156 COOK MEETS RUSSIAN TRADERS. [1778. 



he carefully examined all its bays and recesses, in search of a pas- 

 sage towards the east, until he, at length, on the 9th of August, 

 reached a pointy in the latitude of 65 degrees 46 minutes, which 

 his observations induced "him to consider as the "north-western 

 extremity of all America." This point he named Cape Prince of 

 Wales, and thence proceeding westward, across a channel only fifty 

 miles in breadth, he arrived at another point, supposed to be that 

 described, in the account of Bering's first voyage, as the Tchukotskoi 

 Noss, which was ascertained to be the easternmost spot in Asia, and 

 was accordingly named East Cape. The passage separating these 

 capes, which the Russians had called Bering's Strait, was suffered 

 to retain that appellation, in honor of the navigator who first sailed 

 through it. 



Beyond Bering's Strait, the American coast was traced by the 

 English, north-eastward upon the Arctic Sea, to Icy Cape, in the 

 latitude of 70 degrees 29 minutes, where the progress of the ex- 

 plorers was arrested by the ice. In like manner, the Asiatic coast 

 was surveyed north-westward, to Cape North, in the latitude of 68 

 degrees 56 minutes, the farthermost point to which it was then pos- 

 sible to advance in that direction ; and, the warm season being by 

 this time ended, Cook judged it prudent to retire to the south, 

 deferring the continuation of his researches until the ensuing 

 summer. He accordingly repassed Bering's Strait, and on the 

 3d of October his ships were again anchored in the harbor of Sam- 

 agoonda, on the north side of Unalashka. 



From this place, Corporal Ledyard was despatched on an ex- 

 ploring trip into the interior of the island, where he at length dis- 

 covered some Russian traders, who accompanied . him back to the 

 ships. The chief of these traders, named Gerassim Ismyloff, was 

 an old and experienced seaman, who had formed one of the party 

 under Benyowsky, in their adventurous voyage from Kamtchatka 

 to China, in 1770, and had since been engaged in the navigation 

 and traffic between Asia and the Aleutian Islands. He readily ex- 

 hibited to Cook the few charts in his possession, and communicated 

 what he knew respecting the geography of that part of the world 

 as well as was possible, considering that neither of the two under- 

 stood a word of the language of the other. The information thus 

 received from Ismyloff, however, only served to show the entire 

 inaccuracy of the ideas of the Russians with regard to America, 

 and to convince the English navigator of the importance of his own 

 discoveries. 



