On the arrival of Captain Blanchard's ship in port, the whole crew, he himself not excepted, were in a state of intoxication; and it appeared to be mere good luck that they had escaped the dangers of so many rocks and shallows; but the North Americans are such clever sailors, that even when drunk they are capable of managing a ship. It is also probable, that these had lived more soberly during the voyage, and had been tempted by the joy of completing it, to extraordinary indulgence. On my visit to the ship, I could not help remarking the great economy of all its arrangements: no such thing, for instance, as a looking-glass was to be seen, except the one kept for measuring the angle of the sextant, and that, small as it was, assisted the whole crew in the operation of shaving.
On the 30th of July, the ship Helena, belonging to the Company, arrived in New Archangel from Petersburg, bringing an ample provision of necessaries for the colony. To us this ship was particularly welcome, as the bearer of permission to leave our station and return to Russia. We immediately set to work to get our vessel in sailing order; and the 11th of August was the long wished-for day, when, favoured by a fresh north wind, we bade adieu to New Archangel, where we had passed five months and a-half surrounded by a people calculated only to inspire aversion, and without relief to the wearisomeness of our mode of life, except in the society of Captain Murawieff and the few Russian inhabitants of the fortress.
I determined to return to Kronstadt by the Chinese Sea and the Cape of Good Hope. But having no intention of following Captain Blanchard's example, in wearing out my crew by a voyage of unreasonable length without any relaxation, I appointed Manilla, in the Philippine island of Luçon, for their resting-place, after having made another attempt to find the Ralik chain of islands.
The medium of the astronomical observations made during these five months, gave, as the geographical longitude of New Archangel, 135° 33' 18", and the latitude as 57° 2' 57"; the declination of the needle as 27° 30' east. According to this, the promontory of Mount Edgecumbe is in the longitude 136° 1' 49"; consequently about 20' more westerly than appears on Vancouver's map.
We found a similar difference between our observation of St. Francisco and his; I therefore believe that his whole survey of the north-west coast of America represents it more easterly than it really is. Our longitudes have the greater claim to confidence, as they were the results of repeated observations on land, while his were merely taken on shipboard en passant.
The medium of our observations at New Archangel upon the difference in high tides at the new and full moon, gave thirty minutes for the time, and sixteen feet for the greatest difference in the height of the water.
CALIFORNIA,
AND THE RUSSIAN SETTLEMENT OF
ROSS.