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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m*thode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 t BERING'S CHAK^ OF HIS tfttr JmviJltJ'JiUiji jV^ dMuiamodt's Hth T\"f''i"^ i^T HIS FIRST VOYACE I. z :^ ''■"Iff i i ' i i iii M iiii' \^m ~ ■•■'.'■ Jtecattoifrufiret af fi' lifiiiff '\ V ■.IKf -oi 'A ■- ■^ 1 r^ nA-^:^' 1 Hi 4 \\ / »8W. I 1 yv'i XT^J' 3-j;«S M A8i ' Me RUSSIAN EXPLORATIONS, 1725-1743. VITUS BERING : THE DISCOVERER OF BERING STRAIT. BY PETER LAURIDSElSr, Mbmbeb op thb Council op thk Royal Danish Geoguaphical Sociktt, Editor op Jens Munk's "Navioatio Septkntbionalis.' Revised by tue Autdob, and Translated pkom the Danish by JULIUS E. OLSON, assistant Prokxssor of Scandinavian Lanouaobs in tub Univkbsitt o» Wisconsin. with an introduction to the AMERICAN EDITION BY FREDERICK SCHWATKA, Mbdallist ok tub Paris Gkoobaphical Societv, aim»o^*»1k T'l''*»«*<(.f"SOQRAPHicAL Society ok Kussia; Honorary Mbmbeb ^tthk Brkmbi? GjtooPAv.nc..i, Society, AND THB SV'ISS GEOORArHICAL SOCIbW OK OEI^VA; CoURB8P0*DiN0 MBHBBR OF THB ITALIAN GBOOKAPIIIC^i SoCTETY, ETC., ETC.; AUTHOR 'OF " Alono Alaska's 6fBBA« RwKR," K^o., Kic. , ., x- ', \ ! 'V.'^'iorja, ^' CHICAGO: S. C. GRIGGS & COMPANY, 1889. 13466 II COPVIUQUT, 1H«9, By S. C. GIIIGGS AND COMPANY. PRESS OF KNIGHT & LEONARD CO. CHICAGO. coiirrENTS. Lieut. Schwatka's Introduction vii Translator's Prefack xii Author's Preface • • * • . xv PART I. BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITION. Chapter I. Russia and England in the work of Arctic exploration.— Vitus Bering's rank as an explorer 8 Chapter IL Bering's nativity.— Norwegians and Danes in the service of Peter the Great.- Pounding of the Russian navy ... 6 Chapter III. Plans for Bering's First Expedition.— Peter the Great's desire to know the extent of his empire.— The Northeast passage . 13 Chapter IV. Bering's knowledge of Siberian geography. — Terrors of travel- ing in Siberia. — The expedition starts out. — The journey from St. Petersburg to the Pacific 19 m iv CONTENTS. Chapter V. The building of the Gabriel. — The discovery of Bering Strait . 29 Chapter VI. The task assigned by Peter the Great accomplished. — History of the cartography of East Siberia. — Captain Cook's defense of Bering . 35 Chapter VII. Bering's winter at the fort. — Indications of an adjacent con- tinent. — Unsuccessful search for this continent. — Return to St. Petersburg. — General review of the results of the First Expedition 50 PART II. THE GREAT NORTHERN EXPEDITION. Chapter VIII. Bering's plans for a second expedition. — The greatest geograph- ical enterprise ever undertaken 61 Chapter IX. The Great Northern Expedition on its way through Siberia. — Difficulties and dangers encountered and overcome . . 77 Chapter X. Delay of the expedition caused by the death of Lassenius and his command in the Arctic regions. — Dissatisfaction of the Senate and Admiralty with Bering's work 91 Chapter XI. Final Preparations for the Pacific expeditions 99 CONTENTS. ait . 29 sry of nse of . . 35 ; con- urn to : First . . 50 )graph- . . . 61 Siberia. lius and n of the . . . 91 . . . 99 PART III. THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. Chapter XII. The Arctic expeditions,— The Northeast passage.— Severe crit- icisms on Nordenskjold 107 Chapter XIII. The discovery of the Kurile Islands and Japan from the north . 117 Chapter XIV. Preparations for Bering's voyage of discovery to America.— Founding of Petropavlovsk.— The brothers De 1' Isle . . 127 Chapter XV. The discovery of America from the east.— Steller induced to join the expedition.— The separation of the St. Peter and the St. Paul 185 Chapter XVI. Bering's place of landing on the American coast.— Captain Cook's uncertainty.— The question discussed and definitely settled 143 Chapter XVII. Explorations along the American coast.— Steller's censure of Bering for undue haste.— Bering defended.— Dall, the American writer, reprimanded.— The return voyage . . 150 Chapter XVIII. The discovery of the Aleutian Islands.— Terrible hardships of the voyage— Steller's fauH-flnding.— Bering confined to his cabin.— Deaths on board from exhaustion and disease,— Bering Island di-"ov>^.red.— A narrow oscape , , . .164 VI CONTENTS. Chapter XIX. The stay on Bering Island. — Fauna of the island. — A rich field for Steller. — His descriptions immortalize the expedition. — The sea-cow. — Its extermination, — Nordenskjold refuted. — Preparations for wintering. — Sad death of Bering. — An estimate of his work. — Chirikoff's return. — The crew of the St. Peter leave the Island. — The Great Northern Expedi- tion discontinued. — Bering's reports buried in Russian archives. — Bering honored by Cook 174 Appendix. Bering's Report to the Admiralty from Okhotsk . . . 195 Notes 202 Index 217 Maps. i r\f ' ield ted. -An the edi- sian . 174 . 195 . 202 . 217 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. A BIOGRAPHY of the great Bering is of especial interest to American readers desiring an accurate history of a country that has recently come into our possession, and the adjoining regions where most of the geographical investigations of the intrepid Danish-Russian explorer were made. The thorough, con- cise, and pitient work done by Mr. Lauridsen is deserving of world-wide commendation, while the translation into the language of our land by Professor Olson of the University of Wisconsin {)uts students of American historical geography under a debt for this labor of love rather than remuneration that cannot be easily paid, and which is not common in our country. It is a matter of no small national pride that the translation into the English language of a work so near American geographical interests should have been done by an American, rather than emanate from the Hakluyt Society or other British sources, from which we usually derive such valuable translations and compilations of old explorations and the doings of the first explorers. The general American opinion regarding Bering is probably somewhat dififerent from that on the continent which gave him birth and a patron government to carry out his gigantic and immortal plans; or, better speaking, it was different during the controversy in the past over the value and authenticity of the great explorer's works, for European opinion of Bering has slowly been more and more favorable to him, until it has reached the maximum and complete vindication in the admirable labors of Lauridsen, whose painstaking researches in the only archives where authentic data of the doings of the daring Dane could be found, has left no ground for those critics to stand upon, who have vli Vlll INTRODUCTION TO AMEEICAJSI EDITION. i censured Peter the Great's selection of an oriental explorer. In short, America has always respected Bering as a great explorer, and oftentimes heralded hira as one of the highest of heroes, what- ever may have been the varying phases of European thought on the subject; and the reasons therefor, I think, are two-fold. In the first place, the continent which Bering first separated from the old world is yet a new country. Since its discovery, not only exploration, but commercial exploration, or pioneering as we call it, has been going on, and in this every one has taken his part or mingled often with those who have. Presidents who were pioneers, ha.ve been contemporaries with our times, while those who have struggled on the selvage of civilization are numerous among us, and their adventures as narrated in books are familiar stories to our ears. Such a people, I believe, are much less liable to listen to the labored logic of a critic against a man who carried his expedition six thousand miles across a wilderness and launched it on the inhospitable shores of an unknown sea, to solve a problem that has borne them fruit, than others not similarly situated would be. While the invariable rule has been that where the path-finder and critic — unless the critic has been an explorer in the same field — have come in collision, the latter has always gone to the wall, it is easy to see that with a jury that have iselves lived amidst similar, though possibly slighter, frontier fortunes, such a verdict is more readily reached. The other reason, which is not so commendable, is that few Americans at large have interested themselves in the discussion, or in fact knew much about it. True, the criticisms on the Eastern continent have been re-echoed on this side of the water, and even added to, but they have created no general impression worth recording as such in a book that will undoubtedly have far wider circulation than the discussion has ever had, unless I have mis- judged the temper of the American people to desire information on just such work as Bering has done, and which for the first time is presented to them in anything like an authentic way by Professor Olson's translation of Mr. Tiauridsen's work. I do not wish to be understood that we as a nation have been wholly W(^ INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. IX rer. In ixplorer, IS, what- it on the In the Tom the not only we call part or ho were those who us among ar stories liable to sarried his launched a problem ated would path-finder ame field — 3 wall, it is i^ed amidst I verdict is s that few discussion, ;he Eastern r, and even ision worth e far wider I have mis- information or the first itic way by . I do not jeen wholly indifferent to Bering and the discussion of his claims. Par from it. It has rather been that in invading the Bering world their dispo- sition has led them to view the solid ground on which he made his mark, rather than the clouds hovering above, and which this work dissipates. It is rather of that character of ignorance — if so strong a word is justifiable — that is found here in the persistent misspelling of the great explorer's name and the bodies of water which have transmitted it to posterity so well, although the authority — really the absolute demand, if correctness is desired — for the change from Behring to Bering has been well known to exist for a number of years, and is now adopted in even our best elementary geogra- phies. While the animalish axiom that "ignorance is bliss" is probably never true, there may be cases where it is apparently fortunate, and this may be so in that Americans in. being seem- ingly apathetic have really escaped a discussion which after all has ended in placing the man considered in about the same status that they always assumed he had filled. One might argue that it would have been better for Americans, therefore, if they had been pre- sented with a simple and authentic biography of the immortal Danish-Russian, rather than with a book that is both a biography and a defense, but Lauridsen's work after all is the best, I think all will agree, as no biography of Bering could be complete without some account of that part in which he had no making and no share, as well as that better part which he chronicled with his own brain and brawn. I doubt yet if Americans will take very much interest in the dispute over Bering's simple claims in which he could take no part; but that this book, which settles them so clearly, will be welcomed by the reading classes of a nation that by acquisition in Ahiska has brought them so near the field of the labor of Bering, I think there need not be the slightest fear. It is one of the most important links yet welded by the wisdom of man which can be made into a chain of history for our new acquisition whose history is yet so imperfect, and will remain so, until Russian archives are placed in the hands of those they consider fair-minded judges, as in the present work. tv^ X IlfTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. On still broader grounds, it is to be hoped that this work will meet with American success, that it may be an entering wedge to that valuable literature of geographical research and exploration, which from incompatibility of language and other causes has never been fully or even comprehensively opened to English speaking people. It has been well said by one who has opportunities to fairly judge that "it has been known by scientists for some time that more valuable investigation was buried from sight in the Russian language than in any or all others. Pew can imagine what activity in geographical, statistical, astronomical, and other research has gone on in the empire of the Czar. It is predicted that within ten years more students will take up the Russian language than those of other nations of Eastern Europe, simply as a necessity. This youngest family of the Aryans is moving west- ward with its ideas and literature, as well as its r^jpulation and empire. There are no better explorers and no octter recorders of investigations." It is undoubtedly a field in which Americans can reap a rich reward of geographical investigation. There is an idea among some, and even friends of Russia, that their trav- elers and explorers have not done themselves justice in recording their doing-s, but this in the broad sense is not true. Rather they have been poor chroniclers for the public ; but their official reports, hidden away in government archives, are rich in their thorough investigations, oftentimes more nearly perfect and complete than the equivalents in our own language, where it takes no long argu- ment to prove that great attention given to the public and popular account, has been at the expense of the similar qualities in the official report ; while many expeditions, American and British, have not been under official patronage at all, which has seldom been the case with Russian research. As already noted, the bulk of similar volumes from other languages and other archives into tbo English has come from Great Britain ; but probably from the unfortunate bitter antagonism between the two countries which has created an apathy in one and a suspicion in the other that they will not be judged in an unprejudiced way, Russia has not got a fair share of what she has really accomplished geographically translated into i INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. XI ork will vedge to loration, las never speaking mities to )me time , in the imagine nd other predicted Russian simply as 'ing west- a,tion and recorders \.mericans There is ;heir trav- recording ather they ,al reports, • thorough plete than long argu- id popular ties in the •itish, have tu been the of similar bo English infortunate las created sy will not fair share islated into our tongue. It is through America, an unprejudiced nation, that this could be remedied, if a proper interest is shown, and which will probably be determined, in a greater or less degree, by the reception of this book here, although it comes to us in the round- about way of the Danish language. Frkderick Schwatka. rli ill! TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. IN placing before the American public this book on Vitus Bering, I desire to express Tiy cordial thanks to those who by word and deed have assisted me. I am especially grateful to Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, who, in the midst of pressing literary labors consequent on his recent explorations among the cave and cliff dwellers of the Sierra Madre Mountains, has been so exceedingly kind as to write an introduction to the American edition of this work. I feel confident that the introductory words of this doughty explorer will secure for Bering that consideration from the Ameri- can people to which he is fairly entitled, I find it a pleasant duty to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Leonhard Stejneger of the Smithsonian Institution, who has sent me some valuable and interesting notes to the chapter on "The Stay on Bering Island " (Chapter XIX). Dr. Stejneger's notes are of especial interest, for in the years 1883-'84 he spent eighteen months on Bering Island in the service of the United States gov- ernment, the object of his expedition being to study the general natural history of the island, to collect specimens of all kinds, but especially to search for remrjns of the sea-cow. He wished also to identify the places mentioned by Steller, the famous natur- alist of the Bering expedition, in order to compare his description with the localities as they present themselves to-day, and to visit the places where Bering's vessel was wrecked, where the ill-fated expedition wintered, and where Steller made his observations on the sea-cow. The results of Dr. Stejneger's investigations have been published in " Proceedings of the United States National Museum" and in various American and European scientific journals. wmm '" MN if>. . » i w tw w^> 'i«>.-«M»>«bi!S! m ■ .'> In the second place, he received in Yakutsk informa- tion concerning r-flshnefP's journey in 1648 from the Kolyma to the Anadyr River. Although this journey was first critically discussed by G. F. Miiller,* its main features were nevertheless well known in Siberia, and are referred to, among other places, in Strahlenberg's book, whence the results appear in Bellini's map in Peter Charlesvoix's " Histoire du Japan" published in 1735. Unfortunately, however, Bering seems to have had no knowledge of PopofE's expedition to the Chukchees penin- sula and his information concerning the adjacent Ameri- can continent, or of Strahlenberg's outline maps, which were not published until after his departure from St. Petersburg. Bering's two expeditions are unique in the history of Arctic explorations. His real starting point was on the extremest outskirts of the earth, where only the hunter and yassak-collector had preceded him. Kamchatka was at that time just as wild a region as Boothia or the coasts of Smith's Sound are in our day, and, practically viewed, it was far more distant from St. Petersburg than any known point now is from us. One hundred and thirty degrees — several thousand miles — the earth's most inhospitable tracts, the coldest regions on the globe, mountains, endless steppes, impen- etrable forests, morasses, and fields of trackless snow were still between him and the mouth of the Kam- chatka River, and thither he was to lead, not a small expedition, but an enormous provision train and large quantities of material for ship-building. On the journey, * Notes. % i BERING'S FIBST EXPEDITION. 31 infonna- from the s journey its main a, and are rg's book, in Peter in 1735. ve had no lees penin- ent Ameri- aps, which from St. history of Was on the the hunter Kamchatka Boothia or day, and, t from St. 8 from us. I thousand the coldest pes, impen- 3kles8 snow the Kam- aot a small 1 and large the journey. river-boats had to be built by the score, and also two ships. Now his course was up the swift streams of Siberia, and now on horseback or in sledges drawn by dogs through the dreary and desolate forests of the Yakuts and Tunguses. He employed several hundred laborers and twice as many horses to do work which modern ships can accomplish in a few weeks. Franklin, Mackenzie, Schwatka, and many others have traversed vast tracts of the Arctic regions, but their expeditions in light sledges can not be compared with those burden- some transports which Bering and his men dragged from the Gulf of Finland to the shores of the Pacific. In the early part of the year 1725 the expedition was ready to start out from St. Petersburg. The offi- cers were the two Dsnes, Vitus Bering, captain and chief, and Martin Spangberg, lieutenant and second in command, and also the following: Lieut. Alexei Chi- rikoff. Second Lieut. Peter Chaplin, the cartographers Luskin and Patiloff, the mates, Eichard Engel and George Morison, Dr. Niemann, and Rev. Ilarion.* The subordinates were principally sailors, carpenters, sail- makers, blacksmiths, and other mechanics. Peter the Great died Jan. 28, 1725 ; f but a part of the expedition under the command of Lieut. Chiri- koff had already started on the 24th ; Bering followed Feb. 6. They passed the whole of the first summer in toilsome expeditions overland and on rivers in western Siberia. March 16, they arrived at Tobolsk, whence, in May, the journey was continued with four rafts and seven boats by way of the rivers Irtish, Obi, * Note 4. t Here as elsewhere, Oldnvl rie. lilli i ! i i; 1 i' |l!|Si|: iP;i ' J.. I I P'i,< IS ^'! S2 VITUS BERING. Eetj Yenisei, Tunguska, and Ilim, through regions where there was scarcely a Eussian isba, on rivers which were dangerous on account of hidden rocks and skerries, and where progress was constantly interrupted by the transporting that had to be done between the streams. September 39, the expedition arrived at the town of Ilimsk and had to pass the winter there. Meanwhile, however, Lieut. Chaplin had, in the spring, been sent in advance to Yakutsk, in order, at the voivode's (gov- ernor's) to hasten the preparations for transportation in the direction of Okhotsk, whither he was to send a small command who were to fell trees and begin the work of shipbuilding. Bering * himself went to Irkutsk to obtain from +he governor there information concern- ing the climatd and physical features of Eastern Siberia, the modes of travel, and means of transportation in that distant and little known country. Spangberg was sent with mechanics and soldiers to the Kut, a tribu- tary of the Lena, for the purpose of cutting timber and building vessels for the voyages to be made in the spring. At Ustkutsk there were built in all fifteen barges (about 45 feet long, 12 feet wide and 15 inches deep) and fourteen boats. On May 8, 1726, Spangberg sailed for Yakutsk, and somewhat later ChirikofiE started off with the rear. By the middle of June, the expedition was gathered at the capital of East Siberia, which at that time had three hundred houses. Here Bering remained until the 16th of August, busily engaged in making preparations for the difficult journey eastward. He had made two thousand leathern sacks for transporting * Note 6. Bering's first expedition. 23 flour to Okhotsk, and gave the voivode orders to keep in readiness six hundred horses to forward other neces- saries for the expedition. From this point the expedition traveled an entirely untrodden path, and the 1026 versts (685 miles) to Okhotsk were a severe test of its endurance. Even in our day, this journey can be made only under the great- est difficulties. The region is rough and mountainous, and intersected by deep streams without bridges or other meanp of crossing. The traveler must traverse dangerous swamps and tundras, or cut his way through dense forests. In the winter the difficulties are doubled. Horses, reindeer, and dogs soon become exhausted on these unbroken roads. A space cleared in the snow, where the cooking, eating, and sleeping are done, is the only shelter. The temperature falls to — 46° R. (71° Fahrenheit). Clothing must be changed daily to avoid dampness, and when the poorgas (blizzards) sweep over the snowy wastes, a few steps from camp are often fatal. This is a description of that region in our day, and it was hardly any more inviting over a hundred and fifty years ago. It was found necessary to divide the expedition. The branching tributaries of the Lena offered possi- bilities for transportation which had to be taken advan- tage of. Hence, as early as July 7, Lieut. Spangberg was sent by river with thirteen rafts loaded with materi- als, and a force of 204 workmen to reach Yudomskaya Krest by way of the tributaries Aldan, Maya, and Yudoma, and thence across a ridge down to the river Urak, which flows into the Sea of Okhotsk. The over- >^-- mm^ t: 1 ) li-i! iiiitiiii ;!':■ i HI Pit .j!' U VITUS BEEING. land expeditions, consisting of 800 horses, were sent in various directions. Bering himself started out on August IG, with 200 horses, and after a journey of forty-five days, reached Okhotsk. The journey was a very difficult one. The horses sought in vain for food under the deep snow. Scores of them were overcome by hunger and exhaustion. The severe cold caused the forces much suffering and hardship, nor did they find but few comforts when they reached Okhotsk in the latter part of October. The town consisted of only eleven huts, with ten Russian families, who supported themselves by fishing. Here, too, many of the horses died for lack of food, and a herd of heifers sent there by Shestakoff was lost from the same cause. Only one survived the winter. It was now necessary to build huts for the winter. The whole of November was spent in felling trees, and not until December 2, could Bering take shelter under a roof of his own. On the other hand, the ship for the expedition was on the stocks, and in spite of all troubles and privations, Bering found time to push forward vigorously its construction. Spangberg, however, fared worst of all. Winter took him by surprise two hundred and seventy-five miles from Yudomskaya Krest, the nearest inhabited place, in an entirely ban-en and swampy region where he could not obtain the slightest assistance. His boats and the bulk of their provisions had to be left at the confluence of the Yorbovaya and the Yudoma, while he and his men, with wb i provisions they could take with them on the hand-sleds, started out for Okhotsk on foot. i Bering's fikst expedition. 25 sent in out on urney of sy was a for food overcome lused the ihey find !k in the of only mpported le horses lent there se. Only y to build was spent 2, could On the IS on the )rivations, fously its inter took five miles ted place, 3 he could 3 and the confluence e and his vith them on foot. Meanwhile, the severity of the winter increased, the mercury congealed, and the snow was soon six feet deep. This forced them to leave their sleds, and for eight full weeks after November 4, these travelers sought shelter every night in the snows of Siberia, wrapped in all the furs they could possibly get hold of. Their provisions were soon exhausted, famine soon became a companion to cold, and matters even came to such a pass that they were compelled to try to maintain life by gnawing "straps, leathern bags, and shoes." They would surely have starved to death, had they not accidentally happened to strike Bering's route, where they found dead horses and a few hundred-weights of flour. December 21, Bering received from Spang- berg a message, relating that he had started for Yud- omskaya Krest with ninety-six sledges, and that he had left the boats in charge of a mate and six guards. Bering immediately dispatched ten sledges with pro- visions for his relief, and on the succeeding day, thirty- seven sledges with thirty-nine men. January 6, 1727, Spangberg reached Okhotsk, and a few days later his whole command had arrived, eighteen of whom were now sick. Twice during the course of the winter, Spang- berg and Chaplin were obliged to repeat this journey to rescue the materials at the Yudoma. Not until mjjisummer, 1727, did the rear under the command of ChirikofE arrive from Yakutsk. And yet Bering was far from the place where his work of discovery could begin. On June 8, the new ship Fortuna was launched and equipped for the prospective voyage. Moreover, the ship that had been M VITUS BERING. used in exploring the Sea of Okhotsk in 1716 arrived, and after thorough repairs was put into the service. Bering's next objective point was the mouth of the river Bolshoya in southwestern Kamchatka. From the mouth of this riv^er, which is navigable for small ves- sels, he took the Cossack route to the interior, first up the Bolshoya to the tributary Byistraya, then up this to within forty versts of its source, thence across a port- age to the Kamchatka, the mouth of which was his real objective point. From this position he would be able to fall back upon the Russian colony, which com prised a number of unimportant stockaded forts on the Bolshoya and Kamchatka rivers, and could also gain support from that control of the natives which was exercised from this point. This change of base could have been much more easily and quickly accomplished by sailing around the Kamchatka Penin- sula, but this was something that had never been done. No accurate information was to be had in regard to the waters, or to the location of any place. Possibly Bering had not as yet been able to disabuse his mind of the prevalent delusions concerning the great extent of Kam- chatka. In the second place, he was no doubt unwilling to trust his invaluable stores in the inferior vessels built at Okhotsk. Hence he took the old route. July 1, Spangberg sailed with the Fortuna |or Bolsheretsk, accompanied by thirteen Siberian traders. Two days later Chirikoff brought up the rear from Yakutsk. Somewhat later, the quartermaster arrived with 110 horses and 200 sacks of flour. A week later 63 horses more arrived, on July 20, one soldier with m^^ BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITIOST. 