During some years the possession of Kamtchatka brought very little advantage to the crown, excepting the small tribute of furs exacted from the inhabitants. The Russians indeed occasionally hunted in that Peninsula foxes, wolves, ermines, sables, and other animals, whose valuable skins form an extensive article of commerce among the Eastern nations. But the fur trade carried on from thence was inconsiderable; until the Russians discovered the islands situated between Asia and America, in a series of voyages, the journals of which will be exhibited in the subsequent translation. Since these discoveries, the variety of rich furs, which are procured from those Islands, has greatly encreased the trade of Kamtchatka, and rendered it a very important branch of the Russian commerce.
The Peninsula of Kamtchatka lies between 51 and 62 degrees of North latitude, and 173 and 182 of longitude from the Isle of Fero. It is bounded on the East and South by the Sea of Kamtchatka, on the West by the Seas of Ochotsk and Penshinsk, and on the North by the country of the Koriacs.
[Sidenote: Present State of Kamtchatka.] It is divided into four districts, Bolcheresk, Tigilskaia Krepost, Verchnei or Upper Kamtchatkoi Ostrog, and Nishnei or Lower Kamtchatkoi Ostrog. [Sidenote: Government] The government is vested in the chancery of Bolcheresk, which depends upon and is subject to the inspection of the chancery of Ochotsk. The whole Russian force stationed in the Peninsula consists of no more than three hundred men[6].
[Footnote 6: Journal of St. Petersburg for April 1777.]
[Sidenote: Population.] The present population of Kamtchatka is very small, amounting to scarce four thousand souls. Formerly the inhabitants were more numerous, but in 1768, that country was greatly depopulated by the ravages of the small-pox, by which disorder five thousand three hundred and sixty-eight persons were carried off. There are now only seven hundred and six males in the whole Peninsula who are tributary, and an hundred and fourteen in the Kuril Isles, which are subject to Russia.
[Sidenote: Tribute.] The fixed annual tribute consists in 279 sables, 464 red foxes, 50 sea-otters with a dam, and 38 cub sea-otters. All furs exported from Kamtchatka pay a duty of 10 per cent. to the crown; the tenth of the cargoes brought from the new discovered islands is also delivered into the customs.