On the 1st of August the entrance into a
broad inlet was discovered, into which the current ran very rapidly. The
opening of this inlet was known before, and is indeed laid down in the
charts attached to Marchand's Voyage round the World; but Kotzebue is
certainly the first person who explained it. As it was perfectly calm when
he reached this inlet, he resolved to go on shore, and examine from some
eminence the direction of the coast. "We landed," he observes, "without
difficulty, near a hill, which I immediately ascended; from the summit I
could no where perceive land in the strait: the high mountains to the north
either formed islands, or were a coast by themselves; for that the two
coasts could not be connected together was evident, even from the very
great difference between this very low and that remarkably high land. It
was my intention to continue the survey of the coast in the boats, but a
number of baydares coming to us along the coast from the east, withheld
me." He afterwards had an interview with the Americans who came in these
baydares: he found that they prized tobacco very highly, and that they
received this and other European goods from the natives of the opposite
coast of Asia. It was probably the first time in their lives that these
Americans had seen Europeans. They were of the middle size; robust and
healthy; ugly and dirty; with small eyes, and very high cheek bones: "they
bore holes on each side of their mouths, in which they wear morse bones,
ornamented with blue glass beads, which give them a most frightful
appearance.
Pages:
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752