304 JOURNAL OF THE "ST. PAUL" 



attack them. To the best of our ability we tried to convince them that 

 they had nothing to fear from us. We pressed our hands to our hearts 

 as a sign that we would receive them in a friendly manner. To convince 

 them still more I threw them a Chinese cup as a mark of friendship. 

 One of the men picked it up and after examining it made a gesture as if 

 to indicate that he had no use for it. He was about to throw it back to 

 the ship when we bowed and motioned for him to keep it, but he threw 

 it into the water. I ordered that two pieces of damask should be tied to 

 a board and thrown into the water near the ship. They picked it up 

 and after handling it for a little while threw it away. I then gave the 

 order to bring up the different things we had to give as presents — small 

 boxes, small bells, needles, Chinese tobacco, pipes — and, holding them 

 up, I invited them to come near. During this time I had few men on 

 deck but had them concealed below with their guns loaded in case of 

 danger. In spite of our efforts we could not convince them of our good 

 will if they came close to the ship. It was only after we made them 

 understand that we were out of water and had nothing to drink and 

 that we looked to them for help that one of them dared approach us. 

 We gave him Chinese tobacco and a pipe which he took and placed on 

 the deck of his boat. When the others saw this they, too, became bold 

 and paddled up. We distributed among them boxes, bells, needles, all 

 of which they received rather indifferently as if not knowing what to do 

 with them. They did not even know that needles would sink and did 

 not make any effort to keep them out of the water, for among the 

 presents we gave them some of the needles fell into the water, and 

 instead of saving them they merely watched them go down. Among 

 them we noticed several who raised one hand to their mouth and with 

 the other hand made a quick motion as if cutting something near the 

 mouth. This gave us the idea that they wanted knives, because the 

 Kamchadals and the other peoples of this region when they eat meat or 

 anything of that kind cut it at the mouth. I ordered that a knife should 

 be given them, and when they saw it they were overjoyed and seized it 

 from one another and with great eagerness begged for more. We then 

 invited as many of them as would to come aboard so that we might 

 show them friendly attentions and persuade some of them to accom- 

 pany us, as the instructions of the Captain Commander required. Not 

 being able to understand one another, we not only failed to persuade 

 them to go with us but even to coax one of them to come on board so 

 that we might show them how friendly we really were. We gave them a 

 small barrel in which to bring us water from the shore. They understood 

 what we meant, but they would not take the barrel and showed us that 

 they had bladders for that purpose. Three of them paddled towards 

 the beach and returned with water. When they came alongside one of 

 them held up a bladder and indicated that he wished to have a knife in 



