THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
359 
are the moft favoured of his creatures ; the moft fortunate i 779 . 
and happy of beings; and that their country is fuperior , Odlober - 
to all others, affording means of gratification far beyond 
what are any where elfe to be met with: that they have a 
perfect knowledge of all the plants of the country, their vir¬ 
tues and ufes, which could not be acquired in a fhort time : 
that their inftruments and houfehold utenfils differ greatly 
from thofe of any other nation, and are made with an ex¬ 
traordinary degree of neatnefs and dexterity, which implies 
that they are both of their own invention, and have been 
long in arriving at fo great perfection : that antecedently to 
the arrival of the Ruffians and Coffacks among them, they 
had not the fmalleff knowledge of any people, except the 
Koreki: that it is but of late they had an intercourfe with 
the Kuriles, and ftill later (and happened by means of a vef- 
fel being fhipwrecked on their coaft) that they knew any 
thing of the Japanefe; and, laflly, that the country was 
very populous, at the time the Ruffians firft got footing 
in it. 
The reafons he alleges for fuppofing them to be originally 
defended from the Mungalians, are : That many words in 
their language have terminations ffmilar to thofe of the 
Mungalian Chinefe, fuch as, ong, ing , oing, tcbing , tcha , 
tchoing , kfi , kfung , &c.; and moreover, that the fame prin¬ 
ciple of inflexion or derivation obtains in both languages : 
that they are in general under-fized, as are the Mungalians : 
that their complexion, like theirs, is fwarthy: that they 
have black hair, little beard, the face broad, the nofe fhort 
and flat, the eyes fmall and funk, the eye-brows thin, the 
belly pendant, the legs fmall; all which are peculiarities 
that are to be found among the Mungalians. From the 
whole of which he draws this conclufxon, that they fled for 
to fafety 
