NORTH WEST COAST OF AMERICA. 121, 



beg our affiftance againil the Ruffians . He was very im- ^ ^ ^ ^* 



VI, 



Thurlday 10. 



portunate with me to grant his requeft, intimating at the 

 fame time that he could prefently aflemble a large fleet of Auguft. 

 canoes, with which, affifted by our fhips, they could ealily 

 get the better of their enemies. On my rcfuflng his re- 

 queft, he feemed rather mortified j but to confole him in 

 fome meafure for this difappointment, I gave him a light 

 horfeman's cap, of which he was very proud; and his 

 countrymen beheld him with fuch a mixture of admira- 

 tion and envy, that I greatly queftion whether he will be 

 able to keep it long in his poffeffion. I alfo diftributed a 

 few trifles amongft the other Indians, and they returned on 

 fliore perfediy fatisfied, notv/ithitanding I refufed to efpoufe 

 their caufe a2:ainft the Ruffians. 



At one o'clock the whale-boat returned from found- 

 ing, and the officer who was in her inlormed me, that he' 

 found four and five fathoms water about half a mile from 

 the flioal, aiid all round it near the fame depth Ov^r a- bot- 

 tom of black muddy fand, the tide running at the rate oi 

 four miles an hour. Soon after four o'clock, the flood 

 being nearly done, wx weighed and ftretched over for the 

 Eaftern fhdre, with a light breeze from the South South 

 Eaft. After getting about two miles to the Eaftward, the 

 water deepened fo much, that we got no ground with fixty 

 fathoms of line ; but after paffmg the mid channel, we 

 ftruck the ground in thirty- four fathoms water, over a 

 fhingly bottom, and the water fhoaled gradually as we ad- 

 vanced towards the Eaftern fhore. About nine o'clock ^^ e 

 anchored in fixteen fathoms water, oyer a fiiingly bottom, 

 as I judged the ebb to have been dor.e; but' it run down 



R neac 



