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Carte ^//-«nraXV»^ '<^/ t^ f, ^^rco({ ver\cs X ,6^i '*^...^^'''-<; /• o ..p* .•?J .'', ."•'J ll'V> LC'^i' >^^ "«*: i^ >^ V ^e^ ^j .V t/^ ^•*fon gH'.V, .fllf (1*^ ,10'; ^Pr< >69' S.P Cf^iVHriffVc lire ^ ^6 -^/C- V^ \ # r^v ..'\?- xf J \ '..III K y ./^ Tchv rites hIm"''. ■en ' I u, vftl' >»»"" ..t: //-- ^ I'llfe ' ^" f> W^ ^ 4 viP ,1 /l/vA. ..^/ :.l^ ic' Hev [z^3> ^-.^ To^" .p 'r V v\c^ •is- ->' rar ^6r ''I ^ i'^fS jAiy ^'m^'>'f'<:^s^''X^CAl\FORJsrfk '^ ^r^»\ Off •.M^"' ,i/^' .i«j iTvr' o'^ifc'- ,C« in^'f .III' lA. -? "^0 1.:^^ \ ^■^ aa5 ti?^ ^^ .'^^z. ^»»,*»-.— v»r* m . n •^ CAIV ,\?1/S„' - '■'.■jJ^»#'.'">V ' -s*>'-- -f«.\--y--Vt!ifn' ■' '^"•" CAR' m VOL. Ill, PP. 205 230, PL. 21 January 28, i892 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE THE (.'AirrOdKAI'IIY AND OBSERVATIONS , . OF BEUFNCI'S FIRST VOYAdE. BY (JENKKAL A. W. (IKEELY. (Presented bcj'ore the Society March 20, 185)1.) i- I j It Wiis with no ordinary pleasure that the nicniliers of tlie National CJeoj^raphic Society listened to the critical review and admirable essay on Bering's first expedition, 1725-17oO, read before this Society, together with a translation of Bering's re[)ort on the expedition in ([ucstit)n, by one of our learned and distin- guished nunnbers, Professor William H. Dall. The sul)ject tlien under consideration is one of great interest, and this Society owes a debt of gratitude to Professor Dall for his assiduous labor in collating and translating the available data on this voyage, and must indorse the general conclusions reached in a critical essay which is the result of careful, conscientious research con- joined to nuu'h erudition. It is especially fortunate, in view of the vagueness of Bering's report, that it should have been trans- lated and reviewed by a traveler and investigator so thoroughly fixmiliar with the toi)Ography of Bering strait and the adjacent region. 28-Nat. Gkog. Mac.., vol. Ill, 1K!)1. (•Ji..-.) T \ JAN I ' '56 20(') acneral A. U'. Cvrrhj—lUnnifx FIrsI Vnumje. .1 It inivyapiK'ursoMunvhai prcsuiii|»lu<)us for the proscnt writer to furtlicr dwell on some points of subonliimte inii)ortjuu'o,even with tlu' view of .suppleincMitin^' the investijiiitions of I*rofess()r Dall ; hut he is eneoiirujied to the etfort l>y the iidinirahle sj.irit in whieh that -rentlenian works, which is so clearly indicated in his own words : " I lun well aware Ihi; paper cannot he regarded as a finality, hut as a contrihutit)n to the j,r(.ojrraphical history of North America it will not he without its value." This spirit encoura.iics every one to contrihute his mite to elucidate the history of this interestinjj; and ill-known period. The suppleiiieutary remarks now [»resented mainly relate to two points : lirst, ihe cartojiraphic reproduction of Herinir's dis- covc'.les; second, tlie alieij;ed ohservations of lunar eclii)scs in Kamshatka hy lkM-in, et Physi(|ue de I'Kmpire et de la Tartaric Chinoise," etc. 4 vols., 4°: a la Haye, 17H6. • 2. De risle's scattered essays, entitled " Memoires pour servir a I'histoirc et au progres de I'Astronomic, de la Geographic, et de la Physiul)lisho(l hy Ahhe IMwostat Paris, 1747, et sei].. the charts hoin^jjonjiravcd hy Mellin. This cliart appears on ca"^'!'' ins|»ection to )»e more accurate than either that of d'Anville o of do I'lsle, or of the llussiaii atlas. o. The very intorestin vompanyinu; memoir). I do not thinlc tlie oriirinal nui[> has over fallen under the notice of Professor |)all. although .i jiiirhled reproduction of it is men- tioned in his review as follows : " A chart wliicli deserves notice, tli'm(.'h aliiniHt wlmlly (Ictitious, beni^: cliicdy ilovotecl t!> till' sparions (liH('iJverio.s of tlie ulle)4;e(l Adininil de iMiiite, was issiK'il hy J. \. dc ITsK' witli the cDiu-nrreiice of M. P. Maiu'Iio or at his sii,i.'j:i'stion. It appeared at I'arin in I"")-, and was ciipicd for .hdH-ry's second edition of voyasre.w from Asia to America in 17f)4. I do not know if this copy ap[)eared in the first edition, hiit presume it did." ;Vs the oriudnal of de ITsUvs chart (17o"J) is hero exhihitod to- ni'iht. it is evident that JelVery was careless, and that the map, which I infer Dall has never seen, is really more valualile than is set forth in his address; otherwise so critical an oliservor as Dall would not have said : " I sus[)oct this (roforriii^ to