Travels in Kamtschatka, during the years 1787 and 1788, Volume 2Lesseps, Jean-Baptiste-Barthélemy, baron de
History
Travels in Kamtschatka, during the years 1787 and 1788, Volume 2
Lesseps, Jean-Baptiste-Barthélemy, baron de
Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia) -- Description and travel
I had advanced but a few wersts, when my sufferings became
insupportable. I was obliged to drive myself, and consequently to be in
continual motion; frequently also I was compelled from the badness of
roads, either to run by the side of my sledge, or call to the dogs to
make them proceed. My hoarseness prevented their hearing me; and it was
only by efforts that exhausted my strength, and tortured my lungs, that
I at last succeeded. This exercise however, painful as it was, proved
salutary to me; by degrees it created a perspiration; in the evening I
could breathe more freely; the fever left me; I had no complaint but
a violent cold, which was removed in a few days. Fatiguing exercise
was the only remedy I used. I took particular care to continue the
perspiration it occasioned, and to this I am persuaded I owe the
rapidity of my cure. My breast however was so sore, that I felt the
effects of it for a considerable time.
During this interval I had nothing to suffer from the rigour of
tempests; the air was calm, and the weather clear. We were blessed with
the finest days of winter, or I should perhaps never again have seen my
native country. Heaven seemed to favour my journey, that I might forget
my sufferings.
The most lively joy soon succeeded to the sorrow that had depressed
me. We met, in different detachments, three convoys sent by sergeant
Kabechoff to M. Kasloff. This unexpected succour gave me the more
pleasure, as the deplorable state in which I had left the governor,
was continually recurring to my mind. What a sudden change in his
situation! He was upon the point of receiving a supply of provisions,
together with an hundred and fifty dogs well fed and well trained. He
will be able, said I to myself, to proceed immediately on his journey;
and if I cannot flatter myself that I shall see him again, I know at
least that he will be extricated from his embarassment. This certainty
relieved the anxiety which I had felt on his account.
The soldier who conducted the convoys, offered me part of his
provisions; but I refused them. He had no profusion, and we were not in
want. I detained him therefore as short a time as possible.
Before he quitted us, he told me that prince Eitel, or chief of the
Koriacs of Kaminoi, who had been accused of rebellion, was advancing to
undeceive the governor, and prove the falsehood of the charge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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