N.B. The observatories were placed on the west side of the village of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
Latitude deduced from meridian zenith
distances of the sun, and of five stars
to the S., and five to the N. of the
zenith
53 deg. 0’ 38” N.
Longitude deduced from one hundred
and forty-six sets of lunar observations
158 43 16 E.
Longitudy by time-keeper, according to
its Greenwich rate
173 36 0
Longitude by time-keeper, according to
its rate found at Owhyhee
159 20 0
Variation of the compass, by azimuths
taken with three compasses, made by
Knight, Gregory, and Martin
6 18 40 E.
Dip of the North Pole of the magnetic
needle, being a mean of the observations
taken in June and September
63 5 0
It was high water, on the full and change of the moon, at thirty-six minutes past four, and the greatest rise was five feet eight inches. The tides were very regular every twelve hours. On the coast, near the bay, the flood came from the S., and the time of high water was near two hours sooner than in the harbour of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
[35] See all that is known of this voyage, and a chart
of 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
latitudes 64 deg. and 65 deg.
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 latitudes of 61 deg. and 65 deg., 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.
[36] By some strange anomaly in human nature, it would
seem as if, in many
cases, the apprehension of
danger is in the inverse proportion of the
amount of evil to be dreaded,
or of the probability of its happening.


