Part 14

The object of the mission, which indeed seems to have been of little importance, having been accomplished, the ambassador prepared to depart. The aged emperor, however, who appears to have possessed a thoroughly benevolent and polished mind, was desirous of presenting them before they took their leave with the splendid spectacle of a Mongol hunt, of such a one at least as could be represented in a park of two or three days’ journey in extent. On the 21st of February, therefore, the day appointed for the hunt, horses were brought them at one o’clock in the morning, the Chinese resolving that no time should be lost. They reached the royal park about daybreak, where, in a summer-house erected in the forest, they found the emperor, who had risen long before their arrival. Here they breakfasted. Before the south front of the summer-house there was a large canal, with several fish-ponds filled with clear water, which greatly beautified the scene; and all around, at convenient distances, stood a thousand tents in which the courtiers had slept.

“The signal was then given,” says Bell, “that the emperor was coming; upon which all the great men drew up in lines, from the bottom of the stairs to the road leading to the forest, all on foot, dressed in their hunting-habits, the same with those used by the officers and cavalry of the army when in the field, and armed with bows and arrows. We had a proper place assigned us, and made our bows to his majesty, who returned a gracious smile, with signs to follow him. He was seated cross-legged in an open machine carried by four men with long poles rested on their shoulders. Before him lay a fowling-piece, a bow, and a sheaf of arrows. This has been his hunting equipage for some years, since he left off riding.... As soon as the emperor had passed, the company mounted and followed him at some distance till we came into the open forest, where all formed into a semicircle, in the centre of which was the emperor, having on his left-hand (the place of honour in China) about eight or ten of his sons and grandsons, and the ambassador on his right, about fifty paces distant. Close by him were the master of the chase with some greyhounds and the grand falconer with his hawks. I could not but admire the beauty of these fine birds. Many of them were as white as doves, having one or two black feathers in their wings or tails. They are brought from Siberia, or places to the north of the river Amoor.

“Our wings being extended, there were many hares started, which the company endeavoured to drive towards the emperor, who killed many of them with arrows as they passed; those he missed he made a sign to some of the princes to pursue, who also killed several of them with arrows; but no other person was permitted to draw a bow or stir from the line.

“From the open field we continued our route westward to a place among thickets and tall reeds, where we sprung a number of pheasants, partridges, and quails. His majesty then laid aside his bow and arrows, and carried a hawk on his hand, which he flew as occasion offered. The hawks generally raked in the pheasants while flying; but if they took to the reeds or bushes they soon caught them.

“After proceeding about two or three miles farther into the forest we came to a tall wood, where we found several sorts of deer. The young men went in and beat the woods, while the rest of the company remained without. We saw much game pass us, but nobody drew a bow until the emperor had killed a stag, which he did very dexterously with a broad-headed arrow; after which the princes had leave to kill several bucks, among which was one of that species that bears the musk, called _kaberda_ in Siberia.

“We had now been six hours on horseback, and I reckon had travelled about fifteen English miles, but no end of the forest yet appeared. We turned short from this wood southward, till coming to some marshes overgrown with tall reeds we roused a great many wild boars; but as it was not the season for killing them they all escaped. The hunting of these fierce animals is reckoned the most dangerous of all kinds of sport except the chase of lions and tigers. Every one endeavoured to avoid them, and several of them ran furiously through the thickest troops of horse. The emperor was so cautious as to have a company of men armed with lances to guard his machine.

“We continued the sport till about four o’clock, when we came to a high artificial mount of a square figure, raised in the middle of a plain, on the top of which were pitched about ten or twelve tents for the imperial family. This mount had several winding paths leading to the top, planted on each side with rows of trees in imitation of nature. To the south was a large basin of water with a boat upon it, from whence, I suppose, the earth has been taken that formed this mount. At some distance from the mount tents were erected for the people of distinction and officers of the court. About two hundred yards from it _we were lodged in some clean huts covered with reeds_.”—[No mark that Kamhi held the czar’s ambassador in very high estimation.]—“The emperor, from his situation, had a view of all the tents and a great way farther into the forest. The whole scene made a very pretty appearance.”