21 80 horses, and by the 30th over 150 horses more, and also 50 oxen. August 11, Spangberg returned from his voyage to the Bolshoya Biver, and on tne 19th the whole com- mand went on board, — some on the Fortuna and others on the old vessel. Their destination was the Bolshoya, situated 650 miles from Okhotsk, where they arrived September 4. Here the cargoes were trans- ferred to boats and, in the course of the month of September, brought to the fort, a simple log fortress with seventeen Russian dwellings and a chapel, twenty miles from the sea. It took the whole winter to trav- erse, first with boats and later with sledges, the 585 miles across Kamchatka, from Bolsheretsk to the lower Kamchatka fort. Under the greatest difficulties, the expedition now followed the course of the Kamchatka River, camping at night in the snow, and enduring many a fierce struggle with the inclement weather. The natives were summoned fror *ar and near to assist in transporting their goods, but iae undertaking proved fatal to many of them. Finally on March 11, 1738, Bering reached his destination, the lower Kamchatka Ostrog,* where he found forty huts scattered along the banks of the river, a fort, and a church. A handful of Cossacks lived here. They occupied huts built above the surface of the ground. They did not always eat their fish raw, but in other respects lived like the natives, and were in no regard much more civilized than they. The fort was located twenty miles from the sea, surrounded by forests of larch, which yielded excellent * An Ostrog Is a stockaded post or village. 88 VITUS BERING. material for ship-building. From this point the explor- ing party proper was to start out.* •Note 6. mi'' ini; the explor- CHAPTER V. THE BUILDING OF THE GABRIEL — THE DiaCOVERY OF BERING STRAIT. "OERING now found himself upon the bleak shores of -'--' an Arctic sea, with no other resources than those he had brought with him, or could extort from these barren tracts. He again began the work of ship-building, and in the summer of 1728, a ship called the Gabriel, staunch enough to weather a heavy sea, was launched. The timber for this vessel had been hauled to the ship-yard by dogs; the tar they had prepared themselves, while rig- ging, cable, and anchors had been dragged nearly two thousand miles through one of the most desolate regions of the earth. And as for the provisions, they would cer- tainly strike terror in the hearts of Arctic explorers of to-day. " Fish oil was his butter, and dried fish his beef and pork. Salt he was obliged to get from the sea," and according to the directions of the Cossacks he distilled spirits from "sweet straw."* Thus supplied with a year's provisions, he started upon his voyage of discovery along an unknown coast and on an unknown sea. **It is certain," says Dr. Campbell concerning Bering at this stage, " that no person better fitted for this undertaking could have been found ; no difficulty, no danger daunted • Note 7. 80 80 VITUS BERING. him. With untiring industry and almost incredible patience he overcame those difficulties which to anyone else would have seemed insurmountable." On July 9, the Gabriel started down the river, and on tha 13th the sails were hoisted. The crew numbered forty- four men: namely, one captain, two lieutenants, one sec- ond lieutenant, one physician, one quartermaster, eight sailors, one saddler, one rope-maker, five carpenters, one bailiff, two Cossacks, nine soldiers, six servants, ore drummer, and two interpreters. Bering^s point of departure was the lower Kamchatka fort, situated 160° 50' east of Greenwich, the variation of the compass being 13° 10' E. The latitude of the cape at the mouth of the Kamchatka River was determined as 56° 3' N., which agrees with the observations made by Cook, who was very near this point on his last voyage. The day was reckoned from 13 o'clock at noon, on which account his dating do-4j not correspond with that of civil time ; hence, the 16th of August with him began on the 15th, at noon. The mile of the journal is the Italian mile, which is somewhat longer than the English mile. Bering's course was nearly all the time along the coast, in from nine to twelve fathoms of water, and usually with land in sight to the north and west. On July 27, they passed Cape St. Thaddeus at a distance of three miles, and here the sea seemed fairly alive with spotted whales, seals, sea-lions, and dolphins. After having sailed past the Aridyr River, without quite being able to find their bear! jgs in regions of which they had not a single astronomical determination, and where they were not successful in find- ing any natives, they finally, on July 31, saw land extend- Bering's first expedition. 31 incredible | 1 to anyone iver, and on ibered f orty- nts, one sec- naster, eight ■penters, one ervants, one s point of situated 160° ompass being nouth of the which agrees vas very near eckoned from iting do"^ not !, the 16th of >n. The mile is somewhat rse was nearly ine to twelve 1 sight to the sed Cape St. and here the leals, sea-lions, the Anadyr J »ir bearijigs in I astronomical | cessful in find- w land extend- ing along the northern horizon, and soon afterwards sailed into the Bay of the Holy Cross (St. Kresta Bay) where the Gabriel spent two days under sail in search of fresh water and a place to anchor. On the 2d of August the latitude was determined as 60° 50' N., whereupon the voyage was continued to the southeast along the high and rocky coast, where every indentation was very carefully explored. August 6, the Gabriel lay in the Bay of Preobrashensky, and on the 7th, Chaplin was sent ashore to obtain water from a mountain stream. On his way he found huts, where there had quite recently been Chukchees, and in various places he found foot- paths, but met no human beings. On the 8th, Bering sailed along the coast in a south southeasterly direction. At 7 o'clock, a boat containing eight men was seen rowing toward the vessel. They did not, however, dare to approach the Gabriel, but at last one of the number jumped into the water, and on two inflated seal bladders swam out to tho ship, and announced, by the aid of the two Koriak interpri 3rs, that they were Chukchees, and that their people Uved along the coast, that they knew the Russians well, that the Anadyr River lay fai- to the west, that the continent extended in the same direction, and that they would soon get sight of an island. The Koriaks, however, understood his language only imper- fectly, and the journal regrets that they were on this account prevented from obtaining further important information. Bering gave him some small presents and sent him back to try to persuade his companions to come on board. They approached the vessel, but suddenly turned and disappeared. The longitude was 64° 41'. w 32 VITUS BERING. August 9, Cape Chukotskoi was doubled, an import- ant event in the history of this expedition, — an event which Miiller, in order to make results fit into his frame, has not even mentioned. The name, it is true, is not found in the journal, but it appears on Bering's chart in Du Halde's work, which Miiller knew. Bering deter- mined the southern extremity of the cape to be 64° 18', Cook 64° 13'. August 11, the weather was calm and cloudy. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, they saw an island toward the southeast, which Bering, in honor of the day, called St. Lawrence. At noon the latitude was found to be 64° 20', and hence the Gabriel was in the strait between Asia and America. August 12, there was a light breeze and cloudy weather. On this day they sailed sixty-nine miles, but the differ- ence in latitude was only 29'. At sunset the longi- tude was computed by the aid of the variation of the needle to be 25° 31' east of the lower Kamchatka fort, or 187° 21' east of Greenwich. August 13, a fresh breeze and cloudy. Bering sailed during the whole da} with land in sight, and the differ- ence in latitude was only 78'. August 14:, weather calm and cloudy. They sailed 29 miles + 8f miles for the current. The course of the current was from south southeast to north northwest. At noon the latitude was 66° 41' when they saw high land astern, and three hours later high mountains. (East Cape is 66° 6' N. lat. and 190° 21' east of Greenwich.) August 15, gentle wind, cloudy weather. From noon until 3 o'clock Bering sailed to the northeast, and after BERING S EIKST EXPEDITION. 33 r 4 4 u having sailed seven miles in this direction, he determined to turn back. At 3 o'clock he announced, that as he had now accomplished his task, it was his duty, accord- ing to his orders, to return. His bearings were then 67° 18' N. latitude, and 30° 19' east of the Kamchatka fort, or 193° 7' east of Greenwich. In Du "lalde, wnere Bering himself gives his reasons, it is stated : " This was Captain Bering's most northerly point. He thought that he had accomplished his task and obeyed orders, especially as he no longer could see the coast extending toward the north in the same way. (Surtout, parcequ'il ne voyait plus que Ics terrea coyitinuassent de courier de meme du cote du Nord.") ^ ' )reover, if they should go farther, he feared, in case they sin ild have adverse winds that they might not be able to return ' Kamchatka before the end of the summer, and how wei" they to be able to pass the winter in such a climate, liable to fall into the hands of a people who had not yet been subjugateu, and wlio were^ human only in outward appearan'c* When Bering turned about, his command was to steer south by west, half west. In this cour ^e they sailed with the wind at a rate of more than sev< aiiles an hour. At 9 o'clock in the morning, they saw a high mountain on the right, where Chukchees lived, and to the left and seaward thif saw an island, which in honor of the day they called Diomedo.f This day they sailed 115 miles, and reached latitude 66° 2'. On August 17, Bering again passed the narrowest part of the strait. The weather was cloudy, there was a fresh breeze, and they sailed along the Asiatic coast, whore A • n \ m 1, 15 ( j Mi rP ' Note 8. t Note 9. Ml •I J ^■■■'pr 34 VITUS BEKING. they saw many Chukchees, and at two places they saw dwellings. The natives fled at the sight of the ship. At 3 o'clock very high land and mountains were passed. With a very good breeze, they had been enabled to sail 164 miles, and an observation showed that they were in latitude 64° 27'. According to this, Bering was out of the strait and getting farther and farther away from the American continent. August 18, the wind was light and the weather clear. On the 20th, beyond the Island of St. Lawrence, he met other Chukchees, who told him that they had made jour- neys from the Kolyma River westward to Olenek, but that they never went by sea. They knew of the Anadyr fort which lay farther to the south; on this coast there dwelt people of their race; others they did not know. After a storm on the Slst of August, in which the main and foresail were rent, the anchor cable was broken and the anchor lost, they reached the mouth of the Kam- chatka at 5 o'clock P. M., SepteiSiber 2, 1728. 1 t ii ) y. ' I n CHAPTER VI. THE TASK ASSIGNED BY PETER THE GREAT ACCOM- PLISHED. — HISTORY OF THE CARTOGRAPHY OF EAST SIBERIA. — CAPTAIN" COOK'S DEFENSE OF BERING. "O EKING turned back because he felt convinced that -'--' he had sailed around the northeastern corner of Asia, and had demonstrated that in this part of the earth the two great continents were not connected. The third point in his orders was of course dropped, for along the Siberian coasts of the Arctic sea, he could expect to find neither European colonists nor ships ; hence, further search with this object in view would be vain. He h \ a very clear idea of the general outline of eastern Asia, and this knowledge was based upon the facts of his own voyage, the information he had ob- tained in Yakutsk about DeshnefE's expedition from Kolyma to Anadyr, and upon the account which the natives gave of the country and of their commercial journeys westward to Olenek. He was, moreover, convinced that he had given the search for a Northeast passage a rational foundation, and his thoughts on this subject are found clearly pre- sented in a correspondence from St. Petersburg to a Copenhagen periodical, Nye Tidende, in 1730, whence the following : ** Bering has ascertained that there really 86 til yA m \\\Z 'I' 'i fit Pi ( ii .rr li. .. 36 VITUS BERING. does exist a Northeast passage, and that from the Lena River it is possible, provided one is not prevented by polc:r ice, to sail to Kamchatka, and thence to Japan, China, and the East Indies.'* This correspondence, which appeared immediately after his return on the first of March, 1730, originated either with him or with some of his immediate friends, and shows that he fully appreciated the extent of his discovery.* It was this conviction that led him to undertake his next great enterprise, the navigating and charting of the North- east passage from the Obi Eiver to Japan, — from the known West to the known East. Unfortunately, however, the principal result of his work remains as above stated. An unhappy fate pre- vented him from discovering the adjacent American continent. At the narrowest place, Bering Strait is 39 miles wide; and hence, under favorable conditions, it is possible to see simultaneously the coast-lines of both continents.! Cook, more fortunate than Bering, was enabled to do this, for when he approached the strait, the sun dispersed the fog, and at one glance both con- tinents were seen. With Bering it was otherwise, for, as we have seen from his journal, the weather during the whole time that he was in the strait, both on the voyage up and back, was dark and cloudy. Not until the 18th of August did the weather clear up, but as the Gabriel was sailing before a sharp breeze, he was then too far away to see land on the other side. "This," Von Baer exclaims, "must be called bad luck." 'I [■■;! • Note 10, t Note 11. It -^ilS BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITION. 37 ■4 ■ -^ i We may possibly feel inclined to blame Bering for his haste. Why did he not cruise about in the region of 65° to G7° north latitude ? A few hours' sailing would have brought him to the American coast. This objec- tion may, however, prove to be illegitimate. The geo- graphical explorer, as well as every other investigator, has a right to be judged from the standpoint of his times, and on the basis of his own premises. Bering had no apprehension of an adjacent continent, partly on account of the Koriak interpreter's imperfect knowl- edge of the Chukchee tongue, partly as a result of the fact that the knowledge of the times concerning the western coast of America was very meager. This knowledge extended no farther than to 43° north latitude, — to Cape Blanco in California; hence, in the nature of things, he could not be expected to search for land which presumably he knew nothing of. But here we must also take into consideration his poor equipment. His cables, ropes, and sails were in such bad condition, after the three years' transport thrcugh Siberia, that he could not weather a storm, and his stock of provisions was running so low that it put an unpleasant check on any inclination to overreach his main object, and this, as we have seen, did not include the exploration of an American coast, if separated from Asia. To explore a new coast thirteen degrees of lati- tude and thirty degrees of longitude in extent, and make such a chart of it that its outline is comparatively cor- rect, and which, for a long time, was far superior to any- thing made afterward,* ought certainly to be considered ♦ Note 12. m t'(:i ir VITUS BERING. Vlli 11 m a splendid result, when we remember that the objects of the expedition were entirely of a nautico-geographical character. Bering's determinations of longitude in East Siberia were the first made there, and through them it was ascertained that the country extended thirty de- grees farther toward the east than was supposed. His observations were based on two eclipses of the moon in Kamchatka in the years 1728 and 1729,* and although they were not entirely accurate, they vary so little, that the general position of the country wis established. And hence we are not surprised to find aat no one has given Bering a better testimonial than his great and more fortunate successor. Captain Cook. He says: f **In justice to the memory of Bering, I must say, that he has delineated the coast very well, and fixed the latitude and longitude of the points better than could be expected from the methods he had to go by." Yes, Captain Cook found it necessary to defend Bering against the only official report of the expedition which at that time had appeared, and more than once he puts in proper relief Bering's sober investigations, as compared with Miiller's fancies and guesses. Before the time of Cook, it had been customary to depreciate Bering's work ; J but since that time Admiral Liitke, a hundred years after Bering's death, has defended his reputation, and Berch, who very carefully perused his journals, repeatedly expresses his admiration for the accuracy with which the nautical computations were made. This statement is made after a comparison of results with those obtained by Captain Cook. * Note 13. t Note 14. t Note 15. Bering's first expedition. 89 Furthermore, as has ah-eady been said, Bering was not aware of the fact that he was sailing in a compara- tively narrow sound, — in that strait which has carried his name to posterity. He saw nothing beyond the nearest of the Diomede Islands, that is to say, the middle of the strait ; and this island, as we have seen, is mentioned in the journal and on the chart, with the latitude correctly given.* His name was not immedi- ately associated with these regions. The first place, so far as I am able to ascertain, that the name Bering Strait appears, is on a map which accompanies Eob. de Vangondie's '' Memoir e sur les pays de I'Asie," Paris, 1774. But it is especially to Captain Cook's high-mind- edness that the name was retained, for it was used in his great work. Later, Keinholdt Forster, who charac- terizes Bering as '*a meritorious and truly great navi- gator," triumphantly fought his cause against Biisching and others, f But even at the present time, an interesting misunder- standing attaches to this part of Bering's history and the cartography of these regions. In our Arctic literature and on all our polar maps, it is asserted that Vitus Bering, on his first voyage, turned back at Cape Serdze Kamen. That such a supposition has been able to maintain itself, only shows how little the original sources of his history are known in West Europe, and how unheeded they have been in Kussia. About a hundred years ago the Danish Admiral De Lowenorn and the English hydrographer A. Dalrymple showed that Frobisher Strait had by some ignorant hand been located on the east coast of Greenland, • Note 10. t Note 17. i>! i;j'. !l mi If. *'J(Jl 40 VITUS BERING. while it was in reality located on the coast of Meta incognita beyond Davis Strait.* A similar error presents itself in connection with Serdze Kamen. It can be his- torically established that this name has been the object of a double change, and that the present Serdze Kamen on the northern coast of the Chukchee peninsula, has nothing whatever to do with the history of Bering and his voyage. This misunderstanding is, however, not of recent date, for as early as in the first decade after the voyage, it was assumed that Bering's course, even after he had passed East Cape, was along the coast. Thus I find on a map by Hazius in Nuremberg, 1738, f and other maps of about the same time, based on Bering's map as given by Du Halde, that the Gabriel's turning point is marked by a star near the coast with the same latitude as the present Serdze Kamen, with the following explau'i.- tion : " Terminus litorum a Nava.^^ho Beerings recog- nitorum." This supposition gradually gained ground in West Europe as well as in Russia, especially so, too, as Bering's new expedition and consequent death prevented him from correcting the error, and as there for a genera- tion was nothing more known of the voyage than the resum6 which appears in Du Halde's work. Moreover, the manner in which the coast-line in Bering's original map is extended beyond East Cape, has only served to strengthen the opinion. The fact is that Serdze Kamen was a name unknown to Bering. It is found neither on his map, in his own account, nor in the ship's Jou^inal, and could not be so found for a very obvious reason- Bering had never been there. * Note 18. t Note 18. Bering's first expedition. 41 After having passed East Cape on tlie 14tli of August, he no longer sailed along the coast. On that day at noon they still saw land astern, and three hours later, high mountains, but during the succeeding forty- eight hours land was seen neither to the east nor the west. As we have seen, the journal gives the turning point as 4° 44' east of Cape Chukotskoi, and Dr. Campbell gives another series of astronomical determinations, sent by Bering from Kamchatka to the Senate in St. Peters- burg, and these show in a striking way that the turning point was east of the northeastern corner of Asia. According to these :* The Island of St. Lawrence is 64° north latitude and 122° 55' east of Tobolsk. The Island of Diomede is 66° north latitude and 125° 42' east of Tobolsk. The turning point, 67° 18' north latitude and 126° 7' east of Tobolsk. Hence, Serdze Kamen (07° 3' north latitude and 188° 11' east of Greenwich), as Berchf expressly remarks, must have lain more than four degrees west of the turning point. That this must have been so appears also from the ccnrse of the vessel on its return, west southwest, which would have been impossible, if the Gabriel had been near the north coast, intending to return through the strait. Among recent writers, Von BaerJ alone criti- cally calls attention to these facts, without, however, thoroughly investigating the case. This I shall now attempt to do. i • Note 80. t Note 21. X Note 83. ri ry mi lii . ■ 48 VITUS BERING. :3 1* ' ^'M- The name Serclze Kamen appears for the first time — historically speaking — in Gerhard Fr. M'"'ller'8 Samm- lung Russischer Geschichte, Vol. III., 1758.* He says : ''Bering finally, in a latitude of 67° 18', reached a head- land whence the coast recedes to the west. From this the captain drew the very plausible conclubion that he now had reached the most northeasterly point of Asia. But here we are forced to admit that the circumstance upon which the captain based his conclusion was i .'se, as it has since been learned that the above-mentiv c' ;»-. headland was identical with the one called Serdze Kamen by the inhabitants of Fort Anadyr, on account of the promon- tory being heart-shaped.'* Even this looks suspicious. The account of some ignorant Cossacks is presented as a corrective to the report of educated navigators, and it is also indicated that the garrison at Fort Anadyr had exact knowledge of the northern coast of the Chukchee penin- sula, something it did not have at all.f But in order to understand Miiller, it is necessary to make a slight digression. When Bering, in the summer of 1729, was on his return to St. Petersburg, he met, between Okhotsk and Yakutsk, the Cossack chief Shestakoff, who by the aid of Bering's ships intended to undertake an extensive military expedition in the eastern seas. He soon fell, however, in an engagement, but his comrade Captain Pavlutski led an invasion into the land of the Chukchees. From Fort Anadyr he went northward to the Arctic Ocean, thence along the coast toward the east, then across the Chukchee peninsula to the Pacific. A more detailed account than this cannot be given, for bis • Note 83. tHoteJil Ilii Ji';; Bering's first expedition. 48 route as indicated on Miiller's map is an impossible one. This much, however, seems to be irrefutable: shortly after having crossed the Chukchee peninsula in a south- erly direction, he came to a sea, and this sea could be no other than Bering Sea.* Moreover, it appears from the account, that he was on his return to the fort. Miiller goes on to say : " From here he sent a part of his men in boats, whither he himself with the majority of the party proceeded by land, following the shore, which at th place extended toward the southeast. Those in boats were so near the shore that they reported to him every evening. On the seventh day, the party in boats came to the mouth of a river, and twelve days later, to the mouth of another. At about seven miles from this point there extends eastward far into the sea a headland, which is first mountainous, but then flat, as far as the eye can reach. This headland is probably what induced Captain Bering to turn back. Among the mountains on this pro- montory there is one which, as already noted, is by the natives of Anadyrskoi Ostrog called Serdze Kamen. From here Pavlutski started for the interior.^' On this loose reasoning rests Serdze Kamen, — a process of reason- ing which attempts to show clearly that this headland must be a point on the Pacific coast, and that it must have lain many days' journey west of Bering Strait. But how is it possible, that Miiller could have been so confused as to make such strange blunders ? The case could not thus have presented itself to him. On the basis of Deshneff's journey and Pavlutski's cruise, he formed in his imagination a picture of northeastern • Note 86. si 44 VITUS BERING. k I" Siberia, in which the Chukehee peninsula assumed a double horned shape, or — as Von Baer expresses it — resembled a bull's horn. Hl uaed Bering's chart as a foundation when he had no other, but he omitted Cape Ghukotskci, and on the 66th parallel he inserted Serdze Kamen. From this point he made the coast recede, first westward, then northward and eastward to a large circular peninsula situated be- tween 72°-75° north latitude, which he called Chukots- koi Koss. It is this imaginary peninsula which Pavlutski crosses. He accordingly reacheis the Pacific coast to the north of Bering Strait, and in this way Miiller succeed », in locating Serdze Kamen north of the strait. Hence, according to Miiller's opinion, Bering had never doubled the northeastern corner of Asia, and he had never been out of the Pacific. "And although the coast beyond Serdze Kamen," he says, *' turns westward, it forms only a large bay, and the coast-line again takes a northerly direction to Chukotskoi Noss, n, large peninsula in a lati- tude of 70° or more, and where it wou^'l first be possible to say authoritatively that the two hemispheres were not connected. But how could all this have been known on the biiip? The correct idea of the shape of the land of the Chukchees and the peninsula bearing the same name, is due to geographical investigations instituted by me at Yakutsk in 173G and 1737." Blinded by the archival dust of Yakutsk, Miiller con- fused everything. Cape Chukotskoi, which Bering had found to be in latitude 64° 18' N,, was placed beyond 73° N. ; Bering's most nortiierly point, which lay far out in the sea, was changed to a headlana in latitude 66^ N., ! f BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITION. 