VOYAGE FKOM OKHOTZK 



as they, wretched as their habitations are, conftruft 

 them with great difficulty and labour; being 

 forded to employ fome years only in planing the 

 boards with fmall pieces of iron. Accordingly thofe 

 that are already erecled bear a great value. Their ig- 

 norance was fo great, that they took a Kuli bin's lan- 

 tern % which we ufed to fet up on dark nights, for 

 the fun, which we had fiiolen, and " therefore, faid 

 they, the days are fo dark." It was extremely painful 

 to me to fee the narrownefs of their minds, I there- 

 fore did not leave them long in this miftake, but took 

 all poffible pains to make it intelligible to them,, that 

 it was the work of a man, fuch as they were, only 

 with this difference, that they could not learn any 

 thing, till they became peaceful and traceable and 

 lhewed an inclination to adopt our ufages and manner 

 of life. I fhewed them the conveniency and fuperio- 

 rity of the houfes, drefs, and food of the Ruffians ; and 

 called their attention to my people as they were at 

 work in digging, and fowing and planting the ground 

 for kitchen-gardens. Alfo, when we - eame to reap the 



* So called from its inventor Kulibin ; a man of humble ori- 

 gin, but become confpicuous for his remarkable genius in mecha- 

 nical works. He firfl made himfelf known by a watch he con- 

 trived in the fhape of an egg, at prefent kept among the curio- 

 fities in the mufae.um of the imperial academy, and is fince de- 

 fcribed in Bacmeifter's efTay on the library and the rarity cham- 

 ber, -r? Befides this, his principal inventions are : a model of a 

 wooden bridge of one arch propofed to be built acrof? the Neva ; 

 and the lantern here mentioned, in which the lamp is placed 

 burning before a large mirror compofed of a great number of lit- 

 tle pieces of looking- glafs. 



fruit 



