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 LETTER 
 
 F R O M A 
 
 Ruffian Sea-Officer, 
 
 T O A 
 
 Perlbn of Dlftinaion at the Court 
 
 o F 
 
 St. PErERSEURGH: 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 His Remarks upon Mr. de Vljle's Chart 
 and Memoir, relative to the New Difcoverics 
 Northward and Eaftward from Kamtfcbatka. 
 
 Together with 
 
 Some Observations on that LETTER. 
 
 By ARTHUR DOBBS, Efq; 
 
 Governor of North - Carolina. 
 
 To which is added, 
 
 Mr. de ri/le*s Explanatory Memoir on his Chart 
 Publiflied at Paris, and now 
 
 TranQated from the Original French. 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for A Linde, Bookfeller to Her Royal Higbnefs rfie 
 Princefs Dowager of IVa/rj, in Cathanne.Suett, in the 
 Strand i and Sold by J. Rqbinson, in Lud^ait-Street. 1754. 
 
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 L E T T E R 
 
 FROM A 
 
 ■ 'm 
 
 Ruffian Sea-Officer, 
 
 T o A 
 
 Great Man at COURT. 
 
 ' St 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 OUR excellenqr is pleafcd to require 
 my thoughts both en Mr, de TlfleV 
 new map of difcoveries to the north* 
 ward of the South-Sea, and bis tni' 
 moir annexed to it^ in which chac 
 gentleman fets forth the motives for making thaic 
 map, and chiefly confifts in accounts of the navi- 
 gation of our people and their difcoveries, toge- 
 ther with a fuppofed narrative of the Spanifb Ad* 
 miral de Fonte, faid to have been Cent in the year 
 1640, to make furthef difcoveries in that fame part 
 
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[*] 
 
 of the globe. Bcfidcs the plcafure an^ afFair of 
 this nature tnud in itfelf give me, as relative to a 
 fcifnce which for lomc years pad has been my fa- 
 vourite ftudy. VQur -Excellency's commands cawy 
 with therrt'fiith'an ihdifpcnfible weight, that I IKall 
 not- plead iiifuAlciency, ^otwitHftanding there be- 
 in^, j^verai othel' officers of more experience, and 
 equal ^dUtgence, who had no lefs than myfelf a 
 fhare in the new difcoveries made in the fevcral 
 voyages of the expedition, which we commonly., 
 call the Kamt/cbatka expedition ; however, there is 
 one particular corifideration which may poflibly 
 ii^title me to a preference herein, which is, that 
 stfter my return from America, I was commiflioned 
 to compare the journals of feveral (hips, both 
 among themfelves, and alfo with other accounts of 
 the countries lying in the South-Sea^ and, after ex- 
 amir)ipg. them with the mod accurate attention, to 
 draw up a map^ in which all the new difcoveries 
 were to be fet down with the utmoft exadnefs. 
 And this map would have been publifhed before 
 now, had it not been delayed by the expedations 
 of lome accounts from the moft inward parts of 
 Siberia^ to ckai up certain doubts which arofe in 
 ihe very execution of that work. 
 
 I now come to the point, and begin with my 
 obfervadons on Mr. de VIJli% Memoir, as from 
 thefe it will eaOly appear what judgment ought to 
 be formed of his map. 
 
 The Sieur de l*IJle begins with fpeaking of the 
 treatifcs he publjflied at St. Peterjhurgh^ for the ad- 
 vahcement of aftronomy, geography, and natural 
 jf>hrlofophy ♦, he excufes his negledt to publifli their 
 <;ontinuation at the time appointed, by the voyage 
 of his brother Mr. de la Croyere to Kamtfchaika, 
 He fays, that being folicitoiis to colleft frefh ma- 
 terials over and above ihofe he had ready at hand, 
 he had waited the return of his brother, in order 
 
 to 
 
 
to 
 
 [3] 
 
 ^o add the obfervations made in that lad voyage* 
 to Kamtfchatkoy when the unexpcfted news of his 
 death could not but occafion a new delay, 'till fuch 
 time as he might get information of what his bro- 
 ther had done. Thefe, according to Mr. de l*JJle*i 
 own words, are the reafons whereby he has been 
 induced to put off the continuation of the work 
 he had begun ; but, I apprehend, that they will 
 appear very fufpicious to your excellency, to whom 
 the rules and inftitutes of the academy of St. Pe- 
 terjburgb are fo well known, and who cannot but be 
 informed of the difcontents which Mr. S^ Pljle 
 gave to the direftorsof the academy. Here lies the 
 true caufe of his delay •, befides, that any expecta- 
 tion from his brother was extremely ill grounded ; 
 I was myfeif an eye-witncfs of this gentleman's 
 manner of livmg, and, after his death, how very 
 few obfervatio. is of his own were found among 
 his papers, befides what he was affilted in by 
 lieutenant KraJiUnkow. It is to this ingenious pu- 
 pil of Mr. Terquarfoftt formerly geographer to 
 the navy, that thofe obfervations, which have been 
 delivered in to the academy under the name of la 
 CroyerCf are to be rather afcribed, and without 
 whofe information little, very little indeed, could 
 be expefted from Mr. de la Croyere*s diligence. 
 
 The Sieur de l*IJle further pretends, that the 
 materials, with which he would enrich his work, 
 he had colledted from other channels •, nay, even 
 from other countries : if fo, why has he deprived 
 us of them, as they, of right, properly belonged 
 to us ? Why was he not pleafed, at leaft, before 
 his departure, to acquaint the academy of his wri- 
 tings, that a copy of them might have been taken : 
 fo far from it (and I have not been wanting to 
 make the beft enquiry after it) there is not a fingle 
 member of the academy, to whom he has vouch- 
 fa.fed to give a fight of the relation of the Admiral 
 
 B 2 de 
 
 M 
 
1 1 
 
 [4] 
 
 I& Fentij which, he fays, he received from England 
 in the year 1739. 'fhis is a piece of jealoufy, 
 utterly Unbecoming a man of letters, but is greatly 
 aggravated by his being a member of a learned 
 fociety, where all difcoveries ought ro be common. 
 
 Mr. di I'JJie would have the world believe, that 
 it was by exprefs order of our court, that he en- 
 tered upon his refearches in Ruffia. This is but a 
 very flender circumftance, and I fhould not fo 
 much as have mentioned it, but that it tends to 
 introduce a kind of confufion in the hiftory of 
 the geographical works in general, which relate to 
 our territories *, and particularly in the fecond Kami' 
 fibatka enterprize. As to the former, no-body 
 knows better than your Excellency, that Peter the 
 Great referred to his fenate the care, that plans 
 and charts fhould be taken of the feveral parts 
 of his vail dominions •, and for this, the fenate 
 were to receive all the reports of the furveyor$» 
 who have been employed in this work ever fincc 
 the year 1715. 
 
 Mr. Ktrilow, who at that time worthily filled 
 the office of firft fecretary in this commiffion, a 
 mah of great adivity and zeal for his country, had 
 began, before Mr. de I'JJle came to Rufia, to 
 colleft the plans fent by the furveyors, and had 
 them engraved under his immediate infpedlion 5 
 and out of thefe he compleated a general map of 
 Ruffiat which was the firft ever fecn among us, 
 and is very well known. Zeahus^ in the profecu- 
 tion of Peter the Great*s defign, he, (bme time 
 after, publifhed a colledion of particular maps, 
 under the tide of Jtlaj sf the Ruffian empire ; and 
 thefe he likewife intended to augment, but he 
 found himfelf under a neceffity of difcontinuing 
 his fcheme, being, after his promotion, to the date 
 council in the year 1734, employed in a commif- 
 fion which would admit of no avocations. 
 
 It 
 
It is true, that Mr. Kirilow't mans have in thcfh 
 many marlcs of the infancy of geography among 
 us at that tinif, yet no other objedtions lay againft 
 them, than fuch as are common to all beginnings i 
 and, tsefides the Angularity of them, there are 
 other very good reafons which maintain them in 
 efteem. To thefe we were afterwards indebted for 
 the refolution of the academy, to have new maps 
 done \ and with this view it was, that they en- 
 gaged the Sieur de VJjle to come to Ruffta,, where 
 he entered into a contra(5i: with them, not only as 
 an adronomer, but likewife as a geographer ; and 
 who, immediately after his arrival, which was in 
 the year 1726, was not by the court, but by the 
 lord prefident, ordered to draw fuch maps as were 
 fpecified to him, there being no neceflity for the 
 court to interpolc in matters which were already 
 in hand, and in their proper channel. 
 
 Here I could produce another paflTage in the 
 memoir which I am now examining, as it has 
 fome affinity with the preceding •, but as I am for 
 following the Sieur de Vljle^ ftep by ftep, before I 
 come to it feveral other particulars do occur, not 
 lefs deferving of animadverfion. ** Mr. dt I'JJle 
 ** promifes to perform general and particular maps 
 •' of Ruffta^ far fuperior to thofe of the Academy ; 
 •* thefe, faid he, fpeaking of his own, are taken 
 " from the obfervations which I have collefted for 
 ** that purpofe ;** whereas in truth he ftiould have 
 faid, from thofe with which the academy furniflied 
 him, but of which he has been far from making 
 the ufe for which they were given him : on this 
 head I heard frequent complaints of Mr. de rJJle*i 
 dilatorincfs of his work, and of his cxcufes; that 
 he ftood in need of fome informations, which 
 could not be fettled, but by aftronomical obferva- 
 tions, without which it was an utter impolfibilit/ 
 
 much \s.k a com- 
 
 general map, 
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 pletc 
 
wmmmmmmmmm 
 
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 [6] 
 
 plctc fct of particular maps. I cannot help think- 
 ing, that it was wrong in him to afpire at a per- 
 fection, which was no more required of him, than 
 it could be cxpeded in fuch a firft attempt •, yet, 
 after all this fcrupulous exadlnefs of Mr. de l^ffie, 
 and after the fpace of twelve years, fo far was the 
 work from being brought to any forwardnefs, that 
 there were fcarce the firft outlines to be ften of it. 
 Hereupon the academy, in the year 1740, very 
 juftly thought fit to empioy others of their mem- 
 bers, who exerted themfelves with that affiduity, 
 that, about the clofe of the third year, the maps 
 which conftitute the Rujftan Atlas, publilhed in the 
 year 1745, began to be engraven. Had thefe 
 been taken only from the obfervations which were 
 in Mr. de i*fjle''s keeping, yet is it highly probable 
 that in ^ capital city, which had this defign fo 
 much at heart, they could not have wanted oppor- 
 tunities of daily getting frefh informations, to have 
 added them to the new plans expefted from the 
 different provinces j tho* I am far from pretending, 
 that this new Rujftan Jtlas is fo ptrfedl as to pre- 
 clude all future improvements of the geography 
 of this kingdom, which would be contrary to the 
 fentiments of the academy itfclf, who, upon the firft 
 appearance of this new Atlas, had come to a refolu- 
 tion of having amended, in a new fet of more correct 
 maps, what miftakes they had obferved in thefe. 
 
 The illuftrious perfon, who is at the head of the 
 academy, (theHetman of Little Rujftd) fhews him- 
 felf no lefs attentive to promote this affair, than 
 he is in all other points, which tend to the honour 
 of that refpeftable fociety \ and from hence we 
 cannot but hope a much greater fuccefs in this than 
 in the firft attempt j and the rather, from the nume- 
 rous fupplies of many maps and geographical ac- 
 counts, particularly of the JJtatick Rujfta, and the 
 neighbouring countries, of which, before the re. 
 
 turn 
 
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 per- 
 than 
 
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 turn of thofe academicians, who had been fenf 
 thither oi. purpofe to procure better and more com* 
 plete informations, we had but an imperfcft know- 
 ledge. ' 
 Mr. de l*JJle^ fpeaking of what Peter the Great 
 had done to get intelligence of the northern limits 
 o^Tartary^ and to find ojt whether they did not 
 join with America^ or at lead were but at a fmall 
 diftance from it, fays, *' That the Emperor, for 
 this undertaking made choice of Mr. Beerings, 
 who, after receiving his order in the lall years 
 of that grf-at Emperor, on the 5th of February, 
 had received again the faid order ratified by the 
 whole fenate.** Here is a miftake of the day, 
 Mr. Beerings having fet out on his firlt -"nterprize 
 on the 5th of February^ *7'25- After that. Count 
 Apraain^ lord high Admiral, had given publick no- 
 tice, that all fea-officers, who weie inclined to go 
 oa that voyage, Ihould repair to him. Upon which, 
 Mr. Beerings ha\'ing prefented himfelf to the lord 
 high Admiral, he received from him his inftruc- 
 tions, which were, indeed, very (hort, but all writ- 
 ten with the Emperor's own hand, a few days before 
 his demife. 
 
 What I advance here, is no more than I have 
 often heard from Mr. Beerings himfelf, nay, whofe 
 inftrudlions I myfelf have feen, which were as fol- 
 low: 
 
 Firji jTo make the bed of his way to Kamtfchatka, 
 and there to build two fmall veffcls. Secondly, 
 With thefe to reconnoitre the furtheft northern 
 part of the eaftern coafts of Siberia^ and to fee 
 whether in any part they joined with America, 
 Thirdly^ Afterwards to enquire on the Americarr 
 coafts after fome European fettlements and planta-* 
 tions, or to try whether he could not meet with a 
 fliip, to learn the names, and the bearings of the 
 coafts. Fourthly, To draw up an exa6t account 
 
 B4 
 
 o( 
 
t 
 
 B 
 
 [8] 
 
 of all his proceedings and obfervationSs and then 
 to return to 5/. Peterjburgb, 
 
 On the firfl: oiMarcb^ i730» ^t»Beerings return- 
 cd to St. Peterjburgbt bringing with him a complete 
 narrative of his voyage, in which, he fays, that af- 
 ter tracing the eaftern coaH: of Kamtjcbatkay and of 
 the land of Tfcbut/cbi^ as far as the latitude of fixty- 
 feven degrees and a half, he perceived the coafl to 
 ftretch away to the weft, in the manner as fome 
 o^ iihe inhabitants, who came aboard his ihip, had 
 before informed him \ from whence he had con- 
 cluded that there could be no continent, by which 
 J/ia and America were joined, and that, having 
 thus executed his commiifion, he returned. This 
 voyage laftcd from the 14th of 7«/y, 1728, to the 
 2d of the following September. Since which, it 
 has been found by a fecond expedition from Kami- 
 fihaikay that, although, as to the feparation of the 
 old and new world, Mr Becrings is right, yet is 
 he miftaken, when he fays, tliat, at the elevation 
 of fixty-feven degrees arid a half, it appeared to 
 him as if the coaft fell off to the weftward i 
 there being at that latitude but one fingle promon- 
 tory, which the Jnadorjk- Ruftcns cslW Serzekameny 
 " and beyond which the coaft continues its northern 
 direction, as it does from Kamtfcbatka, till near 
 the great Tzfukocbkoi Nos, where it adtually inclines 
 weftward, and where, at a place betwixt the 70th 
 and 71ft degree of latitude, it makes out the moft 
 northern extremity of A^a. 
 
 Another proof of the feparation of the two con- 
 tinents, which Mr. Beerings is faid to have given 
 information of from Kamifchatka^ is (according ta 
 ii Vlflf's qpinion) *' That the inhabitants of the 
 '* faid country have feen a veiTel, which came from 
 ** the river L*»4.** It is true, indeed, that there 
 is a tradition among the people of Kamffibatka^ 
 that fome Ruffians were arrived among them, long 
 
 before 
 
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 f 
 
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 before the conqueft under fVolodimer Atlafzew ; 
 but, by what way, they knew nothing of. During 
 the fecond Kamifchatka expedition, a member of 
 the academy found among the records of the town 
 of TakoMzkf that the Ruffians had come thither by 
 fea, that they had failed from thence beyond the 
 great Tzjukccbkoi-Nos, and were afterwards caft 
 away to the fouthward of the river Anadir \ this 
 event is faid to have happened in the year 1648 \ 
 and has been inferted fmce, with an abftrad of this 
 narrative and what relates to it, in the obfervations 
 on the Peterjhurgh newspapers, publi(hed in the 
 year 1742 •, from whence I conclude, that Mr. 
 Beerings could have had no account at Kamtfcbatka 
 of a veflel coming thither from the river Lena *, 
 elpecialiy as there is not the leaft intimation of any 
 fuch thing in all the narrative of his voyage ; fo 
 that this account of Mr. de Pl/k*& is owing to his 
 too precipitate judgment, who, no doubt, took 
 it from the above mentioned observations on the St, 
 Peterjhurgh news- papers; from which it was er- 
 roneoufly conjedured, that fuch an event hath been 
 known to the inhabitants of Kamtfcbatka^ and that 
 they muft have informed Mr. Beerings of it. 
 
 1 (hall carefully avoid any critical animadverHons 
 on Mr. de rijk*^ exprcffions, and confine my re- 
 fiedicns to his meaning only : he talks of I know 
 not what harbour at Kamtfcbatka, from whence Mr. 
 Beerings fet out on his voyage ♦, whereas, he (hould 
 have rather mentioned a river of that name, there 
 being no harbour there properly fo called *, and in the 
 fecond expedition, they could meet with no harbour 
 at all, till they came to Avatcha'hny^ which is about 
 60 fea>leagues fouthward of the river of Kamt- 
 fchatka. " After his return to Kamtfcbatka-bar' 
 •* hur (thefe are Mr. dt l*IJle*s very words) Mr. 
 ** Beerings was told of a land to the eaftward, 
 
 which in very dear weather was difcerniblc : 
 
 that 
 
 i( 
 
 t« 
 
[ >o 1 
 
 ** that having refitted his veflcls, which had becrf 
 ** damaged by a ftorm, he attempted to go thi- 
 *• iher ; but that this fecond trial was unfuccefsful, 
 *' for that after failing about 40 leagues to the eaft 
 " without difcovering any land, he met with a fe- 
 *' cond ftorm, and the wind being direftly con- 
 ** trary, drove him back to the harbour from 
 *' whence he had fet out :** Would not one, from 
 this account, be inclined to think, that this fecond 
 attempt of Mr. Beerings was immediately after 
 the firft? Yet, that was very far from being the 
 cafe, for Mr, Beerings, before he went upon it, 
 had wintered at Kamtfchatka, not failing from thence 
 till the 5th of June, 1729, and then, without any 
 intention of returning to the place of his departure, 
 having failed beyond the fouth point of Kamtfchatka, 
 he fleered directly for the mouth of the river 
 Bolfcbaja-Rekay and from thence to Ocbozk. 
 
