of the earth were surrounded by the ocean. STRABO, in the first
century before Christ, after having shown that HOMER favoured this
view, brings together in the first chapter of the First Book of his
geography reasons in support of it in the following terms:--
"In all directions in which man has penetrated to the
uttermost boundary of the earth, he has met the sea, that
is, the ocean. He has sailed round the east coast towards
India, the west coast towards Iberia and Mauritia, and a
great part of the south and north coast. The remaining
portion which has not yet been sailed round in consequence
of the voyages which have been undertaken from both sides
not having been connected, is inconsiderable. For those who
have attempted to circumnavigate the earth and have turned,
declare that their undertaking did not fail in consequence
of their having met with land, but in consequence of want
of provisions and of complete timidity.
At sea they could always have gone further. This view (that
the earth is surrounded by water) also accords better with
the phenomena of the tides, for as the ebb and flow are
everywhere the same, or at least do not vary much, the
cause of this motion is to be sought for in a single
ocean."[289]
But if men were thus agreed that the north coast of Asia and Europe
was bounded by the sea, there was for sixteen hundred years after
the birth of Christ no actual knowledge of the nature of the Asiatic
portion of this line of coast. Obscure statements regarding it,
however, were current at an early period.
While HERODOTUS, in the forty-fifth chapter of his Fourth Book,
expressly says that no man, so far as was then known, had discovered
whether the eastern and northern countries of Europe are surrounded
by the sea, he gives in the twenty-third and twenty-fourth chapters
of the same book the following account of the countries lying to the
north-east:--
"As far as the territory of the Scythians all the land
which we have described is an uninterrupted plain, with
cultivable soil, but beyond that the ground is stony and
rugged. And on the other side of this extensive stone-bound
tract there live at the foot of a high mountain-chain men
who are bald from their birth, both men and women, they are
also flat-nosed and have large chins. They speak a peculiar
language, wear the Scythian dress and live on the fruit of
a tree. The tree on which they live is called _Ponticon_,
is about as large as the wild fig-tree, and bears fruit
which resembles a bean, but has a kernel. When this fruit
is ripe, they strain it through a cloth, and the juice
which flows from it is thick and black and called _aschy_.
This juice they suck or drink mixed with milk, and of the
pressed fruits they make cakes which they eat, for they
have not many cattle because the pasture is poor. As far as
to these bald people the land is now sufficiently well
known, also the races on this side of them, because they
are visited by Scythians. From them it is not difficult to
collect information, which is also to be had from the
Greeks at the port of the Borysthenes and other ports in
Pontus. The Scythians who travel thither do business with
the assistance of seven interpreters in seven languages. So
far our knowledge extends. But of the land on the other
side of the bald men none can give any trustworthy account
because it is shut off by a separating wall of lofty
trackless mountains, which no man can cross. But these bald
men say--which, however, I do not believe--that men with
goat's feet live on the mountains, and on the other side of
them other men who sleep six months at a time. The latter
statement, however, I cannot at all admit. On the other
hand, the land east of the bald men, in which the Issedones
live, is well known, but what is farther to the north, both
on the other side of the bald men and of the Issedones, is
only known by the statements of these tribes. Above the
Issedones live the one-eyed men, and the gold-guarding
griffins. This information the Scythians have got from the
Issedones and we from the Scythians, and we call the
one-eyed race by the Scythian name Arimaspi, for in the
Scythian language _arima_ signifies one and _spou_ the eye.
The whole of the country which I have been speaking of has
so hard and severe a winter, that there prevails there for
eight months an altogether insupportable cold, so that if
you pour water on the ground you will not make mud, but if
you light a fire you will make mud. Even the sea freezes,
and the whole Cimmerian Bosphorus, and the Scythians who
live within the trench travel on the ice and drive over it
in waggons. . . . Again, with reference to the feathers
with which the Scythians say the air is filled, and which
prevent the whole land lying beyond from being seen or
travelled through, I entertain the following opinion. In
the upper parts of this country it snows continually, but,
as is natural, less in summer than in winter. And whoever
has seen snow falling thick near him will know what I mean.
For snow resembles feathers, and on account of the winter
being so severe the northern parts of this continent cannot
be inhabited. I believe then that the Scythians and their
neighbours called snow feathers, on account of the
resemblance between them. This is what is stated regarding
the most remote regions."
