hamberlain brought out the euphemism with the utmost suavity. "I have
made up my mind not to ignore the indignity to which Russia was
subjected last year by Japan, but to inflict upon it such punishment as
I find it in my power to compass. It was my intention to build a
flotilla here, but owing to the diseased condition and reduced numbers
of the employees, that was impossible, and I shall be obliged to
content myself with the Juno and the Avos, whose keel, as you know, was
laid in November, and is no doubt finished long since. These I shall
fit with armaments in Okhotsk. I shall place the enterprise I have
spoken of in your charge, sailing with you from Sitka five days hence.
From Okhotsk I desire that you proceed to the Japanese settlements in
the lower Kurile Islands, take possession of them and bring all stores
and as many of the inhabitants as the vessels will accommodate, to
Sitka, where Baranhov will see that they are comfortably established on
that large island in the harbor--which we shall call Japonsky--and
converted into good servants of the Company. The excuse for this
enterprise is that those islands were formally taken possession of by
Shelikov; and although abandoned later, the fact remains that the
Russian flag was the first to float over them. The stores captured may
not be worth much and the islands are of no particular use to us, but
it is wise that Japan should have a taste of Russian power; and the
consequences may be salutary in more ways than one. I hope you will do
me this great favor, for there is no one of your tried probity and
skill to whom I can trust so delicate an enterprise. I am doing it
wholly upon my own responsibility, for although I wrote tentatively to
the Tsar on this subject before I sailed for California, it is not yet
time for a reply. However, I take the consequences upon my own
shoulders. You shall not suffer in any way, for your orders are to
obey mine while you remain in these waters."

He paused a moment, and then suddenly smiled into the unresponsive
faces before him. He held out his hand and shook their limp ones
warmly.

"Let me thank you here for all your inestimable services in the past,
and particularly during our late hazardous voyages. Be sure that
whether you succeed in this enterprise or not, your rewards shall be no
less for what you have already done. I shall make it a personal matter
with the Tsar. You shall have promotion and a substantial incre