e one beat flat with the intention of making a
cutting instrument of it; the other a good deal bent and bruised,
together with a present of thirteen hogs from Terreaboo."

The hands, as has been mentioned before, were identified by the scar left
by the explosion of his powder flask in Newfoundland, which almost
severed the thumb from the fingers.

On 22nd February they were able to sail from this unlucky place, and
touching at one or two of the islands worked their way northwards to
Kamtschatka, the Resolution reaching Owatska Bay on 29th April, followed
by the discovery on 1st May. They were very handsomely treated by Major
Behm, the Governor of Bolcheretsk, a place about 135 miles from the town
of St. Peter and St. Paul in Awatska Bay, notwithstanding Mr. Ismailoff's
letters of introduction were on somewhat unsatisfactory lines. Mr. Webber
was fortunately able to converse in German, which the Russian officers
understood; and he ascertained that Ismailoff had represented the two
vessels as very small, and hinted that he believed them to be little
better than pirates. The Governor provided the ships with what he could
give them, and promised to obtain further stores from Okotsk for them
against their return. For these kindnesses the English could make but
little return, and even then it was with difficulty that the Russians
could be persuaded to receive anything, for they said they were only
acting up to the wishes of their Empress, who desired all her allies
should be treated with courtesy. One return, however, they were able to
make which was of great service. At the time of the visit of the ships a
large number of the soldiers and inhabitants were suffering very
seriously from scurvy, and Clerke at once put them under the care of his
medical officers, who, by the use of sour kraut and sweet wort made from
the ship's stock of malt, soon caused "a surprising alteration in the
figures of most of them and their speedy recovery was chiefly attributed
to the effects of the sweet wort."

They were informed by the Major that on the day of the arrival of the
English party at Bolcheretsk he had received a letter from the most
northerly outpost on the Sea of Okotsk, stating that the tribe of
Tschutski, which had been long at feud with the Russians, had sent in an
embassy offering friendship and tribute, giving as a reason that they had
been visited by two large vessels in the preceding summer, and had been
received on board w