The room swarmed with vermin

I had arranged for my onward passage in an office which led me to expect by its appearance and the formalities of the agent, accommodation superior to the Fürst Menchikoff; but imagine my surprise, as I groped my way on board the Abo boat, to find myself among a cargo of oxen, through which I had to work to reach the stern of the vessel. The return of daylight explained this arrangement ; and the good-humoured civility of the little skipper made his craft far more agree able than the haughty exclusiveness and artificial consequence of the Fürst Menchikoff. The vessel was as large, but was decked only fore and aft, the midship being open and appropriated entirely to the transport of cattle ; they proved to be no annoyance, and the unpretending arrangements for the passengers were enhanced by an anxiety to please. Our society was small but agreeable and friendly — a Russian general taking his young wife to Abo to meet her parents ; some other officers, a Swedish baron, a Danish general returning from a mission to St. Petersburg, and two or three students.

At no period of our passage were we really in open water, the islands thickening as we advanced; some barren rocks, and others clothed to the water's edge with fir trees; few inhabited, and those only by solitary fishermen, whose little huts gave the only indications of life. It was a beautiful day, and the waters were as a sheet of glass, showing distinctly the ripples of the numerous wild-fowl as they swam by, and the lazy plunge of the seal as it scrambled off the rocks at our approach. It was the most peaceful scene I have ever witnessed : it was Sunday, and nature was in harmony with the day of rest : the very birds seemed to possess a sense of protection ; for, unalarmed by the steam-boat, they floated on the water within gun-shot, and stood preening them selves on the rocky islets, so close that I could distinguish their varieties with my naked eye. I have made a vow to read this page of the book of nature a little closer; and if ever I have the power, I will spend a month in the spring of the year to learn a little more of these my favourites.

It was evening as we neared Abo, whose now forsaken observatory, perched high on an eminence, we had occasionally caught glimpses of in the distance ; and, after following the sinuosities of a creek imbedded in hills of rock, the town suddenly opened on our view, and we were moored alongside a vessel from Hull. It was a fragment of English ; and, notwithstanding my cosmopolitish feelings, my heart glowed and vibrated as if the chord of home had been touched, the home of my early recollections and affections, for the later ones bore no fruit of promise. Again I was a wanderer in search of shelter, and again I found it in a Society's house; but the rest I required, after the fatigue of the three previous days and exposure at night on the deck, was impossible; for the room swarmed with vermin, which sprang into activity before I lost consciousness in sleep. I passed the night on a bench in the garden, the only safe place I could have found, as the landlord told me, for the whole town is infested with these scourges of rest, beyond all belief.

Edward P. Thompson: Life in Russia; or, The discipline of despotism. 1848