oo 
SAUYTSCHEW’S TRAVELS. 
could conveniently fill our exists. We found the whole shore, 
and the contiguous mountains, overgrown with birch and alder- 
shrubs, and a particular sort of tree’ resembling a hr. 
Early on the morning of the 20th, some Americans came 
on board our ship, and formed an acquaintance with us. The 
following days they came in greater numbers, offering us pieces 
of otters’ skin, arrows, and wooden house-utensils, for which 
they particularly preferred taking small blue glass beads in ex¬ 
change. In their traffic they often used the words amico and 
•plenty, which they had learned from other vessels, that must 
of course have been Spanish and English. 
The Americans of this part are of a middle size, and a 
brown complexion, with black, straight, and bristly hair, being 
upon the whole very similar to the Aleutians. Their whole 
dress consists of a vest of birds’ skins, and their hats are of 
platted roots, like those of the Kadjakers. Some have their 
under lip cut through an inch and half deep, and parallel with 
the mouth, wearing in the cavity little plates of green jasper, 
three quarters of an inch broad, and two inches three fourths 
long. Their baidars are double or single-seated like those of 
Kadjak. We djd not see their habitations, there being none in 
our vicinity. Our guests also informed us, that they lived at a 
great distance. 
On the 21st, Captain Billings announced to us, that agree¬ 
ably to her Imperial Majesty’s most gracious ukase, he was pro¬ 
moted to a captain of the first rank, as soon as he was arrived 
with the ship entrusted to him at Cape St. Elias ; and as he 
had reached that cape, according to the maps given him by 
the Board of Admiralty, he now assumed that rank. 
On the, 22d, 1 received a written order from him, to navigate 
the interior of Schugatskish Bay, in order to survey the shores, 
and ascertain whether they belong to the continent, or an 
island. 
One of the Americans agreeing to accompany me in his 
baidar, and tell me the name of the islands and brooks, l treated 
him with great kindness, made him presents of enamel and 
beads, invited him to my cabin, and treated him with tea, 
which he liked very much, on account of its sweetness. But 
after he had drank his tea, he concealed the cup under his 
clothes, and wanted to take his leave. I demanded it back, 
with the assurance, that 1 could not possibly spare it; upon 
which he returned it, declaring that he thought it had been 
given him as a present with the tea. It is in general worthy of 
observation, that the inhabitants of these parts have a violent 
propensity to theft. A day seldom passed m which something 
was not stolen from us, or our people. Many times they tore 
