The islands of St Macarius, St Stephen, St Theodore, St Abraham, Seduction Island, and some others, which are to be found in Mr Muller's chart, had no place in this now produced to us; nay, both Mr Ismyloff, and the others, assured me, that they had been several times sought for in vain. And yet it is difficult to believe how Mr Muller, from whom subsequent map-makers have adopted them, could place them in this chart without some authority. Relying, however, on the testimony of these people, whom I thought competent witnesses, I have left them out of my chart, and made such corrections amongst the other islands as I was told was necessary. I found there was wanting another correction; for the difference of longitude, between the Bay of Awatska, and the harbour of Samganoodha, according to astronomical observations, made at these two places, is greater by five degrees and a half, than it is by the chart. This error I have supposed to be infused throughout the whole, though it may not be so in reality. There was also an error in the latitude of some places, but this hardly exceeded a quarter of a degree.
I shall now give some account of the islands, beginning with those that lie nearest to Kamtschatka, and reckoning the longitude from the harbour of Petropaulowska, in the Bay of Awatska. The first is Beering's Island, in 55° of latitude, and 6° of longitude. Ten leagues from the south end of this, in the direction of E. by S., or E.S.E., lies Meidenoi Ostroff, or the Copper Island. The next island is Atakou, laid down in 52° 45' of latitude, and in 15° or 16° of longitude. This island is about eighteen leagues in extent, in the direction of E. and W., and seems to be the same land which Beering fell in with, and named Mount St John. But there are no islands about it, except two inconsiderable ones, lying three or four leagues from the east end, in the direction of E.N.E.
We next come to a group, consisting of six or more islands, two of which, Atghka and Amluk are tolerably large, and in each of them is a good harbour. The middle of this group lies in the latitude of 52° 30', and 28° of longitude from Awatska, and its extent, E. and W., is four degrees. These are the isles that Mr Ismyloff said were to be removed four degrees to the E., which was done. And in the situation they have in my chart, was a group, consisting of ten small islands, which, I was told, were wholly to be struck out, and also two islands lying between them and the group to which Oonalashka belongs. In the place of these two, an island called Amoghta (which in the chart was situated in the latitude of 51° 45', and 4° of longitude to the W.) was brought.
Nothing more need be said to shew how erroneous the situation of many of these islands may be, and for which I am in nowise accountable. But the position of the largest group, of which Oonalashka is one of the principal islands, and the only one in which there is a harbour, is not liable to any such errors. Most of these islands were seen by us, and consequently their latitude and longitude were pretty exactly determined, particularly the harbour of Samganoodha in Oonalashka, which must be looked upon as a fixed point. This group of islands maybe said to extend as far as Halibut Isles, which are forty leagues from Oonalashka toward the E.N.E. Within these isles, a passage was marked in Ismyloff's chart, communicating with Bristol Bay, which converts about fifteen leagues of the coast, that I had supposed to belong to the continent, into an island, distinguished by the name of Ooneemak. This passage might easily escape us, as we were informed, that it is very narrow, shallow, and only to be navigated through with boats, or very small vessels.[10]
It appeared by the chart, as well as by the testimony of Ismyloff and the other Russians, that this is as far as their countrymen have made any discoveries, or have extended themselves, since Beering's time. They all said, that no Russians had settled themselves so far to the east as the place where the natives gave the note to Captain Clerke, which Mr Ismyloff, to whom I delivered it, on perusing it, said, had been written at Oomanak. It was, however, from him that we got the name of Kodiak, the largest of Schumagin's Islands; for it had no name upon the chart produced by him.[11] The names of all the other islands were taken from it, and we wrote them down as pronounced by him. He said, they were all such as the natives themselves called their islands by; but, if so, some of the names seem to have been strangely altered. It is worth observing, that no names were put to the islands which Ismyloff told us were to be struck out of the chart, and I considered this as some confirmation that they have no existence.
I have already observed, that the American continent is here called by the Russians, as well as by the islanders, Alaschka; which name, though it properly belong only to the country adjoining to Oonemak, is used by them when speaking of the American continent in general, which they know perfectly well to be a great land.
This is all the information I got from these people, relating to the geography of this part of the world; and I have reason to believe that this was all the information they were able to give. For they assured me, over and over again, that they knew of no other islands, besides those which were laid down upon this chart; and that no Russian had ever seen any part of the continent of America to the northward, except that which lies opposite the country of the Tschutskis.
If Mr Stæhlin was not grossly imposed upon, what could induce him to publish a map so singularly erroneous, and in which many of these islands are jumbled together in regular confusion, without the least regard to truth; and yet he is pleased to call it a very accurate little map.[12] Indeed, it is a map to which the most illiterate of his illiterate sea-faring countrymen would have been ashamed to set his name.
Mr Ismyloff remained with us till the 21st, in the evening, when he took his final leave. To his care I intrusted a letter to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, in which was inclosed a chart of all the northern coasts I had visited. He said there would be an opportunity of sending it to Kamtschatka, or Okotsk, the ensuing spring, and that it would be at Petersburg the following winter. He gave me a letter to Major Behm, governor of Kamtschatka, who resides at Bolscheretsk, and another to the commanding officer, at Petropaulowska. Mr Ismyloff seemed to have abilities that might entitle him to a higher station in life, than that in which we found him. He was tolerably well versed in astronomy, and in the most useful branches of the mathematics. I made him a present of an Hadley's octant; and though, probably, it was the first he had ever seen, he made himself acquainted, in a very short time, with most of the uses to which that instrument can be applied.
In the morning of the 22d, we made an attempt to get to sea, with the wind at S.E., which miscarried. The following afternoon, we were visited by one Jacob Ivanovitch Soposnicoff, a Russian, who commanded a boat, or small vessel, at Oomanak. This man had a great share of modesty, and would drink no strong liquor, of which the rest of his countrymen, whom we had met with here, were immoderately fond. He seemed to know more accurately what supplies could be got at the harbour of Petropaulowska, and the price of the different articles, than Mr Ismyloff. But, by all accounts, every thing we should want at that place was very scarce, and bore a high price. Flour, for instance, was from three to five roubles the pood,[13] and deer from three to five roubles each. This man told us that he was to be at Petropaulowska in May next, and, as I understood, was to have the charge of my letter. He seemed to be exceedingly desirous of having some token from me to carry to Major Behm, and to gratify him, I sent a small spying-glass.