5. Voyages from the Lena Eastward—During these Lieutenant Lassinius and after his death Lieutenant DMITRI LAPTEV had the command. A double sloop was built at Yakutsk for the voyage of Lassinius. As I have already mentioned, he left this town, accompanied by several cargo-boats, at the same time as Prontschischev, and both sailed together down the Lena to its mouth. Lassinius was able to sail to the eastward as early as the 20th/9th August. Four days after he came upon so much drift-ice that he was compelled to lie to at the mouth of the river, 120 versts to the east of the easternmost mouth-arm of the Lena. Here abundance of driftwood was met with, and the stock of provisions appears also to have been large, but notwithstanding this, scurvy broke out during the winter. Lassinius himself and most of his men died. On being informed of this, Behring sent a relieving party, consisting of Lieutenant CHERBININ and fourteen men to Lassinius' winter quarters. On their arrival on the 15th/4th June they found only the priest, the mate, and seven sailors alive of the fifty-three men who had started with Lassinius the foregoing year from Yakutsk. These too were so ill that some of them died during the return journey to Yakutsk. Dmitri Laptev and a sufficient number of men, were sent at the same time to take possession of the ship and renew the attempt to sail eastwards. He went to sea on the 10th Aug./30th July. At first he had to contend with serious obstacles from ice, and when at last he reached open water he thought himself compelled to turn on account of the advanced season of the year. On the 2nd Sept./22nd Aug. he came again to the Bychov mouth-arm of the Lena, up which he found it difficult to make his way on account of the many unknown shoals. On the 19th/8th September the river was frozen over. He wintered a little distance from the mouth, and now again scurvy made its appearance, but was cured by constant exercise in the open air and by a decoction of cedar cones. In a report sent from this place, Dmitri Laptev declared that it was quite impossible to round the two projecting promontories between the Lena and the Indigirka, Capes Borchaja and Svjatoinos, because, according to the unanimous statement of several Yakuts living in the region, the ice there never melts or even loosens from the beach. With Behring's permission he travelled to St. Petersburg to lay the necessary information before the Board of Admiralty. The Board determined that another attempt should be made by sea, and, if that was unsuccessful, that the coast should be surveyed by means of land journeys.
It is now easy to see what was the cause of the unfortunate issue of these two attempts to sail to the eastward. The explorers had vessels which were unsuitable for cruising, they turned too early in the season, and in consequence of their unwillingness to go far from land they sailed into the great bays east of the Lena, from which no large river carries away the masses of ice that have been formed there during the winter, or that have been drifted thither from the sea. Dmitri Laptev and his companions besides appear to have had a certain dislike to the commission intrusted to them, and, differing from Deschnev, they thus wanted the first condition of success—the fixed conviction of the possibility of attaining their object.
By order of the Board of Admiralty Dmitri Laptev at all events began his second voyage, and now falsified his own prediction, by rounding the two capes which he believed to be always surrounded by unbroken ice. After he had passed them his vessel was frozen in on the 20th/9th September. Laptev had no idea at what point of the coast he was, or how far he was from land. He remained in this unpleasant state for eleven days, at the close of which one of the mates who had been sent out from the vessel in a boat on the 11th Sept./31st Aug. returned on foot over the ice and reported that they were not far from the mouth of the Indigirka. Several Yakuts had settled on the neighbouring coast, where was also a Russian simovie. Laptev and his men wintered there, and examined the surrounding country. The surveyor KINDÄKOV was sent out to map the coast to the Kolyma. Among other things he observed that the sea here was very shallow near the shore, and that driftwood was wanting at the mouth of the Indigirka, but was found in large masses in the interior, 30 versts from the coast.
The following year, 1740, Laptev repaired as well as he could his vessel, which had been injured during the voyage of the preceding year, and then went again to sea on the 11th Aug./31st July. On the 14th/3rd August he passed one of the Bear Islands, fixing its latitude at 71° 0'. On the 25th/14th August, when Great Cape Baranov was reached, the progress of the vessel was arrested by masses of ice that extended as far as the eye could reach. Laptev now turned and sought for winter quarters on the Kolyma. On the 19th/8th July, 1741, this river became open, and Laptev went to sea to continue his voyage eastwards, but did not now succeed in rounding Great Cape Baranov. He was now fully convinced of the impossibility of reaching the Anadyr by sea, on which account he determined to penetrate to that river by land in order to survey it. This he did in the years 1741 and 1742. Thus ended the voyages of Dmitri Laptev, giving evidence if not of distinguished seamanship, of great perseverance, undaunted resolution, and fidelity to the trust committed to him.[326]
6. Voyage for the purpose of exploring and surveying the coast of America—For this purpose Behring fitted out at Okotsk two vessels, of which he himself took the command of one, St. Paul, while the other, St. Peter,, was placed under CHIRIKOV. They left Okotsk in 1740, and being prevented by shoal water from entering Bolschaja Reka, they both wintered in Avatscha Bay, whose excellent haven was called, from the names of the ships, Port Peter-Paul. On the 15th/4th June they left this haven, the naturalist GEORG WILHELM STELLER having first gone on board Behring's and the astronomer LOUIS DE L'ISLE DE LA CROYÈRE Chirikov's vessel. The course was shaped at first for the S.S.E., but afterwards, when no land could be discovered in this direction, for the N.E. and E. During a storm on the 1st July/20th June the vessels were separated. On the 29th/18th July Behring reached the coast of America in 58° to 59° N.L. A short distance from the shore Steller discovered here a splendid volcano, which was named St. Elias. The coast was inhabited, but the inhabitants fled when the vessel approached. From this point Behring wished to sail in a north-westerly direction to that promontory of Asia which formed the turning-point of his first voyage. It was however only with difficulty that in the almost constant fog the peninsula of Alaska could be rounded and the vessel could sail forward among the Aleutian island groups. Scurvy now broke out among the crew, and the commander himself suffered severely from it, on which account the command was mainly in the hands of Lieut. WAXEL. At an island the explorers came into contact with the natives, who at first were quite friendly, until one of them was offered brandy. He tasted the liquor, and was thereby so terrified that no gifts could calm his uneasiness. On this account those of the crew who were on land were ordered to come on board, but the savages wished to detain their guests. At last the Russians were set free, but a Koryäk whom they had taken with them as an interpreter was kept behind. In order to get him set at liberty, Waxel ordered two musket salvos to be fired over the heads of the natives, with the result that they all fell flat down from fright, and the Koryäk had an opportunity of making his escape. Now the fire-water is a liquor in great request among these savages, and they are not frightened at the firing of salvos of musketry.
