XII.] TRAVELLERS TO CHUKCH LAND. 457 



them, and cost so much that the Government has recently 

 withdrawn the oldest Russian settlement in those regions, 

 Anadyrsk." Other statements to the same effect might be 

 quoted, and even in our day the Chukches are, with or with- 

 out justification, known in Siberia for stubbornness, courage, and 

 love of freedom. 



But what violence could not effect has been completely 

 accomplished in a peaceful way.^ The Chukches indeed do not 

 pay any other taxes than some small market tolls, but a very 

 active traflfic is now carried on between them and the Russians, 

 and many travellers have without inconvenience traversed their 

 country, or have sailed along its pretty thickly inhabited coast. 



Among former travellers on the Chukch peninsula, who visited 

 the encampments of the coast Chukches, besides Behring, Cook, 

 and other seafarers, the following may be mentioned : — 



The Cossack, Peter Iliin Sin Popov, was sent in 1711 with 

 two interpreters to examine the country of the Chukches, and 

 has left some interesting accounts of his observations there 

 (MuLLER, Sammlung Russischer Geschichten, iii. p. 56).^ 



Billings, with his companions Sauer, Sarytschev, &c., 

 visited Chukch-laud in 1791. Among other things, accom- 

 companied by Dr. Merk, two interpreters and eight men, he 

 made a journey from Metschigme Bay over the interior of 

 Chukch-land to Yakutsk. Unfortunately the account we 

 have of this remarkable journey is exceedingly incomplete.^ 



Ferdinand von Wrangel during his famous Siberian 

 travels was much in contact with the Chukches, and among his 

 other journeys travelled in the winter of 1823 in dog sledges 

 along the coast of the Polar Sea from the Kolyma to Kolyutschin 

 Island (Wrangel, Beise, ii. pp. 176-231). There are besides 



1 Llitke says (Erman's Archiv. iii. p. 464) that the peaceful relations 

 with the Chukches began after the conclusion of a peace which was 

 brought about ten years after the abandonnient of Anadyrsk, where for 

 thirty-six years there had been a garrison of 600 men, costing over a 

 million roubles. This peace this formerly so quarrelsome people has 

 kept conscientiously dowu to our da3's with the exception of some market 

 brawls, which induced Treskin, Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, 

 to conclude with them, in 1817, a commercial treaty which appears to have 

 been faithfully adhered to, to the satisfaction and advantage of both 

 parties {Dittmar, p. 128). 



^ Miiller has likewise saved from oblivion some other accounts regarding 

 the Chukches, collected soon after at Anadyrsk. When we now read these 

 accounts, we find not only that the Chukches knew the Eskimo on the 

 American side, but also stories regarding the Indians of Western America 

 penetrated to them, and further, through the authorities in Siberia, came 

 to Europe, a circumstance which deserves to be kept in mind in judging of 

 the writings of Herodotus and Marco Polo. 



3 Sauer, An Account, &c., pp. 255 and 319. Sarytschev, Reise, iibersefzt 

 von Basse, ii. p. 102. 



