It was talking one night with a certain prince, one of the banished1 ministers of state belonging to the Czar, that the discourse2 of my particular case began. He had been telling me abundance of fine things of the greatness, the magnificence, the dominions3, and the absolute power of the Emperor of the Russians: I interrupted him, and told him I was a greater and more powerful prince than ever the Czar was, though my dominion4 were not so large, or my people so many. The Russian grandee5 looked a little surprised, and, fixing his eyes steadily6 upon me, began to wonder what I meant. I said his wonder would cease when I had explained myself, and told him the story at large of my living in the island; and then how I managed both myself and the people that were under me, just as I have since minuted it down. They were exceedingly taken with the story, and especially the prince, who told me, with a sigh, that the true greatness of life was to be masters of ourselves; that he would not have exchanged such a state of life as mine to be Czar of Muscovy; and that he found more felicity in the retirement7 he seemed to be banished to there, than ever he found in the highest authority he enjoyed in the court of his master the Czar; that the height of human wisdom was to bring our tempers down to our circumstances, and to make a calm within, under the weight of the greatest storms without. When he came first hither, he said, he used to tear the hair from his head, and the clothes from his back, as others had done before him; but a little time and consideration had made him look into himself, as well as round him to things without; that he found the mind of man, if it was but once brought to reflect upon the state of universal life, and how little this world was concerned in its true felicity, was perfectly8 capable of making a felicity for itself, fully9 satisfying to itself, and suitable to its own best ends and desires, with but very little assistance from the world. That being now deprived of all the fancied felicity which he enjoyed in the full exercise of worldly pleasures, he said he was at leisure to look upon the dark side of them, where he found all manner of deformity; and was now convinced that virtue10 only makes a man truly wise, rich, and great, and preserves him in the way to a superior happiness in a future state; and in this, he said, they were more happy in their banishment11 than all their enemies were, who had the full possession of all the wealth and power they had left behind them. “Nor, sir,” says he, “do I bring my mind to this politically, from the necessity of my circumstances, which some call miserable12; but, if I know anything of myself, I would not now go back, though the Czar my master should call me, and reinstate me in all my former grandeur13.”
He spoke14 this with so much warmth in his temper, so much earnestness and motion of his spirits, that it was evident it was the true sense of his soul; there was no room to doubt his sincerity15. I told him I once thought myself a kind of monarch16 in my old station, of which I had given him an account; but that I thought he was not only a monarch, but a great conqueror17; for he that had got a victory over his own exorbitant18 desires, and the absolute dominion over himself, he whose reason entirely19 governs his will, is certainly greater than he that conquers a city.
I had been here eight months, and a dark, dreadful winter I thought it; the cold so intense that I could not so much as look abroad without being wrapped in furs, and a kind of mask of fur before my face, with only a hole for breath, and two for sight: the little daylight we had was for three months not above five hours a day, and six at most; only that the snow lying on the ground continually, and the weather being clear, it was never quite dark. Our horses were kept, or rather starved, underground; and as for our servants, whom we hired here to look after ourselves and horses, we had, every now and then, their fingers and toes to thaw20 and take care of, lest they should mortify21 and fall off.
It is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being close, the walls thick, the windows small, and the glass all double. Our food was chiefly the flesh of deer, dried and cured in the season; bread good enough, but baked as biscuits; dried fish of several sorts, and some flesh of mutton, and of buffaloes22, which is pretty good meat. All the stores of provisions for the winter are laid up in the summer, and well cured: our drink was water, mixed with aqua vitae instead of brandy; and for a treat, mead23 instead of wine, which, however, they have very good. The hunters, who venture abroad all weathers, frequently brought us in fine venison, and sometimes bear’s flesh, but we did not much care for the last. We had a good stock of tea, with which we treated our friends, and we lived cheerfully and well, all things considered.
It was now March, the days grown considerably24 longer, and the weather at least tolerable; so the other travellers began to prepare sledges25 to carry them over the snow, and to get things ready to be going; but my measures being fixed26, as I have said, for Archangel, and not for Muscovy or the Baltic, I made no motion; knowing very well that the ships from the south do not set out for that part of the world till May or June, and that if I was there by the beginning of August, it would be as soon as any ships would be ready to sail. Therefore I made no haste to be gone, as others did: in a word, I saw a great many people, nay27, all the travellers, go away before me. It seems every year they go from thence to Muscovy, for trade, to carry furs, and buy necessaries, which they bring back with them to furnish their shops: also others went on the same errand to Archangel.
In the month of May I began to make all ready to pack up; and, as I was doing this, it occurred to me that, seeing all these people were banished by the Czar to Siberia, and yet, when they came there, were left at liberty to go whither they would, why they did not then go away to any part of the world, wherever they thought fit: and I began to examine what should hinder them from making such an attempt. But my wonder was over when I entered upon that subject with the person I have mentioned, who answered me thus: “Consider, first, sir,” said he, “the place where we are; and, secondly28, the condition we are in; especially the generality of the people who are banished thither29. We are surrounded with stronger things than bars or bolts; on the north side, an unnavigable ocean, where ship never sailed, and boat never swam; every other way we have above a thousand miles to pass through the Czar’s own dominion, and by ways utterly30 impassable, except by the roads made by the government, and through the towns garrisoned31 by his troops; in short, we could neither pass undiscovered by the road, nor subsist32 any other way, so that it is in vain to attempt it.”