 It may poflibly appear ftrange to many, that Mr. 
 Beerings did not, in this voyage, fall in with the 
 ifland where he was fhipwrecked in his fecond ex- 
 pedition ; but this may have been occafioned by 
 the fogs, which in thefe feas arc very frequent and 
 thick : as to marks of a neighbouring country, of 
 which, Mr. de Vljle fays, that captain Beerings him- 
 felf had told him, nothing is more certain than 
 this •, the little attention that was given to it, wili 
 give me an opportunity of fpeaking again about it. 
 It is certain Jikewife, that ^x.Beertngs^ and his Lieu- 
 tenant Mr. T/chirikoWy had in the years 1728 and 
 1729, obkrvcd at Kamtfcbatka two eclipfes of the 
 moon, but, that by thefe obfervations, Mr. de 
 l*Ifie was enabled to determine with precifion the 
 longitude of this moft eaftern part of Jfia, and that 
 the fame had been confirmed in the fecond expedi- 
 tion, by careful obfervations of the fatellites of 
 Jupiter y is what I cannot well conceive. Mr. dt 
 Pljk himfelf intimates, that Mcffieurs Beerings and 
 
 tfchirikow 
 
 i 
 
f 
 
 [ " ] 
 
 ^fchirikow had carried no aftronomical inftriiments 
 with them. They obfcrved both thefe cclipfes by 
 the help, not of pendulums, but of their watches, 
 without being able to know whether they went 
 right or wrong ; which makes it almofl; incredible, 
 that a determination formed from thefe two ecJipfes, 
 f iould exactly agree with that deduced from the 
 obfervation of Jupiter\ fatellites. And here I muft 
 take notice, that when Mr. de Vljle is pleafed to af- 
 cribe thefe obfcrvations of Jupiter^ fatellites to his 
 dear brother, and fome Rujftans fkilled in thofe 
 kinds, of observations •, all this muft in juftice be 
 undcrftood of Lieutenant Krajilnikow alone, who 
 by the fenate*s order accompanied them, and who 
 in thefe matters was the moft expert of them all. 
 
 And now we come to the circumftances of the 
 fecond expedition, for which, as Mr. de l*IJle pre- 
 tends, we are beholden to a map of his own, and 
 that the whole was conducted according to a plan 
 laid down by him, " In the year 1731, fays he, I 
 *' had the honour of laying before the Emprefs Ama^ 
 *' and the fenate, this map of mine, in order to 
 *' incite the Ruffians to profecute their difcoveries, 
 *' wherein I alfo fucceeded.*' Is it to time, or age, 
 that we are to impute this error of Mr. de rifle* s ? 
 Has he loft ail remembrance of that order by which 
 he was bound to draw the map he here fpeaks of? 
 had this occurred to his thoughts, I believe, he 
 would hardly have ventured to lay, that he himft^.' 
 had laid his map before the Emprefs^ and much lefs, 
 that his view in it was to animate the Ruffims to 
 new difcoveries. At that time, I much converfed 
 with Mr. de I'lfle^ I was a witnefs of his geogra- 
 phical labours, as far as they related to new difco- 
 veries ; I was alfo Mr. BeeritJgs*s interpreter in the 
 converfauons that pafTed between them, and I do 
 confidently affirm, that, when Mr. de PIfle began 
 his fecond map, the orders for the fecond expedi- 
 tion 
 
I 
 
 [ 
 
 i 1 
 
 ifcji 
 
 I B 
 
 [ 12 ] 
 
 tion had already been given. Captain Beerings^ fcn- 
 fible of the deficiency of his firft difcoveries, had 
 offered himfclf to profecute them, and fo did his 
 lieutenants, for which they were all rewarded by a 
 higher rank. It is plain, therefore, that this work 
 of Mr. de Vljle muft be afcribed to fuperior orders, 
 and I remember perfedly well, that the Emprefs 
 Anna, having diredied her fenate to give captain 
 Beerings his directions and orders for his fecond 
 voyage, it was his opinion, that it would be highly 
 conducive to the better fuccefs of it, if the academy 
 were to furnifh him with proper informations, con- 
 cerning the fituation of the countries, and of the 
 feas whither he was bound j upon which the lenate 
 gave her orders to the academy accordingly, and 
 Mr. de Vljle was appointed by the academy to 
 form the map of which I now am fpeaking, to- 
 gether with the additional obfervations relating to 
 it. No fooner were the map and the obfervations 
 finifhed, than they were both delivered to the fe- 
 nate, by the academy; fo that the real truth is, 
 that fo far was Mr. de P IJle from inciting the Ruf- 
 fians to frefh difcoveries, or fetting Mr. Beerings* s 
 fecond voyage on foot, that he did no more than 
 work as he had been bid ; and then, whether this 
 performance of his did more good, or harm to the 
 expedition, is another queftion which fhall be dif- 
 cuiTed in the fequcl. 
 
 However, the fenate gave Mr. Beerings copies 
 of the obfervations and of the map ; of both which 
 I alfo procured a copy, which now enables me to 
 compare them with what Mr. de Vlfle fays in his 
 laft treatife publiflied at Paris. 
 He advances, " That he had ftruck out three 
 different ways for difcovering what had hitherto 
 remained unknown} Ftrfi, A direft courfe to 
 Japan^ through the land of Teffo, or rather to 
 fail through thofe narrow feas, which feparate it 
 
 from 
 
 <c 
 
 <( 
 
 (( 
 
 
 «( 
 

 [ '3 ] 
 
 ** from the Statis Jfiatid, and the Company* s Land, 
 <* to cruize on difcoveries north of the land of 
 ** Tejif and to endeavour to find out again the 
 '^ way that lies between this land, and the eaftern 
 •* coaft of Tartary.'" 
 
 This is what may be juftly called a good advice 
 after the thing is done. In the original of Mr. de 
 rj[/k*i> obfervations, there is not a fingle word re- 
 lating to any fuch enquires ; all that Mr. de l*I/k 
 does there, is to propofe three different ways for 
 finding out the neighbouring countries eaftward of 
 Kumtfibatka, the two firft mud; be allowed ^-o agree 
 r*-etty well with the fecond and third, exh.oited in 
 the Paris relation } wherein they are thus expreifed. 
 Firftt *' If one fhould reach the mod northern, 
 ** and at the fame time the moft eaftern parts of 
 *' 4fiAy as far as Captain Betrings went (this, as 
 ^ I have already !ud, is a conditional propofition) 
 ** one could not mifs of falling in with America^ 
 •' whatever way one would chufe betwixt north- 
 *' eaft and fouth-eaft, fmce the fartheft diilance 
 ** would be about 600 leagues." (This is a very 
 conliderable error in the computation of the diflance 
 of the land betwixt 4fia and America, they being 
 towards the north, feparated only by i^ narrow 
 fireight, which failing fouthward is found gradu- 
 ally to widen.) 
 
 Secondly^ *' Without venturing fo far, polfibly, 
 '* it were better, and more convenient, to fct out 
 *' from the eaftern coaft of Kamtfcbaika, and fteer 
 *' due eaft, in queft of that neighbouring country, 
 of which Captain Betrings had found fome ap- 
 pearances in his firft voyage. As to the third 
 way, Mr. de VIJU conjedlured* that the lands, 
 of which Don Juan de Gama had fight, might 
 poftibly be difcovered fooner, and with more 
 certainty, by failing in queft of them towards the 
 fouth- eaft of Kamtfcbatka' \ 
 
 The 
 
 <c 
 
 « 
 
 (( 
 
 (C 
 
 t( 
 
 «( 
 
 — *nr 
 
■^HH 
 
 c< 
 
 C( 
 
 C( 
 
 [14] 
 
 The bad fuccefs of this propofal was undoubtedly 
 what brought him to fee his mift^ke, and What 
 may have put it into his mind, to alter it into a 
 projeft of the way to Japan, and from the land of 
 Tejfo. 
 
 Nothing can be more foreign to the purpofe, 
 and at the fame time more jejune, than the narra- 
 tive Mr. de Vljle has thought fit to give us of Mr. 
 Beerings voyage itfeif He makes him to have failed^ 
 in the year 1741, in queft of thofe countries to- 
 wards the eaft of Kamt/cbatkay of which in hisfirfl; 
 voyage he had got feme veftiges. ** He did not pro*- 
 
 ceed very far (faith he) for, being over takeh byi 
 
 a violent ftorm, and the weather being extremely 
 
 dark, his veffel was rendered unable to keep 
 *' the fea any longer, and was caft away on a de- 
 «' fert ifland, in the latitude of 54 degrees, not far 
 *' from the harbour of Avatcba^ the place he had 
 " fet out from.** < . .0 
 
 'Thus it feems, all that Mr. Beerings did, was 
 nothing but juft to fliipwreck, and that immediately 
 after he had left the harbour. 
 
 And here I am obliged to give to Mr. de I'ljle^ 
 dry and flender account a little more nouriftiment,' 
 by adding a relation of the voyage of Mr. Beerings, 
 and the other officers in this expedition. I am the 
 better able to do it, as I myfelf had a (hare in it, 
 and can appeal to the journals and charts of each 
 of the (hips. 
 
 Mr. Beerings, the commanding Captain, Mr. 
 Spangenberg, Captain, Mr. Tfchirikow, and fomc 
 other fea- officers, fet out from St, Peterjburgb, in 
 the fpring, 1733. They ftaid 2X Takouzk 9x\6. 
 Ochozk till the veffels were ready, which, at this 
 laft place, were building for them. When every 
 thing was in readinefs for Mr. Spangenberg*s voy- 
 age, he, agreeably to the fenate*s orders, fet out 
 fir ft, from Ocbozk, in June 1738, with three 
 
 (hips 
 
 ■fi 
 
i 
 
 I 
 
 ■5 
 
 i% 
 
 ,1, 
 
 [ '5 ] 
 
 {hips under his command ; to which was added a 
 great covered chalouppe of twenty-four oars, which 
 he got to be built at Boljherezkoi-Ojir'ig^ in Kamti 
 fcbatkat where he wintered. This floop was defigned 
 for to enter within fuch narrow ftreights, between 
 idands, as they might chance to meet with, where 
 larger fhips could not enter. In the Summer of 1739 
 he went to Japan. The long row of ifles between 
 Japan and Kamtfchatka ferved him for a guide. He 
 landed in Japan m two places, where the inhabitants 
 receivci him very civilly ; but he did not come (as 
 Mr. de I'ljle wrongly airerts),to Mat/mat, the chief 
 place in the iile of Tejfot thinking that without 
 going there he had executed his prefcribed orders. 
 He returned to Ocbozk, and wintered at Takouzk. 
 When a particular account of this voyage came to 
 St.PeterJbifrgb, upon a prefumption, judging by the 
 courfe he had fteer*d, that he might have been 
 deceived by the coaft of Corea^ he was ordered to 
 make a fecond voyage for the confirmation of the 
 firft, which accordingly he undertook in 1741 and 
 1742-, but his fhip, built in halle of wood not 
 dry enough, growing kaky, he was obliged to 
 come back. 
 
 MeiT. Beerings and Tfchirikow failed from 
 Ocbozk on September thdown\i, 1740; they had 
 both the fame deftination. The firft was to follow 
 the ftreamer of the other, that, in cafe of accident, 
 they might be able to fuccour one another. They 
 failed direftly by the point of Kamtfcbaika^ 
 without entering the river Bolfcbaja Reka, as is 
 ufually done coming from Ocbozk^ and caft anchor 
 in the port of Avatcha^ or, as they called it, the 
 port of St. Peter and Paul. During their winter- 
 ing in that part, they got every thing in readincfs 
 for their chief expedition, which had America in 
 view, as foon as the weather Ihould permit. Under 
 the uncertainty which road to take, captain Beer- 
 ings 
 
 l^'i 
 
■• 
 
 
 k 
 
 J! 
 
 •t 
 
 Ci6] 
 
 ings held a Tea- council on the fourth of May, 1741. 
 In this council it was deternnined to try, whether 
 the land of Don Juan de Gama could be found out* 
 It proved to be an unfortunate determination, and 
 the caufe of all the difafters that fucceeded. We 
 went to fea the fourth of June. Mr. Beerings 
 had on board his (hip, Mr. SteUer, a phyfician, a 
 man very well verfed in natural hiftory, who was 
 fent by the academy. Mr. de la Croyc . was with 
 Mr. T/ckirikow. But notwithftanding the orders 
 direfting Mtfff. Beerings and Tfchirikow not to part 
 from one another, they could not polTibly avoid 
 it, being parted, by florm and fogs, eight days 
 after they fet fail. Their defign to look out for 
 the fuppofed land of Gama had carried them di* 
 reftly towards fouth-eaft. They went in this dt- 
 re6lion to the 26th degree, without getung the 
 lead; trace of that land. 
 
 They then turned towards north-caft, and they 
 both reached the coafts oi America, but ii^ diffc" 
 rent places, and without knowing any thing of 
 one another. Mr. Beerings, and we who were with 
 him, after a voyage of lix weeks, difcovered the 
 firft land, being, as we reckoned, 500 Dutch tD\k^ 
 or leagues off Avatcha. We took in frefh water, and 
 we had traces of inhabitants, but faw none. Hav- 
 ing (laid there three days in the road, Mr. Beerings 
 confulted with his officers, and it was refolved to turn 
 back. On the 2ift of July, before fun-riling,, we 
 weighed anchor. We had only to follow the ccMft 
 which turned weftward, but the number of ifknds we 
 met with, made the navigation very troublefome ; 
 and when we took to the fea, we were overtaken 
 by ftorms and contrary winds, which occafioned 
 daily retardations. In the mean time, in order to 
 take in once more frefh water, we were obliged to 
 return to the coaft, which we had kept from as 
 much as poffibie. We foon got fighc of it, and 
 
 we 
 
the 
 
 
 
 ■•3 
 
 r»7] 
 
 we were (lill about ten leagues ofF, when we caG: 
 anchor between the iflands. The ifland whence 
 we fetched the water from, we called Shuma'JfU' 
 OJlrow. The water there appeared to be good, 
 notwithflanding its being taken out of a lake, but 
 was mixt with fea-water, which the flood, that 
 fometimes overflowed the ifland, had brought there. 
 Of this we felt very fad eflfedts, viz. difl:empers, 
 and the lofs of many of our people who died 
 of it. 
 
 During three or four days we endeavoured in 
 vain to defcry any of the natives, whofe fires we 
 faw by night along the coafl:. On the 4th of Sep- 
 tember thefe favages came of their own accord on 
 board of our fmall veHels, and after having given 
 us notice of their prefence by great fhoutings, thej^ 
 Ihewed us their Calumets, that is, their fticks with 
 faulcon*$ wings on their top. By the figns they 
 made us, we under ftood that they invited us to 
 come on fliore, to fupply us with provifions and 
 frefti water. We took advantage of it, and fome 
 of our people ventured to follow tliem, but fome 
 raifunderflianirmg foon arifjng, all commerce with 
 them was broke off. Having, on the 6tii of Sep- 
 tember, proceeded on our voyage with a tolerable 
 good wind, we foon found, as we went on, our 
 impediments encreafed from the continued coatl and 
 the adjacent ifles we met with. Mr. J^eerings, in 
 order to avoid them, turned more to the fouth, 
 and, in efFe6t, the fea proved for fome days to be 
 quite free ; but our joy was of a fhort duratiom, 
 for -on the 24th of September, at the height of 51 
 degrees, we found again fome coaftis with many 
 illands, when at the fame time fuch a violent itorm 
 arofe, which lafted feventeen days, that it drove us 
 back eighty miles. An old pilot aflTured us, that 
 in fifty years Tea fervice, he had never met with 
 fuch a florm. Wejl might therpforp the name of 
 
 C • the 
 
Kii 
 
 
 fr 
 
 IM. 
 
 i 
 
 [ «8] 
 
 the Pacifick Ocean be fpared •, or if It deferves to be 
 fo called towards the tropick, as it poflibly may, 
 fure it does not dcferve that name in this place. 
 The weather indeed grew calm again, but our pro- 
 rifions were confiderably diminifhed, and of all 
 our hands we hid firft, we had but one third part 
 left us that remained in health after all thefc dif- 
 afters. We had ftill half the way before us to 
 reach the port of Avatcha^ reckoning from the 
 furthermofl: part of our voyage eaftward, fo that 
 fevcral of us were of opinion to winter in fome 
 place in America^ rather than to expofe ourfelves 
 to ftill greater mifchances than thofe we had be- 
 fore i but they who were for trying their utmoft 
 to recover the harbour of Avauba, and who judged 
 that it would then be time enough to look out for 
 fome other place of fafety, when all hopes were loft 
 of bringing this to bear, carried it againft the Brft 
 opinion •, and thus the month of O£iober was fpent 
 to as little purpofe as the former. On the 30th of 
 the faid month we defcricd two iflands, which 
 appeared to be like to thofe which ftretched them- 
 felves from the fouth foreland of Kamtfcbatka to- 
 wards Japan j upon this we ftood to the north- 
 ward, and having ^ot to the height on the 4th of 
 November^ we found ourfelves under the 56th de- 
 gree ; at laft, the 5th of November proved the fatal 
 period of our voyage, for, as we were making fail 
 weftward, we ftruck upon a defart ifland, where 
 we faw nothing but death before us, the (hip was 
 beat to pieces upon one of the fands with which 
 the ifland was furrounded ; however, we got fafe 
 enough afhore, and with fuch things as we thought 
 were indifpenfibly neceffary to our fubfiftence, and 
 moreover, by a particular mercy of providence, 
 foon after our own landing, we had the pleafure 
 to fee the remainder of our fhip drive afliore, 
 which we carefully gathered together, in hopes of 
 
 being 
 
 ■m 
 
[ '9 ] 
 
 being able, by the afliftance of God, to make it the 
 inftrument of our removal from this difmal ha- 
 bitation. 
 4 The ifland, on whicli we were caft, had not fo 
 
 '? much as a tree growing on it, and we were obliged 
 ; to build huts, and to make firing of the wood which 
 i the fea drove afhore from other places. This is 
 the defart to which we gave the name of Beerings, 
 from that of our leader, and where, from cxcefs 
 of grief, and that he could not recover Kamtfchat- 
 kay he expired on the 8th of December', he rc- 
 fufed to eat or drink, and would not fufFer him- 
 felf to be brought into one of our huts, fo that 
 in this condition, a man of his age, joined to the 
 infirmities that naturally attend it, could not but 
 fink under the weight of fuch a complication of 
 diftrefs. We young folks recovered our fpirits, 
 and took courage, refolved on preferring our lives 
 to the utmoil, and to ufe all pofllble means for 
 getting clear of this unhappy confinement. Before 
 our coming to the ifland, it had been only the re- 
 fort of fea-animals for taking the air, copulation, 
 and breeding their young ones. At firft thcfc 
 creatures fuff'ered us to come pretty near in fight 
 of them, without being in the leaft difturbed ; but 
 after they had feen fome of their fpecies killed by 
 the fhot of our people, they made off at the firft 
 appearance of us. 
 
 We Ihot feveral of thefe animals, which fervcd 
 us for food and raiment, and the valuable beaver- 
 , fkins, which we got by thefe means, made us fome 
 J amends for our fufferings. 
 
 The fpring coming on, we fell to the execution 
 of the great projcdt for our deliverance, and with 
 the remains of the veflTcl made Ihift to build a 
 large tight-decked floop, fitted with fails and 
 anchors, and proper tacklings, to bear the fea, in 
 cafe it were not our misfortune to meet with very 
 
 C 2 bad 
 
I 
 
 
 P' 
 
 [ 20 ] 
 
 bad weather. In this boat we committed ourfclvei 
 to the fea the 17th of Juguftt 1742. 
 
