At eleven there came an invitation to lunch with the governor at two.  “How is this?” I said to the doctor; “start at twelve and lunch here two hours later!” Smiling the doctor replied: 

“I see you have not yet learned our customs.  The governor is the autocrat, and though the captain positively declares he will start at noon you need not be uneasy.  He will not go till you are on board, and very likely you will meet him at lunch.”

At two o’clock I was at the governor’s, where I found the anxious captain.  When our lunch was finished Madame Pedeshenk gave me some wild grapes of native production.  They were about the size of peas, and quite acid in taste.  With cultivation they might be larger and better flavored, just as many of our American grapes have improved in the past twenty years.  Some of the hardier grapes might be successfully grown on the middle Amoor, but the cold is too long and severe for tender vines.  Attached to his dwelling the governor has a hot-house that forms a pleasant retreat in winter.  He hopes to introduce vines and raise hot-house grapes in Siberia within a few years.

I walked to the boat with Doctor and Madame Snider, our promenade being enlivened by a runaway horse that came near dragging a cart over us.  The governor and his lady were there, with nearly all the officers, and after saying adieu I stepped on board, and we left the pier.  We waved kerchiefs again and again as long as waves could be seen.

There was a cabin on the Korsackoff about eight feet square, with four small rooms opening out of it.  Borasdine and I had two of these.  My apartment had two bunks and no bedding, but the deficiency was atoned for by a large number of hungry and industrious fleas.  Of my blankets and pillow I made my own bed, and slept in it as on the Ingodah.  My only chair was a camp stool I carried from San Francisco with the design of giving it away on reaching the end of my water travel.

Going on board the steamer I met a drunken priest endeavoring to walk to the pier, and in the cabin I found another lying on a sofa, and, as I supposed, very ill.  Borasdine observed my look of compassion, and indicated by signs the cause of the malady.  The priest going ashore had been saying farewell to the one on board, and their partings were such as press the life from out young hearts and bottles.  Our holy passenger did not feel himself again until the next day.

There are many good men among the priests of the Eastern church in Siberia, but it must also be admitted there are many bad ones.  In a country where the clergy wields as great power as in Russia the authorities should take care that the representatives of the church set a good example.  The intemperance so prevalent among the peasantry is partly due to the debaucheries of the priesthood.  Where the people follow their religious leaders with blind faith and obey their commands in all the forms of worship, are they not