When they had dined and been interrogated respecting the degree of admiration with which they had beheld the feats of the emperor and his sons, which was of course superlative, the ambassador was informed that he was to be entertained with a tiger-hunt, or rather “baiting,” as our traveller terms it; three animals of that species having been kept for some time in a cage for that purpose. “The hill where the emperor’s tent stood was surrounded with several ranks of guards armed with long spears. A guard also was placed before the ambassador’s and the rest of the tents, to secure the whole encampment from the fury of these fierce animals. The first was let out by a person mounted on a fleet horse, who opened the door of the coop by means of a rope tied to it. The tiger immediately left his cage, and seemed much pleased to find himself at liberty. The horseman rode off at full speed, while the tiger (poor fellow!) was rolling himself upon the grass. At last he rose, growled, and walked about. The emperor fired twice at him with bullets, but the distance being considerable missed him, though the pieces were well pointed. Upon which his majesty sent to the ambassador to try his piece upon him; which being charged with a single ball, he walked towards the animal, accompanied by ten men armed with spears, in case of accidents, till, being at a convenient distance, he took his aim and killed him on the spot.”

The second and third tigers were despatched in a short time; and the sportsmen, pluming themselves upon their magnificent achievements, sat down in great good-humour to supper, as men always do when they have performed any glorious action. The skin of the tiger slain by the ambassador was sent him by the emperor, who observed, that by the laws of hunting he had a right to it. The sport of the next day differed very little from the preceding. They continued, however, advancing through the forest without discovering any end to it, and passed the night in a temple near another imperial summer-house. The extent of this immense park, which was all enclosed by a high wall, may enable us to form some idea of the quantity of useless land in China; for besides the number of similar enclosures belonging to the imperial family, we may be sure that, as far as possible, all the rich and great imitate the example of the sovereign.

The ambassador now received his audience of leave, and, after making several visits of ceremony, and receiving the curious but not valuable presents intended for the czar, departed from Pekin. Their route from the capital to the Great Wall, and thence across the deserts of Mongolia to Selinguisky, though not precisely the same as that by which they had come, afforded but few new objects, and was rendered interesting by no striking incidents. The Baikal Lake being still frozen when they reached it, they traversed it on light sledges upon the ice. They then embarked upon the Angara, and descended by water to Yeniseisk. Proceeding thence by land, they soon arrived upon the banks of the river Ket, where they again took to their boats; and sailing down this melancholy stream, bordered on both sides by the most gloomy forests, immerged into the mighty stream of the Obe. They now sailed down this river to its confluence with the Irtish, another noble stream, against the current of which they made their way with much difficulty to Tobolsk. Here they quitted their boats, and continued their journey on sledges. Winter was rapidly invading the country. Snow, cold winds, frost, and short days conspired to render their movements irksome; but they still pushed on rapidly, and on the 5th of January, 1722, arrived at Moscow, where they found the czar and all his court, who had recently removed thither from Petersburg.

Peter, surrounded by his courtiers, the general officers, and the nobility and gentry from all parts of the empire, was making great preparations for the celebration of the festivals appointed to be solemnized in commemoration of the peace concluded at Aland in 1721, between Russia and Sweden, after a war of more than twenty years, when our traveller arrived; and as he appears greatly to have admired the policy of Peter on most occasions, he was particularly gratified at the present exhibition. He observes that Peter, even in his amusements and times of diversion, made use of all possible means of inspiring his people with a love of what was useful; and as the Russians had a peculiar aversion to shipping, his principal aim in the shows exhibited at Moscow was to dispel that prejudice, by impressing upon their minds that it was owing to his naval power that the peace had been obtained.

“The triumphant entry,” says Bell, “was made from a village about seven miles from Moscow, called Seswedsky. The first of the cavalcade was a galley finely carved and gilt, in which the rowers plied their oars as on the water. The galley was commanded by the high-admiral of Russia. Then came a frigate of sixteen small brass guns, with three masts, completely rigged, manned with twelve or fourteen youths habited like Dutch skippers, in black velvet, who trimmed the sails, and performed all the manœuvres of a ship at sea. Then came most richly-decorated barges, wherein sat the empress and the ladies of the court. There were also pilot-boats heaving the lead, and above thirty other vessels, pinnaces, wherries, &c., each filled with masqueraders in the dresses of different nations. It was in the month of February, at which time all the ground was covered with snow, and all the rivers frozen. All these machines were placed on sledges, and were drawn by horses through all the principal streets of Moscow. The ship required above forty horses to draw it. In order to its passing under the gates the topmasts were struck, and, when passed, set up again; besides which, the gateway was dug as low as was necessary for admitting it to pass.”

