DEPARTURE FROM ONEEHEOW.—FRUITLESS ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER MODOOPAPAPPA.—COURSE STEERED FOR AWATSKA BAY.—OCCURRENCES DURING THAT PASSAGE.—SUDDEN CHANGE FROM HEAT TO COLD.—DISTRESS OCCASIONED BY THE LEAKING OF THE RESOLUTION.—VIEW OF THE COAST OF KAMTSCHATKA.—EXTREME RIGOUR OF THE CLIMATE.—LOSE SIGHT OF THE DISCOVERY.—THE RESOLUTION ENTERS THE BAY OF AWATSK.—PROSPECT OF THE TOWN OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL.—PARTY SENT ASHORE.—THEIR RECEPTION BY THE COMMANDING OFFICER OF THE PORT.—MESSAGE DISPATCHED TO THE COMMANDER AT BOLCHERETSK.—ARRIVAL OF THE DISCOVERY.—RETURN OF THE MESSENGERS FROM THE COMMANDER.—EXTRAORDINARY MODE OF TRAVELLING.—VISIT FROM A MERCHANT, AND A GERMAN SERVANT BELONGING TO THE COMMANDER.

On the 15th of March, at seven in the morning, we weighed anchor, and passing to the north of Tahoora, stood on to the south-west, in hopes of falling in with the island of Modoopapappa, which, we were told by the natives, lay in that direction, about five hours sail from Tahoora. At four in the afternoon, we were overtaken by a stout canoe, with ten men, who were going from Oneeheow to Tahoora, to kill tropic and man-of-war birds, with which that place was said to abound. It has been mentioned before, that the feathers of these birds are in great request, being much used in making their cloaks, and other ornamental parts of their dress.

At eight, having seen nothing of the island, we hauled the wind to the northward, till midnight, and then tacked, and stood on a wind to the south-east, till day-light next morning, at which time Tahoora bore east north-east, five or six leagues distant. We afterward steered west south-west, and made the Discovery’s signal to spread four miles upon our starboard beam. At noon, our latitude was 21° 27', and our longitude 198° 42'; and having stood on till five in the same direction, we made the Discovery’s signal to come under our stern, and gave over all hopes of seeing Modoopapappa. We conceived, that it might probably lie in a more southerly direction from Tahoora, than that in which we had steered; though, after all, it is possible, that we might have passed it in the night, as the islanders described it to be very small, and almost even with the surface of the sea.

The next day, we steered west; it being Captain Clerke’s intention to keep as near as possible in the same parallel of latitude, till we should make the longitude of Awatska Bay, and afterward to steer due north for the harbour of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in that bay; which was also appointed for our rendezvous, in case of separation. This track was chosen on account of its being, as far as we knew, unexplored; and we were not without hopes of falling in with some new islands on our passage.

We had scarcely seen a bird, since our losing sight of Tahoora, till the 18th in the afternoon, when, being in the latitude of 21° 12', and the longitude of 194° 45', the appearance of a great many boobies, and some man-of-war birds, made us keep a sharp look-out for land. Toward evening, the wind lessened, and the north-east swell, which, on the 16th and 17th, had been so heavy as to make the ships labour exceedingly, was much abated. The next day, we saw no appearance of land; and at noon, we steered a point more to the southward, viz. west by south, in the hopes of finding the trade-winds (which blew almost invariably from the east by north) fresher as we advanced within the tropic. It is somewhat singular, that though we saw no birds in the forenoon, yet toward evening we had again a number of boobies and man-of-war birds about us. This seemed to indicate, that we had passed the land from whence the former flights had come, and that we were approaching some other low island.

The wind continued very moderate, with fine weather, till the 23d, when it freshened from the north-east by east, and increased to a strong gale, which split some of our old sails, and made the running rigging very frequently give way. This gale lasted twelve hours; it then became more moderate, and continued so, till the 25th at noon, when we entirely lost it, and had only a very light air.

