E
C H A P T E R III.
FROM THE URALS TO OMSK.
Books overtaken: their numbers, k in d s .an d lanR u a g e s^ A e^ a in tan c e -
ships renewed at Tiumen.— Success of former efforts,
future supply of exiles.— Testimonies to their thankfulness for
Scriptures distributed.— Final equipment, and introductions.
New Siberian s te am e r .-M r . Ignatoff’ s g en e ro s ity ,-R iv e r voyage.
, — Sale of books on d e ck .- ln te rv iew with Governor of Io b o ls k .-
Y is it to cemetery and Archbishop.— Voyage up the Ir tish .-C h e ap
provisions. -Fellow-passenge rs.— Arrival at Omsk.
K A T E R IN E B U R G is the railway terminus at
. ^ which the traveller arrives in passing from
>erm into Asia, but here we stayed only four-and-
wenty hours, before posting to Tiumen, which
/e reached on August 4th. A t Tiumen I found my
looks, and that not a moment too soon, for by a
lerk’s mistake they were shipped for Tomsk, a blunder
yhich, had it not been detected, would have cost us
X least a month’ s delay. Here I may mention that,
lefore starting for Central Asia, it was more difficult
han when going to Siberia, to form a correct estimate
is to how many publications I could carry and properly
lispose of, and in what languages and dialects they
vould be required. The committees of the two societies
rindly placed at my disposal such a number of their
jooks respectively as seemed desirable, and practicable,
,nd I wrote to the Rev. W. Nicholson my faithful
ally, who has always been so ready to help me, in
Petersburg, to get ready 5,000 Scriptures, 10,000
Russian tracts, 1,000 copies of a monthly paper
called the Russian Workman, and an illustrated broadsheet
entitled “ The Prodigal Son.” These were to
be packed in strong wooden boxes, iron-hooped at the
ends, and corded; and when I arrived and- found 30
of them awaiting me, to say nothing of personal
[ t>agg ag e and provisions, I confess to feeling a little
j alarmed at the burden prepared for my back. The
Scriptures consisted of Bibles, Old Testaments, New
Testaments, the four Gospels (bound together and
singly), and the Book of Psalms. They were printed
| in Russian, Sclavonic, Hebrew, Chinese, Mongolian,
Kirghese, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Polish, German,’
and French, and these, as I have said, I was able to
book through to Tiumen, where I hoped to deposit
a considerable number for distribution to the exiles.
It was very pleasant in this town to renew acquaintanceships
formed three years previously, which
I did first with an English family named Wardropper, '
and then with Mr. Ignatofif, who contracts for the
carriage by water of the exiles to Tomsk, and
of soldiers to Semipolatinsk. This gentleman so
thoroughly approved of the object that led me to
Siberia in 1879, that, unasked, he took my luggage
free of cost, and after my departure gave every facility
on his barges for distribution o f my books to the
pules as each company embarked. Thus the Bibles
fnd tracts I had left behind had been carefully given
Put under supervision, and I was pleased to hear that,
p e n my stock of Scriptures was exhausted, Mr.'
I gnatoff had sent, at his own expense, for 200 more.
Specimen copies of the books and tracts had been sent