Having proceeded to the latitude of 51° 40', where he will make the southernmost point of the island of Sagaleen, beyond which the sea of Okotzk is sufficiently known, he will steer to the southward, probably in the beginning of June, and endeavour to fall in with the southernmost of the Kurile Islands. Ooroop, or Nadeschda, according to the accounts of the Russians, will furnish the ships with a good harbour, where they may wood and water, and take in such other refreshments as the place may afford. Toward the end of June, they will shape their course for the Shummagins, and from thence to Cook's River, purchasing, as they proceed, as many skins as they are able, without losing too much time, since they ought to steer again to the southward, and trace the coast with great accuracy from the latitude of 56° to 50°, the space from which we were driven out of sight of land by contrary winds. It should here be remarked, that I consider the purchase of skins, in this expedition, merely a secondary object, for defraying the expence; and it cannot be doubted, from our experience in the present voyage, that two hundred and fifty skins, worth one hundred dollars each, may be procured without any loss of time; especially as it is probable they will be met with along the coast to the southward of Cook's River.
Having spent three months on the coast of America, they will set out on their return to China early in the month of October, avoiding, in their route, as much as possible, the tracks of former navigators. I have now only to add, that if the fur trade should become a fixed object of Indian commerce, frequent opportunities will occur of completing whatever may be left unfinished, in the voyage of which I have here ventured to delineate the outlines.
The barter which had been carrying on with the Chinese for sea-otter skins, had produced a very whimsical change in the dress of all our crew. On our arrival in the Typa, nothing could exceed the ragged appearance both of the younger officers and seamen; for, as our voyage had already exceeded, by near a twelvemonth, the time it was at first imagined we should remain at sea, almost the whole of our original stock of European clothes had been long worn Out, or patched up with skins and the various manufactures we had met with in the course of our discoveries. These were now again mixed and eked out with the gaudiest silks and cottons of China.
On the 30th, Mr Lannyon arrived with the stores and provisions, which were immediately stowed, in due proportion, on board the two ships. The next day, agreeably to a bargain made by Captain Gore, I sent our sheet-anchor to the country ship, and received in return the guns, which she before rode by.
Whilst we lay in the Typa, I was shewn, in a garden belonging to an English gentleman at Macao, the rock, under which, as the tradition there goes, the poet Camoens used lo sit and compose his Lusiad. It is a lofty arch, of one solid stone, and forms the entrance of a grotto, dug out of the rising ground behind it. The rock is overshadowed by large spreading trees, and commands an extensive and magnificent view of the sea, and the interspersed islands.
On the 11th of January, two seamen, belonging to the Resolution, found means to run off with a six-oared cutter, and, notwithstanding diligent search was made both that and the following day, we were never able to learn any tidings of her. It was supposed, that these people had been seduced by the prevailing notion of making a fortune, by returning to the fur islands.
As we heard nothing, during our stay in the Typa, of the measurement of our ships, it may be concluded, that the point, so strongly contested by the Chinese, in Lord Anson's time, has, in consequence of his firmness and resolution, never since been insisted on.
The following nautical observations were made while we lay here:
Harbour of Macao lat. 22° 12' 0" north.
long. 113 47 0 east.
Anchoring-place in the lat. 22 9 20 north.
Typa long. 113 48 34 east.
Mean dip of the north
pole of the magnetic 21 1 0
needle
Variation of the compass 0 19 0 west.
On the full and change days it was high water in the Typa at 5^h 15^m, and
in Macao harbour at 5^h 50^m. The greatest rise was six feet one inch. The
flood appeared to come from the south-eastward; but we could not determine
this point with certainty, on account of the great number of islands which
lie off the mouth of the river of Canton.
Prices of Provisions at Canton, 1780.
£. s. d.
Annas 0 4 0 a score.
Arrack 0 0 8 per bottle.
Butter 0 2 0-4/5 per catty.[106]
Beef, Canton 0 0 2-3/4
Ditto, Macao 0 0 5-1/5
Birds' nests 3 6 8
Biscuit 0 0 4
Beache de Mar 0 2 0-4/5
Calf 1 6 9-3/5
Caravances, dried 0 0 2-2/3
Cabbage, Nankeen 0 0 4-4/5
Curry stuff 0 4 4
Coffee 0 1 4 per catty.
