The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. VII. Being the Third of the Third VoyageKing, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. VII. Being the Third of the Third Voyage
King, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
The houses in Bolcheretsk are all of one fashion, being built of logs
and thatched. That of the commander is much larger than the rest,
consisting of three rooms of a considerable size, neatly papered, and
which might have been reckoned handsome if the _talc_ with which the
windows were covered had not given them a poor and disagreeable
appearance. The town consists of several rows of low buildings, each
consisting of five or six dwellings connected together, with a long
common passage running the length of them, on one side of which is the
kitchen and store-house, and on the other the dwelling apartments.
Besides these are barracks for the Russian soldiers and Cossacks, a
well-looking church, and a court-room; and at the end of the town a
great number of _balagans_, belonging to the Kamtschadales. The
inhabitants taken altogether amount to between five and six hundred. In
the evening the major gave a handsome entertainment, to which the
principal people of the town of both sexes were invited.
The next morning we applied privately to the merchant Fedositsch, to
purchase some tobacco for the sailors, who had now been upward of a
twelvemonth without this favourite commodity. However this, like all our
other transactions of the same kind, came immediately to the major’s
knowledge, and we were soon after surprised to find in our house four
bags of tobacco, weighing upward of a hundred pounds each, which he
begged might be presented, in the name of himself and the garrison under
his command, to our sailors. At the same time they had sent us twenty
loaves of fine sugar, and as many pounds of tea, being articles they
understood we were in great want of, which they begged to be indulged in
presenting to the officers. Along with these, Madame Behm had also sent
a present for Captain Clerke, consisting of fresh butter, honey, figs,
rice, and some other little things of the same kind, attended with many
wishes that, in his infirm state of health, they might be of service to
him. It was in vain we tried to oppose this profusion of bounty, which I
was really anxious to restrain, being convinced that they were giving
away not a share but almost the whole stock of the garrison. The
constant answer the major returned us on those occasions was, that we
had suffered a great deal, and that we must needs be in distress.
Indeed, the length of time we had been out since we touched at any known
port, appeared to them so very incredible, that it required the
testimony of our maps, and other corroborating circumstances, to gain
their belief. Amongst the latter was a very curious fact which Major
Behm related to us this morning, and which he said but for our arrival
he should have been totally at a loss to account for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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