mountains, he makes the following observations, as a summary of his experience:
“At break of day I was on the highest peak of the Ural mountain pass, and could not help stopping to take a last view of Asia, the forced residence of many dear and valued friends, as also the abode of others whom I much esteem. Though it is, generally speaking, the land of the exile, it is rather the land of the unfortunate than of the criminal. It is the want of education, which, begetting a looseness of morals, plunges these unfortunates into error. 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; at least there are very few exceptions, and I believe their whole number does not exceed three thousand, while the number of exiles sent for a limited period, annually amount to at least one half that number. As to the education and moral habits of the natives of Siberia, they are certainly equal, if not superior in these respects, to that of the European Russians. They have not the same incitement, nor the same means of committing crimes. The whole population does not exceed two millions and a half, about one half of which are aborigines, scattered over a tract of country which gives to each person three square miles. Provisions and clothing are cheap, taxes are not known, the climate is healthy – and what can man more desire? I looked again to the East, and bade adieu, thankful for the many marks of esteem and kindness I had received from the hands of its hospitable people.
“Descending the western branch of the Ural Mountains, I soon found myself again in Europe: the land of malt, the fire-side home, again had charms for the traveller. The sensations I experienced upon quitting the most favoured quarter of the globe, were nothing when compared to the present. Then I thought I was going only to the abode of misery, vice, and cruelty, while now I knew I had come from that of humanity, hospitality, and kindness. I looked back to the hills, which are, as it were, the barrier between virtue and vice, but felt, in spite of it, a desire to return and end my days there. And so strong is still that desire, that I should not hesitate to bid adieu to politics, war, and other refined pursuits, to enjoy, in Siberia, those comforts which may be had without fear of foreign or domestic disturbance.
“In the evening of my entry into Europe, I reached the village of Bissertskaya Krepost, situate on the Bissert stream. The road was bad, and over a hilly country, nor was my dissatisfaction at all allayed by the conduct of the Permians. 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,
