SIBERIA— FUR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. 



205 



able to sustain a far more considerable population. In the south there are 

 thousands of square miles fit for cultivation; the numbers of the herds and 

 flocks might be increased a hundred-fold, and even the climate would become 

 milder after the labor of man had subdued the chilling influences of the forest 

 and the swamp. But it is easier to exj^ress than to realize the wish to see Si- 

 beria more populous, for its reputation is hardly such as to tempt the free col- 

 onists to settle within its limits ; and thus the Russian Government, which 

 would willingly see its more temperate regions covered with flourishing towns 

 and villages, can only expect an increase of population from tlie slow grovvth 

 of time, aided by the annual influx of the involuntary emigrants which it sends 

 across the Ural to the East. 



Many a celebrated personage has already been doomed to trace this mel- 

 ancholy path, particularly during the last century, when the all-powerful favor- 

 ite of one period was not seldom doomed to exile by the next palace revolu- 

 tion. This fate befell, among others, the famous Prince Mentschikoff. In a 

 covered cart, and in the dress of a peasant, the confidential minister of Peter 

 the Great, the man who for years had ruled the vast Russian Empire, was con- 

 veyed into perpetual banishment. His dwelling was now a simple hut, and 

 the spade of the laborer replaced the pen of the statesman. Domestic misfor- 

 tunes aggravated his cruel lot. His wife died from the fatigues of the jour- 

 ney ; one of his daughters soon after fell a victim to the smallpox ; his two 

 other children, who were attacked by the same malady, recovered. He him- 

 self died in the year 1729, and was buried near his daughter at Beresow, the 

 seat of his exile. Like Cardinal Wolsey, after his fall he remembered God, 

 w^hom he had forgotten during the swelling tide of his prosperity. He con- 

 sidered his punishment as a blessing, which showed him the way to everlasting 

 happiness. He built a chapel, assisting in its erection with his own hands, 

 and after the services gave instruction to the congregation. The inhabitants 

 of Beresow still honor his memory, and revere him as a saint. They were 

 confirmed in this belief by the circumstance that his body, having been disin- 

 terred in 1821, was found in a state of perfect preservation, after a lapse of 

 ninety-two years. 



One day, as his daughter walked through the village, she was accosted by 

 a peasant from the window of a hut. This peasant was Prince Dolgorouky, 

 her father's enemy — the man Avho had caused his banishment, and Avas now, in 

 his turn, doomed to taste the bitterness of exile. Soon after the princess and 

 her brother were pardoned by the Empress Anna, and Dolgorouky took pos- 

 session of their hut. Young Mentschikoff was finally reinstated in all the hon- 

 ors and riches of his father, and from him descends, in a direct line, the fa- 

 mous defender of Sebastopol. 



Marshal Munich, the favorite of the Empress Anna, was doomed, in his six- 

 tieth year, to a Siberian exile, when Elizabeth ascended the throne. His prison 

 consisted of three rooms — one for his guards or jailers, the second for their 

 kitchen, the third for his own use. A wall twenty feet high prevented him 

 from enjoying the view even of the sky. The man who had once governed 

 Russia had but half a rouble daily to spend ; but the love of his wife — who^ 



