Fusang E-Book

Charles G. Leland

• Herausgeber: E-BOOKARAMA
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

"Fusang" (Or, "The Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the Fifth Century"),  was first published in 1875 and analyses the limited evidence from the works of early Chinese historians that explorers from China had discovered a country they called Fusang – possibly western America, and in all probability Mexico. The original document on which Chinese historians based their accounts of Fusang was the report of a Buddhist monk called Hoei-shin, who, in the year 499 AD, returned from a long journey to the east.

Leseprobe

Charles G. Leland

Fusang

The Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the Fifth Century

Table of contents

FUSANG

Preface

Memoir Of Professor Carl Friedrich Neumann

Chapter 1. Knowledge Of Foreign Countries Among The Chinese

Chapter 2. Identity Of The Tartars And North American Indians; Or, The Road To America, And The People In It

Chapter 3. Tahan Or Aliaska, And Its Discovery

Chapter 4. Remarks On The Report Of Hoei-Shin

Chapter 5. Chinese And Japanese In Kamtschatka And The Hawaiian Group

Chapter 6. Fusang And Peru

Chapter 7. Navigation Of The North Pacific

Chapter 8. Remarks On Colonel Kennon's Letter

Chapter 9. Travels Of Other Buddhist Priests (From The Fourth To The Eighth Century)

Chapter 10. Affinities Of American And Asiatic Languages

Chapter 11. The Mound-Builders And Mexicans

Chapter 12. Images Of Buddha

Chapter 13. Deguignes, Klaproth, And D'eichthal

Chapter 14. T. Simson And Dr E. Bretschneider; Or Europeans Residing In China On Fusang

Appendix

FUSANG

Charles G. Leland

Preface

IT is now more than a century since the learned French sinologist Deguignes set forth, in a very ably-written paper in the "Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres" (vol. xxviii., 1761), the fact that he had found in the works of early Chinese historians a statement that, in the fifth century of our era, certain travellers of their race had discovered a country which they called Fusang, and which, from the direction and distance as described by them, appeared to be Western America, and in all probability Mexico. When Deguignes wrote, his resources, both as regards the knowledge of the region supposed to have been discovered and the character of the travellers, were extremely limited, so that the skill with which he conducted his investigation, and the shrewdness of his conjectures, render his memoir, even to the present day, a subject of commendation among scholars. Few men have ever done so much or as well with such scanty and doubtful material.

The original document on which the Chinese historians based their account of Fusang was the report of a Buddhist monk or missionary named Hoei-shin (Schin or Shên), 1 who, in the year 499 A.D., returned from a long journey to the East. This report was regularly entered on the Year-Books or Annals of the Chinese Empire, whence it passed, not only to the pages of historians, but also to those of poets and writers of romances, by whom it was so confused with absurd inventions and marvellous tales, that even at the present clay discredit is thrown by a certain class of critics on the entire narrative. In 1841 Carl Friedrich Neumann, Professor of Oriental Languages and History at the University of Munich, published the original narrative of Hoei-shin from the Annals, adding to it comments of his own elucidating its statements, and advancing somewhat beyond Deguignes. This little work I translated into English, under the supervision of Professor Neumann, and with his aid. I believe that, as he revised and corrected the English version here given, it may claim to be an accurate translation from the Chinese text of the Year-Book, and that of Hoei-shin. I have placed it first in this volume because it gives in a much more perfect form than is to be found in the memoir of Deguignes the original report on which the entire investigation is based. It of course includes Professor Neumann's comments on the monk's brief narrative; and as these embrace many remarks on the possibility of passing by sea from the Chinese to the American coast, I have thought it appropriate to place next in the series a letter from Colonel Barclay Kennon, who, as a prominent officer in the United States Coast Survey, passed several years in the North Pacific, during which time he surveyed and mapped, in company with two colleagues, the entire coast, both on the Asiatic and American sides. Colonel Kennon is of opinion that the voyage supposed to have been taken by the Buddhist monks is easily practicable, and might be effected even in an open boat--the vessel in which he himself passed both summer and winter, and in which he sailed more than 40,000 miles, having been simply a small pilot-boat. To tins I have added, in further reference to certain remarks by Professor Neumann, a comment on the affinities between American and Asiatic languages, and other subjects mentioned in his text, i.e., the Mound-Builders and the Images of Buddha. These are followed by extracts from, and remarks on, a series of articles by M. Gustave d’Eichthal, contributed to the Revue Archæologique in 1862-63, in which he defends Deguignes from an attack which the well-known Orientalist Julius Heinrich von Klaproth made upon the original memoir by the former. I believe that it will be admitted by all unprejudiced scholars, that in these ably-written and very temperate articles M. D’Eichthal has fully vindicated Deguignes, and has also contributed much very valuable material to the subject. I am far from claiming that it has been absolutely proved that Hoei-shin was in Mexico, or that he was preceded thither by "five beggar-monks from the Kingdom of Kipin." But it cannot be denied that, as further researches have been made, much which at first seemed obscure or improbable in his narrative has been cleared up. All that Hoei-shin declares he saw is not only probable, but is confirmed, almost to the minutest details, by what is now known of Old and New Mexico.

