_ After the death of Captain Cook, and the events immediately succeeding
it, Captain Clerke, upon whom the command of the expedition had
devolved, proceeded from Owhyhee, and coasted several of the other
islands of the group. The ships anchored at Atooi to procure water; in
doing this our voyagers experienced some interruption from the
natives, and a slight conflict took place, in which one of the
islanders was wounded by a musket-shot. They were here told, that, at
their preceding visit, they had left a disorder amongst the women, of
which several persons of both sexes had died; and as there was not the
slightest appearance of the disorder amongst the natives, at the first
arrival of the vessels, there is too much reason to believe that some
of the crew were the authors of that irreparable mischief. Atooi was
in a state of internal warfare; the quarrel had arisen about the goats
Captain Cook had left at Oneeheow the year before, the property of
which was contested by two different chiefs. The goats, which had
increased to the number of six, and would probably in a few years have
stocked all these islands, were destroyed in the contest.
Our voyagers left the Sandwich Islands finally on the 15th of March:
and stood to the south-west, in hopes of falling in with the island of
Modoopapappa, which they were told by the natives lay in that
direction, about five hours' sail from Taohora; but though the two
vessels stretched asunder several miles, they did not discover it. It
is possible it might have been passed in the night, as the islanders
described it to be small, sandy, and almost even with the surface of
the sea.
The harbour of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in Awatska Bay, was
appointed for the next rendezvous of the two vessels, in case of
separation. In the course of their navigation towards Kamtschatka,
they traversed that part of the Northern Pacific, in which some
islands and lands were laid down in the charts, such as the island of
Reia de Plata in De l'Isle's chart, and the land said to have been
seen by John de Gama, in a voyage from China to New Spain, first
delineated in a chart published by Texeira, a Portuguese geographer,
in 1649; but though at sundry times they had various indications of
land, they discovered none, and those islands and lands must therefore
either be of trifling extent, or wholly imaginary.
A leak, under the larboard bow of the Resolution, which had kept the
people almost constantly at the pumps, ever since their leaving the
Sandwich Islands, occasioned a great alarm on the 13th of April. 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 deluged the whole space between decks. The coals would very
soon choke up a pump, and the number of bulky materials that were
washed out of the gunner's store room, and which, by the ship's
motion, were tossed violently from side to side, rendered it
impracticable to bale the water out. No other method was therefore
left, than to cut a hole through the bulk-head, that separated the
coal-hole from the fore-hold. As soon as the passage was made, the
greatest part of the water was emptied into the well: but the leak was
now so much increased, that it was necessary to keep one half of the
people constantly pumping and baling, till the noon of the 15th.
On the 23rd, at six in the morning, on the fog clearing away, the land
of Kamtschatka appeared, in mountains covered with snow. The weather
was most severe: the ship appeared to be a complete mass of ice, and
the shrouds were so incrusted with it, as to measure in circumference
more than double their usual size. The crews suffered very severely
from the cold, particularly from having lately left the tropical
climates; and, but for the foresight and care of their officers, would
indeed have been in a deplorable state. It was natural to expect, that
their experience, during their voyage to the north the year before,
would have made them sensible of the necessity of paying some
attention to their clothing; as it was generally known in both ships,
that they were to make another voyage towards the pole; but, with the
thoughtlessness of infants, upon their return to a warm climate, their
fur jackets and the rest of their cold-country clothes, were kicked
about the decks, as things of no value. They were of course picked up
by the officers, and being put into casks, were, in due season,
restored to their owners.
On the 25th, when off the entrance of Awatska Bay, the Resolution lost
sight of the Discovery, and on the 28th entered the Bay. The officers
of the Resolution examined every corner of it, with their glasses, in
search of the town of St. Peter and St. Paul, which they had conceived
to be a place of some strength and consideration. At length they
discovered, on a narrow point of land a few miserable loghouses, and
some conical huts raised on poles, amounting in all to about thirty,
which, from the situation, they were under the necessity of concluding
to be Petropaulowska. 'However,' says Captain King, '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, an elevation of sentiment, which would
have done honour to any nation or climate.'
In the morning of the 29th, Captain, then Lieutenant King was sent on
shore; and after experiencing much difficulty from the broken ice that
extended nearly half a mile, across which he was obliged to make the
best of his way on foot, was received by the commander of the garrison
at the head of his men consisting of about thirty soldiers. They had
not seen the ship the preceding day, nor indeed that morning, till the
boats were pretty near the ice. Much panic ensued; the garrison was
put under arms, and two field piece placed at the entrance of the
commander's house. All, however, soon wore a friendly aspect, and
nothing could exceed the kindness and hospitality of the officer, a
serjeant, who commanded in the ostrog, and at whose house they were
entertained. He furnished Lieutenant King, who bad fallen in between
the disjointed ice, with a complete suit of clothes of his own; the
dinner that was served up consisted of four courses; but the
conversation, from the want of an interpreter, no other language being
understood there but Russian and Kamtschatdale, was confined to a few
bows and other signs of mutual respect. The serjeant sent of an
express to Bolcheretsk, where the governor of the province usually
resided, and whence he had to look for orders what to do, as to the
procurement of the supplies of provisions, and naval stores, which our
people wanted.
On their return, a sledge drawn by five dogs, with a driver, was
provided for each of the party. The sailors were highly delighted with
this mode of conveyance, and, what diverted them most was, that the
two boat-hooks which they had brought, had also a sledge to
themselves.
On the 1st of May, the Discovery entered the bay. On the day after,
early in the morning, an answer was received from Bolcheretsk. The
dispatches had been sent off on the 29th, about noon, by a sledge
drawn by dogs, so that they were only a little more than three days
and a half in performing a journey of two hundred and seventy miles;
Bolcheretsk being about one hundred and thirty-five rules from St.
Peter and St. Paul.
