CHAP. VII. GENERAL ACCOUNT OF KAMTSCHATKA CONTINUED.- OF THE ORIGIN OF THE KAMTSCHADALES. DISABSTRACT OF THEIR HIS INHABITANTS. PRESENT STATE. OF THE RUSSIAN TORY. OF THE KAMTSCHADALE OF THE KURILE ISLANDS. THE TSCHUTSKI. THE present inhabitants of Kamtschatka are of three sorts. The natives, or Kamtschadales; the Russians and Cossacks; and a mixture of these two by marriage. Mr. Steller, who resided some time in this country, and seems to have taken great pains to gain information on this subject, is persuaded, that the true Kamtschadales are a people of great antiquity, and have for many ages inhabited this peninsula; and that they are originally descended from the Mungalians, and not either from the Tongusian Tartars, as some, or the Japanese, as others, have imagined. The principal arguments, by which he supports these opinions, are; that there exists not among them the trace of a tradition of their having migrated from any other country; that they believe themselves to have been created and placed in this very spot by their god Koutkou; that they are the most favoured of his creatures; the most fortunate and happy of beings; and that their country is superior to all others, affording means of gratification far beyond what are any where else to be met with; that they have a perfect knowledge of all the plants of the country, their virtues and uses, which could not be acquired in a short time; that their instruments and household utensils differ greatly from those of any other nation, and are made with an extraordinay degree of neatness and dexterity, which implies that. they are both of their own invention, and have been long in arriving at so great perfection; that antecedently to the arrival of the Russians and Cossacks among them, they had not the smallest knowledge of any people except the Koreki; that it is but of late they had an intercourse with the Kuriles, and still later (and happened by means of a vessel being shipwrecked on their coast) that they knew any thing of the Japanese; and, lastly, that the country was very populous, at the time the Russians first got footing in it. The reasons he alleges for supposing them to be originally descended from the Mungalians are; that many words in their language have terminations similar to those of the Mungalian Chinese, such as, ong, ing, oing, tching, tcha, tchoing, ksi, ksung, &c.; and moreover, that the same principle of inflexion or derivation obtains in both languages; that they are in general under-sized, as are the Mungalians; that their complexion, like theirs, is swarthy; that they have black hair, little beard, the face broad, the nose short and flat, the eyes small and sunk, the eye-brows thin, the belly pendant, the legs small; all which are peculiarities that are to be found among the Mungalians. From the whole of which he draws this conclusion, that they fled for safety to this peninsula, from the rapid advances of the eastern conquerors; as the Laplanders, the Samoides, &c. were compelled to retreat to the extremities of the north, by the Europeans. The Russians having extended their conquests, and established posts and colonies along that immense extent of coast of the frozen sea, from the Jenesei to the Anadir, appointed commissaries for the purpose of exploring and subjecting the countries still farther eastward. They soon became acquainted with the wandering Koriacs inhabiting the north and north-east coast of the sea of Okotsk, and without difficulty made them tributary. These being the immediate neighbours of the Kamtschadales, and likewise in the habit of bartering with them, a knowledge of Kamtschata followed of course. The honour of the first discovery is given to Feodot Alexeieff, a merchant, who is said to have sailed from the river Kovyma round the peninsula of the Tschutski, in company with seven other vessels, about the year 1648. The tradition goes, that being separated from the rest by a storm, near the Tschukotskoi Noss, he was driven upon the coast of Kamtschatka, where he wintered; and the summer following coasted round the promontory of Lopatka, into the sea of Okotsk, and entered the mouth of the Tigil; but that he and his companions were cut off by the Koriacs, in endeavouring to pass from thence by land to the Anadirsk. This in part is corroborated by the accounts of Simeon Deshneff, who commanded one of the seven vessels, and was thrown on shore at the mouth of the Anadir. Be this as it may, since these discoveries, if such they were, he did not live to make any report of what they had done. Volodimir Atlassoff, a Cossack, stands for the first acknowledged discoverer of Kamtschatka.* This person was sent, in the year 1697, from the fort Jakutsk to the Anadirsk, in the quality of commissary, with instructions to call in the assistance of the Koriacs, with a view to the discovery of countries beyond theirs, and to the subjecting them to a tribute. In 1699, he penetrated, with about sixty Russian soldiers, and the same number of Cossacks, into the heart of the peninsula, gained the Tigil, and *It is proper to remark, that Atlassoff sent an advanced party, under the command of a subaltern, called Lucas Moloskoff, who certainly penetrated into Kamtschatka, and returned with an account of his success before Atlassoff set out, and is therefore not unjustly mentioned as the discoverer of Kamtschatka. |