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Petersburg Tuesday 29 Oct. 7 Nov. 1779
[In margin]
Simpson
My Lord
The following fact appears to me sufficiently interesting to find a place in my correspondance wit[h] Your Lordship: it was communicated to me by Prince Potemkin, who received it in the official Report from the Commandant of Kamtschatka [also spelt Kamchatka]; he hath obligingly promised me a translation of the Report itself, which I shall lose no time in transmitting to Your Lordship.
The Commandant writes word, that the Russians who go annually to hunt black Foxes in the Insula Aleutenses, were informed by the Inhabitants of these Islands, that towards the Autumn 1778, or in their own words, before the Leaves were fallen, and while the Grass was still green, their [there] appeared on their Coasts two Ships, one of three, the other of two Masts; that the Crew of these Ships landed among them; they were dressed like Russians, but, talked a Language they did not understand; that they behaved with the greatest civility, and were received with the greatest hospitality. They gave the Inhabitants Tobaco and clasped knives, and were offered in return several things, but would accept of nothing, but the Flesh of a young Whale. That after staying a short while, they sailed Northward, and were seen sometime afterwards by the Tschuktskis off the Tschuktschotshoy Nor, or