As the whole stock of live cattle which the country about the bay
could afford, amounted only to two heifers, Captain Clerke found it
necessary to send to Bolcheretsk, and Captain Gore and Lieutenant King
were fixed on for the excursion. They proceeded by boats up the
Awatska river, then across part of the country in sledges, and then
down the Bolchoireka in canoes.
Major Behm, the governor of Kamtschatka, received them, not only with
the utmost politeness, but with the most engaging cordiality; and all
the principal people of the town vied with each other who should shew
the most civility to strangers from the other extremity of the globe.
A list of the naval stores, the number of cattle, and the quantity of
flour wanted by the navigators, was given to Major Behm, who insisted
upon supplying all their wants; and when they desired to be made
acquainted with the price of the articles, with which they were to be
supplied, and proposed, that Captain Clerke should give bills to the
amount on the Victualling-office in London, the major positively
refused, and whenever it was afterward urged, stopped them short by
saying, he was certain he could not oblige his mistress, the empress,
more than in giving every assistance in his power to her good friends
and allies, the English; and that it would be a particular
satisfaction to her, to hear, that, in so remote a part of the world,
her dominions had afforded any relief to ships engaged in such
services; that he could not therefore act so contrary to the character
of his empress, as to accept of any bills; but that, to accommodate
the matter, he would take a bare attestatation of the particulars with
which we might be furnished, and that this he would transmit to his
court, as a certificate of having performed his duty.
The town of Bolcheretsk consists of several rows of low buildings,
barracks for the Russian soldiers and Cossacks, a good looking church,
and a court-room, with a great number of balagans (summer habitations)
belonging to the Kamtschatdales, at the end of the town. The
inhabitants amount to between five and six hundred.
It would exceed the bounds to which this sketch must necessarily be
confined, to enumerate one half of the instances of civility and
attention which Major Behm, his lady, the officers of the garrison,
and the inhabitants of the town bestowed upon the English travellers.
One generous present cannot, however, be passed over in silence, both
because it consisted of the greatest part of their small store of the
article, and because it called forth from the British seamen a
corresponding generosity. Being informed of the privations the sailors
had suffered from the want of tobacco, Major Behm sent four bags of
it, weighing upwards of one hundred pounds each, which he begged might
be presented, in the name of himself and the garrison under his
command, to our sailors. When the seamen were told of it, the crews of
both ships desired, entirely of their own accord, that their grog
might be stopped, and their allowance of spirits, presented, on their
part, to the garrison of Bolcheretsk, as they had reason to conclude,
that brandy was scarce in the country and would be very acceptable,
since the soldiers on shore had offered four roubles a bottle for it.
When it is considered how much the sailors would feel from the
stoppage of their allowance of grog, and that this offer would deprive
them of it during the inclement season they had to expect on their
ensuing expedition to the north, the sacrifice must be looked upon as
generous and extraordinary; and, that they might not suffer by it,
Captain Clerke substituted, in the room of the very small quantity the
major could be prevailed on to accept, the same quantity of rum.
When the party returned to Petropaulowska, Major Behm accompanied
them, and visited the ships. He had resigned the command of
Kamtschatka, and was in a short time to return to St. Petersburgh; our
navigators therefore committed to his care dispatches for England,
with the journals and charts of the voyage so far.
They got about twenty head of cattle, about nine thousand weight of
rye flour, and a variety of other provisions and refreshments here,
especially fish, with which they were absolutely overpowered from
every quarter; and, having completed their water, they weighed anchor
on the 13th of June, and on the 16th cleared the bay. The volcano,
situated to the north of the harbour, was in a state of eruption at
the time.
On the 5th of July, our navigators passed through Beering's Straits,
having run along the Asiatic coast; they then stretched over to that
of America, with a view of exploring it between the latitudes of 68
and 69 . But in this attempt they were disappointed, being stopped, on
the 7th, by a large and compact field of ice connected with the land.
On the 9th, they had sailed nearly forty leagues to the westward,
along the edge of the ice, without seeing any opening, and had
therefore no prospect of advancing farther north.--Until the 27th,
however, they continued to seek a passage, first on the American, and
then on the Asiatic side; but were never able to penetrate farther
north than 70 33', which was five leagues short of the point to which
they had advanced the season before.
At one time, in attempting to penetrate to the northwestward, the
Discovery was in a very dangerous situation. She became so entangled
by several large pieces of ice, that her way was stopped, and
immediately dropping bodily to leeward, she fell broadside foremost on
the edge of a considerable body of ice, and having at the same time an
open sea to windward the surf caused her to strike violently upon it.
This mass at length either so far moved or broke, as to set them at
liberty to make another trial to escape; but, before the ship gathered
way enough to be under command, she again fell to leeward on
another fragment; and the swell making it unsafe to lie to windward,
and finding no chance of getting clear, they pushed into a small
opening, furled their sails, and made fast with ice-hooks. A change of
wind, however, taking place in the afternoon, the ice began to
separate, and, setting all their sails, they forced a passage through
it. The vessel had rubbed off a great deal of the sheathing from her
bows, and became very leaky from the strokes she received when she
fell on the edge of the ice.
In these high latitudes, our navigators killed several sea-horses, and
also two white bears; the flesh of the latter afforded a few excellent
meals of fresh meat. It had indeed a strong fishy taste, but was in
every respect superior to that of the sea-horse, which nevertheless,
the sailors were again persuaded, without much difficulty, to prefer
to their salted provisions.
Finding a farther advance to the northward, as well as a nearer
approach to either continent, obstructed by a sea blocked up with ice,
Captain Clerke at length determined to lose no more time in the
pursuit of what seemed utterly unattainable, and to sail for Awatska
Bay, to repair their damages, and before the winter should set in, to
explore the coast of Japan on their way towards Europe. To the great
joy, therefore, of every individual on board both ships, they turned
their faces towards home; and the delight and satisfaction they
experienced on the occasion, notwithstanding the tedious voyage they
had to make, and the immense distance they had to run, were as freely
entertained, and perhaps as fully enjoyed, as if they had been already
in sight of the land's End.
