sSo AVOYAGETO 



mIv' '^"^ ^^ remains only to be decided, from what quarter 

 «. — ^ — > they had got our manufaftures, by intermediate con- 

 veyance. And there cannot be the leaft doubt of their 

 having received thefe articles, through the intervention of 

 the more inland tribes, from Hudfon's Bay, or the fettle- 

 mcnts on the Canadian lakes ; unlefs it can be fuppofed 

 (which however is lefs likely) that the Ruffian traders, from 

 Kamtfchatka, have already extended their traffic thus far; 

 or at leafl; that the natives of their mod Eallerly Fox Iflands 

 communicate along the coaft, with thofe of Prince William's 

 Sound*. 



As to the copper, thefe people feem to procure it them- 

 felves, or at moil it pafTes through few hands to them ; for 

 they ufed to exprefs its being in a fufficient quantity amongft 

 them, when they offered any to barter, by pointing to their 

 weapons ; as if to fay, that having fo much of this metal 

 of their own, they wanted no more. 



It is, however, remarkable, if the inhabitants of this 

 Sound be fupplicd with European articles, by way of the 

 intermediate traffic to the Eaft coaft, that they fliould, in re- 

 turn, never have given to the more inland Indians any of 



* There is a circumftance mentioned by Muller, in his account of Beering's voy- 

 age to the coaft of America in 1741, which feems to decide this queftion. His 

 people found iron at the Schumagin Iflands, as may be fairly prefumed from the fol- 

 lowing quotation. " Un feul homme avoitun couteau pendu a fa ceinture, qui parut 

 " fort fingulier a nos gens par fa figure. II ctoit long de huit pouces,et fort cpais, & 

 " large a I'endroit oii devoit ctrc la pointe. On ne peut favoir quel ctoit I'ufage de 

 " cet oulil." Decouvertes des Ruffes, p. 274. 



If there was iron amongft the natives on this part of the American coaft, prior to 

 the difcovery of it by the Ruflians, and before there was any traffic with them carried 

 on from Kamtfchatka, what rcafon can there be to make the Icaft doubt of the people 

 cf Prince William's Sound, as well as thofe of Schumagin's Iflands, having got this 

 metal from the only probable fourcc, the European fettlements on the North Kaft coaft 

 of this continent ? 



their 



