360 
A VOYAGE TO 
oa 7 b*r t0 ^is peninfula, from the rapid advances of the 
Eaftern conquerors; as the Laplanders, the Samoides, See. 
were compelled to retreat to the extremities of the North, 
hy the Europeans. 
The Ruffians having extended their conquefts, and efta- 
blifhed polls and colonies along that immenfe extent of 
coaft of the frozen fea, from the Jenefei to the Anadir, ap¬ 
pointed commiffaries for the purpofe of exploring and fub- 
jeefting the countries Rill farther Eaftward. They foon be¬ 
came acquainted with the wandering Koriacs inhabiting 
the North and North Eaft coaft of the fea of Okotzk, and 
without difficulty made them tributary. Theft being the 
immediate neighbours of the Kamtfchadales, and likewife 
in the habits of bartering with them, a knowledge of Kamt- 
fchatka followed of courfe. 
The honour of the firft difeovery is given to Feodot 
Alexeieff, a merchant, who is faid to have failed from the 
river Kovyma, round the peninfula of the Tfchutiki, in 
company with feven other veffels, about the year 1648. 
The tradition goes, that being feparated from the reft by a 
ftorrn, near the Tfchukotlkoi Nofs, he was driven upon 
the coaft of Kamtfchatka, where he wintered ; and the ' 
fummer following coafted round the promontory of Lo- 
patka, into the fea of Okotzk, and entered the mouth 
of the Tigil; but that he and his companions were cut 
off by the Koriacs, in endeavouring to pafs from thence 
by land to the Anadirlk. This, in part, is corroborat¬ 
ed by the accounts of Simeon Deffineff, who commanded 
one of the feven veffels, and was thrown on fhore at the 
mouth of the Anadir. Be this as it may, ftnee thefe dif- 
coverers, if fuch they were, did not live to make any re¬ 
port of what they had done, Volodimir Atlaffoff, a Cof- 
fack, 