All that seems fabulous in his story, he, like Herodotus, relates from hearsay; but it is remarkable that these wonders, which Professor Neumann was unwilling to cite, all appear at the present day to be simply exaggerations of facts which recent research has brought to light. Among the objects seen and described by the monk was the maguey plant, or great cactus, which he called the Fusang, after a Chinese plant slightly resembling it, and this name (Fusang) he applied to the country. His description of this plant, and of its many uses, is very striking. Other things peculiar to Mexico, but not known to China, were remarked, as, for instance, the absence of iron, and the fact that copper, gold, and silver were not prized, and were not used for money. The manner in which marriage was contracted in Fusang, according to his description, is not at all Chinese--I doubt if it be Asiatic--but it exists in more than one North American tribe, and something very like it was observed by a recent traveller in New Mexico.

I have in Chapter IX. called attention to a fact which seems to have escaped both Neumann and Klaproth, though both were familiar with the literature on which it is based. It is simply this, that the voyage of Hoei-shin forms a portion of the somewhat extensive literature of travel of Buddhist monks, the authenticity of which has been vindicated by Stanislas Julien. Many of these have been translated, and one of them, "The Mission of Sung-yun," was recently published in English. Sung-yun travelled only nineteen years after Hoei-shin, and was in all probability a contemporary who had met him at the Chinese court, where such travellers enjoyed the highest consideration. Sung-yun had been sent to India, or the West, by the Empress Dowager Tai-Hau, of the Wei dynasty, and it is not improbable that Hoei-shin had travelled to the East, in like manner, by imperial order. It is evident that he lived at a time when men of his stamp were in request to go to the ends of the earth to spread the doctrines of Buddha.

In 1869, some one who had read or heard of Neumann's work on the Buddhist discovery of America, placed in the "Notes and Queries on China and Japan," published at Hong Kong, a request that those who possessed information on the subject would send it to that journal. The results were, however, trifling, the principal communication thus elicited being an article from Dr E. Bretschneider, in which the writer, while expressing his opinion that Hoei-shin was a "lying Buddhist priest," and a "consummate humbug," brought forth nothing of consequence to prove such very positive assertions. But as the paper forms a portion of the literature of the Fusang question, I have included it in this volume.

Memoir Of Professor Carl Friedrich Neumann

MEMOIR.

CARL FRIEDRICH NEUMANN, the author of the subjoined memoir on the presumed early discovery of America by Buddhist monks, was of Jewish family, and born December 22, 1798, near Bamberg, Bavaria. He was intended for commerce, but having studied history at the Universities of Heidelberg and Munich, determined to devote his life to letters. Having become a Protestant, he was appointed professor in 1822 at the Gymnasium of Speier, whence he was dismissed in 1825 for Liberal opinions in politics. He subsequently lived for several years in Venice, Paris, and London, occupied with the study of Oriental languages. Having distinguished himself as a sinologist, he went. in 1829 to China, where he remained nearly two years, occupied in collecting Chinese books. In Canton he obtained a valuable library of 10,000 volumes, which, after his return, were ceded to the Bavarian Government. In 1838 he received an appointment as professor of the Chinese and Armenian languages at the University of Munich, where he also read lectures on mathematics and modern history, which were very popular with the students. Having known him well, both in public and private, and pursued studies under his special guidance, I venture to speak with confidence and respect of his enormous learning, as well as his sound judgment in matters of scholarship.

Professor Neumann was the author of a number of works in Latin, French, and English, as well as German, two of which received prizes from the Academies of Copenhagen and Paris. His principal books are the following:

Rerum Cretaricum Specimen. Göttingen, 1820.

Ueber die Staatsverfassung der Florentiner, von Leonardus Aretinus. Frankfurt, 1822.

Historische Versuche. Heidelberg, 1825.

