Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/75

 THE RENEWED EXPEDITION TO KERTCH. 45 Kertchine Peninsula were soon gathered round chap. Sultanoffka (where headquarters at first were ! — established), but his ultimate current of retreat was towards the all-precious Isthmus. The small garrison of Yeni Kale was left to escape by sea. Whilst making free havoc of his master's bat- Destruction teries, the Baron likewise sought to destroy all Baron WtzhueqL such other Government property as he could not remove, and besides, every sort of possession thought likely to serve an invader. He destroyed more than four million pounds of corn and half a million pounds of flour.* With the singular keenness these people seemed almost always to show when destroying the pos- sessions of their own fellow-subjects, some Cos- sacks alertly spread out over part of the steppe, and hastened to burn down the farmsteads. With respect to the Eussian war squadron The squad. assembled in the bay of Kertch, Baron Wrangel, Kertoh. it seems, did not order Rear- Admiral Wulff, who commanded it, to undertake any defence of either the town or the Straits, nor even to oppose any craft whether English or French trying singly to push through the Straits; but he desired that, before making off, the vessels composing this squadron should take on board Government pro- perty ; and from this cause it happened that they were not all moved out from the bay at an earlier time. The figures are taken from entries made in the Russian Gov- ernment books.
 * More exactly, 4,166,000 lb. of corn and 50S,000 lb. of flour.