A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
[37] The singular personage here spoken of, was living near Saint Peter and
Saint Paul in 1805, when Captain Krusenstern arrived there. He was at
that time eighty-six years old, and had but lately obtained his
liberty from the present emperor, who, besides other bounty, granted
him a sum of money to cover his travelling expenses, if he chose to
return to St Petersburg. The old man, however, was unable to bring his
mind to undertake the journey, or even to venture the sea with
Krusenstern; and in all probability, therefore, would end his days in
the land of his captivity. We learn from the same authority, that
Iwashkin had been banished in consequence of a report, apparently an
unfounded one, that he had been engaged in a conspiracy against the
Empress Elizabeth; and he is said to have been afterwards refused a
pardon by Catharine, because he had been accused of murdering a man in
the heat of passion. But for this circumstance, according to K., "the
terms in which he is mentioned in Cook's voyage are such, as would not
fail to meet with attention in Russia." These few additional
particulars may add to whatever of interest is felt in Captain Kind's
account of this exile. And even this may be enhanced to the
susceptible mind by the remark, that old and worn out as Iwashkin
appeared to Captain King, he nevertheless survived him at least twenty
years, as the latter died at Nice, in Italy, in 1784.--E.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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