500 A VOYAGE TO 



1778. which Muller ;?ives an account*; and yet he wrote down 



October. " •' 



the year, and marked the illands on the chart. But a voyage 

 which he himlelf had performed, engaged our attention 

 more than any other. He faid, that on the 12th of May 

 1 771, he failed from Bolfcheretzk, in a Ruffian veflel, to 

 one of the Kuril lilands, named Mareekan, in the latitude 

 of 47", where there is a harbour, and a Ruffian fettlement* 

 From this ifland, he proceeded to Japan, where he feems 

 to have made but a fliort flay. For when the Japanefe came 

 to know that he and his companions were chriflians, they 

 made figns for them to be gone ; but did not, fo far as we 

 could underitand him, offer any infult or force. From 

 Japan, he got to Canton ; and from thence to France, in a 

 French iliip. From France, he travelled to Peterlburg; 

 and was afterward fcnt out again to Kamtfchatka. What 

 became of the vefTel in which he firll embarked, we could 

 not learn ; nor what was the principal object of the voyage. 

 His not being able to fpeak one word of French, made this 

 ftory a little fufpicious. Fie did not even know the name 

 of any one of the moft common things that muft have 

 been in ufe every day, while he was on board the fliip, and 

 in France. And yet he feemcd clear as to the times of his 

 arriving at the different places, and of his leaving them, 

 which he put down in writing. 



* The lateft expedition of tiiis kind, taken notice of by Muller, was in 1724. 

 But in juftiee to Mr. Ifmyloft", it may be proper to mention, wliich is done on the 

 authority of a MS. communicated by Mr. Pennant, and the fubftance of which has 

 been publiflied by Mr. Coxe, that, folate as 1768^ the Governor of Siberia fcnt 

 three young officers over the ice, in fledges, to the iflands oppofite the mouth of the 

 Kov) ma. 'I'h.cre feems no reafon for not fuppoHng, that a fubfequcnt expedition of 

 this fort mi(;ht alfo be undertaken in 1773. Mr. Coxe, p. 3?4. places the expedition 

 oji fltdges in 1764 ; but .Mr. Pennant's MS. may be depended upon. 



The 



