Note 13 — TRAVELS IN KAMTSCHATKA, DURING THE YEARS 1787 AND 1788.

M. Ivaschkin is the unfortunate gentleman mentioned by the English, and who merits in every respect the eulogium bestowed on him. The mere recital of his misfortunes is sufficient to excite the compassion of every reader; but it is necessary to have seen and observed him, to judge of the extreme interest which his unhappy lot is calculated to inspire.

He was not twenty years of age, when the empress Elizabeth made him serjeant of her guard of Preobrajenskoi. He already enjoyed a certain credit at court, and the free access to the sovereign, which his office gave him, opened the most brilliant career to his ambition; when all at once he saw himself not merely disgraced and deprived of all his flattering hopes, but treated as the greatest criminal; he was knowted, which is the severest and most degrading punishment practised in Russia, had his nose slit, and was banished for life to Kamtschatka.

The English have told us what he suffered for more than twenty years, from the rigour with which he was treated; he was denied even the first necessaries of life, and must infallibly have perished of hunger and misery, or fallen a prey to despair, if the force of his mind and the strength of his constitution had not supported him. The necessity of providing for his own subsistence, compelled him, not without disgust, to naturalize himself with the Kamtschadales, and to adopt entirely their mode of living; he is clothed like them, and by means of hunting and fishing is enabled to procure, not merely a sufficiency for his wants, but a superfluity, from the sale of which he obtains some little conveniencies that seem to sweeten his miserable existence. He resides at Vercknei-Kamtschatka, or Upper Kamtschatka. The Russians are ignorant of the cause of so severe a punishment; they are disposed to attribute it to a misunderstanding, or some indiscreet words, for they know not how to suppose him capable of a crime. It seems as if a change of sentiment had taken place respecting the pretended enormity of his offence, a proposal having been lately made of changing the place of his banishment, and removing him to Yakoutsk, a town that offers a variety of resources, both for profit and pleasure. But this unfortunate being, who is from sixty to sixty-five years of age, has refused to avail himself of this permission, not wishing, as he said, to make a show of the hideous marks of his dishonour, and to blush a second time at the dreadful punishment he has undergone. He preferred the continuing to live with the Kamtschadales, having but one desire left, that of passing the few remaining days of life with those who know his integrity, and of carrying with him to his grave the general friendship and esteem, to which he is so justly intitled.

The accounts given by the English, excited in count de la Perouse a desire to see this unfortunate man, who inspired him from the first moment with the most lively pity. He received him on board his ship, and at his table. The count's humanity was not confined to compassionating his miseries; he sought every means of softening them, by leaving him whatever was calculated to remind him of our abode there, and prove to him that the English are not the only foreigners interested in his sorrowful lot.