1779- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 177 



could not then make out all the circumstances attend- 

 ing it: that he passed in sight of Japan ; made 

 Luconia ; and was there directed how to steer to 

 Canton; that arriving there, he had applied to the 

 French, and had got a passage in one of their India 

 ships to France : and that most of the Russians 

 had likewise returned to Europe in French ships; 

 and had afterward found their way to Petersburg, 

 We met with three of Beniowski's crew in the har- 

 bour of Saint Peter and Saint Paul ; and from them 

 we learnt the circumstances of the above story. 



On our arrival at Canton, we received a farther 

 corroboration of the facts, from the gentlemen of the 

 English factory, who told us, that a person had ar- 

 rived there in a Russian galliot, who said he came 

 from Kamtschatka; and that he had been furnished 

 by the French factory with a passage to Europe.* 



We could not help being much diverted with the 

 fears and apprehensions of these good people, and 

 particularly with the account M. Port gave us of the 

 Serjeant's wary proceedings the day before. On 

 seeing me come on shore, in company with some 

 other gentlemen, he had made him and the merchant, 

 who arrived in the sledges we had seen come in the 

 morning, hide themselves in his kitchen, and listen 

 to our conversation with one another, in hopes that, 

 by this means, they might discover whether we were 

 really English or not. 



As we concluded, from the commission and dress 

 of M. Port, that he might probably be the comman- 

 der's secretary, he was received as such, and invited, 

 with his companion, the merchant, to dine with 

 Captain Clerke : and though we soon began to sus- 

 pect, from the behaviour of the latter toward him, 



* It hath since appeared, from the account of Kerguelen's 

 voyage, that this extraordinary person, who had entered into the 

 French service, was commander of a new settlement at Madagascar, 

 when Kerguelen touched there in 1774. 

 VOL. VII. N 



