places, and do not hide behind general statements
and impersonalities.” This rejoinder the editor did
not publish, and I therefore inserted the challenge
in the second, third, fourth, and fifth editions of
“ Through Siberia,” but no one has taken up the
challenge.
Let us suppose, however, for a moment, that official
orders were sent on before me to make things wear a
favourable aspect: then how far could this in all cases
have been carried out, and to what extent ? I told
the authorities in Petersburg, in May, that I was going
to Tiumen, Tomsk, Irkutsk, and Kiakhta, whence I
purposed to retrace my steps. In keeping with this,
they certainly could have telegraphed that I was
coming, but as to when I presume they would be at a
loss to say, for- I did no't know myself. I reached
Tiumen in 17 days, and can only say that, if the prison
authorities there had received orders to make things
wear a favourable aspect, they had not efficiently carried
them out. But the next place, Tobolsk, is more to
my purpose. I had not decided to go there at all, and
even if the. Governor had known generally of my
coming, he could not have been expecting me on the
morning of June 2nd, when the floods were out, and
necessitated our driving through water up to the axles.
In fact, the post-road was at this moment supposed to
be impassable ; the Governor hirpself was waiting, with
packed trunks, to accomplish by steamer the reverse
journey we had done by road, and one of his first
questions was, “ How in the world did you get
here ? ” We asked to see the prisons at once. The
police-master was sent for, and in a few minutes we
hurried off in vehicles to the prisons. In this case,
then, where was time to make things wear a favourable
aspect? Next, at Tomsk, finding I had to wait a
week, we took a run of 230 miles to Barnaul, entirely
off our road, and not down in my programme. W e
arrived in the night, and next day stirred up the
police-master before he knew, I suspect, of our existence.
A third variation from my pre-announced plans
was the visit to the Alexandrevsky Prison, near Irkutsk,
to which town I thought to go and thence drive o u t ;
but we cut across country instead, and reached the
prison at dusk. Here they could hardly have expected
me, for the Vice-Governor wanted to telegraph
to the capital for permission to show us the
prison, but could not do so because in the fire at
Irkutsk the telegraph lines were broken. Y e t here I
entered early in the morning, and went wherever and
saw whatever I asked. But, further, supposing for the
sake of argument that all had been prepared from
Petersburg up to this point, I now altered my plans
for the fourth time, in this case radically, and, instead
of retracing my steps, went on to the Amur, through
the very heart of the convict country. A t Chita the
supposed expectation of my coming did not by any
appearances betray itself. A t Kara, indeed, my
coming was heralded by telegraph ; but on reaching
Khabarofka, had I been a hunted hare I could not
have more completely doubled upon my pursuers, for,
whereas my papers set out that I was going 600 miles
south to Vladivostock, the steamer having left, I
elected straightway to go 600 miles north to
Nikolaefsk, and on my arrival I next morning presented
myself to the prison officials.
If, then, after detailing these five changes of plan;
the reader still thinks that the Russian authorities
managed to keep ahead of me with their messages and