We got up to the northern point of Clerke’s Island about six o’clock, and having ranged along its coast till dark, brought to during the night. At day-break, next morning, we stood in again for the coast, and continued to range along it, in search of a harbour, till noon; when, seeing no likelihood of succeeding, I left it, and steered S. S. W., for the land which we had discovered on the 29th of July, having a fresh gale at N., with showers of sleet and snow. I remarked that as soon as we opened the channel which separates the two continents, cloudy weather, with snow showers, immediately commenced, whereas all the time that we were in Norton Sound, we had, with the same wind, clear weather. Might not this be occasioned by the mountains to the north of that place attracting the vapours, and hindering them to proceed any further?
At day-break in the morning of the 23d, the land above mentioned appeared in sight, bearing S. W., six or seven leagues distant. From this point of view, it resembled a group of islands, but it proved to be but one, of thirty miles in extent, in the direction of N. W. and S. E.; the S. E. end being Cape Upright, already taken notice of. The island is but narrow, especially at the low necks of land that connect the hills. I afterward found that it was wholly unknown to the Russians; and therefore considering it as a discovery of our own, I named it Gore’s Island. It appeared to be barren, and without inhabitants; at least we saw none; nor did we see so many birds about it as when we first discovered it. But we saw some sea-otters, an animal which we had not met with to the north of this latitude. Four leagues from Cape Upright, in the direction of S., 72° W., lies a small island, whose elevated summit terminates in several pinnacle rocks. On this account it was named Pinnacle Island. At two in the afternoon, after passing Cape Upright, I steered S. E. by S., for Samganoodha, with a gentle breeze at N. N. W., being resolved to spend no more time in searching for a harbour amongst islands, which I now began to suspect had no existence; at least not in the latitude and longitude where modern map-makers have thought proper to place them. In the evening of the 24th, the wind veered to S. W. and S., and increased to a fresh gale.
We continued to stretch to the eastward till eight o’clock in the morning of the 25th, when, in the latitude of 58° 32ʹ, and in the longitude of 191° 10ʹ, we tacked and stood to the west; and soon after, the gale increasing, we were reduced to two courses, and close-reefed main top-sails. Not long after, the Resolution sprung a leak, under the starboard buttock, which filled the spirit-room with water, before it was discovered; and it was so considerable as to keep one pump constantly employed. We durst not put the ship upon the other tack, for fear of getting upon the shoals that lie to the north-west of Cape Newenham; but continued standing to the west till six in the evening of the 26th, when we wore and stood to the eastward, and then the leak no longer troubled us. This proved that it was above the water line, which was no small satisfaction. The gale was now over; but the wind remained at S. and S. W. for some days longer.
At length, on the 2d of October, at day-break, we saw the island of Oonalashka, bearing S. E. But as this was to us a new point of view, and the land was obscured by a thick haze, we were not sure of our situation till noon, when the observed latitude determined it. As all the harbours were alike to me, provided they were equally safe and convenient, I hauled into a bay that lies ten miles to the westward of Samganoodha, known by the name of Egoochshac; but we found very deep water; so that we were glad to get out again. The natives, many of whom lived here, visited us at different times, bringing with them dried salmon and other fish, which they exchanged with the seamen for tobacco. But a few days before, every ounce of tobacco that was in the ship had been distributed among them; and the quantity was not half sufficient to answer their demands. Notwithstanding this, so improvident a creature is an English sailor, that they were as profuse in making their bargains as if we had now arrived at a port in Virginia; by which means, in less than eight-and-forty hours, the value of this article of barter was lowered above a thousand per cent.
At one o’clock in the afternoon of the 3d, we anchored in Samganoodha Harbour; and the next morning the carpenters of both ships were set to work to rip off the sheathing of and under the wale, on the starboard side abaft. Many of the seams were found quite open, so that it was no wonder that so much water had found its way into the ship. While we lay here, we cleared the fish and spirit rooms, and the after-hold; disposing things in such a manner that, in case we should happen to have any more leaks of the same nature, the water might find its way to the pumps. And besides this work, and completing our water, we cleared the fore-hold to the very bottom, and took in a quantity of ballast.
The vegetables which we had met with, when we were here before, were now mostly in a state of decay; so that we were but little benefited by the great quantities of berries every where found ashore. In order to avail ourselves as much as possible of this useful refreshment, one third of the people, by turns, had leave to go and pick them. Considerable quantities of them were also procured from the natives. If there were any seeds of the scurvy in either ship, these berries, and the use of spruce beer, which they had to drink every other day, effectually eradicated them.
