I passed a day at Kertch, where I met the newly appointed consul for Soukum Kale, whose family I knew at Tripoli. We visited the governor actual of the city, and dined with the English consul, where were present Spanish, Neapolitan, Sardinian, French, English, and Tuscan ministers and consuls, and I found myself the only non-official at the table, which, however, did not prevent our great nation from having a representative.
I next embarked for Odessa, touching at Theodosie, Yalta, Sebastopol, and Eupatoria, all of which places I had visited before. A telegraphic dispatch had been received announcing the plague on the Barbary coast, where I was last winter, and to which I gave little credence. The alarm, however, was great, and it looked as if we should have to make a quarantine of fifteen days, as the steamer had come from Trebisond, in Turkey. The whole thing was ridiculous; but the passengers at Theodosie were not allowed to land at first, and the excitement among the ladies was quite intense. Having made two quarantines formerly, after crossing the desert to Jerusalem, and from Egypt to Malta, I was also glad to escape.
At Sebastopol I found our countrymen had recently raised a Turkish steamer taken by the Russians during the war. I examined her hull, and found it sound. The engines and boilers were in good order. The upper wood-work of pine was much eaten by the worms, but the painted work was not touched. They have heretofore had every difficulty to contend with, and have divided the property raised, or exploded and fished up, equally with the government; but the crown is now disposed to be more liberal, and the company are to have all they save, giving half the chains and anchors to the government, and are to raise the frigate Vladimir gratis. The wharves are covered with old copper, iron bolts, fragments of wood, water tanks, &c., &c.; altogether, it is a curious collection. It is to be hoped they will succeed, particularly as the English Times has indulged in a side thrust at both Americans and Russians, by announcing the failure of the Americans, and that the harbor must remain blocked up until the worms destroy the wrecks.
Our anniversary was not forgotten by our consul, Mr. Ralli, a wealthy Greek merchant, who has had the honor and little pay for the last twenty-four years. He drove me to his country-seat, where a sumptuous dinner and fine old wines were provided, and toasts heartily drank to the memory of the father of our great country. As the writer was the only native born present, of course a few words were expected from him.
Whether it was by accident or design I know not, but a later invitation was offered from Mr. Matthew, the late English consul at Philadelphia, now consul general here, to dine the same day, but deferred for a subsequent one.
He protests his innocence in the affair of the recruits, which caused his removal, and looks back with pleasure upon his sojourn in the States, where he left many warm friends.
The terminus of a railway in all countries awakes a spirit of speculation, which I was struck with at Theodosie, the projected terminus of a railroad from Moscow, which may be a long time yet in construction. The people were brushing up and making repairs in the dull-looking town, and property was already out of the reach of buyers.
In the suburbs is a Tartar village of mud huts and thatched roofs. While strolling through the Musselman district with my map in my hand, and tourist glass directed to the chain of hills, with their line of windmills, I was surrounded by men, women, and children, whose curiosity was excited to know, either from motives of interest, or dread of having their houses torn down, where the iron horse was to come in, they having of course an indefinite idea of a railroad.
The Russian steamers on the Azof and Black Seas are of English or French construction, and are now manned by Russian officers. Three of the steamers among the number I have sailed in had none but Russian servants, speaking their language only, which is awkward for such strangers as have no knowledge of the same, particularly as the passage tickets include dinner only, and all other meals and refreshments are extra, so that at the end of the voyage the items for the traveller increase the expense from a third to a half. The English and American system is the best for sea steamers, where all is included and payable in advance. For the information of those who desire, it may be remarked that Russia is one of the most expensive countries in Europe to obtain the comforts and luxuries of life in.