These and other similar statements, nowithstanding the absurdities
mixed up with them, are founded in the first instance on the
accounts of eye-witnesses, which have passed from mouth to mouth,
from tribe to tribe, before they were noted down. Still several
centuries after the time of Herodotus, when the Roman power had
reached its highest point, little more was known of the more remote
parts of north Asia. While Herodotus, in the two hundred and third
chapter of his First Book, says that "the Caspian is a sea by itself
having no communication with any other sea," Strabo, induced by
evidence furnished by the commander of a Greek fleet in that sea,
states (Book II. chapters i. and iv.) that the Caspian is a gulf of
the Northern Ocean, from which it is possible to sail to India PLINY
THE ELDER (_Historia Naturalis_, Book VI. chapters xiii. and xvii.)
states that the north part of Asia is occupied by extensive deserts
bounded on the north by the Scythian Sea, that these deserts run out
to a headland, _Promontorium Scythicum_, which is uninhabitable on
account of snow. Then there is a land inhabited by man-eating
Scythians, then deserts, then Scythians again, then deserts with
wild animals to a mountain ridge rising out of the sea, which is
called _Tabin_. The first people that are known beyond this are the
Seri. PTOLEMY and his successors again supposed, though perhaps not
ignorant of the old statement that Africa had been circumnavigated
under Pharaoh Necho, that the Indian Ocean was an inland sea,
everywhere surrounded by land, which united southern Africa with the
eastern part of Asia, an idea which was first completely abandoned
by the chartographers of the fifteenth century after the
circumnavigation of Africa by VASCO DA GAMA.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE WORLD, SAID TO BE OF THE TENTH CENTURY.
Found in a manuscript of the twelfth century in the Library at
Turin. (From Santarem's Atlas.) ]
[Illustration: MAP OF THE WORLD SHOWING ASIA TO BE CONTINUOUS WITH
AFRICA. (From Nicolai Doni's edition of _Ptolemaei Cosmographia_, Ulm.
1482.) ]
The knowledge of the geography of north Asia remained at this point
until MARCO POLO,[290] in the narrative of his remarkable journeys
among the peoples of Middle Asia, gave some information regarding
the most northerly lands of this quarter of the world also. The
chapters which treat of this subject bear the distinctive titles:
"On the land of the Tartars living in the north," "On another region
to which merchants only travel in waggons drawn by dogs," and "On
the region where darkness prevails" (_De regione tenebrarum_). From
the statements in these chapters it follows that hunters and traders
already inhabited or wandered about in the present Siberia, and
brought thence valuable furs of the black fox, sable, beaver, &c.
The northernmost living men were said to be handsome, tall and
stout, but very pale for want of the sun. They obeyed no king or
chief, but were coarse and uncivilised and lived as beasts[291].
Among the products of the northern countries white bears are
mentioned, from which it appears that at that time the hunters had
already reached the coast of the Polar Sea. But Marco Polo nowhere
says expressly that Asia is bounded on the north by the sea.
All the maps of North Asia which have been published down to the
middle of the sixteenth century, are based to a greater or less
extent on interpretations of the accounts of Herodotus, Pliny, and
Marco Polo. When they do not surround the whole Indian Ocean with
land, they give to Asia a much less extent in the north and east
than it actually possesses, make the land in this direction
completely bounded by sea, and delineate two headlands projecting
towards the north from the mainland. To these they give the names
_Promontorium Scythicum_ and _Tabin_, and they besides place in the
neighbourhood of the north coast a large island to which they give
the name that already occurs in Pliny, _Insula Tazata_, which
reminds us, perhaps by an accidental resemblance of sound, of the
name of the river and bay, Tas, between the Ob and the Yenisej.
Finally, the borders of the maps are often adorned with pictures of
wonderfully formed men, whose dwellings the hunters placed in those
regions, the names being at the same time given of a larger or
smaller number of peoples and cities mentioned by Marco Polo.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE WORLD AFTER FRA MAURO FROM THE MIDDLE OF
THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. (From Il mappamondo di Fra Mauro Camaldolese
descritto ed illustrato da D. Placido Zurla, Venezia, 1806.) ]
[Illustration: HERBERTSTERN'S MAP OF RUSSIA, 1550 (photo-lithographic
facsimile). ]
On the whole, the voyages of the Portuguese to India and the Eastern
archipelago, the discovery of America and the first circumnavigation
of the globe, exerted little influence on the current ideas
regarding the geography of North Asia. A new period in respect of
our knowledge of this part of the old world first began with the
publication of HERBERSTEIN'S _Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii_,
Vindobonae 1549[292]. This work has annexed to it a map with the
title "Moscovia Sigismundi liberi baronis in Herberstein Neiperg et
Gutnhag. Anno MDXLIX. Hanc tabulam absolvit AUG. HIRSFOGEL Viennae
Austriae cum gra. et privi. imp.,"[293] which indeed embraces only a
small part of Siberia, but shows that a knowledge of North Russia
now began to be based on actual observations. A large gulf, marked
with the name Mare Glaciale (the present White Sea) here projects
into the north coast of Russia, from the south there falls into it a
large river, called the Dwina. On the banks of the Dwina there are
forts or towns with the names Solovoka (Solovets), Pinega, Colmogor,
&c. There are to be found on the map besides, the names Mesen,
Peczora, Oby,[294] Tumen, &c. Oby runs out of a large lake named
Kythay lacus. In the text, mention is made of Irtisch and
Papingorod, of walruses and white bears[295] by the coast of the
Polar Sea, of the Siberian cedar-tree, of the word Samoyed
signifying self-eaters, &c.[296] The walrus is described in great
detail. It is mentioned further that the Russian Grand Duke sent
out two men, SIMEON THEODOROVITSCH KURBSKI and Knes PIETRO UCHATOI,
to explore the lands east of the Petchora, &c.