d'Anvillo's map of 17'>'), with I'erin^' islan^l thereon) is the first imhlication of a carto,;raphical results of iJerinif's voya, tembre 1741." The latter route track touches an indentation in the southwestern coast, as though the vessel had entered tlie bay, which has five mountains in the backgiound. The legend — "Terres vues par les Russes en 1741 ou le Cap- taine Tchirikow perdit sa Chaloupe armee de 10 lionnnes '" — is likewise of interest, as controverting the statement that " De I'Isle's (chart) of 1752 does not contain * * -'■ thegeograi)lii- cal results of Bering's voyage to the coast of America." It em- bodies a large i)art, but not all, of the discoveries. G. Buache's memoir and maps entitled : '■ Considerations geo- gra[)hiques et physiipies sur les Nouvelles Decouvertes au Nord de la Grande ]\Ier, api)ellec vulgairement la ^Nler du Sud ; avec des Cartes qui y sont relatives. Bar BhiHppe lUiaclie, Brcniier Geograi>he," etc. A Paris M.DCC.LIII [17o;*,], 4°, loS pp. With my copy tliere is a sei)arate pamphlet, consisting of 18 maps. foHo, with a preface and index, (piarto. The preface (4°, two leaves uni)aged) is entitled: '"Expose des Dc'couvertcs au Nord de la Grande Mer. etc., etc. Bresente au Boy le 2. Sej)- tembre 17o8, par Bhilippe Buache, etc" The IikU'x (4°, 4 ]))>.) runs: '• Liste des Cartes concernant les Nouvelles Drcouvertes au Nord de la Grande Mer, ;ress, the Astor Library, the Boston Athe- nanim, or the Boston Public Library. It is iiot even in the Royal Library at St. Petersburg!;, l)Ut, as niiiflit be anticipated, is in the British Museum. I lind it iiowhere catalogued in any bibliop., London. 1754. The "Arthur Dobbs " who published this edition, and who ])oss.ibly was the translator thereof, is well known as the energetic ))romoter of the discovery of the " northwest passage," and was personally interested in discovery voyages to Hudson buy. The explanatory memoir of de I'Isle's chart is a translation of the memoir previously mentioned as belonging to the map of 1752, which memoir I have not been able to con^^ult in the original French. It may be added that Dobbs' reproduction of the " Letter from a Russian naval officer " is not a(U'urate, the transla- tion in places being so carelessly or inditVcrently made that the text cannot Ite relied on for critical pur})oses. This English translation is to be found neither in the fiibrary of Congress, the Boston Public Li])rary, the Boston Athena'um, nor in the Lil)rary of the American (leographic Society. It is, however, in the Astor Library, and a second copy at one time belong(*l to the library of Mr. J. C Jii'evoort. OvUjin of de risle\i Map. 211 9. '' Mappo iMoiido. Carte Univorsello do la Terre. Par J. B. Nolin, Goof^raphe." 17")o. "201 x 27 iuclios. On tliis api)ear the legends: " I. de Ikering ; Detroit de Nord ; Terre-? deeouvertes par les Ruses [sic] en 1741 ; Terres veuea en 1741." It is (juite possible that this is the first map of the world on which Ikn-infr island was charted. 10. John Christopher Adelung's very interesting history of sea voyages for the discovery of a "northeast passage," which was Ipublished in quarto form under the following title : " Creschichte der Schiffahrten und Versuche W(;lche 7Air Entdeckung dcs Xordcistlichen \\'eges nach Japan und China von vcrschiedenen , Nationen unternommen worden. Zum Behufe der Erdbeschrei- bungund Naturgeschiclitedieser(}egendenentworfenvonJohann Christoj)h Adelung, llerzoglich Hachsichen Rath Halle bey Jo- hann Justinus Gebauer, 1708." 11. Notice des Ouvrages de M. d'Anvillo. 8°, Paris, An. X [1802], 120 pp. By Barbie du Bocage. > In addition to these and other works from my OAvn collection, I have consulted at the library of the United States Xaval Observ- atory, in this city, " Histoire de rAcademie Royale des Sciences, Annee 1750," Paris, 17o4, and the same, " Annee 1754." Paris, 1757, which contain articles on de I'Isle's manuscript ma])s of 17^1 and 1752, the latter being substantially identical Avith the published maj) of 1752. ' lof the 1752. •iginal j>f the [ansla- |at the I >rary ^icum, It is, time From Dall's review we learn that Lauridsen is resj)onsible for the statement that the discoveries of Bering in his first voyage were shown on a chart made at Moscow in 17H1, Inii no authority is given as to the cartographer. Later I shall adduce evidence to confirm Dall's opinion that the Moscow