Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/41

Rh well-armed Russian soldiers would come on board and take post along the docks. When I asked one of them the reason for this amount of precaution out in these apparently tranquil places, he answered:

"Many of the villages along the Sungari are the headquarters or hiding-places of gangs of hunghutzes. These Manchurian brigands are really very dangerous, for they have fair equipment, an unusual scouting system and a clever organization. Attacks on steamers, especially when they are carrying money and arms, are rather frequent. They are a dangerous people, these Chinese, sir; and they don't like us."

I made no reply to the soldier, though I might have given him one very strong reason why the Chinese did not like the Russians, if I had chosen to relate to him the story of the Blagoveschensk massacre in 1899, when General Gribsky, Governor of the Amur Province, caused the drowning of about three thousand Chinese, men, women and children alike, by his order that they should leave Russian territory and cross at once to their own bank of the Amur. That there should be no delay in the execution of his order, he had his soldiers drive these helpless people into the fast-flowing and deep river with the very natural and expected result that they were all drowned.

Also the general treatment accorded by the Russians to the Chinese in Manchuria had conduced only to this end. We Poles had known the same thing in our country, and naturally hated the Russians for it; but I realized that it would be a useless task to point out these facts to the soldier, for he would not understand having respect for anyone who was not a Russian, especially for a people whose virtues did not demonstrate themselves in a military manner. A Russian distinguishes only the