Thus, finding a farther advance to the northward, as well as a nearer approach to either continent, obstructed by a sea blocked up with ice, we judged it both injurious to the service, by endangering the safety of the ships, as well as fruitless, with respect to the design of our voyage, to make any farther attempts toward a passage. This, therefore, added to the representations of Captain Gore, determined Captain Clerke not to lose more time in what he concluded to be an unattainable object, but to sail for Awatska Bay, to repair our damages there; and, before the winter should set in, and render all other efforts toward discovery impracticable, to explore the coast of Japan. I will not endeavour to conceal the joy that brightened the countenance of every individual, as soon as Captain Clerke’s resolutions were made known. We were all heartily sick of a navigation full of danger, and in which the utmost perseverance had not been repaid with the smallest probability of success. We therefore turned our faces toward home, after an absence of three years, with a delight and satisfaction, which, notwithstanding the tedious voyage we had still to make, and the immense distance we had to run, were as freely entertained, and perhaps as fully enjoyed, as if we had been already in sight of the Land’s-end. On the 28th, we kept working to windward with a fresh breeze from the south-east, having the coast of Asia still in sight. At four in the morning, the cape, which, on the authority of Muller, we have called Serdze Kamen, bore south south-west, distant six or seven leagues. We saw, in different places, upon the tops of the hills, which rise inland on both sides of the cape, protuberances of a considerable height, which had the appearance of huge rocks, or pillars of stone.