And yet here I observed ignorance and paganiím ftill prevailed, except in the Mufcovite garrifons: All the country between the river Oby, and the river Janezay, is as entirely pagan, and the people as barbarous, as the remoteft of the Tartars; nay, as any nation, for aught I know, in Afia or America. I alfo found, which I obferved to the Muscovite governors, whom I had opportunity to converfe with, that the pagans are not much the wifer, or the nearer Christianity, for being under the Mufcovite government; which they acknowledged was true enough, but, they faid, it was none of their bufinefs; that if the czar expected to convert his Siberian, or Tonguefe, or Tartar fubjects, it fhould be done by fending clergymen among them, not fol diers; and they added, with more fincerity than I expected, that they found it was not so much the concern of their monarch to make the people Chriftians, as it was to make them subjects.

From this river to the great river Oby, we croffed a wild uncultivated country; I cannot say 'tis a barbarous foil; 'tis only barren of people, and wants good management; otherwife it is in itself a most pleafant, fruitful, and agreeable country. What inhabitants we found in it are all pagans, except fuch as are fent among them from Ruffia; for this is the country, I mean on both fides the river Oby, whither the Muscovite criminals, that are not put to death, are banifhed, and from whence it is next to impoffible they fhould ever come away.

I have nothing material to fay of my particular affairs, till I came to Tobolski, the capital of Si

beria, where I continued fome time on the following occafion :

We had been now almoft feven months on our journey, and winter began to come on apace; whereupon my partner and I called a council about our particular affairs, in which we found it proper, confidering that we were bound for England, and not for Moscow, to confider how to dispose of ourfelves. They told us of fledges and rein deer to carry us over the fnow in the winter-time; and, indeed, they have fuch things, as it would be incredible to relate the particulars of, by which means the Ruffians travel more in the winter than they can in fummer; because in these fledges they are able to run night and day: the fnow being frozen, is one univerfal covering to nature, by which the the hills, the vales, the rivers, the lakes, are all smooth, and hard as a ftone; and they run upon the surface, without any regard to what is underneath.

But I had no occafion to push at a winter journey of this kind; I was bound to England, not to Mofcow, and my route lay two ways: either I must go on as the caravan went, till I came to Farislaw, and then go, off weft for Narva, and the gulph of Finland, and fo either by fea or land to Dantzick, where I might poffibly fell my China cargo to good advantage, or I must leave the caravan at a little town on the Dwina, from whence I had but fix days by water to Arch-Angel, and from thence might be fure of fhipping, either to England, Holland, or Hamburgh.

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Now to go any of these journies in the winter would have been prepofterous; for as to Dantzic, the Baltic would be frozen up, and I could not get paffage; and to go by land in thofe countries, was far less fafe than among the Mogul Tartars; likewife to Arch-Angel, in October all the fhips would be gone from thence, and even the merchants, who dwell there in fummer, retire fouth to Moscow in the winter, when the fhips are gone; fo that I should have nothing but extremity of cold to encounter, with a fcarcity of provifions, and muft lie there in an empty town all the winter: fo that, upon the whole, I thought it much my better way to let the caravan go, and to make provision to winter where I was, viz. at Tobolski, in Siberia, in the latitude of fixty degrees, where I was fure of three things to wear out a cold winter with, viz. plenty of provifions, fuch as the country afforded, a warm houfe, with fuel enough, and excellent company; of all which I fhall give a full account in its place.

I was now in a quite different climate from my beloved island, where I never felt cold, except when I had my ague; on the contrary, I had much to do to bear my clothes on my back, and never made any fire but without doors, and my neceffity, in dreffing my food, &c. Now I made me three good vefts, with large robes or gowns over them, to hang down to the feet, and button close to the wrifts, and all thefe lined with furs, to make them fufficiently

warm.

As to a warm houfe, I must confefs, I greatly diflike our way in England, of making fires in every

room

room in the house, in open chimnies, which, when the fire was out, always kept the air in the room cold as the climate. But taking an apartment in a good houfe in the town, I ordered a chimney to be built like a furnace, in the centre of fix feveral rooms, like a ftove; the funnel to carry the fmoke went up one way, the door to come at the fire went in another, and all the rooms were kept equally warm, but no fire feen; like as they heat the bagnios in England.

By this means we had always the fame climate in all the rooms, and an equal heat was preferved; and how cold foever it was without, it was always warm within; and yet we saw no fire, nor were ever incommoded with any fmoke.

The most wonderful thing of all was, that it fhould be poffible to meet with good company here, in a country fo barbarous as that of the most northerly parts of Europe, near the frozen ocean, and within, but a very few degrees of Nova Zembla.

But this being the country where the state criminals of Muscovy, as I obferved before, are all banished ; this city was full of noblemen, princes, gentlemen, colonels, and, in fhort, all degrees of the nobility, gentry, foldiery, and courtiers of Mufcovy. Here were the famous Prince Galilfken, or Galoffken, and his fon; the old general Robostisky, and feveral other perfons of note, and fome ladies.

By means of my Scots merchant, whom, nevertheless, I parted with here, I made an acquaintance with several of these gentlemen, and fome of them of the first rank; and from thefe, in the long winter nights, in which I staid here, I received several agree

able vifits. It was talking one night with a certain prince, one of the banished minifters of ftate be longing to the czar of Muscovy, that my talk of my particular cafe began. He had been telling me abundance of fine things, of the greatness, the magnificence, and dominions, and the abfolute power of the emperor of the Ruffians. I interrupted him, and told him, I was a greater and more powerful prince than ever the zcar of Mufcovy was, though my dominions were not fo large, or my people fo many. The Ruffian grandee looked a little furprized, and fixing his eyes fteadily upon me, began to wonder what I meant.

I told him his wonder would ceafe when I had explained myself. First, I told him, I had the abfolute difpofal of the lives and fortunes of all my fubjects: That notwithstanding my abfolute power, I had not one perfon difaffected to my government or to my perfon, in all my dominions. He fhook his head at that, and faid, There, indeed, I out-did the czar of Muscovy. I told him, that all the lands in my kingdom were my own, and all my subjects were not only my tenants, but tenants at will; that they would all fight for me to the last drop; and that never tyrant, for fuch I acknowledged myself to be, was ever fo univerfally beloved, and yet fo horribly feared, by his subjects.

After amufing them with thefe riddles in government for a while, I opened the cafe, and told them the story at large of my living in the ifland, and how I managed both myself and the people there that were under me, just as I have fince minuted it down. They were exceedingly taken with the story,

and