On the 31st, they repassed Beering's Straits. With respect to the
practicability of a north-east or north-west passage into the Pacific
Ocean, through those straits, from the result of their attempts it
appears, that the north of the straits is clearer of ice in August
than in July, and perhaps in a part of September it may be still more
free. But, after the equinox, the days shorten so fast, that no
farther thaw can be expected, and so great an effect cannot rationally
be allowed to the warm weather in the first half of September as to
imagine it capable of dispersing the ice from the most northern parts
of the American coast. But admitting this to be possible, it would be
madness to attempt to run from the Icy Cape to the known parts of
Baffin's Bay (a distance of four hundred and twenty leagues) in so
short a time as that passage can be supposed to remain open. Upon the
Asiatic side, there appears still less probability of success; for,
though Deshneff, a Russian navigator, about a century and a half ago,
passed round the north-east point of Asia, no voyager has yet been
able to double Cape Taimura beyond the mouth of the Lena, which
stretches to the 78 of latitude.
Captain Clerke's health now rapidly declined, and, on the 17th of
August he was no longer able to get out of his bed. On the 21st, they
made the coast of Kamtschatka; and on the following day, at nine in
the morning. Captain Clerke died.[19] His disease was a consumption,
which had evidently commenced before he left England, and of which he
had lingered during the whole voyage.
[Footnote 19: Captain Clerke departed this life in the thirty-eighth
year of his age. He was brought up to the navy from his earliest
youth, and had been in several actions during the war which began in
1756. In the action between the Bellona and the Courageux, being
stationed in the mizen-top, he was carried over-board with the mast;
but was taken up without having received any hurt. He was a midshipman
in the Dolphin, commanded by Captain Byron, in her voyage round the
world: after which he served on the American station. In 1768, he made
his second voyage round the world, in the Endeavour, as master's mate:
and, in consequence of the death of Mr. Hicks, which happened on the
23rd of May, 1771, he returned home a lieutenant. His third
circumnavigation of the globe was in the Resolution, of which he was
appointed the second lieutenant; and he continued in that situation
till his return in 1775; soon after which he was promoted to the rank
of master and commander. In what capacity he sailed with Captain Cook
in this last expedition, need not be added. The consumption, of which
Captain Clerke died, had evidently commenced before he left England,
and he lingered under it during the whole voyage. Though his very
gradual decay had long made him a melancholy object to his friends,
nevertheless, they derived some consolation from the equanimity with
which he bore his disorder, from the constant flow of good spirits
maintained by him to his latest hour, and from his submitting to his
fate with cheerful resignation. 'It was, however, impossible,' says
Mr. King, 'not to feel a more than common degree of compassion for a
person, whose life had been a continued scene of those difficulties
and hardships, to which a seaman's occupation is subject, and under
which he at last sunk.'
_King's Voyage_, p. 280, 281.]
On the 24th, the vessels anchored in the harbour of St Peter, and St.
Paul, where the gentlemen on board were received by their Russian
friends, with the same cordiality as before. Captain Gore, upon whom
the command of the expedition now devolved, removed himself to the
Resolution, and appointed Mr. King to the command of the Discovery. He
sent off an express to the commander at Bolcheretsk, in which he
requested to have sixteen head of black cattle. The eruption of the
volcano, which had taken place at the time of the late departure of
the vessels from Awatska, had done no damage, notwithstanding stones
had fallen at the ostrog of the size of a goose's egg.
Attempts were now made to repair, as far as was practicable, the
damage the Discovery had sustained in the ice, and in removing the
sheathing, eight feet of a plank in the wale were found to be so very
rotten as to make it necessary to shift it. The carpenters were sent
on shore in search of a tree large enough for the purpose: luckily
they found a birch, which was the only one of sufficient size in the
whole neighbourhood of the bay. The crews were employed in various
necessary occupations: amongst which, four men were set apart to haul
the seine for salmon, which were caught in great abundance, and of
excellent quality. After supplying the immediate wants of both ships,
they salted down near a hogshead a day. The seahorse blubber, with
which they had stored themselves, during their expedition to the
north, was boiled down for oil, now become a necessary article, their
candles having been long since all used.
The body of Captain Clerke was interred on Sunday the 29th, with all
the solemnity and honours they could bestow, under a tree, in the
valley on the north side of the harbour; a spot, which the priest of
Paratounea said, would be, as near as he could guess, in the centre of
the new church intended to be erected.
On the 3rd of September, arrived an ensign from Bolcheretsk, with a
letter from Captain Shmalelf, the present commander, who promised the
cattle required and that he would himself pay them a visit immediately
on the arrival of a sloop, which was daily expected from Okotzk.
On the morning of the 10th, a Russian galliot, from Okotzk, was towed
into the harbour. She had been thirty-five days on her passage, and
had been seen from the lighthouse a fortnight before, beating up
towards the mouth of the bay. There were fifty soldiers in her, with
their wives and children, and several other passengers; a
sub-lieutenant, who came in her, now took the command of the garrison,
and from some cause or other, which the English could not learn, their
old friend, the serjeant, the late commander of the place, fell into
disgrace, and was no longer suffered to sit down in the company of his
own officers.
From the galliot, our navigators got a small quantity of pitch, tar,
cordage, and twine, and a hundred and forty skins of flour, containing
13,782 lbs. English.
The Hospodin Ivaskin from Verchnei had been desired by Mayor Behm to
attend the English officers on their return to the harbour, in order
to be their interpreter. He now came. He was an exile; and was of a
considerable family in Russia; his father was a general, and he
himself, after having received his education partly in France and
partly in Germany, had been page to the Empress Elizabeth, and ensign
in her guards. At the age of sixteen, he was _knowted_, had his
nose slit, and was banished, first to Siberia, end afterward to
Kamtschatka, where he had lived thirty-one years. He bore in his whole
figure the strongest marks of old age, though he had scarcely reached
his fifty-fourth year. No one there knew the cause of his banishment,
but they took it for granted, that it must have been for something
very atrocious, as two or three of the commanders of Kamtschatka, had
in vain endeavoured to get him recalled since the present empress's
reign. For the first twenty years he had not tasted bread, nor been
allowed subsistence of any kind, but had lived during that period
among the Kamtschatdales, on what his own activity and toil in the
chase could procure him. Afterward, he had a small pension granted
him. This Major Behm by his intercession had caused to be increased to
one hundred roubles a year, which is the common pay of an ensign in
all parts of the empress's dominions, except in this province, where
the pay of all the officers is double.
