INTERVIEW WITH TJlE TSCHUKSCHENS. 47 
to be able to put into the bay of St. Laurence. At its entrance 
we saw on the right bank of the rivulet Uragma, some summer 
juris of Tschukschens erected. We ran four miles and a half 
into the interior of the bay, and came to an anchor in six fa¬ 
thoms water, and a sandy bottom, on a level spot of the right 
shore, where the plank huts, or summer-jurls of the Tschuk¬ 
schens stood, ho sooner had we cast anchor and began to 
furl our sails, than we discovered some Tschukschens putting oil 
towards us in a large bairiar. They did not approach very near, 
but beckoned us to the shore, shewing us a paper done up in 
the form of a letter. We invited them on board by one of our 
Cossacks, who spoke Korakish, but either not understanding him, 
or fearing us, they went off. Upon this Captain Billings, Doc¬ 
tor Merle, and I, went on shore, and were met by the inha¬ 
bitants with great friendship, who invited us into their jurts, 
at the same time requesting us to leave our swords in the sloop. 
i( We,” said they, u come to you as friends, without any 
arms, but you must do the same.” Their request being com¬ 
plied with, they conducted us into their jurts, where they, de¬ 
livered us the folded paper which we had seen in their hands. 
It was a report to Captain Biilmgs by Sotnik Kobelew, who 
had been sent in the year 17&7 from the fortress of Nishne-Ko- 
lymsk, 'with the interpreter Daurkin, in order to announce our 
coming to the Tschukschens. Ko.belevv observed, that he had 
waited in company with the Reindeer Tschuk^diens here, and 
on the eastern cape, for the arrival of our vessel, from the 
28th of June to the 26th of July; but his companions not 
choosing to stay any longer, he had been obliged to go with 
them in a baidar, by water, to the island of Kalutschin, in the 
Frozen Ocean, where the Tschukschens had left their reindeer 
at their principal settlement. He added, that they should stay 
there till the loth of August, and after that go with the rein¬ 
deer into the interior of the country. Kobelew made no men¬ 
tion of the interpreter Daurkin, concerning whom we enquired 
of our Tschukschens, and received for answer, that he was living 
- with the Reindeer Tschukschen Imlerat-Kirenjew, who was de-_ 
pasturing at no great distance from this place. They promised 
to give him intelligence of our arrrival. 
