THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
193 
converfe. This was Mr. Webber, who fpoke that language 1779. 
perfectly well; and at laft, though with fome difficulty, con- v May ' 
vinced them, that we were Engliffimen, and friends. Mr. 
Port being introduced to Captain Clerke, delivered to him 
the Commander’s letter, which was written in German, and 
was merely complimental, inviting him and his officers to 
Bolcheretfk, to which place the people, who brought it, 
were to conduct us. Mr. Port, at the fame time, acquainted 
him, that the Major had conceived a very wrong idea of the 
fize of the ffiips, and of the fervice we were engaged in; 
IfmylofF, in his letter, having reprefented us as two fmall 
Englifh pacquet boats, and cautioned him to be on his 
guard; inftnuating, that he fufpeCted us to be no better 
than pirates. In confequence of this letter, he faid, there 
had been various conjectures formed about us at Bolche¬ 
retfk : that the Major thought it molt probable we were on 
a trading fcheme, and for that reafon had fent down a mer¬ 
chant to us ; but that the officer, who was fecond in com¬ 
mand, was of opinion we were French, and come with fome 
hoftile intention, and was for taking meafures accordingly. 
It had required, he added, all the Major’s authority to keep 
the inhabitants from leaving the town, and retiring up into 
the country; to fo extraordinary a pitch had their fears 
rifen, from their perfuafion that we were French. 
Their extreme apprehenfions of that nation were princi¬ 
pally occaftoned by fome circumflances attending an infur- 
recftion that had happened at Bolcheretfk, a few years be¬ 
fore, in which the Commander had loft his life. We were 
informed, that an exiled Polifh officer, named Beniowfki, 
taking advantage of the confufion into which the town was 
thrown, had feized upon a galliot, then lying at the entrance 
©f the Bolchoireka, and had forced on board a number of 
\ ol. Ill, C c Ruffian 