 From this nsrrative may be corre(Eled the error 
 of Mr. de V IJle^ who places Beerings IJland in the 
 54th degree, and not far from the harbour of 
 Avatcha^ whereas its true fituaiion is in the 56th 
 degree, at fixty miles diftance from Avatcha^ and 
 forty Dutch miles from the mouth of the river of 
 Knmtfchatka. 
 
 As to the voyage of Mr. T/chirikoWt although 
 he did not fufFer lo much from the lea and other 
 difficulties one may meet with on fuch an expedi- 
 tion, it was neverthelefs attended with much hard- 
 fhip, and efpecially from the tendernefs of his 
 heart, which his profdfion as a Teaman was far 
 from having hardened to infenfibility. After his 
 being feparated from Mr. Beerings, fteering to the 
 north eaft, on the 15th of July, he came in fight 
 of a land, whofe Ihore was furrounded with deep 
 lofty rocks, with a deep fea beating againft them ; 
 he prudently kept at ibme diltance, and on the 
 third day fent the mailer, Jbraham Demetitiew, 
 ■with ten hands, to take a view of the country •, but 
 neither Dementiew, nor any of the people that went 
 with him, were ever heard of again. This man 
 dcfcrved our tears ; he was of good family, young, 
 well made, a man of virtue and Angular know- 
 ledge in his profclTion, and a zealous lover of his 
 country. Six days after, Mr. Tfchirikow fent the 
 boatfwain, Sidor Sawelew, with three men, but no 
 more was heard of them than of the former. All 
 this time a continual fmoke was feen on the (hore, 
 and the fecond day afier the boatfwain*s departure, 
 two men in different canoes, or little boats, came 
 off from the place where Dementiew and Saweiew 
 had landed, and when they came within hearing, 
 they cried out with all their force, Jgai! Agsi! 
 and immediately made for the Ihore again. Mr. 
 
 Xfcbiri' 
 
 V'- 
 
error 
 
 in the 
 
 pur of 
 
 56th 
 
 , and 
 
 ver of 
 
 t ji ] • 
 
 Tfchirikozv was at a lofs what to make of It, but 
 dcfpairing of ever feeing his men again, and having 
 no other boat to fend alhore, he \th that place on 
 the 27th of 7«/y, determining to continue on the 
 coaft as long as he pofTibiy could, and afterwards 
 to return to KMrntfchatka \ therefore; Mr. de l*JJle 
 commits a miftake m laying, that during the whole 
 month of Auguji, Mr. Tfchirikow had kept cruifing 
 in that part, waiting the return of his people j he 
 kept continually within fight of land for ibove 
 one hundred miles, amidft the difficulties of fre- 
 quent contrary winds and fogs j once particularly 
 he found himfelf in extreme danger, being got 
 near the fhure, on which he came to an anchor, 
 but loft it i no Icfs than twenty- one fmall leather 
 boats, with a man in each of them, made towards 
 him, but that was all, as he was not able to con- 
 verfe with them. The want of frefli water and 
 the fcurvy carried off many of his people -, among 
 thefe were the lieutenants Licbat/chew and Plauiin, 
 two very ufeful perfons, iirid expert feamen, and 
 from whofe longer life many more good fervices 
 might have been expeded. 
 
 Mr. Tfchirikow himfelf, on the 20th of Septem- 
 her^ felt fomc fymptoms of a diforder, but his 
 prudent diet, and the land air, foon fet him to 
 rights again \ with Monfieur dt la Croyere it went 
 otherwife, imagining himfelf to be well enough, 
 nay, even almoft to his dying moment. It was 
 wondered, that the great quantity of brandy which 
 he fwallowed every day had fuch a good effedt^ 
 but it was foon perceived, that ail advantage he 
 reaped from this inflamatory liquor, was to for- 
 get for fome time his pain, while the liquor was 
 working in his body. He died the loth of 0£Io- 
 ber, juft at his coming into the harbour of Aoat' 
 cba i having drefted himfelf in order to go alhore, 
 and after having given once more an excrava^iint 
 
 C 3 vent 
 
 f#|Sa','7S!?P>ftv- 
 
 
 '■■m£':m^ 
 
I 
 
 kl 
 
 
 
 [ 22 ] 
 
 vent to his joy at his fafe return j however, one 
 important fervice of his is not to be omitted, 
 which was, that upon the Americans (hewing them- 
 felves at fonie diftance to Mr. TfchirikoWy he 
 affured him that they were very Hke the inhabi- 
 tants of Canada, wh-^re, before his coming to Ruffta, 
 he had ferved feveiiteen years in the French troops. 
 
 Mr. de l^IJle mentions another difcovery made 
 by the Ruffians, who, in tlie year 1731, ventured 
 to take the fame courfe which Mr. Beerings had 
 taken two years before in his firft voyage. Here 
 it is to be obferved, that in the year 1 730, Mr. PaiV' 
 lujki, at that time Captain of foot, and one Schejia- 
 koWy chief of the Cojfacks of Takouzk, were ap- 
 pointed to reduce the Tfchukffchi, a wild refraflory 
 people, who had revolted againft our court ; and 
 in order to have in readinefs all neceflaries for the 
 army's fubfiftence, Mr. Pawlujki fent Mr. Gwof- 
 deiv the furveyor, to find out thofe provifions, 
 which were remaining of Mr. Beerings firft expedi- 
 tion, with inftrudtions to bring them toTfcbuktfchi, 
 in the vefTel left by Mr. Beerings at Ochozk. 
 
 Gwofdew acquitted himfelf perfeftly well of his 
 commiffion, bringing his veffel to Serzecamen, 
 without the lead mifchance ; but here he neither 
 found Mr. Pawlujki, nor could get any tidings of 
 him, which obliged him to put back for Ochozk ; 
 but here, though he had no thought of making 
 new difcoveries, he was carried by the wind on the 
 coaft of America, oppofite to the land of the 
 Tfchuktfchi, and at no great diftance from it. \ 
 never have heard that he got fight of any one of 
 the natives of that country, which renders very 
 doubtful that narrative of Mr. de Vljle, about a 
 converfation held between the captain and the Ame- 
 ricans, and between people too, who could not 
 underftand one anothcrs language. But be this as 
 it will, this fortuitous voyage confirmed what we 
 
 were 
 
i 
 I 
 
 m- 
 
 [23] 
 
 were inforiiied of before, only from the rela- 
 tions of the Tfcbuktfchi, viz. that the great con- 
 tinent of America reaches to within a fiiiall diftance 
 of them J and thus the conjedure which Mr. de 
 rifle afcribes to Mr. Buache, proves to be well 
 founded \ and, though it was not till after a gene- 
 ral knowledge of the ftrudure of the globe, that 
 he had fuppofed that the north parts of Afia muft 
 be joined to America, by a ridge of mountains 
 and a /hallow fea> I make no difficulty to add an 
 opinion, which may corroborate what he has ad- 
 vanced J which is, t* '.t I am of opinion that formerly 
 the land of Tfchuktfchi, and the part of America 
 oppofire to it, were joined, but feparated by an in- 
 undation, a vulcano, or an earthquake, as has hap- 
 pened in other places •, and thus the peopling of 
 the vaft ^OT^nV^« continent is more eafily accounted 
 for, than on any other hypothefis. 
 
 As to the difcoveries made on the coafts of the 
 Frozen- fea^ Mr. de Pl/Ieh contented, with his very 
 French fajhioned concifenefs, to tell us, that he formed 
 his map of thefe coafts from obfervations taken at 
 fea, from Archangel to the river Kolyma •, but would 
 it not have been much more candid and honeft to 
 have owned, that he drew them from the new 
 RuJ/ian Atlas ? For had he known any thing far- 
 thc, he would not, it feems, fo far have deviated 
 from the generous cuftom of the learned, to affign 
 to its right owner what is not properly their own j 
 and this a6l of literary jufticc would have been 
 much to his credit here, on fo fine an occafion. 
 It is true, that the difcoveries of this coaft, or ra- 
 ther of the road thorough the Frozen-fea^ as far as 
 thofe places which are acccflible, was a v.ork of 
 vaft labour and time. 
 
 Two fhips fent from Archangel to Berefow, and 
 two more from Berefow to Turucbanzk, at length 
 reached the place of their deftination ; but the other 
 
 C4 
 
 two 
 
i 
 
 W 
 
 r 
 
 [ H ] 
 
 two, which were fitted out at Takouzk, of which 
 one was to go from the mouth of the river Lena, to 
 the mouth of the river Jenifei, and the other from 
 the Xtf»tf, eaftwardjtoatteir pt apaflage to Kamtfcbat- 
 ka, had not the like fuccefs •, the former not being 
 able to profecute its voyage further than a little beyond 
 that part where the river Taimura runs into the fca. 
 A ridge of iflands, running north- weft ward from the 
 coaft, obftruded their paffage, and the prodigious 
 pieces of ice, that were immoveable, not permit- 
 ting them to get to the end of thefe iflands, all 
 this labour came to nothing, and the vefifel itfelf 
 was loft. The experiment to be made with the other 
 vcflels, which were come from the Ob into the 
 Jenijeu in order from thence to meet that veflel 
 expected from the Lenat met with no better fuc- 
 cefs. They were obliged to wait at the river Pie- 
 fida : fo that the coaft betwixt the Pieftda, and 
 the Taimura^ would have remained unknown, had 
 they not been difcoveied by land. On the other 
 hand, the veflel which was to fail from the Lena eaft- 
 ward, on a paflage to Kamtfchatka^ perifhed among 
 the ice, near the river Indigirka. From fo many 
 unfortunate voyages, it may well be concluded 
 what account is to be made of the paflage through 
 the Frozen-fea, which the Englijh and Dutch for- 
 merly attempted with fo much zeal and eagcrnefs ; 
 but unqueftionably they would have given over 
 any fuch thoughts, had they been acquainted with 
 the infurmountable dangers and difficulties of this 
 voyage j and after all, which of us are more likely 
 to fucceed in fuch an attempt, they, or we Ruffians, 
 who are more inured to cold and fatigue tlian 
 the former, and are able to bear the want of a 
 thoufand things, and who, though powerfully fup- 
 ported, yet failed in our enterprizes. To what 
 purpofe then were all thefe charges and labours of 
 fo many trials ? Why, it is i. .6nd a fliortcr cut to 
 
 th« 
 
itfelf 
 
 [ 2i ] 
 
 the Indies, a confiderabJe ad\ ntage I own, were 
 one not obliged to go through a fevere winter of 
 three or four months by the way •, after all, the 
 neareft way to the Eajl-lndies is to be found only on 
 our maps and globes. 
 
 Laftly, Mr. de I'Ifie fpeaks of a large country, 
 which he fays was difcovered in the year 1723, 
 lying northward of the Frozen-fea, in the 75th de- 
 gree of latitude •, but without giving us one word 
 of where, or by whom it was difcovered : it fcems 
 that he has borrowed this miftaken account from 
 that of the voyages in the Frozm-fea, publiflied in 
 the obfervations on the St. Peterjburgb news-papers . 
 for the year 1 742 ; which obfervations contain fuch 
 accounts as were got from Takouzk ; but what 
 ftrcfs can be laid on them, as they confift only of re- 
 ports of the meanefl. of people, fome faying that 
 they had difcerned a country over-againft the river 
 Colymaj and others went fo far as to affirm that 
 they had been there, whiKt others again faid that 
 the land lay oppofite ..o the river J ana. In a word, 
 they were for having it believed that thofe parts 
 wersi full of large iQands •, but when Ikilful perfons 
 came to be appointed to get certain intelligence of 
 them, they met with inluperable obftacles : from 
 whence I conclude the aforefaid reports to have 
 been very precarious, although Mr. de l*IJle has un- 
 happily given fo far into them, as to talk with po- 
 fitivenefs of thofe lands, and even to affign them 
 a latitude ; an error which he would not have com- 
 mitted, could he have read the originals. I fhall 
 clofe the prefent with fome thoughts on the fup- 
 pofed narrative of the Spaiiijh Admiral de Fonte, 
 which, being one of the lundamer.tals on which 
 Mr. de l*IJle\ maps are built, defcrves a more ftrid 
 enquiry than the particulars we have hitherto con- 
 fidered of: a 5/)<?«//& narrative, of which there is 
 only an Englijh tranflation, without being able to 
 
 come 
 
 
1> 
 
 [26] 
 
 come at any Spanijh original, and without any in- 
 formation from hillory, that fuch an Admiral was 
 on the voyage afcribed to him, or even fo much as 
 that ever fuch an Admiral was in being •, fuch a re- 
 lation, 1 fay, is at firft fight extremely fufpicious. ' 
 
 However, let this be thought to amount to no 
 more than a bare fufpicion ; yet, without dwelling 
 any longer on thofe circumftances, I think, I am 
 able to diicover very manifeft marks of falfity in 
 the relation itfelf, by (hewing fome of its contents 
 to contradict the mod common and received truths, 
 and proving others to Ihock all probability, artd 
 that throughout it is a very infufficicnt bafis for a 
 map, unfupported as it is of all other authority. 
 
 Friji^ One would hardly think it poflible, if we 
 had not here an inftance of it, that a Spanijh Ad- 
 miral (hould have reckoned by the years of King 
 Charles of England's reign, juft in the manner as 
 is ufed by the Englijh in their publick tranfaftions. 
 Does not this favour a conjefture, that poflibly fome 
 Englijhman, under the borrowed name of a Spanijh 
 Admiral, had taken the liberty to introduce his 
 own conceits into the world j or, fuppofing he had 
 found the materials in fome Spanijh relation, that 
 at leaft he drefled them up his own way ? 
 
 Secondly, According to this narrative. Captain 
 Hudjon performed his voyage for the difcovery of 
 a northern paflage in the firft years of the reign of 
 King Charles. But what an over-fight is here in a 
 confummate fea-man and an Admiral ? Was he 
 unacquainted with the hiftory of the maritime dif- 
 coveries in his time ? Hudfon died in the year 1610, 
 and it was the year 1625 when Charles the firft 
 began his reign. Let it not be objected here, that 
 it is Captain James's voyage, to which is to be re- 
 ferred what is faid in the narrative of the years of K. 
 Charles, For even this would not quite remove the 
 difficulty, fince Captain James did not perform his 
 
 voyage 
 
 v 
 P 
 
ly in- 
 aJ was 
 uch as 
 a re- 
 
 lOUS. 
 
 to no 
 
 /eiJing 
 
 I am 
 
 m 
 
 c 27 ] 
 
 voyage till the fixth year of the reign of that 
 Prince. 
 
 Thirdly, And what becomes of the voyage faid 
 there to have been undertaken L/ the inhabitants of 
 Bqfton, which no foul ever heard a word of ? I 
 have made it my bufinefs particularly to enquire, 
 whether any mention was made of it in any ccl- 
 Jcdion of voyages, and particularly of the Englijb, 
 mod of which we have in hand ; but to no effedt. 
 Mr. Jrihur Dobbs, whofe zeal for the difcovery 
 of a north -weft paflage is very well known, is the 
 firft who has made any mention of that affair ; his 
 intention herein was to encourage his countrymen 
 to perform that, which, according to the contents 
 of the narrative in qu eft ion, is not only not im- 
 poffibJe, but even very eafy. Here is a circum- 
 llance which very much encreafes my fufpicion ; it 
 is relating to what Mr. Ellis fays, in his account 
 of his voyage to Hudfon*s-Bay, p. 70^ Befides, 
 fays he, that the Bojion undertaking is not abfoiutely 
 incredible; which words Mr. </tf /' 7/7^ interprets, 
 as if Mr. Ellis meant, that Admiral de Fonte*^ rela- 
 tion contained nothing in it which is not at leaft 
 very probable -, whereas there is not a word of this 
 in his whole book. And when, p. 72. he men- 
 tions an inftance of a voyage performed from 
 BoJlon to HudforCs-Bay, yet he adds nothing of its 
 being undertaken with the view of finding a paf- 
 fage, nor does he fo much as know the time of 
 this voyage •, on which account he finds himfelf 
 obliged to own, that this account cannot be made 
 ufe of as a proof of the queftion. 
 
 Fourthly, Upon their arrival at St, Helena, the 
 Admiral and the fhips company provided them- 
 felves with rofin, which iffues, in great quantities, 
 out of the earth -, chiefly to make ufe of, as a pre- 
 fcrvative againft the fcurvy and dropfy ; againft 
 which diftemperg rofin is reckoned a fovcreign 
 
 fpeci- 
 
 \ 
 
 .-;>» 
 
I ! 
 
 i / 
 
 '■H- 
 
 'X 
 
 [ 28 ] 
 
 fpecifick : this, indeed, is fomething of no fmall 
 importance, and does great honour to the bifhop 
 of Clcyne's tar- water ; that one would almoft ima- 
 gine the reafon of its being inferted, was purely 
 to convince unbelievers of the tranfcendent vir- 
 tues of the bilhop's medicament. 
 . Fifthly^ And what is to be thought of the geo- 
 graphical errors ; fuch, for inflance, as that ot a 
 Cape Abelf which he makes a harbour of, and 
 piaceth it upon the coaft of California, in the 20th 
 degree of north latitude, while it is known that 
 California does not reach lo far. It is not an eafy 
 matter, indeed, to perfwade one's felf that fuch 
 defcriptions were taken upon the fpot. 
 
 Sixthly, Let us now follow captain Bernardo, one 
 of the Admiral's fellow-adventurers j who, after 
 traverfing a large fea, called Valafco, fails to the 
 height of 79 degrees north ; one of his crew is 
 carried, by the natives of the country, to Davis''s 
 Streights', there he fees how the junction is inter- 
 rupted, and quite obftrudled, by a chain of pro- 
 digious mountains, lying north and north-weft ; 
 nocwichftand which, they (hew him ice no lefs than 
 100 fathom deep in the fea, and which was to have 
 been there ever fince the creation j the land ftretches 
 away northward, and the ice remains upon the 
 land. Are no' thefe manifeft contradidtions, an^ at 
 the fame tim^i fufficient warrants for the Admiral 
 to fay, that no pafTage had been found from north- 
 weft into the South- Sea? And yet others have been 
 introduced, clearly to prove that there is fuch 
 a paflage. 
 
