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 with great kindness, and had entered into a league of friendship with their visitors:  they therefore thought it their duty to ratify this treaty formally.  These two ships could have been none other than the Resolution and Discovery, though evidently the Tschutski thought they were Russian.

Death of Clerke.

Leaving on 13th June, the Asiatic coast was followed up, and 1st July they were off the Gulf of Anadyr, where fogs and ice began seriously to interfere with their progress, so they abandoned the Asiatic for the American side, but with no better luck.  They reached the latitude of 70 degrees 33 minutes North, about five leagues short of the point reached the previous year, and at length, realising further efforts were useless and resulting in serious damage to the ships from continual contact with the loose ice, Clerke