w daws were covered, had not g iv en them a poor and dif-
<---- ,-----' agreeable appearance. T he town confifls o f feveral rows
o f low buildings, each conlifting o f five or fix dwellings, connected
together, with a long common paffage running the
length o f th em ; on one fide o f w h ich is the kitchen .and
fto ie -h o u fe ; and on the other the dwellin g apartments.
Befides thefe, are barracks for the Ruffian foldiers and Cof-
fa ck s ; a well loo kin g chu rch ; and a court-ro om; and at
the end o f the town a great number o f Balagans, belonging
to the Kamtfchadales. T he inhabitants, taken all together,
amount to between five and fix hundred. In the evening,
the Major gave a handfome entertainment; to which the
principal people o f the town, o f both fexes, were invited.
.Friday 14. The next morning we applied privately to the merchant
Fedofitfch, to purchafe fome tobacco for the failors, who had
now been upward o f a twelvemonth without this favourite
commodity. However, this, like all our other tranfaCtions
o f the fame kind, came immediately to the Major’s kn ow le
d g e ; and we were foon after furprifed to find, in our
houfe, four bags o f tobacco, w e igh in g upward o f a hundred
pounds each, which he begged might be prefented, in
the name o f himfelf, and the garrifon under his command,
to our failors. At the fame time, they had fent us -twenty
loaves o f fine fugar, and as m an y pounds o f tea, being articles
they underflood we were in great want of, which they
begged to be indulged in prefenting to the officers- Alon g
with thefe, Madame Behm had alfo fent a prefent for Captain
Clerke, conlifting o f frelh butter, honey, -figs, rice, and
fome other little things o f the fame kind, artended with
many wiffies, that, in his infirm ftate o f health, they might
be o f fervice to him. It was in vain we tried to oppofe this
profufion o f bounty, which I was really anxious to reftrain,
' being
Being convinced, that the y were g iv in g a\vay, not a ihare, ’ 779-
but almoft the whole flock o f the garrifon. T he conftant '— '
anfwer the Major returned us, on thofe occafions, was, that
we had fuffered a great deal, and that we m u ll needs be in
diftrefs. Indeed, the length o f time we had been out, fince
we touched at any kn own port, appeared to them fo very incredible,
that it required the jeftimony o f our maps, and
other corroborating circumftances, to ga in their belief.
Amongft the latter was a ve ry curious fa& w hich Major
Behm related to us this morning, and which, he faid, but
for our arrival, he ihould have been totally at a lofs to account
for.
It is well known, that the T fch u tik i are the only 'people,
o f the North o f Alia, who have maintained their independence,
and refilled all the attempts that have been made by
the Ruffians to reduce them. T h e laft expedition againft
them was undertaken in the year 1750, and terminated,
after various fuccefs, in the retreat o f the Ruffian forces,
and the lofs o f the commanding officer. Since that time,
the Ruffians had removed their frontier fortrefs from the
Anadyr to the Ingiga, a river that empties itfe lf into the
Northern extremity o f the fea o f Okotlk, and gives its name
to a g u lf, fituated to the Weft o f that o f Penlhinlk. From
this fort, Major Behm had received difpatches the day o f our
arrival at Bolcheretlk, containing intelligence, that a tribe,
or party, o f the T fch u tik i, had arrived at that place with
propofitions o f friendlhip, and a voluntary offer o f trib u te ;
that on in qu irin g into the caufe o f this unexpected alteration
in their fentiments, they had informed his people, that
toward the latter end o f the laft fummer they had been vi-
fited by two ve ry la rge Ruffian b o a ts ; that they had been
V o l . III. F f t r e a te d