308 Account of the Discoveries of Columbus. afterwards he made the continent of Paria, now called New Andalufia, which, however, he then thought to be an island; but having failed 40 leagues farther, and feeing the land still extend to the weftward, he was convinced that it was the Continent. Having spent fore days on this coast, and having difcovered Margarita, and feveral other iflands, he fet fail for Hifpaniola, and arrived Aagu 30 at St Domingo, a town which his brother Bartholomew, his lieutenat, had built in his abfente on the South fide of the i. A was informed of the death of his great patronels, Q. Ifabella. This was the greatest misfortune that could have befallen him, the being the perfon that had always most favoured him; and in confequence of it, to the perpetual difgrace of that king and kingdom, this great man's complaints were fo much neglected, and his fervices fo forgotten, that he died of a broken heart at Valladolid, May 20, 1506. The king, however, buried him magnifiBently in the cathedral of Seville, and His erected a tomb to him, with this infcription, COLUMBUS hath given a new world to Caftile and Leon. body was afterwards conveyed to the city of St Domingo in Hifpaniola, where it was interred in the Chancel of the cathedral. He left his fon James his fole heir, and died before he knew C whether Cuba was an ifland. The de- / fcription and character given of him by Antonio de Herreirn (who wrote the History of America) are as follows: fland, and fo named in memory of COLUMBUS was tall of stature, long vifaged, of a majestic aspect, his nofe hooked, his eyes grey, of a Dclear complexion, fomewhat ruddy; his beard and hair, when young, fair, tho' thro' many hardships they foon turned grey. He was witty ' and pleasant, well fpoken and ele" gant, moderately grave, affable to trangers, mild to his own family. His conversation was discreet, which gained him the affection of those with whom he dealt; and his prefence commanded refpect, having an air of authority and grandeur. He was always temperate in eating and drinking, and modeft in his dress. He was well killed in aftronomy, expert in navigation, understood Latin, and made verfes. As to religion, he was very zealous and devout, kept the fafts of the church very ftrictly, abhorred fwearing and blafphemy, was very thankful to God for the mercies he received; 、 was zealous for God's honour, and very defirous of the conversion of the Indians. In other refpects, he was a man of an undaunted courage and high thoughts, fond of great enterprizes, patient, ready to forgive wrongs, and only defirous that offenders fhould be fenfible of their faults; unmoved in the many trouHbles and adverfities that attended him, ever relying on the divine providence. In fhort, had he performed fuch a wonderful enterprize In ancient times as the difcovery of the • new new world, it is probable that he would not only have had ftatues and even temples erected to his honour, but that fome conftellation would have been dedicated to him, as was ⚫ done to Hercules and Boschus; and among us his name will be renowned whilt the world endures.' A An Account of KAMTSCHATKA, and its Kainfula which is the boundary of Afia to the N. E. and itretches from N. to S. about 7 degrees 30 minutes. It begins at two rivers, one called Pufaia, the other Anapho, lying in 59 deg. 30 min. N. latitude: At this place the ifthmus is fo narrow, that from the hills in the middle, the fea may be feen on each fide in fair weather. It runs fouth to latitude 51 d. 30 m. and is broader in the middle than at either extremity, so that its figure is eliptical, and is divided thro' its whole length from N. to S. by a ridge of mountains. But this whole country, comprehended under the general name of Kamtfchatka, is inhabited by nations that speak different languages, who have a different name for each district. It has been known, by name, to the geographers of former times, but they have hitherto been fo ignorant of its fituation, that they believed it to be joined to Yeffo, or Jeffo, tho' it is now known that there is a large fea interfperfed, with many i. flands between them. head of this rivulet there are wells of boiling water, and a steam issues from fifures in the neighbouring moun tains with great force, and 10-hot that the hand cannot bear it. Between the fouthern extremity of Kam fihatka and Japan, there are many iflands, called the Kurilfki, fome of which are fubject to dreadful earthquakes and inundations. The inhabitants of the fix fouthermoft are called by the Japanese, Jafo. The inhabitants of two of these i. flands, called Uturpu, and Urupe, make fluffs of nettles, which they barter with the Japanese for filks, cottons, and iron utenfils: Thefe fix islands that lie nearest to Japan abound with trees of various kinds, among which are lemons, bamboe, Spanish canes or Creeds, and poisonous herbs, the roots of which are as yellow as faffron, and as thick as rhubarb, and were fold by the natives to the inhabitants of the northern Kurilfki, who