On the 26th in the morning, we thought we saw land to the west south-west, but, after running about sixteen leagues in that direction, we found our mistake; and night coming on, we again steered west. Our latitude, at this time, was 19° 45', which was the greatest southing we made in this run; our longitude was 183°, and variation 12° 45' E. We continued in this course, with little alteration in the wind, till the 29th, when it shifted to the south-east and south south-east, and, for a few hours in the night, it was in the west; the weather being dark and cloudy, with much rain. We had met, for some days past, several turtles, one of which was the smallest I ever saw, not exceeding three inches in length. We were also accompanied by man-of-war birds, and boobies of an unusual kind, being quite white (except the tip of the wing, which was black), and easily mistaken, at first sight, for gannets.

The light winds which we had met with for some time past, with the present unsettled state of the weather, and the little appearance of any change for the better, induced Captain Clerke to alter his plan of keeping within the tropical latitudes; and accordingly, at six this evening, we began to steer north-west by north, at which time our latitude was 20° 23', and our longitude 180° 40'. During the continuance of the light winds, which prevailed almost constantly ever since our departure from the Sandwich Islands, the weather was very close, and the air hot and sultry; the thermometer being generally at 80°, and sometimes at 83°. All this time, we had a considerable swell from the north-east; and in no period of the voyage did the ships roll and strain so violently.

In the morning of the 1st of April, the wind changed from the south-east to the north-east by east, and blew a fresh breeze, till the morning of the 4th, when it altered two points more to the east, and by noon increased to a strong gale, which lasted till the afternoon of the 5th, attended with hazy weather. It then again altered its direction to the south-east, became more moderate, and was accompanied by heavy showers of rain. During all this time, we kept steering to the north-west, against a slow but regular current from that quarter, which caused a constant variation from our reckoning by the log, of fifteen miles a day. On the 4th, being then in the latitude 26° 17', and longitude 173° 30', we passed prodigious quantities of what sailors call Portuguese men-of-war (holothuria physalis), and were also accompanied with a great number of sea birds, amongst which we observed, for the first time, the albatross and sheerwater.

On the 6th, at noon, we lost the trade-wind, and were suddenly taken a-back, with the wind from the north north-west. At this time, our latitude was 29° 50', and our longitude 170° 1'. As the old running-ropes were constantly breaking in the late gales, we reeved what new ones we had left, and made such other preparations, as were necessary for the very different climate with which we were now shortly to encounter. The fine weather we met with between the tropics, had not been idly spent. The carpenters found sufficient employment in repairing the boats. The best bower-cable had been so much damaged by the foul ground in Karakakooa Bay, and whilst we were at anchor off Oneeheow, that we were obliged to cut forty fathoms from it; in converting of which, with other old cordage, into spun-yarn, and applying it to different uses, a considerable part of the people were kept constantly employed by the boatswain. The airing of sails and other stores, which, from the leakiness of the decks and sides of the ships, were perpetually subject to be wet, had now become a frequent as well as a laborious and troublesome part of our duty.

Besides these cares, which had regard only to the ships themselves, there were others, which had for their object the preservation of the health of the crews, that furnished a constant occupation to a great number of our hands. The standing orders, established by Captain Cook, of airing the bedding, placing fires between decks, washing them with vinegar, and smoking them with gunpowder, were observed without any intermission. For some time past, even the operation of mending the sailors’ old jackets had risen into a duty both of difficulty and importance. It may be necessary to inform those who are unacquainted with the disposition and habits of seamen, that they are so accustomed in ships of war to be directed in the care of themselves by their officers, that they lose the very idea of foresight, and contract the thoughtlessness of infants. I am sure, that if our people had been left to their own discretion alone, we should have had the whole crew naked, before the voyage had been half finished. It was natural to expect that their experience, during our voyage to the north last year, would have made them sensible of the necessity of paying some attention to these matters; but if such reflections ever occurred to them, their impression was so transitory, that, upon our return to the tropical climates, their fur jackets, and the rest of their cold country clothes, were kicked about the decks as things of no value; though it was generally known, in both ships, that we were to make another voyage toward the pole. They were, of course, picked up by the officers; and, being put into casks, restored about this time to the owners.

