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[Illustration: NOMAHANNA,

QUEEN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.]

_London. Published by Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley. 1839._




     A

     NEW VOYAGE

     ROUND

     THE WORLD,

     IN THE YEARS 1823, 24, 25, AND 26.


     BY OTTO VON KOTZEBUE,

     POST CAPTAIN IN THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL NAVY.


     IN TWO VOLUMES.

     VOL. II.


     LONDON:
     HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY,
     NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
     1830.




     LONDON:
     PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY.
     Dorset Street, Fleet Street.




CONTENTS

OF

THE SECOND VOLUME

Page

  KAMTSCHATKA                                                           1

  NEW-ARCHANGEL                                                        27

  CALIFORNIA, AND THE NEW RUSSIAN SETTLEMENT, ROSS                     69

  THE SANDWICH ISLANDS                                                151

  THE PESCADORES, RIMSKI-KORSAKOFF, ESCHSCHOLTZ, AND BRONUS ISLANDS   267

  THE LADRONES AND PHILIPPINES                                        279

  ST. HELENA                                                          305

  ZOOLOGICAL APPENDIX BY PROFESSOR ESCHSCHOLTZ                        323




LIST OF PLATES.


                                                          Page

  Reception of Captain Kotzebue at the Island of Otdia,
       To face Title of Vol. I.

  Plan of Mattaway Bay and Village                         200

  Chart of the Navigators' Islands                         250

  Chart of the Islands of Radak and Ralik                  288

  Nomahanna, Queen of the Sandwich Islands,
       To face Title of Vol. II.




KAMTSCHATKA.




KAMTSCHATKA.


The wind, which continued favourable to us as far as the Northern
Tropic, was succeeded by a calm that lasted twelve days. The ocean, as
far as the eye could reach, was as smooth as a mirror, and the heat
almost insupportable. Sailors only can fully understand the
disagreeableness of this situation. The activity usual on shipboard gave
place to the most wearisome idleness. Every one was impatient; some of
the men felt assured that we should never have a wind again, and wished
for the most violent storm as a change.

One morning we had the amusement of watching two great sword-fish
sunning themselves on the surface of the water. I sent out a boat, in
the hope that the powerful creatures would, in complaisance, allow us
the sport of harpooning them, but they would not wait; they plunged
again into the depths of the sea, and we had disturbed their enjoyments
in vain.

Our water-machine was several times let down, even to the depth of a
thousand fathoms: on the surface, the temperature was 24 deg., and at
this depth, only 2 deg. of Reaumur.

On the 22nd of May, the anniversary of our frigate's leaving Stopel, we
got a fresh easterly wind, which carried us forward pretty quickly on
the still smooth surface of the sea.

On the 1st of June, when in latitude 42 deg. and longitude 201 deg., and
consequently opposite the coast of Japan, we descried a red stripe in
the water, about a mile long and a fathom broad. In passing over it we
drew up a pail-full, and found that its colour was occasioned by an
infinite number of crabs, so small as to be scarcely distinguishable by
the naked eye.

We now began daily to experience increasing inconveniences from the
Northern climate. The sky, hitherto so serene, became gloomy and covered
with storm-clouds, which seldom threatened in vain; we were, besides,
enveloped in almost perpetual mists, bounding our prospect to a few
fathoms. In a short time, the temperature of the air had fallen from 24
deg. to 3 deg. So sudden a change is always disagreeable, and often
dangerous. We had to thank the skill and attention of our physician,
Dr. Siegwald, that it did not prove so to us. Such rough weather is not
common to the latitude we were in at that season; but it is peculiar to
the Japanese coast even in summer. Whales and storm-birds showed
themselves in great numbers, reminding us that we were hastening to the
North, and were already far from the luxuriant groves of the South-Sea
islands.

The wind continued so favourable, that on the 7th of June we could
already see the high mountains of Kamtschatka in their winter clothing.
Their jagged summits reaching to the heavens, crested with everlasting
snow, which glitters in the sunbeams, while their declivities are begirt
with clouds, give a magnificent aspect to this coast. On the following
day, we reached Awatscha Bay, and in the evening anchored in the harbour
of St. Peter and St. Paul.

The great peninsula of Kamtschatka, stretching to the river Anadir on
the North, and South to the Kurilian Islands, bathed on the east by the
ocean, and on the west by the sea of Ochotsk, is, like many men, better
than its reputation. It is supposed to be the roughest and most desolate
corner of the world, and yet it lies under the same latitude as England
and Scotland, and is equal in size to both. The summer is indeed much
shorter, but it is also much finer; and the vegetation is more luxuriant
than in Great Britain. The winter lasts long, and its discomforts are
increased by the quantity of snow that falls; but in the southern parts
the cold is moderate; and experience has repeatedly refuted the
erroneous opinion, that on account of its long duration, and the
consequent curtailment of the summer season, corn cannot be
efficaciously cultivated here.

Although the snow lies in some of the valleys till the end of May,
because the high, over-shadowing mountains intercept the warm sunbeams,
yet garden-plants prosper. Potatoes generally yield a triple crop, and
would perfectly supply the want of bread, if the inhabitants cultivated
them more diligently: but the easier mode of providing fish in