used to poison their arrows with the juice. Vines alfo grow in these fouthern iflands, and they abound with pine, larch, and fir, but are in want of good water: D They alfo fwarm with wild beasts, particularly bears, the fkins of which are ufed for cloathing in cold weather; the inhabitants in common wear long filk garments, like the Chinese; have long beards, are execrably nafty, and live on fish and whale's fat. Their bedding is of wild goat's fkins; they acknowledge no fovereign, have the ufe of fire arms, and the fouthernmost iland, called Matma, is fortified with cannon. The Japanese vifit these iflands every year, in small craft, bringing iron ware, brazen pots, lacquer'd waiters and bowls, tobacco, and-filk and cotton ftuffs. This country abounds with rivers, but only two are navigable, the Kamtfebatka and the Bolfchaia reka, called F by the natives Kerkba. South of the Kamtschatka, and between that river and another called Awatka, there are feveral volcanoes, the chief of which is near a small river, called Shopanova; this mountain has long fmoked, and fometimes it rumbles, but has not yet flamed. Not far distant is a narrow valley,_called the Camel's Throat, which paffes between high and steep mountains, from whence the fnow frequently falls in valt quantities, on the flighteft concuffion of the air; fo that it is made criminal for travellers to fpeak while they pass thro' it. A little fouth of this is a bay, called Nutrenoi, furrounded by rocky mountains, an near it a rivulet, called Shenmeck; about the The fea which divides Kamtfchatka from America is full of islands, and between the cape in Kamtschatka, called Tfchukotskoi Nofs †, and the coast of America, that lies Eaft over-against it, the distance is not more than two deG grees and an half of a great circle. There is indeed great reafon to fuppofe, that Afia and America once joined at this place, efpecially as the coafts of both continents appear to have been broken into capes & bays which anfwer each other: The peopling AHmerica, therefore, upon a fuppofition that the Mofaic account of the crea • Uturpu is not named in the map given to illuftrate this work. No fuch place is to be found in the map. 310 Defcription of Kamtfchatka, and its Inhabitants. tion is true, appears to be no longer a mystery, whether it was originally joined to Afa or not. this author tells us, in the fame page, that they are hard yellow rocks, and that they confift of one hard blue stone, It is faid, that earthquakes are frequent here. There are three other iflands of the fame kind near it, conA fitting chiefly of high craggy rocks. The inhabitants of this part of America refemble thofe of Kamifchatka, in their perfons, habits, customs, and food; both wear breeches and trowfers of the skins of feals, dyed with alder, and hats of grafs, in the shape of umbrellas, dyed green and red, and adorned before with falcon's feathers; both prepare a plant, called the sweet berb, in the fame manner; both eat the dried bark of the poplar and pine trees; and both adorn themselves by making holes in their faces, in which they put bones and pebbles: Their language indeed does not appear to be the fame; but then the inhabitants of every diftrict in Kamtfchatka speak a language as different from each other, as from that spoken on the oppofite C coaft. B It is farther obfervable, that the boats used by the inhabitants of both coafts are alfo the fame, though they are of a very remarkable construction. They are about twelve feet long, and two broad, fharp at the head and ftern, and flat at the bottom; they confit of poles joined at both ends, and kept apart in the middle by a tranfverfe piece of wood; this fkeleton is covered with feal skin dyed of a cherry colour; the feat is in the middle, and when the navigator is in it, he draws the fkin that covers his boat E clofe round his body, and ties it with leather thongs, which draw it together like a purfe: Thefe boats being thus fecured by a deck, which is as it were incorporated with the boat-man, bear the rougheft fea, yet are fo light that they may be carried with one hand. Thefe particulars amount to little lefs than demonstration, that America was peopled from this part of Afia. The natives of this part of America are wholly ftrangers to wine and tobacco, which is a proof that they have as yet had no communication with the natives of Europe. Oppofite to the mouth of the river Kamtfchatka, at about 2 degrees diftance, lies Bering's ifland; it confifts of one rocky ridge, running north & fouth, divided by many vallies; the highest mountains here, and in Kamtfchatka, are not more than two Verfis* perpendicular: As to their fubftance, A Verf is to our mile as 1166 to 1760, about two thirds; fo that three verfts is about two miles. The foil of Kamtfchatka, about the banks of the river of that name, is deep and rich, and in fome late trials has produced both barley and oats: As to garden-ftuff, the moft fucculent plants produce only leaves and stalks ; cabbage and lettuce never come to