Mémoires sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de David, philosophe Armenien du cinquième siècle de notre ére, et principalement sur ses traductions de quelques écrits à Aristote. Paris, 1829.

The History of Vartan, and of the Battle of the Armenians, containing an account of the religious wars between the Persians and Armenians. By Elisæus; translated by C. F. Neumann. London, 1831.

The Catechism of the Shamans, or the Laws and Regulations of the Priesthood of Buddha in China. Translated from the Chinese, with notes and illustrations. London, 1831.

History of the Pirates who infested the Chinese Seas from 1807 to 1810. Translated from the Chinese original, with notes and illustrations. London, 1831.

Geschichte der Armenischen Literatur. Leipzig, 1833-36.

Geschichte der Uebersiedlung von 40,000 Armeniern. Leipzig, 1834.

Russland und die Tcherkessen. Stuttgart, 1840.

Geschichte des Englisch-Chinesischen Kriegs. Leipzig, 1846. In this comprehensive work, one division is entitled, "Nord Amerika und Frankreich in China," in which the present and future relations of Western America and Eastern Asia are developed with great sagacity. A few years before his death, Iskander (Alexander Herzen) wrote to me--"The Pacific will yet be the Mediterranean of the future." Those who look forward to such developments of civilisation and commerce will find this book of Professor Neumann's very interesting.

Die Völker des Südlichen Russland in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung. Leipzig, 1847. To this work was awarded the prize of the Royal Institute of Paris.

Die Reisen des Venetianers Marco Polo, Deutsch von August Bürk. Nebst Zusätzen und Verbesserungen von C. F. Neumann. Leipzig, 1845.

Beiträge zur Armenischen Literatur. Leipzig, 1849.

Geschichte des Englischen Reichs in Asien. Leipzig, 1857.

Professor Neumann was one of the directors of the German Oriental Association, and published in the first number of their magazine a biography of Dr Morrison, the celebrated Protestant missionary to China.

I sincerely trust that the additions which I have made to this work, in elucidation or in illustration of the idea advanced, will be found to the purpose. They are the result of much research,--I may honestly say, of far more than appears in this volume, as the subject, from its obscurity, yielded only the proverbial grain of wheat to the wearisome bushel of chaff. I also hope that it is free from either reckless hypothesis or easy credulity, and that nothing will be understood to be advanced as being more than probable.

Chapter 1. Knowledge Of Foreign Countries Among The Chinese

THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN, WITH COMMENTS BY PROFESSOR CARL F. NEUMANN

"To retain laws and customs according to the traditionary manner, and to extend these laws and customs to other lands," was the precept of the founders of the Celestial Empire, as well as of other civilised nations. "But this extension," they added, "is not to be effected by the oratorical powers of single messengers, nor through the force of armed hordes. This renovation, as in every other sound organic growth which forces itself from within, can only take place when the Outer Barbarians, irresistibly compelled by the virtue and majesty of the Son of Heaven, blush for their barbarism, voluntarily obey the image of the Heavenly Father, and become men."

It will be readily understood that a race holding such opinions would undertake no voyage of discovery, and attempt no conquests. Not a single instance occurs daring the entire four thousand years of the history of Eastern Asia, of an individual who had travelled in foreign lands for the purpose of adding to his own information or that of others. The journey of Lao-tse--the founder of the religion of the Taosse-- to the West appears to be a tale deliberately invented for the purpose of connecting his doctrine of the Primitive and Infinite 'Wisdom with that of "The Western Mountain of the Gods," or with Buddhism. The campaigns beyond those limits which Nature has assigned to the Chinese Empire, were undertaken merely through the impulse of self-preservation. Men were compelled, in Central as in Eastern Asia, in Thibet as well as on the banks of the Irawaddy, to anticipate the dangers and invasions which, at a later period, threatened the freedom of the Central Empire, and were frequently obliged to send ambassadors or spies into different Asiatic or European countries to obtain information relating to their situation and nature, as well as the condition of their inhabitants, which could guide them in their subsequent warlike or diplomatic relations with the enemies of the Empire.

This land, so blessed by Nature, attracted not only the barbarian desirous of plunder, but also the merchant, since certain productions, such as silk, tea, and true rhubarb, were found only there. The Chinese Government as well as people, influenced by the precepts of their wise men, received strangers graciously so long as they implicitly obeyed, or in any manner evinced fear and submission, and returned the presents which were offered according to Oriental custom with others of still greater value. All the discoveries and experiences, all the knowledge and information which they thus obtained in their peaceful or warlike relations with foreign nations, were generally recorded in the last division of the "Year-Books" of their own chronicles, forming, in an historical point of view, an inestimable treasure.

