370 
A VOYAGE TO 
1779. Ika, and the Kamtfchatka River ; the fixth is only ufed as 
L ° C1 \ a packet-boat, and always kept in readinefs, and properly 
equipped for conveying difpatches. Belides thefe, there 
are about fourteen velfels employed by the merchants in the 
fur-trade, among!! the illands to the Eaftward. One of thefe 
we found frozen up in the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
which was to fail on a trading voyage to Oonalafhka, as 
foon as the feafon would permit. 
It is here to be obferved, that the moft confiderable and 
valuable part of the fur-trade is carried on with the illands 
that lie between Kamtfchatka and America. Thefe were 
firlt difcovered by Beering, in 1741, and being found to 
abound with fea-otters, the Ruffian merchants became ex¬ 
ceedingly eager in fearching for the other illands feen by 
that navigator, to the South Eaft of Kamtfchatka, called, in 
Muller’s Map, the Illands of Sedubtion, St. Abraham, Sec. 
In thefe expeditions they fell in with three groups of 
illands. The firlt about fifteen degrees to the Eaft of Kamt¬ 
fchatka, in 53 0 North latitude; the fecond about twelve de¬ 
grees to the Eaftward of the former ; and the third, Oona- 
laffika, and the illands in its neighbourhood. Thefe trad¬ 
ing adventurers advanced alfo as far Eaft as Shumagin’s 
Illands (fo called by Beering), the largeft of which is named 
Kodiak. But here, as well as on the continent at Alalhka, 
they met with fo warm a reception in their attempts to 
compel the payment of a tribute, that they never afterward 
ventured fo far. However they conquered and made tribu¬ 
tary the three groups before mentioned. 
In the Ruffian charts, the whole fea between Kamtfchatka 
and America is covered with illands; for the adventurers in 
thefe expeditions frequently falling in with land, which 
they imagined did not agree with the fituation of other 
10 laid 
