thmus
there are two islands in the sea, upon which were seen people of the
Tschutski nation, through whose lips were run pieces of the teeth of the
sea-horse." This again perfectly agrees with the two islands situated to
the S.E. of the East Cape. We saw indeed no inhabitants on them, but it is
not at all improbable that a party of the Americans from the opposite
continent, whom this description accurately suits, might, at that time,
have been accidentally there; and whom it was natural enough for him to
mistake for a tribe of the Tschutski.[25]

These two circumstances are of so striking and unequivocal a nature, that
they appear to me conclusive on the point of the Tschukotskoi Noss,
notwithstanding there are others of a more doubtful kind, which we have
from the same authority, and which now remain to be considered. "To go,"
says Deshneff in another account, "from the Kovyma to the Anadir, a great
promontory must be doubled, which stretches very far into the sea;" and
afterwards, "this promontory stretches between N. and N.E." It was probably
from the expressions contained in these passages, that Mr Muller was
induced to give the country of the Tschutski the form we find in his map;
but had he been acquainted with the situation of the east cape, as
ascertained by Captain Cook, and the remarkable coincidence between it and
this promontory or isthmus, (for it must be observed, that Deshneff appears
to be all along speaking of the same thing), in the circumstances already
mentioned, I am confident he would not have thought those expressions,
merely by themselves, of sufficient weight to warrant him in extending the
north-eastern extremity of Asia, either so far to the north or to the
eastward. For, after all, these expressions are not irreconcilable with the
opinion we have adopted, if we suppose Deshneff to have taken these
bearings from the small bight which lies to the westward of the cape.

The deposition of the Cossack Popoff, taken at the Anadirskoi ostrog; in
the year 1711, seems to have been the next authority on which Mr Muller has
proceeded; and beside these two, I am not acquainted with any other. This
Cossack, together with several others, was sent by land to demand tribute
from the independent Tschutski tribes, who lived about the Noss. The first
circumstance in the account of this journey that can lead to the situation
of Tschukotskoi Noss, is its distance from Anadirsk; and this is stated to
be ten weeks'