[Footnote 5:  See the little that is known of Synd’s voyage, accompanied with a chart, in Mr Coxe’s Russian Discoveries, p. 300.—­D.]

[Footnote 6:  This may be considered as a very decisive testimony to the truth of the character given of him in Mr Coxe’s publication.  We are indebted to the same work for ample evidence in proof of the following remarks of Captain Cook—­E.]

On the 14th, in the evening, while Mr Webber and I were at a village at a small distance from Samganoodha, a Russian landed there, who, I found, was the principal person amongst his countrymen in this and the neighbouring islands.  His name was Erasim Gregorioff Sin Ismyloff.  He arrived in a canoe carrying three persons, attended by twenty or thirty other canoes, each conducted by one man.  I took notice, that the first thing they did after landing, was to make a small tent for Ismyloff, of materials which they brought with them, and then they made others for themselves, of their canoes and paddles, which they covered with grass; so that the people of the village were at no trouble to find them lodging.  Ismyloff having invited us into his tent, set before us some dried salmon and berries, which, I was satisfied, was the best cheer he had.  He appeared to be a sensible intelligent man; and I felt no small mortification in not being able to converse with him, unless by signs, assisted by figures and other characters, which however were a very great help.  I desired to see him on board the next day; and accordingly he came, with all his attendants.  Indeed, he had moved into our neighbourhood, for the express purpose of waiting upon us.

I was in hopes to have had by him, the chart which his three countrymen had promised, but I was disappointed.  However, he assured me I should have it; and he kept his word.  I found that he was very well acquainted with the geography of these parts, and with all the discoveries that had been made in them by the Russians.  On seeing the modern maps, he at once pointed out their errors.  He told me, he had accompanied Lieutenant Syndo, or Synd as he called him, in his expedition to the north; and, according to his account, they did not proceed farther than the Tschukotskoi Noss, or rather than the bay of St Laurence, for he pointed on our chart to the very place where I landed.  From thence, he said, they went to an island in latitude 63 deg., upon which they did not land, nor could he tell me its name.  But I should guess it to be the same to which I gave the name of Clerke’s Island.  To what place Synd went after that, or in what manner he spent the two years, during which, as Ismyloff said, his researches lasted, he either could not or would not inform us.  Perhaps he did not comprehend our enquiries about this; and yet, in almost every other thing, we could make him understand us.  This created a suspicion, that he had not really been in that expedition, notwithstanding his assertion.