BEHRING S EXPEDITION. 7 



to introduce here some slight account of their history 

 and native inhabitants. 



The sagacious mind of Peter the Great having been 

 stimulated by accounts collected from Kamtchadals, 

 and transmitted to St. Petersbm^gh, concerning the 

 vicinity of the north-eastern point of Asia to the 

 north-western angle of America, devised an expe- 

 dition to ascertain their correctness ; this, however, 

 was delayed, by his death ; but the Empress 

 Catharine, in accordance with his written instructions, 

 immediately on ascending the throne, despatched 

 Vitus Peering, or, as he is more commonly called, 

 Pehring, a native of Denmark in the Russian service, 

 to obtain information on this point. On the 14th of 

 July, 1728, he left the river Kamtchatka in the 

 *' Portune," with two lieutenants and forty men ; and 

 having coasted the Kamtchadal, Koriak, and Tclmtskoi 

 countries as far as 67° 18' north, returned, having 

 unawares passed but a very few miles through the 

 Straits which now bear his name. This unconsciousness 

 is rather curious, as he had some intercourse with people 

 in their boats, who would seem to have been Tchutski, 

 who inhabit a country on the coast of Asia, within 

 thirty miles of the American continent; they, however, 

 informed him that their nation, although travelling 

 with rein-deer as far as the Kovyma, or Kolyma, 



