Across Siberia to America - Part 3
Would you carry gold across the mountains to Yakutsk?
If you’ve you’d like to catch up on the first two installments, they’re also available at Medium of Exchange.
A Tortuous Journey Home.
In our last episode, Lt. Khvostov, in Yunona, has just dropped Count Rezanov, who is on his way back to St. Petersburg, at Okhotsk before (Khvostov thought) returning to Aniva Bay to rendezvous with Davydov, in Avos, for the raid on Sakhalin Island that Rezanov has ordered. Just before Khvostov was to sail from Okhotsk, however, Rezanov has given him an ambiguous and contradictory addendum (dated 24 September 1806) to his original orders, and left Okhotsk before Khvostov could ask him for clarification. Rezanov would never make it back to St. Petersburg; he died on the way, in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.
A note on distances. This installment introduces the old Russian term verst. This is a unit of distance, no longer in use. You won’t go far wrong if for verst you read kilometer.
As we rejoin the narrative, Khvostov is trying to sort out what to do about his new, confusing orders.
SHISHKOV’S NARRATIVE (Continued)
One can easily imagine the difficulty posed to Khvostov by Rezanov’s unclear and ambiguous addendum. How to interpret it? How to act faultlessly? First, Rezanov did not say anything to Khvostov about cancelling the expedition – he sent back to him the very same orders he took from him, so he must have meant to see them put into execution. Secondly, Rezanov could not, without the consent of the Government, completely cancel an important, long-prepared expedition, which had already been reported to the Sovereign EMPEROR; but in his supplement he does not mention anything indicating that he was giving these new orders under authority he received from the Government. On the contrary, it makes it clear that he is actually doing this on his own, not canceling the expedition, but only deferring for a while its execution, for the stated reasons that the mast is damaged, that the trapping season has already passed, and that it is necessary to return to America.
However, for all that, he says, if time permits Khvostov is to go to Aniva Bay to show kindness to the Sakhalinians and observe the Japanese, adding that this alone will bring honor for Khvostov, and finally finishes with these words: “For my part, I am extremely sorry that the local port is incapable of replacing the mast for you, and that circumstances obliged me to change my plan.” Could such an addendum not have left Khvostov in utter bewilderment? An important, long-planned, costly State expedition (for Khvostov could not regard it otherwise), stops due to damage to a mast at a time when the Tender, sent in advance, was ordered to wait for him and, upon reuniting with him, proceed to the execution of the actions prescribed in the orders. This Tender, being thwarted in helping and meeting with Juno, could disappear there or be taken by the Japanese. The addendum contradicts itself: it orders him to go to America, and to stop in Japan; it does not require Khvostov to fulfill his orders, but at the same time encourages him to, saying that this alone will bring him much honor: hence it means that by going further he will prove his zeal even more. Finally, the commander expresses his extreme regret about his order, and makes it clear that he would not have given it, if the Okhotsk port had been equipped to replace the mast.
All of this Khvostov had to decide for himself. Perhaps another in his place, looking toward his peace and safety, would not have preferred under such circumstances to expose his life to such labors and uncertainties, because, in case of censure from the government for failing to comply with his orders, he could justify himself with the addendum, but to Khostov it appeared otherwise. He thought, “The expedition is not cancelled, only postponed. Therefore, if I don’t fulfill the order now, I will have to next spring. At the same time this unexpected delay makes a great mess, and jeopardizes the Tender sent ahead. The reason for this postponement, as it is clearly stated in the addendum, is the uncertainty whether, at such a late season and with my damaged mast, I can successfully complete the work entrusted to me. It appears throughout, that our commander wants, but does not expect, this: my duty commands me to exceed his expectations.”
With these thoughts he weighed anchor and sailed for Japan. When he arrived, he did not find the Tender there. A new obstacle! But that did not stop Khvostov. He went ashore and proceeded on his own to execute what they were ordered to do with their joint forces, raiding the Japanese stores. Loaded with food, he sailed to Petropavlovsk harbor, hoping to meet Davydov, and when he arrived, he found the Tender Avos there. Davydov had been forced by the spread of illness among his people and many injuries on his ship, to leave the rendezvous without waiting for Yunona. Since winter was now setting in, preventing further action, they spent it in Petropavlovsk.
The next year (1807), without even waiting for the ice to clear completely from the sea, they cut through it, took out their ships, and immediately went to finish the undertaking they had started. They sailed to Aniva, performed exactly according to the orders given them (described in detail in their travel journal), loaded their ships with a generous amount of food, and finally sailed away to Okhotsk, with the intention that after sending their reports to the high command, they would pick up from the company office whatever needed transport to America, and deliver it to the port of Novo-Arkhangelsk on the island of Sitka.