Herberstein's work, where the narrative of Istoma's circumnavigation
of the northern extremity of Europe, which has been already quoted,
is to be found, was published only a few years before the first
north-east voyages of the English and the Dutch, of which I have
before given a detailed account. Through these the northernmost part
of European Russia and the westernmost part of the Asiatic Polar Sea
were mapped, but an actual knowledge of the north coast of Asia in
its entirety was obtained through the conquest of Siberia by the
Russians. It is impossible here to give an account of the campaigns,
by which the whole of this enormous territory was brought under the
sceptre of the Czar of Moscow, or of the private journeys for sport,
trade, and the collecting of tribute, by which this conquest was
facilitated. But as nearly every step which the Russian invaders
took forward, also extended the knowledge of regions previously
quite unknown, I shall mention the years in which during this
conquest the most important occurrences in a geographical point of
view took place, and give a later more detailed account of the
exploratory or military expeditions which led directly to important
results affecting the extension of our knowledge of the geography of
the region now in question.
The way was prepared for the conquest of Siberia through peaceful
commercial treaties[297] which a rich Russian peasant ANIKA, ancestor
of the STROGANOV family, entered into with the wild races settled in
Western Siberia, whom he even partially induced to pay a yearly
tribute to the Czar of Moscow. In connection with this he and his
sons, in the middle of the sixteenth century, obtained large grants
of land on the rivers Kama and Chusovaja and their tributaries, with
the right to build towns and forts there, whereby their riches,
previously very considerable, were much increased. The family's
extensive possessions, however, were threatened in 1577 by a great
danger, when a host of Cossack freebooters, six to seven thousand
strong, under the leadership of YERMAK TIMOFEJEV, took flight to the
country round Chusovaja in order to avoid the troops which the Czar
sent to subdue them and punish them for all the depredations they
had committed on the Don, the Caspian Sea and the Volga. In order to
get rid of the freebooters, MAXIM STROGANOV, Anika's grandson, not
only provided Yermak and his men with the necessary sustenance, but
supported in every way the bold adventurer's plan of entering on a
campaign for the conquest of Siberia. This was begun in 1579. In
1580 Yermak passed the Ural, and after several engagements marched
in particular against the Tartars living in Western Siberia, along
the rivers Tagil and Tura to Tjumen, and thence in 1581 farther
along the Tobol and Irtisch to Kutschum Khan's residence Sibir,
situated in the neighbourhood of the present Tobolsk. It was this
fortress, long since destroyed, which gave its name to the whole
north part of Asia.
From this point the Russians, mainly following the great rivers, and
passing from one river territory to another at the places where the
tributaries almost met, spread out rapidly in all directions. Yermak
himself indeed was drowned on the 16th August, 1584, in the river
Irtisch, but the adventurers who accompanied him overran in a few
decades the whole of the enormous territory lying north of the
deserts of Central Asia from Ural to the Pacific, everywhere
strengthening their dominion by building _Ostrogs_, or small
fortresses, at suitable places. It was the noble fur-yielding
animals of the extensive forests of Siberia which played the same
part with the Russian _promyschleni_, as gold with the Spanish
adventurers in South America.