Cocoa-nuts 0 0 4 each.
Charcoal 0 3 4 per pecul.
Coxice 0 1 4 per catty.
Canton nuts 0 0 4
Chesnuts 0 0 2-2/5
Cockles 0 0 3-1/5
Ducks 0 0 5-1/5
Ditto, wild 0 1 0-4/5
Deers' sinews 0 2 1-3/5
Eels 0 0 6-2/5
Eggs 0 2 0 per hundred.
Fish, common 0 0 3-1/5 per catty.
Ditto, best 0 0 6-2/5
Ditto salted, Nankeen 0 0 9-3/5
Fruit 0 0 1-3/5
Ditto, Nankeen 0 2 0
Frogs 0 0 6-2/5
Flour 0 0 1-76/100
Fowls, capons, &c. 0 0 7-1/5
Fish-maws 0 2 1-3/5
Geese 0 0 6-2/5
Greens 0 0 1-3/4
Grass 0 0 2-2/5 per bundle.
Grapes 0 1 0-4/5 per catty.
Ham 0 1 2-2/5
Hartshorn 0 1 4
Hogslard 0 0 7-1/5
Hog, alive 0 0 4-3/4
Kid, alive 0 0 4-3/4
Limes 0 0 0-4/5 per catty.
Litches, dried 0 0 2-2/5
Locksoy 0 0 6-2/5
Lobchocks 0 0 5-3/5
Lamp-oil 0 0 5-3/5
Lamp-wick 0 0 8
Melons 0 0 4-4/5 each.
Milk 0 0 1-1/4 per catty.
Ditto, Macao 0 0 3-1/5
Mustard seed 0 0 6-2/5
Mushrooms, pickled 0 2 8
Ditto, fresh 0 1 4
Oysters 0 3 4 per pecul.
Onions, dried 0 0 2-2/5 per catty.
Pork 0 0 7-1/7
Pig 0 0 5-3/5
Paddy 0 0 0-4/5
Pepper 0 1 0-4/5
Pheasants 0 5 4 each.
Partridges 0 0 9-1/5
Pigeons 0 0 5-1/5
Pomegranates 0 0 2-2/5
Quails 0 0 1-3/5
Rabbits 0 1 4
Rice 0 0 2 per catty.
Ditto, red 0 0 2-2/5
Ditto, coarse 0 0 1-1/5
Ditto, Japan 0 0 8
Raisins 0 2 0
Sheep 3 6 8 each.
Snipes 0 0 1-1/2 per catty.
Sturgeon 0 4 9-3/5
Ditto, small 0 2 4-4/5
Sugar 0 0 3-1/5
Salt 0 0 1-3/5
Saltpetre 0 2 1-3/5
Soy 0 0 1-3/5
Spices 0 16 8
Sweetmeats 0 0 6-2/5
Sago 0 0 3-1/5
Sallad 0 0 2-2/5
Sharks' fins 0 2 1-3/5
Samsui soy 0 0 2-2/5
Teal 0 0 6-2/5 each.
Turtle 0 0 9-3/5 per catty.
Tea 0 2 0
Turmerick 0 0 2-2/5
Tamarinds 0 0 8
Vinegar 0 0 1-3/5
Vermicelli 0 0 3-1/5
Wax-candles 0 3 0
Walnuts 0 0 4-4/5
Wood 0 1 4 per pecul.
Water 0 6 8 per 100 barrels.
Rent of Poho Factory 400 0 0 per annum.
of Lunsoon 316 13 4
Servant's rice 0 8 0 per month.
Ditto wages 0 19 2-1/5 do. for resiants.
Doll.
Servant's wages for the season 20
Steward's wages 80
Butler's ditto 80 per annum.
Prices of Labour.
A coolee, or porter 0 0 8 per day.
A tailor 0 0 5 and rice.
A handicraftsman 0 0 8
A common labourer, from 3d. to 5d.
A woman's labour considerably cheaper.
[106] A catty is 18 oz.--A pecul 100 catty.