and every cave. This country I reckon
- 26:22was from the desert I spoke of last, at least four hundred miles,
- 26:26half of it being another desert, which took us up twelve days severe traveling
- 26:30without house or tree, and we were obliged again to carry our own provisions,
- 26:34as well water as bread. After we were out of this desert and
- 26:38had traveled two days, we came to Janize, a Muscovite city or station
- 26:44on the great River Janize, which they told us there parted Europe from Asia.
- 26:49All the country between the River Obi and the River Janize is entirely pagan,
- 26:55and the people as barbarous as the remotest of the Tartars. I also
- 27:00found, which I observed to the Muscovite governors, whom I had an opportunity
- 27:03to converse with, that the poor Pagans are not much wiser or nearer Christianity
- 27:08for being under the Muscovite government, which they acknowledged was true enough. But
- 27:14that, as they said, was none of their business. That if the
- 27:17Tsar expected to convert his Siberian, Tonguse or Tartar subjects, it should be
- 27:22done by sending clergymen among them, not soldiers. And they added, with
- 27:26more sincerity than I expected, that it was not so much the concern of
- 27:32their monarch to make the people Christians as to make them subjects. From this
- 27:37river to the Obi we crossed a wild, uncultivated country, barren of people
- 27:41and good management. Otherwise, it is in itself a pleasant, fruitful and
- 27:45agreeable country. What inhabitants we found in it are all Pagans, except such
- 27:52as are sent among them from Russia. For this is the country I mean
- 27:56on both sides the River Obi, whither the Muscovite criminals that are not put
- 28:00to death are banished, And from whence it is next to impossible they should
- 28:03ever get away. I have nothing material to say of my particular affairs till
- 28:07I came to Tobolski, the capital city of Siberia, where I continued some
- 28:12time on the following account. We had now been almost seven months on our
- 28:18journey, and winter began to come on apace, whereupon my partner and I
- 28:22called a council about our particular affairs, in which we found it proper as
- 28:26we were bound for England, to consider how to dispose of ourselves. They
- 28:32told us of sledges and reindeer to carry us over the snow in the winter
- 28:36time, by which means indeed the Russians travel more in winter than they can
- 28:41in summer, as in these sledges they are able to run night and day.
- 28:45The snow being frozen is one universal covering to nature, by which the
- 28:48hills, vales, rivers and lakes are all smooth and hard as a stone,
- 28:53and they run upon the surface without any regard to what is underneath.
- 28:59But I had no occasion to urge a winter journey of this kind. I
- 29:03was bound to England, not to Moscow, and my route lay two ways.
- 29:07Either I must go on as the caravan went till I came to Jarislaw
- 29:11and then go off west for Narva and the Gulf of Finland, and so
- 29:15on to Danzik, where I might possibly sell my China cargo to good advantage.
- 29:21Or I must leave the caravan at a little town on the Dvina,
- 29:23from whence I had but six days by water to Archangel, and from thence
- 29:29must be sure of shipping either to England, Holland or Hamburg. Now,
- 29:33to go any one of these journeys in the winter would have been preposterous,
- 29:37for as to Danzig, the Baltic would have been frozen up and I could
- 29:41not get passage, and to go by land in those countries was far less
- 29:45safe than among the Mogul Tartars. Likewise, as to Archangel in October,
- 29:49all the ships would be gone from thence, and even the merchants who dwell
- 29:52there in summer retire south to Moscow in the winter when the ships are gone,
- 29:57so that I could have nothing but extremity of cold to encounter with a
- 30:02scarcity of provisions, and must lie in an empty town all the winter.
- 30:07Therefore, upon the whole I thought it much my better way to let the
- 30:10caravan go and make provision to winter where I was at Tobolski in Siberia,
- 30:15in the latitude of about sixty degrees, where I was sure of three things
- 30:19to wear out a cold winter, with viz plenty of provisions, such as
- 30:23the country afforded a warm house, with fuel enough and excellent company. I
- 30:30was now in quite a different climate from my beloved island, where I never
- 30:33felt cold, except when I had my egg yew. On the contrary,
- 30:37I had much to do to bear any clothes on my back, and never
- 30:41made any fire, but without doors, which was necessary for dressing my food,
- 30:45et cetera. Now I had three good vests with large robes or gowns
- 30:49over them to hang down to the feet and button close to the wrists,
- 30:53and all these lined with furs to make them sufficiently warm. As to a
- 30:57warm house, I must infest. I greatly dislike our way in England of
- 31:02making fires in every room of the house in open chimneys, which when the
- 31:07fire is out, always keeps the air in the room cold as the climate.
- 31:11So I took an apartment in a good house in the town, and
- 31:14ordered a chimney to be built like a furnace in the center of six several
- 31:18rooms, like a stove the funnel to carry the smoke went up one way,
- 31:22the door to come at the fire went in another, and all the
- 31:26rooms were kept equally warm, but no fire seen, just as they heat
- 31:30baths in England. By this means we had always the same climate in all
- 31:34the rooms, and an equal heat was preserved, And yet we saw no
- 31:38fire, nor were ever incommoded with smoke. The most wonderful thing of all
- 31:45was that it should be possible to meet with good company here in a country
- 31:48so barbarous as this, one of the most northerly parts of Europe, but
- 31:52this being the country where the state criminals of Muscovy, as I observed before,
- 31:56are all banished. The city was full of Russian noblemen, gentlemen,
- 32:01soldiers and courtiers. Here was the famous Prince galitzin the old German Robostiski,
- 32:07and several other persons of note, and some ladies by means of my Scotch
- 32:12merchant, whom nevertheless I parted with. Here I made an acquaintance with several
- 32:16of these gentlemen, and from these, in the long winter nights in which
- 32:20I stayed there, I received several very agreeable visits. End of chapter fifteen,