On 22nd February they were able to sail from this unlucky place, and touching at one or two of the islands worked their way northwards to Kamtschatka, the Resolution reaching Owatska Bay on 29th April, followed by the discovery on 1st May. They were very handsomely treated by Major Behm, the Governor of Bolcheretsk, a place about 135 miles from the town of St. Peter and St. Paul in Awatska Bay, notwithstanding Mr. Ismailoff's letters of introduction were on somewhat unsatisfactory lines. Mr. Webber was fortunately able to converse in German, which the Russian officers understood; and he ascertained that Ismailoff had represented the two vessels as very small, and hinted that he believed them to be little better than pirates. The Governor provided the ships with what he could give them, and promised to obtain further stores from Okotsk for them against their return. For these kindnesses the English could make but little return, and even then it was with difficulty that the Russians could be persuaded to receive anything, for they said they were only acting up to the wishes of their Empress, who desired all her allies should be treated with courtesy. One return, however, they were able to make which was of great service. At the time of the visit of the ships a large number of the soldiers and inhabitants were suffering very seriously from scurvy, and Clerke at once put them under the care of his medical officers, who, by the use of sour kraut and sweet wort made from the ship's stock of malt, soon caused "a surprising alteration in the figures of most of them and their speedy recovery was chiefly attributed to the effects of the sweet wort."
They were informed by the Major that on the day of the arrival of the English party at Bolcheretsk he had received a letter from the most northerly outpost on the Sea of Okotsk, stating that the tribe of Tschutski, which had been long at feud with the Russians, had sent in an embassy offering friendship and tribute, giving as a reason that they had been visited by two large vessels in the preceding summer, and had been received on board with great kindness, and had entered into a league of friendship with their visitors: they therefore thought it their duty to ratify this treaty formally. These two ships could have been none other than the Resolution and Discovery, though evidently the Tschutski thought they were Russian.
DEATH OF CLERKE.
Leaving on 13th June, the Asiatic coast was followed up, and 1st July they were off the Gulf of Anadyr, where fogs and ice began seriously to interfere with their progress, so they abandoned the Asiatic for the American side, but with no better luck. They reached the latitude of 70 degrees 33 minutes North, about five leagues short of the point reached the previous year, and at length, realising further efforts were useless and resulting in serious damage to the ships from continual contact with the loose ice, Clerke determined to return to Awatska Bay and refit and then return to England. On 22nd August, the day before they reached the Bay, Captain Clerke, who had long been suffering from serious ill health, died, and was buried under a tree a little to the north of the post of St. Peter and St. Paul; the crews of both ships and the Russian garrison taking part in the funeral ceremony, and the Russian priest reading the service at the grave. Clerke had been all three voyages with Cook, and was only thirty-eight years of age.
Gore now took command of the Resolution, Burney, Rickman, and Lanyon being his lieutenants, whilst King was the new Captain of the Discovery, and Williamson and Hervey his lieutenants; Bayley going with Gore in charge of the astronomical observations. On 9th October they left Awatska and were off Cape Nambu, Japan, on the 26th, but were driven off the coast by bad weather, and anchored in Macao Roads on 1st December. Here, after considerable delay, stores were obtained from Canton, and the seaman managed to dispose of most of the furs they had obtained in the north. King estimates that the two ships received, in money and goods, as much as 2000 pounds for the skins, and says that the men were so anxious to return for more that they were almost in a state of mutiny.
On 11th April the ships reached the Cape, where the officers were cordially received by Governor Plattenberg, who expressed the deepest regret to hear of the loss of Cook, and requested that he should be sent a portrait of the Captain to place in a blank space he pointed out between two portraits of De Ruyter and Van Tromp—a gracious compliment. Sailing from Simon's Bay on 9th May, the trades were picked up on the 14th, and on 13th June the line was crossed in longitude 26 degrees 16 minutes West. The coast of Ireland was sighted on 12th August, and an attempt was made to get into Galway Bay, but strong southerly winds drove them to the north, and at length, rounding the north of Scotland, they put into Stromness, whence Captain King was despatched overland to the Admiralty. The ships arrived off the Nore on 4th October, after an absence of "four years, two months, and twenty-two days."
KING MEETS KING.
On 14th February 1781, the second anniversary of Cook's death, King, accompanied by Mr. Banks, was presented to His Majesty, who was pleased to accept the Journals of the Resolution and Discovery kept during this eventful voyage.
CHAPTER 19. APPRECIATION AND CHARACTER.
Of course as nothing had been heard of the expedition for a considerable time, a certain amount of anxiety was felt, which at length found vent in paragraphs in the public press, and on 11th January 1780 the London Gazette contained the following: