NORTh AMERICAN INDIANS.



ter where it hhd never been approached.



They shaped



their course towards the east; and thouo'h a storm soon
separated the vessels, which never rejoined, and many
disasters befell them, the expectations from the voyage
were not altogether frustrated. Each of the command-
ers discovered land, which to them appeared to be part
of the American continent; and according to their ob-
servation, it seemded to be situated within a few degrees of
the north-west coast of California. Each set some of his



I



                          a~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
people ashore; but in one place the inhabitants fled as
the Russians approached; in another, they carried off
those who landed, and destroyed their boats. The vio-
lence of the weather. and the distress of their crews, obli-



       ---_ _ ___-  j - - .
ged both captains to quit,
return- they touched at se
a chain from east to we
they had discovered and



this inhospitable coa
veral islands which
fist between the cou
the coast of Asia.



ust. In their
stretched in
ntry whlich
They had



some intere
to resemble
the Russian
symbol of fr
America, at
them.



ourse with the natives, who seemed to them
the North Americans. They presented to
is the calumet, or pipe of peace, which is a
iendship universal among the people of North
id a usage of arbitrary institution peculiar to



  "Aogain, in the year 1768 discoveries in that quarter
were resumed, which not only confirmed the Russian
government in the belief that America was not far re-
moved from tim north eastern parts of Asia, bizt discover-
ed various islands interspersed in those straits, which
would inevitably tend to facilitate an intercourse be-
tween the inhabitants of the old and new 'world.
  " Thus the possibility of a coniammunication between the
continents in this quarter rests no longer upon mere con-
jecture, but is established by undoubted evidence. Some
tribe, or some families of *4mdering Tartars, from the
restless spirit peculiar to their race, rniaht miarate to the
nearest islands, and, rude as their knnwTedge of naviga-
tion was, might, by passing from one to the other, reach



27



309



I