45 and, misled by some vague reports from the garrison at Fort Anadyr, he called this point Serdze Kamen. Every- thing is guess-work ! But where did Miiller get his Serdze Kamen, and what place was it that the garrison at Fort Anadyr called by this name ? For of the extreme northeast part of the peninsula, or the details of Bering's voyage — especially as early as in 1730 — they could have had no knowledge. The explanation is not difficult. On Eussian maps of the last century, those of Pallas and Billings, for example,* there is found on the eastern shore of St. Ilresta Bay, some- what northeast of the mouth of the Anadyr, a cape which bears the name of Serdze Kamen. As Bering does not have this name, and as it seems to have been known as early as at the time of Pavlutski, it must have originated either with him and the Cossacks at the fort, or with the Cliukchees. Sauer relates the following concerning the origin of the name: "Serdze Kamen is a very remarkable mountain projecting into the bay at Anadyr. Tlie land side of this mountain has many caves, to which the Chukchees fled when Pavlutski attacked them, and from where they kUled a large number of Russians as they passed. Pav- lutski was consequently obliged to seek reinfoi'cements at Anadyr, where he told that the Chukchees i^hot his men from the heart of the cliff, and hence it received the name of Serdze Kamen, or the heart-cliff." But this account, which finds no authority wliatever in Sauer's work, is severely criticised by Liitke, who calls attention to the fact that the Chukchees called a mountain on the eastexn shore of the St. Kresta Bay Liiifjlin Ga'i, that is, •Note 86, u :lh •4} '4 • . '1 '- \ m w 46 VITUS BERING. the heart-cliff. It is quite improbable that they got this name from the Cossacks in Anadyrsk, and hence we here undoubtedly have the origin of the name.* In Steller's various works one can see what confused ideas concerning Bering's first expedition the academists who wrote his history really had. They succeeded in bringing confusion into the simplest questions, and, as a result, wrecked his reputation. In Steller's description of Kamchatka, where he enumerates the headlands of the peninsula, a remarkable statement is found, which offers excellent proof of the correctness of Liitke'^ opinion, f The situation of Serdze Kamen between East Cape and the mouth of the Anadyr is here distinctly given. Hence, according to his opinion, Bering reached no farther than to St. Kresta Bay, and the sarcastic remarks plainly show Steller's partisan view. J Miiller was not so rash. When he moved Cape Chukotskoi half a dozen degrees farther to the north, he moved Serdze Kamen also, and carried it from St. Kresta Bay up into Bering Strait. In this cool move he was fortunate enough to get into a closer agreement with Bering's determination of lati- tude, but unfortunately hit upon new difficulties. His own map is based upon Bering's, as he liad no other, but Bering's voyage did not, as is well known, end at any headland. Neither his chart nor his Journal supports ♦Note 87. tThe passage Is: "7)«s Tsfihtiktschische Vorgebihge in Nord Osten, (else- where he locates it in latitude 60° N.), eln anderes 2 Gnid oluigefaehr slid- licher, Sirzakamen, der IferzHfein gennent, der auch bey der ersten Expedifion der herzllchen Courage der See-Officier die Grlinzen gesetzt. Ohrwfit detmelhen ist fine sehr graze EinbucM nnd gufer Hafen, auch vor die grosesten Fahrzenge; Das AnadirskiBche Vorgebiirge " tNote 88. Bering's first expedition. 47 any such theory, and hence Miiller, either accidentally or purposely, does not in his book have a word about the voyage from the 10th to the 15th of August, and on his map (1758) Bering's "track" is broken off near East Cape. This headland is Miiller's Serdze Kamen,* a fact of which even a very cursory glance at Miiller's and Bering's maps will convince any one. But even Bering had located the northeastern corner of Asia (East Cape) a few minutes too far northward, and in order to make the map coincide with his theory and with Bering's com- putations, Miiller made the error greater, Avithout, how- ever, fixing it at Bering's turning-point, but at 67° 18' N. lat., where, according to Bering's and his own account, it ought to be. Thus matters stood up to the time of Cook's third voyage. But as Cook had on board, not only Miiller's book jand map in an English translation, but also Ber- ing's map, and an excellent treatise by Dr. Campbell in Harris's Collection of Voyages, he could pass judgment while at the place in question. As a matter of course he upholds Bering. Hence, it was a natural result that Serdze Kamen, which, as we have seen, was to coincide with the most northerly point readied by Bering, could no longer retain its position in the latitude of East Cape, which was more than a degree too far south; and in order to make Miiller's account intelligible, Captain Cook had the choice between entirely expunging the name, or bringing it up to an approximately correct latitude. Cook chose the latter; and to this mistake on his part it is due that the last splinter of Miiller's vain structure '?' i ♦Nute 20. 48 VITUS ilEllING. |!. ..-.■■i.'-i. ,;..ii i u *: passed into the cartography of the future. In latitude 67° 3' N., Cook found a projecting promontory with many crags and peaks, and ''possibly one or another of them may be heart-shaped. This peak we have, on Miil- ler's authority, called Serdze Kamen."* Here then we have the third Serdze Kamen, and we can now see how it has wandered about the northeast corner of Asia. As a matter of fact, it is situated in a latitude nearly the same as the most northerly point reached by Bering, but unfortunately this does not at all answer Miiiler's description. It does not project east- ward into the sea, but on the contrary, its main direction is toward the northwest. At the base of this headland, the coast does not in a striking manner extend toward the west, but continues in its former direction. Nor does it consist of steep rocks and a low point extending far- ther than the eye can reach. In other words, the present Serdze Kamen has nothing whatever to do either with Bering's voyage or Miiiler's description, f To this period of Bering's history another observation must be made. In his excellent treatise entitled, "What Geography owes to Peter the Great," Von Baer tries to show that Bering turned back in his course, not on the 15th, but on the 16tli of August, and that too, notwith- standing the fact that both Bering and Miiller, in print, give the former date, — yes, notwithstanding the fact that Von Baer himself had an autograph card from Bering which likewise gives the 15th. In his criticism on this point. Von Baer based hi? statements on those extracts of the ship's journal referred to above, which as we have * J^otc 30. t Note 31 and Map I. in Appcudiz. Bering's first expedition. 49 seen give the 16th of August, and this, in his opinion, must be decisive. But the disagreement in these sources is only an apparent one. As we ah*eady have noted, Bering reckoned the day from 12 o'clock at noon. Hence the journal's 16th of August began at noon on the 15th of August, and as Bering turned back at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, this occurred on the 15th of August according to the calendar, and on the 16th of August according to the artificial day of the journal. Thus Von Baer's cor- rection is based on a misunderstanding.* That this view of the question is correct is seen also from that passage in the journal where the Island of St. Lawrence is men- tioned. According to the journal this island was passed at 2 o'clock p. M. on the 11th of August, and Berch, to whom we are indebted for information concerning Ber- ing's day, is, strange to say, surprised to think that Bering named the island in honor of the sf int of the pre- ceding day, notwithstanding that the 11th at 3 o'clock p. M. is in reality, according to the calendar day, the 10th of August, St. Lawrence Day. The first twelve hours of the journal's day belong to the preceding day. Hence, Bering turned back August 15, at 3 o'clock p. m. «Note as. k- I- k3H I, r'i m. ?v:/m 'if ,i' 'A: CHAPTER VII. BERING'S WINTER AT THE FORT. — INDICATIONS OF AN ADJACENT CONTINENT. — UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH FOR THIS CONTINENT. — RETURN TO ST. PETERSBURG. — GENERAL REVIEW OF THE RESULTS OF THE FIRST EXPEDITION. !:'l :l!,i WHEN Bering on the 2d of September, 1728, entered the mouth of the river Kamchatka, he met the Fortuna, which had made a voyage around the Kamchatka Peninsula. Who commanded the vessel on this voyage, can not be ascertained. Bering wintered at the fort. On the days that it was light, the men were busy at work or receiving instruc- tions, and thus the winter passed without any remark- able occurrences or misfortunes. Spangberg, however, was obliged, on account of illness, to go to Bolsheretsk.* At lower Kamchatskoi Ostrog, Bering became con- vinced that there must be a large wooded country not far to the east. The waves were more like those of a sea than of an ocean. The driftwood did not indicate the flora of eastern Asia, and the depth of the sea grew less toward the north ; the east wind brought drift- ice to the month of the river after three days, the north wind, on the other hand, after five days. The * A port on the southern coast of Kamchatka. 60 :| beeing's first expedition. 61 birds of passage came to Kamchatka from the east. The reports of the natives corroborated his inferences. They declared that they were able, in very clear weather, to see land in the east (Bering Island), and that in the year 1715 a man had stranded there, who said that his native land was far to the east and had large rivers and forests with very high trees. All this led Bering to believe that a large country lay toward the northeast at no very great distance. In the summer of 1739, he started out to find this country, leaying the mouth of the Kamchatka for the east, July 6. If the wind had been favorable, he would very soon have reached Bering Island, where twelve years later he was buried. He must have been very near this island, invisible to him, however, on account of a fog ; but on the 8th of July he was struck by a severe storm, which the frail vessel and the weather- worn rigging could not defy, and hence on the 9th, he headed for the southern point of Kamchatka. But also on this voyage he did geographical service by determining the location of the peninsula and the northern Kurile Islands, as well as exploring the chan- nel between them, and thus finding for the Eussian mariner a new and easier route to Kamchatka. Berch says, that although Bering had adverse winds on the voyage to Bolsheretsk, all his computations are quite accurate ; the difference in latitude between the lat- ter place and lower Kamchatka Ostrog is given as 6° 29', which is very nearly correct. Bering likewise deter- »nined the location of Cape Lopatka at 51° N. lat. m 59 VITUS BERING. At Bolsheretsk Bering collected his men, distributed provisions and powder, left the Fortuna with a crew of one corporal and eleven men, and on the 14th of July steered for Okhotsk. After a fortunate, but not otherwise remarkable, journey, he reached St. Peters- burg on the Ist of March, 1730. "From the perusal of his ship's journal," says Berch, "one becomes con- vinced that our famous Bering was an extraordinarily able and skillful officer ; and if we consider his defect- ive instruments, his great hardships, and the obstacles that had to be overcome, his observations and the great accuracy of his journal deserve the highest praise. He was a man who did Russia honor." Bering had thus done good work in the service of Asiatic geography. He had shown that he possessed an explorer's most important qualification — never to make positive statements where there is no definite knowledge. By virtue of his extensive travels in north- eastern Asia, his scientific qualifications, his ability to make careful, accurate observations, and his own astro- nomical determinations, and by virtue of his direct acquaintance with Kosyrefsky's and Lushm's works, he was in a position to form a more correct opinion than any contemporary concerning this part of the earth. In spite of these great advantages in his favor, his work was rejected by the leading authorities in St. Petersburg. It is true that Bering found sincere sup- port in the able and influential Ivan Kirilovich Kirilofl, but to no one else could he turn for a just and com- petent judge. The great Kussian empire had not yet produced a scientific aristocracy. The Academy of f Bering's first expedition. 68 Science, which had been founded five or six yearR pre- vious, was not composed of able scholars, but of a num- ber of more or less talented contestants for honor and fame,— of men who occupied a prominent yet disputed position in a foreign and hostile country — young, hot- headed Germans and Frenchmen who had not yet achieved complete literary recognition. Such people are stern and severe judges. Bering was unfortunate enough to fall into the hands of the German Gerhard Fr. Miiller and the Frenchman Joseph Nicolas De I'Isle. Although Miiller had not yet seen Siberia, and although it was not until ten years later that he suc- ceeded in building that geographical card-house which Captain Cook so noiselessly blew down, he nevertheless, even at that time, on every occasion expressed the opin- ion that Bering had not reached the northeast point of Asia, and that his voyage had consequently not accomplished its purpose. De Tlsle was Bering's intel- lectual antipode. As a geographer he delighted in moving about on the borderland of the world's unex- plored regions. His element was that of vaguest con- jecture, — the boldest combinations of known and unknown ; and even as an old man he did not shrink from the task of constructing, from insufficient accounts of travels and apocryphal sailor-stories, a map of the Pacific, of which not a single line has been retained. He overstrained himself on the fame of his deceased brother, whose methods, inclinations, and valuable geographical collections he had inherited, but unfortunately not th%t intuitive insight which made Guillaume De I'Isle the ii' t l> ! J I 64 VITUS BERING. leading geographer of his age. Hence, aa a geographer, he was merely an echo of his brother. One of Guillaume De Flsle's most famous essays had been on the island of Yezo. In 1043 the stadtholder of Batavia, the able Van Diemen, sent the ships Kastri- kon and Breskens under the command of Martin de Vries and Hendrick Corneliszoon Schaep to Japan for the purpose of navigating the east coast of the island of Nipon (Hondo), and thence go in search of America by sailing in a northwesterly direction to the 46th degree of latitude ; but in case they did not find America, which people continued to believe lay in these regions, they were to turn toward the northeast and seek the coast of Asia on the 56th degree of latitude. De Vries partly carried out his chimerical project. At 40° north latitude he saw the coast of Nipon, two degrees farther north, the snow-capped mountains of Yezo, and thence sailed between the two Kuriles lying farthest to the south, which he called Staaten Eiland and Kompagniland. He then continued his voyage into the Sea of Okhotsk to 48° north latitude, where he turned about, saw Yezo in latitude 45°, but came, without noticing La Perouse Strait, over to Saghalin, which he considered a part of Yezo, and as he followed the coast of Saghalin to Cape Patience in latitude 48°, he thought Yezo a very exten- sive island on the eastern coast of Asia. Through the cartography of the seventeenth century, for example Witsen's and Homann's Atlas, but especially through Guil- laume De I'Isle's globes and maps, these erroneous ideas were scattered over the earth, and, when the first accounts of Kamchatka, without being accompanied by a single Bering's fikst expedition. 65 astronomical deten lination, reached Europe, many be- lieved that this lai d was identical with Yezo. But as De Vries had left some determinations of latitude and longitude whicli showed that the island must be very near Japan, som.' went even so far as to suppose that it was contiguous to Nipon ; indeed, Guillaume De I'lsle's essay attempted to prove this. Thus three lands were made one, while De Vries's Staaten Eiland and Kompagniland, which could find no place in this series, were forced east- ward into the Pacific as L^rge tracts of land separated from Kamchatka- Yezo and from each other by narrow straits. But this is not all. The Portuguese cosmo- grapher Texeira had in 1649, in these same regions, indi- cated a coast projecting far to the cast toward America, seen by Juan de Gama on a voyage to New Spain from the Philippine Islands. This Gamaland was now des- cribed as n continuation of Kompagnihmd. In Homann's Atlas, 1709, it is represented as a part of America, and Guillaume De ITsle varied on the theme in a different way.* Unfortunately these ideas held sway in the =!cientific world when Bering, in 1730, returned. Furthermore, scholars thought these ideas were confirmed by Swedish prisoners of war who had returned from Siberia, espe- cially by the famous Tabbert, or Strahlenberg, as he was later called, whose various imaginary chart-outlines had been adopted in Homann's Atlas, 1727, and in other West European geographical works then in vogue, f Bering returned. His sober accounts and accurate maps, in which there was nothing imaginary whatever, ♦ See Maps II. and HI. + Note 33. 41 1 > fj lit n 66 VITUS BERING. ... ._. , 'J. were now to take up the fight against these prejudices. Bering declared that he had sailed around Kamchatka without having seen anything of these lands, although he had — in a different direction, however — noticed signs of land. On his map, Kamchatka was represented as a defi- nitely defined region, and hence Guillaume De I'Isle's structure had received its first blow, in case Bering's representations should be accepted. But Bering's repu- tation had been undermined in still another direction. The above-mentioned Cossack chief Shestakoff had, dur- ing his sojourn in Russia, distributed various rough con- tour sketches of northeastern Asia. This brave warrior, however, knew just as little about wielding a pen as he did a pencil. The matter of a few degrees more or less in some coast-lines did not seriously trouble him. Even ] lis own drawings did not agree. Northeast of the Chukchee peninsula he had sketched an extensive country, which Bering had not seen. It is characteristic of Joseph De I'Isle that he accepted both Shestakoff and Strahlenberg, and as late as in 1753 still clung to their outlines. In the first place, it satisfied his family pride to be able to maintain his brother's views of the cartography of these regions (and of his views Strahlenberg's were but an echo), and it moreover satis- fied his predisposition to that which was vague and hypo- thetical. At first De I'Isle succeeded in carrying out his wishes, and in 1737 the Academy published a map of Asia in which it would prove extremely difiicult to find any trace of Bering's discoveries.* It was accordingly quite the proper thing to consider Bering's first expedition ♦ Note 34. BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITION. 57 wholly, or at least to a great extent, unsuccessful. In the literature of that day there are evidences of this, especially in Steller's writings. He treats Bering with scornful superiority, which is particularly out of place, as he shows himself a poor judge in geographical mat- ters.* Kiriloff, who in his general map of Kussia in 1734f unreservedly accepted Bering's map, was the only man who gave him due recognition. The Academy could not persuade itself to make use of the only scientifically obtained outline map in existence of the remotest regions of the empire, until Bering, many years afterwards, had won full recognition in Paris, Nuremberg, and London. Bering's ]nap was made in Moscow in 1731, and the Kus- sian government presented it to the king of Poland, J who gave it to the Jesuit father Du Halde. He had it printed and inserted in D'Anville's Nouvelle Atlas de la Chine, a supplement to his large work on China, to which we have several times referred. § Of this work Dr. Camp- bell later gave an account in Harris's Collection of Voy- ages, and it was, furthermore, the basis of the better class of geographical works on eastern Asia of last cen- tury until Captain Cook's day. A copy of the eastern half of the map will be found in the appendix to this treatise. ♦ Note 35. t Note 36. X Note 37. § Note 38. 1 1.1 ! () i' mi i; PART II. THE GIIEAT NORTHERN EXPEDITION. «. ' i ■ >l BEI A escs froi wor out opp you con alty Ber rati ing 1 prcE foui imp Gre sitic adii CHAPTER VIII. BEKING'S plans fob a second expedition. — THE GREATEST GEOGRAPHICAL ENTERPRISE EVER UNDER- TAKEN. ARCTIC exploration has a bewitching power over its ■^•^ derotees. Bering and his companions did not escape the enchantment. Hardly had thpy returned from a five years' sojourn in the extremest 'jorner of the world, when they declared themselves willing to staiL out again. As they had met with so much doubt and opposition from scholars, — had learned that the world's youngest marine lacked the couiage to recognize its own contributions to science, and, furthermore, at the Admir- alty thought it had given strong reason* for doubting Bering's results,* he proposed to make his fumre ex|»io- rations on v larger scale and remove all doubt, by chart- ing the whole of this disputed part of the globe. April 30, 1730, only two months after his return, he presented two plans to the Admiralty. These have been found and published by Berch, and are of the greatest importance in judging of Bering's true relation to the Great Northern Expedition. In the first of these propo- sitions he sets forth a series of suggestions for the administration of East 8 Iberia, and for a better utiliza- * Note a9. 61 'II 62 VITUS BERING. tion of its resources. He desired, among other things, missionary work among the Yakuts, better discipline among the East Siber'in Cossacks, more honesty among the yassak-collectors, the opening of iron mines at Okhotsk and Udinsk, and various other things. But it was never his intention to carry out these propositions himself, and it was a great mistake for the government to burden his instructions with such purely administra- tive work. His second proposition is incomparably more inter- esting. In this he indicates the general outline of his Great Northern Expedition, the greatest geographical enterprise that the world has hitherto known. This document shows that he was the originator of the plan, something that has been contradicted, and but for this document might still stand contradicted. He proposed to start out from Kamchatka to explore and chart the western coast of America and establish commercial rela- tions with that country, thence to visit Japan and Amoor for the same purpose, and finally to chart either by land or sea the Arctic coast of Siberia, — namely, from the Obi to the Lena.* Through these three enterprises and his former expedition, it was Bering's object to fill the vacant space on his chart between the known West and the known East, — between the Kara Sea and the Japan Islands. He refused to corroborate his first observations by again visiting the same localities, and he rightly concluded, that absolute proof of the separa- tion of the contii'c^ is would bj a^^certained if the American coast were arted. ♦ Note 40. A f ■t ^^ Z%'^/ Bering's great northern expedition. 63 Tho political situation in the empire favored the adop- tion of Bering's plans. The Duchess of Oourland, Anna Ivanovna, had just (1730) ascended the throne. With her the foreigners and Peter's reform party again came into power, and with much more zeal than skill, they sought to continue Peter's work. Anna aimed to sliine in Eu- rope as the ruler of a great power, and in Russia as a West European queen. Europe was to be awed by Rus- sian greatness, and Russia by European wisdom. In one of his high-flown speeches Czar Peter had given assurance that science would forsake its abodes in West Europe, and in the fullness of time cast a halo of immortal glory around the name of Russia. It was necessary to speed this time. Anna and her co- adjutors had an insatiable desire for the splendor and exterior luster of culture. Like up^aau•ts in wealth they sought to surround themselves with some of that glory which only gray-haired honor can bestow. One of the surest ways to this glory was thiough the 'Equipment of scientific expeditions. They had at their disposal aj academy of science, a fleet, and the resources >* a mighty empire. The sacrifice of a few thousand h:iman lives troubled them but little, and they exerted themselves to make the enterprise as large and se- -national as possible. Bering's above-mentioned prop ... n was taken js a foundation for these plans, but when, after the Iftpee cf two years, his proposition left the various departmeats of the government — the Senate, the Academy, and the Admiralty — it had assumed sudi proportioos th»t he found great difficulty in reoogniTxng it. m 64 VITUS BERING. After having on April 30, 1730, submitted to the Admiralty his new proposition, together with the ac- counts and reports of his first expedition, Bering was sent to Moscow, where Anna maintained her court during the first few years of her reign. Here he laid h, , plans before the Senate, and made the map before referred to; but all the leading men were then too much occupied with court intrigues to be able to give his plans any of their attention. Separated from his family, he wearied of life in Moscow, and on January 5, 1732, the Senate gave him leave of absence to go to St. Petersburg, on- condition that Chaplin and the steward would conclude the reports. Moreover, the Senate ordered that the Admiralty should pay Bering's claims against the govern- ment for his services. In view of the hardships he had endured, he received 1,000 rubles, double the amount to which he was entitled according to the regulations of the department. Almost simultaneously he was promoted, in regular succession, to the position of capitain-command- eur in the Russian fleet, the next position below that of rear-admiral. In the spring of 1732, Anna, Biron, and Ostermann had succeeded in crushing the Old Russian opposition. The leaders of this party, especially the family of Dol- goruki, had been either banished to Siberia or scattered about in the provinces and in fortresses, and now there was nothing to hinder the government in pursuing its plans. As early as April 17, the Empress* ordered that *H. Tl. Bancroft, Vol. XXXIII., p. 48, History of Alaska, San Francisco, 1886, is in error when he states that this empress was Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great. Anna Ivaiiovna, a daughter of Peter the (.reat's half- brother Ivan, was at this time on the throne. She relKned from 1730 to 1740. Elizabeth Petrovna did not become empress unt.l 1741.— Tb. Bering's great northern expedition. 