entirely by seamen, who mount guard and perform all the other duties of soldiers.

"As the winter had made rapid strides, and no alternative remained but to discharge the cargo and proceed to sea again, this was done on the 18th of October, much to our satisfaction; for the prospect of wintering in so desolate a place was not agreeable. "Ochotsk contains about an hundred log edifices, inhabited by twelve hundred souls; it is situated on a strand of shingles, which having become insulated and untenable, has been abandoned for a more suitable spot on the opposite side of the harbour. The Government-house, hospital, barracks, court-house, and some magazines, had been removed before our arrival and during our stay. Newport was considerably increased at the expense of Old Town. These log buildings are removed with the facility of tents, yet they are very comfortable inside, and well adapted to the country.

"The port is very extensive, but for the greater part dry at low water: it lies about latitude 59 deg. 20 min. north, and longitude about 143 deg. 12 min. east of Greenwich. It is high water on full and change days, at ten hours and a quarter. Spring tides rise eight, ten, to even twelve feet, with a southerly wind in the autumn. The bar is said to have five feet on it at low water spring tides, which I rather doubt. Vessels drawing about twelve feet ought not to visit this port; though they may make shift to enter it on emergency, as it is the only place in these seas

where any thing can be done in the way of repairs. The coast is bold and clear of hidden danger; it may be discovered a great distance off, being mountainous and usually clad in snow, the reflection of which, opposite the sun, is seen a long way; the soundings also appear to be regular, and a good guide at night, and in thick or rainy weather, which prevails throughout the summer season. The great disadvantage of this coast is, that stretching in an east and west line, without any place of shelter, a vessel caught near it with a southerly gale, and unable to work off, must either ride it out or else be wrecked. Losses by shipwreck do not appear at present to be at all common; and gales, I believe, are neither frequent nor severe. None of the charts or maps of this coast are to be depended on in any degree; but as far as they extend, the surveys of Broughton, Krusenstern, and Golovin, are very accurate.

"Ochotsk is the channel of communication between Russia and its settlements in Kamtschatka to America; the latter are under the exclusive direction of a mercantile company, whose charter has but two years to run. They have of late attacked the Japanese; settled a colony in California, a considerable distance within the Spanish lines; and also seized on one of the isles of the celebrated Tamahana, whom it was intended to have dispossessed of Owyhee,—but failing in effecting this, the next to it, Mowee, was taken. These pro'ceedings of the company, together with the want of honor which has

marked

marked their transactions, not only with their servants and subjects, but also with the public, has rendered them abhorred as a body, and makes it probable that a very different charter will be substituted for the old one. Very probably another effort will be made by them to create an Indian Company, either independent of, or as an appendage to the Ame rican Company. Litka, in Nor folk Sound, is the residence of M. Brenoff, the Company's agent, who is absolute, and exercises almost regal powers; he has a fleet of about ten sail of vessels, one of which is of three hundred tons, and with many of the others, was built in the colonies. Had our voyage been directed to that 'point, it might have proved more advantageous than we can now expect it will do.

"Kamtschatka, with all its natural advantages, appears to be at a stand, if not declining, as its population has dwindled to a mere nothing; the aborigines are reduced to less than six thousand, and have made no advances in civilization: the Russians resident there do not amount, I believe, to a thousand.

"Shaping a course to the southward, we passed in sight of Tonoo rock, about midnight of the 19th. This rock being bold to, and discernible at, a considerable distance, may be steered for by vessels uncertain of their true place, by reasons of fogs, &c. It lies in the meridian of Ochotsk. Being favoured with fair winds, in three days our mast-heads, rigging, and sails were clear of the ice and snow, which had adhered to them; but the wea

