1793* ^^ captain Billing u 13 



towns and people near them, if their commander did 

 not return in a certain time ; for they fortunatelj 

 thought it was to wait there for him, and were ig- 

 norant of the orders given by captain Billings to his 

 liutenant, to winter at the island of Analafki, and re- 

 turn to Kamtchatka in the summer, as it was au- 

 tumn when he landed in their country. 



Arrived at Yakuts, captain Billings dispatched his 

 mefsenger to the court, and was to set out soon for 

 Irkuts on the lake Baycal, a thousand versts nearer 

 Peterfburgh, for the recovery of his health, much 

 impaired by the scurvy, where he was to wait her 

 majesty's orders of return j his instructions being ex- 

 ecuted in the space of six years absence, as far as 

 physical obstacles would permit. 



His consort captain Hall, which sailed long after 

 him from Kamtchatka, he never saw during the 

 whole of last voyage, although he waited for her 

 at an appointed rendezvous ; but the courier says, 

 that the news of her arrival at St Peter and St 

 Paul, was received before he set out. This was 

 either a new fhip, or the old one repaired, which 

 had drove on Ihore on setting out from Kamtchatka, 

 mentioned in m^ first intelligence of the expedition 

 vol. ix. p. 61. 



The Sotrick or Centurion of Cofsacks he sent 

 down here, and who had been with him in his ex- 

 pedition as interpreter for the Tchutlki language, is 

 a most curious and entertaining subject, from his 

 violent attachment to his nativ^e climate, many hun- 

 dred versts to the north of Ochotlk. Your corres- 

 pondent had much conversation with him at Dr PaU 



