I779* .
S e p tem ber.
Wednef. 15..
Friday 17.
for fame caufe or other, w hich we could not learn, fe ll into
difgrace, and was no longer fuffered to fit down in the company
o f his own officers. It was in vain to think o f makin
g any attempt to obtain an indulgence, which, though it
wou ld have been h ig h ly agreeable to us, was doubtlefs in compatible
with their difcipline.
On Wednefday we had finifhed the ftowage o f the holds ;
got on board all our wood and water ; and were ready to put
to fea at a day’s notice. It is however neceflary to obferve,
that though every thing was in this degree o f readinefs on
board, the cattle were not yet arrived from Ve rch n e i; and
as freih provifions were the moil important article o f our
wants, and in a great meafure neceflary for the health o f
the men, we could not think o f tak ing our departure without
them. We therefore thought this a favourable opportunity
(efpecially as there was an appearance o f fine weather)
o f tak ing fome amufement on ihore, and acquiring a
little knowledge o f the country. Accordingly, Captain Gore
propofed a party o f bear-hunting, which we all very readily
came into.
We did not fet out on this expedition till Friday the 17th»
in order to giv e a day’s reft to the Hofpodin Ivaikin, a new
acquaintance, that was to be o f our party, and who came*
down here on Wednefday. This gentleman, who, we un~
deiflood, ufually refides at Verchnei, had been defired b y
Major Behm to attend us on our return to the harbour, in
order to be our interpreter ; and the accounts we had heard
o f him, before his arrival, had excited in us a great cu-
riofity to fee him.
He is o f a confiderable fam ily in Ruflia. His father was
a General in the Emprefs’s fe rv ice ; and he himfelf, after
h a vin g
h a v in g received his education partly in France, and partly '779;
0 1 ' September.
in Germany, had been page to the Emprefs Elizabeth, and _____ 1
an Er.fign in her guards. At the age o f fixteen he was
knowted, had his nofe flit, and was banifhed firft to Siberia
and afterward to Kamtfchatka, where he had now lived
thirty-one years. He was a ve ry tall thin man, with a face
a ll over furrowed with deep w rin k le s ; and bore, in his
w hole figure, the ftrongeft marks o f old age, though he had
fcarcely reached his fifty-fourth year.
T o our very great difappointment, he had fo totally forgotten
both his German and French, as not to be able to
fpeak a fentence, nor readily to underftand what was faid
to him, in either o f thefe languages. We found ourfelves
thus unfortunately deprived o f what we flattered ourfelves
would have turned out a favourable opportunity o f g e ttin g
farther information relative to this country. We had a lfo
promifed ourfelves much pleafure from the hiftory o f this
extraordinary man, which he probably would have been
induced to relate to ftrangers, who might perhaps be
o f fome little fervice to him, but who could have no inducement
to take advantage, from any thing he might fay,
to do him an injury. No one here kn ew the caufe o f his
ban iihm en t; but they took it for granted, that it muft have
been for fomething very atrocious ; particularly, as two or
three Commanders o f Kamtfchatka have endeavoured to
get him recalled, fincfc the prefent Emprefs’s reign ; but fa r
from fucceeding in this, they have not been even able to get
the place o f his baniihment changed. He told us, that, fo r
twenty years, he had not tailed bread, nor had been allowed
fubfiftence o f any kind whatfoever; but that, during this
period, he had lived among the Kamtfchadales, 011 what his
own a&ivity and toil in the chace had furniihed. That a fterward