172 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
incomplete than the map which accompanies Strahlenherg’s. 
book.^ 
Before I begin to sketch the explorations of the great 
northern expedition, some account remains to be given of the 
discovery of Kamchatka. It appears from the preceding that 
Kamchatka was already reached by some of Deschnev’s fol¬ 
lowers, but their important discovery was completely unknown 
in Moscow. Kamchatka is, however, already mentioned in the 
narrative of Evert Ysbrants Ides’ embassy to China in 1693-95;^ 
accounts of it had probably been obtained from the Siberian 
natives, who are accustomed to wander far and near. These 
accounts, however, are exceedingly incomplete, and therefore, 
Yolodomir Atlassov, ^idtidesdtnih {i.e., commander of fifty 
men) at Anadyrsk, is considered the proper discoverer of 
Kamchatka. 
While Atlassov was commander at Anadyrsk, he sent out in 
1696, the Cossack Lucas Semenov Sin Morosko with sixteen 
men to bring the tribe living to the south under tribute. The 
commission was executed, and on his return Morosko stated that 
he not only was among the Koryaks, but had also penetrated to 
the neighbourhood of the river Kamchatka, and that he took 
a Kamchadal “ ostrog,” and found in it some manuscripts in an 
unknown language, which, according to information afterwards 
obtained, had belonged to some Japanese who had stranded on 
the coast of Kamchatka.^ It was the first hint the conquerors 
et snr cTautres connoissances dont on rend raison dans un memoire separe. 
St. Petersbourg, FAcademie Imperiale des Sciences, 1758. 
^ In this sketch of the discovery and conquest of Siberia I have followed 
J. E. Fischer, Sihirische GescJiichte^ St. Petersburg, 1768, and G. P. Miiller, 
Saninilung Russischer GescMchte, St. Petersburg, 1758. 
2 In the twentieth chapter of Dreyjdhrige Reise nacJi China^ &c., Frank¬ 
fort, 1707. The first edition came out at Hamburg in 1698. 
^ Muller, iii. p. 19. An account of Atlassov’s conquest of Kamchatka 
{Bericht gedaen door zeher Moskovisch krygs-hediende Wolodwier Otlasofd, 
hooft-man over vyftig^ &c.) is besides to be found in Witsen (1705, Nieuwe 
