6 A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



a small band of Cossacks to defend themselves as 

 they could against the surroundino- hostile natives, he 

 returned, three years later, to Anadyr, and thence 

 travelled through Yakoutsk to Moscow, bringing back 

 with him the yassak or taxes he had collected ; 

 these consisted of 3,000 sables, 17 sea otters, 4 river 

 otters, 10 blue foxes, and 191 red foxes. Besides 

 skins he had with him a Japanese, whom he had 

 found among the Kamchadales, from a Japanese 

 vessel wrecked oft the coast. The era of Peter the 

 Great's radical reforms had now commenced, and it is 

 evident that the Government could not abandon a 

 newly conquered land to " unknown strangers " (the 

 Japanese), who had already attempted either to trade 

 with or to secure it. Special attention was therefore 

 directed towards Kamchatka. Atlassoft" was promoted 

 and sent back with full instructions to pacify the 

 country and bring it officially under Russian dominion. 

 The letters-patent with which he was supplied gave 

 him almost unlimited power within his sphere of 

 action. Unfortunately, though possessed of great 

 strength of will and undaunted energy, Atlassofif 

 was a man of unscrupulous means Hardly had he 

 reached Yakoutsk when he was accused of having 

 plundered a merchant's house and put in prison, 

 where he remained five years pending the x'erdict ! 



