Eighteenth Century Russian Explorations in the Northern Pacific

Abstract

THE All-Union Geographical Society of the U.S.S.R. (Moscow) has published a small handsome volume, dated 1944, containing some newly discovered documents relating to Russian explorations and discoveries in the Pacific Ocean and North America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first part of this book contains reports, dated 1762 and 1764, by merchant-adventurers on the Aleutian Islands. The second part contains reports written by the members of the Russian-American Company during the period 1785-90, together with reports made by the governor-general of Siberia to the Empress Catherine on the state of trade and exploration of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, or 'Russian America' as they were known in Russia prior to 1867. The third part consists of a diary written by N. I. Korobytzyn, a clerk of the Russian -American Company, during the first Russian round-the-world cruise of 1803-6. This diary, although written by a semi-educated man, presents a very vivid picture of the Pacific Ocean islands and of the trading conditions in Russian America and China. The book, which is entirely in Russian, is edited by A. I. Andreev, and it is provided with numerous illustrations.