I met at Barnaool, a Prussian gentleman Mr. Radroff, who was sent to Siberia by the Russian Academy of Science.  He knew nearly all the languages of Europe, and had spent some years in studying those of Central Asia.  He could converse and read in Chinese, Persian, and Mongol, and I don’t know how many languages and dialects of lesser note.  His special mission was to collect information about the present and past inhabitants of Central Asia, and in this endeavor he had made explorations in the country of the Kirghese and beyond Lake Balkask.  He was preparing for a journey in 1867 to Kashgar.

Mr. Radroff possessed many archaeological relics gathered in his researches, and exhibited drawings of many tumuli.  He had a curious collection of spear heads, knives, swords, ornaments, stirrup irons, and other souvenirs of ancient days.  He discoursed upon the ages of copper, gold, and iron, and told the probable antiquity of each specimen he brought out.  He gave me a spear head and a knife blade taken from a burial mound in the Kirghese country.  “You observe,” said he, “they are of copper and were doubtless made before the discovery of iron.  They are probably three thousand years old, and may be more.  In these tumuli, copper is found much better preserved than iron, though the latter is more recently buried.”

At this gentleman’s house, I saw a Persian soldier who had been ten years in captivity among the Turcomans, where he was beaten and forced to the lowest drudgery, and often kept in chains.  After long and patient waiting he escaped and reached the Siberian boundary.  Having no passport, and unable to make himself understood, he was sent to Barnaool and lodged in prison where he remained nearly two years!  The Persian officer above mentioned, heard of him by accident, and procured his release.  Mr. Radroff had taken the man as a house servant and a teacher of the Persian language.  I heard him read in a sonorous voice several passages from the Koran.  His face bore the marks of deep suffering, and gave silent witness to the story of his terrible captivity in the hands of the Turcomans.  His incarceration at Barnaool was referred to as an “unfortunate oversight.”  Escaping from barbarian slavery he fell into a civilized prison, and must have considered Christian kindness more fanciful than real.  He expected to accompany his countryman on his return to Persia.

The day before our departure, we were invited to a public dinner in honor of our visit.  It took place at the club rooms, the tables being set in what was once the parquet of the theatre.  The officials, from General Freeze downward, were seated in the order of their rank, and the post of honor was assigned to the two strangers.  No ladies were present, and the dinner, so far as its gastronomic features went, was much like a dinner at Irkutsk or Kiachta.

At the second course my attention was called to an excellent fish peculiar to the Ob and Yenesei rivers.  It is a species of salmon under the name of Nalma, and ascends from the Arctic Ocean.  Beef from the Kirghese steppes elicited our praise, and so did game from the region around Barnaool.  At the end of the dinner I was ready to answer affirmatively the inquiry, “all full inside?”