ther continued sharp. On the afternoon of the 22nd, made the coast of Sagallen in lat. 51 deg. 30 min. N., and being well in with it at midnight, had to put about. The weather after this was very bearable: at times it appeared to be felt less sensibly than when crossing the same parallels a month before, on our way to the northward. On the 29th we quitted the sea of Ochotsk, by passing through Pico channel, the same by which we had entered it; and then having sea room, and the prospect of enjoying a more genial climate in a few days, could not but look on the voyage as accomplished. Impelled along by the most favorable gales, Sandown Point, on the coast of Niphon, was made at daylight of 4th November, and at noon we were up with White Point, and steering in for Yeddo Bay, where I was inclined to pass a day or two. After working to windward, and tossing about most terribly for a week without making an inch, we were necessitated, for want of time, to bear away, with the poor consolation of being only in like case with H. M. sloops Resolution and Providence, who, in 1776 and in 1796, were in the early part of November drifted about at the mercy of the strong N. E. currents they met with on this part of the coast. During this time fires were kindled nightly along the coast, and similar signals were made in the day when near any village or town, either by way of invitation or else to warn us of danger. The boats we passed nearer to, did not at all appear to shun us, and had I

visited us. N. E. and easterly winds carried us on very agree. ably, and at daylight, the 17th, made two small islands of the Loo-choo Group; and the following midnight shaved the S. E. point of Great Loo-choo: we saw nothing of it. The night of the 22nd returned to us the China Sea, through which we repassed with pleasure; and made Pulo Aoa on the 4th December, having been absent from it four months and two days. On the following night we had but light airs; yet the current was so strong that in the morning we had Bintany N.E. point west of us. Light airs and a continuance of the current detained us from entering the straits until the 10th noon. The 13th we anchored off Malacca, and sailed again in the evening in company with several ships. The roughness of our copper, which was much injured by the ice, retarded our progress with light winds so much, that we did not get into the Ganges until the 13th January 1818; when, by God's mercy, our voyage was so far concluded, in the most agreeable manner. Indeed, since stop. ping the last leak, which was occasioned by the blow of our anchor when coming down the river, we have enjoyed the most favorable winds and weather I remember to have had on any voyage, and have not had either a gale or squall of any consequence during the same period; so that our masts, sails, and rigging do not appear to have suffered more injury than they would have received from mere exposure to the weather, in a like period,

Ghaut."

NEW SOUTH WALES.

(From the same.)

The increase in the colony, of cultivation and live stock, from the end of 1813 to the end of 1815, has been on acres cultivated 3,756, pasture 46,645, horses and mares 437, and sheep 3,706. From 1800 to 1815, or in fifteen years, the increase of stock was surprising, being from 163 horses, their highest number for the first twelve years, to 2,328; from 1,044 horned cattle, to 25,279; and from 6,124 sheep to 62,476; without taking into the account the immense quantities of cattle annually killed for the supply of his Majesty's stores and general consumption.

The following letter from Mr. Oxley, Surveyor-general of New S. Wales, contains the particulars of an interesting exploratory expedition.

(From the same.)

Bathurst, August 30, 1817.-"Sir, I have the honor to acquaint your Exc. with my arrival at this place last evening, with the persons comprising the expe. dition to the westward, which your Exc. was pleased to place under my direction.

"Your Exc. is already informed of my proceedings up to 30th April. The limits of a letter will not permit me to enter at large into the occurrences of nineteen weeks; and as I shall have the honor of waiting on your Exc. in a few days, I trust you will have

the

the goodness to excuse the sum mary account I now offer to your Exc.

"I proceeded down the Lachlan in company with the boats until the 12th May, the country rapidly descending until the waters of the river rose to a level with it, and, dividing into numerous branches, inundated the country to the west and N. W. prevented any further progress in that direction, the river itself being lost among marshes. Up to this point it had received no accession of waters from either side, but on the contrary was constantly dissipating in lagoons and swamps. "The impossibility of proceeding further in conjunction with the boats being evident, I determined, upon maturer deliberation, to haul them up, and divest ing ourselves of every thing that could possibly be spared, proceed with the horses loaded with the additional provisions from the boats, on such a course towards the coast as would intersect any stream that might arise from the divided waters of the Lachlan.

