FOOTNOTES:
[56] Munk was sent out by the Danish government in 1619 to search for a Northwest passage.—Tr.
[57] Note 43.
[58] Note 44.
[59] Note 45.
[CHAPTER XI.]
FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR THE PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS.
In the summer of 1737, Bering changed his headquarters to Okhotsk, and in the course of the autumn and winter, the greater part of his force was transferred to the same place or distributed among the various intermediate stations on the Yudoma, Maya, and Urak. Spangberg and Bering built Okhotsk. At the junction of the Okhota and the Kukhta, on one of the narrow deltas, the so-called Kushka, they erected a church for the expedition, a number of houses for the officers, barracks, magazines, a large dock-yard, and other buildings. The old stockaded fort, four miles farther up in the country, was deserted. Around the military center of the expedition the town gradually formed and rapidly grew to become the Russian metropolis on the Pacific. It cost very great exertions to make the place inhabitable. The site was a long sand-bank deposit, threatened by inundations. The climate was very unhealthy,—a cold, raw fog almost continually hung over this region. The party was pestered with fevers, and in this swamp it was that Bering lost his health. "The place is new and desolate," he writes. "We have sand and pebbles, no vegetation whatever, and no timber in the vicinity. Firewood must be obtained at a distance of four to five miles, drinking water one to two miles, while timber and joints for ship-building must be floated down the river twenty-five miles." But as a place for a dock-yard, as a harbor and haven of refuge for large ships, the location had such great advantages that these difficulties had to be overcome.
Spangberg's work had made the place. His men had worked clay, made tiles, and built houses, and when Bering arrived the ships Archangel Michael and Hope lay fully equipped in the harbor. Bering's old ships Fortuna and Gabriel had been repaired, and Spangberg lacked only an adequate supply of provisions to begin his expedition to Japan in the autumn of 1737.
But the provision transports, as usual, moved on very slowly and with great difficulty. In Okhotsk Spangberg's men were constantly in distress. They received only the rations of flour and rice authorized by law, and at long intervals some beef which Bering had bought in Yakutsk. On account of this scarcity of provisions Spangberg was obliged partially to stop work on the vessels. A part of his force was permitted to go a-fishing, a part were sent to the magazines in the country for their maintenance, while others were detached to assist in the work of transportation; hence it was with only a small force that he could continue work on the ships for the American voyage, the packet-boats St. Peter and St. Paul.
Sokoloff says: "Bering stayed three years in Okhotsk, exerting himself to the utmost in equipping expeditions, enduring continual vexations from the Siberian government—especially on account of Pissarjeff—and conducting frequent examinations and investigations into the quarrels and complaints of his subordinates. During all this time he was sternly and unreasonably treated by the Admiralty, which showered upon him threats and reproaches for slowness sluggishness, and disorder, for false reports and ill-timed accounts." Even as late as 1740 the Senate made a proposition to discontinue the expedition, and only by calling attention to the enormous expenditures already made, which would in that case be completely wasted, was the Admiralty allowed to continue it. Bering was especially disheartened on account of Pissarjeff. The latter arrived at Okhotsk at the same time that Bering did, took up his abode in the old Ostrog (fort) and immediately began his malicious annoyances. His complaints and protests poured into headquarters at Okhotsk. "For a correspondence with him alone," writes Bering, "I might use three good secretaries. I find his foul-tongued criticism extremely offensive." He would capture Bering's men to give them a drubbing, while his own deserted him to join Bering, by whom they were kindly received. The new town and the Ostrog were two hostile camps. Finally Bering was compelled to make a sally to liberate his men. The intrepid Spangberg, entirely out of patience with Bering's leniency, said: "Why do you give yourself so much trouble about this old knave? Give me four men and the authority and I shall immediately put him under arrest."
Finally, in 1738, Spangberg found it possible to depart for Japan, and in two summer expeditions he charted the Kurile Islands, Yezo, and a part of the eastern coast of Nipon (Hondo), whereupon the cartography of this part of the globe assumed an entirely new appearance.
The expeditions to Japan, which employed four ships and several hundred men, had exhausted the provisions in Okhotsk. It was again necessary to raise large supplies in West Siberia. A demand was made upon the government office in Tobolsk for 40,000 rubles. From the district of Verkhoiansk 50,000 poods of provisions, while in part from West Siberia and in part from the Admiralty 20,000 yards of cloth were received. From other very distant places oil, hemp, and other necessaries were obtained. The Admiralty despatched to Irkutsk and Yakutsk two naval officers, Lieutenants Tolbukhin and Larionoff, to superintend the transportation of these goods. The number of laborers was increased to a thousand, the roads were improved, more attendants were provided, the Siberian authorities exhibited more energy than before, new river-boats were constructed, and pack-horses were collected from a large radius of country; by these increased means it was possible to collect all necessaries in Okhotsk by 1740. In the month of June the ships for the American expedition, the St. Peter and the St. Paul, were launched. They were two-masters, 80 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 9½ feet deep, rigged as brigs, each of 108 tons burden, carrying 14 two and three pound guns.
In the harbor and on the Sea of Okhotsk there was now quite a respectable fleet of eight or nine ships, all built by Bering. The Arctic coasts had been charted through his efforts. Spangberg had with great success completed his task, and had been sent by Bering to St. Petersburg to render a report. Bering's own force, which consisted of 166 men, besides 80 engaged in transporting, was now collected in Okhotsk. The astronomical department under La Croyère and the scientist Steller also arrived, and finally Bering had the satisfaction of seeing his worst enemy removed. In August, 1740, Pissarjeff was discharged, and poor Antoni Devier, first a cabin boy, then successively aid-de-camp, general, and chief of police in St. Petersburg—one of Peter the Great's most trusted companions in arms, but banished through the hatred of Menshikoff—became his successor as harbor-master in Okhotsk.[60]
In the middle of August the packet-boats, the galley Okhotsk, and a double sloop containing the scientists were ready to sail for Kamchatka. Then Spangberg quite unexpectedly arrived. On his way home he had received a counter order. The authorities in St. Petersburg commanded him to repeat the expedition to Japan. This gave Bering some extra work in the way of letters and orders, so that the vessels under Bering's and Chirikoff's commands did not leave port until the 8th of September. They were supplied with provisions for twenty months, and their temporary destination was Avacha Bay on the east coast of Kamchatka, where they were to pass the winter. All the great enterprises which the government had instructed Bering to undertake had now been begun. In the following chapters will be found a succinct account of the results of each.