c S L twenty or thirty other canoes, each concluded by one man
w—v—L, I took notice, that the.firft thing they did, after landing, was
to make a fmall tent for Ifmyloff, o f materials which they
brou ght w ith them ; and then they made others for them-
felves, o f their canoes and paddles, which they covered
w ith grafs; fo that the people o f the village were at no
trouble to find them lodging. Ifmyloff having invited us
into his tent, fet before us fome dried falmon and berries ;.
w hich, I was fatisfied, was the beft cheer he had. He a p peared
to be a fenfible intelligent m a n ; and I felt no fmall'
mortification ip not being able toeonverfe with him, unlefs
by figns, affifted b y figures, and other characters; which
however were a very great help. I defired to fee him on
irhuctaayi5. board the next d a y ; and accordingly he came, with all his
attendants. Indeed, he had moved into our neighbourhood,
for the exprefs purpofe o f w aiting upon us.
I was in hopes to have had by him, the chart which his
three countrymen had promifed; but I was difappointed.
However, he affured me I fhould have i t ; and he kept his
word. I, found that he was very w e ll acquainted with the
geography o f thefe parts, and with all the difcoveries that
had been made in them by the Ruffians. On feeing the
modern maps, he at once pointed out their errors. He told
me, he had accompanied Lieutenant Syndo, or Synd as he
called him, in his expedition to the N o r th ; and, according
to his account, they did not proceed farther than the
Tfchuk otlk oi Nos, or rather than the bay o f St.L au ren ce ;
for he pointed on our chart to the ve ry p lace where I landed.
From thence,, he faid, they wen t to an iiland in latitude 63“
upon which they did not land, nor could he tell me its
name. But I fhould guefs it to be the fame to which I gave
Vhe name o f Gierke’s Iffand. To what place Synd went
* after
after that, or in what manner he fpent the two years, during 1778.
which, as Ifmyloff faid, liis refearches laded, he either
could not or would not inform us. Perhaps he did not comprehend
our inquiries about th is ; and yet, in almod every
other thing, we could make him underftand us. This created
a fufpicion, that he had not really been in that expedition,
notwithdanding his affertion.
Both Ifmyloff and the others affirmed, that they kn ew nothing
o f the continent o f America to the Northward; and
that neither Lieutenant Synd, nor any other Ruffian, had
ever fe e u it o f late. T h e y call it by the fame name which
Mr. Staffilm gives to his great idand ; that is Alafchka.
Stachtan Nitada,- as it is called in the modern maps, is a
name quite unknown to thefe people, natives o f the idands
as well as Ruffians ; but both o f them kn ow it by the name
o f America. From what we could gather from Ifmyloff
and his countrymen, the Ruffians have made feveral attempts
to get a footing upon that part o f this continent, that
lies contiguous to Oonalafhka and the adjoining idands but
have always been repulfed by the n a tive s ; whom they de-
fcnbe as a very treacherous people. T h e y mentioned two
or three Captains, or C h ie f men, who had been murdered
by them ; and fome o f the Ruffians ffiewed us wounds
which, they faid, they had received there.
Some other information, w hich we got from Ifmvloff, is
worth recording, whether true or falfe. He told us, ’ that in
the year 1773, an expedition had been made into the Frozen
Sea in dedges, over the ice, to three large idands that lie
oppofite the mouth o f the river Kovyma. We were in fome
doubt, whether he did not mean the fame expedition o f
3 ® 2 » w hich