small thin wooden case or box,
and having delivered this safe, and spoken something, and made some
more signs, the canoes dropped astern, and left the Discovery. No one
on board her had any suspicion that the box contained any thing, till
after the departure of the canoes, when it was accidentally opened,
and a piece of paper was found, folded up carefully, upon which
something was written in the Russian language, as was supposed. The
date 1778 was prefixed to it, and, in the body of the written note,
there was a reference to the year 1776. Not learned enough to decypher
the alphabet of the writer, his numerals marked sufficiently that
others had preceded us in visiting this dreary part of the globe, who
were united to us by other ties besides those of our common nature;
and the hopes of soon meeting with some of the Russian traders could
not but give a sensible satisfaction to those who had, for such a
length of time, been conversant with the savages of the Pacific Ocean,
and of the continent of North America.

Captain Clerke was, at first, of opinion, that some Russians had been
shipwrecked here, and that these unfortunate persons, seeing our ships
pass, had taken this method to inform us of their situation. Impressed
with humane sentiments, on such an occasion, he was desirous of
our stopping till they might have time to join us. But no such idea
occurred to me. It seemed obvious, that if this had been the case, it
would have been the first step taken by such shipwrecked persons, in
order to secure to themselves, and to their companions, the relief
they could not but be solicitous about, to send some of their body off
to the ships in the canoes. For this reason, I rather thought that the
paper contained a note of information, left by some Russian trader,
who had lately been amongst these islands, to be delivered to the next
of their countrymen who should arrive; and that the natives, seeing
our ships pass, and supposing us to be Russians, had resolved to bring
off the note, thinking it might induce us to stop. Fully convinced of
this, I did not stay to enquire any farther into the matter, but
made sail, and stood away to the westward, along the coast; perhaps
I should say along the islands, for we could not pronounce, with
certainty, whether the nearest land, within us, was continent or
islands. If not the latter, the coast here forms some tolerably large
and deep bays.

We continued to run all night with a gentle