86 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



most ungrateful persons to take notice when the Captain Com- 

 mander, who from scurvy and confinement had entirely lost the 

 use of his limbs, was restored by me to such an extent simply by 

 his partaking of the fresh spoonwort that within eight days he 

 could get out of bed and on deck again and felt as well as at the 

 beginning of the voyage, and also when the use of Lapathum for 

 only three days, according to my direction, made the teeth of 

 most of the sailors firm again. 



Because of the rain which began towards evening I had already 

 built myself a hut and intended to spend the night on the island; 

 I decided nevertheless finally to return to the vessel in order once 

 more to present emphatically and with the greatest respect my 

 opinion on the bad water and on the collecting of the herbs. 

 However, when I saw my opinion concerning the water again 

 spurned and coarsely contradicted and had to hear myself, like 

 a surgeon's apprentice belonging to the command, ordered to 

 gather the herbs, and that this important work, which affected 

 the health and lives of all, was not considered worth the labor of 

 a few sailors, I repented of my good intentions and resolved that 

 in the future I would only look after the preservation of my own 

 self without wasting another word. With this in mind, I went 

 ashore again on the morning of August 31, continued my work, 

 and together with Mr. Plenisner explored the land. However, 

 towards evening, we were hurriedly called on board by a sluzhiv 

 [servant] with the announcement that because of an appre- 

 hended storm, of which, however, we had not the slightest signs 

 on land, all the men were being assembled on board so as to be 

 ready to go to sea in case the anchors did not hold in the rising 

 gale, as the place where we were standing was highly dangerous, 

 although previously, in spite of all protests, it was pronounced 

 protected on all sides. — Immediately we all ran as fast as we 

 could to the eastern shore of the island, a distance of over a mile, 

 and discovered everything there as we had been told. We also 

 found that the confusion on shore, on account of the sick who 

 had been brought here the day before and who now could be 

 dragged into the boat only with difticulty because of the high 