65 Bering's proposition should be executed, and charged the Senate to take the :iecessary steps for this purpose. The Senate, presided over by Ivan Kiriloff, an enthusiastic admirer of Peter the Great, acted with dispatch. On May 2, it promulgated two ukases, in which it declared the objects of the expedition, and sought to indicate the necessary means. Although the Senate here in the main followed Bering's own proposition and made a triple expedition (an American, a Japanese, and an Arctic), it nevertheless betrayed a peculiar inclination to burden the chief of the expedition with tasks most remote from his own original plans. It directed him not only to explore the Shantar Islands and reach the Spanish possessions in America, something that Behng had never thought of, but also included in its ukase a aeries of recommendations for the development of Siberia, — recommendations which Bering had previously made to the government, and which had already provoked some definite efforts, as the exiled Pissarjeff, a former officer of the Senate, had been removed to Okhotsk to develop that region and extend the maritime relations on the Pacific. He seems, however, not to have accomplished any- thing, and the Senate thought it feasible to burden Bering with a part of this task. He was directed to supply Okhotsk with more inhabitants, to introduce cattle-raising on the Pacific coast, to found schools in Okhotsk for both elementary and nautical instruction, to establish a dock-yard in this out-of-the-way corner, to transport men and horses to Yudomskaya Krest, and to establish iron- works at Yakutsk, Udinsk, and other places. But this was simply the beginning of the avalanche, and :iwm 66 VITUS BERING. '♦ as it rolled along down through the Admiralty and Academy, it assumed most startling dimensions. These authorities aspired to nothing less than raising all human knowledge one step higher. The Admiralty desired the expedition to undertake the nautical charting of the Old World from Archangel to Nipon — even to Mexico; and the Academy could not be satisfied with anything less than a scientific exploration of all northern Asia. As a beginning, Joseph Nicolas De V Isle, professor of astron- omy at the Academy, was instructed to give a graphic account of the present state of knowledge of the North Pacific, and in a memoir to give Bering instructions how to find America from the East. The Senate also decreed thL,t the former's brother, Louis, surnamed La Croyere, an adventurer of somewhat questionable character, should accompany the expedition as astronomer. Thus decree after decree followed in rapid succession. On December 28, the Senate issued a lengthy ukase, which, in sixteen paragraphs, outlined in extenso the nautico-geographical explorations to be undertaken by the expedition. Com- modore Bering and Lieut. ChirikofE, guided by the in- structions of the Academy, were to sail to America with two ships for the purpose of charting the American coast. They were to be accompanied by La Croyere, who, with the assistance of the surveyors Krassilnikoff and Popoff, was to undertake a series of local observations through Siberia, along several of the largest rivers of the country and in its more important regions, across the Pacific, and also along the coast of the New World. With three ships Spangberg was to sail to the Kurilo Islands, Japan, and the still more southerly parts of Asia, while simultau- Bering's great northern expedition. 67 eously the coast from Okhotsk to Uda, to Tugur, to the mouth of the Amoor, and the coasts of the Shantar Islands and Saghalin were to be charted. Even these tasks exceeded all reasonable demands, and not until several generations later did Cook, La Perouse, and Vancouver succeed in accomplishing what the Rus- sian Senate in a few pen-strokes directed Bering to do. And yet, not until the government touched the Arctic side of this task, did it entirely lose sight of all reason. Its instructions to Bering were, not only to chart the coast of the Old World from the Dwina to the Pacific, to explore harbors and estuaries along this coast, to describe the country and study its natural resources, especially its mineral wealth, but also to dispatch an expedition to the Bear Islands, off the mouth of the Kolyma, and to see to it that his earlier trip to the Ohukchee peninsula was repeated, besides sailing from there to America, as the results of his former voyage " were unsatisfactory," reli- able information concerning that country having been received froni the Cossack Melnikoff. All these expeditions were to start out from the great Siberian rivers, — from the Dwina to the Obi with two vessels under the charge of the Admiralty ; from the Obi and Lena with three twenty-four-oared boats, two of which were to meet between these two rivers, and the third was to sail around Bering's Peninsula (thus Reclus calls the Chukchee peninsula), or, if America proved to be connected with that country, it was to attempt to find European colonies. The orders of the Senate were, fur- thermore, to the effect that surveyors should be sent out in advance for the preliminary charting of these river- \ 68 VITUS BERING. ■' ■'; I mouths, and to erect light-houses, establisli magazines for convenient relays, and procure provisions and other necessaries, — very excellent directions, all of which, how- ever, were so many meaningless words after they had left the government departments. Our age, which still has in mind the Franklin exi)editions — the English parallel — is able to form an idea of these gigantic demands, and yet the Senate did not hesitate to load the organization of all this upon the shoulders of one man. Bering was made chief of all the enterprises east of the Ural Mountains. At the Obi and the Lena, at Okhotsk and Kamchatka, he was to furnish ships, provisions, and transportation. But in spite of all that was vague and visionary in these plans, they had nevertheless a certain homogeneity. They were all nautical expeditions for nautical pur- poses and nautico-geographical investigations. Then the Academy added its demands, making everything doubly complicated. It demanded a scientific exploration of all Siberia and Kamchatka, — not only an account of these regions based on astronomical determinations and geodetic surveys, on minute descriptions and artistically executed landscape pictures, on barometric, thermometric, and aerometric observations, as well as investigations in all the branches of natural history, but it demanded also a detailed presentation of the ethnography, colonization, and history of the country, together with a multitude of special investigations in widely different directions. The leading spirits in these enterprises were two young and zealous Germans, the chemist Johann Gcorg Gmelin and the historian Gerhard Friedrich Miiller, twenty- eight and twenty-four years of age respectively, members ' ri Bering's oreat northern expedition. 69 of the Academy, and later, highly respected scholars. Muller was a personal friend of Bering, an(' through him got a desire to participate in the expedition. Kirilolf, the secretary of the Senate, himself a suc- cessful student of geography, supported the efforts of the Academy, and most generously gratified all the exag- gerated demands that only imperious and inexperienced devotees of science could present. Indeed, Bering could not but finally consider himself fortunate in escaping a sub-expedition to Centnd Asia, one of Kiriloff's pet plans, which the latter afterwards took upon himself to carry out. The Academic branch of the expedition, which thus came to consist of the astronomer La Croy^re, the physicist Gmelin (the elder), and the historian Miiller, was right luxuriously equipped. It was accompanied by two land- scape painters, one surgeon, one interpreter, one instru- ment-maker, five surveyors, six scientific assistants, and fourteen body-guards. Moreover, this convoy grew like an avalanche, as it worked its way into Siberia. La Croyere had nine wagon-loads of instruments, among them tele- scopes thirteen and fifteen feet in length. These Academ- ical gentlemen had at least thirty-six horses, and on the large rivers, they could demand boats with cabins. They carried with them a library of several hundred volumes, not only of scientific and historical works in their specialties, but also of the Latin classics and such light reading as Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels. Besides, they had seventy reams of writing paper and an enormous supply of artists' colors, draughting materials and appar- atu'^s All archives were to be open to them, all Siberian government authorities were to be at their service and f ur- t : : e>. ^^^•..v IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 mo If 1^ ||2.0 I.I III! 1 fl 1.25 1.4 Ills 1.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4S03 If FT" 70 VITUS BERING. nish interpreters, guides, and laborers. The Professors, as they were called, constituted an itinerant academy. They drafted their own instructions, and no superior authority took upon itself to make these subservient to the interests of the expedition as a whole. From Feb- ruary, 1734, they held one or two weekly meetings and passed independent resolutions. It became a part of Bering's task to move this cumbersome machine, this learned republic, from St. Petersburg to Kamchatka, to care for their comforts and conveniences, and render pos- sible the flank movements and side sallies that either scientiflc demands or their own freaks of will might dic- tate. In the original instructions such directions were by no means few. But Bering had no authority over these men. They were willing to recognize his authority only when they needed his assistance. None of them except Bering and his former associates had any idea of the mode and conditions of travel in that barbarous country. That there should be lack of understanding between men with such different objects in view as academists and naval officers, is not very strange. Their only bond of union was the Senate's senseless ukase. If it had been the purpose of the government to exhibit a human parallel to the ** happy families " of menageries, it could hardly have acted differently. In all his move- ments Bering was hampered by this academical dead- weight. The Professors not only showed a lack of appre- ciation of Bering's efforts in their behalf, but they also stormed him with complaints, filled their records with them, and concluded them— characteristically enough — BERING*S GREAT NORTHERN EXPEDITION. 71 with a resolution to prefer formal charges against him before the Senate. Only a new state, as the Russian then was, only a government that recently had seen the will of one ener- getic man turn topsy-turvy a whole people's mode of life, and yet had preserved a fanciful faith in Peter the Great's teachings — his supreme disregard for obstacles, — only such a government could even think of heaping such mountains of enterprises one upon the other, or demand that any one man, and a foreigner at that, should carry them into execution. Peter's spirit undoubtedly hovered over these plans, but the marble sarcophagus in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul had long since received his earthly remains, and without his personal energy the Senate's plans were but the projects of a dazzled fancy. On paper the Senate might indeed refer Bering to various ways and means ; it might enjoin upon the Siberian authorities to do everything in their power to promote the progress of the various expeditions ; it might direct its secretaries to prepare very humane declama- tion denouncing the practice of any violence against, or oppression of, the weak nomadic tribes in the East ; but it could not by a few pen-strokes increase the natural resources of Siberia, or change the unwillingness of the local authorities to accede to the inordinate demands which the nautical expedition necessarily had to make, nor could it make roads in the wild forest-regions where only the Yakut and Tunguse roamed about. The Sen- ate's humanitarian phrases were of but little significance to the explorers when it was found necessary to compel the nomadei of the East to supply what the govemmeut 78 VITUS BERING. had failed to furnish. The Senate had ventured so near the extreme limits of the possible, that it could not but end by crossing the border and demanding the impossible. These numerous expeditions, scattered over half a conti- nent, were exposed to so many unforeseeable accidents and misfortunes, that the government, in order to render support and retain its control, would necessarily have to be in regular communication. But east of Moscow there was no mail service. Hence the government instructed Bering to establish, on consultation with the local author- ities, postal communication, partly monthly and partly bi-monthly, from Moscow to Kamchatka, to the Chinese border by way of Irkutsk, and by a new route to Uda, — as though such a matter could be accomplished through consultation. The Senate might have known, and in fact did know, that in the mountainous forest-region between Yakutsk and Okhotsk (a distance of about seven hundred miles) there was but one single Bussian hut, and that all the requisites for a mail service — men, horses, and roads — demanded unlimited means and most extensive preparations. A number of plans and propositions of minor import- ance are here omitted. The object has been to show, in a succinct review, the origin of the Great Northern Expe- dition> its enormous compass, and the grouping of its various enterprises about Vitus Bering as its chief. Von Baer classes the tasks to be accomplished by Bering, each of which demanded separately equipped expeditions, under seven heads: namely, astronomical observations ard determinations in Siberia, physico-geographical ex- plorations, historic-ethnographical studies, the charting Bering's great northern expedition. 73 of the Arctic coast, the navigation of the East Siberian coast, and the discovery of Japan and America. This writer adds that no other geographical enterprise, not even the charting of China by the Jesuits, Mackenzie's travels, or Franklin's expeditions, can in greatness or sacrifice be compared with the gigantic undertakings that were loaded upon Bering, and carried out by him.* It would no doubt be wrong to ascribe the over- burdening of Bering's plans to any one man, and for a foreign author, who but imperfectly understands the Bussian literature of that period, to do so, would be more than foolish. Kiriloff, the secretary of the Senate, had great zeal for geographical explorations, and did all in his power to further the plans of Czar Peter. It has- been proved that Bering's proposition was presented after a conference with Kiriloff, and that as long as he lived, he assisted Bering by word and deed. Furthermore, it seems probable that, in order to promote the exploration of Siberia, he prevented the Admiralty from sending Bering's expedition by sea south of Africa. Howe7er, it is undoubtedly a fact that Bering's plan reached its final proportions as a result of the discussions between Count Ostermann, the influential courtier and statesman, (who evidently landed in Russia in company with Bering in 1704), Soimonoff, an oflRcer of the Senate, Kiriloff, and Golovin, chief of the Admiralty, and these men would hardly have consulted tho opinions of Bering, who often and most emphatically disapproved of the additions that had been made to his plans. Moreover, as a result of the * H. H. Bancroft, History of Alaska, p. 42, says: " Tbe second Kamchatka expedition « * « « « was the most brilliant effurt toward soientlfic discovery which up to this vtme had been made by any government."— Tb. 74 VITUS BERING. distrast which his first expedition inspired in Russia, he was in an insecure and unfortunate position. But he had reason to complain of other things. The gigantic task assigned to him demanded a despotic will endowed with dictatorial power. Bering lacked both, especially the latter. The Senate exhausted itself in minute hints, direc- tions, and propositions, instead of issuing definite orders concerning the necessary means. Unfortunately, too, numerous and exaggerated complaints had been made in regard to the suffering which Bering's first expedition had caused the Kamchatkans, and on this account the government was foolish enough to bind the chiefs hands, while it simultaneously overloaded his shoulders. Through injudicious instructions he was made dependent upon his subordinates. It was bad enough that he was not to be permitted to take any decisive steps in Siberia without first consulting and coming to an agreement with the local authorities, — the governor of Tobolsk, the lieu- tenant-governor of Irkutsk, and the voivode of Yakutsk. On account of the great distances and the wretched roads such proceedings were well-nigh impossible. The government should have known that these authorities only under the most peremptory orders would com- ply with demands liable to exhaust the resources of the country and ruin the thinly-populated and poverty- stricken districts. This was, indeed, bad enough, but matters were much aggravated when the Senate ordered him to take action in all important questions, only after deliberation with his officers, and to refer every leading measure to a commission. Such a method of procedure BEBIKO'S OBEAT ITOBTHEBK EXPEDITION. 76 seems to us entirely incomprehensible. But Sokoloff, who was himself a Russian naval officer, says on this point, that the laws of the empire, which at that time were in full force, required of every superior officer that he should consult his subordinates before inaugurating any new movement. In its instructions to Bering the Senate expressly emphasized this decree of the law, and it actually went so far as to order him, even in matters of comparative unimportance, to seek the opinion of his Academical associates, and always act in the strictest accordance with his Russian colleague Ghirikoff's propo- sitions. The chiefs of the different branches of the expedition were of course subject to the same regulation. In this way Bering was deprived of a sovereign chiefs power and authority, and it afforded him but little reparation that the government gave him the power to reduce or promote an officer, — only naval officers, however. Necessary re- gard for the needs of the service and for his own princi- ples forbade him to use this weapon in that arbitrary manner which alone could have neutralized the unfor- tunate influence of the government laws. Hence this feature of his instructions, besides causing much delay, became a source of the most incredible troubles and aggravations, which, as we shall see later, laid him in his grave on the bleak coasts of Bering Island. Everything carefully considered, it could have sur- prised no one if the Northern Expedition had collapsed in its very greatness, and it was without any doubt due to Bering that this did not happen. In many respects Bering was unqualified to lead such an expedition into a 76 VITUS BERING. barbarous country, surrounded as he was with incapable, uneducated, and corruptible assistants, pestered by calum- niators and secret or avowed enemies in every quarter, to whom the government seemed more disposed to listen than to him. More just than arbitrary, more considerate than hasty, more humane than his position permitted, he nevertheless had one important quality, an honest, genuine, and tenacious spirit of perseverance, and this saved the expedition from dissolution. The government had sent him in pursuit of a golden chariot, and he found more than the linch-pin. The realization, how- ever, was far from that anticipated by the government. Many of the projects of the origiiial plan were but partially accomplished, and others were not even at- tempted; but in spite of this, the results attained by Bering and his associates will stand as boundary-posts in the history of geographical discovery. Many of these men sealed their work with their lives, and added a luster to the name of Russia, * which later explorers have maintained. • Note 4L CHAPTER IX. THE GREAT NORTHERN EXPEDITION ON ITS WAY THROUGH SIBERIA. — DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS ENCOUNTERED AND OVERCOME. IN the early part of the year 1733, the expedition began to leave St. Petersburg by detachments. It consisted of the chief Vitus Bering (his Russian name was Ivan Ivanovich Bering), Captains Spangberg and Chirikoff, eight lieutenants, sixteen mates, twelve physi- cians, seven priests, skippers, stewards, various appren- tices, ship-carpenters, other workmen, soldiers and sailors, — in all about five hundred and seventy men. Of these, three officers and one hundred and fifty-seven men — a number which was greatly increased in Siberia — were assigned duty in the Arctic expedition, the remain- der in the Pacific expeditions. In this estimate, the Academists, constituting an expedition of thirty or forty men, are not considered. The list of names of those engaged in these expeditions throws interesting light on Russian social relations of that period. Over half of the officers, many mates, and all of the physicians were foreigners. The Senate sought to inspire the zeal of the officers by large increase of salary and promotion in rank and service after a successfully completed expedition, but the rank and file were to be forced to a performance of 77 78 VITUS BEBINO. their duties by threats of cruel punishments and a con- tinued stay in Siberia. It had been the intention to recruit the expedition through the voluntary service of Russians, but the native officers showed but little inclina- tion in this direction, and it was found necessary to fill the vacancies by draft. Van Haven assures us that Bering's expedition was looked upon in St. Petersburg as a mild sort of banishment. The necessary instruments and some provisions were obtained in St. Petersburg. The naval officers were sup- plied with quadrants, thermometers, and nocturnals, the surveyors with astrolabes and Gnnter's-chains, and the Academists were authorized to take fronr the library of the Academy all the works they needed, and, at the expense of the crown, to purchase such as the library did not contain. La Groy^re carried with him a whole magazine of instruments. For presents to the natives two thousand rubles were appropriated. In N. Novgorod and Kazan some other necessaries were obtained, but the enormous ship-supplies and provisions, besides men, horses, barges and other river boats, were to be provided by the Siberian towns and country districts. The Siberian authorities received orders to make great preparations. They were to buy venison, fish, and cod liver oil, erect light-houses and magazines along the Arctic coast, and dispatch commissions with large trans- ports to the Pacific coast, so as to enable Bering to begin his work of discovery without delay. These preparations were to be followed by efforts toward the founding of various works, such as iron and salt works at Okhotsk, a smaller furnace at Yakutsk for the use of the expedition. Bering's great northern expedition. 79 and, through the utilization of the saccharine qualities of the ** bear's claw,"* a distillery was also to be established on thj peninsula of Kamchatka. It is unnecessary to say that all of these propositions were buried in the Siberian government departments. Calculations were made for a six years' expedition. The leaders of each branch of the expedition were authorized to repeat any unsuccessful adventure the succeeding summer. All were prepared for a long stay in the extreme northeast — many, indeed, re- mained there forever — hence, most of the officers, among them Bering and Spangberg, were accompa- nied by their 'wives and children. On this account the expedition seemed more than ever a national migration on a small scale. The first start was made February 1, 1733. Spangberg, with some laborers and the heaviest ma- rine stores, went directly to Okhotsk to expedite the ship-building on the Pacific coast. Lieutenant Ofzyn went to Kazan to collect supplies. Bering started out March 18, in order as quickly as possible to reach Tobolsk, whence the first Arctic expedition was to be sent out. In the course of the summer, the larger caravans arrived at this place. Simultaneously heavy supplies were brought in from West Siberia by Bering's men. Here, al^o, the construction of the vessel for the expedition, the shallop Tobol, was begun. Only the Academists were yet in St. Peters- burg, where they were receiving the attention of the official world. At an audience, the Empress bade ,♦ Note 7. ^ 80 VITUS BEBIKG. them farewell in the most solemn manner. She al- lowed them to kiss her hand, and assured them of her most gracious favor. On the succeeding day, the other members of the imperial family manifested sim- ilar sympathy. Then, however, the difficulties began. That these heavily-laden gentlemen could not even in St. Petersburg secuie adequate means of transportation, makes quite a comical impression. On this account they were detained until late in August, and they would no doubt have been unable to reach Siberia in 1733, if Bering had not left for them in Tver a conveniently equipped vessel, which carried them the same autumn down the Volga to Kazan. They did not reach Tobolsk, however, until January, 1734. Bering, who was to be supplied by them with sur- veyors and instruments for his Arctic expedition, and who could not, before their arrival, form an estimate of the size of his river transports to be used in the spring, was obliged repeatedly and very forcibly to urge them to make haste. Here the disagreements began, and were continued concerning petty affairs, which history finds it unnecessary to dwell upon. On May 2, 1734, the Tobol was launched amid the firing of cannon, the blare of trumpets, and the merry draining of goblets. The vessel had a keel of 70 feet, was 15 feet wide, and 7 feet deep. It carried two masts, some small cannon, and a crew of 56 men, among them first mate Sterlegoff and two cartographers, under the command of Lieut. Ofzyn. As the provin- cial government had secured neither magazines nor pro- visions, nor attended to any other preparations on the r Bering's great northern expedition. 81 Arctic coast, the nocoseary supplies, which were to bo stored north of Obdorsk, were loaded on four rafts, which, with a force of 3U "icn, accompuuicd Ofzyn. On May 14, he received his A umiralty instructions from Bering, and, saluted by unncn, the First Arctic Expe- dition stood up the Irtiaii for the Polar seas. Five days later, Bering'. v,ith the main command and the Acadomists, left Tobolsk and took dilTerent routes for Yakutsk, which had been selected as the central point for the future enterprises of the expedi- tion. In October, 1734, he arrived at this place, bring- ing with him a quantity of materiids. The next spring, Chlrikoff came with the greater part of the supplies, and during the year following, this dull Siberian city was the scene of no little activity. On his arrival, however, Bering found that no preparations whatever had been made for him. In spite of instructions and orders from the government, nothing had been done toward charting the Arctic coast or for the expedit- ing of the heavily loaded transports on the way to Okhotsk. Nor did Bering find that the authorities were even kindly disposed toward him. Yet, in the course of the next six months, he had two large ships built for the /"rctic expedition, and when his own sup- plies arrived by way of the central Siberian river- route, described in the ilrst part of this work, these vessels, together with four barges, were equipped and furnished with provisions, and in June, 1735, were ready for a start. These two ships — the sloop Yakutsk, Lieut. Pronchishetf, first mate Chelyuskin, surveyor Che- kin, and about fifty men, and the decked boat Irkutsk, ■I 82 VITUS BEBING. '3 I mm i III ! ' I 1:1 Lieut. Peter Lassenius, with a surveyor, first mate, and also about fifty men — had most difficult tasks to accomplish. The former was to cruise from the mouth of the Lena, along the whole coast of the Taimyr peninsula, and enter the mouth of the Yenisei. The latter was to follow the Arctic coast in an easterly direction to the Bering peninsula, cruise along its coast, and ascertain the relative positions of Asia and Amer- ica, and, if it was a geographical possibility, to sail down to the peninsula of Kamchatka. He also had instructions to find the islands oif the mouth of the Kolyma (the Bear Islands). From this it is evident that Lassenius's expedition was of the greater geo- graphical interest. Moreover, it had to do with one of the main questions of Bering's whole activity — the dis- covery and charting of the North Pacific — and hence it is not a mere accident that Bering selected for this expedition one of his own countrymen, or that he as- signed the charting of northeastern Asia and the discov- ery of America and Japan, to chif^fs of Danish birth, Las- senius and Spangberg. Nothing is known of the earlier life of Lassenius. In service he was the oldest of Bering's lieutenants. Shortly before the departure of the expedition, he was taken into the Russian fleet, and Gmelin says of him, that he was an able and experienced naval officer, volunteered his services to the expedition, and began his work with intrepidity. i^U attempts to trace his birth and family relations have proved fruitless. On the 30th of June, 1735, both expeditions left Yakutsk, and thus the charting of the whole of the Bering's great northern expedition. 