Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter XIII.
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renewed commission, to repeat the expedition the
following summer; hence the winter was spent in preparations
for it. So far as it was possible to do so, he sought to
provision himself in Kamchatka, and, especially for
reconnoitering the coast, he built of birchwood an
eighteen-oared boat called the Bolsheretsk.
On the 21st of May, 1739, he again stood out to sea
with all four ships, and on the 25th of the same month
he reached Kurile Strait, and from here sailed south
southeast into the Pacific to search for Gamaland and all
the legendary group of islands which appeared on De
l’Isle’s map. This southerly course, about on the
meridian of Kamchatka, he kept until the 8th of June,
reaching a latitude of 42°. As he saw nothing but sea and
sky, he veered to the west south-west for the purpose of
“doing the lands” near the coast of Japan. Walton,
who, in spite of Spangberg’s strictest orders, was
constantly seeking to go off on his own tack, finally, on the
14th of June, found an opportunity to steal away and
sail in a south-westerly direction. In different latitudes,
but on the same day, the 16th of June, both discovered
land. Walton followed the coast of Nipon down to
latitude 33°, but Spangberg confined his explorations to the
region between 39° and 37° 30′ N. The country was very
rich. A luxuriant vegetation—grape vines, orange trees
and palms—decked its shores. Rich fields of rice,
numerous villages, and populous cities were observed from the
vessel. The sea teemed with fish of enormous size and
peculiar form, and the currents brought them strange
and unknown plants. The arrival of the ships caused
great excitement among the natives, beacons burned
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