map was merely a copy, such as were 2, and it i;f likely that the lost map of that year was substantially rei)rodnced in the chart of 1752, which I have the pleasure of now pn>senting for your examination. De I'Isle [)resented this ma|) to the Academy of Sciences of Pji'-is on April S, 1750. The circumstances connected with the 212 General A. W. Grcely— Bering's First Voyage. presentation have hcen drawn from the official records of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and are as follows:^- Cette annoe (1750) M. do I'Tslc hit a rasweinbk'e i)ubli(]uc> do rAoadoniio, un Momoiro siir los Nouvollos Docouvertes an iKinl do la mor du Slid ; ot prosentii en inenie teiui)s uue Carte (iiie M. Buaclio avoit droHS(''o Hur sos Meinoires, et qui roprosentoit ooh Doconvortes avoo tonto la partio du i Jlobe terrostro, X laquelle olios ajjpartioiinont. L\'.s Ouvrajros, alors luanuscrit, furont depuis publit's on 17o2, ^I. Huaclio presonta danscotto niouu' aiinoo la promiore partio de sen Considorations yo()j»rai)liiquos' sur le memo sujot, avoo los Cartos qui y otoiout rolativos.f " Muni do cos proniioros connois-sancos [roforrinfj: to tlio difscovorios of 1729-17159] M. de I'lslo tra(;a uno carto cpii n'i)rosontoit I'oxtroniito oriontalo de I'Asio, ivyec la i)artie oppoHoe de I'Aniorifiuo soptontrionale qui y rei)ond, afin de faire voir aisoniont oo qui roi«toit a dt'couvrir, ot il drossa un ^fo- nioiro dans lequel il oxiMjsoit la nianiC're (pi'il jugooit la plus avantagouti-e pour fairo cos docouvertos." J " Mais los vaisfseaux Knssos (pii avoiont oto onvoyos jwur los doconvortes dent nous vonons do ])arlor (17;)i-i741), n'otant pas oiu-oro rovonus lors- qn'olle lui fui onvoyo il extroniit IVxamon apivsson rotouron Franoo, (jui ^toit assoz proohain. A son arrivoo, il ooinmuniqua sos vuos ot ootto rela- tion a M. Buaoho; oolni-oi, qui ]n\r la," otc, otc.'i "Cette Monioiro [do IMslo, 17r)0] etoit aooonipagnoo d'uno carte ,iu 6toit comme I'esquisso du systonic goograi>liique do M. de ITslo sui Ue partio."* It has been pointed out by several authorities that some of M. de risle's statements in his^memoir of 1752 are to be received with caution, especially his elaborate endeavors to impress the Paris Academy with the belief tliat the discoveries of Ikn-inj,^ sul)sequent to the first voyage were the resuh of his (de ITsle's) own carefully considered instructions. In this connection Ade- lung says : "De rislo, in his Exi)lication do la carto des nouvollos docouveilos an Nord [1752], traces out his projxjsed route quite difforoutly [roforring to de rislo's i)revious statomonts in his rojun-t to the St. I'otorslnirg Academy in 17:i2], somewhat as if it had boon (.utiinod in view of acH-omnlishoIl facts." * Extracts from Tlistoiro do I'Acadomio Kovalo dos Sciences Anneo MDCCL (1750), 4°, Paris, 1754; an.l the same, Anneo 175;i, 4°, Paris, 1757. ■fLoc. fit., "Anm'o MDCCI.," p. 142 f //'/(/., p. 151. X ibid,, p. 145. * Loc. ('it., "Ann(''o 1751]," p. 20:1. ; ]Jc Vhles own. Statements. 218 of the •adi'iiiie, Slid ; ot In (ilobe u> aniu'e ue f*ujt.'t, vcrit's (if )ru'iitiik! ,• repoml, II iin ^16- ntagonse 'ouvertes nms lors- •aiuv, <|ui vttt* iH'la- carte ^iii sni ♦te some of •OSS the l}orin<>- Tsk'V) n Ado- .(■rtc's an ■rrin;; to Aradciny inplislit'd 's, Aiini'-t' iris, 17o7. It hehooves us, then, to in(|uirc carefully into the authenticity of the alleged niai) of do I'lsle of 17ol, since if he antedated his opinions as to tlu; route he niight also have antedated his map. Fortunately we do not liaveto depend only on de I'Isle's own slatenicnt, cither in 17o0 Itcforc the Academy of Sciences at Paris, or as ]>ul)lish(>'s first voyage, and had the honor of presenting to the Em[)ress Anne and the Senate, with a manuscri])t memoir exjilaining its use and construction."' The other ma|» (from whicli the litliograpli before you was lat(;ly reproduced) was, according to (U> I'lsle, only changed l)y adding the later discoveries of Ikn-ing and his lieutenants. De I'lsle further says of this chart : "The second maimscript map which I laid before the At-ademy at Paris was in all respects like the former, only with the advantages of the new discoveries made since ITol." Ph. IJuache, the ' 'cnch geographer, made for de I'lsle a re- duced cojty of the second chart, an. Finally, he thought that if they should sail southeast from Kamscliatka they would perhaps more spi-eilily and more certainly discover the ( ountry seen hy Juan de (iama.' " Can the incon.