Note (return) — Chapter IV · TRANSACTIONS AMONGST THE NATIVES OF NORTH AMERICA; DISCOVERIES ALONG THAT COAST AND THE EASTERN EXTREMITY OF ASIA, NORTHWARD TO ICY CAPE; AND RETURN SOUTHWARD TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. (continued 4)

Some other information which we got from Ismyloff is worth recording, whether true or false. He told us, that in the year 1773, an expedition had been made into the Frozen Sea in sledges, over the ice, to three large islands that lie opposite the mouth of the river Kovyma. We were in some doubt, whether he did not mean the same expedition of which Muller gives an account; and yet he wrote down the year, and marked the islands on the chart.7 But a voyage which he himself had performed, engaged our attention more than any other. He said, that on the 12th of May, 1771, he sailed from Bolscheretzk, in a Russian vessel, to one of the Kuril islands, named Mareekan, in the latitude of 47°, where there is a harbour, and a Russian settlement. From this island, he proceeded to Japan, where be seems to have made but a short stay. For when the Japanese came to know that he and his companions were Christians, they made signs for them to be gone; but did not, so far as we could understand him, offer any insult or force. From Japan, he got to Canton, and from thence to France, in a French ship. From France, he travelled to Petersburgh, and was afterward sent out again to Kamtschatka. What became of the vessel in which he first embarked, we could not learn, nor what was the principal object of the voyage. His not being able to speak one word of French, made this story a little suspicious. He did not even know the name of any one of the most common things that must have been in use every day, while he was on board the ship, and in France. And yet he seemed clear as to the times of his arriving at the different places, and of his leaving them, which he put down in writing.8