Having concluded the last section with an account of our return from Bolcheretsk, accompanied by Major Behm, the commander of Kamtschatka, and of his departure, I shall proceed to relate the transactions that passed in the harbour of St Peter and St Paul during our absence. On the 7th of May, soon after we had left the bay, a large piece of ice drove across the cut- water of the Resolution, and brought home the small bower-anchor. This obliged them to weigh the other anchor, and moor again. The carpenters who were employed in stopping the leak, were obliged to take off a great part of the sheathing from the bows, and found many of the trunnels so very loose and rotten, as to be easily drawn out with the fingers.
On the 11th, they had heavy gales from the N.E., which obliged both the ships to strike yards and topmasts; but in the afternoon the weather being more moderate, and the ice having drifted away as far as the mouth of the harbour of St Peter and St Paul, they warped close to the shore for the greater convenience, of watering and wooding, and again moored as before; the town bearing N. 1/2 W., half a mile distant, and the mouth of the bay shut in by the southernmost point of Rakowina harbour, S.
The next day a party was sent on shore to cut wood, but made little progress on account of the snow, which still covered the ground. A convenient spot was cleared away abreast of the ships, where there was a fine run of water; and a tent being erected for the cooper, the empty casks were landed, and the sail-makers sent on shore.
On the 15th, the beach being clear of ice, the people were sent to haul the seine, and caught an abundant supply of fine flat fish for both the ships' companies. Indeed from this time, during the whole of our stay in the harbour, we were absolutely overpowered with the quantities of fish which came in from every quarter. The Toions, both of this town, and of Paratounca, a village in the neighbourhood, had received orders from Major Behm to employ all the Kamtschadales in our service; so that we frequently could not take into the ships the presents that were sent us. They consisted in general of fish, cod, trout, and herring. These last, which were in their full perfection, and of a delicious flavour, were exceedingly abundant in this bay. The Discovery's people surrounded at one time so great a quantity in their seine, that they were obliged to throw a vast number out, lest the net should be broken to pieces; and the cargo they landed was afterward so plentiful, that besides a sufficient store for immediate use, they filled as many casks as they could spare for salting; and after sending to the Resolution a sufficient quantity for the same purpose, they left several bushels behind on the beach.
The snow now began to disappear very rapidly, and abundance of wild garlic, celery, and nettle-tops, were gathered for the use of the crews; which being boiled with wheat and portable soup, made them a wholesome and comfortable breakfast; and with this they were supplied every morning. The birch-trees were also tapped, and the sweet juice, which they yielded in great quantities, was constantly mixed with the men's allowance of brandy.
The next day a small bullock, which had been procured for the ship's company by the serjeant, was killed; and weighed two hundred and seventy- two pounds. It was served out to both crews for their Sunday's dinner, being the first piece of fresh beef they had tasted since our departure from the Cape of Good Hope, in December 1776, a period of near two years and a half.
This evening died John Macintosh, the carpenter's mate, after having laboured under a dysentery ever since our departure from the Sandwich islands; he was a very hard working quiet man, and much regretted by his messmates. He was the fourth person we lost by sickness during the voyage; but the first who could be said, from his age and the constitutional habits of his body, to have had on our setting out an equal chance with the rest of his comrades; Watman, we supposed to be about sixty years of age, and Roberts and Mr Anderson, from the decay which had evidently commenced before we left England, could not, in all probability, under any circumstances, have lived a greater length of time than they did.
I have already mentioned, that Captain Clerke's health continued daily to decline, notwithstanding the salutary change of diet which the country of Kamtschatka afforded him. The priest of Paratounca, as soon as he heard of the infirm state he was in, supplied him every day with bread, milk, fresh butter, and fowls, though his house was sixteen miles from the harbour where we lay.
On our first arrival, we found the Russian hospital, which is near the town of St Peter and St Paul, in a condition truly deplorable. All the soldiers were, more or less, affected by the scurvy, and a great many in the last stage of that disorder. The rest of the Russian inhabitants were also in the same condition; and we particularly remarked, that our friend the serjeant, by making too free with the spirits we gave him, had brought on himself, in the course of a few days, some of the most alarming symptoms of that malady. In this lamentable state, Captain Clerke put them all under the care of our surgeons, and ordered a supply of sourkrout, and malt, for wort, to be furnished for their use. It was astonishing to observe the alteration in the figures of almost every person we met on our return from Bolcheretsk; and I was informed by our surgeons, that they attributed their speedy recovery principally to the effects of the sweetwort.[21]
[21] Krusenstern substantially admits the correctness of Captain King's statement respecting the Russian hospital, &c. by saying, expressively enough, things are not quite so bad at present. It is evident, however, from his remarks, that the change to the better is almost to the full amount of being imperceptible, notwithstanding the zeal of some individuals whose exertions he is anxious to eulogize, and his own disposition to believe that their well-meant exertions have not been entirely fruitless. The change, it would seem, consists in the greater quantities of medicine sent to Kamtschatka, and not in the greater practicability of judiciously applying them. This, most persons of discernment will shrewdly suspect, is several degrees worse than problematically a change to the better. At least one could scarcely help desiring rather to accept peaceably the warrant of a natural death, than to risk the enhancement of a conflict on the doubtful aid of a bungling doctor, whose chief recommendation, perhaps, if he would but allow himself to be favoured by it, consisted in his avowed ignorance securing his neutrality. In such a case, indeed, and it seems on the whole to be almost the very one which K. describes, it is obvious enough that the medicines can at least do no more harm than the bottles and boxes that contain them; but then one cannot easily perceive wherein consists the merit or utility of having provided them, unless, as in the instance of fire-arms hung over the chimney never to be loaded or fired, or in that of idols of wood and stone which adorn the temples of pagans, but which can neither receive nor bestow favours, we shall suppose that the imagination of some potential advantages is quite equivalent to the reality of their operation. Krusenstern has some sensible remarks on the proper method of supplying Kamtschatka with well-qualified physicians, but they are of course foreign to this place, and cannot, therefore, properly be introduced.--E.