sians
have made several attempts to get a footing upon that part of this
continent that lies contiguous to Oonalashka and the adjoining
islands, but have always been repulsed by the natives, whom they
describe as a very treacherous people. They mentioned two or three
captains, or chief men, who had been murdered by them; and some of the
Russians shewed us wounds which, they said, they had received there.

Some other information which we got from Ismyloff is worth recording,
whether true or false. He told us, that in the year 1773, an
expedition had been made into the Frozen Sea in sledges, over the
ice, to three large islands that lie opposite the mouth of the river
Kovyma. We were in some doubt, whether he did not mean the same
expedition of which Muller gives an account; and yet he wrote down the
year, and marked the islands on the chart.[7] But a voyage which he
himself had performed, engaged our attention more than any other. He
said, that on the 12th of May, 1771, he sailed from Bolscheretzk, in
a Russian vessel, to one of the Kuril islands, named Mareekan, in the
latitude of 47 deg., where there is a harbour, and a Russian settlement.
From this island, he proceeded to Japan, where be seems to have made
but a short stay. For when the Japanese came to know that he and his
companions were Christians, they made signs for them to be gone; but
did not, so far as we could understand him, offer any insult or force.
From Japan, he got to Canton, and from thence to France, in a French
ship. From France, he travelled to Petersburgh, and was afterward sent
out again to Kamtschatka. What became of the vessel in which he first
embarked, we could not learn, nor what was the principal object of
the voyage. His not being able to speak one word of French, made this
story a little suspicious. He did not even know the name of any one of
the most common things that must have been in use every day, while he
was on board the ship, and in France. And yet he seemed clear as to
the times of his arriving at the different places, and of his leaving
them, which he put down in writing.[8]

[Footnote 7: The latest expedition of this kind, taken notice of by Mr
Muller, was in 1724. But in justice to Mr Ismyloff, it may be proper
to mention, which is done on the authority of a MS. communicated by
Mr Pennant, and the substance of which has been published by Mr
Coxe, that, so late as 1768, the Governor of Siberia sent three young
officers over th