Our conversation afterward turned upon different subjects; and it will naturally be supposed that our enquiries were principally directed to the obtaining some information respecting our own country. Having now been absent three years, we had flattered ourselves with the certainty of receiving intelligence from Major Behm, which could not fail of being interesting; and I cannot express the disappointment we felt, on finding that he had no news to communicate of a much later date than that of our departure from England.
About seven o'clock the commander, conceiving we might be fatigued with our journey, and desirous of taking some repose, begged he might conduct us to our lodgings. It was in vain that we protested against a compliment which we had certainly no title to expect, but that of being strangers; a circumstance which seemed, in the opinion of this generous Livonian, to counterbalance every other consideration. In our way we passed by two guard-houses, where the men were turned out under arms, in compliment to Captain Gore; and were afterward brought to a very neat and decent house, which the major gave us to understand was to be our residence during our stay. Two sentinels were posted at the doors, and, in a house adjoining, there was a serjeant's guard. Having shewn us into our apartments, the major took his leave, with a promise to see us the next day: and we were left to find out at our leisure all the conveniences that he had most amply provided for us. A soldier, called a putpropersckack, whose rank is between that of a serjeant and a corporal, along with our fellow-traveller Port, were appointed to be our male domestics; besides whom, there was a housekeeper and a cook, who had orders to obey Port's directions in dressing us a supper according to our own mode of cookery. We received many civil messages in the course of the evening from the principal people of the town, purporting, that they would not add to our fatigues by paying their respects to us at that time, but would wait upon us in the morning. Such well-supported politeness and attention, in a country so desolate and uncultivated, formed a contrast exceedingly favourable to its inhabitants; and, to finish the piece as it began, at sun-set the serjeant came with the report of his guard to Captain Gore.
Early in the morning we received the compliments of the commander, of Captain Shmaleff, and of the principal inhabitants of the town, who all honoured us with visits soon after. The two first, having sent for Port, after we were gone to rest, and enquired of him what articles we seemed to be most in want of on board the ships, we found them prepared to insist on our sharing with the garrison under their command, in what little stock of provisions they had remaining. At the same time they lamented that we had arrived at a season of the year, when there was always the greatest scarcity of every thing amongst them, the sloops not being yet arrived, with their annual supply, from Okotsk.
We agreed to accept the liberality of these hospitable strangers, with the best grace we could; but on condition that we might be made acquainted with the price of the articles we were to be supplied with, and that Captain Clerke should give bills to the amount upon the Victualling Office in London. This the major positively refused; and whenever it was afterwards urged, stopped us short, by telling us, he was certain that he could not oblige his mistress 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 as ours; 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 attestation of the particulars with which we might be furnished, and that this he should transmit to his court, as a certificate of having performed his duty. I shall leave, he continued, to the two courts all farther acknowledgments, but cannot consent to accept of any thing of the kind alluded to.
When this matter was adjusted, he began to enquire about our private wants, saying, he should consider himself as ill used if we had any dealings with the merchants, or applied to any other person except himself.
In return for such singular generosity, we had little to bestow but our admiration and our thanks. Fortunately, however, Captain Clerke had sent by me a set of prints and maps, belonging to the last voyage of Captain Cook, which he desired me to present in his name to the commander; who being an enthusiast in every thing relating to discoveries, received it with a satisfaction which shewed, that, though a trifle, nothing could have been more acceptable. Captain Clerke had likewise entrusted me with a discretionary power of shewing him a chart of the discoveries made in the present voyage; and as I judged that a person in his situation, and of his turn of mind, would be exceedingly gratified by a communication of this sort, though, out of delicacy, he had forborn to ask more than a few general questions on the subject, I made no scruple to repose in him a confidence, of which his whole conduct shewed him to be deserving.
I had the pleasure to find, that he felt this compliment as I hoped he would, and was much struck at seeing, in one view, the whole of that coast, as well on the side of Asia as on that of America, of which his countrymen had been so many years employed in acquiring a partial and imperfect knowledge.[19]
[19] On this occasion Major Behm permitted us to examine all the maps and charts that were in his possession. Those relating to the peninsula of the Tschutski, were made in conformity to the information collected by Plenishner, between the years 1760 and 1770. As the charts of Plenishner were afterwards made use of, according to Mr Coxe, in the compilation of the General Map of Russia, published by the Academy in 1776, it may be necessary to observe, that we found them exceedingly erroneous; and that the compilers of the General Map seem to have been led into some mistakes on his authority. Those in which the islands on the coast of America were laid down, we found to contain nothing new, and to be much less accurate than those we saw at Oonalashka.
Excepting this mark of confidence, and the set of prints I have already mentioned, we had brought nothing with us that was in the least worth his acceptance; for it scarce deserves noticing, that I prevailed on his son, a young boy, to accept of a silver watch I happened to have about me; and I made his little daughter very happy with two pair of ear-rings of French paste. Besides these trifles, I left with Captain Shmaleff the thermometer I used on my journey; and he promised me, to keep an exact register of the temperature of the air for one year, and to transmit it to Mr Muller, with whom he had the pleasure of being acquainted.
We dined this day at the commander's, who, studious on every occasion to gratify our curiosity, had, besides a number of dishes dressed in our own way, prepared a great variety of others, after the Russian and Kamtschadale manner. The afternoon was employed in taking a view of the town and the adjacent country. Bolcheretsk is situated in a low swampy plain, that extends to the sea of Okotsk, being about forty miles long, and of a considerable breadth. It lies on the north side of the Bolchoireka, or great river, between the mouth of the Gottsofka and the Bistraia, which here empty themselves into this river; and the peninsula, on which it stands, has been separated from the continent by a large canal, the work of the present commander; which has not only added much to its strength as a fortress, but has made it much less liable than it was before to inundations. Below the town the river is from six to eight feet deep, and about a quarter of a mile broad. It empties itself into the sea of Okotsk, at the distance of twenty-two miles; where, according to Krascheninikoff, it is capable of admitting vessels of a considerable size. There is not corn, of any species, cultivated in this part of the country; and Major Behm informed me, that his was the only garden that had yet been planted. The ground was, for the most part, covered with snow; that which was free from it appeared full of small hillocks, of a black turfy nature. I saw about twenty or thirty cows, And the major had six stout horses. These and their dogs are the only tame animals they possess; the necessity they are under, in the present state of the country, of keeping great numbers of the latter, making it impossible to bring up any cattle that are not in size and strength a match for them. For, during the summer season, their dogs are entirely let loose, and left to provide for themselves, which makes them so exceedingly ravenous, that they will sometimes even attack the bullocks.