 Seventhly, But now comes the moft improbable 
 place of the whole narration : the Admiral, after 
 pairing through feveral feas, which all have a com- 
 munication with one another, meets with an Englifh 
 ihip, which was upon finding out this north- weft 
 paifage j he goes up to her in one of his failing 
 
 velTels ; 
 
 1 
 
t'liiwi!;:*! 
 
 of a 
 and 
 
 20th 
 
 that 
 eafy 
 : fuch 
 
 ■J 
 
 [ 29 ] 
 
 veflels i and could not the Englijhman have taken 
 the fame courfe that the Spaniard had ? No ; but 
 inftead of that, he is contented to deliver up his 
 charts and journals to the Spaniard^ and at once, 
 for what reafon we are to feel:, breaks off his 
 voyage, and very friendly parts from the Admi- 
 ral. Now let any one beftow the leaft reflection 
 upon all this infipid (luff, and all the other inci- 
 dents to be met with in this narrative, and then 
 judge whether it be worthy of any credit, or cal- 
 culated only for amufement. Mr. de V IJle^ carried 
 away by his fiery impatience to come at this north- 
 weft paffage, imagines the two (hips to have met 
 in a narrow ftrait joining to Hudfon*s-Bay ; but 
 was there ever fuch a ftrait found out thereabouts ; 
 although no fmall pains have been taken to find it ? 
 and on this very account it is, that Mr. de l*ljle has 
 been led to fay, that the Admiral's courfe ended 
 in the bay of JSaffins, which yet is as improbable as 
 the reft, and conrradiffed by the very narrative it- 
 felf ; for it was at the bay of B^ffin^ where Captain 
 Bernardo's failor is faid to have been carried, and where 
 they ftiewed him nothing but a prodigious ridge of 
 mountains, and heaps of ice : this part is by miftake 
 called Davis^s- Straits, but I don*t know how it 
 came about that Captain £fr;;^r^ found things there 
 quite contrary to what the Admiral had found. 
 
 Thefe obfervations I do think are fufficient to 
 ihew, that it is a vain and fruitlefs attempt to make 
 ufe of the pretended account of Admiral de Fonte, 
 for filling up the vaft and hitherto unknown fpace 
 betwixt California and Kamtfcbatka. And now from 
 the premifes, I am led plainly and impartially to de- 
 liver my opinion on Mr. de l''JJle\ map, which, as 
 may already be perceived, will not perfedly har- 
 monize with the defcription he gives us of the 
 coaftsof America, As to the appellation of thefe 
 coafts, I fee no reafon why he ihould not have 
 
 made 
 
il 
 
 !!' 
 
 Ji'' 
 
 ^ 
 
 [30] 
 
 made ufe of that ^iven thetn by their firft dif- 
 coverers ; fuch as Captain Drake, who named them 
 New Albion: however, as it is not throughly 
 proved that ever Capt. Drah was in thofe parts, 
 thofe names at lead Ihould be ufed which we find 
 in the old maps and globes ; as, Niewada, Sierra, 
 Guiura, and Anion, which are names of provinces 
 and kingdoms, and certainly not without fome de- 
 rivation, and which, perhaps, a Spaniard may 
 have given them in fome narrative unknown to us ; 
 tho*, for my part, I fliould rather have been in- 
 clined to have made ufe of the name of New- 
 Rujfia, in imitation of other nations, who have 
 called Countries New- England, New- Spain, New- 
 France, New-Holland, &c. It may be faid we arc 
 not in poffeflion of them ; but as to this, it is pure- 
 ly at our difcretion, for, at leaft, it is certain, that 
 thefe vaft countries belong to no power able to dif- 
 pute the poffeflion with us. 
 
 How little acquainted Mr. de l*JJl6 is with our 
 fea difcoveries, muft be manifeft to every one from 
 his marking but at one fingle place, betwixt the 235 
 and 240th degree of longitude, fome coafts, for 
 the difcovery of which the publick is indebted to 
 us : now, if he has done this only to find a more 
 convenient place for Admiral de Fonle*s Archi- 
 pelago of St. Lazare, as it is called, it would have 
 been much worfe ; but fo far from admitting of 
 this Archipelagus, it is rather the north-weft and 
 •weftern bounds which muft be carried farther to 
 join them to that land, which was feen at 5 1 de- 
 grees ; fince there wanted but very little, but that 
 this whole diftrift had been difcovered by one or 
 other of our fhips. It will not be amifs here to ob- 
 ferve, that the coaft of this latter country lying 
 under the 51ft degree, is in Mr. deVlJle*^ map 
 made four times longer than it fhould be. This 
 land hath been feen, not only by Mr. Tfcbirikow, 
 
 but 
 
and 
 
 M 
 
 [3' ] 
 
 but alfo by Mr. BeeringSy as we likewlfe have for- 
 merly feen it. 
 
 This Mr. de d^IJk knew nothing of, as having 
 no knowledge of Mr. Beerings voyage j yet does 
 Mr. de VJJle turn it to the praife of his brother, to 
 fhcw that he has done ait he could to immortalize 
 his dear name : A country^ thefe are his words 
 while he is fpeaking of his brother Mr. de Pljle de 
 la Croyere^ which was feen by Mr. Tfchirikow, and 
 by Mr. de rifle de la Croyere ; again you find the 
 way from Kamtfchatka to America by Capt. Tfchi- 
 rikow, and Mr. de i*Ifle de la Croyere. This 
 might pafs well enough, if Mr. de la Croyere had 
 been any ways inftrumental in finding that way \ 
 but having been no more than an idle fpedator, 
 what title has he to any mention in that affair ? 
 He mufl: have been blind not to have feen the 
 coafts, which were vifible to every one elfe, and, not 
 to fpeak of us officers in both fhips, who, as fuch, 
 had our Ihare in the execution of the affair, 
 I take liberty to affirm, that our common failors 
 deferve much more than Mr. de la Croyere to have 
 their names perpetuated, as having been really ufe- 
 ful and laborious hands, but that a lilt of^ their 
 names would take up too much room in this (horc 
 piece. 
 
 It has already been noticed, that Mr. de Vlfle 
 has fallen into a miflake in his memoir, by placing 
 Beerings IJland in the latitude of 54 inflead of ^6 
 degrees, and this error is alfo brought into his map ; 
 the manner alfo of his placing the iflands, which lye 
 betwixt Kamtfchatka and Japan, would deferve a 
 remark, if I could not refer myfelf to the map of 
 Capt. Spangenbergy the eflential part of which may 
 be feen in the laft leaf of the Ruffian Atlas. A ju- 
 dicious connoilfeur and judge of fuch naval expe- 
 riments, will not hefitate 10 give the preference to 
 the informations of this compleat and indefati- 
 gable 
 
 ■ t^iSiSaiwaftlWw"^,*.**""— ►-v- 
 
 ' , Aiiii i i i iiii ii»j *<ioiMi>fc 
 
\ 
 
 J 
 
 f i 
 
 1/ 
 
 
 (3*1 
 
 gable feaman, namely, Capt. Spangenherg, who 
 made his voyage on purpofe to take a particular 
 view of the laicl idands \ fuch a judge, I fay, will 
 always prefer this man's obfervations to thofe of 
 other Ihips, who made theirs only by the way, 
 and as it were accidentally. 
 
 Mr. de Vljle is of another opinion •, he ispleafed 
 to (lick to the fituation of the ifland Yejfo^ and the 
 other iflands difcovered by the Dutch Ihips, called 
 the Capricorn. He contradids our informations, 
 and to invalidate them, maintains his pretended 
 land of Camay which he brings a little more to 
 the fouth-weft than in his map of 1732. This is 
 being a man of learning with a witneis, to endea- 
 vour to impofe further on the world, rather than 
 retradt a former aflertion. How much more be- 
 coming were it, to leave every one in the poflcf- 
 fion of what is his proper right, than to go about 
 to biafs the reader, and favour one to the prejudice 
 of another. 
 
 I conclude vvith a general remark upon the part 
 of Siberia, as it appears in Mr. de ri/le^s map. It 
 is entirely taken from the Ruffian Atlas, and that 
 without any amendment of the faults both of the 
 engraver and writer. It would therefore be a^ 
 egregious miftake to prefume, that in France better 
 and more exadl maps (hould be made of our 
 country than we ourfelves are able to execute. JL^t 
 us but exert ourfelves in avoiding the imputation 
 of Hownefs \ it will be an addition to the glory pf 
 our illuftrious Emprefs, and the whole nation 3 than 
 which there cannot furely be a more prevalent 
 motive to each true-born patriot heart. This I 
 am confident would quickly be eflfeded by the 
 countenance of the moft eminent perfonages in the 
 nation ; and I particularly Batter myfelf, that as 
 your Excellency is pkafed, in a diftinguilhed man- 
 ner, to intercft yourfelf herein, it wilJ prompt i|s 
 
 to 
 
 to 
 
 y« 
 
 to 
 
 m 
 ut 
 
 lei 
 fa 
 vi 
 in 
 th 
 m 
 
who 
 rticular 
 y, will 
 lofe of 
 c way, 
 
 C33l 
 to retrieve our pad remiflTnefs. It depends upon 
 you to procure me the advantage of contributing 
 to this work -, and, if you will be pleafed to inveft 
 me with that care, 1 fhall undertake it with the 
 utmoft ardour and chearfulnefi. 
 
 I now fubmit thefe obfervations to your Excel- 
 lency's fuperior judgment ! My wifh in this af- 
 fair will not prove Truitlefs, if, agreeably to your 
 views, I can be fo happy as to be employed tnere- 
 in, and deferve your approbation : I fhall always 
 think it a great happinefs to be permitted to call 
 myfelf. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 Tour EmUency'St &c. &c. 
 
 N. N. 
 
 as 
 
 OVfrvdm 
 

 ■Ik 
 
 
 r ' .1 ,. 
 
 ;r.j . . 
 
 |5 
 
 -in K:ilt ci '•fi; 
 
 I : 
 
 ,'H; r 
 
 
 "V 
 
 ,v--::i 
 
 5 • / «.»'^ 
 
« (J 
 
 'J 
 
 )»«##«!lNNNHMMMN»4MH»** 
 
 OBSERVATIONS 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 Russian Difcoveries, ^c. 
 
 By Governor D O B B S. 
 
 ■»s» 
 
 « t « « ««» « t » i < MNMM» »« » 
 

 H 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 
 ^1 CI o 
 
 < ex v.- 
 
 ?n 
 
 .i i^j i /i ^ ij 
 
 
 •VAi?^Ui?i 
 
 ^j 
 
 {,11 
 
 n rr {T 
 
 1 rT fr /- "-» 
 
 e •''T3 Y.r0 1/H 
 
I ■•i i 
 
 
 C^ 
 
 A 
 
 Ohfehjationi upon the RufHaxi difeoveries minthned 
 in a letter from a Rulfiah geHtleman, to a nobler 
 man in St. PecerA)urgh, with his remdrki upon 
 Mr, de I'IfleV gbart and memoir^ relative to the 
 dijco^'^riej northward and eafiward from Kamt- 
 fchatka. 
 
 TH E author in his remarks very juftly ob* 
 fetves, that Mr. de Vljle^ throughout his 
 whole memoir, has taken the merit of the Ruffian 
 difcoveric?, and improvement of their charts, in 
 a great meafure to himfelf, and his brother d$ 
 la Croyere ; although it appears evidently, that all^ 
 or moft of the merit, is due to the Ri^ans, whoi 
 with indefatigable labour and perii, travelled 
 through thefe countries, and made thefe difeoveries^ 
 as well by fea as by land, whilft he only colledled 
 his materials from their charts and memoirs.—* 
 For Mr. de la Croyere was of little more ufe, than 
 a paflenger would have been, on the laft expcdi* 
 tion towards America in Tfcbirikow's (hip } — his 
 chief m'^rit fcems to have been, his correal obfer- 
 v:i?ion of the longitude at Avatcha^ by the cclipfei 
 of the fatellites of Jupiter^ wherein a Ruffian of- 
 ficer of merit was alfo a principal obferver. ■ ■ 
 In the laft voyage he feemr, by his account, not 
 to have been capable of keeping a correft joiirnal^ 
 having been fick, and had given himfelf up to 
 drink large quantities of brandy, to keep up his 
 rpirits, which caufed his death as he was landing at 
 Avatcha. 
 
 V 2 It 
 
mm 
 
 ■P 
 
 "?i 
 
 « 
 
 w 
 
 \l 
 
 If 
 
 [38] 
 
 ' k appears alfo that Mr. de^l*IJle*s chart of the 
 coaft of the Frozen-fea, from the river Taimura, 
 id tbc-nerth-eaft point of Tdrtary^ at Zerfgcamen, 
 'dircUVierelt' by Captain ' BeeringSj was altogether 
 taken from the charts by which the Rujjian Atlas 
 was formed » and that the land he has marked in 
 75 degrees north of Kolima, is all traditional and 
 imaginary, without any memoir to fupport it. 
 
 It is alfo evident that the difcovery of the north- 
 eaft coaft, from Kamtfchatka to 67 degrees north, 
 was due to Captain Beerings in his firft voyage 
 in 1720; that the ifland, and land beyond it, in 
 about 66 degrees, over-againft Tfchutfchi^ which 
 he pretends to be part of America, was difcovcred 
 by Gwofdew the furveycrj which Mr. de l*Ifle has 
 improved, by mentioning a converfation ht^ had 
 with a native^ although they could not u'^-df^r'^nd 
 each other. It is alfo evidcni- that the ' : f 
 iflands, from the fouth • cape of Kamtfibatka to 
 Japan, were difcovered by Captain Spangenberg^ 
 or Spanherg, in which di rifle had no merit, unlefs 
 his mentioning his failing £o Mat/mat, the capital 
 of yejfo, be a merit, and tracing it in his chart, with- 
 out any journal to juftify that account, which is 
 contradicted by the author of thefe remarks. 
 
 As to the lalt two voyages in 1 74 1 , by the Captains 
 Beerings and Tfchirikow, in which Captain Beerings 
 upon his return, was fliipwrecked on a diftant 
 ifland, where he died ; it is evident Mr. de l*IJlt 
 had never feen his journal, but fuppofed he had 
 been fliipwrecked focn after he left Avatcba, with- 
 out making any difcovery. So that the only jour- 
 nal he had to fupport his chart, was his brother de 
 la Croyere's, which mull have been very imper- 
 fect, as he had not fufficient health to attend to it, 
 and was bcfotted with drinking brandy to keep up 
 Jiis (pirits, and allay his pain, which caufed his 
 death, at his return to Avatcbiu —With thefe me- 
 
 teriah<. 
 
 te 
 hi 
 a 
 f< 
 
 /^ 
 01 
 
 if 
 
 i 
 c 
 
 
 / 
 
 i 1 
 

 '.^f 
 
 [39] 
 
 terials, dpri a fidtltious chart dreffcd up by him and 
 his frieno Buacbe^ from an imperfeA abftradb of 
 a journal, which at bed appears doubtful, he has 
 formed a chart of an extended country, from Cali- 
 farnia to the north-eaft point of Tartaryt leaving 
 only a narrow ftreight betwixt them : — wherein* 
 if de Fonte*& abftrad fhould hereafter appear to be: 
 true, he has altered his journal fo far, as to lay 
 down the river he entered, lo degrees farthec 
 north than is mentioned in de Fontt^z abftraft } 
 and Barnarda*s difeovery, if any: (vch was made by 
 him, is laid down in an entirely different diredUon^ 
 from the account he had fent to de Fonte, tracing 
 out a river fouth- weft from the lake^<f/<flr/<:fl, when, if 
 true, he had only failed from that lake down a river 
 80 leagues, to 61 degrees, where it entered into ih$ 
 Tartarian'fia^ fo that his leaving de Fonte in 53 
 degrees, he muft have gone northward down the 
 river, to have entered the fea.in 61 degrees.-- But 
 the fallacy of this chart having been deteded in 
 London by Mr. Greeny he found himfelf under a 
 necelTity to corred it, and fent a chart to the Royal* 
 Society, wherein he had cut out all thefe new dif" 
 covered countries he had laid, down in hi& chare, 
 and brought the whole farther to the fouthward by 
 10 degrees, which he had cemented to the re^ 
 mainder of his American and Afian chaxt.^ by which 
 .means he brought de Font^s ftreight de Ronquilht 
 from 72 degrees in Baffin" s-bof^ where, he had placed 
 it, to near 62 degrees near Hudf0n*S'bay \ but he 
 has i^ot yet thought proper to publifh any: chart 
 fince, with that corredion. — From this palpable 
 deceit, it is evident he intended to have made, ufe 
 of that doubtful abftra£t« to have made lout.that 
 there was a continent which extended from Call" 
 fornia, within a fmall diftance of J/hy in 66 de- 
 grees, to prevent any farther attempts, of a difcO- 
 very of a palTage to the weftern ocean from Hud- 
 
 D 4 fin*s-tajf. 
 
if 
 
 « 
 
 [f|«!l' 
 
 % 
 
 >'\ 
 
 fids'httfi 4)prehe]hding it ceutd be no advaiitage 
 cb Bfantt^ whiHt the trade ahd country arOund 
 Htt'dfimU-^^J wa& given up by treaty to Britain. 
 - Having chas far taken notke of the remarlc^ 
 upon Mr. dt PJJtis chart and memoir^ fince the 
 Jittjfian gemlemdii takes great pains at the end of 
 his lemarks^ to ihevr the fpimoufnefs Of Admiral 
 ieFsnteh aiaftra^t above mentioned, although I 
 am fat iroiti' dffirmiii^ it to bo genuine, yet^ as I 
 think it ftili reitoatns doubtfuiv until further difco* 
 vdriti are maidef'to determine Whether it b^ true 
 or falTe v it may be proper in this place to take off 
 ibme of the height of this ingenious gentleman's 
 ti^ed^ions o^aihft it. And firft I mufl: allow, if 
 there ihould be found any truth in it, that it has 
 " .en vel^y ili iranflated, and incorreftly printed, 
 
 id thefefbrc can't fupport any chart to be made 
 trdm it 
 
 Akhou^ in feveral pi^ts it appears to be a 
 vJety bad tranfldtipn from the Spanijb, by making 
 an allowance foi the ibcoifre£tneI^ of the printing, 
 ^kh might partly be occafioned by not knowing 
 ikn figuris^ fh)m the Aianufcript having beeA 
 thrown cardefsly by^ ffom the year 16404 the year 
 of the revoltiticiiii of Pdr/Arg-dP^ before which time 
 iJK Sfunifi GsUeims returned t6L^otty when the 
 ibip which brought, it, not knowing of the revolu* 
 tlon, niight have bteh f^ized by the Portugueze \ 
 and as they were then taken iip in fecuring their 
 country from Spai»\ they might not infpedt, or 
 regard fuch a manofcript, and confequently might 
 throw it afide, where it might have Iain with ufelefs 
 papers until near the time it was printed, when 
 loitie curious perfon might havie found it, and have 
 feiit it over to Mr. Petiver, who had a corre- 
 fpondence in Portugal, who had it tranflated, and 
 l^ubtifhed ; by which many of the figures might 
 have been iniilaken, and probably feveral of the 
 
 words 
 
 
mmn 
 
 
 [ 4« ] 
 
 words or paragraphs ; which may have been the 
 reafon that in many places the latitudes- are not 
 £xad ; yet for fo much of the coad as is known, 
 from Lima to Salagua and the ifles of Chamitly^ 
 the latitudes are not much amils. 
 
 As to the gentleman's objedion of its mention- 
 ing the years of King Charles*^ reign, for the 
 times of HudforC% and James's difcoveries, the ob- 
 jedlion will alfo cut the other way •, for though the 
 Spaniards would not mention the years of an Englijh 
 King, in their accounts, yet, as the years men- 
 tioned are not true, either as to Hudfoni's^ or Jamei*i 
 voyages, it is much more likely that a Spaniard in 
 America fhould make fuch a mifliake, than an 
 Englijhman, of at lead fome learning, who would 
 endeavour to deceive his own nation ; for in that 
 cafe, he ought to have been very eXaft, to make 
 it pafs upon his own country men. -^But if an order 
 had been fent from Spaitiy to acquaint the Spaniards 
 at Lima^ that the Englijh were renewing their at- 
 tempt to find a north- weft paflage, which had 
 been before attempted by Hudfon and James^ and 
 had imagined they were correft in naming the 
 years of the reign, in which they had attempted 
 it i or, if de Fonts bad taken the account from the 
 Englijh pilot, who was on board of him, he might 
 have put it in incorredily in his abftraA. 
 
