four roubles a bottle for it. We, who knew
how much the sailors always felt whenever their allowance of grog was
stopped, which was generally done in warm weather, that they might have it
in a greater proportion in cold, and that this offer would deprive them of
it during the inclement season we had to expect in our next expedition to
the north, could not but admire so extraordinary a sacrifice; and, that
they might not suffer by it, Captain Clerke, and the rest of the officers,
substituted in the room of the very small quantity the major could be
prevailed on to accept, the same quantity of rum. This, with a dozen or two
of Cape wine, for Madame Behm, and such other little presents as were in
our power to bestow, were accepted in the most obliging manner. The next
morning the tobacco was divided between the crews of the two ships, three
pounds being allotted to every man that chewed or smoked tobacco, and one
pound to those that did not.

I have before mentioned that Major Behm had resigned the command of
Kamtschatka, and intended to set out in, a short time for Petersburg; and
he now offered to charge himself with any dispatches we might trust to his
care. This was an opportunity not to be neglected, and accordingly Captain
Clerke acquainted him, that he would take the liberty of sending by him
some papers relating to our voyage, to be delivered to our ambassador at
the Russian court. Our first intentions were to send only a small journal
of our proceedings; but, afterward, Captain Clerke being persuaded that the
whole account of our discoveries might safely be trusted to a person who
had given such striking proofs both of his public and private virtues; and
considering that we had a very hazardous part of the voyage still to
undertake, determined to send by him the whole of the journal of our late
commander, with that part of his own which completed the period of Captain
Cook's death till our arrival at Kamtschatka, together with a chart of all
our discoveries. Mr Bayly and myself thought it also proper to send a
general account of our proceedings to the Board of Longitude; by which
precautions, if any misfortune had afterward befallen us, the Admiralty
would have been in possession of a complete history of the principal facts
of our voyage. It was also determined that a smaller packet should be sent
by an express from Okotsk, which, the major said, if he was fortunate in
his passage to that port, would reach Petersbur