LOSS OF THE ST. PETER. 291 
brated man ! It may almost be said that he was buried alive. 
Having been carried on shore with the greatest precaution, 
he was placed in the largest and least incommodious hole, 
and a covering was carefully erected over him in the form of 
a tent. The sand soon began to fall down from the sides of 
the hole in which he lay, and every moment covered his feet. 
It was immediately removed by those who attended him ; but, 
at last, he would not suffer it to be taken away, thinking he 
felt some warmth from it, the vital heat having already for- 
saken the other parts of his body. The sand gradually ac- 
cumulated, till it covered him up to the belly ; and when he 
had expired, his people were obliged to dig him out, in order 
to give him a decent interment. 
A few days before the death of the commodore, the Rus- 
sians had the misfortune to lose their vessel, the only resource 
capable of extricating them from their forlorn situation. She 
was at anchor, as we have seen above, and exposed to the vio- 
lence of a tempestuous sea, when, in the night between the 
28th and 29th, a furious storm arose, the cable parted, and 
the vessel was driven ashore, very near the dens of the Rus- 
sians. She was found in the morning buried in the sand to 
the depth of eight or ten feet. Upon inspection, the keel and 
sides were found to be broken to pieces. The water, which 
entered the ship and ran off below, had washed away or 
spoiled the greatest part of the remaining provisions, consist- 
ing of flour, oatmeal, and salt. 
Situated as the unfortunate mariners were, this loss was 
extremely afflicting ; but appeared much less when they re- 
flected that the vessel, though much damaged, had been 
thrown upon the sand at their feet, and not carried out to sea; 
they still entertained hopes that even, if she could not be got 
afloat again, they might with the materials build a bark ca- 
pable of carrying them to Kamtschatka. 
The events which had occurred since their shipwreck had 
diverted the attention of the Russians from two important ob- 
jects in their situation ; in the first place, to take a survey of 
the country in which they had landed, and, in the second, to 
provide for their subsistence. As the latter was the more 
pressing of the two, they immediately took it into serious con- 
sideration after the loss of the ship. They were still igno- 
rant whether they had landed on an island or a continent, 
whether the country was inhabited, and were unacquainted 
with its animal and vegetable productions. Having deliberat- 
ed on these subjects, they resolved to begin with reconnoiter- 
