in the
romance of the mighty Chamberlain with whom he alone dared to take a
liberty, vowed to guard all that came to his care and sooner or later
to send them to California. Rezanov had also written comprehensively
to the Tsar and the directors of the Russian-American Company, adroitly
placing his marriage in the light of a diplomatic maneuver, and
painting California in colors the more vivid and enticing for the
sullen clouds and roaring winds, the dripping forests and eternal snows
of that derelict corner of Earth where he had been stranded so long.
He had also, when Langsdorff announced his intention to start upon a
difficult journey in the interest of science, provided him not only
with letters of recommendation, but with all the comforts procurable in
a land where the word comfort was the stock in trade of the local
satirist. But Langsdorff, although punctiliously acknowledging the
favors, never quite forgave the indifference of a mere ambassador and
chamberlain, rejoicing in the dignity of an honorary membership in the
St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, to the supreme division of natural
history.

The first stage of the journey--from Okhotsk to Yakutsk--was about six
hundred and fifty English miles, not as the crow flew, but over the
Stanovoi mountains in a southwesterly direction to the Maya, by this
river's wavering course to the Youdoma, then northwest to the Aldan,
and south beside the Lena. The beaten track lay entirely alongside the
rivers at this season, upon their surface in winter; and in addition to
these great streams there were many too unimportant for the map, but as
erratic in course and as irresistible in energy after the first rains
of autumn.

Captain D'Wolf had proved himself capable and faithful, and a caravan
of forty horses had been in Okhotsk a week; twenty for immediate use,
twenty for relief, or substitutes in almost certain emergency. As
there were but one or two stations of any importance between Okhotsk
and Yakutsk, and as a week might pass without the shelter of so much as
a hut, it was necessary to take tents and bearskin beds for the
Chamberlain, his Cossack guard, valet-de-chambre, cook and other
servants, one set of fine blankets and linen, cooking utensils, axes,
arms, tinder-boxes, provisions for the entire trip, besides a great
quantity of personal luggage.

Rezanov lost no time. He had changed his original plan and dispatched
Davidov on the Avos from Oonalaska. Guns a