-^istency lietween the dat(>s. as given l)y Miiller and Adelung on the one hand, and by de I'lsle on liie other. l)e reconciled, or is it apparent rather than real ? As llerir.g. accord- ing to the lUissian marine oflicer (Waxel ?) returned to St. Peters- burg on March 1, \im, it is reasonable to supjio.^e that de I'lsle, Statements of the Russian Officer. 21.") Avhose duties were tlioso of u cartograplu'r, had finished Avithin- the next year and a lialf his repnxhictiun of Jierinjjj's workinji; chart. The fact tliat the order of inijuiry about the results of the voya<>e did not leave the i)rivy council until April 17, 1782, does not necessarily indicate that the map at least, if not the memoir, was not ah'eady i)repared. even if not in possession of the Academy of Sciences. It ai)pears probal)le that the map nuiy have been drawn by de I'lsle in 1781, but it is (luite certain that it was not made public until 1782. fjauridsen speaks of a map in IWoscow in 1781, and, as it is evident from '" Lettre d'un " that there was no difiicnlty in per- sons of iidluence procurin^f copies iroin the Senate, it is likely tiiat the Moscow chart was a coin' of the map of de I'lsle, and that the date of 1781 is correct ; but this theory must rest on Laurid- sen producing evidence tliat such a map existed in Moscow in 1781. The Russian officer speaks with authority as to the map of 1782. rommenting on de I'lsle's account of the circumstances under which he compiled the map of 1782, he continues as follows : "Tlic Empress Aiiiu' liaving (lirocted her Senate to give instructions to M. Berinfi: for the second voyairo, tliat body believed that it could not act with success unless it <)l)tained voyajje, M. de risk' only workt>d under si)ecitic orders, it is ipiite another question whether or not the memoir contributed to the success of the c-spedition, which I will discuss later. 1 lowever that may be, the Senate jrave a coi)y of it, as well as of the mai), to M. Herinj;. I took a second copy of the memoir, which enabled me to compare it with what M. '>. The date l~'-V2 is assigned by d'Anvillc's colleague to the map of Bering's journey. Of these mai)S it is further said : "They form what is connnonly known as d'Anvillc's Atlas of China. Nevertheless this j^eographerdid not iiarticipateciiually in the production of all. Thes (of which the Bering inaji isonc) were furnished by the Jesuits and heotdy supervised theenj,'ravinasis — that is, the chart i»repared by do risle in 1732 for the Academy of S In this connection tlie criticism of the I cant. He says: '' 1 will now finish with a <>eneral observation about the part of Siberia that we see on M. de Tlsle's chart (17")2). Jt is simjjly a copy of the Ivussian atlas (174.')), without even corrections of the errors of drawinji and writinjj; which have crept into that work." Elsewhere he adds: "We can correct the error of M. de IMsle, who places Meriuj;- island at ")4 degrees, only a short distance fron< Avatscha, whereas it is on the oOth ])arallel, (JO miles off Avatscha and 40 Dutch miles from the mouth of tlu' Kamschatka river." It is worthy of note that on Bellin's map of 174*.)(?) Bering island is crossed by the -Kith parallel of latitude, and that along the southern edge of the .\rctic ocean is a route track, marked " Voyage fait par Mer en 1(>4S ])ar •") vaisseaux Russiens dont un est parvenu a la Kamtschatka." On de I'lsle's chart of 17o2 also ai)])ears the route of 1(»4S, but P>ering island is in latitude 04°. As to the position of jiering isle, the trutli, as the Wise Man tells us is oft the case, •,ibi2) the Empress ordered that Merin<,''s proposition should be executed, and charged the Senate to take the necessary steps for that i)uri)ose. * •'" * On May 'J it [/. f., the Senate] pro- mulgated two ukases, in which it declared the objects (jf the ex- pedition and sought to indicate the necessary means." It is very improbal)le that, in the case of so dilatory a man as de I'Isle, this chart could have been elaborated and drawn, the memoir written, a report made by the Academy to the Senate, and action be taken in the fifteen days which elapsed between the order for the chart and Jiering's instructions. It is ])()ssible that the chart was drawn at the end of IT-')!, and that de I'lsle, for obvious reasons, gave