GENERAL ACCOUNT OF KAMTSCHATKA CONTINUED.—OF THE INHABITANTS.—ORIGIN OF THE KAMTSCHADALES.—DISCOVERED BY THE RUSSIANS.—ABSTRACT OF THEIR HISTORY.—NUMBERS.—PRESENT STATE.—OF THE RUSSIAN COMMERCE IN KAMTSCHATKA.—OF THE KAMTSCHADALE HABITATIONS AND DRESS.—OF THE KURILE ISLANDS.—THE KOREKI.—THE TSCHUTSKI. The present inhabitants of Kamtschatka are of three sorts. The natives, or Kamtschadales; the Russians and Cossacks; and a mixture of these two by marriage. Mr. Steller, who resided some time in this country, and seems to have taken great pains to gain information on this subject, is persuaded, that the true Kamtschadales are a people of great antiquity, and have for many ages inhabited this peninsula; and that they are originally descended from the Mungalians, and not either from the Tongusian Tartars, as some, or the Japanese, as others, have imagined. The principal arguments, by which he supports these opinions, are; that there exists not among them the trace of a tradition of their having migrated from any other country; that they believe themselves to have been created and placed in this very spot by their god Koutkou; that they are the most favoured of his creatures; the most fortunate and happy of beings; and that their country is superior to all others, affording means of gratification far beyond what are any where else to be met with; that they have a perfect knowledge of all the plants of the country, their virtues and uses, which could not be acquired in a short time; that their instruments and household utensils differ greatly from those of any other nation, and are made with an extraordinary degree of neatness and dexterity, which implies that they are both of their own invention, and have been long in arriving at so great perfection; that antecedently to the arrival of the Russians and Cossacks among them, they had not the smallest knowledge of any people except the Koreki; that it is but of late they had an intercourse with the Kuriles, and still later (and happened by means of a vessel being shipwrecked on their coast) that they knew any thing of the Japanese; and, lastly, that the country was very populous, at the time the Russians first got footing in it.