The Northwest Coast of America extended from Juan de Fuca's Strait to
the sixtieth parallel of north latitude. Under the direction of the
powerful mind of Peter the Great explorations in the North Pacific were
planned. He wrote the following instructions with his own hand, and
ordered the Chief Admiral, Count Fedor Apraxin, to see that they were
carried into execution:--
_First._--One or two boats, with decks, to be built at Kamchatka, or at
any other convenient place, with which
_Second._--Inquiry should be made in relation to the northerly coasts,
to see whether they were not contiguous with America, since their end
was not known. And this done, they should
_Third._--See whether they could not somewhere find an harbor belonging
to Europeans, or an European ship. They should likewise set apart some
men who were to inquire after the name and situation of the coasts
discovered. Of all this an exact journal should be kept, with which they
should return to St. Petersburg.
Before these instructions could be carried out, Peter the Great died.
His Empress, Catherine, however, faithfully carried out his plans.
The first expedition set out in 1725, under the command of Vitus
Behring, a Danish captain in the Russian service, with Lieutenants
Spanberg and Chirikoff as assistants. They carried several officers of
inferior rank; also seamen and ship-builders. Boats were to be built at
Kamchatka, and they started overland through Siberia on February the
fifth of that year. Owing to many trials and hardships, it was not until
1728 that Behring sailed along the eastern shore of the peninsula,
passing and naming St. Lawrence Island, and on through Behring Strait.
There, finding that the coast turned westward, his natural conclusion
was that Asia and America were not united, and he returned to Kamchatka.
In 1734, under the patronage of the Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Great's
daughter, a second expedition made ready; but owing to insurmountable
difficulties, it was not until September, 1740, that Behring and
Chirikoff set sail in the packet-boats _St. Peter_ and _St.
Paul_--Behring commanding the former--from Kamchatka. They wintered at
Avatcha on the Kamchatkan Peninsula, where a few buildings, including a
church, were hastily erected, and to which the name of Petropavlovsk was
given.
On June 4, 1741, the two ships finally set sail on their eventful
voyage--how eventful to us of the United States we are only, even now,
beginning to realize. They were accompanied by Lewis de Lisle de
Croyere, professor of astronomy, and Georg Wilhelm Steller, naturalist.
Mueller, the historian, and Gmelin, professor of chemistry and natural
history, also volunteered in 1733 to accompany the expedition; but owing
to the long delay, and ill-health arising from arduous labors in
Kamchatka, they were compelled to permit the final expedition to depart
without them.
On the morning of June 20, the two ships became separated in a gale and
never again sighted one another. Chirikoff took an easterly course, and
to him, on the fifteenth of July, fell, by chance, the honor of the
first discovery of land on the American continent, opposite Kamchatka,
in 55 deg. 21'. Here he lost two boatloads of seamen whom he sent ashore for
investigation, and whose tragic fate may only be guessed from the
appearance of savages later, upon the shore.
That the first Russians landing upon the American continent should have
met with so horrible a fate as theirs is supposed to have been, has been
considered by the superstitious as an evil omen. The first boat sent
ashore contained ten armed sailors and was commanded by the mate,
Abraham Mikhailovich Dementief. The latter is described as a capable
young man, of distinguished family, of fine personal appearance, and of
kind heart, who, having suffered from an unfortunate love affair, had
offered himself to serve his country in this most hazardous expedition.
They were furnished with provisions and arms, including a small brass
cannon, and given a code of signals by Chirikoff, by which they might
communicate with the ship. The boat reached the shore and passed behind
a point of land. For several days signals which were supposed to
indicate that the party was alive and well, were observed rising at
intervals. At last, however, great anxiety was experienced by those on
board lest the boat should have sustained damage in some way, making it
impossible for the party to return. On the fifth day another boat was
sent ashore with six men, including a carpenter and a calker. They
effected a landing at the same place, and shortly afterward a great
smoke was observed, pushing its dark curls upward above the point of
land behind which the boats had disappeared.
The following morning two boats were discovered putting off from the
shore. There was great rejoicing on the ship, for the night had been
passed in deepest anxiety, and without further attention to the boats,
preparations were hastily made for immediate sailing. Soon, however, to
the dread and horror of all, it was discovered that the boats were
canoes filled with savages, who, at sight of the ship, gave unmistakable
signs of astonishment, and shouting "Agai! Agai!" turned hastily back to
the shore.