This gentleman joined Captains Gore and King on a bear-hunting party
on the 17th, for two days; in which, first from the party being too
large, and the unavoidable noise that was the consequence of it, and
next, from the unfavourable weather after they separated, they were
wholly unsuccessful.
On the 22nd, the anniversary of his majesty's coronation, and when
they were sitting down to as handsome a feast as their situation would
admit of, in honour of the day, the arrival of Captain Shmalelf from
Bolcheretsk was announced. He partook of their festivities, and set
off on his return on the 25th. Before his departure, he reinstated the
serjeant in the command of the place, and took with him the
sub-lieutenant who had superseded him. Captain King accompanied
Captain Shmalelf to the entrance of Awatska river, and on Sunday, the
26th, attended him to church at Paratounea. The church is of wood, and
by far the best building in the country round about the bay. It is
ornamented by many paintings, particularly with two pictures of St.
Peter and St. Paul, presented by Beering, and which, in the real
richness of their drapery, would carry off the prize from the first of
European performances; for all the principal parts of it are made of
thick plates of solid silver, fastened to the canvass, and fashioned
into the various foldings of the robes.
The next day another hunting party was set on foot, under the
direction of the clerk of the parish, who was a celebrated
bear-hunter. The produce was a female bear, beyond the common size,
which they shot in the water, and found dead the next morning in the
place to which she had been watched. The mode of hunting these animals
by the natives is as follows: When they come to the ground frequented
by the bears, their first step is to look for their tracks: these are
found in the greatest numbers leading from the woods down to the
lakes, and among the long sedgy grass and brakes by the edge of the
water. The place of ambuscade being determined on, the hunters next
fix in the ground the crutches upon which their firelocks are made to
rest, pointing them in the direction they mean to shoot. This done,
they kneel, or lie down, and, with their bear-spears by their side,
wait for the game. These precautions, which are chiefly taken in order
to make sure of their mark, are, on several accounts, highly
expedient. For, in the first place, ammunition is so dear in
Kamtschatka, that the price of a bear will not purchase more of it
than is sufficient to load a musket four or five times; and, what is
more material, if the bear be not rendered incapable of pursuit by the
first shot, the consequences are often fatal. He immediately makes
towards the place whence the noise and smoke issue, and attacks his
adversaries with great fury. It is impossible for them to reload, as
the animal is seldom at more than twelve or fifteen yards' distance
when he is fired at: so that, if he does not fall, they immediately
put themselves in a posture to receive him upon their spears, and
their safety greatly depends on their giving him a mortal stab as he
first comes upon them. If he parries the thrust (which bears, by the
extraordinary strength and agility of their paws, are often enabled to
do) and thereby breaks in upon his adversaries, the conflict becomes
very unequal, and it is well if the life of one of the party alone
suffice to pay the forfeit.
On the 1st of October, the cattle arrived from Verchnei, and the 3rd,
being the nameday of the empress, Captain Gore invited the priest of
Paratounea, Ivaskin, and the serjeant, to dinner, and an entertainment
was also provided for the inferior officers of the garrison, for the
_toions_ of Paratounea and Petropaulowska, and for the better
sort of the Kamtschatdale inhabitants. The rest of the natives of
every description were invited to partake with the ships' companies,
who had a pound of good fat beef served up to each man, and what
remained of their spirits was made into grog, and divided amongst
them.
On the 5th, our navigators received from Bolcheretsk a fresh present
of tea, sugar, and tobacco. They were ready for sea, but the weather
prevented them from leaving the bay till the 9th. Just before they
weighed anchor, the drummer of the marines belonging to the Discovery
deserted, having been last seen with a Kamtschatdale woman, to whom
his messmates knew he had been much attached, and who had often been
observed persuading him to stay behind. This man had been long useless
to them, from a swelling in his knee, which rendered him lame, but
this made them the more unwilling to leave him behind, to become a
burden both to the Russians and himself. Some of the sailors were
therefore sent to a well-known haunt of his in the neighbourhood,
where they found him and his woman. On the return of the party with
the deserter, the vessels weighed, and came out of the bay.
Awatska Bay has within its mouth a noble basin of twenty-five miles in
circuit, with the capacious harbours of Tareinska to the west,
Rakoweena to the east, and the small one of St. Peter and St. Paul to
the north. The last mentioned is a most convenient little harbour. It
will hold with ease half-a-dozen ships moored head and stern, and is
fit for giving them any kind of repairs. The south side is formed by a
low sandy neck, exceedingly narrow, on which the ostrog is built. The
deepest water within is seven fathoms, and in every part over a muddy
bottom. There is a watering-place at the head of the harbour.
The commerce of this country, as far as regards the exports, is
entirely confined to furs and carried on by a company of merchants
instituted by the empress. Besides these, there are many inferior
traders (particularly Cossacks) scattered through the country.
Formerly this commerce was altogether carried on by barter, but lately
every article is bought and sold for ready money only. Our sailors
brought a great number of furs with them from the coast of America,
and were both astonished and delighted with the quantity of silver the
merchants paid down for them; but on finding neither ginshops to
resort to, nor tobacco, nor any thing else that they cared for, to be
had for money, the roubles soon became troublesome companions, and
often to be seen kicked about the decks.