In the first century of our reckoning, the pride and vanity induced by the Chinese social system were partly broken by the gradual progress of Buddhism over all Eastern Asia. He who believed in the divine mission of the son of the King of Kapilapura, must recognise every man as his brother and equal by birth; yes, must strive--for the old Buddhistic faith has this in common with the Christian religion--to extend the joyful mission of salvation to all nations on earth, and, to attain this end, must suffer, like the type of the God incarnate, all earthly pain and persecution. So we find that a number of Buddhist monks and preachers have at distant times wandered to all known and unknown parts of the world, either to obtain information with regard to their distant co-religionists, or to preach the doctrine of their Holy Trinity to unbelievers. The official accounts which these missionaries rendered of their travels, and of which we possess several entire, considered as sources of information with regard to different lands and nations, belong to the most instructive and important part of Chinese literature. From these sources we have derived in a great degree that information which we possess regarding North-eastern Asia and the Western Coasts of America, during centuries which have been hitherto veiled in the deepest obscurity.

CHINESE KNOWLEDGE OF LANDS AND NATIONS.

Pride and vanity form the basis upon which the Chinese built their peculiar system of information regarding other lands and people. Around "the Flower of the Centre," as their sages teach, dwell rude uncivilised races, which are in reality animals, although they have externally human forms. To these rough brutes they apply all manner of abusive epithets, assigning to them the names of dogs, swine, devils, and savages, according to the four points of the compass whence they came. The occasional inquirers and writers of history among the Europeans who have thought it worth their while to cast a glance upon the as yet fallow fields of Eastern and Central Asiatic history, have blindly followed this limited system, which rests upon the narrowest geographic limits, so that races originally without connection were melted into one and the same people; as, for instance, the numerous tribes of the Tartar family.

Chapter 2. Identity Of The Tartars And North American Indians; Or, The Road To America, And The People In It

THE Tunguse, Mongolians, and a great part of the Turkish race, formed originally, according to all external organic tokens, as well as the elements of their languages, but one people, closely allied with the Esquimaux, the Skräling, or dwarf of the Norsemen, and the races of the New World. This is the irrefutable result to which all the more recent inquiries in anatomy and physiology, as well as comparative philology and history, have conduced. All the aboriginal Americans have those distinctive tokens which forcibly recall their neighbours dwelling on the other side of Behring's Straits. They have the four-cornered head, high cheek-bones, heavy jaws, large angular eye-cavities, and 'a retreating forehead. The skulls of the oldest Peruvian graves exhibit the same tokens as the heads of the nomadic tribes of Oregon and California. The different American languages, as has been already proved by Albert Gallatin in his minute researches, have such an identity, that we can, however varied the vocabulary, at once reduce them to one original source. 2 In fact, all researches as to the manner in which America was first populated lead to one inevitable conclusion. Since the earth has been inhabited, these rude tribes dwelt in their separate divisions of Asia and America. This rough mass has, however, during the course of centuries, been separated by different corporeal and mental formative influences into different nations, each with peculiar bodily distinctions, the natural consequence of higher mental influences; and various languages have been developed; yet all of these distinctions, whether of body or of language, of manner or custom, present internal evidence of an original unity. This unity manifests itself in their genealogies, the oldest historical system of all nations by which the identity of the Turks, Mongolians, and Tunguse is clearly proved. Among these Tartaric hordes we find absolutely the same relation as that which existed among the German nations. The Ostrogoths and Visigoths, the Westphalians, the northern and southern nations, belonged originally, notwithstanding their different destinies and culture, to the internal being of one and the same German race.

TUNGUSE EASTERN BARBARIANS.

All the numerous Tartaric hordes dwelling about the north-east of the Central Empire were termed by the civilised natives of the South "Tonghu," "Eastern Red Men," or savages, from which appellation we derive our word Tunguse, 3 which has been subsequently applied to an extremely limited portion of the entire race. Among these Mongolian nations, many centuries before Zenghis Khan (Tschinggs Chakan), the Mongolians proper were distinguished by the differently-written name of Wog or Mog, and divided into seven hordes, dwelling in different places, extending from the Corean Peninsula to the distant north, over the river Amo to the eastern sea; that is to say, to the Gulf of Anadir or Behring's Straits. The nomadic tribes dwelling more directly to the north they termed Peti, or Northern Savages, and many tribes were reckoned by them as belonging either to the Tunguse or Peti. During the course of many centuries the Chinese acquired a surprisingly accurate knowledge of the north-east coast of Asia, extending, as their records in astronomy and natural history prove, to the sixty-fifth degree of latitude, and even to the Arctic Ocean. 4 Among other accounts, they tell us of a land very far from the Central Kingdom, whose inhabitants, termed Kolihan or Chorran, sent during the latter part of the seventh century ambassadors to the Court at Singan. This land lay on the North Sea; and still further to the north, on the other side of that sea, the days were so long, and the nights in proportion so short, that the sun set and rose again "before one could roast a leg of mutton."5