As soon as these festivals were concluded, Peter, who had been invited into Persia with an army by the shah, who required his aid against the rebellious Afghans, prepared to march southward; and Bell, who was thought to understand something of Persian manners, having spent some time in the country, was engaged by the czar’s chief physician to accompany the expedition. Accordingly, the troops having been embarked on the Moskwa, they descended by water to the Caspian Sea, and made for the shores of Daghestan, where they landed and encamped. They then proceeded along the seashore to Derbend, where the fleet containing the provisions, stores, &c. for the army was wrecked upon the beach. This gave Peter a plausible excuse for returning home without affording the shah the desired aid. Indeed, the whole expedition appears to have been a mere piece of treachery got up for the purpose of obtaining possession of Derbend; for “the emperor determined,” says Bell, “to leave things in the state they were in, and to return again to Astrakhan by the same way we came, _leaving a garrison at Derbend sufficient to secure the advantage he had gained_.”

We now lose sight of our traveller for fifteen years, the whole of which, however, he spent in Russia. In 1737 the war with Turkey, which had begun in 1734, began to grow disagreeable to the Russian court, the Ottomites, in spite of their barbarism, being more obstinate in the field than their polished enemies of the north had anticipated. Under these circumstances, it was thought advisable to negotiate a peace; but as the Turks made no proposals, and as in time of war no subject of Russia, or Germany, the ally of Russia, was admitted into the dominions of the sultan, Bell, who appears to have been greatly respected both for his character and abilities, was prevailed upon, “at the earnest desires of Count Osterman, the chancellor of Russia, and of Mr. Rondeau, his Britannic majesty’s minister at the court of Russia,” to undertake the journey. He departed from Petersburg on the 6th of December, 1737, and arrived at Constantinople on the 29th of the next month. With respect to his commission, he merely observes that he punctually conformed to the terms of his instructions. His negotiations did not detain him long. He left Constantinople on the 8th of April, and on the 17th of May arrived at Petersburg. Here he concludes his account of himself and his travels. In the decline of his life he returned to Scotland, where he resided at Antermony, his native place; and it was there that, surrounded apparently by affluence, and enjoying the most ample leisure, he wrote his excellent and interesting account of his travels, the first edition of which appeared in 1762. His death took place in 1780.

JOHN LEDYARD.

Born 1751.—Died 1780.

THIS traveller, who for enterprise and courage has seldom been surpassed, was born in the year 1751, at Groton, a small village on the river Thames, in Connecticut, in the United States. He had, at a very early age, the misfortune to be deprived of his father; and although his mother, a woman of remarkable piety and benevolence, discharged with exemplary affection her duties towards him and her other children, notwithstanding a second marriage, this circumstance cut him off from all those advantages which the moral education received in a well-regulated family under the paternal roof confers. Owing in a great measure to the political condition of the country, but principally, perhaps, to the restlessness of his own character, his youthful studies were irregular and ill-directed. He frequently changed his inclinations in the choice of a profession. At one time the law, at another the career of a missionary among the Indians, captivated his fancy. When both these schemes of life had been, one after the other, abandoned, his imagination appears to have dwelt with complacency for a moment on the peaceful studies and noiseless, though important, avocations of a country clergyman.

The completion of the slender education which he received was effected at Dartmouth College, an institution established by the Rev. Dr. Wheelock, in the back woods, with the benevolent design of scattering the seeds of religion and civilization among the Indian nations. Here Ledyard, whose mind was as impatient of the salutary restraints of discipline as that of any savage upon earth, exhibited unequivocal tokens of those locomotive propensities which afterward goaded him into rather than directed him in his romantic but almost aimless wanderings over the greater part of the habitable world. For ordinary studies he had evidently no aptitude. He read, indeed, but it was such reading as beguiled away the time, and nourished the fantastic vagaries of his imagination, without much enlarging his mind, or knitting his character into firmness or consistency. In many respects he scarcely yielded to the knight of La Mancha. What does the reader think he carried with him to college, whither he was proceeding for the purpose of fitting himself for spreading the light of Christianity, and with it the blessings of social life, among the Indians? Histories of former missions, from the failure or success of which he might derive light for his own guidance; or books which, by unfolding the genuine character of savages, might instruct him in the art of captivating their affections and moulding their passions into manageable forms? Nothing of the kind. But instead of these, he drove across the woods to college in a sulkey, containing a choice collection of plays, with calico curtains, and various other materials for scenic representations!