The articles of importation are principally European, several likewise
come from Siberia, Bucharea, the Calmucks, and China. They consist of
course woollen and linen cloths, yarn stockings, bonnets and gloves,
thin Persian silks, cottons and nankeens, handkerchiefs, brass and
copper pans, iron stoves, files, guns, powder and shot, hardware,
looking-glasses, flour, sugar, tanned hides, &c. Though the merchants
have a large profit upon these important goods, they have still a
larger upon the furs of Kiachta, upon the frontiers of China, which is
the great market for them. The best sea-otter skins sell generally in
Kamtschatka for about thirty roubles each. The Chinese merchant at
Kiachta purchases them at more than double that price, and sells them
again at Pekin at a great advance, whence a farther profitable trade
is made with some of them to Japan. If, therefore, a skin is worth
thirty roubles in Kamtchatka, to be transported first to Okotzk,
thence by land to Kiachta, a distance of 1364 miles; thence to Pekin,
760 miles more; and after that to be conveyed to Japan, what a
prodigiously advantageous trade might be carried on direct to Japan,
which is about a fortnight or three weeks' sail from Kamtschatka!
It was now resolved, in consequence of the latitude given by the
instructions of the Board of Admiralty, to run along the Kuriles, and
to survey the eastern coasts of the Japanese islands, previous to
returning homewards; and Captain Gore gave orders for Macao to be the
place of rendezvous in case of separation.
They coasted along the peninsula of Kamtschatka with variable weather,
and on the 12th, at six in the afternoon, they saw, from the mast
head, Cape Lopatka, the southernmost extremity of the peninsula. This
point of land, which is a low flat cape, formed a marked object in the
geography of the eastern coast of Asia, and by an accurate observation
and several good angles, they determined its precise situation to be
in latitude 51 0', and longitude 156 45'. At the same time they saw
too the first of the Kurile islands, called Shoomsha, and on the next
day they saw the second, Paramousir; the latter is the largest of the
Kuriles subject to Russia; but the gale increasing from the west, they
were never able to approach it nearer than to observe its general
aspect, which was very high land, almost entirely covered with snow;
and to ascertain its situation; which was found to be 10' west
longitude from Lopatka, and its latitude 50 46' at the north, and 49
58' at the south end.
On the 14th and 15th, the wind blowing steadily from the westward,
they were obliged to stand to the southward, and were consequently
hindered from seeing any more of the Kurile islands. In the situation
they then found themselves, they were almost surrounded by the
supposed discoveries of former navigators. To the southward and
south-west were placed, in the French charts, a group of five islands,
called the three Sisters, Zellany, and Zunasher. They were about ten
leagues, according to the same maps, to the westward of the land of De
Gama; and as the Company's Land, Staten Island, and the famous land of
Jesso, were also supposed to lie nearly in the same direction, this
course was deemed to deserve the preference, and they hauled round to
the westward, the wind having shifted to the north. A succession of
gales, however, and now and then a storm, that reduced them to their
courses, drove them too much to the southward, prevented them from
falling in even with the southernmost of the Kurile islands, and
obliged them at last to give up all further thoughts of discovery to
the north of Japan.
On the 22nd, the gale having abated, they let out the reefs of the
topsails and made more sail. At noon they were in latitude 40 58',
and longitude 148 17', and two small land birds being taken on board,
plainly indicated they could not be any great distance from the land;
they therefore hauled up to the west-north-west, in which direction
the southernmost islands seen by Spanberg, and said to be inhabited by
hairy men, lay at the distance of about fifty leagues. They saw
several other signs of land; but, on the 24th, the wind shifted to the
north, and blew a fresh gale, so that they finally gave up all further
search for islands to the north of Japan, and shaped their course
west-south-west, for the north part of that island.
On the 26th, at daybreak, they descried high land to the westward,
which proved to be Japan. The country consisted of a double range of
mountains; it abounded with wood, and had a pleasing variety of hills
and dales. They saw the smoke of several towns, and many houses near
the shore, in pleasant and cultivated situations. They stood off and
on, according as the weather permitted them, till the 28th in the
afternoon, when they lost sight of the land, and from its breaking off
so suddenly, they conjectured that what they had before seen was a
cluster of islands, lying off the main land of Japan. The next day
they saw land again, eleven leagues to the southward. The coast
appeared straight and unbroken; towards the sea it was low, but rose
gradually into hills of a moderate height, whose tops were tolerably
even, and covered with wood.
At nine o'clock, the wind shifting to the southward, they tacked and
stood off to the east, and soon after they saw a vessel close in with
the land, standing along shore to the northward, and another in the
offing, coming down before the wind. Objects of any kind, belonging to
a country so famous and yet so little known, excited a general
curiosity, and every soul on board was upon deck in an instant, to
gaze at them. The vessel to windward passed ahead of them at the
distance of about half a mile. It would have been easy to have spoken
with her; but perceiving, by her manoeuvres, that she was much
frightened, Captain Gore was not willing to augment her terrors, and
thinking that they should have many better opportunities of
communicating with the Japanese, suffered her to go off without
interruption. There appeared to be about six men on board, and,
according to the best conjectures that could be formed, the vessel was
about forty tons burden. She had but one mast, on which was hoisted a
square sail, extended by a yard aloft, the braces of which worked
forward. Halfway down the sail came three pieces of black cloth, at
equal distances from each other. The vessel was higher at each end
than in the midship, and from her appearance and form she did not
appear to be able to sail otherwise than large.
Soon after the wind increased so much, that our navigators were
reduced to their courses; and the sea ran as high as any one on board
ever remembered to have seen it. If the Japenese vessels are, as
Kaempfer describes them, open in the stern, it would not have been
possible for those they saw to have survived the fury of the storm;
but as the appearance of the weather, all the preceding part of the
day, foretold its coming, and one of the sloops had, notwithstanding,
stood far out to sea, it was concluded they were perfectly capable of
bearing a gale of wind.
Our navigators were blown off the land by this gale, but on the 30th
they saw it again, at the distance of about fifteen leagues, appearing
in detached parts, but it could not be determined whether they were
small islands, or parts of Japan.
