[27] It ought, however, to be recollected, that though Shalauroff is conceived never to have doubled Shelatskoi Noss, he nevertheless does not appear to have considered there was any particular difficulty in doing so. In his first attempt to sail from the Kovyma to the Eastern Ocean, he was necessitated, by contrary winds, and the too far advanced season of the year, to seek for a watering-place, before having reached that cape. In the following year, again, he was frustrated by want of provisions, and a mutiny of his crew, which forced him to return to the Lena. The progress of his last enterprise is somewhat uncertain, as neither he nor any of his crew ever returned. But there are tolerably good reasons for believing, that, at all events, he had surmounted the navigation of this cape, if not for the opinion, that he actually accomplished the chief object of his voyage, by bringing his vessel to the mouth of the Anadir, where, it is on the whole, most probable, they were killed by the Tschutski. This last circumstance, however, it is to be allowed Mr Coxe, affords no decisive proof that they had doubled the eastern extremity of Asia, for it is possible they might have reached the Anadir by a journey over land. After all, then, we are forced to revert to Deshneff's voyage as the solitary evidence, and that too but imperfectly elucidated, of the practicability of reaching the Eastern Ocean from the north coast of Asia.--E.
[28] See chart in Coxe's Account of Russian Discoveries.
[29] Here, it is not unlikely, some readers will feel regret, that a greater sacrifice was not made, or a longer continued effort practised, or a renewed attempt hazarded, in order to overcome so inconsiderable a space, and so to double Shelatskoi Noss, whence, it may be thought, there could have been comparatively little difficulty in prosecuting the object of the voyage. The feeling is not unreasonable, provided it be not made the basis of any thing like censure on the management of the undertaking; in which case, it must soon give way to the conviction of the superior good sense, and the higher interest (excluding altogether, which is manifestly inhuman, every concern for the persons immediately engaged in the enterprise) displayed by the determination to abandon the attempt. To the force of this conviction, it may be necessary to add the very material consideration, that, even had it been any way practicable to double the cape in question, and to reach the Lena in the same track as Shalauroff, there would have still remained the space betwixt that river and Archangel, which, though undoubtedly to a great degree explored, does not appear to have been ever altogether navigated. To the merely fanciful caviller at the result of this attempt, it would be a prostitution of time and patience, even if one had both in the requisite quantity, to offer a reply. But the observations which Captain King immediately makes on this subject, will probably obviate any objection which the most sanguine mind will be disposed to entertain, and perhaps there was little occasion to subjoin a single remark to his opinion.--E.