83 Arctic coast of Siberia was planned and inaugurated by Bering himself. He could now apply all his ener- gies to the Pacific expeditions. He constructed a mul- titude of river-craft, and erected barracks, magazines, winter-huts, and wharves along the river-route to Okhotsk. In the vicinity of Yakutsk he established an iron foundry and furnace, whence the various vessels were supplied with anchors and other articles of iron. In fact, he made this place the emporium for those heavy supplies that in the years 1735-36 were brought from South and West Siberia, and which later were to be sent to Okhotsk. At Okhotsk the exiled Major-General Pissarjeff was in command. He had been sent there as a govern- ment official, with authority on the Pacific coast and in Kamchatka, to develop the country and pave the way for the expeditions to follow, by making roads and harbors, erecting buildings in Okhotsk, introduc- ing agriculture, — in fact, make this coast fit for human habitation. The government had given him ample power, but as he accomplished nothing, he was suc- ceeded by Captain Pavlutski as chief in Kamchatka, and Pissarjeff was reduced to a sort of harbor-master in Okhotsk. A command that had been sent to his assistance under first mate Bireff^ he nearly starved to death; the men deserted and the town remained the same rookery as ever. In this condition Spangberg found affairs in the winter of 1734-35. With his usual energy he had pushed his transports to Yn'intsk in the summer preced- ing, and with the same boats he proceeded up the 84 VITUS BEEIlfG. ; III lillli'n Aldan and Maya, but winter came on and his boats were frozen in on the Yudoma. He started out on foot by the familiar route across the Stanovoi Mountains to Okhotsk, which place he reached after enduring great hardship and suffering; but even here he found no roof for shelter. He was forced to subsist on car- casses and roots, and not until the spring fishing began and a provision caravan sent by Bering ar- rived, did he escape this dire distress. In the early summer, Pissarjeff put in an appearance, and very soon a bitter and fatal enmity arose between these two men. Spangberg was born in Jerne near Esbjerg in Jut- land (Denmark), probably about the year 1698. He was the son of well-to-do parents of the middle class. In the Jerne churchyard there is still to be seen a beautiful monument on the grave of his brother, the "estimable and well-born Chr. Spangberg;" nothing else is known of his early life. In 1720, he entered the Russian fleet as a lieutenant of the fourth rank, and for a time ran the packet-boat between Kronstadt and Liibeck, whereupon he took part in Bering's first expedition as second in command. In 1733, for meritorious service on this expedition, he was made a captain of the third rank. He was an able, shrewd, and energetic man, a practical seaman, active and vehement, inconsiderate of the feelings of others, tyrannical and avaricious. He spoke the Rus- sian language only imperfectly. His fame preceded him throughout all Siberia, and Sokoloff says that many thought him some general, incognito, others an Bering's great northern expedition. 85 escaped convict. The natives of Siberia feared him and called him Martin Petrovich Kosar, or in iron- ical praise, "Batushka" (old fellow). He had many enemies. Complaints and accusations were showered upon him, but it would most certainly be wrong to ascribe to them any great significance. Siberia is the land of slander. All Russian officials were corrupti- ble, and the honest men among those who stood nearest to Peter himself could literally be counted on one's fingers. While in Siberia, Spangberg is said to have acquired the possession of many horses, valuable furs, and oiher goods of which the author- ities had forced the sale. When the Senate, after his great voyage of discovery to Japan, had treated him unjustly, he left Siberia arbitrarily in 1745, and, without leave of absence, set out for St. Peters- burg, where he was summoned before a court-mar- tial and condemned to death; bnt this was finally commuted to his being reduced to a lieutenant for three months. He remainec' in the service and died, in 1761, as a captain of the first rank. In Okhotsk he was accompanied by his wife and son.* But his opponent was a still more remarkable man. Major-General Pissarjeff had been a favorite of Peter the Great, director of the military academy, and a high officer of the Senate. He had received a careful education abroad, and moved in the very highest circles of society. In a quarrel with Vice- Chancellor ShafirofF, in 1722, however, he had incurred Peter's wrath, whereupon he was for a time deprived ♦ Note 48, 86 VITUS BERING. of all official rank and banished to the Ladoga canal as overseer of this great enterprise. Later he was pardoned, but when, in 1727, he conspired against Prince Menshikoff, he was deprived of everything, knouted, branded, and then exiled to Siberia as a colonist. After a series of vicissitudes he appeared, in the capacity of harbor-master at Okhotsk, but the government gave him no rank; he was not even per- mitted to cover his brand. This old man, made vicious by a long and unjust banishment, became Bering's evil spirit. In spite of his sixty or seventy years, he was as restless, fiery and vehement in both speech and action as when a youth, dissolute, cor- ruptible, and slanderous — a false and malicious bab- bler, a full-fledged representative of the famous Sibe- rian "school for scandal." For six long years he persecuted the expedition with liis hatred and frJse- hoods, and was several times within an ace of overthrow- ing everything. He lived in a stockaded fort a fe ' miles in the country, while Spangberg's quarters were down by the sea, on the so-called Kuslika, a strip of land in the Okhota delta, where the town was to be founded. The power of each was unrestrained. Both were dare-devils who demanded an obedience which foretold the speedy overthrow of each. Both sought to maintain their authority through imprison- ment and corporal punishment. Thus they wrangled for a year, Pissarjeff, meanwhile, sending numerous complaints to Yakutsk and St. Petersburg. But Spangberg was not to be trilled with. In the fall of 1736 he swore that he would effectually rid himself Bering's great northern expedition. 87 of "the old scoundrel/' who thereupon in all haste fled to Yakutsk, where he arrived after a nine days' ride, and filled the town with his prattling falsehoods, to which, however, only the Academists seem to have paid any attention. Under circumstances where the local authorities did everything in their power to hinder the development of a district, it is only natural that in the settlement of Okhotsk and the construction of the ships for the expe- dition but slow progress was made. The enormous stores which were necessary for six or eight sea-going ships — provisions, cannon, powder, cables, hemp, can- vas, etc., it would take two or three years to bring from Yakutsk, a distance both long and tedious, and fraught with danger. The work, the superhuman efforts, the forethought, and perseverance that Bering and his men exhibited on these transporting expeditions on the rivers of East Siberia have never been described or understood, and yet they perhaps form the climax in the events of this expedition, every page of the his- tory of which tells of suffering and thankless toil. In the middle of the 17th century, those Cossacks that conquered the Amoor country had opened this river navigation, and now Bering re-opened it. The stores were transported down the Lena, up the Aldan, Maya, and Yudoma rivers, thence across the Stanovoi Mountains, down the Urak, and by sea to Okhotsk. These transportations at first employed five hundred soldiers and exiles, and later more than a thousand. The season is very short. The rivers break up in the early part of May, when the spring fioods, full of I I I I ds VITUS BERING. devastating drift-ice, rise twenty or thirty feet above the average level and sweep along in their course whole islands, thus filling the river-bed with trunks of trees and sand, deluging the wild rock-encircled valleys, so that navigation can not begin until the latter part of May, again to be obstructed in August by ice. The course was against the current, so the crew had to walk along the rough and slippery banks and tug the flat-bottomed barges up stream. In this way they were usually able, during the first summer, to reach the junction of the Maya and the Aldan (Ust Maiskaya), where Bering built a pier and a number of magazines, barracks, and winter-huts. Then the next summer, the journey would be continued m> the Maya and into the Yudoma, which boils along through an open mountain valley over rocks, stones, and water- logged tree trunks. It has but two or three feet of water, is full of sand-banks, with a waterfall here and there and long rapids and eddies, — the so-called "schiver." In such places the current was so strong that thirty men were scarcely able to tug a boat against it. Standing in water to their waists, the men were, so to speak, obliged to carry the barges. The water was very cauterizing, and covered their legs and feet with boils and sores. The oppressive heat of the day was followed by nights that were biting cold, and whe I new ice was formed, their sufferings were superhuman. In this manner Yudomskaya Krest (Yudoma's Cross) was reached in August of the second year. This place, where since the days of the Cos- sack expedition a cross had stood, Bering made an BERING*S GREAT NORTHERN EXPEDITION. 89 intermediate station for the expedition. Here were the dwellings of two officers, a barrack, two earth-huts, six warehouses, and a few other buildings and winter- huts. In these warehouses the goodn were stored, to be conveyed, in the following winter, on horseback across the Stanovoi Mountains to the mountain stream Urak, which, after a course of two hundred versts, reaches the sea three miles south of Okhotsk. For this part, of the expedition, new winter- huts on the Stanovoi Mountains, and magazines, river boats, and piers on the Urak had to be built, Tliis river is navigable only for a few days after the spring thaw. Then it boils along at the rate of six miles an hour, often making a trip down its course a dangerous one. Losseff says that in this way, other things being favor- able, Okhotsk was reached in three years. The brief account which has here been attempted gives but a faint idea of the labor, perseverance, and endurance requisite to make one of these expeditions. Barges and boats had to be built at three different places, roads had to be made along rivers, over mountains, and through forests, and piers, bridges, storehouses, winter-huts and dwellings had to be constructed at these various places. Not only this. They suffered many misfortunes. Boats and barges were lost, men and beasts of burden were drowned, deserted, or were torn to pieces by wolves, — and all these difficulties Bering and his assistants overcame through their own activity, without the support of the Siberian govern- ment, yes, in spite of its ill will, both concealed and manifest. In 1737, ho reported to the Admiralty: I 90 VITUS BERING. % "Prior to our arrival at Yakutsk not a pood* of pro- visions had been brought to 0]:^otsk for us, nor had a single boat been built for t^ transportation. Nor did we find workmen or magazines at the landing places on the Maya and Yudoma rivers. The Siberian authorities have not taken a single step toward com- plying with the ukases issued by Her Royal Highness.'* And with justifiable self-esteem he adds: **We did all this. We built transports, we obtained workmen in Yakutsk, we conveyed our provisions to Yudoms- kaya Krest, and with superhuman efforts thence to the sea. At the mouths of the Maya and Yudoma, at the Cross, and at the Urak we erected storehouses and dwellings, in the Stanovoi Mountains several win- ter-huts, and on the Urak no less than seventy river boats, which have, in part, started for Okhotsk with provisions. Not until after the lapse of two years have I been able to induce the authorities in Yakutsk to appoint superintendents of transportation, and for this reason it was entirely impossible for me to depart for Okhotsk, unless I wanted to see the work of the whole expedition come to a complete standstill, bring upon my men the direst need, and force the whole enterprise into most ignominious ruin." * A pood is thirty-Biz pounds. CHAPTER X. DELAY or THE EXPEDITION CAUSED BY THE DEATH OP LASSENIUS AND HIS COMMAND IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. — DISSATISFACTION OF THE SENATE AND ADMIRALTY WITH BERING'S WORK. THE difficulties recounted in the preceding chapter are alone sufficient to justify Bering's nearly three years' stay in Yakutsk ; but simultaneously many other duties demanded his attention. It does not come within the scope of this treatise to describe the investigations of tho Academical branch of this enterprise, — to portray Miiller's and Gmelin's services to botany, history, and geography; they are of interest here only in their relation to Bering. Especially in Yakutsk did these men give him much to attend to. It devolved upon him now to convey these gentlemen, in a manner fitting their station, up or down the Lena, now to send La Croy^re to Lake Baikal or to the Arctic Ocean, — all of which was to be done in a country principally inhabited by nomadic tribes, with only here and there a Russian population where there were government officials, and with no other means of transportation than those secured for the occa- sion. In Yakutsk, where the Professors stayed a long time, their relations with Bering were very much strained, principally, it would seem, on account of their 91 ai! If:!:. Mi' •III 92 VITUS BERING. exorbitant demands for convenience and luxury. Since Bering would not and could not take upon himself to transport them to Kamchatka as comfortably as he had thus far conveyed them, especially not from Okhotsk, in private and conveniently equipped vessels, and since the Voivode likewise gave them but little hope of support, both Gmelin and Miiller made application for a release from the expedition, and left to KrasheninnikofE and Steller their principal task — the description of Kam- chatka. In the year 1736, moreover, very discouraging news was received from the Arctic seas. Pronchisheff had been obliged to go into winter quarters at Olenek, and Lassen- ius, who, August 2, had reached the rocky islet Stolb, in the Lena delta, and on the 7th stood out of the mouth of the BykofE eastward, was driven by storm and ice into the river Khariulakh, east of the Borkhaya Bay, where he wintered, in a latitude of 71° 28'. The jilace was uninhab- ited, and he built from driftwood a winter-house 66 feet long, making four apartments, with three fireplaces, and a separate kitchen and bath-room. As Lassenius hoped to be able to continue the expedition during the two succeeding summers, the rations were made considerably smaller. November 6, the polar night began, and shortly after- wards nearly the whole crew were attacked by a deadly scurvy, so violent that perhaps only Jens Munk* and his fellow-sufferers on the Churchill Eiver have experienced anything worse. On the 19th of December Lassenius died, and in the few succeeding months nearly all of his * Munk was sent out by the Danish goTernmeut in IGIO to search for a Northwest passage,— Th. BERING'S GREAT NORTHERN EXPEDITION. 03 officers and thirty-one of the crew, so that when assistance from Bering arrived, only eight men were alive. Miiller and Gmelin say that the crew accused Lassenius of high treason, and mutinied; but there is no documentary evi- dence of this. The report seems to have arisen through a confounding of the name of Lassenius with that of the deputy constable Rosselius, who, on the 18th of Novem- ber, 1735, was sent, under arrest, to Yakutsk, To fill the vacancies caused by this terrible disease, Bering had to send a whole new command — Lieut. Dmitri Laptjef, the second mate Planting, and forty-three men — to Kliariu- lakh to continue the expedition. In addition to this, two boats with provisions were sent to the mouth of the Lena, and in 1737, before he himself departed for Okhotsk, a shipload of provisions waa sent to supply the magazines on the Arctic coast. -t.v> these various tasks Bering gave his personal attention. In 1736-38 this great enterprise passed through a dan- gerous crisis. Several years had elapsed since the depart- ure from St. Petersburg, three hundred thousand rubles (over two hundi-ed thousand dollars) had been expended — an enormous sum at that time— and yet Bering could not point to a single result. Lassenius was dead, his suc- cessor, D. Laptjef, had been unfortunate, PronchishefE had, in two summers of cruising, not been able to double the Taimyr peninsula, Ofzyn was struggling in vain in the Gulf of Obi, while Bering and Spangberg had not begun their Pacific expeditions. The former had not even reached the coast. The government authorities at St. Petersburg were in the highest degree dissatisfied with this seeming dilatoriness. The Senate sent a most earnest 94 VITUS HBRINO. appeal to the Admiralty to recall the expedition. Here was a situation that Bering^s enemies thought favorable for their intrigues. The departments of the Admiralty were deluged with complaints and accusations. The Siberian authorities, of whom Bering so justly had com- plained, answered with counter-charges. He was not fa- miliar with the country, they said; he made unreasonable demands, and did not know how to avail himself of means at hand. PissarjefE told the government that Bering and Spangberg had undertaken this expedition into Siberia simply to fill their own pockets, — that they accepted bribes, carried on a contraband liquor traffic, and had already accumulated great wealth. Ilie exiled naval officer, Kasanssoff, reported that there was entire lack of system in the enterprise; that everything was done at an enormous expenditure, and that nothing at all would bo accomplished. laeutenant Planting, one of Bering's own officers, who had been reduced for neglect of duty, accused Bering of being arbitrary, extravagant, and fond of show at the expense of the government. He accused him, fur- thermore, of embezzlement on his first expedition, in 1725, and alleged that Bering's wife had returned to Russia with a fortune, and had in Yakutsk abducted two young women.* History has not confirmed a single one of these charges. As for sacrifice, disinterestedness, and zeal, Bering not only rises far above his surroundings — which is, perhaps, not saying very much — but his character is clean and unsullied. Even so petty a person as Sokoloff, who, in other respects, does not spare him, has for his character ♦ Note 48. BERINO'8 GREAT NORTHERN EXPEDITION. 95 unqualified praise. Nevertheless, all of these complaints and accusations caused Bering much trouble and vexation. The Admiralty, hard pressed by the Senate, found it diffi- cult to furnish the necessary means for the continuation of the expedition, and treated Bering severely and unrea- sonably. It lacked the view which personal examination gives. It was beset with deceitfulness and circumvention, and its experiences led it to take the worst for granted. Hence, it sent Bering one message after the other repre- hensive of his course. It threatened to fine him, to court-martial him, to reduce him, and, in 1737, it even went so far as to deprive him of his supplemental salary, which was withheld several years.* Bering defended him- self with the bitterness of despair. In his reports he gave the most solemn assurances of his perseverance and fidelity to duty, and the most detailed accounts of all difficulties. He declared upon his honor that he was unable to see any other means or resources than those he had resorted to. He even appealed at last to the testimony of the chiefs of the various expeditions and all the subordinate officers. He was not believed. The Admiralty showed its lack of tact by letting ChirikoflE investigate a series of charges against him. Furthermore, in spite of Bering's most urgent rep- resentations, Pissarjeff. continued to retain his position in Okhotsk; and, although the government threatened the Siberian authorities with the sternest punishments, still the latter only very inactively participated in the work of the expedition. Sokoloff gives a very repulsive picture of Bering's assistants. On account of the discomforts of the journey • Note 44. ill I 96 VITUS BERING. in this barbaric country, and under the pressure of cease- less toil, a large number of the subordinates fell to drink- ing and committing petty thefts; and the officers, gath- ered as they were fiom all quarters of ihe world, are described as a band of gruff and unruly brawlers. They were always at sword's points. Pronchisheff and Lasse- nius, Chirikoff and Spangberg, the latter and Walton, Planting, Waxel, Petroff and Endoguroff, were con- stantly wrangling, and at times most shameful scenes were enacted. Our Russian author is not adverse to giving Bering the principal blame for these dissensions which cast a gloom on this worthy undertaking and impaired the forces of the expedition. He repeatedly, and with much force, accuses him of being weak, and in the Impe- rial Marine this opinion seems yet to prevail.* Sokoloff says: " Bering was a well-informed man, eager for knowl- edge, pious, kind-hearted, and honest, but altogether too cautious and indecisive; zealous, persevering, and yet not sulHciently energetic; well liked by his subordinates, yet without sufficient influence over them, — too much inclined to allow himself to be affected by their opinions and desires, and not able to maintain strict discipline. Hence, he was not particularly well qualified to lead this great enterprise, especially in such a dark crrtury and in in such a barbaric country as East Siberia." I do not doubt that we here find some of the elements of Boring's character, but Sokoloff was much more of an archivist than historian and student of human nature. In his long accounts he never succeeds, by means of describing any action or situation, in giving a pscychological insight into • Note 46. Bering's great northern expedition. 97 I Bering's character, and, as matters now stand, it is impos- sible to draw any tenable line between the errorfG. the last, he found himself in a narrow strait, from ten to twenty yards wide, and he did not stop until there was scarcely a bucketful of water between the polar ice and the rocky shore. But Cape Schelagskii, on the northeast coast, where Deshneff a century before had shown the way, he did not succeed in doubling. As a result of the labors of this great Northern Exj»edition, the northern coast of the Old World got substantially the same cartographical outline that it now has. The determinations of latitude made by the Russian officers were very accurate, but those of longitude, based on nautical calculations, were not so satisfactory. Their successors, Wrangell, Anjou, Mid- dendorff, and even Nordenskjold, have therefore found opportunity to make corrections of but minor import- ance, especially in regard to longitude. But it is necessary to dwell a little longer on these expeditions. Their principal object was not so much the charting of northern Siberia as the dis- covery and navigation of the Northeast passage. From this point of view alone they must be consid- ered. This is the connecting thought, the central point in these scattered labors. They were an indi- rect continuation of the West European expeditions for the same purpose, but far more rational than these. For this reason Bering had, on his expedi- tion of reconnoissance (1725-30), first sought that thoroughfare between the two hemispheres without which a Northeast and a Northwest passage could not exist. For this reason also he had, on his far- sighted plau, undertaken the navigation of the Arctic If sii THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. Ill seas, where this had not already been done by Deshneff, and for this same reason the Admiralty sought carefully to link their explorations to the'\Yesl European termini, on the coast of Novaia Zemlia as well as Japan. More- over, the discovery of a Northeast passage was the raison d'etre of these expeditions. This alone promised the empire such commercial and political advantages that the enormous expendi- tures and the frightful hardships which these expe- ditions caused Siberia, might be justified. For this reason the government, summer after summer, drove its sailors on along the Taimyr acd Bering penin- sulas; for this reason, in 1740, it enjoined upon D. Laptjef to make a last attempt to double north- east Asia from Kamchatka, and this would undoubt- edly have been accomplished if the unfortunate death of Bering had not occurred shortly after;* and for ixi^j reason, also, the government caused tlie charting of the coast by land after all nautical attempts had miscarried. Any extended documentary proof of the correctness of this view must be considered unnecessary. The instruc- tions expressly state the object of the expedition: to ascertain with certainty whether vessels could find a passage or not. Muller says the same. Scholars like Middendorff, Von Baer, and Dr. Petermann look upon these expeditions from the same standpoint, and have seen fit to give them the place of honor among all the geographical efforts in the Northeast passage. f Some Swedish scholars alone have found it necessary to main- tain a different view. Dr. A. Stuxberg and Prof. Th. • Note 47. t Note 48. 