[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."