desire to enter China by a land journey appeared to be on the brink of being gratified, when an unforeseen accident suddenly put an end to his progress. He was sitting with the Governor-General, who had invited him to his house, when that functionary greatly surprised him by informing him that a military officer, a lieutenant of the feld-jagers, who had just arrived in that part from St. Petersburg, had been despatched by the emperor, on a special mission, to reconduct him to Europe. The governor, in explanation, added that his imperial majesty could not consent to Mr. Holman's embarking from or even proceeding into Kamtschatka, and was much concerned that he should have advanced thus far into Siberia, without that attendance which his affliction made necessary or any knowledge of the language, and that he had sent this officer for his protection, with instructions to accompany him on his return.
This intelligence, Holman says, acted almost as an electric shock upon him. He urged in vain that he required no protection, and only asked to quit Russia by the Chinese frontier, the period for starting for which had now arrived in consequence of the freezing of the Baikal lake; but he soon found reason to believe, that the emperor's pretended solicitude for his safety was not the real motive of his interference. The minute inquiries which he had been making on his route into the condition of the people in those remote parts of the empire had naturally attracted attention, and the fact of his being blind, had necessarily contributed to excite the wonderment of officials in the places he had passed through. From these circumstances, although he had been scrupulously careful to express no opinion on poli-
