a more than common degree of compassion for a person whose life had been a continued scene of those difficulties and hardships to which a seaman’s occupation is subject, and under which he at last sank.  He was brought up to the navy from his earliest youth, and had been in several actions during the war which began in 1756, particularly in that between the Bellona and Courageux, where, being stationed in the mizen-top, he was carried overboard with the mast, but was taken up without having received any hurt.  He was midshipman in the Dolphin, commanded by Commodore Byron, on her first voyage round the world, and afterward served on the American station.  In 1768, he made his second voyage round the world in the Endeavour, as master’s mate, and by the promotion which took place during the expedition, he returned a lieutenant.  His third voyage round the world was in the Resolution, of which he was appointed the second lieutenant; and soon after his return in 1775, he was promoted to the rank of master and commander.  When the present expedition was ordered to be fitted out, he was appointed to the Discovery, to accompany Captain Cook; and, by the death of the latter, succeeded, as has been already mentioned, to the chief command.

It would be doing his memory extreme injustice not to say, that during the short time the expedition was under his direction, he was most zealous and anxious for its success.  His health, about the time the principal command devolved upon him, began to decline very rapidly, and was every way unequal to encounter the rigours of a high northern climate.  But the vigour and activity of his mind had, in no shape, suffered by the decay of his body; and though he knew, that by delaying his return to a warmer climate, he was giving up the only chance that remained for his recovery, yet, careful and jealous to the last degree, that a regard to his own situation should never bias his judgment to the prejudice of the service, he persevered in the search of a passage, till it was the opinion of every officer in both ships that it was impracticable, and that any farther attempts would not only be fruitless but dangerous.

[25] From the circumstance, related in the last volume, that gave name to
    Sledge Island, it appears that the inhabitants of the adjacent
    continents visit occasionally the small islands lying between them,
    probably for the conveniency of fishing, or in pursuit of furs.

It appears also from Popoff’s deposition, which I shall have occasion to speak of more particularly hereafter, that the general resemblance between the people, who are seen in these islands, and the Tschutski, was sufficient to lead Deshneff into the error of imagining them to be the same.  “Opposite to the Noss,” he says, “is an island of moderate size, without trees, whose inhabitants resemble in their exterior the Tschutski, although they are quite another nation; not numerous,