Bibikoff told me all about the way in which the
convoy I had just seen depart would make its
long great journey.

"They used," he said, "to go all the way on
foot, now they go by railway to Nijni (Lower
Novgorod), and from thence by steamer to Perm.
After that they walk. Cossacks, with lances,
precede them, and soldiers, with loaded muskets,
walk on both sides. After the female prisoners
in the first waggon, rides the officer in command;
when they rest, and at meals, the prisoners
sit down in a circle, guarded by the soldiers.
The column rests every third day; for this purpose
there are station-houses at regular intervals
along the road. There are also guard-houses
from Kiow and Smolensk all the way to Nertchinsk;
where escorts are in waiting to move
forward with the prisoners. The officer in command
is responsible for the criminals, and has
the power of inflicting punishments. If severe
cold comes on, or when the Siberian rivers break
up, the convoy waits for better weather. Every
week a convoy arrives at Tobolsk, and another
leaves it. In this city resides the committee
who have the power of allotting his destination
to each prisoner. Nearly ten thousand prisoners
arrive, it is said, every year at Tobolsk. Our
soldiers do not like this convoy duty; for, if they
are behindhand at a station, they are punished,
and if they kill the prisoners by hurrying them,
they are also punished. But, with few exceptions,
the prisoners are not treated cruelly.
The peasants bring the fellows tea and brandy,
and fruit and dry fish; and travellers who meet
them give them alms. Siberia is a beautiful
country, full of mineral resources— climate,
good as our own— scenery, charming— the
mountains——"

"All this may be possible," said I, "professor,
but, nevertheless, God keep me, and all those I
love, from Siberia."

THE LATEST NEWS OF THE BOUNTY.

BLIGH'S narrative of the Mutiny of the
Bounty has been printed so many times, and so
many thousands of copies exist in lending
libraries, and in the libraries of clergymen who
furnish their parishioners with books to amuse
them on Sundays and in their leisure hours,
that there is probably no story which is so
generally known. But, to increase the interest
with which the statements made in a recent
parliamentary return will be read, the past history
of these islanders may be usefully sketched.

The Bounty was sent out to the Society
Islands by the government, in 1786, under the
command of Captain Bligh, for the purpose
of procuring plants of the bread fruit-tree, and
conveying them to Jamaica. The total number
of persons on board was forty-six. The kindness
with which the crew were treated by
the natives inspired them with a strong desire
to remain there (the version of the mutineers
is, that Bligh was a brute, and his treatment
of them unendurable), and at least one
attempt was made to effect this by cutting nearly
through the cable by which the ship was anchored,
so that she might drift ashore. The
object of the voyage, so far as the collection of
the plants was concerned, was successfully accomplished,
and the vessel was on her return
voyage, when the captain was roused from his
sleep early one morning to find Lieutenant Christian
standing beside his cot with a naked cutlass
in his hand, supported by the master-at-arms,
the gunner's mate, and a seaman named
Burkitt. The captain was pinioned, and with
eighteen others was sent adrift in a boat with
but a small allowance of provisions. The sufferings
of the cast-a-ways, before they reached
the Dutch settlement of Timor, must be too well
remembered to render it necessary for more
to be said about them. On Bligh's return to
England he was promoted, apparently to compensate
him for the hardships lie had undergone,
and the Pandora frigate was despatched expressly
to search for the mutineers. On the
arrival of the frigate at Otaheite, she had not
time to come to an anchor before the armourer,
who had remained on board the Bounty, pulled
off in a canoe and gave himself up. His
example was followed by fourteen others of
the mutineers. Two who escaped to the
mountains were said to be murdered by the
natives. The Pandora was wrecked on her return
voyage, and thirty-four of her crew, and
four of the prisoners, were drowned. On arriving
in England the ten prisoners were tried; four
were acquitted, and six were found guilty, three
of whom were executed. There remains to be
accounted for, therefore, only nine of the mutineers,
of whom Lieutenant Christian was one;
these having left the others at Matavai Bay,
taking with them seven Otaheitan men and
twelve women.

Twenty years passed away before anything
further was discovered respecting these men.
In 1808, an American schooner, commanded by
Captain Folger, chanced to touch at Pitcairn's
Island, which was supposed to be uninhabited;
and, to his great astonishment, he found it occupied
by Alexander Smith, one of the mutineers,
and his descendants, and those of the other
mutineers who had reached this island with him.
Folger sent information of his discovery to Sir
Sidney Smith at Valparaiso, who duly transmitted
it to the Admiralty in England. It was
too busy a time with us just then to pay much
attention to the circumstance, and the report
was forgotten. In 1814, two of our men-of-war,
cruising in the Pacific, sailed close to Pitcairn's
Island, and made out plantations and other
things, showing that it was inhabited. While
they were examining these appearances, a
canoe came off to them through the surf,
which pulled alongside, and two young men
hailed them in English for a rope to be thrown
them. This was done. In an instant the
young fellows stood on the deck, and the elder
announced himself as Thursday October Christian,
son of Lieutenant Christian. He is
described as being a good-looking young fellow,