496 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
He was immediately invited down to the gunroom, enter¬ 
tained after the best of our ability, and bothered with a number 
of questions which he evidently understood with difficulty, and 
answered in very unintelligible Kussian. He was in any case 
the first with whom some of us could communicate, at least in a 
way. He could neither read nor write. On the other hand, he 
could quickly comprehend a map which was shown him, and 
point out with great accuracy a number of the more remarkable 
places in north-eastern Siberia. Of the existence of the Russian 
emperor the first official of the region had no idea; on the 
other hand, he knew that a very powerful person had his home 
at Irkutsk. On us he conferred the rank of “ Ispravnik ” in the 
neighbouring towns. At first he crossed himself with much 
zeal before some photographs and copper-plate engravings in 
the gunroom, but he soon ceased when he observed that we 
did not do likewise. Menka was accompanied by two badly- 
clad natives with very oblique eyes, whom we took at first for 
his servants or slaves. Afterwards we found that they were 
owners of reindeer, who considered themselves quite as good as 
Menka himself, and further on we even heard one of them 
speak of Menka’s claim to be a chief with a compassionate 
smile. Now, however, they were exceedingly respectful, and it 
was by them that Menka’s gift of welcome, two reindeer roasts, 
was carried forward with a certain stateliness. As a return 
present we gave him a woollen shirt and some parcels of tobacco. 
Menka said that he should travel in a few days to Markova, a 
place inhabited by Russians on the river Anadyr, in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the old Anadyrsk. Although I had not yet given 
up hope of getting free before winter, I wished to endeavour 
to utilize this opportunity of sending home accounts of the 
Vega s position, the state of matters on board, &c. An open 
letter was therefore written in Russian, and addressed to his 
Excellency the Governor-General at Irkutsk, with the request 
that he would communicate its contents to his Majesty, King 
