[Illustration: Route of _M de Lesseps_ Consul of France, _in the PENINSULA of_ KAMTSCHATKA, _and along the GULF of PENGINA, from the_ Port of S^t. Peter & S^t. Paul _as far as_ Yamsk.] TRAVELS IN KAMTSCHATKA, DURING THE YEARS 1787 AND 1788. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF M. DE LESSEPS, CONSUL OF FRANCE, AND INTERPRETER TO THE COUNT DE LA PEROUSE, NOW ENGAGED IN A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY COMMAND OF HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOLUME I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. 1790. PREFACE. My work is merely a journal of my travels. Why should I take any steps to prepossess the judgment of my reader? Shall I not have more claim to his indulgence when I have assured him, that it was not originally my intention to write a book? Will not my account be the more interesting, when it is known, that my sole inducement to employ my pen was the necessity I found of filling up my leisure moments, and that my vanity extended no farther than to give my friends a faithful journal of the difficulties I had to encounter, and the observations I made on my road? It is evident I wrote by intervals, negligently or with care, as circumstances permitted, or as the impressions made by the objects around me were more or less forcible. Conscious of my own inexperience, I thought it a duty I owed myself to let slip no opportunity of acquiring information, as if I had foreseen, that I should be called to account for the time I had spent, and the knowledge which I had it in my power to obtain: but perhaps the scrupulous exactness to which I confined myself, entailed on my narration a want of elegance and variety. The events which relate personally to myself are so connected with the subject of my remarks, that I have taken no care to suppress them. I may therefore, not undeservedly, be reproached with having spoken too much of myself: but this is the prevailing sin of travellers of my age. Besides this, I am ready to accuse myself of frequent repetitions, which would have been avoided by a more experienced pen. On certain subjects, particularly in respect of travels, it is scarcely possible to avoid an uniformity of style. To paint the same objects, we must employ the same colours; hence similar expressions are continually recurring. With respect to the pronunciation of the Russian, Kamtschadale, and other foreign words, I shall observe, that all the letters are to be articulated distinctly. I have thought it adviseable, even in the vocabulary, to reject those consonants, the confused assemblage of which discourages the reader, and is not always necessary, The _kh_ is to be pronounced as the _ch_ of the Germans, or the _j_ of the Spaniards, and the _ch_ as in the French. The finals _oi_ and _in_, are to be pronounced, the former as an improper diphthong (_oï_) and the latter in the English, not in the French manner.