We also got plenty of fish, at first mostly salmon, both fresh and dried, which the natives brought us. Some of the fresh salmon was in high perfection, but there was one sort, which we called hook-nosed, from the figure of its head, that was but indifferent. We drew the seine several times, at the head of the bay, and caught a good many salmon trout, and once a halibut that weighed two hundred and fifty-four pounds. The fishery failing, we had recourse to hooks and lines. A boat was sent out every morning, and seldom returned without eight or ten halibut, which was more than sufficient to serve all our people; the halibut were excellent, and there were few who did not prefer them to salmon. Thus we not only procured a supply of fish for present consumption, but had some to carry with us to sea. This enabled us to make considerable saving of our provisions, which was an object of no small importance.
On the 8th, I received by the hands of an Oonalashka man, named Derramoushk, a very singular present, considering the place. It was a rye loaf, or rather a pye made in the form of a loaf, for it inclosed some salmon, highly seasoned with pepper. This man had the like present for Captain Clerke, and a note for each of us, written in a character which none of us could read. It was natural to suppose that this present was from some Russians now in our neighbourhood, and therefore we sent, by the same hand, to these, our unknown friends, a few bottles of rum, wine, and porter, which we thought would be as acceptable as any thing we had beside; and we soon knew that in this we had not been mistaken. I also sent along with Derramoushk, Corporal Lediard of the marines, an intelligent man, in order to gain some farther information, with orders, that if he met with any Russians, he should endeavour to make them understand that we were English, the friends and allies of their nation.
On the 10th, Lediard returned with three Russian seamen, or furriers, who, with some others, resided at Egoochshac, where they had a dwelling-house, some store-houses, and a sloop of about thirty tons burthen. One of these men was either master or mate of this vessel, another of them wrote a very good hand and understood figures, and they were all three well behaved, intelligent men, and very ready to give me all the information I could desire; but for want of an interpreter, we had some difficulty to understand each other. They appeared to have a thorough knowledge of the attempts that had been made by their countrymen to navigate the Frozen Ocean, and of the discoveries which had been made from Kamtschatka, by Beering, Tscherikoff, and Spangenberg; but they seemed to know no more of Lieutenant Syndo[[87]], or Synd, than his name. Nor had they the least idea what part of the world Mr. Stæhlin’s map referred to, when it was laid before them. When I pointed out Kamtschatka, and some other known places upon that map, they asked whether I had seen the islands there laid down, and on my answering in the negative, one of them put his finger upon a part of this map where a number of islands was represented, and said, that he had cruised there for land, but never could find any. I then laid before them my own chart, and found that they were strangers to every part of the American coast, except what lies opposite this island. One of these men said, that he had been with Beering, in his American voyage, but must then have been very young, for he had not now, at the distance of thirty-seven years, the appearance of being aged. Never was there greater respect paid to the memory of any distinguished person, than by these men to that of Beering. The trade in which they are engaged is very beneficial, and its being undertaken and extended to the eastward of Kamtschatka, was the immediate consequence of the second voyage of that able navigator, whose misfortunes proved to be the source of much private advantage to individuals, and of public utility to the Russian nation. And yet, if his distresses had not accidentally carried him to die in the island which bears his name, and from whence the miserable remnant of his ship’s crew brought back sufficient specimens of its valuable furs, probably the Russians never would have undertaken any future voyages which could lead them to make discoveries in this sea, toward the coast of America. Indeed, after his time, government seems to have paid less attention to this, and we owe what discoveries have been since made, principally to the enterprising spirit of private traders, encouraged, however, by the superintending care of the court of Petersburg. The three Russians having remained with me all night, visited Captain Clerke next morning, and then left us, very well satisfied with the reception they had met with, promising to return in a few days, and to bring with them a chart of the islands lying between Oonalashka and Kamtschatka.
On the 15th, in the evening, while Mr. Webber and I were at a village at a small distance from Samganoodha, a Russian landed there, who, I found, was the principal person amongst his countrymen in this and the neighbouring islands. His name was Erasim Gregorioff Sin Ismyloff. He arrived in a canoe carrying three persons, attended by twenty or thirty other canoes, each conducted by one man. I took notice, that the first thing they did after landing, was to make a small tent for Ismyloff, of materials which they brought with them; and then they made others for themselves of their canoes and paddles, which they covered with grass, so that the people of the village were at no trouble to find them lodging. Ismyloff having invited us into his tent, set before us some dried salmon and berries, which, I was satisfied, was the best cheer he had. He appeared to be a sensible intelligent man, and I felt no small mortification in not being able to converse with him, unless by signs, assisted by figures, and other characters, which however were a very great help. I desired to see him on board the next day, and accordingly he came, with all his attendants. Indeed, he had moved into our neighbourhood for the express purpose of waiting upon us.