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suffered most excruciating pains. Tho' they were thus freed from the trouble of attending him, and the grief of being witnesses to his misery, without being able to afford him any relief, yet his death affected them not a little ; they saw their number lessened, and every one wished to be the first that should follow him. As he died in winter they dug a grave in the snow as deep as they could, in which they laid the corpse, and then covered it to the best of their power, that the white bears might not get at it.
Now, at the time when the melancholy reflections occasioned by the death of their comrade were fresh in their minds and then each expected to pay his last duty to the remaining companions of his misfortunes, or to receive it from them, they unexpectedly got sight of a Russian ship. This happened on the 15th of August 1749.
The vessel belonging to a trader, of the sect called by its adherents Stara Vieva, that is, the Old Faith, who had come with it to Archangel, proposing it should winter in Nova Zem-
