XIII.] THE SEA OF OKOTSK OPENED TO NAVIGATION. 531 



off because at that time there were at Okotsk neither seagoing 

 boats, seamen, nor even men accustomed to the use of the com- 

 pass. Some years after the governor Prince Gagaein sent to 

 that town IVAN SoROKAUMOV with twelve Cossacks to make 

 arrangements for this voyage. For want of ships and seamen 

 however, this could not now be undertaken, and after Sorokau- 

 mov had created great confusion he was imprisoned by the 

 authorities of the place, and sent back to the Governor. 

 Peter I. now commanded that men acquainted with navigation 

 should he sought for among the Swedish lyrisoners of war 

 and sent to Okotsk ; that they shoidd build a boat there and, 

 provided with a compass, go by sea along with sonic Cossacks 

 to Kamchatka and return} Thus navigation began on the 

 Sea of Okotsk. Among the Swedes who opened it, is men- 

 tioned Henry Busch,- according to Strahlenberg a Swedish 

 corporal, who had previously been a ship-carpenter. According to 

 Mliller, who met with him at Yakutsk as late as 1736, he 

 was born at Hoorn in Holland, had served at several places 

 as a seaman, and finally among the Swedes as a trooper, until 

 he was taken prisoner at Viborg in 1706. He gave Miiller 

 the following account of his first voyage across the Sea of 

 Okotsk. 



After arriving at Okotsk they had built a vessel, resembling 

 the lodjas used at Archangel and Mesen for sailing on the White 

 Sea and to Novaya Zemlya. The vessel was strong ; its length 

 was eight and a half fathoms, its breadth three fathoms, the 

 freeboard, when the vessel was loaded, three and a half feet. 

 The first voyage took place in June 1716. The voyagers 

 began to sail along the coast towards the north-east, but 

 an unfavourable wind drove the vessel, almost against the 

 will of the seafarers, right across the sea to Kamchatka. 

 The first land sighted was a cape which juts out north 

 of the river Tigil. Being unacquainted with the coast 

 the seafarers hesitated to land. During the delay a change 

 of mnd took place, whereby the vessel was driven back 

 towards the coast of Okotsk. The wind again becoming 

 favourable, the vessel was put about and anchored successfully 

 in the Tigil. The men who were sent ashore found the 

 houses deserted. For the Kamchadales being terrified at the 



^ Von B.aer, BeUrdge zur Kentniss des Russischen Reiches, xvi. p. 33. 



- Ainbjorn Molin, lieutenant in tiie Scanian cavalry regiment, who was 

 taken prisoner at the Dnieper in 1709, also took part in these journeys. 

 Compare Berdttelse nm fJe i Stora Tartariet boende tartarer, som trdffats 

 Idnrint nordost i Asien, pa drkehiskop E. Benzelii hefjaran upsatt af Amhjdru 

 jlfoHn {Account of the Tartars dwelling in Great Tartar]) who tvere met with 

 at the north-east extremity of Asia, written at the request of Archbishop 

 E. Ben~elius hi/ Ani/ijiirn Moliu), published in Stockholm in 1880 by Aug. 

 Strindberg, after a manuscript in the Linkoping library. 



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