454 cook's voyage to oct. 



hand, to these, our unknown friends, a few bottles of 

 rum, wine, and porter, which we thought would be 

 as acceptable as any thing we had beside ; and we 

 soon knew that in this we had not been mistaken. I 

 also sent along with Derramoushk, Corporal Lediard 

 of the marines, an intelligent man, in order to gain 

 some farther information, with orders, that if he met 

 with any Russians, he should endeavour to make 

 them understand that we were English, the friends 

 and allies of their nation. 



On the 10th, Lediard returned with three Rus- 

 sian seamen, or furriers, who, with some others, re- 

 sided at Egoochshac, where they had a dwelling- 

 house, some store-houses, and a sloop of about thirty 

 tons burthen. One of these men was either master 

 or mate of this vessel, another of them wrote a very 

 good hand and understood figures, and they were all 

 three well behaved, intelligent men, and very ready to 

 give me all the information I could desire ; but for want 

 of an interpreter, we had some difficulty to under- 

 stand each other. They appeared to have a thorough 

 knowledge of the attempts that had been made 

 by their countrymen to navigate the Frozen Ocean, 

 and of the discoveries which had been made from 

 Kamtschatka, by Beering, TscherikoffJ and Span- 

 genberg ; but they seemed to know no more of Lieu- 

 tenant Syndo*, or Synd, than his name. Nor had 

 they the least idea what part of the world Mr* 

 Staehlin's map referred to, when it was laid before 

 them. When I pointed out Kamtschatka, and some 

 other known places upon that map, they asked 

 whether I had seen the islands there laid down, and 

 on my answering in the negative, one of them put 

 his finger upon a part of this map where a num- 

 ber of islands was represented, and said, that he had 

 cruised there for land, but never could find any. I 



* See the little that is known of Synd's voyage, accompanied 

 with a chart, in Mr. Coxe's Russian Discoveries, p. 300. 