After successfully completing their assigned task, they returned joyfully to Okhotsk, where they thought praise and gratitude would await them for their deeds and the labor they endured. But a completely different fate awaited them there. Rezanov, before reaching St. Petersburg, had fallen ill in Krasnoyarsk and died. The master of Okhotsk port (soon afterwards to become former master, due to the general complaints of the whole region), Captain second class Bukharin, dreamt that Yunona and Avos had returned filled with gold and great riches. Under the pretext that they had made their expedition without authority (but really to suppress any witnesses to the things they had brought) he impounded the ships and imprisoned Khvostov and Davydov – without any government orders – as State criminals, under strong guard. They took everything away from them, even clothes and shoes. For a whole month they received inhumane and brutal treatment.
The cruelty multiplied from day to day. Khvostov and Davydov were separated, torn apart, and did not know each other’s fate. They saw that the most painful death was assigned to them! That is, that in five or six months, unless an order to release them might come from St. Petersburg, they would have to perish from stuffiness, uncleanness, and hunger. In these extreme circumstances, there was no way for them to save themselves but by escaping together. But how to escape from strong confinement and strict supervision? Where to go without food, without clothing, without money? The nearest place was Yakutsk, almost a thousand versts away.
But even in the very depths of evil, fellow-feeling grows, and innocence finds protection for itself. These two unfortunates with their good deeds gained universal love from the inhabitants of Okhotsk, and the guards themselves, assigned to guard them with drawn swords, seeing their undeserved suffering, felt pity for them. Through his guard Khvostov communicated to Davydov his intention to flee, and appointed the night, hour, and place where he would wait for him. Davydov, on his side, notified him of the cooperation of his guards, and that on the same night and at the same hour he also hoped to be at the appointed place. Thus, at a time when each saw in his companion indomitable ferocity, at the same time they aroused in ordinary people unknown to them such compassion that these kind-hearted people, without any self-interest, agreed to save them, despising danger to themselves, which threatened them then with cruel torture.
It is impossible on this occasion not to marvel at the endless diversity of human hearts: the light of heaven and the darkness of hell are not so different from one another. Khvostov and Davydov were already exhausted in their strength, and began to feel painful seizures, which terrified them that they would end their lives in the difficult path they were undertaking, but the inevitable death closing in on them in Okhotsk forced them to choose the less dangerous of two evils. They waited impatiently for the appointed night. They left captivity, leaving their own handwritten notes to justify their guards, as if they had given them Opium to lull them to sleep. They converged on the agreed place. You can imagine the joy of their reunion! They immediately set off. The generous hand of some of the inhabitants, which they have opened, supplied them with two guns and breadcrumbs.
Fearing pursuit, they chose a path through forests, swamps and rapids, along which no human foot has ever trod. From the beginning, their strength was exhausted, they weakened and thought that some kind of cave would be their grave, but the hand of the Lord strengthened them. The further they went, the more their strength was renewed. Clean air and vigorous exertion, after the perfect stillness and closeness that they endured for nearly two months in captivity, restored them to their former health and strength. However, the long journey, hard work and lack of food, finally brought them to a new level of exhaustion. Finally, after enduring many privations and misfortunes, exhausted by hunger, worn out, in torn rags, they arrived at Yakutsk barely alive.
An order had already gone out from Okhotsk to the Mayor of Yakutsk to detain them and to see if there was any gold with them. [emphasis in original] It is worth noting that these words were really used in a letter to the Mayor. From this we can conclude how greatly the word gold had power over the imagination of the one who wrote them. He dreamed about it, and he dreamed of it in the hands of people who had saved their lives on the footpaths, to whom a crust of bread was dearer than any treasure. The Mayor, in consequence of this order, detained Khvostov and Davydov in Yakutsk. But soon after this the Governor-General of Siberia, learning about it, ordered them to Irkutsk. Meanwhile, according to word that came from them to St. Petersburg, the matter had been reported to the EMPEROR, and through the Minister of Naval Forces, an order was sent there not to detain them anywhere. Finally, after four years of wanderings, that is in 1808, they returned to St. Petersburg.
In the next installment: Khvostov and Davydov return to St Petersburg, and almost immediately rejoin active service in the Navy. They again see action in the Baltic, where Khvostov distinguishes himself with further swashbuckling exploits. Finally Vice-Admiral Shishkov invites them to winter with them in St Petersburg, where their story ends in heartbreaking tragedy.