it the earliest j)Ossible date. In giving an account of Bering's provisions, as Dall says, every historian has followed a mutilated, if not garbled, paragraph from liering's original rei)ort. The excerpts from Hrooke's trans- lation of du Halde, which was followed in ('ampl)eirs edition of Harris' Voyages, are as follows : " The provisions consisted of carrots for want of corn [ - jTrain or wheat], the fat of fish, uncured, served instead of butter, and salt lisli sui)pru>d the place of all other meats." " Fish oil was his butter and dried fish his l)eef and pork. Salt he was obliged to get from the sea ; * * * he distilled spirits from ' sweet straw.' " Tt appears from Bering's own journal, as well as from du Halde's account, that in 1727 liering ordere<' one of bis olliccrs to endeavor to " deliver to the command at Kamschatka some l)art of the provisions, iron, and tar." lUa-ing himself said that he was obliged to use tar made from the native spruce, " since Iier!iif/K Food Siipplir.a. 21!) tlio till- whicli we should have liroii-ilil with us had not arrivt'd." This is confinucd hy the additional note in du llaldc, which says that the provisions, iron, pitch, and tar did not arrive till 1728, couvcyin^' the inference that it canictoo late to he of serv- ice. Herin; had plenty of Hour or meal and meat. Ihavesaid" From Berinji sown report,"' hecause ilseems incred- ii)le that du Halde did not have a trauscri])t of Herinj^'s report, since his narrative (du Ilalde's) follows almost word for word Dall's translation. It is not surprising; that different transcrii)tH should differ slie 4;>(), the numher of lU'rinf>;'s i)arty should l)e f\i> instead of ;{(), and on \K\erin): " liCS j)rovisions consistoient en carottes d en racinctty As indicated by context, the roots were radishes and turnips. The word " carottes '' is explained oy a j;assage in Grieve's Kamshatka as follows: " The morkovai poushki, or carrot hunches, are so called hecause they are like carrots in their leaf as well as in taste. They likewise eat this urecn in the sjirinjf, hut they ofteiier sour it like sour crout or make a li(juor with it." Doubtless ]5orin,' in his later expeditions if not in the lir.st,and whose familiarity with all the records and papers should haveenahled him definitely to contradict de I'lsle on the main (piestion instead of correctini; him in details In his St. Petershurji; memoirs of 17;)S (pajie 1<>) de I'lsle wn : "On verra a cctto occasion la situation dn Kanitcliatka de tcrniincc par deux eclipscH de Lune, (luc M. le Capitainc l?criii>.' i^ ses yens y sont ol)- servccH (lan.s leur piviuier voya^'c [the expedition 172.")-':U)], i^ •li>nt j'ai rendu coniptc a r.\cadcniic aussi-tot jue ces ohscrvatioTis ni'oiit etc coui- nuuiiciuces." • In the paper of Paris, 17o2 (" Noiivelles (lecouvert(>s an .\'ord de la Mcr du Sud ") de Tlsle says on this point: "Captain lieerinjiand his lieutenant likewise took ol)servationsat Kani- schatka of two eclipses of the moon in tiie years ITU'S and 1721», wiiicii helped me to chart the longitudeof that eastern exieniity of Asia witli ail the precision which the nattnv of tlicse observations, niaile hy .seamen and with their own instruments, would ailmit of ; hut these Hrst f Kamsliatka as a, town, hut he a(hls : -'= "It is certain likewise that M. I'.eriiiy; aiul his lieutenant, M.TscliirikdW [< Kitiiijf from tli Bering and de I'lsle ; that he acted as interpreter between them in 1730-17;]1 ; that he was with Herin.g in his last voyage to America, and was one of the ship-Avrecked mariners on Bering island, and that on his return to tSt. Petersl)urg he was charged with the compilations from the various ship journals. As the naval officer states he was with Bering on Bering island, it is evident that it must have been either Swen Waxel, Sophron Chitrow, or Steller, the well-known scientiHc professor serving with Bering's expedition. It (;ould not have been Steller. since the professor was a (Jerman, and moreovi'r he died in November, 1746, prior to the date of the letter. It is imi)robal,le that it was Chitrow, who was originally in a sul)ordinate j)Osilion as a master- of-fleet, but while serving in Kam.shatka and prior to Bering's second voyage was made a lieutenant. It is not likely that a subordinate of ('hitrow's position should have l)een so situate(l in St. Petersburg as to have served as an int* ri)reter l>etwi en Bering and de lisle. It is therefore more than proVtable that Lieutenant Swen Waxel was the author of the letter. In further confirmation, this offi^or says that he is charged with the \m'\r.