all modern charts. Thus the most interesting part of the voyage is still involved in mystery. Deshniew's narrative begins at the Great Cape of the Tshuktzki, "It which is evidently Cape East in Behring's Strait. is situated," he says, "between the north and northeast, and turns circularly towards the river Anadir. Over against the cape are two islands, upon which were seen some men of the Tshuktzki nation, who had holes pierced in their lips, through which were stuck pieces of the teeth of the sea-horse." It is now known that the men distinguished by these ornaments were Americans.

Deshniew's vessel arrived alone in the Bay of Anadir, where it was cast on shore and wrecked a little to the south of the river. His company consisted of only twenty-five men. They wandered ten weeks through a country destitute of wood and inhabitants before they arrived at the banks of a river. On ascending it they met with a tribe called Anauli, whom, with little or no provocation, they exterminated; an act of barbarism which added to their distress.

Staduchin in the mean time ascertained that the Pogitsha River was also called the Anadir, and that the shortest and most certain route to it from the Kolyma was by land. Accordingly, in the spring of 1650, he set forward on this journey; and in April arrived on the banks of the Anadir, where, to the surprise and pleasure of both parties, he found Deshniew and his company. The discovery of this route by land put an end to the attempts to sail round the country of the Tshuktzki.

Deshniew was active in bringing to light all the advantages of his discoveries. He descended the Anadir in boats, and discovered a korga, or great sand bank, extending in the sea opposite to its mouth. It was the resting-place of multitudes of sea-horses, and thus furnished him with the means of carrying on a very profitable commerce. He built a ship to carry to Jakutzk the tribute and the ivory which he had collected; and this circumstance tends strongly to confirm the belief that he had actually navigated the whole way from the

Kolyma to the Anadir. In his expeditions to the korga, he became acquainted with the tribes of the Korjaki, who dwell on the south side of the river; and he found among them a woman of Jakutzk, who had belonged to his former associate, Jedot Alexiew. From her he learned that his companions had died of the scurvy, or in disputes among themselves and with the natives. The Russians were at first held in great veneration, and were almost deified by the inhabitants; who thought that no human power could hurt them, until they quarrelled among themselves, and blood was seen to flow from the wounds which they gave each other.

It is probable that the Russians received accounts of Kamtschatka as soon as they had established themselves on the Anadir. But it was not till the year 1696 that a troop of sixteen Cossacks penetrated so far as the river since called the River of Kamtschatka. They plundered the villages under the pretence of exacting tribute; and, among the articles they carried off from the Kamtschadales, were some writings in an unknown language, afterwards ascertained to be Japanese. In the following year a Cossack officer named Wolodimer Atlassow undertook to conquer Kamtschatka. From Jakutzk he

travelled overland to the Anadir. He seems to have proceeded by a circuitous route, and remarks, that between the Kolyma and the Anadir there are two great capes or promontories; the first, or most western of which, can never be doubled by any vessel, from the quantity of ice that lines its shore at every season of the year. The Kamtschadales were unable to offer any resistance to the Russians. They are described to be of smaller stature than the nations who dwell to the north of them, having great beards and small faces: they lived underground in winter; and during the summer months in cabins elevated above the ground on posts, to which they ascended by ladders. To preserve their animal food they buried it in the earth, wrapped in leaves, until it was quite putrid: they cooked it in water in earthen or wooden vessels, which they heated by

throwing in red-hot stones : "and their cookery," says Atlassow, "smelt so strong, that a Russian could not support the odour of it."

