332 cook's voyage to oct. 



the Russians. The Cossacks finding, on their land- 

 ing, that their houses had been burnt to the ground, 

 and their wives and children either massacred or car- 

 ried off prisoners, were enraged to madness. They 

 marched directly to the fort, which they attacked 

 with great fury, and the natives as resolutely de- 

 fended, till at length, the powder-magazine taking 

 fire, the fort was blown up, together with most of 

 those that were in it. Various rencounters succeeded 

 to this event, in which much blood was spilled on 

 both sides. At length, two of the principal leaders 

 being slain, and the third (after dispatching his wife 

 and children, to prevent their falling into the enemy's 

 hand) having put an end to himself, peace was 

 established. 



From that period every thing went on very peace- 

 ably, till the year 1740, when a few Russians lost 

 their lives in a tumult which was attended with no 

 farther consequences ; and, except the insurrection 

 at Bolcheretsk in 1770, (which hath been already 

 noticed), there has been no disturbance since. 



Though the quelling the rebellion of 1731 was 

 attended with the loss of a great number of inhab- 

 itants, yet I was informed, that the country had 

 recovered itself, and was become more populous than 

 ever, when, in the year 1767, tne small-pox, brought 

 by a soldier from Okotsk, broke out among them for 

 the first time, marking its progress with ravages not 

 less dreadful than the plague, and seeming to threaten 

 their entire extirpation. They compute, that near 

 twenty thousand died of this disorder in Kamtschatka, 

 the Koreki country, and the Kurile Islands. The 

 inhabitants of whole villages were swept away. Of 

 this we had sufficient proofs before our eyes. There 

 are no less than eight ostrogs scattered about the bay 

 of Awatska, all which, we were informed, had been 

 fully inhabited, but are now entirely desolate, except 

 Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and even that contains 

 no more than seven Kamtschadales, who are tributary. 



15 