\- ration of a chart out of the material furnislied l)y the maps and journals of the separate vessels. As we know from other sources. Waxel later made a chart of the Kamscbatka region. Waxel displayed great energy and excellent judgment in con- ducting afiairs on Bering island, both before and after Bering's death, and it is gratifying to note his intellectual discrimination in dealing with de ITsle's fictitious ac(!ount of a journey in America said to have ))een made by one .Vdmiralde Fontc Waxel skilfully dissects this geographical invention, clearly provingitsinc()nsistencies,wbilege(.m-iiphical writers in Knglanil were engaged years later in endeavoring to {.rove its truthfulness. 1 Itincrarij of the Russim OJIicer (Waxel). 223 r It is sioint of Kamtschatka ami went straight to the mouth of the river Bol- schaia-Keka and thenci" to ( )chozk.'" in con- ering's nation ley in ■''ontc. •leariy igla nd liiiess. He further says: " Perhaps it may appear strange that M. Bering during tliis voyage did not fall in v-itli tlie island llVring islan-i) whereon he was shi|)wrecked during his secon.l eviH'dition; 'out ,he isle might have been hidden hy fogs, which are very connn m in thai sea." Waxel's account .d" tlie second voyage is worth translating. l)eing the plain tale of a partieipaid. who is as modest as he is truthful, for Waxel nowhere nu'ntious Ids own nani.> nor the 224 General A. W. Greelij—Benmfs First Voyage. emcient service he rendered first to his chief iind hitcr to his shipwrecked comrades. He writes in " Hue Lettre '' us foUows : " Let us now come to the details of tlie second expedition, which M. de risle pretends owes its orijrin to ii nuii) of///* and v.asun.lertaken accord- in- to a memoir made hy himself. ' I had the honor,' he says, ' in 1731 to present this chart to the Empress Anne and to the Senate, in order to stimulate the Kussians to exi)lorations of what still remained to be dis- covered, and it had its eticct.' Was it time or age which caused M. de risle to commit this error? Could he have forj;otten the orders winch led him to make the chart in question ? Ihid he r.-membered it, perhaps he would not have said that he presented the chart to the Kmpress, and Htill less that he made it in order to excite the Russians to ni'W v. •vhat was still unknown. The first, to sail straight to Jai)au, j)ass Yeco, or rather the straits which sei)arate it fi(tm the islaml of the States and the land of the Company, to discovt'r what is to the north of Yeco and search for the passage between that country ami the coast of eastern Tartary. This is what is called giving advice after the event. In the original memoir there is not a word said about any such researches. M. de I'lsle contents himself with proposing tiiree ilifl"»'r- ent routes for lindingthe countrii's lying near to Kamshatka on the east. Accovjiit of the liassian OJjiccr {Waxcl). 225 The first two, wo must !iivss('(.l in tlu'se Tl I'varci third routes UK'ntioncd in thi' Paris nicnidir. terms : " 1. ' If one julvanccs to tlic most northcm cxtruiuity of Asia, and at tlie same time the most easti'rn point reached by Captain iVrin^M \vronedily and with more cei'titnde by se<'l;i,nr them to the southeast of Kamshatka;' the outcome of which proj"ct showed him his mistake, which is apparently the reason that indiaied him to chaiij.'e it to that of the route by .lajian and 'I'eco. "Nothing' is so imperfect in detail, and withal so dry, as the recital of ^I. Herin;j:'s voyaue witi 1 wliicli M. risii L'ales us. He makes h mi •itart in 17-11 to look to the east of Kamshatka for the land which he had seen indications of in his lirst voyage. " He diil not j^o very far,' he says, led bv a violent storm durinir thick weather, he could not a desert island in latitude .