124 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
vas and made speed to port, dropping anchor in Sydney 
Harbour on March 29th, 1820, 13 1 days out from Rio. 
The two ships Otkritie and Blagonamerenii were found 
here again, having got no farther on their leisurely voy- 
age to Bering Sea. The young colony of New South 
Wales gave a most hearty welcome to the Russian offi- 
cers, and Bellingshausen very handsomely acknowledges 
the kindness he received from the governor General Mac- 
quarie and the leading citizens of Sydney and Paramatta. 
The governor drove the officers out to see the new light- 
house on die South Head on April 18th, an auspicious 
day, for as they approached the lighthouse they saw the 
Mirni glide into the harbour with all well on board. 
The two ships remained in port undergoing a very 
necessary overhaul only until May 19th, for the objects of 
the expedition were not exclusively polar, and the Russian 
commodore and his crews spent the southern winter of 
1820 in cruising through the tropical archipelagoes of 
the South Pacific. The Paumotu group, not yet fully 
charted after the lapse of more than eighty years, was 
then scarcely known and amongst those islands the Vos- 
tok and Mirni spent much orf their time. A bag of seven- 
teen new islands rewarded the mighty hunters of the ex- 
pedition. An interesting visit was also paid to Cook’s 
only place of refreshment Tahiti, where the chief Pomare 
and the English missionaries received them with graceful 
hospitality. 
The ships were back in Sydney Plarbour on September 
19th, and there the Russian consul informed Bellings- 
hausen of the discovery of New South Shetland by Wil- 
liam Smith in 1819, a fact of some little importance as 
bearing on the authenticity of Fanning’s account of the 
visit of the Russian expedition to Deception Island to 
