XIII.] 
FATE OF ANKUDINOV’S ^>ARTY 
167 
the particulars of this remarkable voyage been rescued from 
complete obliviond 
In 1653 Deschnev gave orders to collect wood to build craft 
in which he intended to carry home by sea the tribute he 
had collected to the Kolyma, but he was compelled to desist 
from want of the necessary materials for the building and equip¬ 
ment of the boats, comforting himself with the statement of 
the natives that the sea was not always so open as during 
his first voyage. Compelled by necessity, he remained a year 
longer at the Anadyr, and in 1654 undertook a new hunting 
voyage to the walrus-bank, where he met with the before- 
mentioned Selivestrov. He here came in contact with the 
natives (Koryaks), and found among them a Yakut woman, who 
had belonged to Ankudinov. On asking her where her master 
had gone to, she answered that Feodot and Gerasim (Ankudinov) 
had died of scurvy, and that their companions had been killed 
with the exception of some few, who had saved themselves in 
boats. It appears as if the latter had penetrated along the 
coast as far as to the river Kamchatka. For when Kamchatka 
was conquered by Atlassov in 1697 the natives stated that a 
long time before one Feodotov (probably a son of Feodot 
Alexejev) had lived among them along with some companions, 
and had married their women. They were venerated almost 
as gods. They were believed to be invulnerable until they 
struck another, when the Kamchadals saw their mistake and 
killed them.^ 
By the expeditions of Deschnev, Staduchin, and their 
1 Strahlenberg must have collected the main details of this voyage by 
oral communications from Russian hunters and traders. 
^ According to Muller. Krascheninnikov {Histoire et description du 
Kamtschatha, Amsterdam, 1770, ii. p.. 292) states, evidently from infor¬ 
mation obtained in Kamchatka, that the river Nikul is called Feodot- 
ovchina after Feodot Alexejev, who not only penetrated thither, but also 
sailed round the southern promontory of Kamchatka to the River Tigil 
where he and his followers perished in the way described by Muller. 
