As we approached De Castries we could see the spars of a large ship over the islands at the entrance of the harbor.  A moment later she was announced.

“A corvette, with steam up.”

She displayed her flag—­an English one.  As we dropped anchor in the harbor a boat came to us, and an officer mounted the side and descended to the cabin.  The ship proved to be the British Corvette Scylla, just ready to sail for Japan.  Escaping her we did not encounter Charybdis.  The mission of the Scylla was entirely pacific, and her officer informed us there had been war between Prussia and Austria, but at last accounts all Europe was at peace.  The war of 1866 was finished long before I knew of its commencement.

De Castries Bay is on the Gulf of Tartary, a hundred and thirty-five miles from Nicolayevsk.  La Perouse discovered and surveyed it in 1787, and named it in honor of the French Minister of Marine.  It is in Lat. 51 deg. 28’ N., Lon. 140 deg. 49’ E., and affords good and safe anchorage.  Near the entrance are several islands, which protect ships anchored behind them.  The largest of these islands is occupied as a warehouse and coal depot, and has an observatory and signal station visible from the Gulf.  The town is small, containing altogether less than fifty buildings.  It is a kind of ocean port to Nicolayevsk and the Amoor river, but the settlement was never a flourishing one.

Twelve miles from the landing is the end of Lake Keezee, which opens into the Amoor a hundred and fifty miles from its mouth.  It was formerly the custom to send couriers by way of Lake Keezee and the Amoor to Nicolayevsk to notify consigners and officials of the arrival of ships.  Now the telegraph is in operation and supercedes the courier.

In 1855 an English fleet visited De Castries in pursuit of some Russian vessels known to have ascended the Gulf.  When the fleet came in sight there were four Russian ships in port, and a few shots were exchanged, none of them taking effect.  During a heavy fog in the following night and day the Russians escaped and ascended the Straits of Tartary toward the Amoor.  The Aurora, the largest of these ships, threw away her guns, anchors, and every heavy article, and succeeded in entering the Amoor.  The English lay near De Castries, and could not understand where the Russians had gone, as the southern entrance of the Amoor was then unknown to geographers.

We reached this port on the morning of September eleventh.  The Variag could go no further owing to her draft of water, but fortunately the Morje, a gunboat of the Siberian fleet, was to sail for Nicolayevsk at noon, and we were happily disappointed in our expectations of waiting several days at De Castries.  About eleven o’clock I left the Variag and accompanied Captain Lund, the doctor, and Mr. Anassoff into the boat dancing at the side ladder.  Half an hour after we boarded the Morje she was under way, and we saw the officers and men of the corvette waving us farewell.