THE LAST BOTTLE OF WIXE. 
489 
the river, and were finally forced to run along in as little 
as three fathoms, or keep so far out to sea that the inden- 
tations of the land, the existence of rivers, &c. would no 
longer he discoverable. Of course \vc cliosc the former 
course, which, though entailing considerable risk, still 
guaranteed the accuracy of our future charts, which was, 
after all, the grand object of tlie Expedition. 
liunniug along in this way upon the morning after 
leaving the Tschantar group, we sighted a sloop-rigged 
vessel ahead, and, the wind being quite light, soon steamed 
up to her, in spite of her evident exertions to get into 
shoal water beyond our reach. A boat was lowered, 
despatched to hoard her, and shortly returned with her 
commanding officer, who came on board in high glee 
upon the discovery that we were an American and not 
an English steamer. She proved to be a Russian gun- 
boat that had run the gauntlet of the Allied fleet at Petro- 
polowski, and reached in safety the port of Petropskie, 
(off which we had anchored the previous night,) where 
said commanding officer lived, and who as a Government 
pilot had taken charge of her, and was now working her 
around into the Amoor to turn her over to the Russian 
admiral, there fortified with a squadron of five sail. This 
old gentleman wore a tarnished and threadbare uniform, 
looked as if he had seen much hard service, and spoke 
English quite fiiirly. We had no difficulty in compre- 
hending each other, as, Muth the table strewed with charts, 
cigars, and the captain’s lust bottle of wine, he pointed 
out the numerous errors of the former, and gave us a 
vast amount of general information that it would have 
taken us months of hard work to collect. For the benefit 
