beking's great northern expedition. 85 



escaped convict. The natives of Siberia feared him 

 and called him Martin Petrovich Kosar, or in iron- 

 ical praise, ^'^ Batushka^' (old fellow). He had many 

 enemies. Complaints and accusations were showered 

 upon him, but it would most certainly be wrong to 

 ascribe to them any great significance. Siberia is the 

 land of slander. All Russian officials were corrupti- 

 ble, and the honest men among those who stood 

 nearest to Peter himself could literally be counted 

 on one's fingers. While in Siberia, Spangberg is 

 said to have acquired the possession of many horses, 

 valuable furs, and other goods of which the author- 

 ities had forced the sale. When the Senate, after 

 his great voyage of discovery to Japan, had treated 

 him unjustly, he left Siberia arbitrarily in 1745, 

 and, without leave of absence, set out for St. Peters- 

 burg, where he was summoned before a court-mar- 

 tial and condemned to death; but this was finally 

 commuted to his being reduced to a lieutenant for 

 three months. He remained in the service and died, 

 in 1761, as a captain of the first rank. In Okhotsk 

 he was accompanied by his wife and son.* 



But his opponent was a still more remarkable 

 man. Major-General Pissarjeff had been a favorite of 

 Peter the Great, director of the military academy, 

 and a high officer of the Senate. He had received a 

 careful education abroad, and moved in the very 

 highest circles of society. In a quarrel with Vice- 

 Chancellor Shafiroff, in 1722, however, he had incurred 

 Peter^s wrath, whereupon he was for a time deprived 



* Note 42. 



