Over time, the remaining populations were assimilated. Due to increasingly large suicide rates, the Crown made a law prohibiting natives from taking their own lives. A large mixed population emerged, who were Russian Orthodox in religion, but distinctly Itelmen in looks and customs. The government granted legal status to these mixed children readily, and Itelmen women were legally allowed to marry into the Orthodox Religion. By the arrival of Bering’s second expedition to Kamchatka, the population had shrunk to approximately 10% of what it was prior to the arrival of the Cossacks.