Silence and consternation fell upon all. Chirikoff, humane and
kind-hearted, bitterly bewailed the fate of his men. A wind soon
arising, he was forced to make for the open sea. He remained in the
vicinity, and as soon as it was possible, returned to his anchorage; but
no signs of the unfortunate sailors were ever discovered.
Without boats, and without sufficient men, no attempt at a rescue could
be made; nor was further exploration possible; and heavy-hearted and
discouraged, notwithstanding his brilliant success, Chirikoff again
weighed anchor and turned his ship homeward.
He and his crew were attacked by scurvy; provisions and water became
almost exhausted; Chirikoff was confined to his berth, and many died;
some islands of the chain now known as the Aleutians were discovered;
and finally, on the 8th of October, 1741, after enduring inexpressible
hardships, great physical and mental suffering, and the loss of
twenty-one men, they arrived on the coast of Kamchatka near the point of
their departure.
In the meantime, on the day following Chirikoff's discovery of land,
Commander Behring, far to the northwestward, saw, rising before his
enraptured eyes, the splendid presence of Mount St. Elias, and the
countless, and scarcely less splendid, peaks which surround it, and
which, stretching along the coast for hundreds of miles, whitely and
silently people this region with majestic beauty. Steller, in his diary,
claims to have discovered land on the fifteenth, but was ridiculed by
his associates, although it was clearly visible to all in the same place
on the following day.
They effected a landing on an island, which they named St. Elias, in
honor of the day upon which it was discovered. It is now known as Kayak
Island, but the mountain retains the original name. Having accomplished
the purpose of his expedition, Behring hastily turned the _St. Peter_
homeward.
For this haste Behring has been most severely criticised. But when we
take into consideration the fact that preparations for this second
expedition had begun in 1733; that during all those years of difficult
travelling through Siberia, of boat building and the establishment of
posts and magazines for the storing of provisions, he had been hampered
and harassed almost beyond endurance by the quarrelling, immorality, and
dishonesty of his subordinates; that for all dishonesty and blunders he
was made responsible to the government; and that so many complaints of
him had been forwarded to St. Petersburg by officers whom he had
reprimanded or otherwise punished that at last, in 1739, officers had
been sent to Ohkotsk to investigate his management of the preparations;
that he had now discovered that portion of the American continent which
he had set out to discover, had lost Chirikoff, upon whose youth and
hopefulness he had been, perhaps unconsciously, relying; and--most human
of all--that he had a young and lovely wife and two sons in Russia whom
he had not seen for years (and whom he was destined never to see again);
when we take all these things into consideration, there seems to be but
little justice in these harsh criticisms.
To-day, there is no portion of the Alaskan coast more unreliable, nor
more to be dreaded by mariners, than that in the vicinity of Behring's
discovery. Even in summer violent winds and heavy seas are usually
encountered. Steamers cannot land at Kayak, and passengers and freight
are lightered ashore; and when this is accomplished without disaster or
great difficulty, the trip is spoken of as an exceptional one. Yet
Behring remained in this dangerous anchorage five days. Several
landings were made on the two Kayak Islands, and on various smaller
ones. Some Indian huts, without occupants, were found and entered. They
were built of logs and rough bark and roofed with tough dried grasses.
There were, also, some sod cellars, in which dried salmon was found. In
one of the cabins were copper implements, a whetstone, some arrows,
ropes, and cords made of sea-weed, and rude household utensils; also
herbs which had been prepared according to Kamchatkan methods.
Returning, Behring discovered and named many of the Aleutian Islands and
exchanged presents with the friendly natives. They were, however,
overtaken by storms and violent illness; they suffered of hunger and
thirst; so many died that barely enough remained to manage the ship.
Finally on November 5, in attempting to land, the _St. Peter_ was
wrecked on a small island, where, on the 8th of December, in a wretched
hut, half covered with sand which sifted incessantly through the rude
boards that were his only roof, and after suffering unimaginable
agonies, the illustrious Dane, Vitus Behring, died the most miserable of
deaths. The island was named for him, and still retains the name, being
the larger of the Commander Islands.
