day with, and
now came to us to exchange three slaughtered reindeer for it. Our
miscalculation with respect to the letters, which we hoped were long
ago on their way to their destination, and my dislike to the mode of
payment in question--I offered him, without success, half-imperials
and metal rouble pieces instead of brandy--made his reception on
this occasion less hearty, and he therefore left us soon. It was not
until the 9th. February, 1879, that we again got news from Menka by
one of the Chukches, who had attended him the time before. The
Chukch said that in ten days he had traversed the way between the
_Vega's_ winter haven and Markova, which would run to about ninety
kilometres a day. According to his statement Menka had travelled
with the letters to Yakutsk. The statement seemed very suspicious,
and appeared afterwards to have been partly fabricated, or perhaps
to have been misunderstood by us. But after our return to the world
of newspapers we found that Menka had actually executed his
commission. He, however, did not reach Anadyrsk until the 7th
March/23rd February. Thence the packet was sent to Irkutsk, arriving
there on the 10th May/28th April. The news reached Sweden by
telegraph six days after, on the 16th May, just at a time when
concern for the fate of the _Vega_, was beginning to be very great,
and the question of relief expeditions was seriously entertained.[256]

In order to relieve the apprehensions of our friends at home, it
was, however, exceedingly important to give them some accounts of
the position of the _Vega_ during winter, and I therefore offered
all the purchasing power which the treasures of guns, powder, ball,
food, fine shirts, and even spirits, collected on board, could
exert, in order to induce some natives to convey Lieutenants
Nordquist and Bove to Markova or Nischni Kolymsk. The negotiations
seemed at first to go on very well, an advance was demanded and
given, but when the journey should have commenced the Chukches
always refused to start on some pretext or other--now it was too
cold, now too dark, now there was no food for the dogs. The
negotiations had thus no other result than to make us acquainted
with one of the few less agreeable sides of the Chukches'
disposition, namely the complete untrustworthiness of these
otherwise excellent savages, and their peculiar idea of the binding
force of an agreement.

The plans of travel just mentioned, however, led to Lieutenant
Nordqui