I shall here conclude this article, since all we can say of this people, on our own knowledge, hath been laid before the reader in the preceding volume.

[78] It is proper to remark, that Atlassoff sent an advanced party, under
    the command of a subaltern, called Lucas Moloskoff, who certainly
    penetrated into Kamtschatka, and returned with an account of his
    success before Atlassoff set out, and is therefore not unjustly
    mentioned as the discoverer of Kamtschatka.

[79] This river empties itself into the Jenesei.

[80] Captain Krusenstern informs us, that the people in Kamtschatska, and
    more especially the Kamtschadales, are decreasing in number very
    rapidly, and from different causes.  They are subject to several
    epidemic complaints; one of which, he says, carried off upwards of
    five thousand persons in the years 1800 and 1801.  But the principal
    causes of depopulation, which, if not speedily removed, threaten the
    total extinction of the inhabitants, are not dependent on the
    severity, or even any peculiar maladies of the climate.  It is to the
    excessive use of spirits, and an extraordinary disproportion in the
    number of females, that this serious evil is to be chiefly imputed. 
    The great moral defect in the character of the native Kamtschadale, is
    his propensity to drunkenness; in which, it will readily be believed,
    he finds companions amongst his neighbours; and in which, still more
    unfortunately, he is absolutely encouraged, for the most fraudulent
    purposes, by the petty agents of the American Company, and the other
    merchants in Kamtschatka.  Nothing can be more infamous than what is
    related by Krusenstern on this subject.  Let the following description
    suffice.  It is applied by K. indeed to a state of matters which
    formerly existed without controul, but which the government, he would
    have us believe, has lately endeavoured to destroy.  How far this
    interference has availed, or is likely to avail, may be conjectured,
    though not without some very painful emotions, from the circumstance
    admitted by K. himself, that there are few Kamtschadales remaining on
    whom its benefits can operate; and the opinion he has also given, that
    before many years have elapsed, these few will perhaps have entirely
    disappeared.  “With no other wares,” says this candid man, “than a
    large quantity of very bad gin, the merchants travelled about the
    country to procure furs.  As soon as one of them arrived in an ostrog,
    he treated his host with a glass of spirits.  The Kamtschadales are all
    so unfortunately attached to strong liquors, that it is absolutely
    impossible for them to resist the pleasure of getting intoxicated.  As
    soon as he has drank a glass of gin, which he receives for nothing, he