Came to in Novogorod Harbour. In spite of the survey of Posietta Bay, the entrance to the harbour is difficult to find on a first visit; it is narrow, but safe. The settlement, consisting of half-a-dozen huts, did not look inviting, but the scenery round was fine: hills covered with fresh green pasturage and brushwood, while well-sheltered harbours within extensive bays were seen in every direction. I was waited on by Major Pfingsten, the officer in temporary charge. He had with him a garrison of fifty men, while about nine miles inland they had a large encampment. The Governor of Eastern Siberia, General Korsakof, and the Lieutenant-Governor, Rear-Admiral Furnhjelm, were at a place some miles distant, to whom Major Pfingsten telegraphed our arrival. Close to the settlement was a coal mine, which they were slowly working with soldiers and such tools as they had, assisted just at this time by a dozen Manchurian Chinese prisoners, taken in a border warfare, in which the Governor, with his Lieutenant and a thousand men, was then engaged. When at Cheefoo in October I heard of an island in about latitude 42° 40´ off the coast and claimed by the Russians, on which a party of about three hundred Chinese were working for gold, which was reported to be plentiful; and that the Russians had sent a gunboat to drive the Chinese away, who, being well armed, had beaten the Russians off: all this, we heard from Major Pfingsten, it proved to be true, he had only lately returned from an expedition to the island of Mayatchni (called in our charts “Termination”). Having no steamer available, he had started in a sailing vessel with 600 soldiers, including artillery, but as he was six days going the ninety miles, the Chinese received timely notice and had wisely decamped. When the major arrived he found three men only on the island: these he shot to prove who were the rightful owners of the soil, and then returned. The Chinamen, who appear to have come from Manchuria, succeeded in stirring up their countrymen and brought on this petty border warfare on which the Governor and his lieutenant were engaged, and which will, in all probability, end in further aggression and annexation on the part of the Russians. Whether His Excellency did not approve of our visiting his territory when he was engaged in so inglorious a warfare, I cannot tell, but the return telegraph arrived without a civil word of welcome, and with directions to the Major not to supply us with coal. The Major rather softened this by stating that they expected the Governors in their respective vessels, both of which would require coal; and certainly the small supply of about twenty tons we saw ready on the beach would not have helped us much.