Journey of the sloop Good Intent to explore the Asiatic and American shores of Bering Strait, 1819 to 1822. Part one

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boat. In the meantime, the savages, following our route, also approached the end of the sandspit and sat down in a semicircle from one side of the shore to the other, putting all their weapons on the ground behind them. Lieutenant Lazarev, who was wearing high hunting boots, forded from the boat, but we crossed in the baidar. When the lieutenant stepped ashore, a chief rose from the circle and greeted him with a long speech, of which our Aleuts and Kadiak Islanders understood nothing. Then, exactly the same way as on St. Lawrence Island, he spit on the palms of his hands, not touching them to his face, but leading them through the air. The Indians seemingly rejoiced at our arrival and constantly shouted in chorus, "toki! toki!" The trading started at once. They did not at all want tobacco and knickknacks highly valued by other peoples at all, but asked only for knives, hatchets, needles, scissors, cast-iron kettles, and especially gunpowder and lead. But seeing that they could not obtain them, they stopped asking, and were satisfied with the above articles for which they gave their weapons, clothing, and marten, otter, bear, and fox furs; but generally, priced them very high.

Meanwhile, our sailors put up tents, made a fire, and started to cook dinner, and we, in company of the chief to whom we explained our intentions through sign language, went toward the ice mountains, where it was necessary to walk the length of the sandspit past the settlement. It consisted of a hundred and one conical tents of a rather neat finish,

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but we were unable to see inside because the chief blocked such an attempt by putting himself, with a long unsheathed knife that he pulled out from under the back of his parka and over his head, between us and the yurts. Seeing that, we did not insist further, and stepping away to the edge of the beach, we continued our trip, which pleased him very much. Having come to within about 20 sazhens of the moumtains, the chief, with an apprehensive look, wanted to detain us from further walking, but seeing our determination, he remained on the spot and let us continue by ourselves.

These mountains begin where the sandspit ends. They stand back from the shore about three or more sazhens. This expanse consists of sandy oozy ground, which results from the melting ice forming constant small streams. The exterior side of the ice cliffs rises vertically 20 or more feet, and when the sun's rays reflect from this wall as from a polished surface, one must avert one's eyes, so blinding is the glare. The flat top of this ice mass slopes gradually toward the interior of the land and is covered with a layer of earth about two feet thick as tested with the bore. This layer is overgrown with moss and other northern bog plants. The continual rotting of these grasses creates a pungent swampy odor. Having satisfied our curiosity, we hurried back to the tents, again accompanied by the chief, and by women who joined us at this time, and whom we had not seen at first.

This tribe calls itself Tatui, and to the question,

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"Where did they come from?" they pointed to the southeast [Buckland River]. there were about 300 persons of both sexes. They are tall, well built, with pleasant faces, and they could have been called a very good looking people if their features had not reflected some kind of savage ferocity. Both men and women wear their hair braided in two braids down the sides. The former adorn themselves with cufflinks [labrets] from walrus bone put through openings pierced at both sides of the mouth. The latter paint their eyes at the top and the bottom, joining these circles with a dark blue line across the nose and chin of a dark blue color. The rich ones wear crowns and necklaces of large blue glass beads. Men and women dress, according to their wealth, in marten or deer parkas and seal trousers and boots. ⁵

Having finished dinner, we began to prepare for the trip. Although the wind still blew rather strongly from the W, we hoped to maneuver with the ebb tide, and especially hastened to leave because we noticed that the Indians, entirely unarmed before with the exception of their long knives behind their shoulders, not having received the desired powder and lead, started to gather in crowds completely armed, and to provoke our people. Putting everything into the longboat, we pushed off, and rowing to the deep, set sail and began to tack. But this did not last long. Toward evening, the wind began to grow stronger and developed such heavy seas that every wave got into the longboat. It started to get dark, but we, knowing the direction, held our course and preferred to get drenched

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rather than return to shore where unfriendly action from the Indians undoubtedly awaited us. Suddenly, there came a terrible squall and broke both masts. To row out against the wind and the surf was impossible. We did not know any other place to go ashore and could not search in the dark. There remained for us no other way but to return to shore. Our situation was critical because our firearms were wet. It was necessary first to put them back into proper order, and after that, decided to go ashore again. For this reason, we anchored [grapnel], and having finished this job, went again to shore.

The Indians [Eskimos] seeing that, dashed to the landing place, shouting, and seemingly wanted to prevent us from landing. We did not pay attention to them, and only waved our handkerchiefs and shouted "Toki! "Toki!" They quieted down and let us come ashore and pitch our tents. Then the captain ordered us to present the rest of the trade goods to the chief and the principal warriors who were easily distinguishable because of the respect paid to them by the rest of the crowd. We asked them to withdraw to their settlement and to leave us alone. All was in vain. They thronged near the tents, shouting "Toki!" Toki!" and even started to pilfer various things from the sailors, among other things, a cover from a large copper kettle and a long kitchen knife. Probably we would not have been able to get rid of them the whole night, and God knows how it would have ended, if Mr. Petrov, our senior pilot, had not thought of taking advantage of their superstitions to get

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rid of them. He took the boat hook from the longboat and drew a deep line in the sand from one bank of the sandspit to the other, ⁶ mumbling something in a low voice, and spitting from time to time in the direction of our tents, near which the Indians stood. As soon as they saw this maneuver, they hastily dashed across the line and ran toward the settlement. Only then, putting guards with loaded muskets and one falconet on the line, were we able to give ourselves a much-needed rest, however, without undressing despite the fact that we were all soaked through. The night was very cold, and we waited impatiently for morning, especially when we saw that the wind started to abate after midnght. Finally, despite the wetness and the cold, and exhausted by the exertions and anxieties of the day, we fell asleep toward morning; but our rest was not long.

At dawn, the shouts of the guards woke us up, informing us that armed savages were breaking across the line. Immediately, with all possible speed, we removed everything to the longboat, while those not busy with that task tried to hold them back in a friendly manner. We found the last things that we did not need, and used them for trade, but this had unfortunate consequences. One of our sailors, giving an Indian his folding knife for four or five marten furs, wanted to cut off the counted ones from the other, unpurchased skins, but was so careless that he severely cut the finger of the Indian holding the furs. The savage glared at him, retreated