Far away in the thick forest they were shown a primitive yurt that Yakut people used to make for the lepers driven away from the villages. It looked like a small hut built of thin logs with a small window without any glass, so that it was petty dark inside. When the travelers got in they felt difficulty in breathing, because the air was imbued with the musty smell of perspiration mixed with the reek of festering wounds and rotten fish, accompanied with the smell of cattle that lived in the same yurt. A dirty table and a couple of wooden benches were the only furniture in the hovel. The lepers did not have any linen or blankets, so that they had to sleep on the bare planks of the tables or benches, or even on the bare ground, wrapped up in rags, which were the only clothes they had. Such yurts were typical dwellings for the Yakut lepers, who had to live in these cramped and stinky places for years without any hope for better life, waiting for death to relieve their sufferings.

Hearing the people coming closer to them, some of the lepers came out of their shack to meet Miss Marsden, crossing themselves in tears and mumbling something she could not understand. After she had recovered of the first shock caused by the sight of their mutilated faces and bodies, Miss Marsden said prayers and distributed clothes, linen and food among the lepers.   

Near Vilyuisk they met the local priest Ioann Vinokurov, who often visited lepers in the depths of the forest, providing some assistance to the unfortunate wretches. Together with this priest and a few men from the convoy, Miss Marsden rode approximately 30 miles away from Vilyuisk in an attempt to find a site suitable for the future colony for the lepers. They set off at night, trying to avoid the day heat, and explored the proposed place at moonlight. However, after a thorough inspection, the location was rejected as unsuitable for resettling the lepers, so that the expedition had to find a new site.

On July 3, 1891, Miss Marsden, the reverend Ioann Vinokurov, the interpreter, the local feldsher (medical official of lower rank), and a few more men, set off down the Vilyui river in a small  boat, aiming to visit some lepers’ yurts in Sredne-Vilyuisk area. Approximately 20 miles down the river they were met by a number of Yakut people who brought 30 horses for carrying tents and supplies and the whole group went again into the taiga along a hardly visible path to find some other lepers’ hovels. Again and again the riders had to squeeze their way through the thick bush, being accompanied by the snapping of twigs made by bears, trying to hold the frightened horses steady and firing guns into the air, in order to keep bears away. Some miles away they saw a fire in the thicket and found a shanty where a very old leper had been living alone for a long time. Having heard the people coming, this poor old man, who could not walk due to the effects of the leprosy, crawled towards the riders, crying and saying prayers. Miss Marsden dismounted her horse, gave the old man some tea, sugar and bread, and tried to console him, promising that a new big house for lepers would be built soon and that together with other lepers he would be brought to the new settlement.

Then the travelers went on by a boat up the river between Vilyuisk and Sredne-Vilyuisk, seeking an appropriate site for the future colony and meeting lepers that lived in the vast area around the Yakut settlements. Sometimes Miss Marsden was so tired, that the Cossacks had to carry her to the riverbank in their hands and put her on the ground, where she immediately fell asleep. However, a few hours later she got up and insisted on resuming the journey. Near lake Gatiniyakskoye, approximately seven miles from a Yakut settlement, the expedition found two more small dirty yurts with a dozen of men, women, and children mutilated by the disease. Some of them had wooden sticks instead of legs; some others did not have hands; some others had pus-filled wounds. Again and again Miss Marsden was terrified with the appearance of these sufferers and the conditions of their living.

In Sredne-Vilyuisk they witnessed how the members of a Yakut family were expelling one of their relatives whose legs were covered with leprous ulcers into the taiga away from the settlement. 

- “How will he get to his new place?” – asked Miss Marsden, having seen that the poor man could hardly walk.

- “He will do,” the relatives replied mercilessly.

- “But he might die on his way there,” objected Miss Marsden and insisted that some relatives should help the poor man and deliver him to the taiga yurt. In the end, the poor leper was put on a sledge driven by an ox and was driven to the forest escorted by his brother, who was shivering with fear.

She was told that the Yakut people were so afraid of their lepers, that sometimes their mercilessness was unbelievable. Once a woman covered with leprous ulcers was driven into the taiga by an ox, accompanied by a relative. The woman was tied with ropes onto the ox’s back, because she could neither walk nor hold the bridle properly. Suddenly, the ox bogged down in a swamp and started to drown. Having unbound the ropes, the leper woman tried to get out of the swamp, but failed and started shouting for help. However, the person who escorted her did not even try to rescue the poor martyr, because of the fear to catch the disease.

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