From that period every thing went on very peaceably, till the year 1740, when a few Russians lost their lives in a tumult which was attended with no farther consequences; and, except the insurrection at Bolcheretsk in 1770, (which hath been already noticed), there has been no disturbance since.
Though the quelling the rebellion of 1731 was attended with the loss of a great number of inhabitants, yet I was informed, that the country had recovered itself, and was become more populous than ever, when, in the year 1767, the small-pox, brought by a soldier from Okotsk, broke out among them for the first time, marking its progress with ravages not less dreadful than the plague, and seeming to threaten their entire extirpation. They compute, that near twenty thousand died of this disorder in Kamtschatka, the Koreki country, and the Kurile Islands. The inhabitants of whole villages were swept away. Of this we had sufficient proofs before our eyes. There are no less than eight ostrogs scattered about the bay of Awatska, all which, we were informed, had been fully inhabited, but are now entirely desolate, except Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and even that contains no more than seven Kamtschadales, who are tributary. At Paratounca ostrog there are but thirty-six native inhabitants, men, women, and children, which, before it was visited by the small-pox, we were told, contained three hundred and sixty. In our road to Bolcheretsk, we passed four extensive ostrogs, with not an inhabitant in them. In the present diminished state of the natives, with fresh supplies of Russians and Cossacks perpetually pouring in, and who intermix with them by marriage, it is probable that in less than half a century there will be very few of them left. By Major Behm’s account, there are not now more than three thousand who pay tribute, the Kurile islanders included.
I understood that there are at this time, of the military, in the five forts of Nichnei, Verchnei, Tigil, Bolcheretsk, and Saint Peter and Saint Paul, about four hundred Russians and Cossacks, and near the same number at Ingiga, which, though to the north of the peninsula, is, I learned, at present under the commander of Kamtschatka. To these may be added the Russian traders and emigrants, whose numbers are not very considerable.
The Russian government established over this country is mild and equitable, considered as a military one, in a very high degree. The natives are permitted to choose their own magistrates from among themselves, in the way and with the same powers they had ever been used. One of these, under the title of Toion, presides over each ostrog; is the referee in all differences; imposes fines, and inflicts punishments for all crimes and misdemeanors; referring to the governor of Kamtschatka such only as he does not choose, from their intricacy or heinousness, to decide upon himself. The Toion has likewise the appointment of a civil officer, called a corporal, who assists him in the execution of his office, and in his absence acts as his deputy.
By an edict of the present empress, no crime whatsoever can be punished with death. But we were informed, that in cases of murder (of which there are very few), the punishment of the knout is administered with such severity, that the offender for the most part dies under it.
The only tribute exacted (which can be considered as little more than an acknowledgment of the Russian dominion over them) consists, in some districts, of a fox’s skin; in others of a sable’s; and in the Kurile isles of a sea-otter’s; but as this is much the most valuable, one skin serves to pay the tribute of several persons. The Toions collect the tribute in their respective districts. Besides the mildness of their government, the Russians have a claim to every praise for the pains they have bestowed, and which have been attended with great success, in converting them to Christianity, there remaining, at present, very few idolaters among them. If we may judge of the other missionaries, from the hospitable and benevolent pastor of Paratounca (who is a native on the mother’s side), more suitable persons could not be set over this business. It is needless to add, that the religion taught is that of the Greek church. Schools are likewise established in many of the ostrogs, where the children of both the natives and Cossacks are gratuitously instructed in the Russian language.
The commerce of this country, as far as concerns the exports, is entirely confined to furs, and carried on principally by a company of merchants, instituted by the present empress. This company originally consisted of twelve, and three have been lately added to it. They are indulged with certain privileges, and distinguished by wearing a golden medal, as a mark of the empress’s encouragement and protection of the fur trade. Besides these, there are many inferior traders (particularly of the Cossacks) scattered through the country. The principal merchants, for the time they are here, reside at Bolcheretsk, or the Nishnei ostrog, in which two places the trade almost wholly centres. Formerly this commerce was altogether carried on in the way of barter; but of late years every article is bought and sold for ready money only; and we were surprized at the quantity of specie in circulation in so poor a country. The furs sell at a high price, and the situation and habits of life of the natives call for few articles in return. Our sailors brought a great number of furs with them from the coast of America, and were not less astonished than delighted with the quantity of silver the merchants paid down for them; but on finding neither gin-shops to resort to, nor tobacco, or any thing else that they cared for, to be had for money, the roubles soon became troublesome companions, and I often observed them kicking them about the deck. The merchant I have already had occasion to mention, gave our men at first thirty roubles for a sea-otter’s skin, and for others in proportion; but finding that they had considerable quantities to dispose of, and that he had men to deal with who did not know how to keep up the market, he afterward bought them for much less.
The articles of importation are principally European, but not confined to Russian manufactures; many are English and Dutch; several likewise come from Siberia, Bucharia, the Calmucs, and China. They consist of coarse woollen and linen cloths, yarn stockings, bonnets, and gloves; thin Persian silks, cottons, and pieces of nankeen, silk and cotton handkerchiefs; brass coppers and pans, iron stoves, files, guns, powder and shot; hardware, such as hatchets, bills, knives, scissars, needles, looking-glasses, flour, sugar, tanned hides, boots, &c.
We had an opportunity of seeing a great many of these articles in the hands of a merchant, who came in the empress’s galliot from Okotsk; and I shall only observe generally, that they sold for treble the price they might have been purchased for in England. And though the merchants have so large a profit upon these imported goods, they have still a larger upon the furs at Kiachta, upon the frontiers of China, which is the great market for them. The best sea-otter skins sell generally in Kamtschatka for about thirty roubles a-piece. The Chinese merchant at Kiachta purchases them at more than double that price, and sells them again at Pekin at a great advance, where a farther profitable trade is made with some of them to Japan. If, therefore, a skin is worth thirty roubles in Kamtschatka, to be transported first to Okotsk, thence to be conveyed by land to Kiachta, a distance of one thousand three hundred and sixty-four miles, thence on to Pekin, seven hundred and sixty miles more, and after this to be transported to Japan, what a prodigiously advantageous trade might be carried on between this place and Japan, which is but about a fortnight’s, at most three weeks’ sail from it?
All furs exported from hence across the sea of Okotsk, pay a duty of ten per cent., and sables a duty of twelve. And all sorts of merchandize, of whatever denomination, imported from Okotsk, pay half a rouble for every pood.[[62]]