The Bulgarian himself was very well inclmed to gossip ; and to my inquiries as to how far he was satisfied Avith his position, and whether things had gone ill with him at home, lie answered, " Oh, no ; one can hardly tell how it came about, but every body was crying out ' Russia ! Russia 1' That was the promised land, where one could get land for nothing without toll or tax, and cows and horses, and geese and poultry, and all. My neighbours went and my brother went, and so I went, but I sometimes think I'd better have stopped at home." I bade farewell to him, and strolled on my way, but liis " Russia, Russia," still sounded in my ears. It is the cry of a hundred nations of the earth wlio venerate the name, and of a hmidred others who fear it.
At the boundary of my German colony of Lustdorf I found a beautiful spring, which had been the subject of litigation between the convent and the colony. The suit had been can-led for decision to St. Petersburg, and determined in favour of the colony. It was clear enough to render visible the blue clay at the bottom, and, though only about as thick as a man's arm, produced a revenue of 500 rubles, paid by a wool-waslier who had established himself by its side.
I reached Lustdorf just as it was growing dark, and found my two cheerful little rooms in readiness, the good people having been for some time expecting me. My landlord, the Schidtz, appeared to be a respectable and intelligent man, with a worthy active wife, and a smart httle daughter of seventeen, who promised to superintend my " home affairs." The aged mother of the Schultz, a woman of seventy years of age, was still living. She had come into the country at forty, so that her German was in the highest preservation ; and she was still able to mend the stockings of the family, to peel potatoes, shell peas, pick and dress salad, and to read every evening a chapter or two in the Bible.
My landlord related to me many stories of shipwrecks that had taken place on this part of the coast, and said so much of ice and snow and frozen sailors, that one might have fancied oneself Hstening to the story of Captain Ross's voyages in Baffin's Bay.
In the autumn of 1836, when the sea was frozen to a distance of seven versts from the coast, a Greek vessel was driven by a strong north-easterly wind so far into the ice that it remained fast locked in. The crew gave up the ship for lost, and endeavoured to save their lives by crossing the ice to the shore. The agitation of the sea, however, communicated so much movement to the ice that it broke, and the poor sailors found themselves tossed about on various fragments, and of course in the greatest peril. A few Cossacks and some of the German colonists now, with great courage, went out to their assistance, and, having provided themselves with boards and long poles, made bridges from one mass of ice to another, and thus succeeded in saving many. It happened that the piece of ice on which stood the captain, the pilot, and one of the sailors, was separated by so wide a chasm, that it could not be reached ; and as it became evident that it was drifting out to sea, they resolved to attempt to swim across. The sailor, however, was the only one of the three who ever reached the opposite side ; the captain was laden with a heavy bag of money that he had tied round his waist, and both he and the pilot were overwhelmed by a mass of ice that floated towards them on the waves. They never appeared again. In the meantime it had grown dark, but, as the cries of the unfortunate sufferers were still heard from various quarters, the Cossacks continued their exertions, and saved the remainder in a boat. The sailors declared that the captain and pilot had deserved their fate, for they liad wilfully run the ship into the ice for the sake of the insurance, which was more than double its value.