The banks also which the current of the river forms, are very variable, and of course it is almost impossible to know with certainty the channel, which must necessarily, from time to time, change it direction as well as its depth.
We passed the rest of the day at Tchekafki, being unable to proceed to the shipwrecked vessel, or to return to Bolcheretsk. The sky, instead of clearing up, became covered on all sides with still blacker and thicker clouds. Soon after our arrival, a dreadful tempest arose, and the Bolchaïa-reka became agitated to an extreme violence, even so high up as our hamlet. Its billows surprised me, because of the little extent and depth of the river in this place. The point north-east of its mouth, and the low land, which this gale of wind extended, formed but one breaker, over which the waves rolled with a horrible noise. The gale was not likely to abate, but I was on shore, and thought myself able to brave it. I took it into my head therefore, to go a hunting in the environs of the hamlet. I had scarcely advanced a few steps, when the wind seized me, and I felt myself stagger; my courage however did not fail me, and I persevered; but coming to a stream, which it was necessary to cross in a boat, I ran the most imminent risk, and returned immediately, well punished for my petty presumption. These dreadful hurricanes being very common at this season, it is not be wondered at that shipwrecks are so frequent on these coasts: the vessels are so small as to have but one mast; and, what is still worse, the sailors who manage them, if report may be credited, have too little skill to be confided in.
The next day we resumed our journey, and arrived at Bolcheretsk in the dusk of the evening.
As I forsee that my stay here will probably be long, from the necessity of waiting till sledges can be used, I shall proceed with my descriptions, and the recital of what I have seen myself, or learned from my conversations with the Russians and Kamtschadales. I shall begin with the town, or fort of Bolcheretsk, for so it is called, in Russia (ostrog, or krepost).
It is situated on the border of the Bolchaïa-reka, in a small island formed by different branches of this river, which divide the town into three parts more or less inhabited. The most distant division, and which is farthest to the east, is a kind of suburb called Paranchine; it contains ten or twelve isbas. South-east of Paranchine, is the middle division, where there is also a number isbas, and among others, a row of wooden huts that serve for shops. Opposite to these is the guard-house, which is also the chancery, or court of justice[30]; this house is larger than the rest, and is always guarded by a centinel. A second branch of the Bolchaïa-reka again separates, by a very narrow stream, this group of habitations, built without order, and scattered here and there, from another at the north-west, nearer the river. The river in this part flows in the direction of south-east and north-west, and passes within fifty yards of the governor's house. This house is easily distinguished from the rest; it is higher, larger, and is built like the wooden houses of St. Petersburg. Two hundred yards north-east of this house, is the church; the construction of which is simple, and like that of the village churches in Russia. By the side of it is an erection of timber work, twenty feet high, covered only with a roof, under which three bells are suspended. North-west of the governor's house, and separated from it by a meadow or marsh about three hundred yards wide, is another group of dwellings, consisting of twenty-five or thirty isbas, and some balagans. There are in general very few of these latter habitations at Bolcheretsk; the whole do not exceed ten; the isbas and wooden houses, without including the eight shops, the chancery, and the governor's house, amount to fifty or sixty.
From this minute description of the fort of Bolcheretsk, it must appear strange that it retains so inapplicable a name; for I can affirm, that no traces are to be found of fortifications, nor does it appear that there has ever been an intention of erecting any. The state and situation, both of the town and its port, induce me to believe, that government have felt the innumerable dangers and obstacles they would have to surmount, if they were to attempt to render it more flourishing, and make it the general depôt of commerce to the peninsula. Their views, as I have already observed, seem rather turned to the port of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which for its proximity, safety, and easy access, merits the preference.
There is a degree of civilization at Bolcheretsk, which I did not perceive at Petropavlofska. This sensible approach to European manners, occasions a striking differrence between the two places. I shall endeavour to point out and account for this as I proceed in my observations upon the inhabitants of these ostrogs; for my principal object should be, to give details of their employments, their customs, their tastes, their diversions, their food, their understandings, their character, their constitutions, and lastly, the principles of government to which they are subjected.
The population of Bolcheretsk, including men, women and children, amounts to between two and three hundred. Among these inhabitants, reckoning the petty officers, there are sixty or seventy Cossacs, or soldiers, who are employed in all labours that relate to the service of government[31]. Each in his turn mounts guard; they clear the ways; repair the bridges; unlade the provisions sent from Okotsk, and convey them from the mouth of the Bolchaïa-reka to Bolcheretsk. The rest of the inhabitants are composed of merchants and sailors.
These people, Russians and Cossacs, together with a mixed breed found among them, carry on a clandestine commerce, sometimes in one article, and sometimes in another; it varies as often as they see any reason for changing it; but it is never with a view of enriching themselves by honest means. Their industry is a continual knavishness; it is solely employed in cheating the poor Kamtschadales, whose credulity and insuperable propensity to drunkenness, leave them entirely at the mercy of these dangerous plunderers. Like our mountebanks, and other knaves of this kind, they go from village to village to inveigle the too silly natives: they propose to sell them brandy, which they artfully present to them to taste. It is almost impossible for a Kamtschadale, male or female, to refuse this offer. The first essay is followed by many others; presently their heads become affected, they are intoxicated, and the craft of the tempters succeed. No sooner are they arrived to a slate of inebriety, than these pilferers know how to obtain from them the barter of their most valuable effects, that is, their whole stock of furs, frequently the fruit of the labour of a whole season, which was to enable them to pay their tribute to the crown, and procure perhaps subsistance for a whole family. But no consideration can stop a Kamtschadale drunkard; every thing is forgotten, every thing is sacrificed to the gratification of his appetite, and the momentary pleasure of swallowing a few glasses of brandy[32], reduces him to the utmost wretchedness. Nor is it possible for the most painful experience to put them on their guard against their own weakness, or the cunning perfidy of these traders, who in their turn drink, in like manner, all the profits of their knavery.
I shall terminate the article of commerce by adding, that the persons who deal most in wholesale, are merely agents of the merchants of Totma, Vologda, Grand Ustiug, and different towns of Siberia, or the factors of other opulent traders, who extend even to this distant country their commercial speculations.
All the wares and provisions, which necessity obliges them to purchase from the magazines, are sold excessively dear, and at about ten times the current price at Moscow. A vedro[33] of French brandy costs eighty roubles[34]. The merchants are allowed to traffic in this article; but the brandy, distilled from corn, which is brought from Okotsk, and that produced by the country, which is distilled from the slatkaïa-trava, or sweet herb, are sold, upon government account, at forty one roubles ninety-six kopecks[35] the vedro. They can be sold only in the kabacs, or public houses, opened for that purpose. At Okotsk, the price of brandy distilled from corn is no more than eighteen roubles the vedro; so that the expence of freight is charged at twenty-three roubles ninety-six kopecks, which appears exorbitant, and enables us to form some judgment of the accruing profit.
The rest of the merchandize consists of nankins and other China stuffs, together with various commodities of Russian and foreign manufacture, as ribands, handkerchiefs, stockings, caps, shoes, boots, and other articles of European dress, which may be regarded as luxuries, compared with the extreme simplicity of apparel of the Kamtschadales. Among the provision imported, there are sugar, tea, a small quantity of coffee, some wine, but
