ASSOCIATIOK 
His firft Plan for the purpofe was that of embarking in a 
velTel which was then preparing to fail, on a Voyage of Com- 
mercial Adventure, to Nootka Sound, on the Weftern Coaft of 
America ; and with this view he expended in fea ftores, the 
greatefl: part of the money which his chief benefactor Sir Jofeph 
Banks (whofe generous conduct the Writer of this Narrative 
has often heard him acknowledge) had liberally fupplied. But 
the fcheme being fruftrated by the rapacity of a Cuftom-houfe 
Officer, who had feized and detained the vefTel for reafons 
which on legal inquiry proved to be frivolous, he determined 
to travel over land to Kamfchatka, from whence to the Weft- 
ern coaft of America the palTage is extremely fhort. With no 
more than ten guineas in his purfe, which was all that he had 
left, he croffed the Britifh Channel to Oftend, and by the way 
of Denmark and the Sound, proceeded to the capital of Swe- 
den, from whence, as it was Winter, he attempted to traverfe 
the Gulph of Bothnia on the ice, in order to reach Kamfchatka 
by the fhorteft way ; but finding, when he came to the middle 
of the fea, that the water was not frozen, he returned to Stock- 
holm, and taking his courfe Northward, walked into the Arctic 
Circle ; and pafling round the head of the Gulph, defcended 
on its Eaftern fide to Peterfburgh. 
There, 
