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this faU'g confcquencc, tliat he had readied the extrcmit)- 

 of the north -call of Afia ; that tlie cuafl thenceforward 

 taking a weilern direftion, it was impoiFible there could be 

 a jundion of Afia with America ; and that he had ful- 

 filled his commiffion. Mr. Miiller adds, tlu^t he was mif- 

 taken, fince he was only then at lStrd^ekaITlen, whence the 

 coaft indeed turns to the weft, forming a large gulf; but 

 that it afterwards returns to the north and nortli-eatt as far 

 as the great Tihuktflii-nofs. On hispaffage back, the 20th 

 of Augull, forty Tfhul-.lfhi approached his fliip in four bai- 

 dars, and informed him that tlieir countrymen frequently 

 went to the Kovyma by land, with merchandifes, but never 

 by water. 



Afanafy Sheftakof, colonel of the Yakutficol Kozaks, 

 having made feveral propofals to the fenate to render the 

 obftinate Tlhuktfhi tributary, it will be neceffary to fay 

 fomething of his expedition as being of fome confequence 

 t(!) the hiftoi-y of navigation. Sheilakof was refolved to 

 reduce not only the Tlhuktfiii, but hkewife the Koriaks 

 who dwell on the Siberian csaft of the Penfhinflcian fea, and 

 likcwife inhabit both lliores of the northern part of Kanit- 

 finatka, and were frequently in a ttate of rebellion, to obe- 

 dience. He purpofed to vifit the country' lying oppofite to 

 Tfliukotflvoi-nofs, and fubjeft the kihabitants to the Ruffian 

 authority. It was part of his plan like wife to make an at- 

 tempt to difcover the pretended land in the Frozen ocean ; 

 and, laftly, before his return, to explore the Shantarian 

 and Kurilly ifiands. The eloquence, with which he accom- 

 panied the delivery of his project, gained him univerfal ap- 

 probation, and high and low became interefted in the fuccefs 

 of his enterprife, all conceiving it extremely probable that 

 great public benefit might accrue from it. Accordingly he 

 was appointed commander of a particular expedition. The 

 admiralty, of St. Pcterfburg gave him a pilot named Ja- 

 cob Hens, witli an affiftant Ivan Fedorof^, a gcodefift Mi- 

 chael Gvofdef, a mineralogift named Herdeliol, and ten 

 failors. At Ekatarinenburg, he was fupplied with field- 

 pieces and mortars, with all proper appurtenances. At 

 Tobolfli, a captain of the Sibertau regiment of dragoons, 

 Dmitri Pavluzki, was ordered to join him, with four hun- 

 dred Kozaks, under their united command ; and they were 

 farther empowered to increafe their ftrength from all the 

 garrifons, oftrogs, and fimovies, in the territoiy of Yakutik, 

 wherever they (lionld come, at their difcretion. 



Thefe preparatives being made, Sheilakof fet out from 

 St. Peterfburg for Siberia in the month of June 1727. At 

 ToboKk he tarried till the 28th of November, pafied the 

 winter in the upper regions of the Lena, and reached YakutHc 

 in the fummer of 172H. Here a violent quarrel arofe be- 

 tween Sheftakof and Pavluzki, which probably occafioned 

 them to part, though they profecuted their feveral purpofes 

 to the fame end. Sheftakof, in 1729, repaired to Okhotflc, 

 and there took to his ufe the veffels with which captain 

 Bccring had lately returned from Kamtfliatka. Having dif- 

 patched his kinfraan the fin boyar(l<oi Ivan Sheftakof, on the 

 rirll of September, in one of them, the Gabriel, to go to 

 the river Ud and thence to Kamtftiatka, for the purpofe of 

 examining and defcribing all the ifiands he might meet with 

 on that voyage ; he failed in the other veftel, the Fortuna, 

 for Tavilkoi oftrog, but had the misfortune to fuffer fiiip- 

 wreck, and to fee the greater part of his people perifii in 

 the billows, with great difficulty faving himfelf and four 

 other perfons from fiiaring their fate. The 30th of Sep- 

 tember, he fent from Tavifkoi oftrog a kozak, Ivan Ofta- 

 Cef, in company with an elder of the Koriaks, forwards 

 along the coaft, with orders to proceed to the river Pen- 

 iliina, and by kind word* and fair promifes to perfunde the 



Vol. III. 



refrartory Konaks dwcIHng in that traft, to fubmit to the 

 Rufiian government. He himfelf loUowed, at the commeiice- 

 nieht of December, with the reft of his nieii, took up Ofta- 

 fief by the way, and arrived within two days journey from 

 tlie Pcnfliina, where lie fell in with a prodigious hoft of 

 Tfluiktfiii on their march to make war upon the Koriaks. 

