we touched at
any known port, appeared to them so very incredible, that it required the
testimony of our maps, and other corroborating circumstances, to gain their
belief. Amongst the latter was a very curious fact which Major Behm related
to us this morning, and which, he said, but for our arrival, he should have
been totally at a loss to account for.

It is well known that the Tschutski are the only people of the north of
Asia who have maintained their independence, and resisted all the attempts
that have been made by the Russians to reduce them. The last expedition
against them was undertaken in the year 1750, and terminated, after various
success, in the retreat of the Russian forces, and the loss of the
commanding officer. Since that time the Russians had removed their frontier
fortress from the Anadir to the Ingiga, a river that empties itself into
the northern extremity of the sea of Okotsk, and gives its name to a gulf
situated to the west of that of Penshinsk. From this fort Major Behm had
received dispatches the day of our arrival at Bolcheretsk, containing
intelligence that a tribe, or party of the Tschutski, had arrived at that
place with propositions of friendship, and a voluntary offer of tribute;
that on enquiring into the cause of this unexpected alteration in their
sentiments, they had informed his people, that toward the latter end of the
last summer they had been visited by two very large Russian boats; that
they had been treated by the people who were in them with the greatest
kindness, and had entered into a league of friendship and amity with them;
and that relying on this friendly disposition, they were now come to the
Russian fort in order to settle a treaty on such terms as might be
acceptable to both nations. This extraordinary history had occasioned much
speculation, both at Ingiginsk and Bolcheretsk; and, had we not furnished
them with a key to it, must have remained perfectly unintelligible. We felt
no small satisfaction in having, though accidentally, shewn the Russians,
in this instance, the only true way of collecting tribute and extending
their dominions; and in the hopes that the good understanding which this
event hath given rise to, may rescue a brave people from the future
invasions of such powerful neighbours.

We dined this day with Captain Shmaleff, and in the afternoon, in order to
vary our amusements, he treated us with an exhibition of the Russian and
Kamtschadale dancing. No