'i 112 VITUS BERING. ■¥ M. Fries in Upsala have published accounts of the his- tory of the Northeast passage, in which not a word about these expeditions is found. Between tlif '^kvs of Vlam- ing and Cook, from 1688 until 1773 tUy P ,1 nothing to be said of explorations in this part of iae world, and the charting of these waters does not, in their opinion, seem to have any connection with the history of the Northeast passage. Prof. Fries attempts to justify this strange method of treatment by the assertion that these expeditions did not seek the navigation of the Northeast passage, and did not undertake to sail a ship from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But what authority, what historical foundation, have such assertions ? S.'mply because the Russians }. ^reeled out this work and w it at it in a sensible manner; because they did n-V )o; ly proclaim their intention to sail directly from . le v ' ina to Japan ; because they had been instructed •. the nsionary and fatal attempts of West Europe, — ye8> c.e is almost tempted to say, just because these RusEian expeditions alone are of any importance in the early history of the passage, the Swedish historiauo pass them by; Prof. Fries h-s even ventured the assertion that the discovery of the Northeast passage by th' ^ Russian expeditions, one hundred and thirty-seven .' > /^ before Nordenskjold, is a discovery hitherto iinsu. .sed by anyonfi but the author of this work. I am not dis- posed to wrangle abo'L ;vordf5, and still less to interfere with anyone's well-c.ined pv;/i»oges. By the discovery of the Northeast passage, I understand that work of geographical exploration, that determination of the dis- tribution of land and w^ater along the northern boundary THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 113 of the Old World, that traversing and charting of the coast which showed the existence of the passage, but not the nautical utilization of it. This is the European interpretation of this question. In any other sense McClure did not discover the Northwest passage. If it is permissible to speak of the discovery of the Northeast passage after the time of Bering and the Great Northern Expedition, it is equally permissible to speak of the discovery of the Northwest pas ..age after the time of the great English expeditions. If some future Nordenskjold should take it into his head to choose these waters as n the scene of some great nautical achievement, McClure, according to Prof. Fries's historical maxims, could not even find a place in the history of this passage, for it was not his object to sail a ship around the north of the New World. I very much doubt, however, that the Professor would in such a case have the courage to apply his maxims. Nor does Baron Nordenskjold concede to the Great Northern Expedition a place in the history of the North- east passage. The "Voyage of the Vega" is an imposing work, and was written for a large public, but ev^en the author of this work has not been able to rise to an unbiased and just estimate of his most important pre- decessors. His presentation of the subject of Russian explorations in the iVrctic regions, not alone Bering's work and that of the Great Northern Expedition, but also Wrangell's, Liitke's, and Von Buer's, is unfair, unsatisfactory, inaccurate, and hence misleading in many respects. Nordenskjold's book comes with such overpowering authority, and has had such a large ;«f I! i; "I 114 VITUS BERING. circulation, that it is one's plain dnty to point out palpa- ble errors. Nordenskjold is not very familiar with the literature relating to this subject. He does not know Berch's, Stuckenberg's, or SokolofE's works. Midden- dorfE's and Von Baer's clever treatises he uses only inci- dentally. He has restricted himself to making extracts from WrangelFs account, which in many respects is more than incomplete, and does not put these expeditions in the right light. It is now a couple of generations since Wrangeirs work was written, which is more a general survey than an historical presentation. While Norden- skjold devotes page after page to an Othere's, an Ivanoff's, and a Martinier's very indifferent or wholly imaginary voyages around northern Norway, he disposes of the Great Northern Expedition, without whose labors the voyage of the Vega would have been utterly impossible, in five unhappily written pages. One seeks in vain in his work for the principal object of the Northern Expedition, — for the leading idea that made these magnificent enter- prises an organic whole, or for a full and just recognition of these able, and, in some respects, unfortunate men, whose labors have so long remained without due appreci- ation. In spite of Middendorff's interesting account of the cartography of the Taimyr peninsula, Nordenskjold does not make the slightest attempt to explain whether his corrections of the cartography of this region are corrections of the work of Laptjef and Chelyuskin, or of the misrepresentations of their work made by a later age. About the charting of Cape Chelyuskin he says: "This was done by Chelyuskin in 1742 on a new sledging expedition, the details of which are but little known; lis THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 115 evidently because until the most recent times there has been a doubt in regard to Chelyuskin's statement that he had reached the most northerly point of Asia. After the voyage of the Vega, however, there can no longer be any doubt.'* * The truth is, ever since 1843, f when Middendorff published the preliminary account of his expedition to the Taimyr peninsula, no doubt has prevailed that all wno are familiar with Russian literature, or even with German literature, on this subject, ha\e long since been convinced of the fact that the most northern point of Asia was visited and charted a century and a half ago, — that the details of Chelyuskin's expedition, so far from being unknown, are those parts of the work of the North- ern Expedition which have been most thoroughly investi- gated and most often presented. Nordenskjold's recogni- tion of Chelyuskin's work comes thirty-eight years too late; it has already been treated with quite a different degree of thoroughness than by the few words expended on it in the "Voyage of the Vega." In 1841, Von Baer accused Chelyuskin of having dishonestly given the latitude of the most northerly point of Asia, and these charges Nor- denskjold prints as late as 1881 without any comment whatever. If he had only seen Von Baer's magazine for 1845 I he would there have found the most unreserved retraction of them and most complete restitution to Chel- yuskin on the part of Von Baer, and would thus have escaped ascribing to a man opinions which he renounced a generation ago. Middendorff is likewise very pains- taking in presenting the history of these measurements, ♦ Note 49. tNote 50. :tNote 61. 116 VITUS BERING. hi '. ; Ik' 1 and is open and frank in his praise. He says: ''In the spring of 1743 Chelyuskin crowned his wort by sailing from the Khatanga River around the eastern Taimyr peninsula and also around the most northerly point of Asia. He is the only one who a century ago had suc- ceeded in reaching and doubling this promontory. The fact that among many he alone was successful in this enterprise, must be attributed to his great ability. On account of his perseverance, as well as his careful and exact measurements, he stands preeminent among sea- men who have labored in the Taimyr country." And furthermore, in 1786, Sokoloft published a very careful and extensive account of these labors, together with an extract from Chelyuskin's diary relating to the charting of the Taimyr peninsula, which later was published in German by Dr. Petermann.* The difference in latitude of the northern point of the Taimyr peninsula as deter- mined by Chelyuskin and by Nordenskjold is scarcely three minutes, f • Note 68. t In his review of my book In the Journal of the American Geographical Society, XVII., p. 288, Baron Nordenskjold says: "Mr. Lauridsen has devoted nearly two pages to showing that I am wrong in what 1 have said of Cliel yuskln— that ' up to a recent date the statement that he really did reach the northern point of Asia was doubted.' But I had certainly the right to say this. If a person in 1742 performed one of the heroic deeds of geography without bavinc received any acknowledgment for It in his lifetime, and if the best authorities in this person's own country a century later still consid- ered him an Impostor, I was surely justified in giving the above-quoted opin- ion in 1880, in spite of the fact that two eminent geographical authorities have withdrawn their charges. Moreover, is it really the case that Sokoloflf's and Von Baer's later writings made it Impossible to revive the old charge? lie who can assert this must be but slightly acquainted with the history of geography, and with that of Siberian geography above all." In a note Nordenskjold adds: "Previous to the departure of the Vega from Sweden, I received a letter from an unknown well-wisher to our voyage, cautioning me not to put too much faith in the Chelyuskin exploration story, as the writer of the letter CHAPTER XIII. THE DISCOVERY OF THE KURILE ISLANDS AND JAPAN FROM THE NORTH. rr^HE men that took part in these early Russian -*- explorations have not yet received their just dues. Not one of them, however, needs rehabilitation so much as Spangberg. He is entitled to an independent place in geographical history, but has been completely barred out. 0. Peschel and Prof. Ruge know him as Bering^s principal officer, but not as the discoverer of the Kurile Islands and Japan from the north. And yet, just this was his task. He was to sail from Kamchatka to Nipon, chart the Kurile Islands, link the Russian explorations to the West European cartography of northern Japan, and investigate the geography of the intervening region, — especially the cartographical monsters which in the course of a century of contortion had developed from De Vries's intelligent map of East Yezo, Iturup (Stuaten Eiland) and Urup (Kompagniland). We have already considered it fictitious." To the Baron's criticism I shall simply remark; I have shown in the text that when he wrote the "Voyage of the Vega" he was not familiar with the latest worlcs on this question. Hence he has been entirely unal)le to decide whether the old doubts concerning Chelyuskin's results could be revived or not. 1 appeal to all students of these finer points in the history of geography, wlio will certainly agree with my statement that the Baron In this question has absolutely no other support than that of an anonymous letter \—Aufhor'8 Note to American Edition. 117 Pil; ' 41' i 118 VITUS BERIKG. spoken of these geographical deformities, which assumed the most grotesque forms, and were at that time accepted by the scientific world. The version of the brothers De risle, which perhaps was the most sober, may be seen from Map II. in the appendix. By Strahlenberg (1730) and by Bellin and Charlevoix (1735), highly respected names among scholars of that day, Kamchatka and Yezo were represented as forming a great continent separated by narrow sounds from Japan, which was continued on the meridian of Kamchatka and Yezo, and from an eastern chain of islands — Staaten Eiland and Kompagniland — that seemed to project into the Pacific in the form of a continent. KirilofE, who was familiar with Bering's map of east- ern Asia, and made use of it, and who knew of the most northerly Kuriles, made the necessary corrections in his general map of Eussia (1734), but retained, in regard to Yezo and Japan, a strangely unfortunate com- position of Dutch and Strahlenberg accounts, and put Nipon (Hondo) much too far to the east. In these cartographical aids Spangberg found only errors and confusion, and he got about the same kind of assist- ance from his real predecessors in practical exploration. Peschel tells that Ivan Kosyrefski, in the years 1712-13, thoroughly investigated the Kurile chain ; there is, how- ever, but little truth in this. Peschel gives G. F. Miiller as his authority and refers to his book, but the latter says explicitly on this point: "All of Kosyref ski's voyages were confined to the first two or three Kuriles ; farther than this he did »t go, and whatever he tells of beyond them was obtained from the accounts of THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 119 others/* It is possible that MiiUer's judgment is a triile one-sided, but it is nevertheless certain that Kosyrefski's description of the Kuriles is based on his own explora- tions only in a very slight degree, and that he by no means deserves the place that Peschel and Ruge have accorded him. Nor did Lushin's and Yevrinoff's expe- diiion in the summer of 1721 get very far — scarcely beyond the fifth or sixth island — and with them, until Spangberg appeared on the scene, Eussian explorations in this quarter were at a standstill. The expedition to Japan (1738) was undertaken with three ships. Spangberg and Petroff sailed the one- masted brig, the Archangel Michael, Lieutenant Walton and first mate Kassimiroff the three-masted double sloop Hope, and Second-Lieutenant Schelting had Bering's old vessel, the Gabriel. The Michael had a crew of sixty-three, among them a monk, a physician, and an assayer, and each of the other two ships had a crew of forty-four. The flotilla left Okhotsk on the 18th of June, 1738, but was detained in the Sea of Okhotsk by ice, and did not reach Bolsheretsk until the early part of July. From here, on the 15th of July, Spangberg departed for the Kuriles to begin charting. The Kurile chain, the thousand islands or Chi-Shima, as the Japanese call them, is 650 kilometers long. These islands are simply a multitude of crater crests which shoot up out of the sea, and on that account make navi- gation very difficult. The heavy fog, which almost con- tinually prevails here, conceals all landmarks. In the great depths, sounding afforded little assistance, and, furthermore, around these islands and through the 120 VITUS BERING. ';;*' narrow channels there are heavy breakers and swift currents. For nearly a century after Spangberg, these obstacles defied some of the world's bravest seamen. Captain Gore, who was last in command of Cook's ships, was obliged to give up the task of charting this region ; La P6rouse succeeded in explorir.g only tlie Boussale chan- nel ; the fogs forced Admiral Sarycheff (1792) to give up his investigations here ; Captain Broughton (1796) was able to circumnavigate onl}f the most southerly islands, without, however, succeeding in giving a cor- rect representation of them ; and not until the early part of this century did Golovnin succeed in charting the group more accurately than Spangberg. All of these difficulties were experienced in full measure by Spangberg*s expedition. In constant combat with fogs, swift currents, and heavy seas along steep and rocky coasts, he had, by the 3d of August, 1738, cir- cumnavigated thirty-one islands (our maps have not nearly so large a number), and at a latitude of 45° 30' he reached the large island Nadeshda, (the Kompagni- land of the Dutch, Urup), but, as he could nowhere find a place to anchor, and as the nights were growing dark and long, the ship's bread running short, and the crew for a long time having been on half rations, he turned back, and reached Bolsheretsk on the 17th of August. Lieutenant Walton, who had parted company with his chief and had sailed as far down as 43° 30' north latitude, thus reaching the parallel of Yezo, arrived a few days later. As well as the other chiefs of these expeditions, Spangberg had authority, without a THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 121 renewed commission, to repeat the expedition the follow- ing summer ; hence the winter was spent in pr'», rations for it. So far as it was possible to do so, he sought to provision himself in Kamchatka, and, especially for reconnoitering the coast, he built of birchwood an eight- een-oared boat called the Bolsheretsk. On the 21st of May, 1739, he again stood out to sea with all four ships, and on the 25th of the same month he reached Kurile Strait, and from here sailed south southeast into the Pacific to search for Gamaland and all the legendary group of islands which appeared on De r Isle's map. This southerly course, about on the meri- dian of Kamchatka, he kept until the 8th of June, reach- ing a latitude of 42°. As he saw nothing but sea and sky, he veered to the west south-west for the purpose of "doing the lands** near the coast of Japan. Walton, who, in spite of Spangberg's strictest orders, was con- stantly seeking to go off on his own tack, finally, on the 14th of June, found an opportunity *o steal away and sail in a south-westerly direction, iii different latitudes, but on the same day, the 16th of June, both discovered land. Walton followed the coast of Nipon down to lati- tude 33°, but Spangberg confined his explorations to the region between 39° and 37° 30' N. The country was very rich. A luxuriant vegetation — grape vines, orange trees and palms — decked its shores. Rich fields of rice, numer- ous villages, and populous cities were observed from the vessel. The sea teemed with fish of enormous size and peculiar form, and the currents brought them strange and unknown plants. The arrival of the ships causod great excitement among the natives, beacons burned ' ; 122 VITUS BERING. r till m along the coast all night, and cruisers swarmed about them at a respectful distance. On the 22d, Spangberg cast anchoi' one verst from shore, and sought to commu- nicate with them. The Japanese brought rice, tobacco, various kinds of fruits and cloths, which, on very reason- able terms, they exchanged for Russian wares. They were very polite, and Spangberg succee ^ <^d in obtaining some gold coins, which, however, he fc were described by KsBmpfer. Several persons of hign ittnk visited him in his cabin and attempted to explain to him, by the aid of his map and globe, the geography of Japan and Yezo. As his instructions enjoined upon him the most extreme cautiousness, and as on the following day he found him- self surrounded by eighty large boats, each with ten or twelve men, he weighed anchor and stood out to ses in a northeasterly direction. It was Spangberg's purpose to chart the southern part of the Kurile Islands, and, as will be seen from his chart,* he sought to accomplish his task, and thus complete his work of 1738. The casual observer will, however, find this map unsatisfactory and inaccurate, and will not only be quite confused in viewing these islands so pro- miscuously scattered about, and which seemingly do not correspond with the actual geography of this region as known to us, but he will even be inclined to suspect Spangberg of gross fraud. This is certainly very unjust, however, and after a careful study of a modern map, I venture the following opinion on this subject: In order to be able to understand his chart and course, the most essential thing necessary is simply to determine his first *8ee Appendix. THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 123 place of landing in the Kuriles, the island Figurnyi, and to identify it with its present name. He discovered this island on the 3d of July. Miiller says that, according to the ship's journal, it is in latitude 43° 50' N., and in spite of the fact that Spangberg's determinations in longitude, based on the ship's calculations, were as a rule somewhat inaccurate, which in a measure is shown by Nipon's being- located so far west, he is nevertheless in this case right, Figurnyi is the island Sikotan and has the astronomical position of this island on the chart (according to Golovnin 43° 53' N. and 146° 43' 30" E.). This opinion is corrobo- rated by a map of the Russian discoveries published at St. Petersburg in 1787, and by Captain Broughton, who described the island in the fall of 1796, and gave it tlie name of Spangberg's Island, in honor of its first dis- coverer. With this point fixed, it is not difficult to understand and follow Spangberg. Spangberg labored under very unfavorable circum- stances. It rained constantly, the coast was enveloped in heavy fogs, and at times it was impossible to see land at a distance of eight yards. From Figurnyi he sailed southwest, but under these difficult circumstances he took the little islands of Taroko and the northern point of Yezo to be one continuous coast (Seljonyi, the green island), and anchored at the head of Walvisch bay, his Bay of Patience. From here he saw the western shore of the bay, reached its farthest point. Cape Notske, and discovered the peninsula of Sirokot and parts of the island Kumashiri, which he called Konosir and Tsyn- trounoi respectively; but, as he turned from Cape Notske and sailed east into the Pacific, between Sikotan and the 124 VITUS BERING. nil h'\ w ii. f-vfc^'i' W' m IS k M 'f'n in e« Taroko Islands, he did not reach the Kurile Islands them- sel zee, and only +he most northerly island in the group of the "Three Sisters" may possibly be the southern point of Iturup. He then proceeded along the eastern coast of Yezo, took the deep bay of Akischis as a strait separating Seljonyi and Konosir, then crossed in a south- erly direction the large bay on the central coast of Yezo, without seeing land at its head, to Cape Jerimo (his Matmai), and had thus navigated the whole east coast of Yezo; but on account of the heavy fog, which prevented him from seeing the exact outline of the coast, he made three islands of Yezo: Matmai, Seljonyi and Konosir. In 1643, De Vries had in his map linked a number of islands together, making one stretch of country called Je9o, and now Spangberg had gone to the opposite extreme. These explorations engaged Spangberg from the 3d to the 25th of July. He several times met inhabitants of North Ye.'io, the Aino people, whose principal character- istics he has fully descril)ed, but as his men were suffer- ing from scurvy, causing frequent deaths among them (by August 29, when he arrived at Okhotsk, he had lost thirteen, among them the physician), he resolved to turn at Cape Jerimo, and on his return trip keep his course so close to tlie Kuriles that he might strike the extreme points of De I'lsle's Je90, all of Kompagniland, and the most westerly parts of Gamaland. 'Svtangb -rg's explorations were far from exhaustive. He but partly succeeded in lifting the veil that so persistently concealed the true outline of this irregularly formed part of the globe. His reconnoissance was to ascertain the general oceanic outline of these coastc. THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 125 His charting of Yezo and Saghalin was left to a much later day, — to La Perouse, to Krusenstern, Golovnin, and others. But Spangberg's expedition nevertheless marks great progress in our geographical knowledge, for not only did he irrevocably banish the cartographical myths of that region, and, on the whole, give a correct repre- sentation of the Kurile islands clear to Iturup, the next to the last of them, but he also determined the position of North Japan, and fully accomplished his original task, namely, to show the Eussians the way to Japan, tnd thus add this long disputed part of the Northeast passage to Lhe other explorations for the same purpose. As was the case with that of all of his colleagues, so Spangberg's reputation suffered under the violent administrative changes and that system of suppression which later prevailed in Russia. His reports were never made public. The Russian cartographers made use of his chart, but they rfid not understand how to fit judiciously his incomplete coast-lines to those already known, or to dialing ash right from wrong. They even omitted the course of his vessel, thus excluding all possibility of understanding his work. Hence Spang- berg's chart never reached West Europe, and Cook found it necessary to reinstate him as well as Bering.* After that the feeling was more favorable, and Coxe,f for instance, used nis representation of the Kuriles; but new and better outlines of this region appeared about this time, and Spangbcrg again sank into complete oblivion. Spangberg's safe return was a bright spot in the history of the Great Northern Expedition, and Bering p t>, ' -55rfUi • Note 63. t Note 64. 136 VITUS BERING. I! was very well satisfied with the results. He permitted h'.m and his crew to go to Yakutsk to obtain rest, and ordered him to return to St, Petersburg the next spring to render in person an account of the results of the expedition. His preliminary report, sent in advance, received considerable attention in the cabinet of the Empress, and caused much talk in the leading circles of the capital. While in Yakutsk, he received orders to travel day and night to reach St. Petersburg. Mean- while, however, his old enemy Pissarjeff had also been active. Surreptitiously, especially from Walton, who was constantly at enmity with his chief, he had obtained some information concerning the expedition and had reported to the Senate that Spangberg had not been in Japan at all, but off the coast of Corea. This assertion he sought to prove by referring to pre-Spangberg maps, which, as we have noted, placed Japan eleven or twelve degrees too far east, directly south of Kamchatka. This gossip was credited in the Senate, and a courier was dispatched to stop S^jangberg. At Fort Kiriusk, on the Lena, in the summer of 1740, he received orders to return to Okhotsk and repeat his voyage to Japan, while a commission of naval officers and scholars betook them- selves to investigate the matter. These wise men, after several years of deliberation, came to the conclusion that Walton had been in Japan, and that Spangberg most probably had been off the coast of Corea. In the summer of 1742, he started out on his third expedition to Japan, but as this was a complete failure, undoubtedly due to Spangberg's anger on account of the government's unjust and insane action, and as it has no geographical significance, we shall give it no further consideration. pe thi CHAPTER XIV. PREPARATIONS FOR BERING'S VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY TO AMERICA. — FOUNDING OF PETROPAVLOVSK. — THE BROTHERS DE L^ISLK, WE left Berinp^ when, in 1740, he was about to depart from iii' harbor of Okhotsk with tho St. Peter and the St. Paul, two smaller transports, and a vessel to convey the scientists, Steller and L;i Groyere, to Bolsheretsk. The objective point of the main expedi- tion was Avacha Bay, on the eastern coast of Kui chatka. The excellent harbors here had been discovered by Bering's crew a couple of years previous. He had now sent his mate, Yelagin, to chart the bay, tind a sheltered harbor there, and establish a fortified pin i abode on this coast. This work Yelagin completed m the summer of 1740, and when in the latter part of September the packet boats entered Avacha Bay, they found, in a smaller bay on the north side, Niakina Cove, some bar- racks and huts. A fort was built in the course of the winter and the pious Bering had a church built and consecrated to St. Peter and St. Paul, thus founding the present town of Petropavlovsk. The place rapidly became tho most important and pleasant town of the peiiinsula, altiiough that is not saying much. In 1779, the place was still so insignificant that Cook's ofiicers 187 128 VITUS BERING. searched long in vain for it with their field-glasses, but finally discovered about thirty huts on that point which shelters the harbor. In the middle of this cen- tury it had about a thousand inhabitants, but since the sale of Russian America, Bering's town has been hope- lessly on the decline. At present it has scarcely 600 inhabitants and is of importance only to the fur trade. Its first permanent inhabitants were b/^ught from the forts on the Kamchatka, and in the course of the autumn there arrived from Anadyrskoi Ostrog a herd of reindeer to supply the command of over two hundred men with food, and thus spare other stores. This was very necessary, for although Bering had left Okhotsk with nearly two years' provisions, one of the ships, through the carelessness of an officer, stranded in cross- ing the Okhotsk bar, and the cargo, consisting of the ship's bread for the voyage to America, was destroyed and could not immediately be replaced. Some lesser misfortunes in Avacha Bay further diminished the stores, and hence, in the course of the winter, Bering found it necessary to have large supplies brought across the country from Bolsheretsk. The distance is about one hundred and forty ailes, and as nothing but dogs could be procured, the natives were gathered from the remotest quarters of the peninsula to accomplish this work of transportation. The Kamshadales disliked Journeys very much. They had already suffered terribly under the misrule of the Cossacks. They were treated cruelly, and many died of overwork and want, and the rest lost patience. The tribes in the vicinity of Tigil revolted. The Cossack chief Kolessoif, who was constantly drunk, THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 129 neglected to superintend the transportation, and as a result, much was injured or ruined. Some of these sup- plies arrived too late to be used for the expedition. Bering's original plan was to spend two years on this expedition. He was to winter on the American coast, navigate it from 60° N. latitude to Bering Strait, and then return along the coast of Asia. But this had to be abandoned. In May, 1741, when the ice broke up, he could supply his ships with frugal, not to say very poor, pro- visions, for only five and a half months. Moreover, his ship's stores and reserve rigging were both incom- plete and inadequate. Bering's powers of resistance now began to wane. After eight years of incessant trouble and toil, after all the accusations and suspicions he had undergone, he was now forced to face the thought of an unsatisfactory conclusion of his first voyage, at least. Besides, Spc ^berg's fate could not but have a very depressing influence, for it told Bering and his associates that even with the best of results it would hardly be possible to overcome the prejudices of the government authorities or their lack of confidence in the efforts of the new marine service. Undoubtedly it was such thoughts as these that swayed Bering and Chirikoff, when, on the 4th of May, they called the ship's council to consider the prospective voyage (the proceedings are not known). Althougli both, as well as the best of their officers, were of the opinion that America* was to be sought in a direction east by north from Avacha, and in spite of the fact that they ♦ Note 55. I l\ ■;.