 Tiiniigh the number of Sheftakof's followers, RulTiar.^, 

 Okhotikian Tunguk?, Lamutes, and Koriaks, all together 

 conlilled of not more than 150 men, yet he did not hcfitate 

 to riik a battle with the Thutkftii. This, however, had 

 an unfortunate ift^ue : Sheftakof was ftruck by an arrow 

 from the enemy, which deprived him of life, and thofe who 

 efcaped falling with him, were entirely put to flight. This 

 happened the 14th of March 1730, near the llrcam Ye- 

 gatlh, which falls into the Penihinlkian gulf between the 

 rivers Paren and Penlhina. 



Three days prior to this difaftrous event, Sheftakof had 

 fent an order to Tavilkoi oftrog, directing the Kozak 

 Trypho Krupiftief to proceed in one of the veffels to Bol- 

 fiierttzkoi yilrog, from t'lence doubling the fi>uthern point 

 of Kamtftiatka, to fail on towards Nilhnci Kamtfliat-Ovoi 

 oftrog, to continue his voyage hi the fame fiiip to the river 

 Anadyr, and invite the inhabitants of the vaft traft of 

 country lying oppofite to pay tribute to Ruflia. In this 

 difpatch he recommended Krupiftief to take with him the 

 gcodefift Gvofdef, in cafe he were inclined to go, and to 

 treat him vs'ith all poiTible kindnefs. Concerning what came 

 of it no accounts are extant. Only thus much is known, 

 obferves Mr. Miiller, that the geodefift Gvofdef was aftu- 

 ally, in the year 1730, between the 65th and 66th degrees, 

 of latitude, at a flrort diftance from the country of the 

 Tfliuktftiy, on an unknown ftiore fituate over againft the faid 

 country ; that he even found people there, with whom, how- 

 ever, he was unable to converfe for want of an interpreter. 



During thefe tranfaflions, the fin boyarftioi Ivan Shef- 

 takof was failing on board the Gabriel to Kamtftiatka, and 

 on the 19th of September 1729, arrived at Bolfiieretzkoi. 

 For though his inftrudions were to proceed firft to the river 

 Ud, he was prevented from doing fo by violent adverfe 

 florins. The following fummer, however, he made the 

 voyage to the Ud, touched at Udflvoi oftrog, where he found 

 people who had been fent thither by colonel Sheftakof, and 

 had built a veflel ; but that not being fit for his purpofe, 

 he returned to Kamtftiatka, having feen both on his paf- 

 fage outwards, and on his way back, feveral ifiands, and 

 at laft made again the port of Okhotlk, 



While Sheftakof was on his paffage back to Okhotfk, 

 Jacob Hens the pilot, received a difpatch from captain Pav- 

 luzki, who had come direftly from Yakutftc, by the common 

 inland road, to Nifiiney Kovymlkoi Simovie, or oftrog, in- 

 forming him that he had heard, by way of Anadyr(l<oi 

 oftrog, of the death of the Kozak colonel Sheftakof; but 

 that this would caufe no impsdiment to the progrefs of the 

 expedition : at the fame time ordering the pilot plens to go, 

 with one of the veffels which captain Beering had left at 

 Okhotlk, round by Kamtftiatka to Anadirflc, whither like- 

 wife captain Pavluzki would preceed without delay. In 

 purfuance of this order, Hens went on board the Gabriel, 

 and failed for Kamtftiatka. On the 20th of July 1731, 

 he arrived at the mouth of the river Kamtftiatka, intending 

 to purfue his voyage to the Anadyr, when a report wai 

 brought to him, that the fame day a rebellious crew of 

 Kanitlhadales were come to Nifliney Kamtftiatkoi oftrog, 

 where after murdering nioft of the Ruffians, they had ftt 

 fire to the dweUings of the inhabitants. The few remain, 

 ing Rufiians took refuge on board tlie veffel, and Hens fent 

 a party of his people on fhorc to reduce the Kamtfliadule* 

 h to 



