Finding it impossible to advance eastward, Clerke decided there was no
Northeast Passage by way of the Pacific to the Atlantic; and on the
21st of July, to the cheers of his sailors, announced that the ships
would turn back for England.[3]
Poor Clerke died of consumption on the way, August 22, 1779, only
thirty-eight years of age, and was buried at Petropaulovsk beside La
Croyere de l'Isle, who perished on the Bering expedition. The boats
did not reach England till October of 1780. They had not won the
reward of twenty thousand pounds; but they had charted a strange coast
for a distance of three thousand five hundred miles, and paved the way
for the vast commerce that now plies between Occident and Orient.[4]
[1] The question may occur, why in the account of Cook's and Bering's
voyage, the latitude is not oftener given. The answer is, the
latitudes as given by Cook and Bering vary so much from the modern, it
would only confuse the reader trying to follow a modern map.
[2] This is the Ismyloff who was marooned by Benyowsky.
[3] The authority for Cook's adventures is, of course, his own journal,
_Voyage to the Pacific Ocean_, London, 1784, supplemented by the
letters and journals of men who were with him, like Ledyard, Vancouver,
Portlock, and Dixon, and others.
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