In the afternoon, we observed some of the sheathing floating by the ship; and, on examination, found that twelve or fourteen feet had been washed off from under the larboard-bow, where we supposed the leak to have been, which, ever since our leaving Sandwich Islands, had kept the people almost constantly at the pumps, making twelve inches water an hour. This day we saw a number of small crabs, of a pale blue colour; and had again, in company, a few albatrosses and sheerwaters. The thermometer, in the night-time, sunk eleven degrees; and although it still remained as high as 59°, yet we suffered much from the cold; our feelings being, as yet, by no means reconciled to that degree of temperature.

The wind continued blowing fresh from the north, till the eighth, in the morning, when it became more moderate, with fair weather, and gradually changed its direction to the east, and afterward to the south.

On the ninth, at noon, our latitude was 32° 16'; our longitude 166° 40'; and the variation 8° 30' E. And on the tenth, having crossed the track of the Spanish galleons from the Manillas to Acapulco, we expected to have fallen in with the Island of Rica de Plata, which, according to De Lisle’s chart, in which the route of those ships is laid down, ought to have been in sight; its latitude, as there given, being 33° 30' N., and its longitude 166° E. Notwithstanding we were so far advanced to the northward, we saw this day a tropic bird, and also several other kinds of sea-birds; such as puffins, sea-parrots, sheerwaters, and albatrosses.

On the eleventh, at noon, we were in latitude 35° 30', longitude 165° 45'; and during the course of the day, had sea-birds, as before, and passed several bunches of sea-weed. About the same time, the Discovery passed a log of wood; but no other signs of land were seen.

The next day the wind came gradually round to the east, and increased to so strong a gale, as obliged us to strike our top-gallant yards, and brought us under the lower sails, and the main top-sail close reefed. Unfortunately we were upon that tack, which was the most disadvantageous for our leak. But, as we had always been able to keep it under with the hand-pumps, it gave us no great uneasiness, till the 13th, about six in the afternoon, when we were greatly alarmed by a sudden inundation, that deluged the whole space between decks. The water, which had lodged in the coal-hole, not finding a sufficient vent into the well, had forced up the platforms over it, and in a moment set every thing afloat. Our situation was indeed exceedingly distressing; nor did we immediately see any means of relieving ourselves. A pump, through the upper decks into the coal-hole, could answer no end, as it would very soon have been choked up by the small coals; and, to bale the water out with buckets, was become impracticable, from the number of bulky materials that were washed out of the gunner’s store-room into it, and which, by the ship’s motion, were tossed violently from side to side. No other method was therefore left, but to cut a hole through the bulk-head (or partition) that separated the coal hole from the fore-hold, and by that means to make a passage for the body of water into the well. However, before that it could be done, it was necessary to get the casks of dry provisions out of the fore-hold, which kept us employed the greatest part of the night; so that the carpenters could not get at the partition till the next morning. As soon as a passage was made, the greatest part of the water emptied itself into the well, and enabled us to get out the rest with buckets. But the leak was now so much increased, that we were obliged to keep one half of the people constantly pumping and baleing, till the noon of the 15th. Our men bore, with great cheerfulness, this excessive fatigue, which was much increased by their having no dry place to sleep in; and, on this account, we began to serve their full allowance of grog.

The weather now becoming more moderate, and the swell less heavy, we were enabled to clear away the rest of the casks from the fore-hold, and to open a sufficient passage for the water to the pumps. This day we saw a greenish piece of drift-wood, and fancying the water coloured, we sounded, but got no bottom with a hundred and sixty fathoms of line. Our latitude, at noon this day, was 41° 52', longitude 161° 15'; variation 6° 30' east; and the wind soon after veering to the northward, we altered our course three points to the west.

On the 16th, at noon, we were in the latitude of 42° 12', and in the longitude of 160° 5'; and as we were now approaching the place where a great extent of land is said to have been seen by De Gama, we were glad of the opportunity which the course we were steering gave, of contributing to remove the doubts, if any should be still entertained, respecting the falsehood of this pretended discovery. For it is to be observed, that no one has ever yet been able to find who John de Gama was, when he lived, or what year this pretended discovery was made.