I was silenced at once, and found that they were in a prison every jot33 as secure as if they had been locked up in the castle at Moscow: however, it came into my thoughts that I might certainly be made an instrument to procure34 the escape of this excellent person; and that, whatever hazard I ran, I would certainly try if I could carry him off. Upon this, I took an occasion one evening to tell him my thoughts. I represented to him that it was very easy for me to carry him away, there being no guard over him in the country; and as I was not going to Moscow, but to Archangel, and that I went in the retinue35 of a caravan36, by which I was not obliged to lie in the stationary37 towns in the desert, but could encamp every night where I would, we might easily pass uninterrupted to Archangel, where I would immediately secure him on board an English ship, and carry him safe along with me; and as to his subsistence and other particulars, it should be my care till he could better supply himself.
He heard me very attentively38, and looked earnestly on me all the while I spoke; nay, I could see in his very face that what I said put his spirits into an exceeding ferment39; his colour frequently changed, his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, till it might be even perceived in his countenance40; nor could he immediately answer me when I had done, and, as it were, hesitated what he would say to it; but after he had paused a little, he embraced me, and said, “How unhappy are we, unguarded creatures as we are, that even our greatest acts of friendship are made snares41 unto us, and we are made tempters of one another!” He then heartily42 thanked me for my offers of service, but withstood resolutely43 the arguments I used to urge him to set himself free. He declared, in earnest terms, that he was fully bent44 on remaining where he was rather than seek to return to his former miserable greatness, as he called it: where the seeds of pride, ambition, avarice45, and luxury might revive, take root, and again overwhelm him. “Let me remain, dear sir,” he said, in conclusion—“let me remain in this blessed confinement46, banished from the crimes of life, rather than purchase a show of freedom at the expense of the liberty of my reason, and at the future happiness which I now have in my view, but should then, I fear, quickly lose sight of; for I am but flesh; a man, a mere47 man; and have passions and affections as likely to possess and overthrow48 me as any man: Oh, be not my friend and tempter both together!”
If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and stood silent, looking at him, and, indeed, admiring what I saw. The struggle in his soul was so great that, though the weather was extremely cold, it put him into a most violent heat; so I said a word or two, that I would leave him to consider of it, and wait on him again, and then I withdrew to my own apartment.
About two hours after I heard somebody at or near the door of my room, and I was going to open the door, but he had opened it and come in. “My dear friend,” says he, “you had almost overset me, but I am recovered. Do not take it ill that I do not close with your offer. I assure you it is not for want of sense of the kindness of it in you; and I came to make the most sincere acknowledgment of it to you; but I hope I have got the victory over myself.”—“My lord,” said I, “I hope you are fully satisfied that you do not resist the call of Heaven.”—“Sir,” said he, “if it had been from Heaven, the same power would have influenced me to have accepted it; but I hope, and am fully satisfied, that it is from Heaven that I decline it, and I have infinite satisfaction in the parting, that you shall leave me an honest man still, though not a free man.”
I had nothing to do but to acquiesce49, and make professions to him of my having no end in it but a sincere desire to serve him. He embraced me very passionately50, and assured me he was sensible of that, and should always acknowledge it; and with that he offered me a very fine present of sables51—too much, indeed, for me to accept from a man in his circumstances, and I would have avoided them, but he would not be refused. The next morning I sent my servant to his lordship with a small present of tea, and two pieces of China damask, and four little wedges of Japan gold, which did not all weigh above six ounces or thereabouts, but were far short of the value of his sables, which, when I came to England, I found worth near two hundred pounds. He accepted the tea, and one piece of the damask, and one of the pieces of gold, which had a fine stamp upon it, of the Japan coinage, which I found he took for the rarity of it, but would not take any more: and he sent word by my servant that he desired to speak with me.
When I came to him he told me I knew what had passed between us, and hoped I would not move him any more in that affair; but that, since I had made such a generous offer to him, he asked me if I had kindness enough to offer the same to another person that he would name to me, in whom he had a great share of concern. In a word, he told me it was his only son; who, though I had not seen him, was in the same condition with himself, and above two hundred miles from him, on the other side of the Oby; but that, if I consented, he would send for him.
I made no hesitation52, but told him I would do it. I made some ceremony in letting him understand that it was wholly on his account; and that, seeing I could not prevail on him, I would show my respect to him by my concern for his son. He sent the next day for his son; and in about twenty days he came back with the messenger, bringing six or seven horses, loaded with very rich furs, which, in the whole, amounted to a very great value. His servants brought the horses into the town, but left the young lord at a distance till night, when he came incognito53 into our apartment, and his father presented him to me; and, in short, we concerted the manner of our travelling, and everything proper for the journey.
I had bought a considerable quantity of sables, black fox-skins, fine ermines, an............