When I called upon the watchmaker he told me of an American recently arrived from Kiachta.  Two hours later while writing in my room I heard a rap at my door.  On opening I found a man who asked in a bewildered air, “Amerikansky doma?”

“Dah,” I responded.

“Parlez vous Francais?” was his next question. “Oui, Monsieur, Francais ou Anglais.”

“Then you are the man I want to find.  How do you do?”

It was the American, who had come in search of me.  He told me he was born in England and was once a naturalized citizen of the United States.  He had lived in New York and Chicago, crossed the Plains in 1850, and passed through all the excitements of the Pacific coast, finishing and being finished at Frazer’s River.  After that he went to China and accompanied a French merchant from Shanghae across the Mongolian steppes to Kiachta.  He arrived in Chetah a month before my visit, and was just opening a stock of goods to trade with the natives.

He was about to begin matrimonial life with a French lady whose acquaintance he made in Kiachta.  He had sent for a Catholic priest to solemnize the marriage, as neither of the high contracting parties belonged to the Russian church.  The priest was then among the exiles at Nerchinsk Zavod, three hundred miles away, and his arrival at Chetah was anxiously looked for by others than my new acquaintance.  The Poles being Catholics have their own priests to attend them and minister to their spiritual wants.  Some of these priests are exiles and others voluntary emigrants, who went to Siberia to do good.  The exiled priests are generally permitted to go where they please, but I presume a sharp watch is kept over their actions.  When there is a sufficient number of Poles they have churches of their own and use exclusively the Romish service.

The Germans settled in Russia, as well as Russians of German descent, usually adhere to the Lutheran faith.  The Siberian peasants almost invariably speak of a Lutheran church as a ‘German’ one, and in like manner apply the name ‘Polish’ to Catholic churches.  The government permits all religious denominations in Siberia to worship God in their own way, and makes no interference with spiritual leaders.  Minor sects corresponding to Free Lovers, Shakers, and bodies of similar character, are not as liberally treated as the followers of any recognized Christian faith.  Of course the influence of the government is for the Greek Church, but it allows no oppression of Catholics and Lutherans.  So far as I could observe, the Greek Church in Siberia and the Established Church in England occupy nearly similar positions toward dissenting denominations.

Three days after my arrival General Ditmar started for Irkutsk, preceded a few hours by my late traveling companion.  In the afternoon following the general’s departure I witnessed an artillery parade and drill, the men being Cossacks of the Trans-Baikal province.  The battery was a mounted one of six guns, and I was told the horses were brought the day before from their summer pastures.  The affair was creditable to officers and men, the various evolutions being well and rapidly performed.  The guns were whirled about the field, unlimbered, fired, dismounted, and passed through all the manipulations known to artillerists.