Our caravan rested three nights at the town, which was about four miles off, in order to provide fome horses, which they wanted, feveral of the horses having been lamed and jaded with the badness of the way, and our long march over the last defart; fo we had fome leisure here to put my design in execution. I communicated my project to the Scots merchant, of Moscow, of whofe courage I had a fufficient testimony, as above. I told him what I had feen, and with what indignation I had fince thought, that human nature could be fo degenerate. I told him, I was refolved, if I could get but four or five men well armed to go with me, to go and destroy that vile, abominable idol; to let them fee, that it had no power to help itself, and confequently could not be an object of worship, or to be prayed to, much less help them that offered facrifices to it.

He laughed at me: faid he, Your zeal may be good; but what do you propose to yourself by it? Propofe! faid I; to vindicate the honour of GOD, which is infulted by this devil-worship. But how will it vindicate the honour of GOD? faid he, while the people will not be able to know what you mean by it, unless you could speak to them too, and tell them fo; and then they will fight you too, I will affure you; for they are defperate fellows, and that especially in defence of their idolatry. Can we not, faid I, do it in the night, and then leave them the reasons in writing, in their own language? Writing! faid he, why there is not in five nations of them, one man that knows any thing of a letter, or how to read a word in any language, or in their own. Wretched

Y 3

Wretched ignorance! faid I to him; however, I have a great mind to do it; perhaps nature may draw inferences from it to them, to let them see how brutish they are to worship fuch horrid things. Look you, Sir, faid he, if your zeal prompts you to it so warmly, you must do it; but, in the next place, I would have you confider these wild nations of people are fubjected by force to the czar of Muscovy's dominions; and if you do this, it is ten to one but they will come by thousands to the governor of Nertzinskay, and complain, and demand fatisfaction; and if he cannot give them fatisfaction, it is ten to one but they revolt; and it will occafion a new war with all the Tartars in the country.

This, I confefs, put new thoughts into my head for a while; but I harped upon the fame firing ftill; and all that day I was uneafy to put my project in execution. Towards the evening, the Scots merchant met me by accident in our walk about the town, and defired to fpeak with me: I believe, faid he, I have put you off your good defign; I have been a little concerned about it fince; for I abhor the idol and idolatry as much as you can do. Truly, faid I, you have put it off a little as to the execution of it, but you have not put it all out of my thoughts; and, I believe, I fhall do it ftill before I quit this place, though I were to be delivered up to them for fatisfaction. No, no, faid he; GOD forbid they fhould deliver you up to fuch a crew of monfters! they fhall not do that neither; that would be murdering you indeed. Why, faid I, how would they ufe me? Ufe you! faid he; I'll tell how they ferved a poor Ruffian, who affronted them in their

you

worship

worship juft as you did, and whom they took prifoner, after they had lamed him with an arrow, that he could not run away; they took him and stripped him stark naked, and fet him upon the top of the idol monster, and stood all round him, and fhot as many arrows into him as would stick over his whole body; and then they burnt him and all the arrows fticking in him, as a facrifice to the idol. And was this the fame idol? faid I. Yes, faid he, the very fame. Well, faid I, I will tell you a ftory: So I related the story of our men at Madagafcar, and how they burnt and facked the village there, and killed man, woman, and child, for their murdering one of our men, just as it is related before; and when I had done, I added, that I thought we ought to do fo to this village.

He liftened very attentively to the story; but when I talked of doing fo to that village, faid he, you miftake very much; it was not this village, it was almoft an hundred miles from this place; but it was the fame idol, for they carry him about in proceffion all over the country. Well, faid I, then that idol ought to be punished for it; and it fhall, faid I, if I live this night out.

In a word, finding me refolute, he liked the defign, and told me, I fhould not go alone, but he would go with me; but he would go first, and bring a ftout fellow, one of his countrymen, to go alfo with us; and one, faid he, as famous for his zeal as you can defire any one to be against fuch devilish things as thefe. In a word, he brought me his comrade, a Scotfman, whom he called Captain Richardfon; and I gave him a full account of what I had

feen, and alfo of what I intended; and he told me readily, he would go with me, me, if it cost him his life. So we agreed to go, only we three. I had, indeed, proposed it to my partner; but he declined it. He faid, he was ready to affift me to the utmost, and upon all occasions, for my defence; but that this was an adventure quite out of his way: fo, I fay, we refolved upon our work, only we three, and my man-servant, and to put it in execution that night about midnight, with all the fecrecy imaginable.

However, upon fecond thoughts, we were willing to delay it till the next night, because the caravan being to fet forward in the morning, we fuppofed the governor could not pretend to give them any fatisfaction upon us when we were out of his power.The Scots merchant, as steady in his refolution to enterprize it as bold in executing, brought me a Tartar's robe or gown of fheep-fkins, and a bonnet, with a bow and arrows, and had provided the fame for himself and his countryman, that the people, if they faw us, fhould not be able to determine who we

were.

All the first night we spent in mixing up fome combustible matter with aqua-vitæ, gunpowder, and fuch other materials as we could get; and, having a good quantity of tar in a little pot, about an hour after night we fet out upon our expedition.

We came to the place about eleven o'clock at night, and found that the people had not the least jealoufy of danger attending their idol; the night was cloudy; yet the moon gave us light enough to fee that the idol ftood just in the fame posture and place that it did before. The people feemed to be

all at their reft; only, that in the great hut, or tent as we called it, where we faw the three priests, whom we mistook for butchers, we saw a light, and, going up clofe to the door, we heard people talking, as if there were five or fix of them; we concluded therefore, that if we fet wild-fire to the idol, these men would come out immediately, and run up to the place to rescue it from the destruction that we intended for it; and what to do with them we knew not. Once we thought of carrying it away, and fetting fire to it at a distance; but when we came to handle it, we found it too bulky for our carriage; fo we were at a lofs again. The fecond Scotfman was for setting fire to the tent or hut, and knocking the creatures that were there on the head, when they came out; but I could not join with that; I was against killing them, if it was poffible to be avoided. Well then, faid the Scots merchant, I will tell you what we will do; we will try to make them prifoners, tie their hands, and make them stand and fee their idol destroyed.

As it happened, we had twine or packthread enough about us, which we used to tie our fireworks together with; fo we refolved to attack these people first, and with as little noife as we could. The first thing we did, we knocked at the door, when one of the priests coming to it, we immediately feized upon him, ftopped his mouth, and tied his hands behind him and led him to the idol, where we gagged him that he might not make a noise; tied his feet alfo together, and left him on the ground. Two of us then waited at the door, expecting that another would come out to fee what the matter

was;