“ two iflands fituated ‘ oppofite to it, whofe inhabitants
“ (as'is before-mentioned) place pieces of the fea-horfe
“ tush into holes made in their lips. Defhneff alone
“ had feen thefe people, which neither Stadukin nor
it Soliverftoff had pretended to have done : and 'the
“ Korga, or fand-bank, at the mouth of the river Anadyr,
“ was at fome diftance from thefe iflands.”
While DefchnefF was furveying the fea-coaft, he faw
in an habitation belonging, to fome Koriacs a woman of
Yakutsk, who, as he recollected, belonged to Fedot
AlexiefF. Upon his enquiry concerning the fate of her
matter, fhe replied, “ that Fedot and Gerafim (Ankudi-
“ noff) had died of the fcurvy ; that part of the crew had
“ been flain ; that a few had efcaped in fmall veflels,
“ and have never fince been heard off.” Traces of -the
latter were afterwards found in the peninfula of Kamt-
Afia, had miftaken a promontory called Svatoi Nofs for Tfchukotftqi
Nofs: for otherwifer why ffiould DelhneiF, .in his refutation of Solb
verftofF, begin by afferting, that Svatoi Nofs was not Tfchukotlkoi Nofs ?
The only cape laid down in-the Ruffian maps, under, the name of Svatoi
Nofs, is fituated 25tdegrees,flo the Weft of the Kovyma: but we
cannot poffibly fuppofe this to be the promontory here alluded to; be-
caufe, in failing from the Kovyma towards the Anadyr, “ the firft promon-
“ tory which prefents itfelf ” muft neceffarily be Eaft of the Kovyma.
Svatoi N.ofs,-‘imthe Ruffian language, fignifies Sacred Promontory ; and
the Ruffians occafionaily apply it to any cape which it is difficult to
double. It therefore moll probably here relates to the firft cape,
which Soliverftoff reached after he had failed from Kovyma.
7 chatka;
chatka; to which place they probably arrived with a
favourite wind, by following the coaft, and running up
the Kamtchatka river.
When Volodimir Atlaffoff, in 1697, firft entered upon
the reduction of Kamtchatka, he found that the inhabitants
had already fome knowledge of the Ruffians. A
common tradition ftill prevails amongft them, that long
before the expedition of AtlaflofF, one * Fedotoff (who
was probably the fon of Fedot AlexeefF) and his companions
had refided amongft them, and had intermarried
with the natives. They ftill fhew the fpot where the
Ruffian habitations flood; namely, at the mouth of the fmall
river Nikul which falls into the Kamtchatka river, and is
called by the Ruffians Fedotika. Upon AtlaflofF’s arrival
none of the firft Ruffians remained. They are faid to
have been held in great veneration, and almoft deified
by the inhabitants, who at firft imagined that no human
power could hurt them, until they quarrelled amongft
themfelves, and the blood was feen to flow from the
wounds which they gave each other : and upon a fepara-
tion taking place between the Ruffians, part of them had
been killed by the Koriacs, as they were going to the
fea of Penfhinsk, and the remainder by the Kamtcha-
dals. The river Fedotika falls into the Southern fide of
* Fedotoff, in the Ruffian language, fignifies the fon of Fedot.
T t - the