In a short time after, we saw, or rather we heard, the oars of a boat (for it was already night) that came toward us.

We expected her approach with impatience, to know who the stranger was, and what news she brought us.
Soon we were relieved from our uncertainty by the appearance of Mr.
Hunt, who informed us that the ship was called the _Albatross_ and was commanded by Captain _Smith_.
It will be remembered that Mr.Hunt had sailed from Astoria on board the "Beaver," on the 4th of August of the preceding year, and should have returned with that vessel, in the month of October of the same year.

We testified to him our surprise that he had not returned at the time appointed, and expressed the fears which we had entertained in regard to his fate, as well as that of the Beaver itself: and in reply he explained to us the reasons why neither he nor Captain Sowles had been able to fulfil the promise which they had made us.
After having got clear of the river Columbia, they had scudded to the north, and had repaired to the Russian post of Chitka, where they had exchanged a part of their goods for furs.

They had made with the governor of that establishment, Barnoff by name, arrangements to supply him regularly with all the goods of which he had need, and to send him every year a vessel for that purpose, as well as for the transportation of his surplus furs to the East Indies.

They had then advanced still further to the north, to the coast of _Kamskatka_; and being there informed that some Kodiak hunters had been left on some adjacent isles, called the islands of St.Peter and St.Paul, and that these hunters had not been visited for three years, they determined to go thither, and having reached those isles, they opened a brisk trade, and secured no less than eighty thousand skins of the South-sea seal.