 The next objeflion this gentleman makes, upon 
 account of the rofm o^ tar taken in at St. Helena, 
 with his wit upon the Biihop of Cloyne, may be 
 eafily fliewn to have no weight •, for there is a 
 bitumenous tar, which either iflues out of th^ earth, 
 or rifes with the water of a fpring in that ifland, 
 which is of a balfamick nature, as is mentioned i 
 fometimes called by the Englijh Barbadoes tar, 
 which is ufed medicinally, and is often brought 
 over to Europe \ and if it was found in quantities, 
 would anfwer as pit^h for fhips ; fo that there is 
 
 no 
 
■J? 
 
 Ill 
 
 hiEi 
 
 I 
 
 it ', 
 
 [40 
 
 no incohfiftence in that account. — The latitudes 
 he mentions from thence along the coaft to Rio- 
 kja, and from thence to Salagua and the iflcs of 
 Chamilli^ are near the trutli » but 1 muft obferve, 
 that the names of the laft two places were not in- 
 ferted in any Englijhy Dutchy or French charts, 
 until after the printing this abftrad, whea the 
 Spanijb pilot's book of iht Souib-feawM taken by 
 the Englijh privateers, in the Acapulco Ihip, in 
 1710; and, therefore, if the abftradt had been 
 forged by an Englijhman, he would not have chofcn 
 Spanijh names of places, then unknown in England, 
 
 — His objedion from its naming Point or CapC' 
 jIbeU in another paragraph Port-Abel^ may be 
 caiily accounted for in an inaccurate tranflation, or 
 error of the prefs \ and the latitude of the place 
 being wrong laid down, by a miftaken figure, or 
 the fault of the prefs. 
 
 The moft fufpicious account, I take to be that 
 of Captain Barnarda, which he fent to de. Fome of 
 his northern difcoveries ♦, but they vary fo much in 
 the two different paragraphs, and are fo concife, 
 unintelligible, and indiftind, that we mult be- 
 lieve, if the voyage be genuine, that the Captain 
 was no judge of what he wrote ; unlefs that part of 
 -the abftraft had been defaced by time, or accident. 
 
 — But if the whole voyage was wrote with a de- 
 fign to impofe upon the world, the pcrfon who 
 wrote the abftraft could anfwer no end by relating it, 
 as it made againft the opinion of a paflage which 
 he had a defign to impofe upon the publick. 
 
 As to his objedtions and remarks upon de Fonte*s 
 meeting with the Bojion (hip, which he lays much 
 weight upon,w2. that he had never heard of any fuch 
 voyage made from Bo/Ion^ in any colleftion of 
 . voyages extant ; that it was not likely that he 
 .would mention, that it was only a fliip trading 
 with the natives for furs, when he was fent to 
 
 fcizvi 
 
 ■ --w'liKttiv *«)-..,.«,.—* -^ 
 
the 
 rn by 
 in 
 
 [ 43 ] 
 
 feize upon any (hip attempting to difcover a paf- 
 fage i and his faying that the Bojlon fhip left him, 
 inftcad of purfuing the difcovery, notwithftanding 
 they found he had come there from California ; and 
 chat it was highly improbable that Cd^i^t.Sbapley would 
 have parted with his curious charts and journal } I 
 muft obferve, that not one of thefe make agalnfl: 
 the abftradl's being a genuine and true account. — 
 For, if by any accident, the Bojion fhip had been 
 loft in her return, there could have been no account 
 of fuch a voyage, as none could tell how far (he 
 had been, or where loft ; and, if fuch a voyage 
 had been made, as it appears the fhip had but ten 
 mariners aboard, the prefumption was that (be had 
 only gone to trade for furs, or to filh, as it was 
 not fitted out to make a difficult difcovery ; and, 
 therefore, it was but juft to reprefent them as being 
 only traders, and not difcoverers. But had the 
 (hip gone upon the difcovery, it would not have 
 been prudent to have owned it, or to have pro- 
 ceeded and followed de Fonte^ who muft have feized 
 the ftiip, if it had gone to the lake his (hip was 
 in : nor does it appear that the (hip quitted him and 
 failed back, but he left the (hip at anchor, and re- 
 turned in his boat. Befides, if the (hip had gone 
 to find the paflTage, it was fufficient tor them to 
 have known there was a paflTage through, by de 
 Fonte's having come from the Soulb-fea^ and, there- 
 fore, it had been right for them to return with fo 
 agreeable an account to England : and as to 
 Captain Sbapley*s felling him his chart and journal 
 for 1000 crowns, that fum was a fortune to him 
 in thofe days ; fo they were well fold, when he 
 could make them out again from the log-book ; fo 
 that this ingenious gentleman's remarks and ob- 
 jections are no proof of the abftrail's being fpu- 
 rious, but ftill leaves ic doubtful. 
 
 But 
 
Ill 
 
 1^' 
 
 if. 
 
 [44 ] . 
 
 But what feems to give this abrtra^l an appearance 
 of truth, notwithftandingils errOrs and incorredlnefsy 
 is, that upon enquiring, we found there was a 
 family at that time in Boftono^ the name of SbapUy^ 
 and alfo one of the name of the oWncr Gibhon^ 
 who was then of the council of" New-England^ 
 and that very near the place where the Bojien (hip 
 was faid to be met, by our laft difcoveries we 
 found large openings and inlets ; that in one of 
 thefe the Cbejlerfield inlet, after proceeding into it 
 30 leagues wcftward from the entrance in the bay, 
 it kept its breadrh above 3 leagues wide, and 
 fecmed to increafe, running to fouthward of thte 
 weft, at 5 leagues diftance, as far as they could 
 fee in a clear day. That a falt-water current 
 came from the weftward, at the rate of fix miles 
 an hour, for eight hours each tide ; the tide from 
 the bay, checked that current for two hours, and 
 then for two hours more flowed gently to the 
 weftward, at the rate of one mile in an hou£ : —7 
 that it is alfo agreeable to de Fucd's difcovery, the 
 Greek pilot in Qj, EiizabetFs reign, and alfo with 
 the fo much talked of ftreights of Anian^ and coin- 
 cides with the account given by Sir James Lancqjlery 
 in that remarkable poftfcript to his letter near the 
 Cape of Good-hope, when he was in danger of be- 
 ing loft, and wrote home by another ftiip, viz. 
 that the paiiage to the Soi'th-fea was in the lati- 
 tude of 62 degrees and a half on the weft fide of 
 America j befidcs, the northern Indians^ who Jive 
 on the north- weft fide of Hudfon*s-bdyy havt fre- 
 quently been at the PFeJiern-fea ; but, if the ./^n:e- 
 r/V<a« continent ftretched away north- weft ward * from 
 Cape- Bianco in California, towards the north- caft 
 Goaft of A^a, in 66 degrees j the natives, in their 
 way of travelling, could never have arrived at it, 
 as it muft have been at leaft 5 or 600 leagues dif- 
 tance from Hudfon's-bay j thefe, with other concur- 
 ring 
 
 %■ 
 Ai 
 
 fWBWil''lg3|MM»»JWr'' 
 
?«», 
 
 [ 45 ] 
 
 ring circumftances, as the number of whales fecn 
 and caught on the north-weft fide of the bay, near 
 thcfc inlets, which don*t come through Hud/on* s- 
 ftreigbtf — there being no rivers found northward 
 of 60 degrees, and only broken coafts without 
 wood, makes ic reafonaible to believe the lands 
 difcovered by the Rtiffians to be iflands, fome of 
 which may be very large, interfperfcd in that north- 
 weftern ocean. I mud add to this, that by the 
 lateft and beft accounts we can get from Spain^ 
 they allow that there was a family of Fmnte^ or 
 de Fcnte, who were employ'd by the Spaniards in 
 the fouthern American feas, and that one of that 
 name had been prefident of Chili^ but don't mention 
 the time, who was called Merlo de Fuente, that there 
 is at preient a nephew or great grandfon of his, iii 
 the Jefuit' s-College of Sf, Pablo in Lima^ calle4 
 father Xavier de Merlo, a very learned man. 
 5 Notwithftanding thefe circumftances, the whole 
 muft remain doubtful, until it is confirmed, pr 
 explained, by future difcoveries •, and, therefore, 
 Mr. de rjjle can't be juftified in forming a chare 
 from that ab(lra£b, and is evidently culpable, in 
 falfifying that abftra6^, to make it anfwer his pur? 
 pofe, of extending the continent of America, near 
 to the noFth-eaftern promontory of AJ!a, 
 
 I (hall now beg leave to make fome fhort obfer- 
 vations upon the concife account given by this 
 ingenious Ruffian gentleman, of thefe Rufian dif- 
 coveries, bejginning with the Ruffian difcoveries of 
 the Frczm-coaft north of Siberia. — He has (hewn 
 the inextricable difiiculties, tnd impra^icabiHty, of 
 difcov^ring a paflage by fea, from the ftreights of 
 Weygatz, by the mouths of the rivers Oby, Je- 
 mfea, Lena, Kolitna, and fo on, to the north-eaftera 
 profnontory of Jfta, near Tfchutfcbii from the 
 leveral fruVtlefs attempts of the Rnjftanu although 
 umkruken with §reat jyd^meiit, s^od purfupd with 
 
 - * equal 
 
[ 46 ] 
 
 equal refolution, by velTels fitted out from the Se- 
 veral rivers -, one being ordered to fail eaftward, 
 and another weft ward, from each river, until they 
 fhould meet each other; fome being fent from 
 yirchangely and the weftern rivers, to the 0^, 
 v^hich they acconiplifhed ; but thofe from Oby to 
 Jenifea, and from that river to Lena, could not 
 meet thofe which were fent weftward to meet them, 
 upon the account of ice, the velTels that went from 
 Lena could not pafs the point and iiles near Tai" 
 mura, for the quantity of fixed ice; fo that the 
 coafl there could only be difcovered by land, and 
 the velTels that failed from Lena and Indigirka, to 
 meet each other, were loft in the ice *, he fays, that 
 there had been a record found at Jakoufit that a 
 vefTel had failed from Lena to Kolima, and had 
 from thence proceeded to the river Anadir , by the 
 north- eaft promontory, in 71 degrees, and the point 
 at '■Tfchutfchi, which was difcovered by Captain 
 Beerings ; from thefe accounts he juftly obfcrves, 
 that when thefe hardy Ruffians, inured to cold and 
 ice, with all their advantages, could not fail along 
 this coaft, in the beft feafon of the year, the 
 Ihips of diftant nations, mud undergo fuch difH- 
 culties, as to make a voyage that way to India of 
 no ufe, if it could be difcovered further north- 
 ward. 
 
 The difcovery of an ifland and coaft eaftward of. 
 Tfcbuifcbit was made by accident in the year 1730, 
 after Beerings had the year before difcovered the 
 eaft coaft of Katntfcbatka to 67 degrees ; at his 
 return to Ochotjki-Oltrogy having left his ihip with 
 provifions there, in 59 degrees, 22 minutes, — 141 
 degrees e?ift longitude from Paris, according to 
 Mr. de l*j[/le*s memoir. Capt. Pawtujki was ordered^ 
 upon an expedition by land to TfchtUfcbiy and or- 
 dered Mr. GwofdeWt a furveyor, to bring to ,hinij 
 there the provifions which Captain Beerings had 
 ' v' Icfti 
 
 
 m 
 
 ■ ft ■ 
 
 :V-„ 
 
 
 i 
 
.in 
 
 •4 
 m 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 t 47 ] 
 
 left ; this he accomplifhed in his veflel, and went 
 as far as Zerfecamen, but could not find Fawtujki : 
 whilft he was cruizing there, he was carried by 
 the winds to the eaftward, within fight of an ifiand, 
 Mr. de Vljle fays, a man came off to him in a 
 kind of Greenland boat, and converfcd with him, 
 and faid he was an inhabitant of a great continent, 
 where were many furs j he coafted it fouthward 
 for two days, and was then forced to the weftward 
 by a ftorm, which drove him back to Kamtfchatka, 
 This account the Ruffian gentleman fo far contra- 
 difts, as that he never heard that Gwofdew had 
 feen any of the natives, which makes de l*J/le*s 
 account doubtful, as he could hold no difcourfe 
 with a man he could not underftand ; but whether 
 he did or not, he fays, it confirmed the account 
 given by the Tfchutfchi, that the continent of ^me- 
 rica was within a fmall diftance of them ; and from 
 this flight account, he founds his opinion, that Afta 
 and America had been joined, and feparated by an 
 Inundation, volcano, or earthquake, in order to 
 fupport an hypoihefis he had formed, that America 
 had been peopled from thence. — In this hypothefis 
 and opinion, that this difcovered coaft is part of 
 . the American continent, and that America was peo- 
 pled from the northern coaft in 66 degrees lati- 
 tude, I widely differ from him, and think it can*c 
 
 be fupported, by that difcovery and memoir. 
 
 For this coafl; being above 6oo leagues from any 
 known part of America^ except the northern part 
 of Baffin* s-bay ; it can't, without a further difcovery, 
 be confidered otherwife than as an ifland of a con- 
 fiderable extent i for it can't be fuppofed that a 
 velTel failing cautioufly along a coaft, for only two 
 days, and lying by at night, could difcover above 
 6o leagues at the utmoft, with an eafygale, after 
 which he was forced back in a ftorm ; and though 
 
 IS of land to eaftward 
 
 of 
 
 ! ^ 
 
 Captun Beerings had fympt 
 
:ii 
 
 i 1' 
 
 
 
 ! 
 
 i' 
 
 1 ', 
 
 f\ 
 
 
 n 
 
 ) 
 
 
 1 
 
 ( 48 J 
 
 of Kamtfchaika, with (hallow fmooth water, yet 
 it might be iflands and banks, fuch as thcfe, which 
 reached from the fouthern promontory of Kavth 
 fchatka to Japan \ neither is it probable, that NMb'$ 
 defcendants fhould migrate fo far to the northward, 
 and fettle colonies from ihence throughout America\ 
 it would have been equally eafy to have done it 
 from Iceland and Greenkrd, — But then from 
 whence came all the ferpents, reptiles, and ani- 
 mals, which are only found, aiKi are natives in 
 warm climates \ I therefore, from this (light me- 
 moir, can't agree with him that the American 
 continent is continued fo near to the north-eaft 
 promontory of y^j. — The next land dilco- 
 vered near to the Jftatick coaft wd$ by Captain 
 T/cbirikow in 51 degrees, 12 minutes lat. i2degrcc$ 
 caftward from Avatcha, according to dc PJfie*^ 
 memoir, which I muft follow when not contradifted 
 by this ingenious gentleman, fince he no where 
 mentions the computed longitude of the places 
 fccn upon the la(t difcovery. — Here Tfchirihw 
 only faw a mountainous country, and enter \ 
 gulph or bay, from whence feveral people canr 
 to him in a kind of Greenland boats, one in each 
 boat i and, therefore, as no great coaft was dif^ 
 covered, and oply one place near it fcen byCapt. 
 Beerings, from whence he was forced 80 miles or 
 leagues easterly, this can be no fu(ficient reafon to 
 fuppofe it to l>e a continent, as it w^s at lea^ 
 240 leagues to fouthward of the other land feen 
 in 64 degree^, and about 17Q leagues caftward of 
 Avatcba^ at 1 3 leagues to a degree of 9ongit;u4f 
 in that latitude i and, therefore, rio realqn tP thin^ 
 it part q\ America from thefedilcoverie$and meqn^rs. 
 The land which Beerings difcpvered after fiy 
 weeks failing, '7 Brft failing fouth-caft (o 26 ^^ 
 grees, and thence northreaff, until he w^ about 
 5Q0 Dutch miles or leagues eait from K^miiffbfi^n, 
 wherein no mention is rriade of the latitude the 
 
 land 
 
 t 
 
[ 49 ] 
 
 land was in 4 as Captain 1'fcbirikow made land 
 the 26th of July new ftile, and Beerings the 18th 
 old ftile, Tfchirikow being only three days fooncr 
 than the other, in making land, and as it appears 
 from de PJJle's chart and memoir, that he did not 
 fail ict far to fouthward as the other, it muft be 
 fuppofcd the land he faw was more cafterly than 
 what beerings faw. This land was 50 degrees to 
 eaftward of the other mountainy land laft men- 
 tioned, tha' he had feen upon his return, and in 
 55 degrees, 3*6 minutes, which, at about 12 leagues 
 to a degree in that iatitude, is at lead 600 leagues 
 to eaftward of the other \ it does not appear that 
 he coafted the land above 100 miles wcilward of 
 it, in expeding the boats and men he had loft, 
 and, therefore, from his memoir, it does not ap- 
 pear that they were one continent ; and by Capt. 
 Beerings'^ journal, as mentioned by this Ruffian 
 gentleman , it would feem probable that he 
 had not been fo far to the eaftward as the 
 other, by 270 leagues; fo that there was fpace 
 for a large fea betwixt thofe two places, fince 
 he computed it only 500 Dutch leagues from 
 Avatcha, and the other was 770. — Beerings coafted 
 for Ibme days to weft ward, and after quitting the 
 coaft, by ftorms and contrary winds, was forced 
 back again towards the fame place, to take in frefh 
 water at an ifland he called Sbumagan'OJirog.''-'T\{\i 
 took him up to the 6th of September, he then failed, 
 and kept within fight of the coaft for fome days, 
 where were many iflands, which retarded their 
 voyage, fo they ftood more fouthwardly to avoid 
 the coaft, rnd on the 24th faw land aga'ui, with 
 many iQands in 51 degrees, but by ftormy weather 
 for many days, they were forced 80 leagues to the 
 eaftward, when they apprehended they were ftill 
 250 leagues from Avatcha, being about half way 
 from the iirft land Cihey faw to the eaftward ; fo 
 
 £ that 
 
 f J 
 
tmrnmim^ 
 
 [50] 
 
 that the land they laft fkw mufl have been 170 
 leagues eaftward from Aoatcha^ and cor.fcqocntlf 
 very near the place ^fchirikow was at. -^ £0 that 
 from theie feveral memoirs, it does not appear 
 that the coad was continuous betwixt thefe two 
 places they feverally touched at in their voyages. 
 