On the 1st of November, they saw a number of Japanese vessels close in
with the land, several seemingly engaged in fishing, and others
standing along shore. They discovered to the westward a remarkably
high mountain, with a round top, rising far inland. As this was the
most remarkable hill on the coast, they wished to have settled its
situation exactly; but only having had a single view, they were
obliged to be contented with such accuracy as their circumstances
would allow.
Its latitude was reckoned to be 35 20', and its longitude 140 26'.
As the Dutch charts made the coast of Japan extend about ten leagues
to the south-west of White Paint (supposed to be the southernmost land
then in sight) our navigators stood off to the eastward, to weather
the point. At midnight they again tacked, expecting to fall in with
the land to the southward, but were surprised to find, in the morning,
that during eight hours, in which they supposed they had made a course
of nine leagues to the south-west, they had in reality been carried
eight leagues in a direction diametrically opposite. Whence they
calculated that the current had set to the north-east by north, at the
rate of at least five miles an hour.
On the 3rd of November, they were again blown off the land by a heavy
gale, and found themselves upwards of fifty leagues off, which
circumstances, together with the extraordinary effect of the currents
they had experienced, the late season of the year, the unsettled state
of the weather, and the little likelihood of any change for the
better, made Captain Gore resolve to leave Japan altogether, and
proceed in the voyage for China.
On the 4th and 5th, our navigators, continuing their course to the
south-east, passed great quantities of pumice-stone. These stones
appeared to have been thrown into the sea by eruptions of various
dates, as many of them were covered with barnacles, and others quite
bare.
On the 13th, they had a most violent gale from the northward. In the
morning of the 13th, the wind, shifting to the north-west, brought
with it fair weather; but, though they were, at that time, nearly in
the situation given to the island of San Juan, they saw no appearance
of land. They continued to pass much pumice-stone; indeed the
prodigious quantities of that substance which floated in the sea,
between Japan and the Bashee Islands, seemed to indicate that some
great volcanic convulsion must have happened in that part of the
Pacific Ocean.
On the 14th, they discovered two islands, and on the next day a third;
but Captain Gore, finding that a boat could not land without some
danger, from the great surf that broke on the shore, kept on his
course to the westward. The middle island is about five miles long;
the south point is a high barren hill, presenting an evident volcanic
crater. The earth, rock, or sand, for it was not easy to distinguish
of which its surface was composed, exhibited various colours, and a
considerable part was conjectured to be sulphur, and some of the
officers on board the Resolution thought they saw steams rising from
the top of the hill. From these circumstances, Captain Gore gave it
the name of _Sulphur Island_. A long narrow neck of land connects
the hill with the south end of the island, which spreads out into a
circumference of three or four leagues, and is of moderate height. The
north and south islands appeared to be single mountains of a
considerable height. Sulphur Island is in the latitude 24 48',
longitude 141 12'. The north island in latitude 25 14', longitude
141 10', and the south island in latitude 24 22', and longitude 141
20'.
Hence our navigators proceeded for the Bashee Islands, hoping to
procure at them such a supply of refreshment as would help to shorten
their stay at Macao; but Captain Gore, being guided by the opinions of
Commodore and Captain Wallis, as to the situation of these islands,
which differ materially from Dampier's, they were foiled in their
endeavours to find them, although, in the day time, the ships spread
two or three leagues from each other, and in the night, when under an
easy sail.
On the 27th, being in longitude 118 30', and having got to the
westward of the Bashees, according to Mr. Byron's account, our
navigators hauled their wind to the north west, hoping to weather the
Prata shoals but at four in the morning of the 28th, the breakers were
close under their lee; at daylight they saw the island of Prata, and
finding they could not weather the shoal, ran to leeward of it. As
they passed the south side, they saw two remarkable patches on the
edge of the breakers, that looked like wrecks. On the south-west side
of the reef, and near the south end of the island, they thought they
saw openings in the reefs which promised safe anchorage.
In the forenoon of the 29th, they passed several Chinese fishing
boats; and the sea was covered with wrecks of boats that had been
lost, as they conjectured, in the late boisterous weather. They were
in latitude 22 1', having run 110 miles since the preceding noon.
On the 30th, they ran along the Lema Islands, and got a Chinese pilot
on board. In obedience to the instruction given to Captain Cook by the
Admiralty, the captains now required of the officers and men of both
ships to give up their journals, and what other papers they had to
their possession relative to the voyage, which was cheerfully complied
with; and at nine o'clock in the evening of the following day, they
anchored three leagues from Macao.
Here, upon sending on shore to negotiate for supplies of provisions,
&c. they first received intelligence of the occurrences in Europe,
during the protracted period of their absence. On the 4th of December,
they stood into the Typa, and moored with the stream-anchor and cable
to the westward.
Captain King was sent up to Canton to expedite the supplies that were
wanted, and experienced every possible assistance from the
supercargoes and gentlemen of the Company's factory there. The
purchase of the provisions and store wanted was completed on the 26th,
and the whole stock was sent down on the following day by a vessel
which Captain Gore had engaged for the purpose. Twenty sea-otter skins
were sold at Canton, by Captain King, for eight hundred dollars. At
the ships a brisk trade was carried on in the same article, by both
officers and seamen. The sea-otter skins every day rose in value, and
a few prime skins, which were clean and well preserved, were sold for
one hundred and twenty dollars each. The whole amount of the value, in
specie and goods, that was got for the furs in both ships, did not
fall short of two thousand pounds sterling, and it was generally
supposed, that at least two-thirds of the quantity originally obtained
from the Americans were spoiled or worn out, or had been given away or
sold at Kamtschatka. In consequence hereof, the rage with which the
seamen were possessed to return to Cook' River, and by another cargo
of skins to make their fortunes, was, at one time, not far short of
mutiny. The numerous voyages that have since been undertaken for the
prosecution of the trade here suggested, have rendered it familiar to
the merchants both of Britain and of America; and, though it has not
latterly been productive of advantages equal to those which were
realized by the first adventurers, is still a branch of commerce that
is successfully pursued.