According to Mr. Muller, the first account of it given to the public was in a chart published by Texeira, a Portuguese geographer, in 1649, who places it in ten or twelve degrees to the north-east of Japan, between the latitudes of 44° and 45°; and announces it to be land seen by John de Gama, the Indian, in a voyage from China to New Spain. On what grounds the French geographers have since removed it five degrees to the eastward, does not appear; except we suppose it to have been in order to make room for another discovery of the same kind made by the Dutch, called Company’s Land; of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter.

During the whole day, the wind was exceedingly unsettled, being seldom steady to two or three points; and blowing in fresh gusts, which were succeeded by dead calms. These were not unpromising appearances; but, after standing off and on, the whole of this day, without seeing any thing of the land, we again steered to the northward, not thinking it worth our while to lose time in search of an object, the opinion of whose existence had been already pretty generally exploded. Our people were employed the whole of the 16th, in getting their wet things to dry, and in airing the ship below.

We now began to feel very sharply the increasing inclemency of the northern climate. In the morning of the 18th, our latitude being 45° 40', and our longitude 160° 25', we had snow and sleet, accompanied with strong gales from the south-west. This circumstance will appear very remarkable, if we consider the season of the year, and the quarter from which the wind blew. On the 19th, the thermometer, in the day-time, remained at the freezing point, and at four in the morning fell to 29°. If the reader will take the trouble to compare the degree of heat, during the hot sultry weather we had at the beginning of this month, with the extreme cold which we now endured, he will conceive how severely so rapid a change must have been felt by us.

In the gale of the 18th, we had split almost all the sails we had bent, which being our second best suit, we were now reduced to make use of our last and best set. To add to Captain Clerke’s difficulties, the sea was in general so rough, and the ships so leaky, that the sail-makers had no place to repair the sails in, except his apartments, which, in his declining state of health, was a serious inconvenience to him.

On the 20th, at noon, being in latitude 49° 45' N. and longitude 161° 15' E.; and eagerly expecting to fall in with the coast of Asia, the wind shifted suddenly to the north, and continued in the same quarter the following day. However, although it retarded our progress, yet the fair weather it brought was no small refreshment to us. In the forenoon of the 21st, we saw a whale, and a land-bird; and, in the afternoon, the water looking muddy, we sounded, but got no ground with an hundred and forty fathoms of line. During the three preceding days, we saw large flocks of wild-fowl, of a species resembling ducks. This is usually considered as a proof of the vicinity of land; but we had no other signs of it, since the 16th; in which time we had run upward of an hundred and fifty leagues.

On the 22d, the wind shifted to the north-east, attended with misty weather. The cold was exceedingly severe, and the ropes were so frozen, that it was with difficulty we could force them through the blocks. At noon, the latitude, by account, was 51° 38', longitude 160° 7'; and on comparing our present position with that given to the southern parts of Kamtschatka, in the Russian charts, Captain Clerke did not think it prudent to run on toward the land all night. We therefore tacked at ten; and, having sounded, had ground agreeably to our conjectures, with seventy fathoms of line.

On the 23d, at six in the morning, being in latitude 52° 09', and longitude 160° 07', on the fog clearing away, the land appeared in mountains covered with snow; and extending from north three quarters east, to south-west, a high conical rock, bearing south-west, three quarters west, at three or four leagues distance. We had no sooner taken this imperfect view, than we were again covered with a thick fog. Being now, according to our maps, only eight leagues from the entrance of Awatska Bay, as soon as the weather cleared up, we stood in to take a nearer view of the land; and a more dismal and dreary prospect I never beheld. The coast appears straight and uniform, having no inlets or bays; the ground, from the shore, rises in hills of a moderate elevation, behind which are ranges of mountains, whose summits were lost in the clouds. The whole scene was entirely covered with snow, except the sides of some of the cliffs, which rose too abruptly from the sea for the snow to lie upon them.

