by John Marshall

“ My route was towards Liubane, at about the ninth mile-stone from which I sat down to smoke a segar or pipe, as fancy might dictate, when I was suddenly seized from behind, by two ruffians, whose visages were as much concealed us the oddness of their dress would permit. ”

“ The thinness of population in Siberia, is a ready reason to account for the facility with which a person is exiled. Of real criminals there are not so many as is imagined, as by the report of Nertchinsk it appears, that but two thousand live hundred criminals are employed in the mines. It is not every man who is sent to Botany Bay that ought to be termed a criminal; nor is every one who is exiled to Siberia. It may be safely said that all the most hardened criminals who are banished for life, are at Nertchinsk and Okotsk ”

“ Inhospitality, incivility, and general distrust every where prevailed, and influenced the conduct of the inhabitants; even the last copeck is insisted upon in payment for the horses, before they are permitted to commence the journey; a circumstance which, in many cases, occasions much inconvenience and loss of time. In Siberia, the traveller may pay forward or backward three or four stations, and every sort of accommodation is given. ”

“ Commander Cochrane next proceeded to the country of the Tchuktchi, a people inhabiting the tract which forms the north-eastern corner of Asia; his account of whom is one of the most interesting portions of his narrative. ”