From the Kamtschadales the Russians received intelligence respecting the Kurili Islands, to the south of Kamtschatka. They learned that beyond the islands seen from the continent there were others, the inhabitants of which were reported to live in walled towns; and that vessels had come from them with people clothed in silks and cottons, and having porcelain ware. There was also found living among the Kamtschadales a native of a southern country, who had been shipwrecked on the coast of Kamtschatka two years before. This man had small mustachios, black hair, and his countenance was thought to resemble that of a Greek. He broke out into tears and lamentations on seeing images with the Russians, as they brought to his mind recollections of his native country. From all these circumstances it was concluded he was an Indian, or a Japanese. The first influence of the Russians on the Kamtschadales, like that of the Europeans on the Americans, was of an unhappy kind. The feeble remnant of those simple tribes who survived the conquest of the country appear to have degenerated rapidly.

Some years after the expedition of Deshniew, a merchant named Taras Staduchin followed in his track round the northern coast. He sailed from the river Kolyma in a small vessel to make discovery round the Great Cape of the Tshuktzki; being unable to double it, he crossed over on foot to the opposite side, where he built other vessels: the isthmus which he crossed is represented as being extremely narrow. Of the navigators who pretend to have examined the north-eastern portion of Siberia, Staduchin gives the most clear and complete account of the course he pursued; but it is evident that he left unsurveyed a neck of land running northward, of which he did not know the termination.

The Russians at length turned their arms towards the country of the Tshuktzki, which it had been found im

possible to circumnavigate, and dangerous to cross from the ferocity of its inhabitants. Their assistance was implored by the tributary tribes against that warlike nation: they bravely faced the Russians, whom nevertheless they were unable to resist; and when taken prisoners, killed one another, preferring death to ignominious captivity.

The first conflicts with these bold savages took place in 1701; but ten years afterwards a Cossack named Peter Sin Popow, with two attendants, was dispatched to visit their country, to exhort them to submission, and to prevail on them, if possible, to deliver hostages. He was unable to succeed in the chief object of his mission; but on his return he gave the following account of the country and its inhabitants :

"The Tshuktzki Nos was destitute of trees. On the shores near the Nos were found sea horse teeth in great numbers: the Tshuktzki, in their solemn engagements, invoked the sun to guarantee their performance. Some among them have flocks of tame rein-deer, which obliges them often to change their place of residence; but those who have no rein-deer inhabit the coasts on both sides of the Nos, near banks where the sea-horses are used to come, on which and on fish they mostly subsist. They have habitations hollowed in the earth. Opposite to the Nos an island, it is said, may be seen at a great distance, which is called, by the Tshuktzki, the Great Country. (This is unquestionably a reference to America.) The inhabitants of that land pierce holes through their cheeks, in which they insert large ornaments made of pieces cut from the teeth of the sea-horse. These people have a different language from the Tshuktzki, with whom they have been at war from time immemorial. They use bows and arrows, as do the Tshuktzki. Popow saw ten men of this country with their cheeks pierced who were prisoners to the Tshuktzki. In summer they can go to this land in one day in their boats or baidars, which are framed of whalebone and covered with seal-skins. In winter they can cross over in one day in their sledges with good reindeer. On the Nos were seen no other wild animals than

red foxes and wolves; and, from the scarcity of wood, these were not numerous. But in the other land (the Great Country) were said to be many animals, as sables, martens, and foxes of various kinds, bears, sea-otters, and others. The inhabitants there also have large herds of tame deer." According to the computation of Popow, the number of the Tshuktzki inhabiting the Nos, reckoning those who have rein-deer and those who live on the coast, was at least 2000 men. The people of the Great Country were thought to be three times as numerous. "To go from the fort of the Anadir to the Nos with laden rein-deer, and consequently travelling slow, was reckoned by the Tshuktzki a journey of ten weeks; but this supposes that they are not detained in the way by storms, which are frequently accompanied with whirlwinds of snow.”—A few years after Popow's journey (in 1718), some Tshuktzki of the Nos went to the fort of Anadir to make their submission, and added a few particulars to the information which he had collected. Opposite to the Nos (they said) is an island of a moderate size, and without trees: in their baidars they go in half a day to this island; and beyond it is a great continent, which may be seen from the island in clear weather. country are large forests abounding in game.

In that