pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[4], where I lay down upon a small mattrass spread upon the snow, and covered myself up with a number of furs, in order to revive perspiration. It was in vain; I did not close my eyes during the whole night. To the anguish of a dry and burning fever, were added a continual oppression, and all the restlessness peculiar to the first symptoms of a disorder. I conceived myself, I acknowledge, to be dangerously ill, particularly when I found, upon getting up, that I could not articulate a single sound. I suffered infinitely both in my breast and throat; the fever was not abated; nevertheless the idea that a longer halt in this place would be of no benefit to me, and that I could only hope for succour by proceeding, determined me to conceal my extreme illness from M. Schmaleff. I was the first to propose going on, but in this I consulted my courage more than my strength.

I had advanced but a few wersts, when my sufferings became insupportable. I was obliged to drive myself, and consequently to be in continual motion; frequently also I was compelled from the badness of roads, either to run by the side of my sledge, or call to the dogs to make them proceed. My hoarseness prevented their hearing me; and it was only by efforts that exhausted my strength, and tortured my lungs, that I at last succeeded. This exercise however, painful as it was, proved salutary to me; by degrees it created a perspiration; in the evening I could breathe more freely; the fever left me; I had no complaint but a violent cold, which was removed in a few days. Fatiguing exercise was the only remedy I used. I took particular care to continue the perspiration it occasioned, and to this I am persuaded I owe the rapidity of my cure. My breast however was so sore, that I felt the effects of it for a considerable time.

During this interval I had nothing to suffer from the rigour of tempests; the air was calm, and the weather clear. We were blessed with the finest days of winter, or I should perhaps never again have seen my native country. Heaven seemed to favour my journey, that I might forget my sufferings.

The most lively joy soon succeeded to the sorrow that had depressed me. We met, in different detachments, three convoys sent by sergeant Kabechoff to M. Kasloff. This unexpected succour gave me the more pleasure, as the deplorable state in which I had left the governor, was continually recurring to my mind. What a sudden change in his situation! He was upon the point of receiving a supply of provisions, together with an hundred and fifty dogs well fed and well trained. He will be able, said I to myself, to proceed immediately on his journey; and if I cannot flatter myself that I shall see him again, I know at least that he will be extricated from his embarassment. This certainty relieved the anxiety which I had felt on his account.

The soldier who conducted the convoys, offered me part of his provisions; but I refused them. He had no profusion, and we were not in want. I detained him therefore as short a time as possible.

Before he quitted us, he told me that prince Eitel, or chief of the Koriacs of Kaminoi, who had been accused of rebellion, was advancing to undeceive the governor, and prove the falsehood of the charge.

In pursuing our route, we perceived, beyond a small river bordered with some shrubs, a chain of steep mountains, which it was necessary to climb one after the other, in order to descend upon another river, called Talofka. Its banks diverged as it approached the sea; they were well wooded, and I perceived some trees of a tolerable size. We left this river at a distance from Kaminoi, in order to traverse an extensive heath, then a considerable lake; at length we crossed the river Pengina, almost at its mouth, and in a direction from south-east to north-west. Its breadth is striking, and the aspect of the heaps of ice that covered it, and which were of an extreme height, would have been still more picturesque, if we could have taken a more convenient way; but we had no choice, and were reduced to the necessity of hoisting, as I may say, our dogs and our sledges from heap to heap. The difficulty and slowness of this manœuvre is easily conceived; it required my utmost exertion and care to get off unhurt.

It was still near two hours before we reached Kaminoi, where we arrived the 24 before noon. We were received by the inhabitants with the utmost civility. In the absence of Eitel, another prince called Eila, had the command. He came to meet us with a Russian detachment, and we were conducted to the yourt of Eitel, which had been cleaned and prepared a long time for the reception of M. Kasloff.

Eila conferred upon us every mark of respect; we had constantly a centinel at our door, whose orders were to open it to such persons only as we had no reason to distrust.

This was not owing to any doubts we entertained respecting the report that had been spread of the rebellion of the Koriacs; it was evidently false[5]. Their behaviour to us, and the reception they had prepared for the governor, plainly proved what was their disposition at present. Nor is it to be presumed that this was the effect of the arrival of the soldiers sent from Ingiga[6]. Their wretched condition was little calculated to awe men like the Koriacs, who are too little attached to life, I understand, to be ever intimidated; and whom nothing can restrain, if they have the least ground for discontent.

The sight however of the cannon, and of the Cossacs in arms, who had entered the village without announcing any hostile intention, gave them at first some alarm. Immediately advancing towards the subaltern officer who commanded the troop, they called upon him to declare, whether he was come to strike a blow at their liberty, and extirpate them; adding, that if such were the project of the Russians, the Koriacs would all die to a man, rather than submit. The officer removed their fears, by artfully answering, that the occasion of his embassy ought not to alarm them; that he was sent to meet M. Kasloff, which was an honour due to his rank, and prescribed by the military regulations of Russia towards their governors. This explanation was sufficient to remove their suspicions; and the Koriacs and Russians lived together upon terms of the best understanding. The confidence of the Koriacs was so great, that they took no precautions against a surprise, and would have paid no attention to the continued abode of these soldiers among them, but for a famine, which began to render such guests burthensome.

I had intended to stay no longer at Kaminoi than was necessary to rest my dogs; but on the night of the 24, the sky became obscured, and frequent gusts of wind threatened an approaching tempest; the fear of encountering it in the open field, made me defer my departure.

This ostrog is three hundred wersts from Poustaretsk, and is situated upon an eminence near the sea coast, and at the mouth of the river Pengina. It contains a great number of balagans and twelve yourts, all of them very large, and built in a similar manner to those I have already described. Though very