mss142-vasilevShishmarev-i4-035

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verify these stories, Captain Vasilev instructed Captain
Shishmarev, accompanied by two officers, to go in the long-
boat of our sloop and to survey these bays if, in fact, they
did exist, and to find the source of the Great River. The
rains prevailing until the end of December and strong winds
did not let us start the exploration until January 17th. On
this day the weather cleared, and although it was then winter,
we had warm, even hot, days again. We armed the longboat,
and the captain, in the company of myself, Midshipman Hall,
12 sailors, and one warrant officer, began the expedition,
taking provisions for ten days, a pocket chronometer, two sex-
tants, two artificial horizons, a chain, a circumferentor,
and an azimuth [compass] and two tents. That
hunting and fishing equipment was not omitted is self-evident.

Leaving the sloop at 9 o'clock in the morning with a
medium SE we directed our course toward Cape San Rafael, try-
ing to reach it before noon in order to determine the lati-
tude by observations and to take it as our starting point for
the next survey, but the wind began to abate, and the heavily
laden longboat barely moved ahead so that we could not get to
the cape in time, and it was necessary, in order not to waste
such a clear day for the taking of the midday height, to ap-
proach a small island. Determining its latitude, 37 ⁰ 57' 17" N,
and having dinner there, we continued farther. When we neared
the pass between the two capes we were overtaken by an awful