 By Mr. de l*Ifle'% memoir and chart, it does 
 hot appear to be a continuous coaft from the eafter- 
 moft coaft T/cbiriktnv faw, to Cape-Bianco in Cali- 
 fornioy for he co.nnputed it was 14 degrees to che 
 weftward of Cafe-Bianco^ which is in 43 degrees 
 latitude ; and the coaft they were at was in ^s de- 
 grees, 30 minutes, which was 12 degrees, 30 mi- 
 nutes more to northward •, fo that it was at ieaft 
 azo leagues north -weft from Cape-Bianco^ and 
 confequently might not have been a continued 
 coaft from thence, as there was fpace enough for 
 a great influx of the ocean betwixt thofe places \ 
 and although the nation they faw, might have been 
 of American extraftion, as they feemcd tc have 
 fometbing among them like to the calumet af 
 peace ufed in North- America, yet they might be io^ 
 although they lived in idands which had a com- 
 munication wiih the continent.— « So that upon the 
 whole, from thcfe difcoveries, it does not yet ap- 
 pear whether thefc larids feen, be pa't of the 
 Americr.n contineiit, or made up of iflands, fince 
 fome of the natives feem to be like the Green" 
 landers^ and fome like the Americans, which muft 
 be determined by the next Ruffian difcoveries. — 
 They certainly dclerve great praife in thefe they 
 have already made ; and was I to advife, I fhould 
 think it their moft prudent and fafeft method to* 
 proceed along the coaft difcovercd in 64 degrees 
 north -eaft from Kamtfcbatka, and trace that coun- 
 try to fouth- eaftward, and determine whether it be 
 continuous, or made up of iflands •, they would 
 foon come into « warmer climate, and find out 
 
 fafc 
 
to 
 
 t*& 
 
 t 5' 1 
 
 fafe harbours for their (hips ; and at the fame time 
 find out, and increafe a fur trade, to carry on to 
 China from thence, and clear up thefe difputed 
 points, which they may eafily afcertain ; which 
 wouid be of great fervice to the curious and learned 
 world, as well as to merchants ; and they might 
 probably find their people alive, who had been 
 taken by the natives, and by them come to much 
 greater knowledge of thefe countries. — And I fhould 
 be extremely pleafed to hear that the ingenious au- 
 thor of the remarks upon de l*Ifle*i memoirs and 
 chart was to be employ'd in fo great an undertak- 
 ing, which, from his experience, I Ihould hope he 
 could accomplifh, with honour to himfelf, and to 
 the glory of the Emprcfs of Ruffiat and her Em* 
 pire. 
 
 ap- 
 
 E 2 
 
■PUMP 
 
 i-md s:c" 
 
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 I 
 
 vm 
 
 -m 
 
 ''^K 
 
 
 if 
 
A N 
 
 EXPLANATION 
 
 O F T H E 
 
 M 
 
 A 
 
 P 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW DISCOVERIES 
 
 Northward of the 
 
 SG U T H'S E A, 
 
 By Mr. J> h* I S L E. 
 
 .«' 
 
 4K«@.@@@@^^@^@@fiHP^««(«r 
 
 . .SS^.X^j!. ^ 
 
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 Vi \ 
 
 
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 Ivi 
 
 10 
 
 c!5i ;::: yooaici 
 
 i 
 
 
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 v.* 
 
 rs 
 
 I 
 
 
R>g<«*a>ggaB»g»»»g?ags»gaew»yir.^>yyflg>a!K»ggaivi^B 
 
 OBfSSBt>BBlBBSaBlBmOBOBgXr£lSiSSSSSSSSSXSXSSa^^ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 
 ,.^A% 
 
 [OURTEEN years ago I publiflied at 
 Peterjlurgh a firft volume of memoirs 
 relating to the hiftory and improve- 
 ment of aftronomy, geography, and 
 natural philofophy *, fince which time 
 that work might have been confiderabiy length- 
 ened, had I not been more intent on the colledlion 
 of new materials, than on the publication of 
 thofe already in my hands. I was then, as al- 
 ways, after my arrival in Ruffia^ deeply engaged, by 
 order of that court, in getting together memoirs 
 for a folid and complete fyftem of the geography 
 of that vad Empire, for the fervice of the nation. 
 My Brother de la Croyergy who was permitted to ac- 
 company me into Ruffia, after vifiting, purfuant to the 
 orders he had obtained, the mod northern parts of 
 the government of Archangel, in order, by aftro- 
 nomical obfervacions, the better to determine this 
 
 E 4 e?:tremity 
 
^1 
 
 fl I 
 
 '111:1 
 
 extremity of the Empire, he had alfo, fome years 
 fince, undertaken, in the hke manner, to travel 
 over all the other parts of Rujfta and Siheriat to 
 the furtheft extremities of the caft, and even to 
 embark at the mod eaftward harbour of the Kamt- 
 fchatka, r J go on a difcovery of the countries ly- 
 ing betwixt J^a and Jmerica, northward of the 
 South-fea, I waited till he had finifhed his voyage, 
 and compleated all his ohy^rvations;, to add them to 
 what I already had, and' was continuing to col- 
 \tdi from other hands, andeven from foreign coun- 
 tries, when I received the affliftive account, that he 
 died in his return from Jmerica, within fight of 
 Avatcba^ the very harbour from whence he had fct 
 out. To procure, examine, and digeft all my 
 brother's papers, took up farther time. Thefq are 
 real caufes of my having delay *d to publifli the 
 fequel of my memoirs, till my arrival in France j 
 having, in the firft volume, printed at Peterjburgby 
 promifed to give a map of what new difcoveries 
 ihould be produced by my brother's voyage, and 
 that of Captain Beerings, 
 
 On my return to Paris^ my firft bufinefs was to 
 put iiv order all the informations I had been able to 
 collcfb, relating on the vaft extent of countries, till 
 then unknown, lying betwixt y^a and America, north- 
 ward of the South-fea ; and, I had the fatisfaftion 
 of feeiDg the map of them, which I prefented to 
 
 the 
 
[57] 
 
 the academy at its publick meeting of the 8th of 
 'dpril^ 1750, received with pleafure. *'* 
 
 The utility of the difcoveries for indicating both 
 a north-eaft and north-weft paflage to the South- fea^ 
 which at prefent is made a point of fuch important 
 concern, has excited a defire that this map was pub- 
 lished, and, llkewife, the memoir relating to it» 
 in which I have given an account of the voyages 
 of the Ruffians y in queft of the courfe to America, 
 and this is what the reader has before him ; I alfo 
 conceived that the curious and intelligent would be 
 agreeably entertained with the circumftantial nar- 
 rative of the difcoveries of Admiral de Fonte "f, 
 fent me from England in manufcript thirteen years 
 ago, and of which I have made ufe for filling up 
 the fpace betwixi the difcoveries of the Ruffians^ 
 and others more recently made in Hudfon* s-bay^ 
 and of the moft northern trafts of America^ thro* 
 which the palTage to the South fea is fought after. 
 
 To this general map I fhall fpeedily add all the 
 particular maps neccffary for illuftrating the defcrip- 
 tions, which at the fame time I propofe to give, of 
 the moft interefting parts of this general map, with 
 a detail of the aftronomical obfervations, and the 
 laft voyages made to thofe countries, which will ex- 
 hibit 
 
 \ Dt Fontt is a Portuguixe name, and equal to Fuente in 
 Spanijh ; but the manufcript, containing this Admiral's narra- 
 tive, Cent me from Lmdon in 1739, and the Engiip> books, which 
 mention him, always having dt FwU, I thought it proper to 
 conform to their orthography. 
 
 % 
 
 i 
 
 i : 
 
 
[ 58 ] 
 
 hibic the moft folid Foundations to the knowledge 
 we now have of whatever Ties northward of 
 Soutb-fea. 
 
 
 With thcfe 1 propofe to begin the publication of 
 all my geographical, aftronomical, and phyfical col. 
 leftions ; and (hall fucccffivcly give new maps of 
 Rujfta, both general and particular, with the necef* 
 iary explanations, and the agronomical obferva- 
 tions on which they are grounded ; whereby it will 
 appear that the maps pubhihcd at Peterjburgh^ tho* 
 conftruded on the memoirs which I had coileded 
 for that purpofe, and though the plan of them, 
 are deficient, both in the juftnefs and accuracy 
 jrhich they ought to have. 
 
 In my memoir, which I read to the academy, 
 it was faid, that having jointly with Mr. Buacbe 
 formed a map, which was wanting to Admiral de 
 Fonte*% narrative, we we re not a little furpriz( at 
 its correfpondence with the Ruffian voyages } and 
 this has inclined me to think the more favourably 
 t>f the truth of the narrative, though it has no^ 
 acquired the degree of authenticity, which, in re- 
 gard to its contents, and the circumftances there 
 related, might be wifhed, elpecially as no Spanijb 
 original has yet been come at. 
 
 The opinion in England concerning this narrar 
 tivc feems to quadrate with mine, fince ElUs-^ in his 
 
 account. 
 
 ai 
 u 
 c 
 t 
 1 
 11 
 t 
 t 
 
dge 
 
 it.W 
 
 (59] 
 
 account, vol. I. p. 98. fays, that there is nothing 
 in Admiral de FonU*% narrative but what is very 
 credible. This it is which determined me to have 
 the Englifi) naanufcript correAly tranflated into 
 French, and to publiih the narrative juft as I received 
 its which poflibly may occalton the Sfanijh original 
 to be brought to light, if any fuch there be, and 
 to verify thefe difcoveries, if frefh attempts fhould 
 be made in thole parts. 
 
 Thefe memoirs fliall be foon fucceeded by my 
 notes and obfervatiOns on Admiral de Fouk's nar- 
 rative, and the manner in which the countries dif« 
 covered by Inm are reprefented in my map. 
 
 
 y, 
 
 
 New 
 
 rAr. 
 
:\^i 
 
 i^m 
 
 >^^/t 
 
 ii 
 
 
 New difcoveries northward of the South- fca, read 
 • at the Royal Jcademy of Sciences^ on tbt %tb of 
 
 April, 1750, by Mr, dc Vliiti member of that 
 
 Academy, 
 
 AMONG the Unknown countries or fcas,' 
 thert* are none, the difcovery of which -are 
 more ufcful, than thofe to the northward of the 
 South' fca. It is npw above two centuries and a 
 haU that the EngUfh and Dutch, for the advantage 
 of their rich commerce to the Eaft- Indies, have 
 been making prodigious efforts in qucft of the 
 (horteli Wdy thither, either north-eaftward, along 
 the nohhcrn coaft of Tartary, or north- weftward, 
 by crofling the ftraits difcovered to northward of 
 North America j but the little progrcfs made in ci- 
 ther of thefe courfes is well know^). It was with 
 extreme difficulty, that the moft daring and expert 
 navigators, among the Englijh and Dutch, could 
 reach a little to the northeaft of NovaZembla; 
 and the laft voyages made to Hudfon's-bay inform 
 us, that the Englijh, who perfilj in maintaining the 
 poffibility of failing into the Soutbfea, through this 
 bay, have not yet been able to hit upon the outlet 
 leading to it ; and could (hey find it, there would 
 be ftill 500 kagiK's to reach the neareft known ex- 
 tremity of the South-Jea, and without any certain 
 knowledge whether this fpace be filled by lands 
 or Teas. 
 
 On the Afiatick fide the diftance betwixt the 
 eaftern coaft of Nova-Zembla, and the moft eaftcra 
 cxtiemityof the Frozen fea, is not lefs than 700 
 leagues, and beyond this near 800 leagues to Ja- 
 pan % 
 
f 
 
 [61] - 
 
 fan I An fine, the unknown northern part of the 
 Soutb-fiSt betwix; Japan and California, is above 
 1200 leagues in extent. What an immenfe fpace 
 is here unknown on our globe, and in a part of 
 fuch great concern ! 1 am now to lay betore the 
 company the difcovery of all the countries and 
 feas contained in it, the knowledge of which I ac- 
 quired during my long (lay in Rvjfta^ and fince my 
 return into France. I (hall not here enter into a 
 detail of all the difpofitions made by. Peter the 
 Great in Rujfia, for a complete geography of his 
 Empire, before my arrival thither. Here it will 
 be fuificient to relate what he particularly fet on foot, 
 for afcertaining the north-eaft limits of Tartary, and 
 reconnoitring whether it were not contiguous to 
 jimericay or very near it. For this expedition he 
 pitch*d upon ^x,BeeringSyZ native of Denmark, and 
 a confummate feaman : it was towards the ciofe of 
 the life of this great Emperor, at the end of jfa- 
 nuary, lyig, that. this officer received his inftruc- 
 tions from him, which, on the 5th of February, 
 eight days after the deceafe of Peter the Great, 
 were in full Senate ratified by thtl^m^vd&Catharine, 
 who thought it incumbent on her to fecond the 
 views of the late Emperor, her illuftrious fpoufe. 
 
 Captain Bearings fpent five years in his expedi- 
 tion, being obliged not only to go with all his men 
 by land to the furtheft eaftward extremity tf AJia ; 
 but likewife, to have carried ihiihcr the far greateft 
 part of the materials for building two veffels, fit 
 for going upon the difcovery with which he had 
 been charged. Mr. Beerings thought he had ful- 
 filled his commiffion, when, after tracing the eaftern 
 coalVof Afia from Kamtfchatka- harbour, to the lati- 
 tude of fixty-feven degrees and one third north eaft, 
 he perceived the fea free towards the north and 
 eaft, and that the coaft winded away north- weft- 
 wards, and had further Iwmed from the inhabi- 
 tants, 
 
 i 'k 
 
 ■ wit/*' 
 
 •■«»#••■ 
 
Cants, that between fiftf and fixty^ )reari i^o^xwH'^ 
 fc\ had arrived ar Kamf/ctafkaf from cte rivef 
 
 This expedition ferved to determine with grtater 
 pundtuality than before, the fituadon and eaoenr of 
 the eaftern coaft of y^tf, from the harbour of 
 Kamtfcbatka, in the latitude df ^6 degrees, to the 
 place whither Captain Btermgi had penetrated. 
 All this officer had fight of in his failing was onlf 
 three finall iflands very near the coafts v but hear^ 
 ing at his return to the harbour of Kamtfilkuka^ 
 that to the eailward there was a country^ which) in 
 calm clear weather was difcemible, after repairing 
 his ihip, which had fuffered by a ftorm, he endea- 
 voured to go rhither •, but was unfortunate in this 
 fecond attempt } for failing ealtward near 40 
 leagues, without perceiving any land, he again met 
 with a violent ftorm at eaft-north>eaft, which being 
 diredlly contrary, drove him back to the harbour 
 from whence he (et outv fince which, he has not 
 thought fit to go a fecond time in queft of this 
 fiippofed country. 
 
 After Mr. Bgerings was returned to Peterjburgb^ 
 he told me with his own mouth what he has omir- 
 ted in his account, vi%. that,, in his voyage along 
 the eaftern coaft of 4fia^ betwixt the laciiudc of 
 50 and 60 degrees, he had all polTible indications 
 of a coaft*, or country,^ eaftward ; thefe are, jj^. 
 That in the offing along thofe coafl:s there was 
 was but litdc depth of water, and the waves law, 
 fuch as are ufual in ftreights, or ann& of the fea, 
 very different from thofe mountainous^ ones which 
 are met with on coafts expofed to a fea of g <:at 
 extent. 2dfyy That he faw broken pines, and othet) 
 trees, driven along the lea by the eafterly wind ; 
 whereas none grow m Kamifcbatkiu 3^, Thac 
 the people of the country informed him^ that an 
 eailerly wind brings tha ice in two or three dbyjs } 
 
 whereas. 
 
wfterets-, the we(!( *hf wind does not bring them 
 from the north'eaft coaft of Jifia under rour or 
 five days. 4/^//, That certain birds come regu- 
 larly from the eall every year in the lame months, 
 and, after continuing fome months on the coaft of 
 AJw^ return eaftward with a lik«: regularity. . 
 
 Captain Beeritigs, and hi" Litutcn^jnt likewifc* 
 took obferrations, at Kamtfchatka^ of two eclipfes 
 of the moon in the years 1728 and 1729, wiiich' 
 helped me ta ftate the longitude of that eaftem 
 extremity of AJia^ with all the prccifion which the 
 nature ot thcfe obfervations made by feamen, and 
 with their own inftruments, would admit of \ but 
 thefe firft determinations have been fmce confirmed 
 by obfervations, on Jupiter^ fatellites, taken in 
 that place with the utmoft accuracy by my brother 
 and iome Ruffians, converfant in thefe kinds of ob- 
 fervations, and who were provided with the beft 
 of inftruments. 
 
 After I had, near twenty years ago. got thefe 
 Brft informations of the longitude of Kamtfihatkat 
 by means of Captain Bcerings's map and journal,, 
 I madf ufe of them in confiru^ing the map now 
 under vicw^, reprefeniing the eaftem extremity 
 of AJta, with the oppofite coaft of North- America^ 
 in order to Ihew at once what ftill remains for dif- 
 c6very between thefe two large parts of the world. 
 This map, in 173 1, I had the honour of prefent- 
 ing to the Emprefs Ann and the Senate, jn order 
 to animate the Ruffians to undertake thefe difcove- 
 ries, ..nd it took efiWt ; this Princcfs ordering a 
 fecond voyage to be made according to the plan 
 which 1 had drawn up for it. 
 
 In this memoir, 1 pointed out three different 
 courfcs to be ftcered, in order to difcovcr what 
 remained unknown. One of thefe courfes was 
 from the fouih of Kamtfckafka, making dire^Iy 
 
 for 
 ■'*■ Sec the note at the end of this memoir. 
 
f*4] 
 
 for Jafm, which was not to be done without 
 cro/Iin^ the land of TeJJh, or rather failing thro*, 
 thepalTages which feparate it from State* %ijland^ 
 and the Companyi'& Land, both difcovered by 
 the Dutch above a hundred years ago. This 
 would lead to a difcovery of what lay north- 
 ward of the land of reffo % the extei.t of which, 
 on that nde, was not yet known, no more than the 
 paffage betwixt that land and the coaft of Eafi^ 
 Tartary, The other courfe was to be dircftly caft- 
 ward from Kamtfchatka, to the coaft of America, 
 north of Calif orma. Lajily, The third view I 
 propofed was to go in queit of thofe countries, of 
 whicli Captain Beerings in his firft voyage had fuch 
 probable indications. 
 
 This expedition having been ordered according 
 to my plan, Mr. Beerings was commiflioned to go 
 to the eaft of Kamtfchatka, in quell of the lands of 
 which in his firft voyage he had the abovementi- 
 oned indications : He fct out in 1 741^ but did not 
 go far ; for meeting with a terrible ilorm in very 
 dark weather, he was unable to keep the fea, and 
 ftruck upon a defert iQand in the latitude of 54, 
 at a fmall diftance from Avatcba harbour, from 
 wliich he had failed. This wa:; the period of the 
 life and voyages c'^ Capt. Beerings^ he dying there 
 through didrel'^ and vexation, together with mod . 
 of his people. The few who furvived returned 
 with great difficulty lo Kamt/cbatka^ in z kind of a 
 long-boat» whicii they had built out of the remains 
 of their fiiip : this place was called Besrings\ IJland^ 
 snd is to be feen in tiie fccond map which I now 
 exhibit, and which rcprefent all the difcoveries 
 \ made fince the finilhing of my firft map. 
 The commander of the ftiip lent on the Japan 
 difcovci-y was one Spanberg^ a german $ !ie failed 
 from Kamtjihaika harbour in 1739, ^^^^ * ^^^^ 
 wind, which in 16 days carried him near twenty 
 
 latitude^ 
 
[ 6? 1 
 
 dettrecs of latitude, fouthward, to betwixt the 36th 
 and 37th degree along feveral iflands -, here he 
 thought himfcif upon the coaft of Japan^ where 
 he is faid to have been well received ; but he land- 
 ed in Japan at betwixt 39 and 40 degrees latitude, 
 which is the northern part of that country. In 
 the profecution of his voyage he went to Matfmey^ 
 the chief and one of the moH: fouthern places of 
 the land of Tejfo ; but 'here Captain Spanlerg did 
 not go alhore. In the fecond map is delineated 
 Captain Spanberg's courfe, from Kamtfcbatka to 
 Japan and Matfmey. 
 
