The sharpness of the night increased my agueish feeling, and my weakness at last was so extreme, that I was unable to proceed a step farther. I entreated my companions to halt in the midst of this desert. They complied out of pure civility to me, for the difficulty of procuring wood was otherwise a sufficient reason to determine them to proceed. Scarcely could they collect enough to place under a kettle; it consisted of a few little shrubs, so green that it was almost impossible to make them burn. How happy were we to succeed so far as to be able to make tea!
After drinking a few cups, I retired to my tent[4], where I lay down upon a small mattrass spread upon the snow, and covered myself up with a number of furs, in order to revive perspiration. It was in vain; I did not close my eyes during the whole night. To the anguish of a dry and burning fever, were added a continual oppression, and all the restlessness peculiar to the first symptoms of a disorder. I conceived myself, I acknowledge, to be dangerously ill, particularly when I found, upon getting up, that I could not articulate a single sound. I suffered infinitely both in my breast and throat; the fever was not abated; nevertheless the idea that a longer halt in this place would be of no benefit to me, and that I could only hope for succour by proceeding, determined me to conceal my extreme illness from M. Schmaleff. I was the first to propose going on, but in this I consulted my courage more than my strength.
I had advanced but a few wersts, when my sufferings became insupportable. I was obliged to drive myself, and consequently to be in continual motion; frequently also I was compelled from the badness of roads, either to run by the side of my sledge, or call to the dogs to make them proceed. My hoarseness prevented their hearing me; and it was only by efforts that exhausted my strength, and tortured my lungs, that I at last succeeded. This exercise however, painful as it was, proved salutary to me; by degrees it created a perspiration; in the evening I could breathe more freely; the fever left me; I had no complaint but a violent cold, which was removed in a few days. Fatiguing exercise was the only remedy I used. I took particular care to continue the perspiration it occasioned, and to this I am persuaded I owe the rapidity of my cure. My breast however was so sore, that I felt the effects of it for a considerable time.
During this interval I had nothing to suffer from the rigour of tempests; the air was calm, and the weather clear. We were blessed with the finest days of winter, or I should perhaps never again have seen my native country. Heaven seemed to favour my journey, that I might forget my sufferings.
The most lively joy soon succeeded to the sorrow that had depressed me. We met, in different detachments, three convoys sent by sergeant Kabechoff to M. Kasloff. This unexpected succour gave me the more pleasure, as the deplorable state in which I had left the governor, was continually recurring to my mind. What a sudden change in his situation! He was upon the point of receiving a supply of provisions, together with an hundred and fifty dogs well fed and well trained. He will be able, said I to myself, to proceed immediately on his journey; and if I cannot flatter myself that I shall see him again, I know at least that he will be extricated from his embarassment. This certainty relieved the anxiety which I had felt on his account.
The soldier who conducted the convoys, offered me part of his provisions; but I refused them. He had no profusion, and we were not in want. I detained him therefore as short a time as possible.
Before he quitted us, he told me that prince Eitel, or chief of the Koriacs of Kaminoi, who had been accused of rebellion, was advancing to undeceive the governor, and prove the falsehood of the charge.
In pursuing our route, we perceived, beyond a small river bordered with some shrubs, a chain of steep mountains, which it was necessary to climb one after the other, in order to descend upon another river, called Talofka. Its banks diverged as it approached the sea; they were well wooded, and I perceived some trees of a tolerable size. We left this river at a distance from Kaminoi, in order to traverse an extensive heath, then a considerable lake; at length we crossed the river Pengina, almost at its mouth, and in a direction from south-east to north-west. Its breadth is striking, and the aspect of the heaps of ice that covered it, and which were of an extreme height, would have been still more picturesque, if we could have taken a more convenient way; but we had no choice, and were reduced to the necessity of hoisting, as I may say, our dogs and our sledges from heap to heap. The difficulty and slowness of this manœuvre is easily conceived; it required my utmost exertion and care to get off unhurt.
It was still near two hours before we reached Kaminoi, where we arrived the 24 before noon. We were received by the inhabitants with the utmost civility. In the absence of Eitel, another prince called Eila, had the command. He came to meet us with a Russian detachment, and we were conducted to the yourt of Eitel, which had been cleaned and prepared a long time for the reception of M. Kasloff.