perfection, and peas continue in bloffom till late in the harveft, without yielding fo much as a pod; but fucculent roots, fuch as turnips & rhaddifhes, thrive well. The grafs runs up near fix feet high, and grows fo falt, that it is fometimes mowed thrice in a fummer; the cattle therefore are large and fat, and give plenty of milk all the year: This part of the county is alfo well furnished with wood; but all the reft, particularly the coast on each fide, is fandy, ftony, or boggy. Below the earth, lies a bed of pure ice extreamly hard, and under that D a foft watry clay with grave Eight months of the year are harveft and winter; the spring and fummer not being more than four; the trees begin to bud about the end of June, and lofe their leaves in Auguft. The now lies till the end of May, and the fummer itself is not only rainy but cold; the mornings are foggy, and fometimes the fun does not appear for a fort night together; the rain is fmall and drizling, and the thunder and lightning when they have any, fcarce perceptible; In liarveft, the weather is more agreeable and clear, except that, about the end of September, it is frequently formy; the rivers are frozen at the beginning of Novvember, and during that month, and the two fol lowing months, the wind generally blows with fuch violence from the S. E. that a man cannot stand upon his feet; thefe winds bring a great quantitity of ice upon the bays, in the S. E. part of the peninfula, and a great number of fea beavers, this therefore is the feafon for catching those animals. F G H The force of the fun reflected from the fnow in the fpring, is fo great that the inhabitants are as tawny as Indiani, and frequently blinded by it. One of the Rufians fent to examine the country, faye, that he entirely freed him; felf from the pain and inflammation of his eyes, proceeding from this caufe, by rubbing fome camphire and fugar on a pewter plate till it frothed, and then tying it in a hankerchief, and binding it on his forehead. A B C The greatest advantages of this country are plenty of fur and fish; the greatest difadvantages the want of iron and falt. The author, fays, that a common ax cofts two rubles, and a pound of falt four. † Upon this occa. fion, it may be of fome ufe to remark, that tranflators fhould always reduce weights, meafures, and coins to the ftandard of the country into the language of which they tranflate; travellers alfo fhould do the fame, for want of this, half the tranflations and books" of travels extant, are unintelligible in many interefting particulars. The oriental traveller, tells us, that one place is fo many hours diftant from another; that he went to the Bezefteen travelled in a cadgeway, and put up at a carevanfary. The tranflator of this book, tells us the diftance of place from place by Verfts, and the price of commodities by Rubles, without explaining the word Verft, till the 75th page of his book, and without explaining Ruble at all. The French are D not equally guilty of this fault, and their attention and our negligence, appear often in the fame fentence, for in our tranflations of French accounts of foreign countries, we are frequently told that fuch a commodity is fold for fo many Rubles or Abouquet, which is fo many Livres; whereas, for the fame reafon that the French author reduced the Rubles or Abouquet to Livres; our tranflator should have reduced the livres to pounds, fhillings and pence. There are feveral hot fprings in Kamtfchatka, in which Farenheit's thermometer, ftood from 74 to 188, at ą time, when in the open air it stood at 49, feveral of thefe fprings throw up their waters in a jet, a foot or a foot & an half high, with a great noife; there are two wells in a bottom, furrounded by fmoaking hills, one of them is 35 feet wide and 11 feet deep, the other 21 feet wide and 7 feet deep, in which the water boils up with white bubbles, and makes fo much noise, that one perfon cannot hear another fpeak, though the yoice be raised con fiderable above the common tone; the vapour is fo thick, that a man cannot be seen at 16 yards distance, and the earth between the wells yields like a A Ruble is about 4s ad. bog, fo that there is danger of linking in, the water is diftinguished from that of other springs, by a black subftance like Indian ink fwimming on the top of it, which sticks fo to the fingers that it cannot without great difficulty be washed off, the water of all thefe fprings is turbed and smells like rotten eggs. The inhabitants imagine that all the burning mountains and places, where hot prings rife are the habitations of fpirits, and therefore, never approach them, but upon compulfion, and with the greatest awe. Thele phænomena, and the frequency of earthquakes here, confirm the conjecture that Afia in this place was feperated from America, by the finking of part of the continent, efpecially as the fhores of all the islands between the coafts are rocky and broken into huge irregular clifts, fuch as would naturally have been left, fuppofing them to have been torn from a