to the Governor-General, as well as to the Governor
and the Archbishop of Tobolsk, who were pleased
with the work and with the books, and sanctioned
their distribution. A report of what had been done
was subsequently sent to them, Mr. Ignatoff informed
me. He was able to tell me also that the publications
had been much appreciated, and that on more than
one occasion the exiles had drawn up a written form
of thanks and signed their names. Many, too, had
thanked him individually. This testimony was confirmed
by the officer who had charge of the prisoners
between Tiumen and Tomsk, and who said that the
books I left to remain permanently on the barges for
the use of prisoners were still there, and accessible to
them without having to be asked for. He mentioned,
too, incidentally, how little sickness there had been
on the barges that season. Eight barges had carried
6,000 prisoners a distance of nearly 2,000 miles. Only
2 (a child and an adult) had died on the passage, and]
only 20 had been delivered invalided at Tomsk. Yet
another testimony pleasing to hear was that of Mr.
Wardropper, within sight of whose house the exiles are
shipped by thousands, who said that the general condition
of the prisoners, and the attention bestowed upon!
them, had greatly improved during the past few years. I
The question then remained as to what could bel
done in the future for the thousands who everyl
summer pass through Tiumen to be scattered overl
Siberia ; some to be made as colonists at once, and!
others to spend first their terms in prison or at the!
mines. The Bible Society had not yet been able toi
establish dépôts in Siberia, east of the Urals, other!
than at Ekaterineburg and Tomsk,* and although I
* A dépôt has since been established at Irkutsk.
stray copy of the Scriptures might here and there be
Bound with the merchants in large towns, yet for the
P ass0° f , the bamshed it might be said that copies of
r Bible were unobtainable even by those willing
0 buy them. It must have been no small boon,
therefore, during the preceding seasons, when, after
embarkation o f the convicts,■ at the — v.^close of a religious
service h'ofAi-o 1 „0- ggj— ov. ui <1 reugious
t
I before they left Tiumen, books and tracts were
handed to those who could read: and it was easy
■0 understand that, in many cases, the New Testam
en t thus received had been carried to some distant
W ba. °J cabi,n’ to form the library of the household
» r indeed the only copy of the sacred volume in the
K m u Accordingly it was determined that there
Ihould be left for distribution at and from Tiumen
Between 3,000 and 4,000 copies o f the Scriptures,’
|n d about half my stock of other publications, a
aige proportion of which was to be given as before
to the exiles going east by the barges \ whilst for the
B o o o who are annually distributed in the province
f lobolsk, an invitation was to be given to the
» l o s t (or district) committees to purchase the books
I A V S R rate’ and to sel1 them still cheaper to the
f i j l | | f | ,ree ; and th’s on the principle that a man
■aiues a purchase more than a gift.
Of course we were not so Utopian as to suppose
4 « none of these would be put to a perverted use
f t T h™ Cedf"h th,e ha” dS ft ° f th° Se Wh° WouU « « r- I tracts, some have said, will be used
and the BiMeS be S0ld for « * * » (or
JIt ' wtu d t T a “ ^ W° Uld ** I " " 6 ProbaWo- 7 1 be a rare field in which every seed came
I S J E th' ! everthele?s ,1 to be able
■ y mat of the scores of thousands of tracts I have