The barter which had been carrying on with the Chinese for their
sea-otter skins, produced a very whimsical change in the dress of the
crews. On their arrival in the Typa, nothing could exceed the ragged
appearance both of the younger officers and seamen; almost the whole
of their original stock of European clothes having been long worn out,
or patched up with skins, or the various manufactures they had met
with in the course of their discoveries. These were now again mixed
and eked out with the gaudiest silks and cottons of China.
On the 11th of January, two seamen belonging to the Resolution ran off
with a six oared cutter, and were never after heard of. It was
supposed that they had been seduced by the prevailing notion of making
a fortune by returning to the fur islands.
On account of the war between England and America, with France and
Spain as her allies, of which they received intelligence at Canton,
they put themselves in the best posture of defence, the Resolution
mounting sixteen guns, and the Discovery ten. They had reason,
however, to believe, from the generosity of their enemies, that these
precautions were superfluous: being informed that instructions had
been found on board all the French ships of war captured in Europe,
directing their commanders, in case of falling in with the ships that
sailed under the command of Captain Cook, to suffer them to proceed
without molestation; and the same orders were also said to have been
given by the American Congress to the vessels employed in their
service. In return for these liberal concessions, Captain Gore
resolved to refrain from availing himself of any opportunities of
capture, and to preserve throughout the remainder of the voyage, the
strictest neutrality.
On the 12th of January, 1780, our navigators got under sail from
Macao; on the 19th, they saw Pulo Sapata, and on the 20th, descried
Pulo Condore, and anchored in the harbour at the south-west end of the
island. The town is situated at the east end, and here they procured
eight buffaloes, with other refreshments. From the untractableness and
prodigious strength of the buffaloes, it was both a tedious and
difficult operation to get them on board. The method of conducting
them was by passing ropes through their nostrils and round their
horns; but, having been once enraged at the sight of our men, they
became so furious that they sometimes broke the trees to which they
were often under the necessity of being tied; sometimes they tore
asunder the cartilage of the nostril through which the ropes ran, and
got loose. On these occasions, all the exertions of the men to recover
them would have been ineffectual, without the assistance of some young
boys, whom these animals would permit to approach them, and by whose
little management their rage was soon appeased. A circumstance
respecting these animals, which was thought no less singular than
their gentleness toward, and, as it should seem, affection for, little
children, was, that they had not been twenty-four hours on board,
before they became the tamest of all creatures. Captain King kept two
of them, a male and a female, for a considerable time, which became
great favourites with the sailors; and thinking that a breed of
animals of such strength and size, some of them weighing when dressed,
seven hundred pounds, would be a valuable acquisition, intended to
have brought them with him to England, but his intention was
frustrated by an incurable hurt which one of them received at sea.
Our navigators remained here till the 28th of January, when they
unmoored and proceeded on their homeward voyage, passing through the
Straits of Banea, and of Sunda, without any occurrence worthy of
particular remark. They saw two or three Dutch ships in the Straits of
Sunda. They watered at Prince's Island at the entrance of the Straits,
and got a supply of fowls and turtle there.
From the time of their entering the Straits of Banea, they began to
experience the powerful effects of the pestilential climate, and
malignant putrid fevers, with obstinate coughs and dysenteries,
prevailed amongst the crews, happily, however, without one fatal
termination.
On the 18th of February they left the Straits of Sunda; in the night
between the 25th and 26th, they experienced a most violent storm,
during which almost every sail they had bent was split to rags, and
the next day they were obliged to bend their last suit of sails, and
to knot and splice the rigging, their cordage being all expended.
On the 7th of April they saw the land of Africa, and on the 9th, they
fell in with an English East India packet, that had left Table Bay
three days before. On the evening of the 12th, they dropped anchor in
False Bay, and the next morning stood into Simon's Bay.
Having completed their victualling, and furnished themselves with the
necessary supply of naval stores, our navigators sailed out of the bay
on the 9th of May. On the 12th of June, they passed the equator for
the fourth time during the voyage. On the 12th of August they made the
western coast of Ireland, and, after a fruitless attempt to put into
Port Galway, they were obliged, by strong southerly winds, to steer to
the northward; and, on the 26th of August, both ships came to an
anchor in Stromness, in the Orkneys, whence Captain King was
dispatched by Captain Gore, to acquaint the board of Admiralty with
their arrival. On the first of October, the ships arrived safe at the
Nore, after an absence of four years, two months, and twenty-two days.
THE MORAI.
AN ODE.
BY MISS HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS.
Fair Otaheite, fondly bless'd
By him, who long was doom'd to brave
The fury of the polar wave,
That fiercely mounts the frozen rock
Where the harsh sea bird rears her nest,
And learns the raging surge to mock--
There, Night, that loves eternal storm.
Deep and lengthen'd darkness throws,
And untried Danger's doubtful form
Its half seen horror shews!
While Nature, with a look so wild,
Leans on the cliffs in chaos piled;
That here, the awed, astonish'd mind
Forgets, in that o'erwhelming hour,
When her rude hands the storms unbind,
In all the madness of her power;
That she who spreads the savage gloom,
That _she_ can dress in melting grace,
In sportive Summer's lavish bloom,
The awful terrors of her face;
And wear the sweet perennial smile
That charms in Otaheite's isle.
Yet, amid her fragrant bowers.
Where Spring, whose dewy fingers strew
O'er other lands some fleeting flowers,
Lives, in blossoms ever new;
Whence arose that shriek of pain?
Whence the tear that flows in vain?--
Death! thy unrelenting hand
Tears some transient human band--
Eternity! rich plant that blows
Beneath a brighter, happier sky.
Time is a fading branch, that grows
On thy pure stem, and blooms to die.
What art thou, Death?--terrific shade.
In unpierced gloom array'd!
