456 cook's voyage to oct. 



Gregorioff Sin Ismyloff. He arrived in a canoe car- 

 rying three persons, attended by twenty or thirty 

 other canoes, each conducted by one man. I took 

 notice, that the first thing they did after landing, was 

 to make a small tent for Ismyloff of materials which 

 they brought with them ; and then they made others 

 for themselves of their canoes and paddles, which 

 they covered with grass, so that the people of the 

 village were at no trouble to find them lodging. 

 Ismyloff having invited us into his tent, set before us 

 some dried salmon and berries, which, I was satisfied, 

 was the best cheer he had. He appeared to be a 

 sensible intelligent man, and I felt no small morti- 

 fication in not being able to converse with him, 

 unless by signs, assisted by figures, and other cha- 

 racters, which however were a very great help. I 

 desired to see him on board the next day, and ac- 

 cordingly he came, with all his attendants. Indeed, 

 he had moved into our neighbourhood for the ex- 

 press purpose of waiting upon us. 



I was in hopes to have had by him the chart which 

 his three countrymen had promised ; but I was dis- 

 appointed. However, he assured me 1 should have 

 it ; and he kept his word. I found that he was very 

 well acquainted with the geography of these parts, 

 and with all the discoveries that had been made in 

 them by the Russians. On seeing 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 north ; and, ac- 

 cording to his account, they did not proceed farther 

 than the Tschukotskoi Nos, or rather than the bay of 

 St. Laurence, for he pointed on our chart to the very 

 place where I landed. From thence, he said, they 

 went to an island in latitude 63, upon which they 

 did not land, nor could he tell me its name. But i 

 should guess it to be the same to which I gave the 

 name of Gierke's Island. To what place Synd went 

 after that, or in what manner he spent the two years^ 



