files, guns, powder and iho t; hardware, fuch as hatchets,
bills, knives, fciffars, needles, looking-glafles ; flour, fu gar
; tanned hides, boots,. & c. We had an opportunity o f
feeing a great many o f thefe articles in the hands o f a merchant,
who came in the Emprefs’s galliot from Okotfk ; and
I finali only obferve generally, that they fold for treble the
price they might have been purchafed for in England.
And though the merchants have fo large a profit upon thefe
imported goods, they have a ftill larger upon the furs at
'Kiachta, upon the frontiers o f China, w h ich is the great
market for them. T he bell fea-otter ikins fell generally in
Kamtfchatka, for about thirty roubles apiece. T he Chinefe
merchant at Kiachta purchafes them at more than double
that price, and fells them again at Pekin at a great advance,
where a farther profitable trade is made with fome
o f them to Japan. If, therefore, a ikin is worth thirty
roubles in Kamtfchatka, to be tranfported firft to Okotik,
thence to be conveyed by land to Kiachta, a diftance o f one
thoufand three hundred and fixty-four miles, thence on to
Pekin, feven hundred and fixty miles more, and after this
to be tranfported to Japan, what a prodigioufly advantageous
trade might be carried on between this place and Japan,
w hich is but about a fortnight’s, at moft, three weeks fait
from it I
A ll furs exported from hence acrofs the fea o f Okotik,
pay a duty o f ten per cent, and fables a duty o f twelve.
And all forts o f merchandize, o f whatever denomination,
imported from Okotik, -pay h a lf a rouble for every
T h e duties arifing from the exports and imports, o f 0l^g;r
w hich I could not learn the amount, are paid at Okotik: v— v '
but the tribute is collected at Bolcheretik; and, I was in formed
b y M ajor Behm, amounted in value to ten thoufand
roubles annually.
There are fix veflels (o f fo rty to fifty tons burthen) employed
b y the Emprefs between Okotik and Bolche re tik;
five o f which are appropriated to the tranfporting o f ftores
and provifions from Okotik to Bolche re tik; except that once
in two or three years, fome o f them go round to Awatlka,
and the Kamtfchatka R iv e r ; the fixth is only ufed as a
packet boat, and always kept in readinefs, and properly
equipped for conveying difpatches. Befides thefe, there
are about fourteen veflels'employed by the merchants in the
fu r trade, amongft the iflands to the Eaftward. One o f
thefe w e found frozen up in the harbour o f St. Peter and
St. Paul, w hich was to fail on a trading voyage to Oona-
lafhka, as foon as the feafon would permit.
It is here to be obferved, that the moft confiderable and
valuable part o f the fur-trade is carried on with the iflands
that lie between Kamtfchatka and America. Thefe were
firft difcovered by Beering,- in J741, and being found to
abound with fea-otters, the Ruffian merchants became exceedingly
.eager in fearching for the other iflands feen b y
that navigator, to the South Eaft o f Kamtfchatka, called, in
Muller’s Map, the Iflands o f Seduftion, St. Abraham, & c.
In thefe expeditions they fe ll in with three groups o f
iflands. T he firft about fifteen degrees to the Eaft o f Kamtfchatka,
in 53° North la titu d e ; the fecond about twelve degrees
to the Eaftward o f the former; and the third, Oona-
la lh ka , and the iflands in its neighbourhood. Thefe trad-
3 B 2 in g