 As to the third and the principal courfe, which 
 was eaftward from Kamtfcbatka to America^ this 
 was committed to Captain Alexis TfcbirkoWy a 
 Ruffian, who had been Captain Beeringt*& Lieute- 
 nant in his firfl voyage, and with him embarked 
 my brother, Artronomer to this academy, both to 
 afilft him in the reckoning of the (hip*s way, and di- 
 reftion of the courfe, and to make exadl aftro- 
 nomical obfervations in the places where they 
 might land. They fet fail on the 15th of Jufse 
 1/4 1 new ftyle, from a harbour of Kamtfcbatka^ 
 called Avatcba, or Port St. Peter and St. Paul ; 
 the latitude of which my brother had, from ob- 
 fervation, fettled at 53 degrees, i minute, and its 
 diftnnce from the meridian of Paris has, by Jupi- 
 ter's Satellites, been found to be above i ^6 de- 
 grees. 
 
 On the 26th of July, after 41 days failing, in 
 the track marked on the fecond map, they fell in 
 with a country in the latitude of 55 degrees 36 
 minutes, which they took for the coall; of Ameri-^ 
 ca. They had failed near 62 degrees in longitude, 
 and conlequently were at 280 degrees caft diftance 
 from the meridian q{ Paris. Cape Blanco^ the furt»»eft 
 extremity of California, to the north and welt, is 
 in the latitude of 43 degrees, and 232 from the 
 
 F meridian 
 
(66 ) 
 
 meridian of Pams, fo that Captain Tfchirikow and 
 my brother were come within 14 degrees weft, and 
 12 and half north, of California, whither none 
 before them has been known to reach. 
 
 Captain 1'fchirikow having, as I have faid, got 
 fight of this land on the 26th of July, continued 
 cackiog off and on above a week, endeavouring 
 to get nearer to the coaft i but finding this im- 
 pradicable with his fliip, any nearer than a league's 
 diftancc, he determined to fend a boat with 10 
 men and a mate well armed ; but upon their 
 landing, the people on board loft fight of them, 
 and they have never been heard of fince, though 
 Captain Tfchirikow kept cruizing along the coafc 
 all the month of ^uguft^ in expedation of 
 them, till the ftormy feafon coming on, and 
 their being no probability of their return, he 
 thought it advifable to fail back to Avatcha. In 
 his return he had fight for feveral days of ihofe 
 very diftant countries which 1 have marked on my 
 map *. 
 
 , After a confiderable progrefs in their return, on 
 the 20th of September they came near a mountain- 
 ous coaft, very full of grafs, but in which they 
 could perceive no trees \ the rocks under the water 
 and along the (hore would not allow them to land, 
 but coming into a bay, they there faw fome in- 
 habitants, feveral of whom came to them, every 
 one being fingly in a canoe, not unlike thofe of 
 the Greenlanders or the Efquimaux, however 
 there was no underftanding a word of what thefc 
 
 people 
 
 * At the time of reading the preceding memoir, I had exhibited 
 to publick View two large munutcript maps, which are thofe 
 mentioned in his difcoveries, one being a copy o\ ihe map 
 which 1 had drawn at Pettnburgb, 1731, on Captain Bitrings'i 
 foiit voyage, and had the honour of prc('enting to the Emprefs 
 jtt,B and the Senate, wi(h a uianufcript memoir, explaining its 
 ttle and coailroAion. 
 
 iike 
 
 . AE^iMfliA^.n 
 
(67) 
 
 people faid. The latitude of this place appeared from 
 obfcBvations to be 51 degrees and a half, and its dif- 
 ference of longitude, from the harbour oi Avatcha^ 
 whither they returned, was near 1 2 degrees. Dur- 
 ing this voyage of Captain Tfcbirikow and my 
 brother, the greateft part of the fhip*s company 
 had been carried off by the fcurvy, and fo far were 
 they themfelves from having efcaped it, that my 
 unfortunate brother, after 13 days illnefs, dyed of it 
 on the 2 2d of O^ober, in the arms of the failors 
 and foldiers, who were helping him into the boat 
 to carry him afhore, and in fight of that harbour, 
 from which he had fet out on his expedition, 
 about 4 months before. Captain Tfcbirikow, though 
 far gone in that fatal difeafe, together with a few 
 of his men, being able to be carried afhore, reco- 
 vered. Such was the iffue of the lafl: voyage of 
 the Ruffians y for finding out the way to Ame- 
 rica. 
 
 On the coaft of the Eajlernfea, over-againft 
 Kamf/cbaika, is a place called Okhota, oi* Okbotjkoy- 
 OJirogi in the latitude of 59 degrees, and 22 mi- 
 nutes, and near 141 degrees of longitude diftanc 
 from the meridian of Paris. This is the place for 
 taking (hipping for Kamtjchatka and the neighbour- 
 ing countries •, and Mr. Beerings having here left 
 the (hip in which he had made his firft voyage, 
 feme Ruffians ventured to put to fea with it, in 
 1 73 1, (leering the fame courfe as Mr. Beerings had 
 done two years before, but with better fuccefs than 
 him, having carried the difcovery of a way to Ame- 
 rica farther than he, for reaching the point whither 
 Captain Beerings had gone in his firft voyage, and 
 which had been his ne plus ultra, they ftood di- 
 reftly eaftward, where they met with an ifland, 
 and afterwards a large country, which they had not 
 been long in fight of, before a man in a little fkift, 
 iike thofc of the Creenlaniicrs, came up to them. 
 
 F 2 They 
 
 ** 
 
If 
 
 { 68 > . 
 
 They were ▼ery dcfir ous of knowing what country 
 it was he belonged to-, but all they could gather from 
 him was, that he lived in a very large continent, 
 which abounded in furs. The Ruffians traced the 
 coaft of this continent two days in a fouth direc- 
 tion, without being able to land, when they met 
 with fuch a dorm as obliged them to bear 
 away for the coaft of Kamtfcbatka^ returning after- 
 wards to the place from whence they had fee out. 
 
 To thefe difcovcries of the Ruffians northward 
 of the South fea, 1 might add thofe which in the 
 courfc of eight years they have made on the coaft: 
 of the Frozen fedy from Archangel to the t\vcr Ko- 
 vima : hut they not having been farther, 1 have 
 only marked on my fecond map the fiiuation of 
 the coads of the Fro-zenfea, as far as the river 
 Kovima, according to their obfervations, and the 
 remainder of the coaft from the bcft conjedlures 
 1 could form from the courfe which other RuJ/i- 
 iins had formerly ftecrcd along the coaft as far as 
 Kaffttfchatka -, and likewife a large country difco- 
 vered in 1723, to the northward of the Frozen- 
 fta^ at 75 degrees latitude. 
 
 When, as I have faid, I was bufied In Ruffta in 
 the inveftigation of thofe northern countries, it 
 was my happinefs to be informed of the difcove- 
 i'ies of Admiral de Fcn/e, in the Soutbfea^ in his 
 fearch after a north- weft paffage, and that by a 
 manufcripc extraft of the voyage of that Admiral. 
 Judging that I could not rightly ufe it, belui e I 
 was acquainted with my brother's courfe, in order 
 •o compare them, I delayed it till my return into 
 France^ where I have had the advantage of Mr. 
 Buacie's lights, who has formed a map iwm Ad- 
 miral de Fonte*& narrative : that having none, wc 
 have compared it with my brother's courfe, and the 
 other informations which J got in Ruffia^ and 
 found a furprizing conformity betwixt them. 
 
 Admiral 
 
 »»•**»•—■ 
 
 t»f 
 
)untry 
 from 
 tincnt, 
 ed the 
 dircc- 
 ey met 
 bear 
 ; aficr- 
 out. 
 ihward 
 in the 
 coaft 
 ver Ko- 
 I have 
 ition of 
 he river 
 and the 
 njedlures 
 Rujft- 
 far as 
 ry difco- 
 Irozen- 
 
 Rujfia in 
 mtrits, it 
 
 difcove- 
 f/7, in his 
 :hat by a 
 Admiral. 
 
 beluie I 
 
 in order 
 eturn into 
 ;e of Mr. 
 from Ad- 
 none, we 
 r, and the 
 uffiat and 
 lem. 
 
 Admiral 
 
 ( 69 ) 
 
 Admiral BartheUmi de Fonte was at that time 
 Admiral of New Spain^ and afterwards Prince of 
 Cbiliy £s?f . He relates that the court of Spaifty hav- 
 ing been informed of the Voyages of the Englijh 
 into Hudfon* s-bay^ to Bnd out a paflage to the 
 north- weft, he had received orders from the 
 King of Spain^ and iikewife from the Viceroys of 
 New Spain and Peru^ to go on the fame fearch 
 through the South- fea with 4 Men of War j which 
 accordingly put to Sea from the Calao of Lima^ 
 Aprii 3, 1649 » ^^^^ '^^^'' i^f^^^jot on the coaftof 
 Mexico^ they farther provided themfcivcs with 
 four long- boats, built expredy for iaiiing, &r. 
 that having reached Cape-bianco (the then fup- 
 pofcd extremity of California) he failed 456 
 leagues in a north-well diredion, till he arrived 
 at a river which he called Rio de los Reyes^ i. e. 
 King*s river ; that in 260 leagues ot this paflage 
 they had met with feveral ftreights, which ferpen- 
 tizing, formed a clufter of idands, to which 
 Admiral ds Fonte gave the name of St. Lazarus* s 
 Archipelago. 1 o avoid prolixity, I at preiijnt pals 
 over the detail of the Admiral's narrative, the 
 great lakes, idands and rivers, difcovered in this 
 voyage, and to which he gave names, they 
 being fufiiciently reprefented on the map, which 
 I now offer to the academy. I (hail only ob- 
 ferve that this Admiral, ancl the Captains of the 
 (hips under him, having feparated, and fteering 
 different courfes, in order at the fame time to difcover 
 the more countries, they might have carried their 
 (hips into fome of the va(t lakes marked on the 
 map } and that the Admiral himfelf, having with 
 his failing-boats penetrated to one of the lakes 
 contiguous to the Bay of Baffins^ the CataraSs 
 not permitting his (hips to come hither, 
 he there met with an Englijb (hip from Bcjion, 
 i^c, Laftlyy that he had carried lw« difcoveries 
 
 F 3 both 
 
(7°) 
 
 both by i'ea and land beyond the 8oth degree, 
 where he found mountains of ice of a flupcnde- 
 ous height. 
 
 The lands and feas difcovered by Admiral de 
 Fonte fill up, as may be ieen, the whole fpace 
 which, after all the fearchesof the/L«^<7«j, remained 
 vacant for further difcoveries, and terminate at the 
 furtheli known lands of North America, both to- 
 wards Hudfon and Baffins-bays, to the weft of Ca- 
 nada, and the north ot New Mexico and California^ 
 which throws fo great a light on the difcovery of 
 a north-weft palTage to the South-fea, that I 
 thought myfelt obliged to communicate them to 
 the lociety, till I lay before it the grounds on 
 which this map is formed, the detail of which 
 mull be referved for our private meetings. 
 
 Yet I cannot forbear fubjoining here a phyfical 
 corollary, deducible from thefe difcoveries, relat- 
 ing to the ftrufture of our globe, at leaft as to 
 its liitface, by which Mr. Buache, who, from his 
 accurate knowledge of the ftrudure of all the 
 other parts o^ the known world, had cbnjeilurcd 
 that Jfta muft be joined northward to America, 
 by a chain of mountains and ihallow feas, has 
 had the pleafure to fee his opinion confirmed 
 by the difcoveries of which I have here given a 
 fuccindt relation. 
 
 The fecond manufcript map which I laid before 
 the academy, was in all refpcdls like the former, 
 only with the advantage of the new difcoveries 
 made fince 1731 being added to it by Mr. Buacbe, 
 from memoirs which 1 had communicated to him, 
 and that, as I noticed in my difcourfe, he had 
 formed that part of this map which was wanting 
 in Admiral de Fonte\ narrative. 
 
 Befides thefe, Mr.. Buache had alfo made ano- 
 ther Imall manulcript map, which was a reduftion 
 of the large map laft mcnuoncd. This fmall 
 
 map 
 
 l»^)^l fC » •***■; 
 
I 71] 
 
 map I prefented to the prefident of the academy^ 
 whilfl my memoir was reading •, and Mr. Buacbe 
 and 1 have fmcc very willingly (hewn it to all who 
 have the improvement of geography fo much at 
 heart, as to defire a particular fight of it. 
 
 But tlii<: reduced map not being in a condition to 
 be '.'ngiaven, as wanting a more particular exhibition 
 of AJa and America^ I delayed publifliing it till I 
 haiJ !cvifcd thefe two eflential points. This en- 
 ga^icil tne in frcfli difquifitions, efpccially with 
 relation to America^ in the molt interefting places 
 for France \ but by application I accomplilheci it, 
 and have been enabled to furnifli Mr. Buacbe with 
 new defigns, which he has caufed to be engraved, 
 as may be feen in the map I now publifh. This I 
 thought a jufl: regard for the publick obliged me 
 to fay, in excut'c for the delay in publifliing this map, 
 and to fliew the occafion of the difference betwixc 
 the former and the prefent dcfigns, and, likcwife, 
 to inform the publick of the fliare Mr. Buacbe 
 had in the compofition of this map. 
 
 F* 
 
 J" 
 
m 
 
 in 
 
 A letter by Admiral Barthelemi de Fontf , then Ad- 
 miral of New-Spain and Peru, at prejent Prince 
 of Chili, in which he gives an account of the mojt 
 important articles of bis journal, from the Caliao 
 of Lima to Peru, and of his expedition for dif- 
 covering whether there be any paffage from the 
 
 north-weft of the Atlantic- Ocean to the South- 
 Sea, and that of Great Tartar y. *IranJlated from 
 the SpaniHi. 
 
 TH E Viceroys of l^ew Spain and Peru hav- 
 ing received advice from the court of Spain, 
 that the feveral attempts of the Englifb, both in 
 the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James, 
 and, hkewife, thofe by Captain Hudfon and Capt. 
 James, in the 2d, 3d, and 4th years of K. Charles, 
 had been again renewed, in the 14th of the fame 
 Prince, being the year 1639, by fome (kilful na- 
 vigators of Boflon in Ntw England ; I Admiral 
 de Fonte received orders from Spain, and the above 
 mentioned Viceroys, to fit out four men of war, 
 with which we put to fea from f he Caliao of Lima, 
 on the 3d of April, 16 40 5 I Adm\ra\ Barthelemi 
 de Fonte, in the "^ Holy Gh$ft\ Vice- Admiral Don 
 Diego Penelojfa, in the St Lucia \ Pedro Bernardo, 
 in the Rofary ; and Philip de Ronquillo, in the King 
 Philip. 
 
 On the 7th of Aprils at five in the evening, we 
 arrived off St. Helena^ which is 200 leagues north 
 of Guyaquil-bc^, and in two degrees fouth-latitude, 
 where we anchored within the cape j and here every 
 
 (hip 
 
[ 73 ] 
 fhip provided itfelf with a large quantity of a bitu- 
 -men commonly called tar, of a dark colour, with 
 a greeniih tinge, as an excellent remedy againft 
 the fcurvy and dropfy. It is alfo ufed in paying 
 fliips bottomi, but we cook it aboard as a medica- 
 ment I it oozes out of the earth, and in thefe parts 
 is found in great abundance. 
 
 On the loth of Jpril we pafled the equinoftial, 
 within fight of Cape del PaJJao, and on the 1 1 th 
 got beyond that of St. Francis^ at i degree, 7 mi- 
 nutes, north-latitude ; we anchored at the mouth 
 of St. J ago river, and 80 leagues, N. N. W. and 
 25 £. by £. where calling our nets, we took a 
 large quantity of very palatable fifh. A party of 
 each fhip's company alfo went afhore, where they 
 killed fome wild goats and hogs, of which they faw 
 great numbers ; and befides, bought of the inhabi- 
 tants, turkey cocks and hens, ducks, and moH: deli* 
 cious fruits. This marketing was at a village two 
 Spanijh leagues, or fix miles and a half, on the left- 
 hand, from the mouth of the river St. JagOy which 
 with fmall veiTels is navigable to the diftance of 
 14 Spanijh leagues, about fouth-ead from the fea, 
 and almoft half way to the large and opulent city 
 of ^iitOy which is in 22 minutes fouth-latitude. 
 
 On the 1 6th of April we failed from the river 
 St. JagOf for the harbour of Realejo, 320 leagues, 
 north- weft by weft, in about 11 degrees, 14 mi- 
 nutes, north- latitude, leaving St, Michael* s- hill on 
 our left, and Cape Cafamina on our right. This 
 is a very fafe harbour, being fheltercd towards the 
 fea by the iflands of Ampallo and Mangreza, and by 
 three other iflands, all well peopled and cultivated, 
 Realejo is the place in New Spain where the large 
 fhips are built : it is but four miles by land from 
 the lake Nicaragua ^ which difcharges itfelf into the 
 North-feat near the ifland del Grano, i. e, of Corn^ 
 or de la Per las ^ i, e. 0/ Pearls, The neighbour- 
 hood 
 
 i 
 
 4 
 
/ 
 _ t 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 i' 
 
 [74] 
 
 hood of Realejo abounds in hard wood, rcddilh ce- 
 dar, and all kinds of fhip timber. Here we took 
 the opportunity of buying four boats, of about 
 twelve toris, and thirty-two feet in the keel, prime 
 faiior"', being built for failing and rowing. 
 
 On the i6th of Jpnl we Tailed from Realejo for 
 Saragua, or rather Sahigua^ paffing among the itles 
 and tiats of Chamilli^ by which name alfo this 
 harbour is often called by the Spaniards. It lies 
 in 1 7 degrees, 31 minutes, north- latitude, and 580 
 leagues north weft and by weft from Realejo. At 
 Salagua, and another town, called Compojiella^ near 
 the former, we entered a mailer of a bark and his 
 fix men, who followed the pearl trade with the na- 
 tives of California^ and thefe catch them on a bank, 
 at 19 degrees, north-latitude, beyond that of St. 
 John*Sy which lies in 24. I'his pearl fifhery bears 
 20 leagues north- north-eaft from Cape Si. Luke, 
 which is the fouth eaftermoft part of California. 
 