■■)4°, onlv a for, I H'liur assai remain at st'a, and brou-ht n\> on short distance from the Port of Avatclia from whence he had sailed.' ".M. BeriiiL', then, did nothiu'j; but tail, and he did so soon after leaving Jiort. I must therid'ore supplement the mea'j-i'eness of M. an and Kamshatka serviiit different i)laces in .lapan and was receive ■liaiii of islands situated to Linide him. He landed at two d with u'reat civility by the people of the coun trv; but he iievt'r went to Matsmai.thepriiiciiial place 22G (knerai A. II'. Ureely— Bering's First Voyage. on the island of Yccn, as "Si. do I'ThIo I'l-ronoouHly states. lie thoufrht lie had suflk'iently eoini)lied with his instnietions without doinji; so, and re- tnrninf,' to ( k-ho/k, passeil the winter at Yakouzk. As soon as a detailed account of this voyage was seen in St. Petershurg tliey concluded ])y the route which M. Spangenberji; had followed that he must have passed near the coast of Corea, and he was tlu'refore ordered to niake a second voyage in order to confirm the first. He started in 1741 and 1742, but his ship, built hastily and of unseasoned wood, leaked and ol)liged him to return. "inr. Bering and Tschirikow left Ochozk the 4th of September, 1741). They both had the same destination; the second was to follow the track of the first. They only took different vessels so as to be al»le to assist each other more efficaciously in case of any accident. Without entering the Kolschaia-lieka river, as is customary in coming from Ochozk, tluy im- mediately rounded the southern point of Kamshatka and anchored at Avatscha, or port of St. Peter and St. Paul, as they called it. While wintering in these places, they made all their i)reparations for commenc- ing in spring their principal voyage, which was to have .Vnierica as its object. Owing, however, to the uncertainty as to the route which they were to follow, ^I. B^'ring assL'mbled a naval council on the 4th of May, 1741, and it was resolved to endeavor first to discovei- the land of Don Juan de (xama, a fatal resolution which was the cause of all of our disasters. The 4th June we put to sea. M. Bering bad on his vessel, sent by the Academy, an adjutant, M. Steller, physician by profession, but above all well versed in all that pertained to natural history. M. de la (■royere was with M. Tschirikow. .\lthough M. Bering and M. Tschiri- kow were not to separate, according to their instructions, they coidd not avoid it, for eigiit days after sailing they were separated by storms ane suihd)Io to it in the trojjics, but certainly is wrongly given t who were of opinion that we should make a supreme effort to reach Avatsciui, and that it would be time to thvnk of seeking another refuge when we had lost all hope of suc- ceeding in so doing. Tlu' month of October, however, was pas.^od as fruit les.sly as the preceding ones. The DOth of that month wo camoupon two islaivlv(>s in ii position to leave this sorry (Iwcllinj,'. Tlie island wlicre we now found ourselv.'s was des- titute of trees. We were, therefore, obliifod to de])end upon the wood that the sea hrouglit us to build our cabins and warm ourselves. We jjave to this desert i)la('e the name of Uerinji; island, in honor of the ehief of our exi)edition, and it was tiiere that he died, on the Sth of December, of {jrief and sorrow at liavinj? to give up all hope of retuviiinn; to Kamshatka. He refused to eat or (h'ink, and disdained the shelter of our cabins; his advanced age could not rally under such a disaster. We young men kept our courage up, resisted with (irmuess all discouragement, made it a duty to still enjoy life and to makeasniueh as we could out of our prison Jionie. Before our arrival, Bering island was the refuge only of the inhabitants of the , sea, who came there to breathe the air and deposit their young. We were, therefore, able at iirst to ol)serve these creatures very closely without their taking fright. It was only after having seen several of their number fall before our guns that they lied at our a; -oacli. We killed a great iuiird)er of them, as nnich to furnish us with food as for their skins. It was by these valuable spoils, sjdendid castor skins, that we were icpaid in some measure for our sufferings. "At the ai)proach of spring the following year we built of the remains of our vessel, as we had intendeil, a large covered boat, furnished with anchors and sails and able to live at sea if not exposed to storms. In this boat we confided ourselves to the sea, trusting in Trovidence, the 17th of August, 1742, and after nine days at sea, with beautiful calm weather, we arriveg from M. Bering, sailing north- west, he came on the loth of July to a country the shon>s of whitji were lined with rugg(>d rocks, at the foot of which rolled a deep sea. He pru- dently refrained from ai)proaching too near the shore, Imt at the end of three days sent the pilot, Abraham Dementiew, with a cri'^ of ten men, to reconnoiter the country. Neither Dementiew nor any of those who accomi)anien. .