The wind continued blowing very strong from the north-east, with thick hazy weather and sleet, from the 24th till the 28th. During the whole time, the thermometer was never higher than 30¹/₂°. The ship appeared to be a complete mass of ice; the shrowds were so incrusted with it, as to measure in circumference more than double their usual size; and, in short, the experience of the oldest seaman among us, had never met with any thing like the continued showers of sleet, and the extreme cold, which we now encountered. Indeed, the severity of the weather, added to the great difficulty of working the ships, and the labour of keeping the pumps constantly going, rendered the service too hard for many of the crew, some of whom were frost-bitten, and others laid up with bad colds. We continued all this time standing four hours on each tack, having generally soundings of sixty fathoms, when about three leagues from the land; but none at twice that distance. On the 25th, we had a transient view of the entrance of Awatska Bay; but, in the present state of the weather, we were afraid of venturing into it. Upon our standing off again, we lost sight of the Discovery; but, as we were now so near the place of rendezvous, this gave us no great uneasiness.

On the 28th, in the morning, the weather at last cleared, and the wind fell to a light breeze from the same quarter as before. We had a fine warm day, and as we now began to expect a thaw, the men were employed in breaking the ice from off the rigging, masts, and sails, in order to prevent its falling on our heads. At noon, being in the latitude of 52° 44', and the longitude of 159°, the entrance of Awatska Bay bore north-west, distant three or four leagues; and about three in the afternoon a fair wind sprung up from the southward, with which we stood in, having regular soundings from twenty-two to seven fathoms.

The mouth of the bay opens in a north-north-west direction. The land on the south side is of a moderate height; to the northward it rises into a bluff head, which is the highest part of the coast. In the channel between them, near the north-east side, lie three remarkable rocks; and farther in, near the opposite coast, a single detached rock of a considerable size. On the north head there is a look-out house, which, when the Russians expect any of their ships upon the coast, is used as a light-house. There was a flag-staff on it, but we saw no sign of any person being there.

Having passed the mouth of the bay, which is about four miles long, we opened a large circular bason of twenty-five miles in circumference, and at half past four came to an anchor in six fathoms’ water, being afraid of running foul on a shoal, or some sunk rocks, which are said by Muller^[17] to lie in the channel of the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul. The middle of the bay was full of loose ice, drifting with the tide, but the shores were still entirely blocked up with it. Great flocks of wild-fowl were seen of various species; likewise ravens, eagles, and large flights of Greenland pigeons. We examined every corner of the bay with our glasses, in search of the town of St. Peter and St. Paul, which, according to the accounts given us at Oonalashka, we had conceived to be a place of some strength and consideration. At length we discovered on a narrow point of land to the north-north-east a few miserable log-houses and some conical huts, raised on poles, amounting in all to about thirty, which from their situation, notwithstanding all the respect we wished to entertain for a Russian ostrog, we were under the necessity of concluding to be Petropaulowska. However, in justice to the generous and hospitable treatment we found here, I shall beg leave to anticipate the reader’s curiosity, by assuring him that our disappointment proved to be more of a laughable than a serious nature. For in this wretched extremity of the earth, situated beyond every thing that we conceived to be most barbarous and inhospitable, and as it were out of the very reach of civilization, barricadoed with ice and covered with summer snow, in a poor miserable port far inferior to the meanest of our fishing towns, we met with feelings of humanity, joined to a greatness of mind and elevation of sentiment, which would have done honour to any nation or climate.

During the night, much ice drifted by us with the tide, and at day-light I was sent with the boats to examine the bay, and deliver the letters we had brought from Oonalashka to the Russian commander. We directed our course toward the village I have just mentioned; and having proceeded as far as we were able, with the boats, we got upon the ice, which extended near half a mile from the shore. Mr. Webber and two of the seamen accompanied me, whilst the master took the pinnace and cutter to finish the survey, leaving the jolly-boat behind to carry us back.

I believe the inhabitants had not yet seen either the ship or the boats, for even after we had got on the ice we could not perceive any signs of a living creature in the town. By the time we had advanced a little way on the ice, we observed a few men hurrying backward and forward, and presently after a sledge drawn by dogs, with one of the inhabitants in it, came down to the sea-side, opposite to us. Whilst we were gazing at this unusual sight, and admiring the great civility of this stranger which we imagined had brought him to our assistance, the man, after viewing us for some time very attentively, turned short round and went off with great speed toward the ostrog. We were not less chagrined than disappointed at this abrupt departure, as we began to find our journey over the ice attended not only with great difficulty but even with danger. We sunk at every step almost knee-deep in the snow, and though we found tolerable footing at the bottom, yet the weak parts of the ice not being discoverable, we were constantly exposed to the risk of breaking through it. This accident at last actually happened to myself; for stepping on quickly over a suspicious spot, in order to press with less weight upon it, I came upon a second before I could stop myself, which broke under me, and in I fell. Luckily I rose clear of the ice, and a man that was a little way behind with a boat-hook throwing it to me, I laid it across some loose pieces near me, and by that means was enabled to get upon firm ice again.

