DEATH OF CLERKE.

Leaving on 13th June, the Asiatic coast was followed up, and 1st July they were off the Gulf of Anadyr, where fogs and ice began seriously to interfere with their progress, so they abandoned the Asiatic for the American side, but with no better luck. They reached the latitude of 70 degrees 33 minutes North, about five leagues short of the point reached the previous year, and at length, realising further efforts were useless and resulting in serious damage to the ships from continual contact with the loose ice, Clerke determined to return to Awatska Bay and refit and then return to England. On 22nd August, the day before they reached the Bay, Captain Clerke, who had long been suffering from serious ill health, died, and was buried under a tree a little to the north of the post of St. Peter and St. Paul; the crews of both ships and the Russian garrison taking part in the funeral ceremony, and the Russian priest reading the service at the grave. Clerke had been all three voyages with Cook, and was only thirty-eight years of age.

Gore now took command of the Resolution, Burney, Rickman, and Lanyon being his lieutenants, whilst King was the new Captain of the Discovery, and Williamson and Hervey his lieutenants; Bayley going with Gore in charge of the astronomical observations. On 9th October they left Awatska and were off Cape Nambu, Japan, on the 26th, but were driven off the coast by bad weather, and anchored in Macao Roads on 1st December. Here, after considerable delay, stores were obtained from Canton, and the seaman managed to dispose of most of the furs they had obtained in the north. King estimates that the two ships received, in money and goods, as much as 2000 pounds for the skins, and says that the men were so anxious to return for more that they were almost in a state of mutiny.

On 11th April the ships reached the Cape, where the officers were cordially received by Governor Plattenberg, who expressed the deepest regret to hear of the loss of Cook, and requested that he should be sent a portrait of the Captain to place in a blank space he pointed out between two portraits of De Ruyter and Van Tromp—a gracious compliment. Sailing from Simon's Bay on 9th May, the trades were picked up on the 14th, and on 13th June the line was crossed in longitude 26 degrees 16 minutes West. The coast of Ireland was sighted on 12th August, and an attempt was made to get into Galway Bay, but strong southerly winds drove them to the north, and at length, rounding the north of Scotland, they put into Stromness, whence Captain King was despatched overland to the Admiralty. The ships arrived off the Nore on 4th October, after an absence of "four years, two months, and twenty-two days."