Having now passed Beering’s Straits, and taken our final leave of the north-east coast of Asia, it may not be improper, on this occasion, to state the grounds on which we have ventured to adopt two general conclusions respecting its extent, in opposition to the opinions of Mr. Muller. The first, that the promontory named East Cape is actually the easternmost point of that quarter of the globe; or, in other words, that no part of the continent extends in longitude beyond 190° 22ʹ E.: the second, that the latitude of the north-easternmost extremity falls to the southward of 70° N. With respect to the former, if such land exist, it must necessarily be to the north of latitude 69°, where the discoveries made in the present voyage terminate; and, therefore, the probable direction of the coast, beyond this point, is the question I shall endeavour, in the first place, to investigate.
As the Russian is the only nation that has hitherto navigated these seas, all our information respecting the situation of the coast to the northward of Cape North, must necessarily be derived from the charts and journals of the persons who have been employed at various times, in ascertaining the limits of that empire; and these are, for the most part, so imperfect, so confused and contradictory, that it is not easy to form any distinct idea of their pretended, much less to collect the amount of their real discoveries. It is on this account, that the extent and form of the peninsula, inhabited by the Tschutski, still remains a point, on which the Russian geographers are much divided. Mr. Muller, in his map, published in the year 1754, supposes this country to extend toward the north-east, to the 75° of latitude, and in longitude 190° east of Greenwich, and to terminate in a round cape, which he calls Tschukotskoi Noss. To the southward of this cape he conceives the coast to form a bay to the westward, bounded in latitude 67° 18ʹ, by Serdze Kamen, the northernmost point seen by Beering in his expedition in the year 1728. The map published by the Academy of St. Petersburg, in the year 1776, gives the whole peninsula entirely a new form, placing its north easternmost extremity in the latitude 73°, longitude 178° 30ʹ. The easternmost point in latitude 65° 30ʹ, longitude 189° 30ʹ. All the other maps we saw, both printed and in manuscript, vary between these two, apparently more according to the fancy of the compiler, than on any grounds of more accurate information. The only point in which there is a general coincidence, without any considerable variation, is in the position of the east Cape, in latitude 66°. The form of the coast, both to the south and north of this cape, in the map of the academy, is exceedingly erroneous, and may be totally disregarded. In that of Mr. Muller, the coast to the northward bears a considerable resemblance to our survey, as far as the latter extends, except that it does not trend sufficiently to the westward; receding only about 5° of longitude, between the latitude of 66° and 69°; whereas, in reality, it recedes near ten. Between the latitude 69° and 74°, he makes the coast bend round to the north and north-east, and to form a considerable promontory. On what authority, now remains to be examined.
Mr. Coxe, whose accurate researches into this subject, give his opinion great weight, is persuaded that the extremity of the Noss in question was never passed but by Deshneff and his party, who sailed from the river Kovyma in the year 1648, and are supposed to have got round it into the Anadyr. As the account of this expedition, the substance of which the reader will find in Mr. Coxe’s account of Russian discoveries, contains no geographical delineation of the coast along which they sailed, its position must be conjectured from incidental circumstances; and from these it appears very manifest, that the Tschukotskoi Noss of Deshneff is no other than the promontory called by Captain Cook the East Cape. Speaking of the Noss, he says, “One might sail from the isthmus to the river Anadyr, with a fair wind, in three days and three nights.” This exactly coincides with the situation of the East Cape, which is about one hundred and twenty leagues from the mouth of the Anadyr; and as there is no other isthmus to the northward between that and the latitude of 69°, it is obvious, that, by this description, he must intend either the cape in question, or some other to the southward of it. In another place he says, “Over against the isthmus there are two islands in the sea, upon which were seen people of the Tschutski nation through whose lips were run pieces of the teeth of the sea-horse.” This again perfectly agrees with the two islands situated to the south-east of the East Cape. We saw indeed no inhabitants on them; but it is not at all improbable, that a party of the Americans, from the opposite continent, whom this description accurately suits, might, at that time, have been accidentally there: and whom it was natural enough for him to mistake for a tribe of the Tschutski.[[22]]
These two circumstances are of so striking and unequivocal a nature, that they appear to me conclusive on the point of the Tschukotskoi Noss, notwithstanding there are others of a more doubtful kind, which we have from the same authority, and which now remain to be considered. “To go,” says Deshneff in another account, “from the Kovyma to the Anadyr, a great promontory must be doubled, which stretches very far into the sea; and afterward, this promontory stretches between north and north-east.” It was probably from the expressions contained in these passages, that Mr. Muller was induced to give the country of the Tschutski the form we find in his map; but had he been acquainted with the situation of the East Cape, as ascertained by Captain Cook, and the remarkable coincidence between it and their promontory or isthmus (for it must be observed that Deshneff appears to be all along speaking of the same thing), in the circumstances already mentioned, I am confident he would not have thought those expressions merely by themselves, of sufficient weight to warrant him in extending the north-eastern extremity of Asia either so far to the north or to the eastward. For after all these expressions are not irreconcileable with the opinion we have adopted, if we suppose Deshneff to have taken these bearings from the small bight which lies to the westward of the cape.