As we approached the shore we found the ice, contrary to our expectations, more broken than it had been before. We were, however, again comforted by the sight of another sledge coming toward us, but instead of proceeding to our relief the driver stopt short, and began to call out to us. I immediately held up to him Ismyloff’s letters; upon which he turned about and set off back again full speed, followed, I believe, not with the prayers of any of our party. Being at a great loss what conclusions to draw from this unaccountable behaviour, we continued our march toward the ostrog with great circumspection, and when we had arrived within a quarter of a mile of it, we perceived a body of armed men marching toward us. That we might give them as little alarm and have as peaceable an appearance as possible, the two men who had boat-hooks in their hands were ordered into the rear, and Mr. Webber and myself marched in front. The Russian party, consisting of about thirty soldiers, was headed by a decent-looking person, with a cane in his hand. He halted within a few yards of us, and drew up his men in a martial and good order. I delivered to him Ismyloff’s letters, and endeavoured to make him understand, as well as I could (though I afterward found in vain), that we were English, and had brought them papers from Oonalashka. After having examined us attentively, he began to conduct us toward the village in great silence and solemnity, frequently halting his men to form them in different manners, and making them perform several parts of their manual exercise, probably with a view to show us that if we had the temerity to offer any violence, we should have to deal with men who were not ignorant of their business.

Though I was all this time in my wet clothes, shivering with cold and sufficiently inclined to the most unconditional submission, without having my fears violently alarmed, yet it was impossible not to be diverted with this military parade, notwithstanding it was attended with the most unseasonable delay. At length we arrived at the house of the commanding officer of the party, into which we were ushered, and after no small stir in giving orders, and disposing of the military without doors, our host made his appearance, accompanied by another person, whom we understood to be the secretary of the port. One of Ismyloff’s letters was now opened, and the other sent off by a special messenger to Bolcheretsk, a town on the west side of the peninsula of Kamtschatka, where the Russian commander of this province usually resides.

It is very remarkable that they had not seen the ship the preceding day, when we came to anchor in the bay, nor indeed this morning till our boats were pretty near the ice. The panic with which the discovery had struck them we found had been very considerable. The garrison was immediately put under arms. Two small field-pieces were placed at the entrance of the commander’s house, and pointed toward our boats, and shot, powder, and lighted matches were all ready at hand.

The officer in whose house we were at present entertained was a serjeant, and the commander of the ostrog. Nothing could exceed the kindness and hospitality of his behaviour, after he had recovered from the alarm occasioned by our arrival. We found the house insufferably hot, but exceedingly neat and clean. After I had changed my clothes, which the serjeant’s civility enabled me to do by furnishing me with a complete suit of his own, we were invited to sit down to dinner, which I have no doubt was the best he could procure, and considering the shortness of time he had to provide it, was managed with some ingenuity. As there was not time to prepare soup and bouilli, we had in their stead some cold beef sliced, with hot water poured over it. We had next a large bird roasted, of a species with which I was unacquainted, but of a very excellent taste. After having eaten a part of this it was taken off, and we were served with fish dressed two different ways, and soon after the bird again made its appearance, in savoury and sweet pÂtÉs. Our liquor, of which I shall have to speak hereafter, was of the kind called by the Russians quass, and was much the worse part of the entertainment. The serjeant’s wife brought in several of the dishes herself, and was not permitted to sit down at table. Having finished our repast, during which it is hardly necessary to remark that our conversation was confined to a few bows, and other signs of mutual respect, we endeavoured to open to our host the cause and objects of our visit to this port. As Ismyloff had probably written to them on the same subject in the letters we had before delivered, he appeared very readily to conceive our meaning; but as there was unfortunately no one in the place that could talk any other language except Russian or Kamtschatdale, we found the utmost difficulty in comprehending the information he meant to convey to us. After some time spent in these endeavours to understand one another, we conceived the sum of the intelligence we had procured to be, that though no supply either of provisions or naval stores were to be had at this place, yet that these articles were in great plenty at Bolcheretsk. That the commander would most probably be very willing to give us what we wanted; but that till the serjeant had received orders from him, neither he nor his people, nor the natives, could even venture to go on board the ship.

