A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 65 



seen at Krasnoyarsk. Like bis brotlier, Mr. Peacock 

 spoke excellent English, and was exceedingly proud of 

 his status as a British subject. 



"No," he said in reply to u question ; " I was born 

 in Siberia, and have never seen England, but it is the 

 wish of my life to visit my own country some day." 



It was humiliating to think of the hundreds of 

 Britons upon whom the obligations of their nationality 

 sit so lightly, while this young Anglo-Siberiak, although 

 he had not so much as seen the cliffs of Dover, made 

 a boast of his English birth. Mr. Peacock had been 

 staying at Golchika on business, and was returning to 

 the south in the Oryol. Meanwhile, hearing from 

 Mr. Hall of our houseless plight, he had visited the 

 stout merchant, Antonoff, and had persuaded him to 

 allow us three women to sleep there, at any rate for 

 one night, while he arranged that Mr. Hall and 

 Vassilli should go to the house of his agent, Protyvik. 

 While we were still discussing the matter, out came 

 Michael Petrovitch himself to invite us to enter, and 

 to grant us the use of one of his sheds in which to 

 house our baggage. He had not liked to ask us 

 himself, he said, "because he had such poor lodgino- 

 to offer ! " Antonoff s house stood beside the little 

 battered church, which was only opened once a year 

 when the pope came down from Dudinka. There were 

 many graves around it, all marked with the double cross, 

 but there was no boundary between the cemetery and 

 the rest of the swamp. The living walked where they 

 liked among the graves, and in some way this was 

 symbolical of the attitude of those simple people towards 

 5 



