49G 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



Ibr several years among our Ku- 

 riles on the island of Rascliaua, 

 where he was known by the name 

 of Koosma; there he had pro- 

 bably learnt to cross himself, and 

 having observed that the Russians 

 venerate the cross, he now ven- 

 tured forth under its protection 

 to meet us in the character of a 

 flag of truce. Lieutenant Ru- 

 dakoftwas the first who accosted 

 liim : he caressed him and gave 

 him various presents ; but nothing 

 could subdue the terror of the 

 Kurile, who continued to tremble 

 as if he had been seized with the 

 shivering fit of an ague. I next 

 approached him, but was unable 

 to make myself understood, as 

 Alexei was not along with us. 

 The Kurile was so terrified that 

 he would neither wait for him 

 nor accompany us on board, and 

 we did not think it prudent to 

 detain him by force. He could 

 scarcely speak ten words of 

 Russian, yet I understood from 

 his gesticulation, that the go- 

 vernor of the city expressed a 

 wish that he and I should meet 

 in boats, accompanied by an equal 

 number of people on both sides, 

 in order to hold a conference. I 

 joyfully testified my willingness 

 to accede to this proposal, and I 

 gave the Kurile a string of beads. 

 This present seemed to inspire 

 him with so much boldness that 

 he ventured to ask me for a little 

 tobacco; I, however, happened 

 to have none with me, but pro- 

 mised to bring him some the next 

 time I came on shore. I then 

 took leave of him and put oft' 

 with the boat. 



Meanwhile the Japanese had 

 placed another cask in front of 

 the castle, but so close to the 



batteries that I deemed it impru- 

 dent to venture to take it away ; 

 still nobody came out of the 

 castle, though they beckoned to 

 us with white fans to come on 

 shore. I now began to suspect 

 that I had misunderstood the 

 Kurile: as we were preparing 

 however to row back again, we 

 observed a boat put oft' from the 

 shore. In this boat were several 

 officers and a Kurile interpreter, 

 and they immediately rowed to- 

 wards us. They had many more 

 men on board than we, but as we 

 were well armed I felt no reason 

 to be afraid of them. The con- 

 ference began on their side, with 

 an apology for having fired upon 

 us when we first attempted to 

 land. To justify this proceeding, 

 they declared that their distrust 

 had been excited in consequence 

 of an outrage committed upon 

 them some years before, by the 

 crews of two Russian vessels, who 

 had at first landed under pretence 

 of the same motives which we 

 professed. They, however, per- 

 ceived the diff"erence between our 

 conduct and that of their former 

 visitors : every suspicion had now 

 vanished, and they declared their 

 readiness to do all they could to 

 serve us. I desired our inter- 

 preter, Alexei, to explain to 

 them, that those ships were 

 merchantmen; that the aggression 

 had been made without the con- 

 sent of our government, and that 

 the owners of the vessels, both of 

 whom were now no more, had 

 suff'ered due punishment for their 

 reprehensible proceedings. I 

 sought to convince them of the 

 truth of this assurance by the 

 same method which we had 

 adopted with respect to the Japa- 

 nese 