Oft will daring Fancy stray
Far in the central wastes, where Night
Divides no cheering hour with Day,
And unnamed horrors meet her sight;
There thy form she dimly sees,
And round the shape unfinish'd throws
All her frantic vision shews
When numbing fears her spirit freeze--
But can mortal voice declare
If Fancy paints thee as thou art?
Thy aspect may a terror wear
Her pencil never shall impart;
The eye that once on thee shall gaze,
No more its stiffen'd orb can raise;
The lips that could thy power reveal,
Shall lasting silence instant seal--
In vain the icy hand we fold,
In vain the breast with tears we steep,
The heart, that shared each pang, is cold,
The vacant eye no more can weep.
Yet from the shore where Ganges rolls
His wave beneath the torrid ray,
To Earth's chill verge, where o'er the poles
Fall the last beams of lingering day.
For ever sacred are the dead?
Sweet Fancy comes in Sorrow's aid,
And bids the mourner lightly tread
Where the insensate clay is laid:
Bids partial gloom the sod invest
By the mouldering relics press'd;
Then lavish strews, with sad delight,
What'er her consecrating power
Reveres of herb, or fruit, or flower,
And fondly weaves the various rite.
See! o'er Otaheite's plain
Moves the long, funereal train;
Slow the pallid corse they bear,
Oft they breathe the solemn prayer:
Where the ocean bathes the land,
Thrice, and thrice, with pious hand,
The priest, when high the billow springs,
From the wave unsullied, flings
Waters pure, that, sprinkled near,
Sanctify the hallow'd bier:
But never may one drop profane
The relics with forbidden stain!
Now around the funeral shrine,
Led in mystic mazes, twine
Garlands, where the plantain weaves
With the palm's luxuriant leaves;
And o'er each sacred knot is spread
The plant devoted to the dead.
Five pale moons with trembling light
Shall gaze upon the lengthen'd rite;
Shall see distracted Beauty tear
The tresses of her flowing hair:
Those shining locks, no longer dear,
She wildly scatters o'er the bier;
And careless gives the frequent wound
That bathes in precious blood the ground.
When along the western sky,
Day's reflected colours die,
And Twilight rules the doubtful hour
Ere slow-paced Night resumes her power;
Mark the cloud that lingers still
Darkly on the hanging hill!
There the disembodied mind
Hears, upon the hollow wind,
In unequal cadence thrown,
Sorrow's oft repeated moan:--
Still some human passions sway
The spirit late immersed in clay;
Still the faithful sigh is dear,
Still beloved the fruitless tear!
Five waning moons, with wandering light,
Have pass'd the shadowy bound of night,
And mingled their departing ray
With the soft fires of early day:
Let the last sad rite be paid
Grateful to the conscious shade:
Let the priest, with pious care.
Now the wasted relics bear
Where the Morai's awful gloom
Shrouds the venerable tomb;
Let the plantain lift its head,
Cherish'd emblem of the dead;
Slow and solemn, o'er the grave,
Let the twisted plumage wave,
Symbol hallow'd, and divine,
Of the god who guards the shrine.
Hark!--that shriek of strange despair
Never shall disturb the air.
Never, never shall it rise
But for Nature's broken ties!--
Bright crescent! that with lucid smiles
Gild'st the Morai's lofty pile,
Whose broad lines of shadow throw
A gloomy horror far below;
Witness, O recording Moon!
All the rites are duly done;
Be the faithful tribute o'er,
The hovering spirit asks no more!
Mortals, cease the pile to tread,
Leave, to silence, leave the dead.
But where may she who loves to stray
Mid shadows of funereal gloom,
And courts the sadness of the tomb,
Where may she seek the proud Morai,
Whose dear memorial points the place
Where fell the friend of human race?
Ye lonely isles! on ocean's bound
Ye bloom'd through time's long flight unknown,
Till Cook the untract'd billow pass'd,
Till he along the surges cast
Philanthropy's connecting zone,
And spread her lovliest blessings round.
Not like that murderous band he came,
Who stain'd with blood the new found West
Nor as, with unrelenting breast,
From Britain's free enlighten'd land,
Her sons now seek Angola's strand,
Each tie most sacred to unbind,
To load with chains a brother's frame,
And plunge a dagger in the mind;
Mock the sharp anguish bleeding there
Of Nature in her last despair!
Great Cook! Ambition's lofty flame,
So oft directed to destroy,
Led _thee_ to circle with thy name,
The smile of Love, and Hope, and Joy!
Those fires, that lend the dangerous blaze
The devious comet trails afar,
Might form the pure benignant rays
That gild the morning's gentle star--
Sure, where the Hero's ashes rest,
The nations late emerg'd from night
Still base--with love's unwearied care
That spot in lavish flowers is dress'd,
And fancy's dear inventive rite
Still paid with fond observance there!
Ah no!--around his fatal grave,
No lavish flowers were ever strew'd
No votive gifts were ever laid--
His blood a savage shore bedew'd!
His mangled limbs, one hasty prayer,
One pious tear by friendship, paid,
Were cast upon the raging wave;
Deep in the wild abyss he lies.
Far from the cherish'd scene of home;
Far, far from Her whose faithful sighs
A husband's trackless course pursue;
Whose tender fancy loves to roam
With _him_ o'er lands and oceans new;
And gilds with Hope's deluding form
The gloomy pathway of the storm.
Yet, Cook! immortal wreaths are thine!
While Albion's grateful toil shall raise
The marble tomb, the trophied bust,
For ages faithful to its trust;
While, eager to record thy praise,
She bids the Muse of History twine
The chaplet of undying fame,
And tell each polish'd land thy worth:
The ruder natives of the earth
Shall oft repeat thy honour'd name;
While infants catch the frequent sound,
And learn to lisp the oral tale;
Whose fond remembrance shall prevail
Till Time has reach'd his destin'd bound.
THE END.
Narrative of the Voyages Round The
World, Performed by Captain James Cook, by A. Kippis _