hich now makes a
province only of the vast Muscovite empire, but is itself equal in
bigness to the whole empire of Germany.

And yet here I observed ignorance and paganism, still prevailed, except
in the Muscovite garrisons. All the country between the river Oby and
the river Janezay is as entirely pagan, and the people as barbarous, as
the remotest of the Tartars; nay, as any nation, for aught I know, in
Asia or America. I also found, which I observed to the Muscovite
governors, whom I had opportunity to converse with, that the pagans are
not much the wiser, or the nearer Christianity, for being under the
Muscovite government; which they acknowledged was true enough, but, they
said, it was none of their business; that if the czar expected to
convert his Siberian, or Tonguese, or Tartar subjects, it should be
done by sending clergymen among them, not soldiers; and they added, with
more sincerity than I expected, that they found it was not so much the
concern of their monarch to make the people Christians, as it was to
make them subjects.

From this river to the great river Oby, we crossed a wild uncultivated
country; I cannot say 'tis a barbarous soil; 'tis only barren of people,
and wants good management; otherwise it is in itself a most pleasant,
fruitful, and agreeable country. What inhabitants we found in it are all
pagans, except such as are sent among them from Russia; for this is the
country, I mean on both sides the river Oby, whither the Muscovite
criminals, that are not put to death, are banished, and from whence it
is next to impossible they should ever come away.

I have nothing material to say of my particular affairs, till I came to
Tobolski, the capital of Siberia, where I continued some time on the
following occasion:--

We had been now almost seven months on our journey, and winter began to
come on apace; whereupon my partner and I called a council about our
particular affairs, in which we found it proper, considering that we
were bound for England, and not for Moscow, to consider how to dispose
of ourselves. They told us of sledges and rein-deer to carry us over the
snow in the winter-time; and, indeed, they have such things, as it would
be incredible to relate the particulars of, by which means the Russians
travel more in the winter than they can in summer; because in these
sledges they are able to run night and day: the snow being frozen, is
one universal covering to nature, by which the hills, t