THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
435 
day, been riling in their value. One of our feamen fold his 
ftock, alone, for eight hundred dollars; and a few prime 
.{kins, which were clean, and had been well preferved, 
were fold for one hundred and twenty each. The whole 
amount of the value, in fpecie and goods, that was got for 
the furs, in both fhips, I am confident, did not fall fhort of 
two thoufand pounds fterling; and it was generally fup- 
pofed, that at leaft two-thirds of the quantity we had origi¬ 
nally got from the Americans, were fpoiled and worn out, 
or had been given away, and otherwife difpofed of, in 
Kamtfchatka. When, in addition to thefe fadts, it is re¬ 
membered, that the furs were, at firft, collected without 
our having any idea of their real value; that the greateft 
part had been worn by the Indians, from whom we pur- 
chafed them; that they were afterward preferved with 
little care, and frequently ufed for bed-clothes, and other 
purpofes, during our cruize to the North; and that, pro¬ 
bably, we had never got the full value for them in China; 
the advantages that might be derived from a voyage to that 
part of the American coaft, undertaken with commercial 
views, appear to me of a degree of importance fufhcient to 
call for the attention of the Public. 
The rage with which our feamen were pofTeffed to return 
to Cook’s River, and, by another cargo of fkins, to make 
their fortunes, at one time, was not far fhort of mutiny; 
and I muff own, I could not help indulging myfelf in a pro¬ 
ject, which the difappointment we had fuffered, in being 
obliged to leave the Japanefe Archipelago, and the Northern 
coaft of China, unexplored, firft fuggefted; and, by what I 
conceived, that object might ftill be happily accomplifhed, 
through means of the Eaft India Company, not only with¬ 
out expence, but even with the profpe<ft of very confider- 
3 K 2 able 
1779. 
December, 