When he had been some time at Dartmouth, toiling at studies which were wholly incompatible with his tastes, he suddenly disappeared, and no one could conjecture whither he had betaken himself. He was absent upwards of a quarter of a year; and it afterward appeared that during all this time he was wandering among the savages, reconnoitring, as his American biographer conjectures, the strong places of ignorance and prejudice against which, as a missionary, his future attacks were to be directed. It is more probable, however, that the excursion was undertaken merely to escape from the discipline of the college, than which nothing, it is clear, could be more irksome to him. After roaming as far as the borders of Canada, picking up as he went along a knowledge of the character and language of the savages, which was of essential service to him in his subsequent wanderings, he returned to Dartmouth, and resumed his studies.

Nevertheless, a secret predilection, which operated like destiny, already began to shape his course towards its proper goal. An appetite for violent excitement gradually discovered itself in his character. Action of some kind or other became necessary. To satisfy this longing he climbed mountains in winter, and slept in the snow; but this sobering couch, which we are told brought St. Anthony to reason, failed to produce so favourable an effect upon Ledyard. He descended the mountain apparently pleased to have discovered that slight hardships, at least, would not kill him, and fully resolved, as soon as opportunity should present itself, to put the force of his constitution to still further trial. Accident not furnishing him with an occasion for exhibiting his prowess in this way, he took the matter into his own hands.

Robinson Crusoe was evidently Ledyard’s _beau idéal_ of a hero. To the young mind which makes companions of its own dream, solitude is sweet, as it favours their growth, and throws a gorgeous mantle over their deformities. Our young traveller seems to have early conceived the design of achieving a reputation, and in the mean while, until he should have made the first step, and acquired the right to exact some degree of consideration among mankind, the dim forest, or the lonely river, was a more agreeable associate in his mind than any of those two-legged animals with which a residence at college daily brought him into contact. He therefore at once resolved to put an end to so mawkish a way of life. Selecting from the majestic forest which clothed the margin of the Connecticut River a tree large enough to form a canoe, he contrived, with the aid of some of his fellow-students, to fell and convey it to the stream, which runs near the college. Here it was hollowed out, and fashioned in the requisite shape, and when completed measured fifty feet in length by three in breadth. His young college companions enabled him to lay in the necessary store of provisions. He had a bear-skin for a covering; a Greek Testament and Ovid to amuse him on the way; and thus equipped, he pushed off into the current, bade adieu to his youthful friends, turned his back upon Dartmouth, and floated leisurely down the stream. Hartford, the place of his destination, was one hundred and forty miles distant. The country, during much of the way, was a wilderness, and the river, of the navigation of which he was totally ignorant, exhibited in many places dangerous falls and rapids. However, youth and ignorance are generally bold. He was, besides, too well pleased at escaping from the irksomeness of regular study, and, indeed, too much enamoured of danger itself to have been terrified, even had he fully understood the character of the river.

The canoe being carried along with sufficient rapidity by the force of the current, he had but little occasion for using his paddles, and filled up the intervals of reflection with reading. He was thus employed when the canoe approached Bellows Falls. The noise of the waters rushing with impetuous velocity through their narrow channel between the rocks, roused him to a sense of his danger, fortunately, in time to enable him by the strenuous use of his paddles to reach the shore. His canoe was dragged round the fall by the kindness of the good people of the neighbourhood, who were amazed at the boldness and novelty of his enterprise, and again safely launched upon the waters below. No further account is given of this singular voyage. He arrived safely at Hartford about daybreak one fine morning in spring, and astonished his friends by the strangeness of his appearance, and the no less strange relation of his adventures.

Whether or not any efforts were made on this occasion to induce Ledyard to resume his missionary studies is not known; but if there were it was without success. His inclinations, as I have already observed, had now taken another direction. He was desirous of becoming a regular clergyman, and exerted himself, unfit as he was, to obtain a preacher’s license. Inferior claims have sometimes been urged with effect; but Ledyard’s were rejected; and in that reckless state of mind produced by disappointment and disgust, which none but those who have been buffeted by adverse fortune can properly conceive, he threw himself into the first gap which he saw open, and determined to combat with the ills of life in the humble condition of a common sailor. In this capacity he sailed for Gibraltar, in the ship of a Captain Deshon, who had been a friend of his father. Though this gentleman, we are told, regarded him more in the light of a companion than as one of his crew, Ledyard seems to have conceived no very favourable idea of a seafaring life from his voyage across the Atlantic, and on his landing at Gibraltar, determined to avoid a repetition of the experiment by enlisting in the army. By the solicitations of Captain Deshon, however, who at the same time strongly remonstrated with him on the impropriety of his conduct, he was released, and returned with his liberator to New-London. This voyage put to flight his romantic ideas respecting the life of a mariner; and he once more saw himself dependent on his friends, without profession or prospect.