buried country, of which they were part. Befides the fprings that are fenfibly hot, there are in Kamtfchatka feveral rivers that never freeze, and indeed there are scarce any which are not always liquid in fome parts, though fro zen in others. It is probable that this country contains mines of various metals, particularly iron and copper, though the Kamtfchatkans being entirely ignorant of minerology, and the Ruffians hav ing neglected the fearch, very little ore has been discovered. Native fulphur is gathered about feveral of their rivers, and it drops fine and pellucid from the rocks in a diftrict called Oloutofki; it is to be found alfo in the pyrites, which are every where fcattered upon the coalt; Fwhite chalk, tripoli, and oker abound in many places; about the hot springs there is an earth of a purple colour, and among the ftones in the mountains a few fmall cherry-coloured chryftals. Near one of their rivers there is found a fubftance called Aufs, in appearance like coarse green glass, of which the natives formerly made knives, axes, lances, and darts. Upon the shore there is hard iron-coloured ftone, which is easily fused in the fire; pellucid and femi-pellucid ftones are found near the fprings of the rivers; the Ruffians call them cornelians Small yellow pellucid ftones are alfo found on the banks of several rivers, and near Tomfkoy there are plenty of hyacinths; where the earth has fallen G H away 312 Defcription of the Island of Gafpee. Anecdote. away from the fides of the bills lac luna is found in great abundance; amber and a foft kind of bole of a fattish creamy taste is found on the fea coaft, and the banks of the rivers; the bole is an excellent remedy in fluxes. however, that would undertake the management of a factory there, might, with proper economy, establish a colony at a small expence, and to great. advantage. By its fituation, it lies A more convenient for a furr trade with the favages on the continent, who, in the hunting feafon, vifit the islands, than any other; and, by being near the mouth of St Lawrence, Gafpee would foon become a place of call for all hips to refresh, that were bound to or from Quebec; the advantage of which is cbvious to every one concerned in me: cantile affairs. The molt ufeful wood that grows in Kamtfchatka is the larch, and the white poplar, thefe they ufe for boufes, forts, and barks of all sizes; the birch tree grows in great plenty, and the inhabitants ftrip the bark from the trees when they are green, and cutting it into small pieces like vermi- g celli, eat it with dried caviar, with this bark they also ferment the juice or fap of the fame tree, which makes an agreeable drink. Salows and alder are the common A Defcription of Gafpee Island, in the notice of thofe who are inclined to en- C D The furr trade with the favages is of vaft importance to the fithery. Where this trade is cultivated, there will be no want of inhabitants; and Gafpee bids the fairer for this trade, as it may here be carried on with lefs danger than elsewhere. There are no favages that remain here during the winter, by which means the fettlers are in no danger of a furprize from them, the dread of which has deterred many from fettling in Newfoundland and the adjacent ifles. Coin may be fown here, and cattle bred upon this island, as there are many delightful meadows that afford good pafturage in fummer; and hay and straw may be laid up for the winter, by which the inhabitants will be under no apprehenfions from famine. There are no ferocious animals upon the ifland, fo that the settlers may range the woods and forefts E with fafety in fearch of game, or to cut timber: In short, there are many reafons to believe, that a fettlement in this little ifland would very foon become rich and flourishing: But it is fufficient, for my prefent purpose, ta point out the island to the public attention; for which purpofe, I have annexed an exact view of the great bay, as it appeared to us when Gen. Wolf landed at it. Yours, A. B. The harbour, or bay, however, is perhaps the largeft, the fafeft, and the molt commodious for eftablishing a F fithery of any under the government of Quebec. The air is purer, and the ifland lefs fubject to fogs than either Cape Breton or St John. Fish abound more about this ifland, and are caught and cured with more eafe than at ei From the NORTH BRITON. THE NORTN BRITON, records in his laft paper, a very remarkable anecdote, which he avers to be fact. He tells his rea ders, that fome of the Meffengers who were caft in fome late verdicts, were strongly de fired, (but peremptorily refufed to do fo,) to difpofe of their effects and retire abroad, [where they were promised to be provided for] in order to fave the damages awarded Hagainst them on the feveral actions for talle ther of the above islands; and the rea- GT imprisonment. He adds, that the fpirited an fwer of one of the meflengers deserves to be recorded : No (fays he) rather than be fo • tranfported, I will flay and trust to the cler ⚫me acy of the plaintiffs.' |