1779. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 195 



that a person in his situation and of his turn of mind 

 would be exceedingly gratified by a communication 

 of this sort, though out of delicacy he had forborne 

 to ask more than a few general questions on the sub- 

 ject, I made no scruple to repose in him a confidence 

 of which his whole conduct showed him to be de- 

 serving. 



I had the pleasure to find that he felt this compli- 

 ment as I hoped he would, and was much struck at 

 seeing in one view the whole of that coast, as well 

 on the side of Asia as on that of America, of which 

 his countrymen had been so many years employed in 

 acquiring a partial and imperfect knowledge. * 



Excepting this mark of confidence, and the set of 

 prints I have already mentioned, we had brought 

 nothing with us that was in the least worth his ac- 

 ceptance ; for it scarce deserves noticing that I pre- 

 vailed on his son, a young boy, to accept of a silver 

 watch I happened to have about me, and I made his 

 little daughter very happy with two pair of ear-rings, 

 of French paste. Besides these trifles, I left with 

 Captain ShmalefFthe thermometer I had used on my 

 journey, and he promised me to keep an exact re- 

 gister of the temperature of the air for one year, and 

 to transmit it to Mr. Muller, with whom he had the 

 pleasure of being acquainted. 



We dined this day at the commander's, who, stu- 

 dious on every occasion to gratify our curiosity, had, 



* On this occasion, Major Behm permitted us to examine all 

 the maps and charts that were in his possession. Those relating 

 to the peninsula of the Tschutski were made in conformity to the 

 information collected by Plenisher, between the years 1760 and 

 1770. As the charts of Plenisher were afterward made use of, 

 according to Mr. Coxe, in the compilation of the General Map of 

 Russia, published by the Academy in 1776, it may be necessary 

 to observe, that we found them exceedingly erroneous, and that 

 the compilers of the General Map seem to have been led into 

 some mistakes on his authority. Those in which the islands on 

 the coast of America were laid down we found to contain nothing 

 new, and to be much less accurate than those we saw at 

 Oonalashka. 



o 2 



