orders to hire as many native labourers as
possible and begin at once the work of cutting poles and preparing
station-houses. The _Varag_ he proposed to send with stores and
despatches to Mahood, who had been living alone at Okhotsk almost five
months without news, money, or provisions, and who it was presumed
must be nearly discouraged.

On the day previous to the _Varag's_ departure, we were all invited by
her social and warm-hearted officers to a last complimentary dinner;
and although we had not been and should not be able with our scanty
means to reciprocate such attentions, we felt no hesitation in
accepting the invitation and tasting once more the pleasures of
civilised life. Nearly all the officers of the _Varag_, some thirty in
number, spoke English; the ship itself was luxuriously fitted up; a
fine military band welcomed us with "Hail, Columbia!" when we came
on board, and played selections from _Martha, Traviata_, and _Der
Freischuetz_ while we dined, and all things contributed to make our
visit to the _Varag_ a bright spot in our Siberian experience.

On the following morning at ten o'clock, we returned to the _Clara
Bell_ in one of the latter's small-boats, and the corvette steamed
slowly out to sea, her officers waving their hats from the
quarter-deck in mute farewell, and her band playing the Pirate's
Chorus--"Ever be happy and blest as thou art"--as if in mockery of our
lonely, cheerless exile! It was a gloomy party of men which returned
that afternoon to a supper of reindeer-meat and cabbage in the bare
deserted rooms of the government storehouse at Gizhiga! We realised
then, if never before, the difference between _life_ in "God's
country" and _existence_ in north-eastern Asia.

As soon as possible after the departure of the _Varag_, the _Clara
Bell_ was brought into the mouth of the river, her cargo of brackets
and insulators discharged, Lieutenant Arnold and party sent on board,
and with the next high tide, August 26th, she sailed for Yamsk and
San Francisco, leaving no one at Gizhiga but the original Kamchatkan
party, Dodd, the Major, and myself.

CHAPTER XXXIII

ARRIVAL OF BARK "PALMETTO"--DRIVEN ASHORE BY GALE--DISCHARGING
CARGO UNDER DIFFICULTIES--NEGRO CREW MUTINIES--LONELY TRIP TO
ANADYRSK--STUPID KORAKS--EXPLOSIVE PROVISIONS

The brief excitement produced by the arrival of the _Varag_ and the
_Clara Bell_ was succeeded by another long, dreary month of waiting,
during which we