Memoirs of a Revolutionist · Part III · Chapter 3 5 (2/2)

“Enough of talking,” I said to the elder; “give the order to saddle the horses.” The Cossacks were of the same opinion, and in no time our caravan started, bidding goodbye to the old functionary, and promising him to report that short of resorting to violence⁠—which he was not able to do⁠—he had done all in his power to prevent us from entering Manchuria, and that it was our fault if we went nevertheless.

A few days later we were at Merghén, where we traded a little, and soon reached the Chinese town Argúñ on the right bank of the Amúr, and the Russian town of Blagoveshchensk on the left bank. We had discovered the direct route and many interesting things besides: the border-ridge character of the Great Khingán, the ease with which it can be crossed, the tertiary volcanoes of the Uyún Kholdontsí region which had so long been a puzzle in geographical literature, and so on. I cannot say that I was a sharp tradesman, for at Merghén I persisted (in broken Chinese) in asking thirty-five rubles for a watch, when the Chinese buyer had already offered me forty-five; but the Cossacks traded all right. They sold all their horses very well, and when my horses, my goods, and the like were sold by the Cossacks, it appeared that the expedition had cost the government the modest sum of twenty-two rubles⁠—eleven dollars.