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152
Among German Colonists.
orders in terms more forcible than polite, smoking the while
one cigarette after another. I should have lost all patience,
had not the unusually strong current carried us of itself out
into the open river, where it became almost imperceptible.
Here a small breeze sprang up, and the captain dived under a
seat and produced a bundle of rags. I asked what he was
going to do, and he replied " Sail! "
An old oar was put up as a mast, with the boathook as
sprit-sail yard. Amid much fuss and shouting the sail was hoisted,
and, with another old oar the " captain " sat down aft to steer
his craft. It was the most picturesque sail I have ever seen.
Part of it reminded me strongly of the maps sometimes
exhibited at missionary meetings, with " Darkest Africa " and
other heathen lands coloured black in irregular patches; for
the rest, it resembled the loud " checks " favoured by a certain
class of tourists more than anything else.
But my observations and comparisons were suddenly cut
short, as an infant cyclone swept sail, mast, and all into the
water. The " captain "now took the oars, and we managed to
get to the other side of the stream, where the strong current
had eaten away the sand bank; the miserable rowers not
being-able to keep the boat from the shore, we had a narrow escape
of being sent to " Davy Jones’s locker " by a landslip. I took
the oars myself and pulled to our destination. Here the
rowers wanted an extra rouble for their "hard work." I
discovered that the " contractor " had given these poor men
only a few copecks apiece, keeping the larger part of what I
had paid him for his own share.
I visited almost every village in the German Colonies on the
Volga. These have had a very interesting history. They
date from the time of the Empress Catherine II., who invited
German immigrants to make settlements, and endowed them
with considerable privileges, her object being to erect a
strong barrier of defence against the half-savage hordes then
roaming over the steppes beyond the Volga. The colonists
built their villages near one another on the fertile shores of
the river, and soon entered upon a period of prosperity.
Before the great famine they numbered about 350,000. Their
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