RETURN OF THE ALLIED FORCES. 



In the opinion of those who had been in Petropaulovsky at the 

 time, the disaster was chiefly due to the di^dsion of the forces on 

 landing, — one body getting ahead of, and being fired into by the 

 other. The thickness of the bush prevented a recognition of this 

 error, and the attacking party imagined themselves taken in rear. 

 The Cossacks took advantage of the mistake, a^l before long the 

 Allies were in a state of confusion which the nature of the ground 

 rendered hopeless. More met their death by being driven over 

 the precipice, it was said, than actually fell before the rifles of 

 the Cossacks. 



The victors were left in peace for the tmie being, but, in the 

 spring of the following year, the Allied Squadron once more made 

 its appearance. The President, Pique, Dido, Brisk, Encounter, and 

 Barracouta, together with the French frigate Alcesfc, assembled 

 off" Kamschatka, and entered Avatcha Bay on the 31st May, 1855. 

 They found the town completely deserted by the Eussians. Three 

 foreign residents alone remained, and from them they learned that 

 the settlement had been evacuated by order of the Emperor upon 

 the breaking up of the ice. Even the natives had fled. On the 

 7th June the batteries and magazines, which had been strengthened 

 and increased in number since the engagement in the preceding 

 year, were blown up, and two days later all the Government 

 buildings were burnt to the ground. The latter proceeding was, 

 in all probability, the wanton act of some English blue-jackets, and 

 was done without the knowledge of our authorities. It was an 

 unfortunate occurrence, the explanation of which could hardly be 

 expected to be believed by the Eussians, and the affair still rankles 

 in the breast of the inhabitants of the little settlement. 



A few days later the Squadron left, and the inhabitants re- 

 turned to their homes. Poor little Petropaulovsky has to rest 

 content on her honours of 1854, for the town has never been re- 

 fortified, and is now no longer a military post. 



One cannot be long in Kamschatka without making the 

 acquaintance of that very necessary animal, the sledge-dog. Wlien 

 VOL. I. a 



