The weather being foggy, and the wind from the same quarter during the forenoon of the 9th, we continued in our station.  At four in the afternoon we again unmoored; but whilst we were with great difficulty weighing our last anchor, I was told that the drummer of the marines had left the boat which had just returned from the village, and that he was last seen with a Kamtschadale woman, to whom his messmates knew he had been much attached, and who had often been observed persuading him to stay behind.  Though this man had been long useless to us, from a swelling in his knee, which rendered him lame, yet this made me the more unwilling he should be left behind, to become a miserable burden both to the Russians and himself.  I therefore got the serjeant to send parties of soldiers, in different directions, in search of him, whilst some of our sailors went to a well-known haunt of his in the neighbourhood, where they found him with his woman.  On the return of this party, with our deserter, we weighed, and followed the Resolution out of the bay.

Having at length taken our leave of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, I shall conclude this section with a particular description of Awatska Bay, and the coast adjoining; not only because (its three inlets included) it constitutes, perhaps, the most extensive and safest harbour that has yet been discovered, but because it is the only port in this part of the world capable of admitting ships of any considerable burden.  The term Bay, indeed, is perhaps not applicable, properly speaking, to a place so well sheltered as Awatska; but, then, it must be observed, that, from the loose undistinguishing manner in which navigators have denominated certain situations of sea and land, with respect to each other, bays, roads, sounds, harbours, &c. we have no defined and determinate ideas affixed to these words, sufficient to warrant us in changing a popular name for one that may appear more proper.

The entrance into this bay is in 52 deg. 51’ north latitude, and 158 deg. 48’ east longitude, and lies in the bight of another exterior bay, formed by Cheepoonskoi Noss to the N., and Cape Gavareea to the S. The former of these head lands bears from the latter N.E. by N. 3/4 E., and is distant thirty-two leagues.  The coast from Cape Gavareea to the entrance of Awatska Bay, takes a direction nearly N., and is eleven leagues in extent.  It consists of a chain of high ragged cliffs, with detached rocks frequently lying off them.  This coast, at a distance, presents in many parts an appearance of bays or inlets, but, on a nearer approach, the head-lands were found connected by low ground.

Cheepoonskoi Noss bears, from the entrance of the bay, E.N.E. 1/4 E, and is twenty-five leagues distant.  On this side the shore is low and flat, with hills rising behind to a considerable height.  In the latitude of Cape Gavareea there is an error of twenty-one miles in the Russian charts, its true latitude being 52 deg. 21’.