[Sidenote: Narrative of Deshneff's voyage round Tschukotskoi-Noss.] "In 1648 seven kotches or vessels sailed from the mouth or the river Kovyma[170], in order to penetrate into the Eastern Ocean. Of these, four were never more heard of: the remaining three were commanded by Simon Deshneff, Gerasim Ankudinoff, two chiefs of the Cossacs, and Fedot Alexeeff, the head of the Promyshlenics. Deshneff and Ankudinoff quarrelled before their departure: this dispute was owing to the jealousy of Deshneff, who was unwilling that Ankudinoff should share with him the honour, as well as the profits, which might result from the expected discoveries. Each vessel was probably manned with about thirty persons; Ankudinoff's, we certainly know, carried that number. Deshneff promised before-hand a tribute of seven fables, to be exacted from the inhabitants on the banks of Anadyr; so sanguine were his hopes of reaching that river. This indeed he finally effected; but not so soon, nor with so little difficulty, as he had presumed.
[Footnote 170: Mr. Muller calls it Kolyma.]
On the 20th of June, 1648, the three vessels sailed upon this remarkable expedition from the river Kovyma. Considering the little knowledge we have of the extreme regions of Asia, it is much to be regretted, that all the incidents of this voyage are not circumstantially related. Deshneff[171], in an account of his expedition sent to Yakutsk, seems only as it were accidentally to mention his adventures by sea: he takes no notice of any occurrence until he reached the great promontory of the Tschutski; no obstructions from the ice are mentioned, and probably there were none; for he observes upon another occasion, that the sea is not every year so free from ice as it was at this time. He commences his narrative with a description of the great promontory: "It is," says he, "very different from that which is situated West of the Kovyma, near the river Tschukotskia. It lies between North and North East, and bends, in a circular direction, towards the Anadyr. It is distinguished on the Russian (namely, the Western) side, by a rivulet which falls into the sea, close to which the Tschutski have raised a pile, like a tower, with the bones of whales. Opposite the promontory, (it is not said on which side), are two islands, on which he observed people of the nation of the Tschutski, who had pieces of the sea-horse tooth thrust into holes made in their lips. With a good wind it is possible to sail from this promontory to the Anadyr in three days; and the journey by land may be performed in the same space of time, because the Anadyr falls into a bay." Ankudinoff's kotche was wrecked on this promontory, and the crew was distributed on board the two remaining vessels. On the 20th of September Deshneff and Fedot Alexeef went on shore, and had a skirmish with the Tschutski, in which Alexeef was wounded. The two vessels soon afterwards lost sight of each other, and never again rejoined. Deshneff was driven about by tempestuous winds until October, when he was shipwrecked (as it appears from circumstances), considerably to the South of the Anadyr, not far from the river Olutora. What became of Fedot Alexeff and his crew will be mentioned hereafter. Deshneff and his companions, who amounted to twenty-five persons, now sought for the Anadyr; but being entirely unacquainted with the country, ten weeks elapsed before they reached its banks at a small distance from its mouth: here he found neither wood nor inhabitants, &c.