To-night is very dark. Black clouds stretch over the sky. The storm sometimes moves away, sometimes approaches us.
December 14th.—It was a cyclone yesterday; it only caught us with its circumference. Until one o'clock I was on deck. We are now passing along the eastern shore of Madagascar, and about thirty miles from it. The shore is clearly seen with the naked eye. It is high and mountainous. Just before twelve o'clock a steam-pipe burst in the stokehold of the Suvaroff. The steam whistled and began to pour into the stokehold. The men were nearly scalded. Some of them fled into the bunker, and shut the door behind them with the aid of a stoker, who remained in the stokehold and found a means of saving himself another way.
December 16th.—Off the island of St. Mary.
They have brought news from the shore. Ay! such news that the remembrance of it is nauseating. All the ships at Port Arthur are destroyed. The Gromoboy (Thunderer) has struck on the rocks. Kuropatkin sits tight at Mukden and organises parades. A third deep-sea fleet is leaving, or preparing to leave, Libau. Can this be true? What is all this? Are they joking, or have they quite lost their heads? You cannot imagine how mortifying it is. Everywhere are failures, corruption, stupidity, and mistakes. No doubt you, living in Petersburg, have heard all gradually. It all falls on us as a sudden blow. Involuntarily you are overwhelmed with horror. There is not one bright spot; all around is hopeless darkness.
Yes, our affairs are bad, very bad!
The steamer Roland is going to the town of Tamatave, which is about a hundred versts from our anchorage. The hospital-ship Orel arrived from Capetown and brought newspapers. The officers of the Orel say that in the streets of Capetown you constantly hear Russian spoken; that is, by Jews from Russia. There are some thirteen and a half thousands of them. Many of them have fled from Russia in order to escape their military obligations. The Jews so besieged the Orel, wishing to look over her, that at last the police had to drive them away from the ship.
December 17th.—The Roland, when coming out of Tamatave, signalled that the Malay was coming in. A schooner flying the Swiss flag has arrived here—schooner of a country where there is no sea!
The Malay has arrived. It does not do to believe all the news from the fleet. For instance, to-day a telegram was sent viâ Tamatave, saying we had coaled near Durban. Nothing of the kind occurred. It was telegraphed to alarm the English and compel them to institute an inquiry. In one word, to make them show that they had not broken their neutrality.
The Orel brought the captain of the Suvaroff the Novoe Vremya (New Times) and Birgevya Viedomosti (Bourse News) from Capetown. How eagerly we read them!