d the utter extirpation of the Russians. The Cossacks finding,
on their landing, that their houses had been burnt to the ground, and their
wives and children either massacred or carried off prisoners, were enraged
to madness. They marched directly to the fort, which they attacked with
great fury, and the natives as resolutely defended, till at length the
powder-magazine taking fire, the fort was blown up, together with most of
those that were in it. Various rencounters succeeded to this event, in
which much blood was spilled on both sides. At length, two of the principal
leaders being slain, and the third, (after dispatching his wife and
children, to prevent their falling into the enemy's hand,) having put an
end to himself, peace was established.

From that period every thing went on very peaceably till the year 1740,
when a few Russians lost their lives in a tumult, which was attended with
no farther consequences; and, except the insurrection at Bolcheretsk, in
1770, (which, has been already noticed,) there has been no disturbance
since.

Though the quelling the rebellion of 1731 was attended with the loss of a
great number of inhabitants, yet I was informed that the country had
recovered itself, and was become more populous than ever, when, in the year
1767, the small-pox, brought by a soldier from Okotzk, broke out among them
for the first time, marking its progress with ravages not less dreadful
than the plague, and seeming to threaten their entire extirpation. They
compute that near twenty thousand died of this disorder in Kamtschatka, the
Koreki country, and the Kurile Islands. The inhabitants of whole villages
were swept away. Of this we had sufficient proofs before our eyes. There
are no less than eight ostrogs scattered about the bay of Awatska, all
which, we were informed, had been fully inhabited, but are now entirely
desolate, except Saint Peter and Saint Paul; and even that contains no more
than seven Kamtschadales, who are tributary. At Paratounca ostrog there are
but thirty-six native inhabitants, men, women, and children, which, before
it was visited by the small-pox, we were told contained three hundred and
sixty. In our road to Bolcheretsk, we passed four extensive ostrogs, with
not an inhabitant in them. In the present diminished state of the natives,
with fresh supplies of Russians and Cossacks perpetually pouring in, and
who intermix with them by marriage, it is probable, that in less than half
a c