At the close of the sixteenth century the Cossacks had already
possessed themselves of the greater part of the river territory of
the Irtisch-Ob, and sable-hunters had already gone as far
north-east[298] as the river Tas, where the sable-hunting was at one
time very productive and occasioned the founding of a town,
Mangasej, which however was soon abandoned. In 1610 the Russian
fur-hunters went from the river territory of the Tas to the Yenisej,
where the town Turuchansk was soon after founded on the Turuchan, a
tributary of the Yenisej. The attempt to row down in boats from this
point to the Polar Sea, with the view of penetrating farther along
the sea coast, failed in consequence of ice obstacles, but led to
the discovery of the river Pjaesina and to the levying of tribute
from the Samoyeds living there. To get farther eastward the
tributaries of the Yenisej were made use of instead of the sea
route. Following these the Russians on the upper course of the
Tunguska met with the mountain ridge which separates the river
territory of the Yenisej from that of the Lena. This ridge was
crossed, and on the other side of it a new stream was met with,
which in the year 1627 led the adventurers to the Lena, over whose
river territory the Cossacks and fur-hunters, faithful to then
customs, immediately spread themselves in order to hunt, purchase
furs, and above all to impose "jassak" upon the tribes living
thereabouts. But they were not satisfied with this. Already in 1636
the Cossack ELISEJ BUSA was sent out with an express commission to
explore the rivers beyond, falling into the Polar Sea, and to render
tributary the natives living on their banks. He was accompanied by
ten Cossacks, to whose company forty fur-hunters afterwards attached
themselves. In 1637 he came to the western mouth-arm of the Lena,
from which he went along the coast to the river Olenek, where he
passed the winter. Next year he returned by land to the Lena, and
built there two "kotsches,"[299] in which he descended the river to
the Polar Sea. After five days' successful rowing along the coast to
the eastward he discovered the mouth of the Yana. After three days'
march up the river he fell in with a Yakut tribe, from whom he got a
rich booty of sable and other furs. Here he passed the winter of
1638-39, here too he built himself a new craft, and again starting
for the Polar Sea, he came to another river falling into the eastern
mouth-arm of the Yana, where he found a Yukagir tribe, living in
earth huts, with whom he passed two years more, collecting tribute
from the tribes living in the neighbourhood.
At the same time IVANOV POSTNIK discovered by land the river
Indigirka. As usual, tribute was collected from the neighbouring
Yukagir tribes, yet not without fights, in which the natives at
first directed their weapons against the horses the Cossacks had
along with them, thinking that the horses were more dangerous than
the men. They had not seen horses before. A _simovie_ was
established, at which sixteen Cossacks were left behind. They built
boats, sailed down the river to the Polar Sea to collect tribute,
and discovered the river Alasej.
Some years after the river Kolyma appears to have been discovered,
and in 1644 the Cossack, MICHAILO STADUCHIN, founded on that river a
_simovie_, which afterwards increased to a small town, Nischni
Kolymsk. Here Staduchin got three pieces of information which
exerted considerable influence on later exploratory expeditions, for
he acquired knowledge of the Chukches, at that time a military race,
who possessed the part of North Asia which lay a little further to
the east. Further, the natives and the Russian hunters, who swarmed
in the region before Staduchin, informed him that in the Polar Sea
off the mouths of the Yana and the Indigirka there was a large
island, which in clear weather could be seen from land, and which
the Chukches reached in winter with reindeer sledges in one day from
Chukotska, a river debouching in the Polar Sea east of the Kolyma.
They brought home walrus tusks from the island, which was of
considerable size, and the hunters supposed "that it was a
continuation of Novaya Zemlya, which is visited by people from
Mesen." Wrangel is of opinion that this account refers to no other
than Krestovski Island, one of the Bear Islands. This, however,
appears to me to be improbable. It is much more likely that it
refers partly to the New Siberian Islands, partly to Wrangel Land,
and perhaps even to America. That the Russians themselves had not
then discovered Ljachoff's, or as it was then also called, Blischni
Island, which lies so near the mainland, and is so high that it is
impossible to avoid seeing it when one in clear weather sails past
Svjatoinos, which lies east of the Yana, is a proof that at that
time they had not sailed along the coast between the mouths of the
Yana and the Indigirka. Finally, a great river, the Pogytscha, was
spoken of, which could be reached in three or four days' sailing
eastward from the mouth of the Kolyma. This was the first account
which reached the conquerors of Siberia of the great river Anadyr
which falls into the Pacific.
These accounts were sufficient to incite the Cossacks and hunters to
new expeditions. The beginning was made by ISAI IGNATIEV from Mesen,
who, along with several hunters, travelled down the Kolyma in 1646
to the Polar Sea, and then along the coast eastwards. The sea was
full of ice, but next the land there was an open channel, in which
the explorers sailed two days. They then came to a bay, near whose
shore they anchored. Here the Russians had their first meeting with
the Chukches, to which reference has already been made. Hence
Ignatiev returned to the Kolyma, and the booty was considered so
rich and his account of his journey so promising, that preparations
were immediately made in order next year to send off a new maritime
expedition fitted out on a larger scale to the coast of the Polar
Sea.
