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munication to you, but I swear that such was my resolution."-"Why then," interrupted she, "did you conceal your intention from me, who am ready to follow you to the farthest limits of the universe?" This assurance encouraged me to proceed, and engage this charming young lady in my interests. I told her, therefore, that I was prevented only by the fear lest she should refuse my proposals on account of her attachment to her parents; but that, as I now had nothing to fear in that respect, I could inform her, that my intention being to leave Kamschatka, I had determined to carry her off; and in order to convince her, I was ready to call Mr. Crustiew, who would confirm the truth. On this assurance she embraced me, and entreated me to forgive her want of confidence, at the same time that she declared her readiness to accompany me.

"This degree of confidential intercourse being established, I persuaded her to dismiss every fear from her mind. Many were the trials I made of her resolution, and the event convinced me that she was perfectly determined to follow my fortunes. The secret being thus secure, by her promise to keep it inviolably, I had no other uneasiness remaining but what arose from the communication having been made to her servant. I mentioned my fears to miss Nilow, who removed them, by assuring me that her servant was too much attached to her to betray her secret, and had, besides, an affection for Kudrin, so that she could answer for her discretion. Thus agreeably ended our conversation, though the commencement was rather tragical, and I received the vows of attachment and fidelity from an artless and innocent mind."

On the 23d of April 1771, however, "Miss Aphanasia,” says the 66 count, came to me incognito. She informed me that her mother was in tears, and her father talked with her in a manner which gave reason to fear that he suspected our plot. She conjured me to be careful, and not to come to the fort if sent for. She expressed her fears that it would not be in her power to come to me again, but promised she would in that case send her servant; and she entreated me at all events, if I should be compelled to use force against the government, I would be careful of the life of her father, and not endanger my own. I tenderly embraced this charming young lady, and thanked her for the interest she took in my preservation; and as it appeared important that her absence should not be discovered, I

begged her to return and recommend the issue of our intentions to good fortune. Before her departure I reminded her to look minutely after her father, and to send me a red ribband in case government should determine to arrest or attack me; and, in the second place, that at the moment of an alarm, she would open the shutter of her window which looked to the garden, and cause a sledge to be laid. over the ditch on that side. She promised to comply with my instructions, and confirmed her promises with vows and tears."

The apprehensions of this faithful girl for the safety of the man she loved, were far from being without foundation; and on the 26th of April she sent the count two red ribbands, to signify the double danger to which she perceived he was exposed. The count, however, coolly prepared to brave the impending storm, and gave orders to the leaders of his associates, amounting in all to fifty-nine persons, to place themselves at the head of their divisions, and station themselves round his house, in readiness to act in the night, in case an attack should be made by the cossacks of the town, and soldiers of the garrison, who, it was rumoured, were busied in preparing their arms. At five o'clock in the evening, a corporal, with four grenadiers, stopped at the count's door, demanding admittance in the name of the empress, and ordered him to follow the guard to the fort. The count, however, proposed, from a window, to the corporal, that he should enter alone and drink a glass of wine; but, on his being admitted, the door was instantly shut upon him, and four pistols clapped to his breast, by the terror of which he was made to disclose every thing that was transacting at the fort, and at length obliged to call the four grenadiers separately into the house, under pretence of drinking, when they were all five bound together, and deposited safely in the cellar.

This measure was, of course, the signal of resistance, and the count marshalling his associates, who had secretly furnished themselves with arms and ammunition by the treachery of the store-keepers, issued forth from the house to oppose, with greater advantage, another detachment who had been sent to arrest him. After levelling several soldiers to the ground, the count, by the mismanagement of their commander, seized their cannon, turned them with success against the fort itself, and, entering by means of the drawbridge, dispatched the twelve remaining guards who

were then within it. "Madame Nilow and her children," says the count, "at sight of me implored my protection to save their father and husband. I immediately hastened to his apartment, and begged him to go to his children's room to preserve his life, but he answered that he would first take mine, and instantly fired a pistol, which wounded me. I was desirous nevertheless of preserving him, and continued to represent that all resistance would be useless, for which reason I entreated him to retire. His wife and children threw themselves on their knees, but nothing would avail; he flew upon me, seized me by the throat, and left me no other alternative than either to give up my own life, or run my sword through his body. At this period the petard, by which my associates attempted to make a breach, exploded, and burst the outer gate. The second was open, and I saw Mr. Panow enter at the head of a party. He entreated the governor to let me go, but not being able to prevail on him, he set me at liberty by splitting his skull.”