The survivors of the wreck remaining on Behring Island dragged out a
wretched existence until spring, in holes dug in the sand and roofed
with sails. Water they had; but their food consisted chiefly of the
flesh of sea-otters and seals. In May, weak, emaciated, and hopeless
though they were, and with their brave leader gone, they began building
a boat from the remnants of the _St. Peter_. It was not completed until
August; when, with many fervent prayers, they embarked, and, after nine
days of mingled dread and anxiety in a frail and leaking craft, they
arrived safely on the Kamchatkan shore.
All hope of their safety had long been abandoned, and there was great
rejoicing upon their return. Out of their own deep gratitude a memorial
was placed in the church at Petropavlovsk, which is doubtless still in
existence, as it was in a good state of preservation a few years ago.
Russian historians at first seemed disposed to depreciate Behring's
achievement, and to over-exalt the Russian, Chirikoff. They made the
claim that the latter was a man of high intellectual attainments,
courageous, hopeful, and straightforward; kind-hearted, and giving
thought to and for others. He was instructor of the marines of the
guard, but after having been recommended to Peter the Great as a young
man highly qualified to accompany the expedition under Behring, he was
promoted to a lieutenancy and accompanied the latter on his first
expedition in 1725; and on the second, in 1741, he was made commander of
the _St. Pevril_, or _St. Paul_, "not by seniority but on account of
superior knowledge and worth." Despite the fact that Behring was placed
by the emperor in supreme command of both expeditions, the Russians
looked upon Chirikoff as the real hero. He was a favorite with all, and
in the accounts of quarrels and dissensions among the heads of the
various detachments of scientists and naval officers of the expedition,
the name of Chirikoff does not appear. His wife and daughter accompanied
him to Siberia.
Captain Vitus Behring--or Ivan Ivanovich, as the Russians called him--is
described as a man of intelligence, honesty, and irreproachable conduct,
but rather inclined in his later years to vacillation of purpose and
indecision of character, yielding easily to an irritable and capricious
temper. Whether these facts were due to age or disease is not known; but
that they seriously affected his fitness for the command of an
exploration is not denied, even by his admirers. Even so sane and
conscientious an historian as Dall calls him timid, hesitating, and
indolent, and refers to his "characteristic imbecility," "utter
incapacity," and "total incompetency." It is incredible, however, that a
man of such gross faults should have been given the command of this
brilliant expedition by so wise and great a monarch as Peter. Behring
died,--old, discouraged, in indescribable anguish; suspicious of every
one, doubting even Steller, the naturalist who accompanied the
expedition and who was his faithful friend. Chirikoff returned, young,
flushed with success, popular and in favor with all, from the Empress
down to his subordinates. Favored at the outset by youth and a cheerful
spirit, his bright particular star guided him to the discovery of land a
few hours in advance of Behring. This was his good luck and his good
luck only. Vitus Behring, the Dane in the Russian service, was in
supreme command of the expedition; and to him belongs the glory. One
cannot to-day sail that magnificent sweep of purple water between Alaska
and Eastern Siberia without a thrill of thankfulness that the fame and
the name of the illustrious Dane are thus splendidly perpetuated.
To-day, his name is heard in Alaska a thousand times where Chirikoff's
is heard once. The glory of the latter is fading, and Behring is coming
to his own--Russians speaking of him with a pride that approaches
veneration.
[Illustration: Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle
KOW-EAR-NUK AND HIS DRYING SALMON]
Captain Martin Petrovich Spanberg, the third in command of the
expedition, was also a Dane. He is everywhere described as an
illiterate, coarse, cruel man; grasping, selfish, and unscrupulous in
attaining ends that made for his own advancement. In his study of the
character of Spanberg, Bancroft--who has furnished the most complete and
painstaking description of these expeditions--makes comment which is,
perhaps unintentionally, humorous. After describing Spanberg as
exceedingly avaricious and cruel, and stating that his bad reputation
extended over all Siberia, and that his name appears in hundreds of
complaints and petitions from victims of his licentiousness, cruelty,
and avarice, Bancroft naeively adds, "He was just the man to become
rich." Wealthy people may take such comfort as they can out of the
comment.