386 
THE SIBERIAN VILLAGE OF OLA. 
tank, the present “United States screw-steamer-of-war 
of the third class,” John Hancock. 
The day following this narrow escape, we found our- 
selves at anchor near a Siberian village, the name of 
which proved to be Ola. We had heard ranch of this 
settlement from whalers before reaching the coal-mine, — 
one of those explorers having enlivened us with the in- 
formation that the natives were pleasant and friendly, 
and that they had quantities of beef, milk, and fish, be- 
sides a limited supply of vegetables. lie further told us 
that they were totally unacquainted with the value of 
money, and that we could trade with them to great 
advantage by drawing largely upon the purser’s store- 
room for flannel, silk handkerchiefs, tobacco, sugar, rice, 
molasses, &c. &c., — all of which we found to be strictly 
the case. I had often heard of such innocent people, but 
never before saw human beings who had no idea of the 
value of money. Even the Kuriles have Japanese coin, 
and the Eejee Islanders buy and sell with the foreigners 
on their cannibal shores. But I am again wandering 
from my narrative. 
As soon as the anchor was down, we called away three 
boats and started to find the mouth of the river upon the 
banks of which we had been told Ola was situated, and 
in these boats went at least half of the entire i^ersonnel 
of the “old John:” it was not every day that we had 
either the time or the opportunity to indulge in similar 
sprees, and when they thus presented themselves “hand 
in hand” they always found us rcad3^ 
Our three boats left the ship at the same time, and, after 
a longer pull than we had looked for, reached the mouth 
