A disturbing episode: "the privilege of whipping"

One sees scarcely any people on the whole route to Moscow but these poor devils, their villages being about 20 versts apart, and built of logs.  The houses though are generally well put together, and look as if they might be made comfortable.  Nothing of any interest occurred on our route to Moscow which took us some 84 hours to accomplish, if I except a scene that took place one night which showed us how these serfs are treated sometimes.  I will not say it is general though I am informed that  there are some people who have the privilege of whipping them without being called to a/c [account].  After taking our dinner [illeg.] ourselves, quite late one evening (near midnight) on leaving the house we found ten men lying upon the bare ground, the weather being very cold, with nothing but their usual dress upon them, which consists of a low, belt-crowned hat (usually covered with buckles), a whole sheep-[19]skin formed into a sort of frock, in fair weather worn with the wool next the skin (literally) and in foul weather turned inside out, having under this sheepskin (said to be handed down from Father to Son) a calico-dicky (such as found as the boys in America often wear) covering the chest only and in some instances a pair of blue calico pants, and a huge pair of boots. We saw these poor fellows lying upon the cold pavement, of rough stones of a Russian night in September. We left them to their dreams and got into our Carriage, and composed ourselves for sleep, out of which we were shortly aroused by the horses stopping and an altercation taking place between our guard and the driver, who as always is the case was a serf.  I looked out the window and could not at first understand the cause of the noise and we all thought that someone on the road had stopped us for some purpose or other.  I immediately got out followed by Hancock [20] and was just in time to see our guard strike the driver a terribly severe blow full in the face, and then throwing him down beat him worse than if he were a dog.  Not understanding the language I could not discover the cuase of the row, and we thought it best not to interfere, however waiting some little time we caused the guard to desist.  When the driver rose, and attempted to walk away, the guard now took away his whip and belaboured him diligently with it he compelled him to mount his seat, and drive us forwards.  I should have thought that any [being?] that had life would have attempted to defend himself, but this poor brute stoodstill and said little or nothing.  He may have been drunk for all that I know to the contrary and deserved it, but I am confident that if one of our negroes had been known to have been so terribly beaten by his owner as was this poor fellow—every [21] paper in the Union would call the man a brute.  I almost expected to hear on our return that the fellow was dead, but if not ‘twas his Russian head that alone saved him. 

On to Moscow; Russian serfs

We of course had the privilege, being in our new Carriage, of stopping where & when we pleased, but no one thinks of sleeping in a Russian Hotel, they being almost universally filled with fleas & vermin. The Inns on this road furnish very good meals however, being kept principally by Germans.  Fortifying ourselves, with some bottles of wine (the water here is almost death to a stranger) a written vocabulary of what Russian we might need on the journey, expressed however in English characters, & for [attempting?] pronunciation (for a man to speak Russian well he must first have one of his jaws broken) and a good stock of patience.  We entered the Diligence which was to be our house for some eighty odd hours as it proved to be.  We had a lady in the party which tended [17] somewhat to make us a little more pleased with the trip.  Our horses (four in number[)] were all abreast, miserable looking beasts truly, and miserably harnessed; but able to go ahead, when urged on by the blows and cries of a Russian Muzhik—their serfs (of whom there are under the dominion of the Emperor 36,000,000 out of 56,000,000 inhabitants) and worse absolutely than our blacks, the only advantage that they have over our blacks being that they cannot be sold, only with the estate to which they belong.  They however are liable to be drawn for soldiers whenever the Emperor wants them, and every owner must furnish his quota.  They certainly approach nearer to brutes than any human beings I have ever seen, /their faces consequently are covered with hair as far as their faces are concerned, and the back part of their head, from their neck upwards is shaved close for the space of an inch or two, and the hair behind cut perfectly square, giving them a [18] very outré appearance.