\mong the olticers he lost two lieutenants — Licliat- schew and IMautiii. tine iiion and excellent mariners — who miglit have rendered good service had they livi'd. M. Tscliirikow liim.«elf began to have the symptoms ofdisea.se, but good food and the air on land restored him to health. M. de la Croyere was not so fortunate; he ajipeared to luive hell! his own until he was just at the [loint of death. Ilis compan- ions marveled at the good effects of the large ([uantities of brandy which he drank every day ; but they soon saw that the only good it did him was to make him forget his sufferings. Ife died on the lOtli of October, as they were entering the [xirt of .\vatscha, having dressed himself to go on shore and having celebrated his arrival by new t'xcesses. AVe cannot ignore the imixirtant service rendi-red by M. de la Croyere to the exi>edi- tioii, when he recognized the .\mericans who came to ^l. Tscliirikow as bearing great resemblance to the inhabitants of Canada, whom he had met while serving in that country seventeen years before <'oniing to Russia, with the King of France's troops." NoTK. — A pamphlet which has just come into my jiossession, entitled " Lettre de Monsieur dWnville au R. V. C'astel, .lesiiit. .\u sujetdes Paj-s de Kanitchatka," etc (L'4nio, Paris, l".'!?), throws some light on the map of (hi Ilalde (I7.">2), and definitely fixes the date and locality of the obser- vation of tlie-eclii)se of the moon referred to by de I'lsle and the Russian oflicer, as well as later geograjihers. D'Anville says: "The map of Bering's voyage is attributed to me. * * * The only part I had therein was to rechice it from the much 'arger original map, of which 1 had made a tracing by means of oiled paper.- * * * I first learned of Heriug's voyage liy lettei-s from de ITsle, then in liussia ; and finally an account of this voyage having been sent to R. P. du Halde by His >rajesty Stanislas, King of Poland, it was placed in my )iands. :U— Nat. Gkoc, Mao., VOL. Ill, 1S!U. 230 General A. W. (Jvcehj-^Benng's First Voyage. " Likewise, botli l»y a Hlieet of oxtrdnomicttl olrn'rintiotm iniuif hi/ Jltrlinj which came to mi' later, and by the Huine letterw of M. de I'lsle, I kiK^w that the nioutli of tiie river of Kaiuteliatka was found by aHtioiionueal determi- nation to be in latitude 5()° and some minuteH. " l?erin;i in bin naviKntion doubled the southern point of thiss continent [Kamwhatka] in latitude .")1° UK'', as is expressly noted in the sheet of uliHerntliinis which is now befoiv me. " Jlut though the solution of the diHiculty in the case of the Land i-, Jeeo may be very siiuj)le and natural, yet it was not obvious to me, it may )>e s;iid, for JSering's voyav;e and observations caused int; to recur to this subject, and J can no longer doubt that theeastern coast of Ti'r'.ary should be moved to the east as far as the maps of the Jesuits tirst indicated ; for althoujih M. de .Strahlenberg in his excellent map of Siberia shows oidy Vh)^ of longitude between Tobolsk and Okhotsk, and there are even less in de I'Isle's map of Tartary, yet Bering's map indicates that there are 74°. "It was found that it (Ohkfttz) is 25° off of the meridian of Peking, which the observations of P. Gaubil placed in li;>° tift}--odd minutes from Paris, so that it closely ai>proximates the l;>i>° which we have found it to i)e from Bering's observations. This determination does not differ nnich from the result of some astronomical obHervations, which, as I learn from China, ^I. de I'Isle, iiow in Russia, contemj)lated using in order to ascer- tain approximately the longitude of Kamtchat. The observation ui)on which I })lace the most dt'pendence, and which likewise gives the greatest diflerence, is of an eclipse of the moon of February 2."), 1728, of which tlie end was (»bserved on the west coast of Kamtsiiat in latitude r)2° -Hi' X., .". Jean Ilerrem, where it ended at ;5h. ;{4in. a. m., a difference of 8h. 42m. is deduced l)e- tween the meridians of Carthagena and the coast of Kamtshat." It is thus evident that Bering ol)served an eclipse of the moon in Ivam- siiatka, and that the observations came into the hands of M. d'Anville. •J' .V « I i\ JAMtAHY 21, 18512. A. AV. (}. ^H •g* r