■!■ , i .1 ! 130 VITUS BEfilNO. In were both familiar with Gvosdjeff*s discovery of the Amer- ican coast of Bering Strait (1732), and that their obser- vations during the course of the winter had amply cor- roborated Bering's earlier opinion, they nevertheless allowed themselves to be prevailed upon to search first in a southeasterly direction for the legendary Gamaland. And thus the lid of Pandora's box was lifted. This fatal resolution was due principally to the brothers De I'Isle, and, as this name is most decisively connected with Bering's life and renown, we must say a few words about these brothers. The elder and more talented, Guillaume De I'Isle, undoubtedly represented the geographical knowledge of his day, but he died as early as 1726. He came in personal contact with the Czar during the latter's visit in Paris, and corresponded with him afterwards. His maps were the worst stumbling blocks to Bering's first voyage. The younger brother, Joseph Nicolas, on the other hand, was called to Russia in 1726, on his brother's recommendation, and was appointed chief astronomer of the newly founded Academy. In this position he was for twenty-one years engaged upon the cartography of the great Russian empire. Under his supervision the atlas of the Academy appeared in 1745, and it was supposed that he carried very valuable geographical collections with him to Paris in 1747. But if this was the case, he did not understand how to make proper use of them, and, as it is, he is of no geographical importance. When he went to Russia, he took with him, without special invitation, his elder brother, Louis, and did everything to secure him a scien- tific position in the country. Louis seems to have been THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 131 an amiable good-for-nothing, who highly prized a good table and a social glass, but cared as little as possible for scientific pursuits. When, as a 3'oung man, he studied theology in Paris, his father found it necessary to send him to Canada, where he assumed his mother's name. La Croyore, and for seventeen years lived a sol- dier's wild life, until his brothers, on the death of the father, recalled him from his exile. In St. Petersburg his brother instructed him in the elements of astronomy, sent him upon a surveying expedition to Lapland, and finally secured him a position as chief astronomer of Bering's second expedition. This was a great mistake. Louis de I'lsle de la Croyore very unsatisfactorily filled his position. His Academic associates Miiller and Gmelin had no regard for him whatever, and hence under the pressure of this contempt, and as a result of this irregular and protracted life in a barbaric country. La Croyore, having no native power of resistance, sank deeper and deeper into hopeless sluggishness. His astronomical determinations in Kamchatka are worthless. His Eus- sian assistants, especially Krassilnikoff, did this part of the work of the expedition. As early as 1730, Bering, as we hav^e seen, came into unfortunate relations with Joseph De I'Isle, and this state of affairs afterwards grew gradually worse. In 1731, the Senate requested the latter to construct a map of the northern part of the Pacific in order to * present graphically the still unsolved problems for geographical research. He submitted this map to the Senate on the 6th of October, 1732, that is, two years and a half after Bering's proposition to undertake the Great Northern 133 VITUS BEEING. Expedition, but this did not deter him, in 1750, from ascribing to himself, on the basis of this same map and an accompanying memoir, Bering's proposition, nor from publishing an entirely perverted account of Bering's second expedition. He clung to all of his brother's con- jectures about Gamaland, Kompagniland, and Staatenland as well as Je90, although they were based on very unreli- able accounts and the cartographical distortions of several generations. On the other hand, he most arb'~ trily rejected all Russian accounts of far more recent and reli- able origin, so that only Bering's and part of YevrinofE's and Lushin's outlines of the first Kuriles were allowed to appear on the official map. He would rather reject all Eussian works that could be made doubtful, than his brother's authority, and even in 1753, over twenty years after Spangberg's and Bering's voyages, he persistently sought to maintain hi& brother Guillaume's and his own unreasonable ideas concerning the cartography of this region. It was in part this dogged persistence in cling- ing to family prejudices that robbed Spangberg of his well-earned reward and brought Bering's last expedition to a sad end. When the second Kamchatkan expedition left St. Pet- ersburg, a copy of De I'lsle's map was given to Bering as well as to La Croy^re. De I'Isle wrote the latter's instructions — ably written, by the way — and it was a result of- his efforts that the Senate ordered Bering and Chirikoff to consult with La Croy^re concerning the route to America, — a very reasonable decree in case he had been a good geographer. As it was, the order simply meant that they were to go according to the regulations THE VAKTOUS EXPEDITIOlfS. 133 of De PIsle in St. Petersburg. In the ship^s council on the 4th of May, 1741, La Croydre immediately produced the above-mentioned map, and directed the expedition first to find Gamaland, which, it was claimed, could lie but a few days* sailing toward the southeast, and would fur- nish good assistance in finding America. But La Croytire was only a spokesman for his brother, who in his memoir had constructed his principal reasoning on this basis. He says here that America can be reached from the Chuk- chee peninsula as well as from the mouth of the Kam- chatka River, but with greatest ease and certainty from Avacha Bay in a southeasterly direction to the northern coast of Gamaland. In order to support this supposition he adds: *'It grieves me not to have found other informa- tion about this land seen by Don Juan de Gama than what is given on the map of my late brother, his most Christian Majesty's first geographer. But as he indicated the position of this country with reference to Kompagni- land and Je90, and as I am certain, from other sources, of the position of these two countries, I am consequently convinced of their correct situation and distance from Kamchatka." That these miserable arguments exercised any influ- ence upon the ship's council on the 4th of May, would seem impossible, if we did not bear in mind the conduct of the authorities in St. Petersburg. Two years previous Spangberg had sailed right across Kompagniland, Staat- enland and Jego, and thus made every point in De Tlsle's argument untenable. Bering and Ohirikoff were familiar with the results of these voyages, and shared Spangberg's opinion. For this reason they could not possibly ascribe 184 VITUS BERING. any great importance to De risle's directions which were based on antiquated assumptions, but on the other hand, they had neither moral nor practical independence enough to take their own course. The government laws, and especially the Senate decrees, bound their hands. They were to submit all important measures to the action of a commission, and were far from being sovereign com- manders in any modern sense. Under these circum- stances they found it advisable, and possibly necessary, to act in accordance with the opinion of these learned schol- ars, so as to be able later to defend themselves in every particular against the criticisms of the Academy. Hence the commission resolved that the expedition should first find the northern coast of Gamaland, follow this coast in an easterly direction to America, and turn back in time to be at home in Avacha Bay by the end oi September. In this way their ships were carried far into the Pacific and away from the Aleutian chain of islands, which, like the thread of Ariadne, would speedily have led them to the western continent. to CHAPTER XV. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA FROM THE EAST. — STELLER INDUCED TO JOIN THE EXPEDITION. — THE SEPARATION OF THE ST. PETER AND THE ST. PAUL. T"N the course of the month of May the vessels were -■- equipped and supplied with provisions for five and a half months, several cords of wood, 100 casks of water, and two rowboats each. The St. Peter, commanded by Bering, had a crew of 77, among whom were Lieutenant Waxel, shipmaster Khitroff, the mates Hesselberg and Jushin, the surgeon Betge, the conductor Plenisner, Ofzyn (whom we remember as the officer who had been reduced in rank), and Steller. On board the St. Paul, commanded by Lieut. Alexei Chirikoff, were found the marine officers Chegatchoff and Plautin, La Croy^re, and the assistant surgeon Lau, — in all about 76 men. Before his departure, Bering had a very difficult matter to arrange. His instructions directed him to take with him to America a mineralogist ; but when Spangberg had started out on his unexpected expedition to Japan, Bering had sent with him the mineralogist Hartelpol, and now he found it impossible in East Siberia to get a man to fill his place. Hence, as early as February, Bering applied to Steller and tried to induce him to take upon himself the duties of naturalist and mineralogist on this expedition. 136 A fc *t 1 1 136 VITUS BERING. Steller was bom at Windsheim, Germany, in 1 "^09. He first studied theology and had even begun to preach, when the study of science suddenly drew him from the church. He studied medicine and botany, passed the medical ex- aminations in Berlin, and lectured on medicine in Halle. Then, partly as a matter of necessity and partly from a desire to travel, he went to Danzig, where he became sur- geon on a Russian vessel, and finally, after a ories of vicissitudes, he landed in St. Petersburg as a !<_• urer in the Academy of Science. According to his own desire he went to Siberia as Gmelin's and Miiller's assistant, and, as these gentlemen found it altogether too uncomfortable to travel any farther east than Yakutsk, he took upon himself the exploration of Kamchatka. He was an enthusiast in science, who heeded neither obstacles nor dangers, a keen and successful observer, who has enriched science with several classical chapters, and had an ardent and passionate nature that attacked without regard to persons every form of injustice. His pen could be shaped to epigrammatic sharpness, and his tongue spared no one. In 1741, he wished to extend his investigations to Japan, and had, when Bering sought to secure his services, sent to the Academy a request to be permitted to participate in Spangberg's third expedition. Steller had, however, great hesitancy about leaving his special field of investiga- tion without orders or permission, and Bering had to assume all responsibility to the Senate and Academy, and also secure for him from a council of all the ship's officers an assurance of the position as mineralogist of the expe- dition, before he could be induced to accept. Bering is said to have charged him verbally to make observations THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 137 in all the departments of natural history, and promised him all necessary assistance. Steller accuses Bering of not having kept his promises, and, although he preserved until the last a high regard for Bering's seamanship and noble character, there nevertheless developed, during the expedition, a vehement enmity between Steller and the naval officers, especially Waxel and KhitrofE, and this enmity found very pregnant expression in Steller's diary,* which, in this respect, is more a pamphlet than a descrip- tion of travel. It is impossible, however, with our pres- ent resources, to ascertain the true state of affairs. Con- cerning Boring's voyage to America, we have only the St. Peter's journals kept by Waxel, Jushin, and Khitroff, and an account by Waxel, all of which have been used by Sokoloff in the preparation of the memoirs of the hydro- graphic department. Steller's diary, which goes into a detailed account of things in quite a different way than the official reports, was also used by Sokoloff, but as the latter had but little literary taste and still less sympathy for the contending parties, especially for Bering, he does not attempt to dispense justice between them. Steller's criticism must be looked upon as an eruption of that ill- humor wTiich so oicen and so easily arises in the relations between the chief of an expedition and the accompanying scientists, between men with divergent interests and dif- ferent aims. Bering and Steller, Cook and his natural- ists, Kotzebue and Chamisso, are i)rominent examples of this disagreement. It is well known that Cook called the naturalists ''the damned disturbers of the peace,'* and that he more than once threatened to put them off on S J ♦ Note 56. 138 VITUS BEKING. 1^ I 11 some islari'1 or other in the ocean. Steller accuses Bering of having too much regard for hip subordinate officers, but in all likelihood those had made the countercharge that he gave too rnncii heed to the scientists. At any rate, Bering has often been blamed for — in accordance with his inptructions — letting La Croyere take part in the councils vc Avacha. But we must not forget that Steller was a hot-headed and passionate fellow who persistently maintained his own opinions. From many points in his accounts, it appears that during this whole expedition he was in a state of geographical confusion ; and even after his return he seemed to imagine that the two continents were separated by simply a narrow channel. He was /guided by observations of a scientific nature, and, as the course of the St. Peter was no farther from the Aleutian Islands than the appearance of seav/eed, seals, and birds indicated, he constantly imagmed that they were off the coast of the New World. The naval officers, on the other hand, sought guidance in sounding ; but as their course carried them out upon the great depths of the Pacific, the northern wall of which very precipitously ascends to the Aleutian Islands, their measurements were of no assist- ance, and in various points Stellci was undoubtedly cor- rect. The principal reason for Steller 'g complaint must be sought in Bering's illness, and it is easily perceived that, if the scurvy had not at a very early stage under- mined his ficrength, hi? superior seamanship would have secured the expedition quite different results than those that were obtained. After a prayer service, the ships weighed anchor on the 4th of June, 1741. Expectations on board were great, — ij- '•- THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 1139 the New World was to open up before them. According to the plan adopted, a southeasterly course was taken, and in spite of some unfortunate friction, Bering gave Chirikoii' the lead, so as to leave him no cause for com- plaint. They kept their course until the afternoon of June 12, when they found themselves, after having sailed over six hundred miles in a southeasterly direction, in latitude 46° 9' N. and 14° 30' east of Avacha. According to De FIsle's map they should long before hav^e come to the coasts of Gamaland, but as they only saw sea and sky, Bering gave the command to turn back. With variable and unfavorable winds, they worked their way, during the few succeeding days, in a direction of N. N. E. up to latitude 49° 30', where Chirikotf, on the 30th of June, in storm and fog, left Bering and sailed E. N. E. in the direction of the American coast, witliout attempting to keep with the St. Peter. This was the first real mis- fortune of the expedition. For forty-eight hours Ber- ing kept close to the place of separation, in hopes of again joining the St. Paul, and, as this proved fruitless, he convened a ship's council, at which it was decided to give up all further search for the St. Paul ; it was also resolved — in order to remove every di^ubt — to sail again to the 46th degree to find Gamaland. Hav- ing arrived here, some birds were seen, whereupon they continued their course to 45° 16' N. and 16° 23' east of Avacha, but of course without any results. During the four succeeding weeks, the ship's course was between north and east, toward the western continent, but as on their southern course they had come out upon the depths of Tuscarora, which, several jihousand fathoms deep, run r ;;f,: jJi 11' 140 VITUS BERING. right up to the Aleutian reef, their soundings gave them no clue to land, although they were sailing almost paral- lel with this chain of islands. But Bering was now con- fined to his cabin. The troubles he had passed through, his sixty years of age, and the incipient stages of scurvy, had crushed his powers of resistance, while his officers, Waxel and Khitroff, dismissed Steller's observations witlj scornful sarcasm. Not until the 12th of July did they take any precautions against a sudden landing. They took in some of the sails during the night and hove to. They had then been on the sea about six weeks. Their supply of water was about half gone, and according to the ship's calculations, Avhich show an error of 8°, they had sailed 46^° {i. e., 54|°) from the meridian of Avacha. The ship's council therefore concluded, on the 13th of July, to sail due north, heading N. N. E., and at noon on the 16th of July, in a latitude by observation of 68'^ 14' and a longitude of 49^° east of Avacha, they finally saw land to the north.* The country was ele- vated, the coast was jagged, covered with snow, inhospi- table, and girt with islands, behind which a snow-capped mountain peak towered so high into the clouds that it could be seen at a distance of seventy miles. *'I do not remember," says Steller, *' of having seen a higher moun- tain in all Siberia and Kamchatka." This mountain * II. H. Bancroft, History of Alaska, p. 79, has the followliiK note: " The date of Bering's discovery, or tlie day when land wuh first sighted by the lookout, has been variously stated. Miiller mnkcH it the aoth of July, and Steller the 18th; the 16th is in accordiincc with Hering's journal, and accord- ing to Bering's observation tlie latitude was 58° 2H'. This date is confirmed by a manuscript chart compiled by Petrofl' and Waxel, witli the help of the original log-books of both voshcIs. The claim set up by certain Spanish writers in favor of Francisco (Jiill as first discoverer of this region is basel on a misprint in an early account of his voyage. For particulars sec Hist. Cal., I., this series."— Tn. THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 141 was the volcano St. Elias, which is about 18,000 feet high. Bering had thus succeeded in discovering America from the east. As they had a head wind, they moved very slowly toward the north, and not until the morning of the 30th did they cast anchor off the western coast of an island which they called Set. Ilii (St. Elias) in honor of the patron saint of the day. On the same day, Khitroff with fifteen men went, in the ship's boat, to search for a harbor and to explore the island and its nearest surround- ings. Steller, who had desired to accompany him, was put ashore with the crew that brought fresh water from St. Elias, and endeavored, as well as it was possible in a few hours, to investigate the natural history of the island. Khitroff circumnavigated the island and found various traces of human habitation. Thus, on one of the adjacent islands, a timbered house was found containing a fireplace, a bark basket, a wooden spade, some mussel shells, and a whetstone, which apparently had been used for sharpen- ing copper implements. In an earth-hut another detach- ment had found some smoked fish, a broken arrow, the remains of a fire, and several other things. The coast of the mainland, which was mountainous with snow-capped peaks, was seen at a distance of eight miles. A good har- bor was found on tlio north side of the large island. All the islands were covered with trees, but these were so low and slender that timber available for yards was not to be found. On his venturesome' wanderings here, only now and then accompanied by a Cossack, Steller penetrated those woods, where bo discovered a cellar, which con- tained articles of food and various implements. As some of these things wore sent on board, Bering, by way of i i 1 ; i i f: 142 VITUS BERING. indemnification, caused to be placed there an iron kettle, a pound of tobacco, a Chinese pipe, and a piece of silk cloth. 18 ( «i:| CHAPTER XVI. BERIlfG^S PLACE OF LANDING ON THE AMERICAN COAST. — CAPTAIN cook's UNCERTAINTY. — THE QUESTION DISCUSSED AND DEFINITELY SETTLED. 1 "TN geographical literature complete uncertainty in -L regard to Bering's island St. Elias and its situation off the American coast still prevails. This uncertainty is due partly to Miiller and partly to Cook. Miiller is inaccurate; in fact, confused. He says that Bering saw the American continent in a latitude of 58° 28', and at a difference of longitude from Avacha of 50° (in reality, 58° 14' and 56° 30'), but he gives neither the latitude nor longitude of the island of St. Elias, which is the important point, and on his map of 1753, where he goes into details more than in his description, he marked on latitude 58° 28': '' Coast discovered hy Bering in 11^1." On such vague reports nothing can be based. In the ship's journal, howe'or, which Miiller in all likelihood must have seen, the latitude of the island is entered as 59'' 40', and the longitude, according to the ship's calculationgi, as 48° 50' east of Avacha. But as Bering's calculations, on account of the strong current, which in these waters flows at a rate of twenty miles, had an error of about 8°, the longitude becomes 56° 30' east of Avacha, and at this astronomical point, approximately 148 111 i > :'■ < i 1. il I 144 VITUS BERING. correct, lies Kayak Island/ which is Cook's Kayes Island, having a latitude of 59° 47' and a longitude of 56° 44' east of Avaclia, and hence the question is to prove that this island really is the Guanahani of the Russians, that is, St. Elias. Cook is the authority for the opinion which has hitherto prevailed ; but surely no one can be more uncertain and cautious on this point than he. He says: " Miiller's report of the voyage is so abbreviated, and his map is so extremely inaccurate, that it is scarcely possible from the one or the other, or by comparing both, to point out a single place that this navigator either saw or landed on. If I were to venture an opinion on Bering's voyage along this coast, I should say that he sighted land in the vicinity of Mt. Fairweather. But I am in no way certain that the bay which I named in his honor is the place where he anchored. Nor do I know whether the mountain which I called Mt. St. Elias is the same conspicuous peak to which he gave this name, and I am entirely unable to locate his Cape St. Elias." It would seem that such uncertain and reserved opin- ions were scarcely liable to be repeated without comment or criticism. But nevertheless, the few reminiscences of this chapter of Bering's explorations which our present geography has preserved are obtained principally from Cook's map ; for the first successors of this great navigator, Dixon, 1785, La Perouse, 1786, Malespiua, 1791, and Vancouver, 1792, through whose efforts the northwest coast was scientifically charted, maintained, with a few unimportant changes, Cook's views on this point. According to these views, Bering Bay was in THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 145 69° 18' north latitude and 139° west longitude, but Cook had not himself explored this bay; he had simply found indications oi a 'jay, and hence La ^erouse and Vancouver, whose explorations were much more in detail, and who at this place could find no bay, were obliged to seek elsewhere for it. La Perouse puts Bering Bay 10' farther south, at the present Alsekh River, northwest of Mt. Fairweather, the lagoon-shaped mouth of which he calls Riviere de Bering, and Vancouver was of the opinion that in La P^rouse's Bay de Monti, Dixon's Admiralty Bay, 69° 43' N. lat., he had found Bering's place of landing. Vancouver's opinion has hitherto held its own. The names Bering Bay, Admir- alty Bay, or, as the Eussians call it, Yakutat, are found side by side; the latter, however, is beginning to displace the former, and properly so, for Bering was never in or near this bay.* While this Cook cartography fixed Bering's place of lauding too far east, the Russians committed the opposite error. On the chart with which the Admiralty j)rovided Captain Billings on his great Pacific expedition, the southern point of the Island of Montague, in Prince William's Sound, (the Russian name of the island is Chukli), is given as Bering's promontory St. Elias, and the Admiralty gave him the right, as soon as the expedition reached this point, to assume a higher military rank, something which he actually did. But Admiral Krusenstern, with his usual keenness, comes as near the truth as it was possible without having Bering's own chart and the ship's journal. He thinks that, according • Note 57. m-i I m I i •kI)!! 146 VITUS BERING. to Steller*8 narrative, the St. Peter must have touched America farther west than Yakutat Bay, and considers it quite probable that their anchoring place must be sought at one of the passages leading into Controller Bay, either between Cape Suckling (which on Russian maps is sometimes called Cape St. Elias) and Point Le Mesurier, or between the islands Kayak and Wingham. We shall soon see that this last supposition is correct. 0. Peschel has not ventured wholly to accept Krusenstern's opinion, but he nevertheless calls attention to the fact that Bering Bay is not correctly located. He fixes Bering*s landing place west of Kayak Island, and contends against considering Mt. St. Elias as the promontory seen by Bering, something which would seem quite superfluous.