IT- 



A VOYAGE TO 



o'iob 9 ' * n & adventurers advanced alfo as far Eafl as Shumagin's 

 Iflands (fo called by Beering), the largeft of which is named 

 Kodiak. But here, as well as on the continent at Alafka, 

 they met with fo warm a reception in their attempts to 

 compel the payment of a tribute, that they never afterward 

 ventured fo far. However they conquered and made tribu- 

 tary the three groups before mentioned. 



In the Ruffian charts, the whole fea between Kamtfchatka 

 and America is covered with iflands ; for the adventurers in 

 thefe expeditions frequently falling in with land, which 

 they imagined did not agree with the fituation of other 

 laid down by preceding voyagers, immediately concluded 

 it mud be a new difcovery, and reported it as fuch on their 

 return ; and fince the veflels employed in thefe expeditions 

 were ufually out three or four years, and oftentimes longer, 

 thefe miftakes were not in the way of being foon rectified. 

 It is however now pretty certain, that the iflands already 

 enumerated are all that have yet been difcovered, by 

 the Ruffians, in that fea, to the Southward of 6o° of la- 

 titude. 



It is from thefe iflands that the fea-otter fkins, the mofl 

 valuable article of the fur trade, are for the mofl part 

 drawn ; and as they are brought completely under the Ruf- 

 fian dominion, the merchants have fettlemcnts upon them, 

 where their factors refide, for the purpofe of bartering with 

 the natives. Ic was with a view to the farther increafe and 

 extenfion of this trade, that the Admiralty of Okotfk fitted 

 out an expedition for the purpofe of making difcoverics to 

 the North and North Eafl of the iflands above-mentioned, 

 and gave the command of it, as I have already obferved, to 

 Lieutenant Sy-nd. This gentleman, having directed his 



courfe 