During the following months Behring's vessel drifted about without any distinct plan, in the sea between Alaska and Kamchatka, in nearly constant fog, and in danger of stranding on some of the many unknown rocks and islands which were passed. On the 5th November the vessel was anchored at an island afterwards called Behring Island. Soon however a great wave arose which threw the vessel on land and crushed it against the rocky coast of the island. Of the wintering there, which, through Steller's taking part in it, became of so great importance for natural history, I shall give an account further on in connection with the narrative of our visit to Behring Island. Here I shall only remind the reader that Behring died of scurvy on the 19th/8th December, and that in the course of the voyage great part of his crew fell a sacrifice to the same disease. In spring the survivors built a new vessel out of the fragments of the old, and on the 27th/16th of August they sailed away from the island where they had undergone so many sufferings, and came eleven days after to a haven on Kamchatka.
After parting from Behring, Chirikov on the 26th/15th July sighted the coast of America in 56° N.L. The mate ABRAHAM DEMENTIEV was then sent ashore in the longboat, which was armed with a cannon and manned by ten well-armed men. When he did not return, another boat was sent after him. But this boat too did not come back. Probably the boats' crews were taken prisoners and killed by the Indians. After making another attempt to find his lost men, Chirikov determined to return to Kamchatka. He first sailed some distance northwards along the coast of America without being able to land, as both the vessel's boats were lost. Great scarcity of drinking-water was thus occasioned, which was felt the more severely as the return voyage was very protracted on account of head-winds and fog. During the voyage twenty-one men perished, among them de l'Isle de la Croyère, who died, as is said often to be the case with scurvy patients, on board ship, while he was being carried from his bed up on deck to be put on land.[327]
The voyages of Behring and Chirikov, attended as they were by the sacrifice of so many human lives, gave us a knowledge of the position of North-western America in relation to that of North-eastern Asia, and led to the discovery of the long volcanic chain of islands between the Alaska peninsula and Kamchatka.
7. Voyages to Japan—For these Captain SPANGBERG ordered a hucker, the Erkeengeln Michael, and a double sloop, the Nadeschda, to be built at Okotsk, the old vessel Gabriel being at the same time repaired for the same purpose. Spangberg himself took command of the Michael, that of the double sloop was given to Lieutenant WALTON, and of the Gabriel to Midshipman CHELTINGA. Drift-ice prevented a start until midsummer, and on that account nothing more could be done the first year (1738) than to examine the Kurile Islands to the 46th degree of latitude. From this point the vessels returned to Kamchatka, where they wintered at Bolschaja Reka. On the 2nd June/22nd May, 1739, Spangberg with his little fleet again left this haven. All the vessels kept together at first, until in a violent storm attended with fog Spangberg and Cheltinga were parted from Walton. Both made a successful voyage to Japan and landed at several places, being always well received by the natives, who appeared to be very willing to have dealings with the foreigners. During the return voyage Spangberg landed in 43° 50' N.L. on a large island north of Nippon. Here he saw the Aino race, enigmatical as to its origin, distinguished by an exceedingly abundant growth of hair and beard which sometimes extends over the greater part of the body. Spangberg returned to Okotsk on the 9th November/20th October. Walton sailed along the coast in a southerly direction to 33° 48' N.L. Here was a town with 1,500 houses, where the Russian seafarers were received in a very friendly way even in private houses. Walton subsequently landed at two other places on the coast, returning afterwards to Okotsk, where he anchored on the 1st September/21st August.[328]
The very splendid results of Spangberg's and Walton's voyages by no means corresponded with the maps of Asia constructed by the men who were at that time leaders of the Petersburg Academy. Spangberg therefore during his return journey through Siberia got orders to travel again to the same regions in order to settle the doubts that had arisen. A new vessel had to be built, and with this he started in 1741 from Okotsk to his former winter haven in Kamchatka. Hence he sailed in 1742 in a southerly direction, but he had scarcely passed the first of the Kurile Islands when the vessel became so leaky that he was compelled to turn. The second expedition of Spangberg to Japan was thus completely without result, a circumstance evidently brought about by the unjustified and offensive doubts which led to it, and the arbitrary way in which it was arranged at St. Petersburg.