under his stern.  One of them then made many signs, taking off his cap, and bowing, after the manner of Europeans.  A rope being handed down from the ship, to this he fastened a small thin wooden case or box, and having delivered this safe, and spoken something, and made some more signs, the canoes dropped astern, and left the Discovery.  No one on board her had any suspicion that the box contained any thing, till after the departure of the canoes, when it was accidentally opened, and a piece of paper was found, folded up carefully, upon which something was written in the Russian language, as was supposed.  The date 1778 was prefixed to it, and, in the body of the written note, there was a reference to the year 1776.  Not learned enough to decypher the alphabet of the writer, his numerals marked sufficiently that others had preceded us in visiting this dreary part of the globe, who were united to us by other ties besides those of our common nature; and the hopes of soon meeting with some of the Russian traders could not but give a sensible satisfaction to those who had, for such a length of time, been conversant with the savages of the Pacific Ocean, and of the continent of North America.

Captain Clerke was, at first, of opinion, that some Russians had been shipwrecked here, and that these unfortunate persons, seeing our ships pass, had taken this method to inform us of their situation.  Impressed with humane sentiments, on such an occasion, he was desirous of our stopping till they might have time to join us.  But no such idea occurred to me.  It seemed obvious, that if this had been the case, it would have been the first step taken by such shipwrecked persons, in order to secure to themselves, and to their companions, the relief they could not but be solicitous about, to send some of their body off to the ships in the canoes.  For this reason, I rather thought that the paper contained a note of information, left by some Russian trader, who had lately been amongst these islands, to be delivered to the next of their countrymen who should arrive; and that the natives, seeing our ships pass, and supposing us to be Russians, had resolved to bring off the note, thinking it might induce us to stop.  Fully convinced of this, I did not stay to enquire any farther into the matter, but made sail, and stood away to the westward, along the coast; perhaps I should say along the islands, for we could not pronounce, with certainty, whether the nearest land, within us, was continent or islands.  If not the latter, the coast here forms some tolerably large and deep bays.

We continued to run all night with a gentle breeze at N.E., and, at two o’clock next morning, some breakers were seen within us, at the distance of about two miles.  Two hours after, others were seen a-head, and on our larboard bow, and between us and the land, they were innumerable.  We did but just clear them, by holding a south course.  These breakers were occasioned by rocks, some of which were above