No exiles have been sent to Kamchatka since 1830.  One old man who had been forty years a colonist was living at Avatcha in 1866.  He was at liberty to return to Europe, but preferred remaining.

In 1771 occurred the first voyage from Kamchatka to a foreign port, and curiously enough, it was performed under the Polish flag.  A number of exiles, headed by a Pole named Benyowski, seized a small vessel and put to sea.  Touching at Japan and Loo Choo to obtain water and provisions, the party reached the Portuguese colony of Macao in safety.  There were no nautical instruments or charts on the ship, and the successful result of the voyage was more accidental than otherwise.

Close by the harbor of Petropavlovsk there is a monument to the memory of the ill-fated and intrepid navigator, La Perouse.  It bears no inscription, and was evidently built in haste.  There is a story that a French ship once arrived in Avatcha Bay on a voyage of discovery.  Her captain asked the governor if there was anything to commemorate the visit of La Perouse.

“Certainly,” was the reply; “I will show it to you in the morning.”

During the night the monument was hastily constructed of wood and sheet iron, and fixed in the position to which the governor led his delighted guest.

Captain Clerke, successor to Captain Cook, of Sandwich Island memory, died while his ships were in Avatcha Bay, and was buried at Petropavlovsk.  A monument that formerly marked his grave has disappeared.  Captain Lund and Colonel Bulkley arranged to erect a durable memorial in its place.  We prepared an inscription in English and Russian, and for temporary purposes fixed a small tablet on the designated spot.  Americans and Russians formed the party that listened to the brief tribute which one of our number paid to the memory of the great navigator.

In the autumn of 1854, a combined English and French fleet of six ships suffered a severe repulse from several land batteries and the guns of a Russian frigate in the harbor.  Twice beaten off, their commanders determined an assault.  They landed a strong force of sailors and marines, that attempted to take the town in the rear, but the Kamchadale sharpshooters created a panic, and drove the assailants over a steeply sloping cliff two hundred feet high.

[Illustration:  REPULSE OF THE ASSAILANTS.]

Naturally the natives are proud of their success in this battle, and mention it to every visitor.  The English Admiral committed suicide early in the attack.  The fleet retired to San Francisco, and returned in the following year prepared to capture the town at all hazards, but Petropavlovsk had been abandoned by the Russians, who retired beyond the hills.  An American remained in charge of a trading establishment, and hoisted his national colors over it.  The allies burned the government property and destroyed the batteries.

There were five or six hundred dogs in town when the fleet entered the bay.  Their violent howling held the allies aloof a whole day, under the impression that a garrison should be very large to have so many watch-dogs.