* This uncertainty is all the more striking, as, from the beginning of this century, there have been accessible, in the works of Sauer and Sarycheff, facts enough to establish the identity of the island of St. Elias with the present Kayak Island, and since the publication of Bering's own map, in 1851, by the Russian Admiralty, there can no longer be a shadow of a doubt. The map is found in the appendix of this work, and hence a comparison between the islands of St. Elias and Kayak is possible (Map IV). The astronomical situation of the islands, their position with reference to the mainland, their surroundings, coast-lines, and geographical exten- sion, the depths of the sea about both — everything proves that they are identical; and, moreover, Sauer's and Sarycheff*s descriptions, which are quite independent of • Note 58. THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIOIfS. 147 the St. Peter's journal, coincide exactly with the journal's references to the island of St. Elias. Sauer says that the island, from its most southerly point, extends in a north- easterly direction ("trend north 46° east"), that it is twelve English miles long and two and a half miles wide, that west of the island's most northerly point there is a smaller island (Wingham), with various islets nearer the mainland, by which a well-protected harbor is formed behind a bar, with about seven feet of water at ebb-tide, — hence just at the place where Khitroff, as we have already seen, found an available harbor for the St. Peter. The journal, as well as Steller, describes St. Elias as mountainous, especially in the southern part, thickly covered with low, coniferous trees, and Waxel particularly mentions the fact that off the coast of the island's southern point, Bering's Cape St. Elias, there was a single cliff in the sea, a "kekur," which is also marked on the map. Sarycheff and Sauer speak of Kayak Island as mountainous and heavily timbered. Its southern extremity rises above the rest of the island and ends very abruptly in a naked, white, saddle-shaped mountain. A solitary cliff of the same kind of rock, a pyramid-shaped pillar ("kekur," '' Ahspringer") lies a few yards from the point. Cook, too, in his fine outlines of Kayak Island, puts this cliff directly south of the point. If we then consider that the true dimensions of Bering's island plainly point to Kayak, that his course along the new coast is possible only on the same supposition that the direction in which Bering from his anchorage saw Mt. St. Elias exactly coincides with this mountain's position with reference to Kayak, that the soundings given by him m \ M <■ ^ ill k ill 8 \ -:X f I i: 148 VITUS BERING. agree with those of Kayak, but do not agree with those of Montague Island, which is surrounded by far more considerable depths that have none of the above described characteristics, and which, moreover, has so great a circumference that Khitroff could not possibly have cir- cumnavigated it in twelve hours, and finally, consid- ering the fact that everything which Steller gives as signs that a large current debouched near his anchor- age finds an obvious explanation in the great Copper or Atna estuary, in 60° 17' N., then it will be diffi- cult to resist the conviction that Kayak is Bering's St. Elias, and that Vancouver's Cape Hammond is his Cape St. Elias. Moreover, the traditions of the natives corroborate this conclusion. While Billings's expedition was in Prince William's Sound, says Sauer, an old man came on board and related that every summer his tribe went on hunting expeditions to Kayak.* Many years before, while he was a boy, the first ship came to the island and anchored close to its western coast. A boat was sent ashore, but when it approached land all the natives fled, and not until the ship had disappeared did they return to their huts, where in their underground store-rooms they found some beads, leaves (tobacco), an iron kettle, and some other things. SarychefE gives an account of this meet- ing, which in the main agrees with Billings's. These stories also agree with Steller's account, f These facts have not before, so far as the author knows, been linked together, but Sokoloff states, with- out proof, however, that Bering's landfall was Kayak * Note 59. t Note eo. THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 149 Ms Island.* This correct view is now beginning to find its way into American maps, where, in the latest works, Cape St. Elias will be found in the proper place, together with a Bering 1 laven on the northern coast of Kayak, f ♦Bancroft, History cf Alaska, p. 79, presents the same view: "The Iden- tity of Kayak Is established by comparing Bering's with Cook's observations, which would bo enough even If the chart appended to KhltrofTs journal had not been preserved. At first both Cook and Vancouver thought it Yakutat Bay, which they named after Bering, but both changed their minds. As late as 1787 the Russian Admiralty college dec! od that the island Cbukll (Mon- tague of Vancouver) was the point of Bering's discover but Admiral Sary- chefF, who examined the journals of the exiiediiion, pointed at once to Kayak Island as the only point to which the description of Bering and Steller could apply. Sarj'cheflf made one mistake In apji ying the name of Cape St. Ellas to the nearest point of the mainland called Cape Suckling by Cook."— Tr. * Note 61. 't, ? '•■'i CHAPTER XVII. EXPLORATIOirS ALONG THE AMERICAN COAST.— STELLER*S CENSURE OP BERING FOR UNDUr HASTE. — BERING DEFENDED. — DALL, THE AMERICAN WRITER, REPRI- MANDED. — THE RETURN VOYAGE. "FT is by no means an easy matter to form an unbiased -'- opinion of Bering's stay off Kayak Island. Steller ip ,»i/>ut our only authority, but just at the point whe-e it 'J most difficult to supplement his account, he gives vent to most violent accusations against the management of the expedition from a scientific standpoint. On the 16th of July, when land was first seen, he says: **One can easily imagine how happy all were to see land. No one failed to congratulate Bering, as chief of the expedi- tion, to whom above all others the honor of discovery belonged. Bering, however, heard all this, not only with great indifference, but, looking toward land, he even shrugged his shoulders in the presence of all on board/' Steller adds that on account of this conduct charges might have been preferred against him in St. Petersburg, had he lived. As Bering during the first few succeeding days did not make any preparations for a scientific exploration of the country, as he even tried, according to Steller's assurance, to dissuade the latter from making the island a visit, and 150 THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 151 as Steller only through a series of oaths and threats (for thus p. 30 must undoubtedly be interpreted) could obtain permission to make, without help or even a guard for pro- tection, a short stay on the island, his anger grew to rage, which reached its culmination on the following morning when Bering suddenly gave orders that the St. Peter should leave the island. "The only reason for this," he says, " was stupid obstinacy, fear of a handful of natives, and pusillanimous homesickness. For ten years Bering had equipped himself for this great enterprise; the explo- rations lasted ten hours ! '* Elsewhere he says derisively that they had gone to the New World "simply t > bring American water to Asia.'* These accusations must seem very serious to every modern reader. Unfortunately for Bering, his second voyage is of interest principally from the standpoint of natural history. It is especially naturalists that have studied it. They are predisposed to uphold Steller. Hence his account threatens wholly to undermine Bering's reputation, and as a matter of course, W. H. Dall, in dis- cussing this subject, finds opportunity to heap abuse upon Bering. He says: "On the 18th of July, Bering saw land. On the 20th he anchored under an island. Between two capes, which he called St. Elias and St. Hermogenes, was a bay where two boats were sent for water and to rec- onnoitre. ♦ * * With characteristic imbecility, Bering resolved to put to sea again on the next day, the 21st of July. Sailing to the northward, the commander was confused among the various islands, and sailed hither and thither, occasionally landing, but making no explora- tions, and showing his total incapacity for the position 16% VITUS BEEING. w. ' lIT 1 . 1 II he occupied. He took to his bed, and Lieutenant Waxel assumed charge of the vessel/' * This is not writing history. It is only a series of errors and incivilities. It was not the 18th of July that Bering first saw land. He did noc sail north from Kayak, but southwest, and hence could not have lost his course among islands, for here there are no islands. Nor did he sail iiither and thither, but kept the course that had been laid out, and charted the coasts he saw in this course. The most ridiculous part of this is what this nautical author tells of the bay between Cape St. Elias and Cape St. Hermogenes (Marmot Island off the coast of Kadiak Island), for these points are farther apart than Copenhagen and Bremen. If, according to this writer, Bering was unpardcnably stupid, he must have been, on the other hand, astonishingly ** far-sighted." After these statemen s it will surprise no one that this author considers iilnesc a kind of crime, and blames a patient, sixty years of age, suffering with the scurvy, for taking to his bed ! If Mr. Dali had taken tha trouble to study the Bering literature to which he himself refers in his bibliography of Alaska, he would have been in a position to pass an independent opinion of the navigator, and would certainly have escappd making this series of stupid statements. His words now simply serve to show how difficult it is to eradicate prejudice, and how tena- cious of life a false or biased judgment can be. Death prevented Bering from defending and explaining his conduct. No one has since that time sought to render him justice. I ther lore consider it my duty — even if ♦ Note 03. I 't i i r '' VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 163 I should seem to be yielding to the biographer*s beset- ting sin — to produce everything that can be said in BeriIlg^s defense. In the first place, then, it must be remembered that on the 21st of July Bering had provisions left for no more than three month?, and that these were not good and wholesome. His crew, and he himself, were already su^- f firing from scurvy to such an extent that two weeks later one-third of them were on the sick-list. Furthermcre, he was over fifty-six degrees of longitude from his nearest port of refuge, with a crew but little accustomed to the sea. The American coast in that latitude was not, according to Bering's judgment, nor is it according to our present knowledge, in any way a fit place to winter, and besides, he knew neither the sea nor its islands and depths, its currents an i prevailing winds. All this could not but urge him to make no delay. And, in fact, S teller himself expressly says that it was a series of such considerations that determined Bering's conduct. *' Pusillanimous homesickness" can scarcely have had any influence on a man who from his youth had roamed about in the world and lived half a generation in the wilds of Sibe- ria. " Tlie good Commander," thus Steller expresses him- self, '^was far superior to all the other officers in divin- ing the future, and in the cabin he once said to myself and Mr. Plenisner: * We think now that we have found everything, and many are pregnant with great expecta- tions •. but they do not consider where Ave have landed, how far we are from home, and what yet may befall us. Whr knows but what we may meet trade winds that will prevent our return? We are unacquainted with the I 154 VITUS BERING. country, and are unprovided with provisions for win- tering here/" It must be conceded that his position was one fraught with difficulties. At this point there are two things which Steller either has not correctly understood, or suppresses. According to his instructions, Bering was authorized to spend two years and make two voyages in the discovery of America, and to undertake another expedition after- wards with new preparations and equipments. And in his explanations to the crew he calls special attention lo this point. Under these circumstances it would not have been right in him to assume any more risks than absolutely necessary. But here again the old opposition between Bering's nautico-geograph:"cal and Steller's physico-geo- graphiciil interests breaks out. As a discoverer of the old school Bering's principal object was to determine some elementary geographical facts : namely, the distribution of land and water along the new coast, and hence he left Kayak Island, not to reach Avacha as soon as possible, but to follow the coast of the newly discovered country toward the west and north. All authorities agree on this point. It was illness and the Aliaska peninsula, project- ing so far into the ocean as it does, that prevented him from sailing up toward latitude 65°, his real goal. Even Steller testifies to this, and although he repeats his former accusations against Bering, it does not signify anything, as he was excluded from the councils and was obliged to guess at what was adopted. His accusations are especially insignificant from the fact that he definitely contradicts himself on this point, for later on in his narrative he says tIkAt not until tha 11th of August was it resolved, on ^^w^p THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 155 account of the approaching autumn and the gi'eat dis- tance from home, to start immediately on the return voy- age to Kamchatka. That is to say, they had not then made a start. Until the 11th of August, for three weeks after their departure froru Kayak, Bering pursued his task of nautical discovery along the new coast, and it would seem that he can be Warned for nothing more than considering this work of the expedition more important than that of the physico-geographical investigation which Steller represented. This was but nauiral, It was merely accidental that Steller accompanied Bering, and through him the expedition received a modern cast, whici was not at all designed, and which Bering desired to make use of only under favorable circumstances. We may regret his haste, and we may especially regret the fact that so keen and clever a naturalist as Steller did not get an opportu- nity to explore the regions west of Mount St. Elias before European trade and white adventurers put in an appear- ance ; but it hardly seems a question of doubt wheth«?T anyone for that reason has a right to make acrTisatio)i>} against the chief of the expedition. It was very early on the morning of July 21 that the chief suddenly, and contrary to his custom, appeared on deck and gave the ( immand to weigh anchor and stand out to sea. In doing this he set aside his instructions from headquarters to act in accordance witli the ship's council. He acted as a sovereign chief, and notwith- standing the fact that both of his lieutenants thought it wrong to leave the newly discovered coant without an ade(juate supply of water, he overruled ail objections and informed them that he assumed all responsibility for III 166 VITUS BERING. his conduct. He was convinced of the entire necessity of it, he said, and thought it unsafe to remain longer in this exposed anchorage. Time did not permit him to go in search of the harbor found by Khitroff on the day previous, and there was moreover a seaward breeze. One fourth of the water-casks remained unfilled. Before a strong east wind, the St. Peter on that day made fifty miles on a southwesterly course. During the two succeeding days, he continued in this general direction. It was misty, and the coast was invisible, but the sounding-line continued to show a depth of from forty to fifty fathoms. In a council, concerning the deliberations of which Steller has a very confused and incorrect account, it was decided, on July 25, to sail slowly towards Petropavlovsk and, at intervals as wind and weather permitted, to head for the north and west, in order to explore the coast they had left. They continued on their southwesterly course, and on the next morning, July 26, they were off the Kadiak archipelago. In a latitude of 66° 30', and about sixteen miles toward the north, they saw a high and projecting point, which Bering called St. Hermogenes, in honor of the patron saint of the day. He thought that this point was a iontinuation of the continent they had left behind them, and as such it is represented on both Miiller's and Krasilnikoff's manuscript maps in the archives of the Admiralty. On hi? third voyage. Cook explored the Kadiak group, which he too had assumed to be a part of the mainland. He < lound that Bering's promontory was a small island eat of Afogiiak, but out of respect for Bering, he retained the original name. Krusenstern also l'l,JfJ;f V THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 157 calls it St. Hermogenes Island, but later the Russians changed it to Euratchey Island, on account of the great number of marmots there, aud since the United States came into possession of it, the name has been translated, and it is now known as Marmot Island.* Steller has not a single word in his diary about St. Hermogenes, and besides, his account at this point is full of inaccuracies. "Consequently, until July 26 " he says, **we sailed along the coast, as these gentlemen thought it was necessary to follow it, while it would have been suflficient, at intervals of a hundred versts, to have sailed a degree or two toward the north. '' He thus blames them for not having followed the method which at about that time they had agreed upon, and later did follow. His story of their having, for the first five days, sailed along the coast, simply proves, in connection with a series of other incidents in his worl , that things were not eu.;ered in his diary daily, but writ! en down later from mem, )ry; htnce its value as proof is considerably diminished. Along the southeastern coast of Kadi*k the voyage was very dangvroufe. The average depth was t < ■ ty-fivo fithoms; tlie water was very roily, the weathei- heavy with fog and ra:ii, and the wind violent. Not until the 31st of July was one weather clear enough for an observation, when they found themselves in a latitude of 54° 49 , and had passed the Kadiak archipelago. In accordance with the plan adopted, they here veered to the northwest to seek the mainland for the purpose of determining its trend. On the night of August 1 (and 2), they suddenly approached land , haviag only fonr ftnthoms I * 158 VITUS BEllING. ill ■ |K' it r' 1 f* 4 1 ''ai'/'h \ ^^B 1 i! of water below the keel. There was a heavy fog, no wind, and a swift current, but they succeeded in shifting about and getting out into eighteen fathoms of water, where they anchored to await daybreak. In the mornirg, at eight o'clock, a small island was seen at a distan- ; of four miles. It was three miles long, with an east to west trend. A long reef extended out into the sea from the eastern point, seen by them in a direction E. S. E. by E. In the evening they weighed anchor, having a heavy fog, and on the next morning, the island was seen at a dis- tance of seven geographical miles toward the south. Its latitude was calculated as 55" 32', but as all of Bering's determinations of latitude on his return voyage from America show an error of from 30' to 45' less than the true latitude, it must be concluded that the island was in latitude 56° and some minutes. He called the island St. Stephen from the calendar day, but his crew or lieutenants must have called it Foggy Island (Tumannoi), as even Krasilnikoff's manuscript map, in the possession of the Admiralty, has this name. Later the cartography of this region became considerably confused. The name St. Stephen disappeared. Cook called another island Fog Island, while it became customary to consider the island discovered by Bering as identical with Ukamok (Chiri- koff Island, Vancouver's Island), where the Ruboians had a colony, and thus the island itself was finally lost to geography. Notwithstanding the fact that Admiral Krusenstern, in a clever essay, has given an ablo review of the literature pertaining to this question, and has shown that where Bering saw St. Stephen, Cook, Sarycheff, and Vancouver likewise saw an island, THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 159 different from Ukamok, and regardless of the fact that. for these reasons he restored St. Stephen on his map. Lieutenant Sokoloff, who most recently, in Russian literature, has treated Bering's voyage to America, has wholly disregarded Krusenstern's essay, and says that St. Stephen is identical with Ukamok. Sokoloff's essay is very superficial, and, compared with Krusenstern's weighty reasons, is based '.u mere supposition. But, although the map of the North Pacific, in the Russian Admiralty (1844), has a Tumannoi Island (that is. Foggy Island, St. Stephen) somewhat northeast of Ukamok, it must be admitted that, until the United States under- takes a new and careful survey of the Aliaska peninsula and its southern surroundings, this question can not be thoroughly decided, probable as it may be that Bering and Krusenstern are both right, August 3, the voyage was continued toward the north- west. In a latitude of 50° (according to Steiler) they saw the high snow-capped mountain peaks of the Aliaska peninsula in a direction N. N. W. by W., but on account of stormy and foggy weather they sought, with an easterly wind, to get back into their main course. Thus they reached, August 4, the Jefdokjejefski Islands in a direc- tion S. S. E. I by E., at a distance of twenty miles from 55" 45' N. These form a group of seven high and rocky islands, which on Russian maps still bears the same name, but in West Europe this name has been displaced, and they are usually called the Semidi, or Semidin, Islands, the name of the largest of the group. On August 7, they found themselves south of the Jefdokjejefski Islands. But now misfortunes began to I, {• I i 1:1 I : 160 VITUS BERING. pour in upon them. They encountered adverse winds which continued with but few interruptions during the succeeding months. The St. Peter was tossed about on the turbulent and unfamiliar waters of the Aleutian archi- pelago, where the ciew experienced an adventure so fraught with suffering and dire events that it is quite beyond compare in the history of discoveries. At the same time, the scurvy got the upper hand. Bering had a severe attack which rendered him unfit for service. AVith his illness the bonds of discipline were relaxed. Under these circumstances there was called, on the 10th of August, an extraordinary council, in which all the officers participated. At this meeting it was finally decided to give up the charting of the American coast, and immediately start out upon the direct rente home- ward on parallel 52°, the latitude of Vvacha. The whole crew, from the highest to the lowest, signed this resolution. The facts taken into consideration were that September had been fixed as the extreme limit of time within which to return home, and that they were then in the middle of August, Avacha was at least 1600 miles distant, autumn was at hand with dark nights and stormy weather, and sixteen of the crew were already sick with the scurvy. With a strong head-wind, in raw and foggy weather, and now and then overtaken by fierce storms, they worked their way slowly along until the 37th of August. The condition of affairs on board had grown continually worse, when it was finally announced that through care- lessness and irregularity the supply of water had been Induced to twenty-five casks, a quantity that could not TUE VAKIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 161 possibly suffice for the 1200 miles which, according to their calculations, yet remained. Hence it was necessary once more to find land to take in water, and on the 27th the St. Peter's prow was again headed for Aliaska. They sailed north one degree and a half, and after a lapse of three days they reached a multitude of high islands, behind which the coast of the mainland arose in the distance. August 30, the St. Peter lay at anchor off the Shu- magins, a group of thirteen treeless, barren, and rocky islands near the coast of Aliaska. The journal gives their situation as latitude 54'' 48' N. and longitude 35° 30' E. from Avacha. While the latitude as here determined has the usual error, referred to several times before, the longitude has an error of 6^°. Among these islands the first death on board occurred. It was the sailor Shumagin, who, on the 30th, died in the hands of his mates as they were taking him ashore. The islands were named in honor of him. On the whole the situa- tion was most rleplorable. Bering had fallen away so much in his illness that he could not stand, and the others that were sick were carried ashore, and lay scat- tered along the coast, giving this a very sad and sorrow- ful aspect. Confusion and uncertainty grew apace, as those in command could not maintain their authority. Waxel and Khitroif, the highest in command, bandied words, whereas the situation demanded firmness and vigor. The only one that preserved any manner of self- possession and foretliought was Steller. He immedi- ately went ashore, examined the vegetation of the island, and collected a large number of anti-scorbutic plants. 165i VITUS UEUING. I! 'At. especially scurvy-grass and berries, with which, in the course of a week, he succeeded in restoring Bering to sufficient strength to be able to use his limbs. Through the use of the same remedies the other suiferers were relieved. But Steller thought also of the future. The medicine chest contained ''plasters and salves for half an army,*' but only extremely few real medicines, and hence he suggested to Lieut. Waxel, who was then in command, that he send a number of sailors ashore to gather anti-scorbutic plants, but this excellent and timely advice was rejected. Furthermore, Steller used all his influence to procure good water. He went ashore with the sailors for this purpose, and as they began to dip water from the first pool they found, one, too, which was connected with the sea during high tide, he directed them to fresh springs a little farther in the interior, but the crew sent some samples on board, and from there came the report that the water was good enough. Thus it was that a new cause of disease — in spite of Steller's protestations — was added to all the others. The water was brackish, and on standing in the casks became unfit for use. On the whole the stay at the Shumagins, which was unnecessarily prolonged, was very unfortunate. The St. Peter lay at anchor south of them in a very exposed posi- tion. On the evening of August 29, a fire was seen on one of the islands, and on this account, Khitroff wished to explore them more thoroughly although Waxel firmly opposed releasing both of the thip's boats under the present dangerous circumstances. By applying to Bering, who was in the cabin, and hardly understood the situation, THE VAUIOUS EXPEDITlOIsS. 163 Khitroff had his way, and loft tho sliip with the yawl and five men. Ho was gone four days, during which time the St. Peter was forced to lie at anchor, while a favorable east wind might have carried them several hundred miles toward home. The yawl was dashed to pieces off one of tho neighboring islands, and no more came from the expedition than that Lieutenant Waxel, under great difficulty, found it necessary to res- cue the six shipwrecked adventurers. Moreover, they experienced a somewhat uninteresting clash with the Innuit (Esquimo)* inhabitants of the Aliaska peninsula, of which Miiller and Steller both give a detailed account. * For a fuU dcbcriptiou of these people bee II. II. liaucroft, Native liaces, Vol, I.-Ta. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) i 1.0 I.I 1.25 2A 2.2 1^128 U£ 1^ III :^ lifi lllllio 1.8 1-4 ill 1.6 fr" V <^ /} •-^^ PhotDgrapliic Sciences Coiporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716)872-4503 m >\ :\ \ rv ^ o^ ^