328 cook's voyage TO OCT. 



with the wandering Koriacs inhabiting the north and 

 northeast coast of the sea of Okotsk, and without 

 difficulty made them tributary. These being the 

 immediate neighbours of the Kamtschadales, and 

 likewise in the habit of bartering with them, a 

 knowledge of Kamtschata followed of course. 



The honour of the first discovery is given to Feodot 

 Alexeieff, a merchant, who is said to have sailed 

 from the river Kovyma round the peninsula of the 

 Tschutski, in company with seven other vessels, 

 about the year 1648. The tradition goes, that being 

 separated from the rest by a storm, near the Tschu-r 

 kotskoi Noss, he was driven upon the coast of Kamt- 

 schatka, where he wintered ; and the summer follow- 

 ing coasted round the promontory of Lopatka, into 

 the sea of Okotsk, and entered the mouth of the 

 Tigil ; but that he and his companions were cut off 

 by the Koriacs, in endeavouring to pass from thence 

 by land to the Anadirsk. This in part is corroborated 

 by the accounts of Simeon DeshnefF, who commanded 

 one of the seven vessels, and was thrown on shore at 

 the mouth of the Anadir. Be this as it may, since 

 these discoveries, if such they were, he did not live 

 to make any report of what they had done* Volo- 

 dimir AtlassofTj a Cossack, stands for the first acknow^ 

 ledged discoverer of Kamtschatka.* 



This person was sent, in the year 1697, from the 

 fort Jakutsk to the Anadirsk, in the quality of com- 

 missary, with instructions to call in the assistance of 

 the Koriacs, with a view to the discovery of coun- 

 tries beyond theirs, and to the subjecting them to a 

 tribute. In 1699, he penetrated, with about sixty 

 Russian soldiers, and the same number of Cossacks, 

 into the heart of the peninsula, gained the Tigil, and 



* It is proper to remark, that Atlassoff sent an advanced party, 

 under the command of a subaltern, called Lucas Moloskoff, who 

 certainly penetrated into Kamtschatka, and returned with an ac- 

 count of his success before Atlassoff set out, and is therefore not 

 unjustly mentioned as the discoverer of Kamtschatka. 



