192 
A VOYAGE TO 
1779* time, the ice had furrounded them near a quarter of a mile 
_ 1 deep. This obliged us to ftay on fhore till evening, when 
finding no profpedt of getting the boats off, fome of us 
went in fledges to the edge of the ice, and were taken off 
by boats fent from the fhip, and the reft ft aid on fhore all 
night. 
It continued to freeze hard during the night; but, before 
Tuefday 4. morning, on the 4th, a change of .wind drifted away the 
floating ice, and fet the boats at liberty, without their hav¬ 
ing fuftained the fmalleft damage. 
About ten o’clock in the forenoon, we faw feveral fledges 
driving down to the edge of the ice, and fent a boat to con- 
du£t the perfons who were in them on board. One of thefe 
was a Ruffian merchant from Bolcheretfk, named Fedo- 
fitfch, and the other a German, called Port, who had brought 
a letter from Major Behm, the Commander of Kamtfchatka, 
to Captain Clerke. When they got to the edge of the ice, 
and faw diftinftly the fize of the fhips, which lay within 
about two hundred yards from them, they appeared to be ex¬ 
ceedingly alarmed ; and, before they would venture to em¬ 
bark, defired two of our boat’s crew might be left on fhore 
as hoftages for their fafety. We afterward found that If- 
myloff, in his letter to the Commander, had mifreprefented 
us, for what reafons we could not conceive, as two fmall 
trading boats, and that the Serjeant, who had only feen the 
fhips at a diftance, had not, in his difpatches, rectified the 
miftake. 
When they arrived on board, we ftill found, from their 
cautious and timorous behaviour, that they were under 
fome unaccountable apprehenlions ; and an uncommon de¬ 
gree of latisfadtion was viftble in their countenances, on the 
German’s finding a perfon-amongft us, with whom he could 
converfe. 
