3 
my 
S- CHARA 
, e 
_ Banks (whofe generous conduét the 
_ writer of this narrative has often 
» heard him acknowledge), had libe- 
rally fupplied. But the fcheme be- 
_ ing fruftrated by the rapacity of a 
__.cuitom-houfe officer, who had feized 
and detained the veffel for reafons 
_ -which, on legal enquiry, proved to 
be frivolous, he determined to tra- 
_ vel overland to Kamtfchatka; from 
whence, to the Weitern coaft of 
_ America, the paflage is extremely 
_ fhort. With no more than ten gui- 
of ‘meas in his purfe, which was all 
_ ‘that he had left, he crofled the Bri- 
 tifh Channel to Oftend, and, by the 
_ way of Denmark and the Sound, 
_ proceeded to the capital of Sweden ; 
- from whence, as it was winter, he 
"attempted to traverfe the Gulph of 
_ + Bothnia on the ice, in order to reach 
Kamtfchatka by the fhorteft way ; 
_ but finding, when he came to the 
_ middle of the fea, that the water 
was not frozen, he retwrned to 
_ Stockholm, and, taking his courfe 
_ Northward, walked into the Arétic 
» Circle, and, pafling round the head of 
the Gulph, defcended, on its Eaftern 
we 
fide, to Peterfburg. 
. « There he was foon noticed as 
_-@n extraordinary man. Without 
 ftockings or thoes, and in too much 
poverty to provide himfelf with 
_ @ither, he received and accepted an 
invitation to dine with the Portu- 
— guefe Ambaflador. To this invi- 
» fation it was probably owing that 
he was able to obtain the fum of 
twenty guineas for a bill on Sir 
Joseph Banks, which he confefled 
he had no authority to draw, but 
_ Which, in confideration of the bufi- 
~ wefs that he had undertaken, and of 
progrefs that he had made, Sir 
feph, he believed, would not be 
willing to pay. ‘To the Ambal- 
fador’s intereft it might alfo be 
“Wou. XXXL, 
grt Bans: 19 
owing that he obtained permiffion 
to accompany a detachment of 
ftores, which the Emprefs had or- 
dered to be fent to Yakutz, for the 
ufe of Mr. Billings, an Englifhman, 
at that time in her fervice. 
«© Thus accommodated, he tra- 
velled Eaftward through Siberia, 
fix -thoufand miles, to Yakutz, 
where he was kindly received by 
Mr. Billings, whom he remembered 
on board Capt. Cook’s fhip, in the 
fituation of the aftronomer’s fer- 
vant, but to whom the Emprefs had 
now entrufted her {chemes of North- 
ern difcovery. 
«© From Yakutz he proceeded to 
Oczakow, on the coaft of the Kamt- 
fchatka fea; from whence he meant 
to have pafled over to that penin- 
fula, and to have embarked on the 
Eaftern fide, in one of the Ruffian 
veflels that trade to the Weftern 
fhores of America; but finding that 
the navigation was completely ob- 
firu€ted by the ice, he returned to 
Yakutz, in order to wait for the 
conclufion of the winter. 
« Such was his fituation, when, 
in confequence of fufpicions not hi- 
therto explained, or refentments for 
which no reafon is affigned, he was 
feized, in the Emprefs’s name, by 
two Ruffian foldiers, who placed him 
in a fledge, and, conveying him, in 
the depth of winter, through the 
defarts of the Northern Tartary, 
left him at laft on the frontiets of 
the Polifh dominions. As they 
parted, they told him, that, if he 
returned to Ruflia, he would cer- 
tainly be hanged; but that, if he 
chofe to go back to England, they 
wifhed him a pleafant journey. 
«In the midft of poverty, cover- 
ed with rags, infelted with the ufual 
accompaniment of fuch clothing, 
worm with continued hardfhip, ex- 
Cc hauted 
