tersburg laden with every thing it could
desire. As, however, his offers were very reasonable, the ship and cargo
were subsequently purchased of him for twenty-one thousand skins of
sea-cats, (not otters) with the stipulation on his part, that he, his
crew, and his skins, should be transported to the Sandwich Islands,
whence he hoped to procure a passage for Canton, and there to dispose
of his merchandise to advantage. These skins are usually sold in China
for two Spanish dollars each.

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
Lucon, 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, g