 The mafter inforn eu Jmiral de honte, that 200 
 leagues to the norrhjvard oi Cape St. Luke^ a flood 
 from the north met the fouth flood, and that he 
 firmly believed California to be an ifland. Upon 
 which, Bon Diego Penelofja (nephew to Don 
 Loitis de Haroy chict miniftcr in Spain) a young 
 nobleman of very extraordinary knowledge in 
 cofmography, and not leis fkill in all the parts of 
 navigation, undertook to difcover whether Cali" 
 fornia was an ifland or not, which before was an 
 undetermined point, or rather, it was held to be a 
 peninfuia. Befides his own fliip, he had with him 
 th" four failing- boats, which had been bought 
 at Realejo^ and the pearl- dealers, who came on 
 board of us at Salagua. 
 
 Admiral de Fonte left them to profecute this defign 
 on the loth of May^ 1640, failing within the .Hands 
 of Cbamilliy and after coming up with Cape SabU, 
 on the weft-fouth-weft co^H of California, and in 
 
 20 de- 
 
cc- 
 
 took 
 ibouc 
 irime 
 
 for 
 ides 
 this 
 
 lies 
 580 
 
 At 
 near 
 
 his 
 
 [75] 
 
 20 degrees north latitude, and 160 leagues north, 
 and by weft from Chamilli iflands, a frcfh and 
 fettled gale fprung up at fouth-lbuth-eaft, which, 
 from the 26th of May, to the 14th of Jme^ 
 carried him to Lays Reyes river, in the latitude of 
 53 degrees, without having oaaHon to take ia 
 his top fails, in a north-north-weft courfe of 866 
 leagues together, near 410 from Port -fable to 
 Cape Blat.ro, and 456 from thence to Kio de los 
 Reys i the weather Jikewife was fine during the 
 whole paflage •, and near 260 leagues of it he Tailed in 
 the winding ftreights, formed by the iflands of St. 
 Lazarus* s Archipelago, (as it was named by Admi- 
 ral de Fonte) from its being difcovered on the fefti- 
 val of that Saint ; by his boats rowing a mile a 
 head, to found the depth of water, ana obfcrve 
 the rocks and (hallows. 
 
 On the 2 2d of June Admiral de Fonte fent an 
 Officer to Captain Pedro Bernardo, with orders for 
 him to liiil up a fine river, very deep, and of an 
 eafy current. He entered it (leering northward, after- 
 wards north-weft by north, and afterwards, as the 
 river winded, north-weft, which brought him into a 
 lake with a multitude of iflands in it, and a large 
 and populous peninfula, the inhabitants of which he 
 found to be of^ a very humane and amiable difpofi- 
 tion. To this lake he gave the appellation of Velafco^ 
 in honour of a nobleman of that name, who was 
 his patron : all along he had 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 fa- 
 thom water } both the rivers and lakes afforded 
 plenty of excellent faimon, and trouts, and white 
 perches, fome of which were two feet long. Here 
 Captain Bernardo leaving his (hip, took three 
 Indian pinnaces, which in their tongue are called 
 Periaguas, made of two large trees, and betwixt 
 50 and 60 feet in length •, with ihefe he failed up 
 the lake, firft 1 40 leagues to the weft ward, and 
 
 afterwards 
 
 ^ i 
 
1 76] 
 
 afterwards 436 eaft-north-cafl-, up to 77 degrees 
 northern latitude. 
 
 After Admiral de Fonte had difpatched Cap- 
 tain Bernardo on difcovcrics to the north atid 
 eaft of the fea of Tartary^ he himfelf failed up a 
 very fpacious and navigable river, which, from its 
 fightlincfs, he called Rio de los reyes, the channel at 
 firil bearing almoft north-eall, hut in 60 leagues 
 its dirc6tion frequently altered. At low water he 
 alighted upon a navigable channel, four or five 
 fathom deep ; at the fpring tides the water of both 
 rivers is nearly of an equal depth, that of Los 
 reys, at new and full moon, is two feet and half; 
 a fouth-fouth-eaft moon brings on the flood, in 
 de Han? river, where the water at the fame time 
 of the moon rifes to 22 feet and an half; they had 
 with them two Jefuits, who in their miflfions had 
 been as far as the 66ih degree of northern latitude, 
 and had made very curious obfervations -, one of 
 thcfe venerable perfons attended Captain Bernardo 
 in his difcovt-ries. 
 
 Admiral de Fonte received a letter from Captain 
 Bernardo, dated the 27th of June^ 1640, with ad- 
 vice, t! at havi?ig left his lliip in Velafco lake, be- 
 twixc the ifland of Bernardo and Canibajfet peninfu- 
 la, he was falling down a river which iflued from 
 that lake, and after a courfe of 80 leagues, in 
 ■which are three catarafls, it runs into the fea of 
 Tartary^ at 6 1 degrees i that he was accompanied 
 by a very pious and learned jefuit mifTionary, and 
 had with him 36 Indians^ in three of their periaguas, 
 and 20 Spanijh failors ; that the coaft (Iretched 
 away to the north- eaft ; that they were in no dan- 
 ger of wanting provifions, the rivers offering them 
 plenty of fifh, and the country of venifon and 
 game of feveral kinds ; befides a good (lore of 
 bread, fait, oil and brandy, which they had 
 brought along with them, and that no endeavours 
 
 of 
 
 d***"" 
 
f 
 
 n 
 
 
 gucs 
 he 
 five 
 x)th 
 Los 
 
 C 77 ] 
 
 oF his (hould be wanting to accompllfli the difco- 
 vcry. The Admiral was now arrived at an Indi- 
 an town named Conajfet, on the fouth coa(l of the 
 lake BelUt when he received this letter from Cap- 
 tain Bernardo. This is a very delightful place, 
 and the two jefuit miflionaries had continued here 
 two years of their miflion, to the great benefit of 
 the inhabitants. The Admiral entered this lake 
 with his two fliipi on the 2 2d of 7«»tf, an hour 
 before high water, in betwixt four or five fathom 
 water \ there was then no fall or catara<S, and 
 the general depth of lake Belle is fix or feven 
 fathom •, there is a little water- fall till half flood, 
 and "half an hour before high water the flood begins 
 flowly to fet into Belle lake •, the river water is 
 frclh at Jrena harbour, being 20 leagues from the 
 mouth of the river de los Reyes. 
 
 This river and the lake abound in falmon, 
 crouts, pikes, mullets and two other kinds of fifli 
 peculiar to thefe places, which are very large, and 
 fine diting. Admiral de Fonte affirms the mullets 
 of the river de los Reyes to exceed thofc of any 
 other part of the world. 
 
 On the ift of Jufyf 1640, Admiral de Fonfe 
 leaving his (hips in Belle lake in Conajfel harbour, 
 which was in every refpeft very convenient, being 
 within a fine ifland, failed up a river to which he 
 gave the name of Parmentiers^ in honour of Par- 
 mentiers, one of his fellow - adventurers, a per- 
 fon of Angular merit, and who had drawn up an 
 accurate defcription of this river and its neigh- 
 bourhood. We have pafled (it is ftill the Admiral 
 who fpeaks) eight catar.^dls, which in all made 32 
 feet of perpendicular height, from the fource of the 
 river to its ifllie into lake Belle. The river runs into 
 a large lake •, I hope it will not be imputed to me 
 as any great vanity, that I called it lake de Forties 
 where we arrived the 6th of July •, it is in length from 
 eaft-north-caft to weft-north- weft, 160 leagues, its 
 
 depth 
 
I 
 
 [ 78 ]• 
 
 depth is generally from 20 to ^o fathom, and in 
 fonie places even 60 j no place has finer cod and 
 ling, nor in greater plenty : in this lake are 
 feveral large idands, and 10 fmaller, which are fo 
 many thickets, being covered with Ihrubs and 
 trees •, but what is more furprizing, the mofs grows 
 to the height of 6 or 7 feet, and is in winter the 
 chief fuftenance of the deer, of which there is 
 great numbers, and particularly of an animal cal- 
 led Maofe» of which I cannot give a better idea, 
 than by faying it is a kind of very large flag ; 
 they alfo produce cherries, flraw berries, black- 
 berries and goofeberries, flore of wild fowl, fuch 
 as woodcocks, partridges, i^c. and fea-fowl, efpe- 
 cially towards the fouth. In this lake is a large 
 iiland well peopled, and b. fides its fertility, is of 
 great advantuije, being noted for the excellency 
 of its timbiT, as oak, afh and elm, and chiefly 
 firs, which are of an uncommon height and 
 bignefs. 
 
 On the i4th of July we failed from the^eafl- 
 north-eafl point of the lake de Fome^ and palled 
 a lake which I named Ejirecho de Rofiqutllo, i. e. 
 Ronquilh Sir eights^ as to 34 leagues in length, 
 it was but 2 or 3 in breadth •, its depth was beyond 
 what we expedted, being 20, 23, and 26 fathom. 
 We had the good fortune to be drove through this 
 flreight by a frefli gale within 10 hours, and in 
 the time of a flood ; the farther we went eaftward, 
 the country fenfibly altered for the worfe, as 13 
 feen in North and South America, from the 36th 
 degree of latitude to the northern and fouthcrn 
 extremities i the weltern part is preferable not 
 only in fertility, but alfo for the temperature of the 
 air, being at leafl warmer by 10 degrees here than 
 farther to t!ie eaft : this alfo was the obfcTvation 
 made by the mofl: judicious Spanijh navigators, in 
 the times of the emperors Charles the 5th and Philip 
 
 the 
 
■i 
 
 in 
 land 
 
 are 
 
 te fo 
 
 and 
 
 lows 
 
 the 
 re is 
 leal* 
 lea. 
 
 L79:\ 
 
 the 2d, as may be feen in Shares, Acojla^ and 
 Mariana^ i^c. 
 
 On the 17th of July we came to an Indian 
 town, the inhabitants of which told Mr. Parmen- 
 tiers, that at a fmall diftance from us there was a 
 large Ihip, in a place where no fuch thing had ever 
 been feen before •, upon which, we inftantly made 
 the befl: of our way for this (hip i but when we 
 came to her, we found in her only a man pretty 
 well ir; years, who was the Captain, and another 
 in the prime of his youth, the owner and crew 
 being gone a trading. 
 
 In the mechanical parts of the mathematicks I 
 never have met with the mafter*s equal ; my fecond 
 mate and my gunner were Engliftm^n, and thorough 
 feamen; they had both been vwxac prifoncrs at 
 Campeacby, as likewife had been the Captain's ion ; 
 they reported to me that the fliip came from Bof- 
 tofi, the chief town of New England. 
 
 On the 30th of July the owner of the (hip and 
 alt the (hlp*s company came on board of me : the 
 Captain of the Ihip, whofe name was Shapely^ in- 
 forming me, that the owner of his (hip was a very 
 worthy man, and major-general of MaltecbufetJ, 
 the greatcft colony in all New England. I heated 
 him as a pcrfon to whom Ibme regard was due ; 
 fignifying to him, that though my orders were to 
 make prize of all whom I (hould meet with, com- 
 ing in fcarch of a north-weft or weft paflage into 
 the South fea^ I was willing to look upon them 
 only as merchants trading with the natives, for (kins 
 and furrs i and he, as an acknowledgement of 
 this indulgence, made me a prefent of provifions, 
 doubtlefs on a fuppofition that I wanted them i 
 which gr.;Litude I returned with a diamond ring, 
 but it was with great difiiculty I could prevail on 
 this gentleman to accept of it. Captain Shapely 
 having many valuable char:s and journals j and iln- 
 
 lible 
 
 
 
 1 
 
1 1 
 
 [ 80 ] 
 
 Hblc their fliip and liberty were in my power, 
 made me an oTer of them. They were an agreea- 
 ble prefcnt, I own •, but I infifted on my giving 
 him 1000 peices of eight, as an equivalent. I 
 likewife pfefented General Stymour Gibbons with a 
 quarter cafk of the beft Peru wine, and gave 20 
 pieces of eight to each of his ten men, who Teemed 
 choice fellows ; and fo all terminated to our mu- 
 Cual fatisfadion. 
 
 On the 6th of Jugujt we left the EngUJhy and 
 on the nth, after failing 86 leagues, a fair wind 
 and the current brought us to the firft cataraft of 
 Parmentiers river ; and on the i6th 1 had the fatis- 
 fa(5lion to be again with my fliips, which I had 
 left at Conajfety on the fouth coafl of Be/le lake, 
 and to find all well. The people of Conajfet had 
 behaved exceeding well 10 our people, and Captain 
 Ronquillo had not been wanting in fuitable returns, 
 and kept his men in excellent difcipline. 
 
 On the 20th of Augujl an Indian brought me a 
 letter from Captain Berncrdo^ of the 1 ith of yiu- 
 gufiy informing me, that he was returned from his 
 nuithern expedition, and could afTure me, that 
 iht'ie was no communication from the SpaniJI) or 
 yy//<i«//V ocean, through Davis*s Streights, the na- 
 tives of the country having carried one of his 
 iailors up to the bottom of that ftreight, where he 
 faw it terminate in afrefh water lake, 30 miles in 
 tirtumttrtncc, and in the 80th degree of nortli 
 latitude \ that towards the north were prodigious 
 nu-untaiis, and to the north- weft of the Jake, 
 malTcs of ice an hundred fathom high, which may 
 have bten formed there ever fince the creation of the 
 world i men with all their pride and conceit having 
 but an imperfect knowledge of the works of God, 
 efpecially towards the poles •, adding, that from 
 hajjei itUnU he had failed north-calT, ealt- north- 
 calf, and north- cult and by cafl, up to the 79th 
 
 degree 
 
 t f 
 
reca- 
 living 
 
 It.! 
 
 [ich a 
 
 fe 20 
 :nied 
 mu- 
 
 and 
 wind 
 iftof 
 
 fatis- 
 had 
 
 lake, 
 t had 
 iptain 
 ;urns, 
 
 [81] 
 
 degree of latitude, where he obferved the land to 
 be covered with piles of ice, and to extend itfelf 
 cowards the north. Afterwards, a fecond letter 
 came from Captain Bernardo^ dated from Menbau- 
 fitt acquainting me, that on the 29th of Auguft he 
 arrived at Arena^ having iailed 20 leagues up the 
 river de let ReySt where he waits my orders 1 
 Captain Ronquillo having, purfuant to my direfti- 
 ons, falted up a large quantity of fifli and venifon, 
 and got aboard 100 tons of maize, or India corn, I 
 weighed from Conafpt the id of September t 16409 
 bringing away feveral of the country people, who 
 had dcSred to enter on board our ihips, and on 
 the 5th of the iame month I anchored betwixt 
 Porto dela Arena and Menbaufet^ in hs Riys river | 
 afterwards returning down this river, I found my- 
 felf in the north-eaft part of the Souibfta^ from 
 whence providence brought us fafely to the port 
 where we had fet out on this difcovery, having 
 found that there is no fuch thing as a north-welt 
 psriTage into the Soutb-fea. 
 
 The whole will more clearly appear in the map. 
 
 tbt end of Admiral de Fonte's letter. 
 
 
 •»< 
 
 EtctmSl 
 
% 
 
 Extras from the regifter of the Royal Jcademy of 
 Sciences i of the ipb of j^nuaiyt 1751. 
 
 BY order of the academy, we have examined 
 three pieces, which Mr. de rJJle propofcs to 
 publifh under the Company's privilege, with his 
 new map of the dilcovcries to the north and weft 
 of Jmerica. 
 
 «^ The firrt of ihefc pieces is a memoir, wiiich Mr. 
 de rijle has read at a publick meeting of the aca- 
 demy, fetting forth the difcoveries made by the 
 Ruffians to the north and eaft of TaNary, and the 
 north and weft of America. 
 
 The fecond is a narrative of the voyage of Ad- 
 miral de Fueiite, made in 1640, by order of the 
 court of Spaint for difcovering the communication 
 of the South-fea with the ocean through tlie north 
 oi America, This is a tranilationof an Erglifh manu 
 fcript, and its contents would be of very great iinr«. 
 porta n-.c, could its authenticity be made out. 
 
 Tiic third piece is an advertifement, in which 
 Mr. de rifU gives notice of his defign to publifti 
 general and particular maps of Rufta, together 
 with the aftronomical obfervations on which they 
 arc grounded ; and which he propofcs to render 
 more exact and complcat, than ihofc lately publiftied 
 
 io 
 
 
[83] 
 in Rufia \ although formed upon a plan which he 
 himfelf had laid down, and from memoirs which 
 he hitnfelf had collcftcd at Peterjhurgb. 
 
 All thcfc fcveral particulars appear to us of fuch 
 concern to the publick, that we think the memoirs 
 on them defcrve to be printed. 
 
 Signed^ 
 
 Mar/ldi de Monticny. 
 
 I certify this cxtraft to be agreeable to its ori- 
 ginal, and to the judgment of the academy. 
 
 Crandjean de Pouchy, Secret. Perpt. de TAcad. 
 Royale des Sciences 
 
 p 1 N I s. 
 
BOOKS vnnted for A. Li»db, BooldcHer to 
 Her Royal Hkhaeis the Princdb Dowagper of 
 WAifESy in Catharine- ScrfcCt a^th? 3(nuid. 
 
 . .L. CI -^'ivA-iXi fi:*i:u: :: > 
 
 I. A Candid Narrative of the Rift and Pragicft of the 
 
 jf\ Hcrrahnien, commenljr caU*4 Moramtii t OTa Unitai 
 
 Fratnim. The Second Edition. By Hca^ Rimiui. Price ii. 6d. 
 
 z. A Pjihool Letter aj^ainft Faaatidfini By W. John Stinftft. 
 TraBflatedfroartheDatc^i. By Henry Rimiut. Price it. 
 
 '^y kTifpt and AfldKntic Ac^unt of Atdnm Frey; eon- 
 taining ttie Occafion of his coming among the Hermhuten, Sec. 
 his Obrenratioa of their CgnfetMces^ eding Lots* lytawagas* 
 &c. and the Reaf&n for which he left them ; together wUj^ Ux 
 Motifcs for pubtiihiog his Acconnt. Price u. 
 
 4. The Sool'i Efpoufal, or Union withjeiiia CkM|. By Mr. 
 Edward Pearce. Price is. 6d. bound. 
 
 {. An Accoant of a New Zoophyte, or Animal Plant, from 
 Greenland. In a Letter to Dr. Haller. ByC. Milius. Pr.la. 
 
 6. A Compleat German Grammar, in two Parts: The firft 
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 fandameniaUy, in a Ihort Time, the Knowiedjl^and Ufe, both 
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 Letter», and feme Moral Pieces, in Prafe and Veric : Together 
 with an ample Vocabulary in Alphabetical Order. By John 
 fiachmaire, M. A. Price 4 s. 
 
 7. Neue Englifche Grammatike, in fich hakend eine getreoe, 
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 M. A. Price 3 s. 6d. 
 
to 
 of 
 
 the 
 litM 
 
 6a. 
 
 an. 
 
 con- 
 
 Mr. 
 
 from 
 
 ifirk 
 iiring 
 
 both 
 econd 
 
 Ex- 
 it »re 
 trmaii 
 cethcr 
 
 John 
 
 itreae» 
 Coneer 
 egate 
 licMa 
 :b<fne 
 iWor- 
 hmair«