This booklet is intended for use as reading material for the social studies unit, The Aleuts of the Eighteenth Century. Excerpts from journals of seven 18th-century explorers or travelers describe the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands. The accounts have been translated from original notes kept by members of the Russian navy, ship commanders, a naturalist, a priest, and a British explorer. Based on their own experiences with the Aleuts or on reports from other explorers, the accounts are highly descriptive. They give details about the Aleuts' physical stature, clothes, jewelry, face adornment, food, hunting and fishing techniques, weapons, boats, houses, villages, family structure, child rearing, marriage customs, roles of chiefs and shamans, games, and festivals. (AV)