On leaving Mihalofski we took the merchant and two priests and dropped
them fifteen miles above, at a village where a church was being
dedicated. The people were in their holiday costume and evidently
awaited the priests. The church was pointed out, nestling in the
forest just back of the river bank. It seemed more than large enough
for the wants of the people, and was the second structure of the kind
in a settlement ten years old. I have been told, but I presume not
with literal truth, that a church is the first building erected in a
Russian colony.

At night we ran until the setting of the moon, and then anchored. It
is the custom to anchor or tie up at night unless there is a good moon
or very clear starlight. An hour after we anchored the stars became so
bright that we proceeded and ran until daylight, reaching Mariensk at
two in the morning. I had designed calling upon two gentlemen and a
lady at Mariensk, but it is not the fashion in Russia to make visits
between midnight and daybreak. Borasdine had the claim of old
acquaintance and waked a friend for a little talk.

This town is at the entrance of Keezee lake, and next to Nicolayevsk
is the oldest Russian settlement on the lower Amoor. It was founded by
the Russian American Company in the same year with Nicolayevsk, and
was a trading post until the military occupation of the river.
Difficulties of navigation have diminished its military importance,
the principal rendezvous of this region being transferred to Sofyesk.

On an island opposite Mariensk is the trace of a fortification built
by Stepanoff, a Russian adventurer who descended the Amoor in 1654.
Stepanoff passed the winter at this point, and fortified himself to be