satisfaction we reaped from his abilities as a linguist, we continued to
let him live on a footing of equality with us.


[12] It is highly probable that there are several small islands or rocks
in the vicinity of this track, the discovery of which would at least
benefit navigation. Thus we are told by Captain Krusenstern, an
authority to which we are always glad to appeal, that he saw in
latitude 17°, and longitude 169° 30', an extraordinary number of
birds, that hovered round his ship in flocks of upwards of a hundred,
from which he inferred his having passed near some island, which
served as a resting place for them. In confirmation of this opinion,
he informs us, that La Perouse in 1786, and an English merchantman in
1796, discovered west of the Sandwich Islands, the first in the
parallel of 22°, and the latter in that of 18°, two small rocky
islands both extremely dangerous; and that the Nero in her passage
from America to China in 1805, found near this place a very dangerous
sand island, viz. in 173° 35' 45" W., and 26° 2' 48" N. It is perhaps
to be regretted, that Krusenstern, who, a few days after the date of
the remark now quoted, crossed Captain Clerke's course, should have so
resolutely endeavoured, as he says he did, and that too with tolerable
success, not to approach the track of that officer nearer than by a
hundred or a hundred and twenty miles. It is evident, that, within a
smaller distance, he might have made some useful discovery, without,
in any measure, endangering his own reputation, as a mere follower in
the footsteps of others. Here it may be added, that his course was
more northerly than Clerke's, and that he did not experience any of
those swells so soon complained of by Captain King.--E.

[13] Voyages made by the Russians from Asia to America, &c., translated