The deposition of the Cossac Popoff, taken at the Anadirskoi ostrog in the year 1711, seems to have been the next authority on which Mr. Muller has proceeded; and beside these two I am not acquainted with any other. This Cossac, together with several others, was sent by land to demand tribute from the independent Tschutski tribes, who lived about the Noss. The first circumstance in the account of this journey that can lead to the situation of Tschukotskoi Noss is its distance from Anadirsk; and this is stated to be ten weeks’ journey with loaded rein-deer; on which account, it is added, their day’s journey was but very small. It is impossible to conclude much from so vague an account; but as the distance between the east cape and the ostrog is upward of two hundred leagues in a straight line, and therefore may be supposed to allow twelve or fifteen miles a day; its situation cannot be reckoned incompatible with Popoff’s calculation. The next circumstance mentioned in this deposition is, that their route lay by the foot of a rock called Matkol, situated at the bottom of a great gulf. This gulf Muller supposes to be the bay he had laid down between latitude 66° and 72°; and accordingly places the rock Matkol in the centre of it; but it appears equally probable, even if we had not so many reasons to doubt the existence of that bay, that it might be some part of the gulf of Anadir, which they would undoubtedly touch upon in their road from the ostrog to the East Cape.
But what seems to put this matter beyond all dispute, and to prove that the cape visited by Popoff cannot be to the northward of 69° latitude, is that part of his deposition which I have already quoted, relative to the island lying off the Noss, from whence the opposite continent might be seen. For as the two continents in latitude 69°, have diverged so far as to be more than three hundred miles distant, it is highly improbable that the Asiatic coast should again trend in such a manner to the eastward, as to come nearly within sight of the coast of America.
If these arguments should be deemed conclusive against the existence of the peninsula of the Tschutski, as laid down by Muller, it will follow that the East Cape of the Tschukotskoi Noss of the[[23]] more early Russian navigators, and consequently that the undescribed coast from the latitude of 69° to the mouth of the river Kovyma, must uniformly trend more or less to the westward. As an additional proof of this, it may be remarked that the Tschukotskoi Noss is always represented as dividing the sea of Kovyma from that of Anadir, which could not be the case if any considerable cape had projected to the north-east in the higher latitudes.
Thus, in the depositions taken at Anadirsk, it is related “that opposite the Noss, on both sides, as well in the sea of Kovyma as in that of Anadir, an island is said to be seen at a great distance, which the Tschutski call a large country; and say that people dwell there who have large teeth put in their mouths that project through their cheeks.” Then follows a description of these people and their country, exactly corresponding with our accounts of the opposite continent.
The last question that arises is, to what degree of northern latitude this coast extends, before it trends more directly to the westward. If the situation of the mouth of the Kovyma, both with respect to its latitude and longitude, were accurately determined, it would perhaps not be very difficult to form a probable conjecture upon this point. Captain Cook was always strongly of opinion that the northern coast of Asia from the Indigirka eastward, has hitherto been generally laid down more than two degrees to the northward of its true position; and he has therefore, on the authority of a map that was in his possession, and on the information he received at Oonalashka, placed the mouth of the river Kovyma, in his chart of the north-west coast of America and the north-east coast of Asia, in the latitude of 68°. Should he be right in this conjecture, it is probable, for the reasons that have been already stated, that the Asiatic coast does not any where exceed 70° before it trends to the westward; and consequently that we were within 1° of its north-eastern extremity. For if the continent be supposed to stretch any where to the northward of Shelatskoi Noss, it is scarcely possible that so extraordinary a circumstance should not have been mentioned by the Russian navigators; and we have already shown that they make mention of no remarkable promontory between the Kovyma and the Anadir, except the East Cape. Another circumstance related by Deshneff, may perhaps be thought a further confirmation of this opinion, namely, that he met with no impediment from ice in navigating round the north-east extremity of Asia; though he adds that this sea is not always so free from it; as indeed is manifest from the failure of his first expedition, and since that, from the unsuccessful attempts of Shalauroff, and the obstacles we met with, in two different years, in our present voyage.
The continent left undetermined in our chart, between Cape North and the mouth of the Kovyma, is in longitudinal extent one hundred and twenty-five leagues. One third or about forty leagues of this distance, from the Kovyma eastward, was explored in the year 1723 by a Sinbojarskoi of Jakutz, whose name was Fedot Amossoff, by whom Mr. Muller was informed that its direction was to the eastward. It is said to have been since accurately surveyed by Shalauroff, whose chart makes it trend to the north-east by east as far as the Shelatskoi Noss, which he places about forty-three leagues to the eastward of the Kovyma. The space between this Noss and Cape North, about eighty-two leagues, is therefore the only part of the Russian empire that now remains unascertained.