136 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



thus lost two anchors in half a quarter of an hour, the present 

 Lieutenant Ovtsin and the boatswain came forward at last and 

 forbade the throwing over of any more anchors, because it was 

 to no purpose so long as we were tossed about among the waves 

 on the reef; they advised on the contrary to let the vessel drift. 

 — When we had thus passed inside the bar and the surf, these 

 men, who alone had retained their reason, let the last anchor 

 drop, because we now lay between the hurun and the shore as in 

 a placid lake, all at once quiet and delivered of all fear of strand- 

 ing. — The wise sayings which were uttered while we were in 

 imminent peril of death, and about which one could scarcely 

 keep himself from laughing^os even in the midst of the danger, 

 can be judged, among other things, by the fact that someone 

 asked whether the water was very salty, as if death in fresh water 

 would be more delightful. — Another, for the better encourage- 

 ment of the panic-stricken men shouted: "Oh, God! It is all 

 over with us ! Oh, God, our ship ! A disaster has befallen our 

 ship !" God now laid bare the resoluteness of the hearts which 

 ordinarily were bursting with courage. He who until now had 

 been the greatest talker and advice-giver ^^^ kept himself con- 

 cealed, until others, with God's help, had found a way out, 

 whereupon he began valiantly to preach courage to the men, 

 though he himself from high-heartedness was as pale as a corpse. 

 — In the midst of this hubbub another ridiculous performance 

 took place. For several days we had been carrying with us the 

 dead trumpeter and a soldier ^lo in order to bury them ashore, 



308 A somewhat different aspect is furnished by this passage as given 

 in the MS. It there reads: "How strange the behavior and the wise 

 sayings uttered at this time were, can be judged by the fact that some, in 

 spite of the imminent peril of death, could not refrain from laughing, 

 and that someone asked whether the water was very salty," etc. 



309 Probably Khitrov is meant. 



310 Instead of "the dead trumpeter and a soldier" the MS reads "the 

 bodies of several soldiers and of the trumpeter." The entries in the log 

 book would seem to confirm the published version as edited by Pallas, 

 as, of all who died between October 31 and November 5, the bodies of 

 all but two (the grenadiers Alexei Popov and Ivan Nebaranov; Vol. i. 