It was now time for us to take our leave, and as my clothes were still too wet to put on, I was obliged to have recourse again to the serjeant’s benevolence, for his leave to carry those I had borrowed of him on board. This request was complied with very cheerfully, and a sledge drawn by five dogs, with a driver, was immediately provided for each of our party. The sailors were highly delighted with this mode of conveyance; and what diverted them still more was, that the two boat-hooks had also a sledge appropriated to themselves. These sledges are so light, and their construction so well adapted to the purposes for which they are intended, that they went with great expedition and perfect safety over the ice, which it would have been impossible for us with all our caution to have passed on foot.

On our return we found the boats towing the ship toward the village, and at seven we got close to the ice, and moored with the small bower to the north-east and best bower to the south-west, the entrance of the bay bearing south by east and south three quarters east, and the ostrog north one quarter east, distant one mile and a half. The next morning the casks and cables were got upon the quarter-deck, in order to lighten the ship forward, and the carpenters were set to work to stop the leak, which had given us so much trouble during our last run. It was found to have been occasioned by the falling of some sheathing from the larboard-bow, and the oakum between the planks having been washed out. The warm weather we had in the middle of the day began to make the ice break away very fast, which drifting with the tide had almost filled up the entrance of the bay. Several of our gentlemen paid their visits to the serjeant, by whom they were received with great civility; and Captain Clerke sent him two bottles of rum, which he understood would be the most acceptable present he could make him, and received in return some fine fowls of the grouse kind, and twenty trouts. Our sportsmen met with but bad success; for though the bay swarmed with flocks of ducks of various kinds and Greenland pigeons, yet they were so shy that they could not come within shot of them.

In the morning of the 1st of May, seeing the Discovery standing into the bay, a boat was immediately sent to her assistance, and in the afternoon she moored close by us. They told us that after the weather cleared up on the 28th, the day on which she had parted company, they found themselves to leeward of the bay, and that when they got abreast of it the following day and saw the entrance choked up with ice, they stood off after firing guns, concluding we could not be here; but finding afterward it was only loose drift-ice, they had ventured in. The next day the weather was so very unsettled, attended with heavy showers of snow, that the carpenters were not able to proceed in their work. The thermometer stood at 28° in the evening, and the frost was exceedingly severe in the night.

The following morning, on our observing two sledges drive into the village, Captain Clerke sent me on shore to inquire whether any message was arrived from the commander of Kamtschatka, which, according to the serjeant’s account, might now be expected, in consequence of the intelligence that had been sent of our arrival. Bolcheretsk by the usual route is about one hundred and thirty-five English miles from St. Peter and St. Paul’s. Our dispatches were sent off in a sledge drawn by dogs, on the 29th about noon. And the answer arrived, as we afterward found, early this morning, so that they were only a little more than three days and a half in performing a journey of two hundred and seventy miles.

The return of the commander’s answer was, however, concealed from us for the present, and I was told on my arrival at the serjeant’s, that we should hear from him the next day. Whilst I was on shore the boat which had brought me, together with another belonging to the Discovery, were set fast in the ice, which a southerly wind had driven from the other side of the bay. On seeing them entangled, the Discovery’s launch had been sent to their assistance, but soon shared the same fate, and in a short time the ice had surrounded them near a quarter of a mile deep. This obliged us to stay on shore till evening, when finding no prospect of getting the boats off, some of us went in sledges to the edge of the ice, and were taken off by boats sent from the ship, and the rest staid on shore all night.

It continued to freeze hard during the night, but before morning on the 4th a change of wind drifted away the floating ice, and set the boats at liberty, without their having sustained the smallest damage.

