of Russians, located near Samara, where living is dear,
have lately been migrating with their families into
Siberia, far beyond Omsk and Tomsk. T h e y are
described to me as all decent well behaved people, a
great many of them being able to read ; and my correspondent
says, “ It would do one’s heart good to see
how glad they are of the Bibles, and how carefully
they wrap them up.” And well they may, for they
will perhaps not have the chance of getting more for
years to come. The books in quantities for the hospitals
and prisons I had to leave with the authorities,
and in the case o f those who bought I have little to
tell, because I was as one deaf and dumb, and I could
only hold up the book, and name, or point to, the
number of kopecks demanded.
Many will be sceptical, no doubt, as to the ultimate
worth of such an undertaking. Its value, however, must
not be judged as if it had been done now in England.
There was not a Bible dépôt in all Turkistan until the
year I went there, and the open distribution of tracts,
1 wot, had never been seen there before. Not that I
would seem to forget what has been done in European
Russia. A s I walked through the Moscow Exhibition
I came to a stall whence 300,000 tracts had been distributed
in 40 days, and the British and Foreign Bible
Society had given 10,000 copies of the Gospels to be
similarly distributed there. Again, I was cheered in
Ekaterineburg to meet with an agent of the Bible
Society, who, in 8 years, had sold 8,079 copies for
^238. Telling me of his difficulties in so doing, he
said he had sometimes striven to incite inquiry by
offering to sell a peasant a New Testament for 10
kopecks, and, when read, to take it back at the same
price. But in this he had not always met with success,
for so densely ignorant were they, that they preferred
to keep the 2 \d. in their pocket, and forego the reading
of the book. So, too, I have mentioned an officer at
Tashkend distributing Scriptures among his soldiers.
Fallow ground, therefore, is being broken in various
parts of the Empire, and I have heard incidentally from
travellers, who have been in Siberia after me, that the
books I left are exceedingly valued. The 2,498 Scriptures
distributed in Siberia and Central Asia by the
agents of the British and Foreign Bible Society in
1881, increased in 1882 sixfold, to 14,638, and of three
causes contributing to this, the Committee were good
enough to reckon my efforts as one. I am hopeful,
therefore, that my labour has not been in vain, and I
am still more hopeful of what is to follow, for the
experience of all ages has been that those who submit
themselves to the teaching of this book are elevated,
improved, and blessed thereby. I strongly urged upon
the Committee^ in 1879, the hastening of what they
had long been contemplating, namely, the opening of
a dépôt in Siberia, and, what is better, I have been
able to find a Finnish nobleman, who for this purpose
was willing to give up his father’s home and family,
and go into voluntary exile to Irkutsk. A dépôt is now
opened there; 1,048 copies were sold during the first
three weeks, and by the latest report of the Bible
Society (for 1883-4) I perceive that Tomsk, Blagovest-
chensk, Kiakhta, and even Yakutsk are indicated as
future centres around which colporteurs may travel
with the Word of Life. T o have initiated or helped
forward such a work, therefore, I count an honour to
be remembered through life, and I was thankful for
the point attained to at Petro-Alexandrovsk.*
* From the last report I see the circulation from the new Tashkend