Martinsburgh Gazette

EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE.

The Russian ship Gen. Suwarro now at Portsmouth, is about to proceed on what may appear a most extraordinary voyage, being none other than the completion of two military and commercial establishments on the west coast of North America. The Russian government have for nearly ten years past, had a Fort, with a few pieces of ordnance mounted on the island of Rodiak, in lat. 55, N. lon. 162, W. being the nearest point of the American continent to their establishment, at Kamtschatka.—Within these four years they have begun to form another establishment, on the neck of land called California, and this takes out ordnance and stores of every description, to give to it an appearance of military strength. The trade the Russians carry on thither, which is very great, is wholly in furs, for which article they find a lucrative market in China, from whence they bring to Europe the produce and manufactures of that country, and are enabled from their competition with each other, to afford it to the European continent at a cheaper rate, than this country. The Gen Suwarro will also endeavor in the height of next summer, to discover a passage through Bering's Straits, and in a north westerly direction, to Archangel. A gentleman who is on board her, declares, that on a former voyage of discovery, he was more than half way through the northern seas of Cape North to Archangel when the ship was stopped by the ice—this adventure left only about 400 miles unexplored, to complete the circuit of the world.

Lon. paper.