Nipon, is entirely separate from a neighbouring Country, which they call Jesogasima, or the Isla and which is in all probability, the very same, Hieronymus ab Angelis went into from Japan, ar in his second account he affirms to be an Island, to what he had advanced in the first. Some ma between Japan and Jesogasima another small Islan Matsumai. Several of these Several of these maps, which were out of the Country by Dr. Kæmpfer himself, and I have follow'd in the map annexed to this Hist least, where I was wanting in better memoirs, are the hands of Sir Hans Sloane, and another was years ago engraved by the learned Mr. Reland the collection of M. Benjamin Dutry. I must ow! these maps, for accuracy and preciseness, fall far sh our European ones, the Eastern Geographers bein skilled enough in Mathematicks and Astronomy for But it cannot be supposed, with regard to the Jap in particular, that being so fully apprized, as they of the largeness, extent and division of Osiu, the Northern Province of their Empire, and one of the populous, they should be ignorant, whether or how it is wash'd by the Sea, and where it borders upon o Countries or Provinces. That there is a streight, w separates the most Northern Coasts of Japan fror neighbouring Continent, is farther confirm'd by the la discoveries of the Russians. It is but of late years, t the Russian Court hath been apprized of the larger of Siberia, and the Great Tartary, and their vast ext Eastwards. For a long while their knowledge was a manner bound by the River Oby, which discharges its into the streights of Weigats, and on which stan Tobolskoi, the Capital of Siberia, and the usual pla of banishment for State-Criminals. When Dr. Kæmpt was at Moscow, they had then already received son better memoirs, but they were as yet kept very secre 'Twas from these, and later informations, that M. & Witsen made, some time after, his large map of Russi

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and the Great Tartary, which goes a good way beyond the Rivers Jenisea and Lena, and which was afterwards corrected in several places, and abridged, by Mr. Isbrand Ides, in his Voyage to China. But by the latest discoveries, particularly that of the Country of Kamchatka, which was made but a few years ago, it appears, that the Russian Empire, in largeness and extent, far surpasseth any as yet known, not even the dominions of the Emperor of China excepted, though that Monarch is possess'd of a considerable part of the Great Tartary, and that it borders upon the Kingdoms of Sweden and Poland, the Turkish Empire, the Kingdom of Persia, the Turkestaan and Bulgarian Tartaries, and the Dominions of the Emperor of China, nay that further Eastward it reaches down almost as far as the Islands of Japan. But it is not my design here to enter into a description of the Russian Empire, and I shall confine myself to the Country of Kamschatka, as the Russians call it, a draught of which I have added to my Map of Japan (v. Vol. III. Fig. 162) as I found it represented in a large Map of the Russian Empire, made according to the latest informations, the Russian Court had from those parts, and publish'd in Holland but a few months since. This Country seems to be the very same with that, which the Japanese call Oku-Jeso, or Upper-Jeso, and of which they know little more, but that there is such a Country. According to the best accounts, the Russians are as yet able to give, it is a Peninsula, seated between 150 and 170 Degrees of Longitude, and 41 and 60 of Latitude, Northward of Japan. Northward it is contiguous to Siberia, running up almost as far as Cape Suetoinos, which is the furthermost Cape of Siberia to the North-East, but to the East, South and West it is wash'd by the Sea. It is inhabited by different nations, whereof those, who live about the middle, pay contribution to the Russians, but others living more North, particularly the Olutorski, as they are called in this map, are their profess'd enemies. The Kurilski, as the Russians call them, who inhabit the most Southern

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part, being also more civilized than the rest, are by them supposed to be Colonies of the Japanese, and so far as the accounts of the Japanese may be depended on, they are subject to the Emperor of Japan, and govern'd, under his authority, by a Prince, who commonly resides at Matsumai, and who repairs once a year, as do all other Princes of the Empire of Japan, to Jedo, to pay homage to the Emperor. The Commerce between Siberia and Kamchatka is carried on two different ways. Some go over the Gulph of Kamchatka, which runs up between it, and the Great Tartary and Siberia, near fifty-eight Degrees of Latitude, and they commonly pass it from Lama, where the Russians have begun to build large Ships, to Pristan, a Town built by them in Kamchatka, and inhabited by a Russian Colony. But those inhabitants of Siberia, who live about the River Lena, and along the Icy Ocean, commonly come with their Ships round Cape Suetoinos, and this they do to avoid falling into the hands of the Tschalatzki, and Tschutzki, two fierce and barbarous nations, possess'd of the North-East point of Siberia, and great enemies to the Russians. By this account, which I have taken from the curious remarks upon a Genealogical History of the Tartars, lately publish'd, it appears, 1. That Asia is not contiguous to America to the North-East, but that there is a passage out of the Icy Sea into the Indian Ocean, and that consequently it would be possible for Ships to sail from Europe across the Icy Ocean, and from thence along the Country of Jesso or Kamchatka, and the Eastern Coasts of Japan to the Indies, were it not for the huge mountains of Ice continually floating in those frozen Seas, even in the midst of Summer, but much more for the scarce ever melting Ice in the Streights of Weigats, whereby the passage through these Streights is render'd absolutely impracticable, at all times of the year. 2. That there is a Streight which separates the Country of Kamchatka from Japan. According to the accounts of the Russians, there are several small Islands in these Streights, the