The dispatches had been sent off on the 29th, about noon, by a sledge drawn by dogs, so that they were only a little more than three days and a half in performing a journey of two hundred and seventy miles; Bolcheretsk being about one hundred and thirty-five rules from St.
Peter and St.Paul.
As the whole stock of live cattle which the country about the bay could afford, amounted only to two heifers, Captain Clerke found it necessary to send to Bolcheretsk, and Captain Gore and Lieutenant King were fixed on for the excursion.

They proceeded by boats up the Awatska river, then across part of the country in sledges, and then down the Bolchoireka in canoes.
Major Behm, the governor of Kamtschatka, received them, not only with the utmost politeness, but with the most engaging cordiality; and all the principal people of the town vied with each other who should shew the most civility to strangers from the other extremity of the globe.
A list of the naval stores, the number of cattle, and the quantity of flour wanted by the navigators, was given to Major Behm, who insisted upon supplying all their wants; and when they desired to be made acquainted with the price of the articles, with which they were to be supplied, and proposed, that Captain Clerke should give bills to the amount on the Victualling-office in London, the major positively refused, and whenever it was afterward urged, stopped them short by saying, he was certain he could not oblige his mistress, the empress, more than in giving every assistance in his power to her good friends and allies, the English; and that it would be a particular satisfaction to her, to hear, that, in so remote a part of the world, her dominions had afforded any relief to ships engaged in such services; that he could not therefore act so contrary to the character of his empress, as to accept of any bills; but that, to accommodate the matter, he would take a bare attestatation of the particulars with which we might be furnished, and that this he would transmit to his court, as a certificate of having performed his duty.
The town of Bolcheretsk consists of several rows of low buildings, barracks for the Russian soldiers and Cossacks, a good looking church, and a court-room, with a great number of balagans (summer habitations) belonging to the Kamtschatdales, at the end of the town.

The inhabitants amount to between five and six hundred.
It would exceed the bounds to which this sketch must necessarily be confined, to enumerate one half of the instances of civility and attention which Major Behm, his lady, the officers of the garrison, and the inhabitants of the town bestowed upon the English travellers.
One generous present cannot, however, be passed over in silence, both because it consisted of the greatest part of their small store of the article, and because it called forth from the British seamen a corresponding generosity.

Being informed of the privations the sailors had suffered from the want of tobacco, Major Behm sent four bags of it, weighing upwards of one hundred pounds each, which he begged might be presented, in the name of himself and the garrison under his command, to our sailors.

When the seamen were told of it, the crews of both ships desired, entirely of their own accord, that their grog might be stopped, and their allowance of spirits, presented, on their part, to the garrison of Bolcheretsk, as they had reason to conclude, that brandy was scarce in the country and would be very acceptable, since the soldiers on shore had offered four roubles a bottle for it.
When it is considered how much the sailors would feel from the stoppage of their allowance of grog, and that this offer would deprive them of it during the inclement season they had to expect on their ensuing expedition to the north, the sacrifice must be looked upon as generous and extraordinary; and, that they might not suffer by it, Captain Clerke substituted, in the room of the very small quantity the major could be prevailed on to accept, the same quantity of rum.
When the party returned to Petropaulowska, Major Behm accompanied them, and visited the ships.