The Chinese were well acquainted with the customs of these tribes, and describe them to us as resembling the Tsohuktschi or Koljuschens 6 of the present day, and other tribes of North-eastern Asia and North-western America. They had neither oxen, sheep, nor other domestic animals, but there were tribes among them which employed deer, which were there very numerous. These deer of which they speak were undoubtedly reindeer. They knew nothing of agriculture, but lived by hunting and fishing, as well as on the root of a certain plant which grew there in abundance. Their dwellings were constructed of twigs and wood, their clothes were made of furs and feathers. They laid their dead in coffins, which they placed in trees in the mountains.7 They were ignorant of any subdivisions of the year. The Chinese were also as well acquainted with those dwelling more directly to the east, as with these inhabitants of the north.

The limits of the Chinese Empire extended, under the dynasty of Tschen, in the time of David and Solomon, to the Eastern Ocean. They knew and frequented the numerous groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean, for the sake of trade. The natives inhabiting these islands sent, on their part, messengers to the coast with presents, which are registered in the Chinese annals. It also frequently happened that China sent a portion of its discontented or superfluous population to these thinly-inhabited islands, as well as to Japan, Lieu-kuei, and Formosa, of which we have accurate historical proofs. The tribe of the Ainos, or Jebis, extending from Japan to Kamtschatka, over the Kurilean and Aleutian, or Fox Islands, to the distant north, where it touched upon the nearly-allied Esquimaux, must naturally have astonished the occasional colonists and merchants who found their way thither, by a singular distinctive bodily phenomenon, namely, an exceeding growth of hair on their bodies. Such was the case, and they were termed Mau-schin (or, according to the Japanese mode of pronouncing Chinese writing, Mosin)-- i.e., Hairy People, and also, from the great number of sea-crabs found in their region, Hi-ai (in Japanese, Jeso), or Crab-Barbarians. 8 And as these barbarians, like the inhabitants of the southern islands, were in the habit of tattooing figures upon their skin, they were also termed by the Chinese Wen-schin, or Painted People. In the course of time other names were also added, but any one acquainted with the nature of that part of the world and its inhabitants, readily recognises, despite the varied appellations, the same race of men in the Ainos. We are indebted to the numerous embassies which in earlier times passed between China and Japan for the greater part of the information contained in their Year-Books, relating to the north and south-easterly islands and nations. These embassies brought back with them many traditionary accounts, which were strongly tinged with fable, and yet not entirely devoid of truth. For instance, when they speak of the land of Tschutschu, or dwarfs, very far to the south of Japan, whose inhabitants, black and ugly and naked, kill and devour all strangers, we readily recognise the natives of Papua or New Guinea.

The Ainos were first described, under the name of Hairy People, in "The Book of Mountains and Seas," a Chinese work, written in the second or third century, and richly adorned with wonderful legends. They dwelt, according to this book, in the Eastern Sea, and were completely overgrown with hair. 9 Some of these people came, A.D. 659, in company with a Japanese embassy, to China; they are termed in the Year-Book of Tang, "Crab-Barbarians,"10 after which this note fellows:--"They had long beards, and dwelt in the north-east of Japan; they laid bows, arrows, and deer-skins as presents before the throne. These were the inhabitants of Jeso, which island had, not long before, been subdued and rendered tributary by the Japanese." The report of the Japanese embassy, in their own domestic returns, is, however, much more copious and satisfactory. The queries of the Heaven's Son of Tang, and the replies of the Japanese ambassador, are there narrated as follows:--

The Ruler of Tang.--"Does the heavenly Autocrat find himself in constant tranquillity?"

The Ambassador.--"Heaven and earth unite their gifts, and constant tranquillity ensues."

The Ruler of Tang.--"Are the Government officers well appointed?"

The Ambassador.--"They have the grace of the Heavenly Ruler, and are well."

