Petersburg, exiled for political
reasons. Only one, Hippolite Stephanow, was a criminal in the sense of
having broken law.
Hoffman, a German surgeon, welcomed them to his quarters at Yakutsk.
Where were they going?--To the Pacific?--"Ah; a long journey from St.
Petersburg; seven thousand miles!" That was where he was to go when he
had finished surgical duties on the Lena. By that they knew he, too,
was an exile, practising his profession on parole. He would advise
{109} them--cautiously feeling his ground--to get transferred as soon
as they could from the Pacific coast to the Peninsula of Kamchatka;
that was safer for an exile--fewer guards, farther from the Cossacks of
the mainland; in fact, nearer America, where exiles might make a
fortune in the fur trade. Had they heard of schemes in the air among
Russians for ships to plunder furs in America "with powder and hatchets
and the help of God," as the Russians say?
[Illustration: Mauritius Augustus, Count Benyowsky.]
Benyowsky, the Pole, jumped to the bait like a trout to the fly. If
"powder and hatchets and the help of God"--_and an exile crew_--could
capture wealth in the fur trade of western America, why not a break for
freedom?
They didn't scruple as to means, these men.
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