After a storm on the 31st 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 Kamchatka at 5 o'clock P. M., September 2, 1728.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] Note 7.
[14] Note 8.
[15] Note 9.
[CHAPTER VI.]
THE TASK ASSIGNED BY PETER THE GREAT ACCOMPLISHED.—HISTORY OF THE CARTOGRAPHY OF EAST SIBERIA.—CAPTAIN COOK'S DEFENSE OF BERING.
Bering 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 had 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 obtained in Yakutsk about Deshneff'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 presented in a correspondence from St. Petersburg to a Copenhagen periodical, Nye Tidende, in 1730, whence the following: "Bering has ascertained that there really does exist a Northeast passage, and that from the Lena River it is possible, provided one is not prevented by polar 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.[16] It was this conviction that led him to undertake his next great enterprise, the navigating and charting of the Northeast passage from the Obi River to Japan,—from the known West to the known East.