The Ruler of Tang.--"Is there internal peace?"

The Ambassador.--"The Government harmonises with heaven and earth--the people have no care."

The Ruler of Tang.--"Where lies the land--this Jeso?"

The Ambassador.--"To the north-east."

The Ruler of Tang.--"How many divisions has it?"

The Ambassador.--"Three; the most distant we call Tsgaru, the next Ara, and the nearest Niki. To the last belong these men here before us. They appear yearly with their tribute at the court of our king."

The Ruler of Tang.--"Does this land produce corn?"

The Ambassador.--"No; its inhabitants live on flesh."

The Ruler of Tang.--"Have they houses?"

The Ambassador.--"No; they live in the mountains, under trunks of trees."

This extract is from the Nipponki, or Japanese Annals, from 661 until 696, which were collected in the year 720. They embrace thirty volumes octavo. The portions translated by Hoffman are to be found in vol. xxvi. p. 9; of Siebold's "Japanese Archives," viii. 130.

Since this time, in the seventh century, many wars have been undertaken against these northern border barbarians by their more civilised neighbours, and generally with success. But the inhabitants of Jeso always rose again after a short time, drove forth the Japanese invaders from the land, and gave themselves up again to their wild, original freedom, like their ancestors on the neighbouring island. Even at the present day the Japanese govern only a very small portion of Jeso, i.e., the gold district of this remarkably rich island. Jeso readily leads to an acquaintance with Kamtschatka, which country was also described about the same period, in the following manner: 11 --

KAMTSCHATKA IN THE TIME OF TANG.

Lieu-kuei (Loo-choo), or Hing-goci, as the Kamtschadales of the present day term their fellow-countrymen dwelling on the Penschinisch Bay, is situated, according to the Chinese Year-Books, fifteen thousand Chinese miles distant from the capital, which, according to the measurement of the celebrated astronomer Ihan, in the time of Tang, gives about three hundred and thirty-eight to one of our grades--the Chinese grades being rather smaller than our geographical. Now, Sigan, the capital of China during the dynasty of Tang, lies in the district Schensi, 34° 15´ 34″ north latitude, and 106° 34´ east longitude from Paris. Peter and Paul's Haven, on the contrary, according to Preuss, lies 53° 0´ 59″ north latitude, and 153° 19´ 56″ east longitude from Paris. These are differences which the accounts of the Chinese Year-Books establish in an astonishing manner, and leave no doubt whatever as to the identity of Kamtschatka with Lieu-kuei; for it is certainly satisfactory if estimates of such great distances, drawn in all probability from the accounts of half-savage sailors or quite savage natives, should agree within two or three grades with accurate astronomic results.

"This land lies exactly north-east from the Black River, or Black Dragon River, and the Moko, and the voyage thither requires fifteen days, which is the time in which the Moko generally effect it."

The Moko here alluded to are, beyond doubt, the Mongolians, who governed in earlier ages, and even in the time of Tang as far south as Corea, and in the north as far as the other side of the Amur. The western limits of this people are unknown. In the east they dwelt, as our chronicle expressly remarks, as far as the ocean, or the Pacific, from whence they could very easily pass to the islands and to the American Continent. That this was in reality effected, is evident from their external appearance, as well as the affinity between the Mongolian language and that of the American Indians. The distance from Ocho-tock to the opposite peninsula is about 150 German miles, and, in fact, the natives generally require from ten to fifteen days to make the voyage.

"Lieu-kuei lies to the north of the North Sea, 12 by which it is on three sides surrounded. To the north this peninsula touches upon the land of Jetschay, or Tschuktschi, but the exact limits are not easy to determine; it requires an entire month to make the journey from Kamtschatka to Jetschay. Beyond this the land is unexplored, and no mission has as yet come from thence to the Central Kingdom. Here are neither fortified places nor towns; the people dwell in scattered groups on the sea-islands and along the shore, or on the banks of rivers, where they live by catching and salting fish.

Steller also assures us that the dwellings of the Itölmen, or native Kamtschadales, are always situated on rivers, bays, or the mouths of the lesser streams, and especially in places which are surrounded by woods. Fish in incredible quantities, and in great variety, are found there, serving during the long winters as pro-vender for both men and cattle. These they prepare in many ways, but principally by salting. Those living still more to the north subsist almost entirely on the same food, from which they receive the name Eskimantik or Eskimo, i.e., "raw-fish-eating."

"They dwell in caves, generally dug tolerably deep in the earth, around which they lay thick, unhewn planks."