e
first Europeans with whom they had ever communicated directly; and
it remains only to be decided, from what quarter they had got our
manufactures by intermediate conveyance. And there cannot be the
least doubt of their having received these articles, through the
intervention of the more inland tribes, from Hudson's Bay, or the
settlements on the Canadian lakes; unless it can be supposed, (which,
however, is less likely,) that the Russian traders, from Kamtschatka,
have already extended their traffic thus far; or at least that the
natives of their most easterly fox islands communicate along the coast
with those of Prince William's Sound.[6]

[Footnote 6: There is a circumstance mentioned by Muller, in his
account of Beering's voyage to the coast of America in 1741, which
seems to decide this question. His people found iron at the Schumagin
Islands, as may be fairly presumed from the following quotation:
"Un seul homme avoit un couteau pendu a sa ceinture, qui parut fort
singulier a nos gens par sa figure. Il etoit long de huit pouces, et
fort epais, et large a l'endroit ou devoit etre la pointe. On ne pent
savoir quel etoit l'usage de cet outil." _Decouvertes des Russes_, p.
274.

If there was iron amongst the natives on this part of the American
coast, prior to the discovery of it by the Russians, and before there
was any traffic with them carried on from Kamtschatka, what reason
can there be to make the least doubt of the people of Prince William's
Sound, as well as those of Schumagin's Islands, having got this
metal from the only probable source, the European settlements on the
north-east coast of this continent?--D.]

As to the copper, these people seem to procure it themselves, or at
most it passes through few hands to them; for they used to express its
being in a sufficient quantity amongst them, when they offered any
to barter, by pointing to their weapons; as if to say, that having so
much of this metal of their own, they wanted no more.

It is, however, remarkable, if the inhabitants of this Sound be
supplied with European articles, by way of the intermediate traffic to
the east coast, that they should, in return, never have given to
the more inland Indians any of their sea-otter skins, which would
certainly have been seen, some time or other, about Hudson's Bay.
But, as far as I know, that is not the case; and the only method of
accounting for this, must be by taking into consideration the very
great di