Note 26 — CHAP. V.

See all that is known of his voyage, and a chart of his discoveries, in Mr. Coxe’s Account of Russian Discoveries between Asia and America. We were not able to learn from the Russians in Kamtschatka, a more perfect account of Synd than we now find is given by Mr. Coxe; and yet they seemed disposed to communicate all that they really knew. Major Behm could only inform us, in general, that the expedition had miscarried as to its object, and that the commander had fallen under much blame. It appeared evidently, that he had been on the coast of America to the southward of Cape Prince of Wales, between the latitude of 64° and 65°; and it is most probable, that his having got too far to the northward to meet with sea-otters, which the Russians, in all their attempts at discoveries, seem to have principally in view, and his returning without having made any that promised commercial advantages, was the cause of his disgrace, and of the great contempt with which the Russians always spoke of this officer’s voyage.

The cluster of islands, placed in Synd’s chart, between the latitude of 61° and 65°, is undoubtedly the same with the island called, by Beering, St. Laurence’s, and those we named Clerke’s, Anderson’s, and King’s Islands; but their proportionate size, and relative situation, are exceedingly erroneous.