198 COOK S VOYAGE TO MAY, 



really anxious to restrain, being convinced that they 

 were giving away not a share but almost the whole 

 stock of the garrison. The constant answer the 

 major returned us on those occasions was, that we 

 had suffered a great deal, and that we must needs be 

 in distress. Indeed, the length of time we had been 

 out since we touched at any known port, appeared 

 to them so very incredible, that it required the testi- 

 mony of our maps, and other corroborating circum- 

 stances, to gain their belief. Amongst the latter 

 was a very curious fact which Major Behm related to 

 us this morning, and which he said but for our ar- 

 rival he should have been totally at a loss to account 

 for. 



It is well known, that the Tschutski are the only 

 people of the north of Asia, who have maintained 

 their independence, and resisted all the attempts that 

 have been made by the Russians to reduce them. 

 The last expedition against them was undertaken in 

 the year 1750, and terminated, after various success, 

 in the retreat of the Russian forces, and the loss of 

 the commanding officer. Since that time, the Rus- 

 sians had removed their frontier fortress from the An- 

 adyr to the Ingiga, a river that empties itself into the 

 northern extremity of the sea of Okotsk, and gives 

 its name to a gulf, situated to the west of that of 

 Penshinsk. From this fort, Major Behm had received 

 dispatches the day of our arrival at Bolcheretsk, 

 containing intelligence, that a tribe, or party, of the 

 Tschutski, had arrived at that place with propositions 

 of friendship, and a voluntary offer of tribute ; that 

 on enquiring into the cause of this unexpected alter- 

 ation in their sentiments, they had informed his people, 

 that toward the latter end of the last summer, they 

 had been visited by two very large Russian boats ; 

 that they had been treated by the people who were in 

 them with the greatest kindness, and had entered 

 into a league of friendship and amity with them ; and 

 that relying on this friendly disposition, they were 

 18 



