LOSS OF FIFTEEN MEN 317 



their hands, and heard them call twice, "Agai, Agai"; and then they 

 turned about and paddled for the shore. I ordered white kerchiefs to be 

 waved as an invitation for them to board our ship. This was done by 

 a number of our men, but it did no good; the people in the boats paid 

 no attention, proceeded shoreward, and entered the bay out of which 

 they had come. We could not follow them because in the first place there 

 was little wind and in the second place the small boat was fast and the 

 larger one had not come very near us. We became convinced that some 

 misfortune had happened to our men.^'^ Dementiev had been gone eight 

 days, and during that time the weather was fair for returning and we 

 stood close by. From the time that the boatswain left us we had hardly 

 moved, and the weather was quiet. Surely something must have hap- 

 pened to them; otherwise they would have come. The action of the 

 natives, their fear to come close to us, made us suspect that they had 

 either killed our men or held them. We stood near the place the rest 

 of the day; in the evening we kept offshore a bit but had a lantern at the 

 stern so that in case our men came out they would see us. 



The next morning at eleven we came about and coasted along the shore 

 between north and west. Bj^ the end of July 26, we had come to latitude 

 58° 21' N and longitude from Vaua, according to our reckoning as we 

 went along, 54° 1 1'.^ At this place and on July 27 we discussed whether we 

 should still keep up the search. We had no small boat and therefore 

 no means of sending a party ashore or bringing water and provisions on 

 board. According to our reckoning in coming over we were nearly 2,000 

 knots from the Harbor of St. Peter and St. Paul, and we had no idea 

 what kind of wind we should have. We had 45 casks of water, hardly 

 enough for such a distance; we did not know whether they were full 

 or partly empty (later it proved that we were seven short). Having 

 taken all these circumstances into consideration, we — that is, I, Lieuten- 

 ant Chikhachev, Navigator Vrange, Fleet Lieutenant Plautin, and 

 Navigator Ivan Elagin — agreed not to continue on our course [not to 

 follow the coast] but to start back at once for the Harbor of St. Peter 

 and St. Paul. I enclose an accurate copy of our decision.^ At the time 

 we realized that it was too soon for going back and, had it not been 

 for our misfortunes, we should not have done so. Altogether we saw 

 about 400 versts of the [American] coast. 



Having decided, we put about and sailed for this harbor. On the 

 way we had contrary winds from northwest and southwest almost con- 

 tinuously. We unexpectedly ran into some land [Adak Island] which 

 was on our course and nearly lost the ship and all on board. We saw 

 whales, sea lions, walruses, porpoises, birds, many white-backed ducks, 



5 According to the journal (Chapter VII, p. 297) the latitude is that of July 26 

 but the longitude that of July 27. 



6 See below, p. 324. '*° See note on p. 311. 



