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winter road, they come to Shijiga to buy different goods from the Russian merchants, then they hurry to the Behring Sea settlements and sell again the same goods with an immense advantage. Had it not been for the Ispravnik of Shijiga, who had received my letter from Tigil, not a single team of dogs would have been left in the Gulf settlements. The Ispravnik had sent Kosaks to Kamennoi and [[?]] the two largest villages with orders to the natives not to dare move until after our passage. You may think how impatient they were to get rid of us. They had received orders to convey us to Shijiga and consented to do it, as to go to Anadyrsk every promise of high pay was rejected. What made them still more anxious to go to the East, was the arrival to Kamennoi of several Russian traders, with heavy loads of goods on their way for the first time to the Behring Sea Koriaks. With this party of merchants was a priest of Shijiga, escorted by several Kosaks, the object of his mission was to convert the Koriaks to Christianity. Probably he will be as little successful as his predecessors amongst the Koriaks, who all are in spite of the efforts of the Russian Clergy, inveterate pagans. This clergyman has been recently transferred to Shijiga from Anadyrsk, where he had spent nine years, 

Transcription Notes:
"ispravnik" = Russian official Shijiga (Chijiga) and Penjinsk are names from this area, found in old edition of Britannica.(Penjinsk does not appear on this page but was on earlier pages I think).