"In pursuance of this plan I quitted the river on the 17th May (mentioned by mistake in the last gazette the 11th), taking a S. W. course towards Cape Northumberland, as the best one to answer my intended purpose. I will not here detail the difficulties and privations we experienced in passing through a barren and desolate country, without any water but such rain-water as was found remaining in holes and the crevices of rocks. I continued this course until the 9th June; when, having lost two horses through fatigue and want,

and the others in a deplorable condition, I changed our course to north, along a range of lofty hills running in that direction, as they afforded the only means of procuring water, until we should fall in with some running stream. On this course I continued till the 23rd June, when we again fell in with a stream, which we had at first some difficulty to recognize as the Lachlan, it being little larger than one of the branches of it where it was quitted on the 17th May.

"I did not hesitate a moment to pursue the course of this stream; not that the nature of the country or its own appearance in any manner indicated that it would become navigable, or was even permanent, but I was unwilling that the smallest doubt should remain of any navigable waters falling westward into the sea, between the limits pointed out in my instructions.

"I continued along the banks of the stream until the 8th July, it having taken during this period a westerly direction, and passing through a perfectly level coun try, barren in the extreme, and being evidently at periods entirely under water. To this point it had been gradually diminishing, and spreading its waters over stagnated lagoons and morasses, without receiving any stream that we knew of during the whole extent of its course. The banks were not more than three feet high, and the marks of flood on the shrubs and bushes showed that at times it rose between two and three feet higher, causing the whole country to become a marsh. and altogether uninhabitable.

"Further

Further progress westward, had it been possible, was now useless, as there was neither hill or rising ground of any kind within the compass of our view, which was only bounded by the horizon in every quarter, entirely devoid of timber, except a few diminutive gums on the very edge of the stream might be so termed. The water in the bed of the lagoon, as it might now properly be denominated, was stagnant, its breadth about twenty feet, and the heads of grass growing in it showed it to be about three feet deep.

This originally unlooked for and truly singular termination of a river, which we had anxiously hoped and reasonably expected would have led to a far different conclusion, filled us with the most painful sensations. We were full 500 miles west of Sydney, and nearly in its latitude; and it had taken us ten weeks of unremitted exertion to proceed so far. The nearest part of the coast about Cape Bernouilli, had it been accessible, was distant about 150 miles. We had demonstrated, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that no river whatever could fall into the sea between Cape Otway and Spencer's Gulph, at least none deriving their waters from the eastern coast, and that the country south of the parallel of 34°, and west of the meridian of 147° 30′ E. was unin habitable and useless for all the purposes of civilized man.

"It now became my duty to make our remaining resources as extensively useful to the colony as our circumstances would allow. These were much diminished: an

accident to one of the boats in the outset of the expedition had deprived us of one-third of our dry provisions, of which we had originally but eighteen weeks, and we had been in consequence for some time on a reduced ration of two quarts of flour per man per week. To return to the depôt by the route we had come would have been as useless as impossible; and seriously_considering the spirit of your Exc.'s instructions, I determined, upon the most mature deliberation, to take such a route, on our return, as would I hoped best comport with your Exc.'s views, had our present situation ever been contemplated.

"Returning down the Lachlan, I recommenced the survey of it from the point in which it was made the 23rd June, intending to continue up its banks until its connexion with the marshes, where we quitted it on the 17th May, was satisfactorily established, as also to ascertain if any streams might have escaped our research. The connexion with all the points of the survey previously ascertained, was completed between the 19th July and the 3rd August. In the space passed over within that period, the river had divided into various branches, and formed three fine lakes, which, with one near the determination of our journey westward, were the only considerable pieces of water we had yet seen; and I now estimated that the river, from the place where first made by Mr. Evans, had run a course, taking all its windings, of upwards of 1,200 miles, a length of course altogether unprecedented,