[3] After loading with civilities every individual engaged in the expedition, he was farther desirous of supplying the frigates with provisions. Notwithstanding the difficulty of procuring oxen in this country, he furnished seven at his own expence, and could be prevailed upon by no entreaties to accept any equivalent, but regretted that he was not able to procure a greater number.
[4] The navigation is sufficiently safe in summer, and is the only mode of travelling that is adopted.
[5] According to the accounts of the earliest navigators, it is the most commodious port in this part of Asia, and ought to be the general depôt for the commerce of the country. This would be so much the more advantageous, as the vessels which frequent the other ports, commonly consider themselves as fortunate if they escape shipwreck; and for this reason the Empress has expressly prohibited all navigation after the 26th of September.
I learned a circumstance at the same time, which confirms what I have said, and seems to have occasioned the first idea of these improvements.
An English ship, belonging to M. Lanz, a merchant of Macao, came to anchor in the port of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in the year 1786. Captain Peters, who commanded the vessel, made proposals of commerce to the Russians, of which the following are the particulars. By a treaty which he had entered into with a Russian merchant, named Schelikhoff, he engaged to carry on a commerce with this part of the states of the Empress, and demanded goods to the amount of eighty thousand roubles. These goods would probably have consisted of furs, which the English expected to find a market for in China, from whence they would have brought back in exchange stuffs and other articles useful to the Russians. Schelikhoff repaired immediately to Saint Petersburg, to solicit the consent of his sovereign, which he obtained; but while was endeavouring to fulfil the conditions of his engagement, he learned that the English vessel had been lost upon the coast of Copper Island (Ile de Cuivre) in its return to Kamtschatka from the north-west part of America, where it was probable it had sailed, in order to begin its cargo, which it expected to complete at the port of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Two only of the crew were known to have been saved, a Portuguese and a Bengal negro, who passed the winter at Copper Island, from whence a Russian vessel conveyed them to Nijenei-Kamtschatka. We joined them at Bolcheretsk, and it was M. Kasloff's intention to send them next season to Petersburg.
[6] The word ostrog properly signifies a construction surrounded with pallisadoes. Its etymology may be derived, I imagine, from the entrenchments hastily constructed by the Russians to protect them from the incursions of the natives, who, doubtless, did not passively suffer their country to be invaded. The appellation of ostrog is now given to almost all the villages in this country.
[7] His name was Khabaroff, and he had the rank of a préporchik, or ensign.
[8] At a little distance from this spot was buried, at the foot of a tree, the body of captain Clerke. The inscription which the English placed upon his tomb, was on wood, and liable to be effaced. Count de la Perouse, desirous that the name of this navigator should be immortalised, without having any thing to fear from the injuries of the weather, substituted instead of it an inscription on copper.
It is needless to mention, that he enquired at the same time where the famous French astronomer, from the island of Croyere, had been buried. He entreated M. Kasloff to order a tomb to be erected, and an epitaph, which he left engraved on copper, to be placed on it, containing an elogy, and the circumstances of the death of our countryman. I saw his intentions carried into execution after the departure of the French frigates.
[9] There is a volcano about fifteen or twenty wersts from the port, which the naturalists who accompanied count de la Perouse visited, and which will be mentioned in his voyage. The inhabitants informed me that smoak often issued from it, but that an eruption, which used to be frequent, had not happened for many years.