Though the quelling the rebellion of 1731 was attended with the loss of a great number of inhabitants, yet I was informed, that the country had recovered itself, and was become more populous than ever, when, in the year 1767, the small-pox, brought by a soldier from Okotsk, broke out among them for the first time, marking its progress with ravages not less dreadful than the plague, and seeming to threaten their entire extirpation. They compute, that near twenty thousand died of this disorder in Kamtschatka, the Koreki country, and the Kurile Islands. The inhabitants of whole villages were swept away. Of this we had sufficient proofs before our eyes. There are no less than eight _ostrogs_ scattered about the bay of Awatska, all which, we were informed, had been fully inhabited, but are now entirely desolate, except Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and even that contains no more than seven Kamtschadales, who are tributary. At Paratounca _ostrog_ there are but thirty-six native inhabitants, men, women, and children, which, before it was visited by the small-pox, we were told, contained three hundred and sixty. In our road to Bolcheretsk, we passed four extensive _ostrogs_, with not an inhabitant in them. In the present diminished state of the natives, with fresh supplies of Russians and Cossacks perpetually pouring in, and who intermix with them by marriage, it is probable that in less than half a century there will be very few of them left. By Major Behm’s account, there are not now more than three thousand who pay tribute, the Kurile islanders included. I understood that there are at this time, of the military, in the five forts of Nichnei, Verchnei, Tigil, Bolcheretsk, and Saint Peter and Saint Paul, about four hundred Russians and Cossacks, and near the same number at Ingiga, which, though to the north of the peninsula, is, I learned, at present under the commander of Kamtschatka. To these may be added the Russian traders and emigrants, whose numbers are not very considerable. The Russian government established over this country is mild and equitable, considered as a military one, in a very high degree. The natives are permitted to choose their own magistrates from among themselves, in the way and with the same powers they had ever been used. One of these, under the title of _Toion_, presides over each _ostrog_; is the referee in all differences; imposes fines, and inflicts punishments for all crimes and misdemeanors; referring to the governor of Kamtschatka such only as he does not choose, from their intricacy or heinousness, to decide upon himself. The _Toion_ has likewise the appointment of a civil officer, called a corporal, who assists him in the execution of his office, and in his absence acts as his deputy.