The count by this event became complete master of the fort, and by the cannon and ammunition which he found on the rampart, was enabled, with the ready and active assistance of his now increased associates, to repel the attack which was made upon him by the cossacks; but flight, not resistance, was the ultimate object of this bold commander;, and in order to obtain this opportunity, he dispatched a drum and a woman as a sign of parley to the Cossacks, who had quitted the town and retired to the heights, with a resolution to invest the fort and starve the insurgents, informing them of his resolution to send a detachment of associates into the town to drive all the women and children into the church, and there to burn them all to death, unless they laid down their arms. While this embassy was sent, preparation was made for carrying the threat it contained into immediate execution; but by submitting to the proposal, the execution of this horrid measure was rendered unnecessary, and the count not only received into the fort fifty-two of the principal inhabitants of the town, as hostages for the fidelity of the rest, but procured the archbishop to preach a sermon in the church in favour of the revolution. The count was now complete governor of Kamschatka; and having time, without danger, to prepare every thing necessary for the intended departure, he amused himself with ransacking the archives of the town, where he found several manuscripts of voyages made to the eastward

of Kamschatka. The count also formed a chart, with details, respecting Siberia and the sea-coast of Kamschatka, and a description of the Kurelles and Aleuthes islands. This chart has not survived the fate of its composer.

The conspirators, previous to their hostilities against the governor, had prudently secured a corvette of the name of St. Peter and St. Paul, which then rode at anchor in the port of Bolsha, and their subsequent success afforded them the means of providing her with such stores as were necessary for the intended voyage. On the 11th of May 1771, the count, as commander in chief, attended by Mr. Crustiew as second, by sixteen of his fellow-captives as quarterguards, and by fifty-seven foremast men, together with twelve passengers and nine women, among whom was the lovely Aphanasia, disguised in sailor's apparel, went on board this vessel; and on the next day weighed anchor, and sailed out of the harbour on a southern course, intending to continue their voyage to China. On the 20th of May, they anchored their vessel in a bay on the coast of Beering's island, where they found the celebrated captain Ochotyn and his followers, who had also escaped from exile in Siberia, and were wandering in search of that settlement which, from their restless dispositions, they were doomed never to find.

The count, however, was not to be detained by the blandishments of friendship; he departed from this island, and arrived, after experiencing many hardships and dangers at sea, at the harbour of Usilpatchar in Japan on the 2d of August; from whence, not meeting with a very friendly reception, he again immediately set sail, and arrived on Sunday the 28th of August at the island of Formosa. The inhabitants of Formosa at first appeared inclined to treat him with respect and civility, particularly don Hieronymo Pacheco, formerly captain at the port of Cavith at Manilla, who had fled from that employment to the island of Formosa, in consequence of his having in a moment of rage massacred his wife and a Dominican whom he had found in. her company but these professions were soon found to be deceitful; for on sending his men on shore to fetch water, they were attacked by a party of twenty Indians, many of them dangerously wounded, and Mr. Panow, the count's most faithful friend, killed. Don Hieronymo, however, contrived to exculpate himself from any concern in this treachery, and to advise the count to seek revenge by a

conquest of the island; but he contented himself with provoking the natives to a second attack, and repulsing them with considerable slaughter. His men, however, insisted on going in quest of the Indians, in order to make them feel their further vengeance. The remonstrances of the count were to no effect; and at length, complying with their desires, he requested don Hieronymo to guide them towards the principal residence of the nation who had given him so bad a reception, where, after a short and unequal conflict, he killed eleven hundred and fifty-six, took six hundred and forty-three prisoners, who had prostrated themselves on the ground to beg for mercy from their assailants, and set fire to their town. The prince of the country, notwithstanding this massacre of his subjects, was introduced to the count by his Spanish friend, and a cordiality at length took place between them to such a degree, that the count entered into a formal treaty for returning and settling at Formosa; but his secret motives for making this engagement appear to have been, the execution of a project he had silently conceived of establishing a colony on the

island.

On Monday the 12th of September, the count and his associates sailed from Formosa; on the Thursday following the coast of China appeared in sight; and two days afterwards his vessel was piloted into the port of Macao. At this place he was treated with great respect by the governor and the principal men of the town; and on the 3d of October 1771, captain Gore, then in the service of the English East-India company, made an offer of services to him on the part of the directors, and a free passage to Europe, provided he would bind himself to entrust his manuscripts to the company, engage to enter into their service, and make no communication of the discoveries he had made. But having accepted proposals from the French directors, the offers of captain Gore were rejected, and the count soon afterwards returned from Macao to Europe on board a French ship.

He arrived on the 8th of August 1772, in Champagne, where the duke d'Aiguillon, the minister of France, then was; "and he received me," says the count, "with cordiality and distinction, and proposed to me to enter the service of his master, with the offer of a regiment of infantry; which I accepted, on condition that his majesty would be pleased to employ me in forming establishments

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