About ten o’clock in the forenoon, we saw several sledges driving down the edge of the ice, and sent a boat to conduct the persons who were in them on board. One of these was a Russian merchant from Bolcheretsk named Fedositsch, and the other a German called Port, who had brought a letter from Major Behm, the commander of Kamtschatka, to Captain Clerke. When they got to the edge of the ice, and saw distinctly the size of the ships which lay within about two hundred yards from them, they appeared to be exceedingly alarmed, and before they would venture to embark, desired two of our boat’s crew might be left on shore as hostages for their safety. We afterward found that Ismyloff, in his letter to the commander, had misrepresented us, for what reasons we could not conceive, as two small trading boats; and that the serjeant, who had only seen the ships at a distance, had not in his dispatches rectified the mistake.

When they arrived on board, we still found, from their cautious and timorous behaviour, that they were under some unaccountable apprehensions; and an uncommon degree of satisfaction was visible in their countenances, on the German’s finding a person amongst us, with whom he could converse. This was Mr. Webber, who spoke that language perfectly well; and at last, though with some difficulty, convinced them, that we were Englishmen, and friends. M. Port being introduced to Captain Clerke, delivered to him the Commander’s letter, which was written in German, and was merely complimental, inviting him and his officers to Bolcheretsk, to which place the people, who brought it, were to conduct us. M. Port at the same time, acquainted him, that the Major had conceived a very wrong idea of the size of the ships, and of the service we were engaged in; Ismyloff in his letter, having represented us as two small English packet-boats, and cautioned him to be on his guard; insinuating, that he suspected us to be no better than pirates. In consequence of this letter, he said there had been various conjectures formed about us at Bolcheretsk: that the Major thought it most probable we were on a trading scheme, and for that reason had sent down a merchant to us; but that the officer, who was second in command, was of opinion we were French, and come with some hostile intention, and were for taking measures accordingly. It had required, he added, all the Major’s authority to keep the inhabitants from leaving the town, and retiring up into the country; to so extraordinary a pitch had their fears risen, from their persuasion that we were French.

Their extreme apprehensions of that nation were principally occasioned, by some circumstances attending an insurrection that had happened at Bolcheretsk a few years before, in which the commander had lost his life. We were informed, that an exiled Polish officer, named Beniowski, taking advantage of the confusion into which the town was thrown, had seized upon a galliot, then lying at the entrance of the Bolchoireka, and had forced on board a number of Russian sailors, sufficient to navigate her: that he had put on shore a part of the crew at the Kourile Islands; and, among the rest, Ismyloff, who, as the reader will recollect, had puzzled us exceedingly at Oonalashka, with the history of this transaction; though, for want of understanding his language, we could not then make out all the circumstances attending it: that he passed in sight of Japan; made Luconia; and was there directed how to steer to Canton; that arriving there, he had applied to the French, and had got a passage in one of their India ships to France: and that most of the Russians had likewise returned to Europe in French ships; and had afterward found their way to Petersburg. We met with three of Beniowski’s crew in the harbour of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; and from them we learnt the circumstances of the above story.

On our arrival at Canton, we received a farther corroboration of the facts, from the gentlemen of the English factory, who told us, that a person had arrived there in a Russian galliot, who said he came from Kamtschatka; and that he had been furnished by the French factory with a passage to Europe.^[18]

We could not help being much diverted with the fears and apprehensions of these good people, and particularly with the account M. Port gave us of the serjeant’s wary proceedings the day before. On seeing me come on shore, in company with some other gentlemen, he had made him and the merchant, who arrived in the sledges we had seen come in the morning, hide themselves in his kitchen, and listen to our conversation with one another, in hopes that, by this means, they might discover whether we were really English or not.

As we concluded, from the commission and dress of M. Port, that he might probably be the commander’s secretary, he was received as such, and invited, with his companion, the merchant, to dine with Captain Clerke: and though we soon began to suspect, from the behaviour of the latter toward him, that he was only a common servant, yet this being no time to sacrifice our little comforts to our pride, we prevented an explanation, by not suffering the question to be put to him; and, in return for the satisfaction we reaped from his abilities as a linguist, we continued to let him live on a footing of equality with us.