This time FEODOT ALEXEJEV from Kolmogor was chief of the expedition,
but along with him was sent, at the request of the hunters, a
Cossack in the Russian service in order to guard the rights of the
crown. His name was SIMEON IVANOV SIN DESCHNEV; in geographical
writings he is commonly known under the name of DESCHNEV. It was
intended to search for the mouth of the great river lying towards
the east, regarding which some information had been obtained from
the natives, and which was believed to fall into the Polar Sea. The
first voyage in 1647, with four vessels, was unsuccessful, it is
said, because the sea was blocked with ice. But that this was not
the real reason is shown by the fact that a new and larger
expedition was fitted out the following year with full expectation
of success. The crews of the four boats had more probably been
considered too weak a force to venture among the Chukches, and the
ice had to bear the blame of the retreat. What man could not
reproach the conquerors of Siberia with, was pusillanimity and want
of perseverance in carrying out a plan which had once been sketched.
Resistance always increased their power of action; so also now.
Seven boats were fitted out the following year, 1648, all which were
to sail down to the Polar Sea, and then along the coast eastwards.
The object was to examine closely the unknown land and people there,
and to their own advantage and the extension of the Russian power,
to collect tribute from the tribes met with during the expedition.
Mueller states that every boat was manned with about thirty men--a
number which appears to me somewhat exaggerated, if we consider the
nature of the Siberian craft and the difficulty of feeding so large
a number either with provisions earned along with them or obtained
by hunting.
Four of the boats are not mentioned further in the narrative; they
appear to have returned at an early period. The three others, on the
contrary, made a highly remarkable journey. The commanders of them
were the Cossacks, GERASIM ANKUDINOV and SIMEON DESCHNEV, and the
hunter FEODOT ALEXEJEV. Deschnev entertained such hopes of success
that before his departure he promised to collect a tribute of seven
times forty sable skins. The Siberian archives, according to Miller,
contain the following details.[300]
On 30/20th June, 1648, a start was made from the Kolyma. The sea was
open, at least the boats came without any adventure which Deschnev
thought worth the trouble of noting in his narrative to Great
Chukotskojnos. Of this cape Deschnev says that it is quite different
from the cape at the river Chukotskaja. For it lies between north
and north-east, and bends with a rounding towards the Anadyr. On the
Russian side a rivulet runs into the sea, at which the Chukches had
raised a heap of whales' bones. Right off the cape lie two islands,
on which people of Chukch race with perforated lips were seen. From
this cape it is possible with a favourable wind to sail to the
Anadyr in three days, and the way is not longer by land, because the
Anadyr falls into a gulf of the sea. At Chukotskojnos or, according
to Wrangel at a "holy promontory," Svjatoinos (Serdze Kamen?)
previously reached, Ankudinov's craft was shipwrecked. The crew were
saved, and distributed on Deschnev's and Alexejev's boats. On the
30/20th September the Russians had a fight with the Chukches living
on the coast, in which fight Alexejev was wounded. Soon after
Deschnev's and Alexejev's "kotsches" were parted never to meet
again.
Deschnev was driven about by storms and head-winds until past the
beginning of October. Finally his vessel stranded near the mouth of
the river Olutorsk, in 61 deg. N.L. Hence he marched with his
twenty-five men to the Anadyr. He had expected to meet with some
natives in its lower course, but the region was uninhabited, which
caused the invaders much trouble, because they suffered from want of
provisions. Although Deschnev could not obtain from the natives any
augmentation of the certainly very small supply of food which he
carried with him, he succeeded nevertheless in passing the winter in
that region. First in the course of the following summer did he fall
in with natives, from whom a large tribute was collected, but not
without fierce conflicts. A _simovie_ was built at the place where
afterwards Anadyrski Ostrog was founded. While Deschnev remained
here, at a loss as to how, when the boats were broken up, he would
be able to return to the Kolyma, or find a way thither by land,
there came suddenly on the 5th May/25th April 1650, a new party of
hunters to his winter hut.
For the accounts of islands in the Polar Sea, and of the river
Pogytscha, which was said to fall into the sea three or four days'
journey beyond the Kolyma, had led to the sending out of another
expedition under the Cossack STADUCHIN. He started from Yakutsk in
boats on the 15th/5th June, 1647, wintered on the Yana, travelled
thence in sledges to Indigirka, and there again built boats in which
he rowed to the Kolyma. It is to be observed that Staduchin, just
because he preferred the land-route to the sea-route between the
Yana and the Indigirka, missed discovering the large island in the
Polar Sea, of which so much has been said. Next summer (1649)
Staduchin again sailed down the river Kolyma to the sea, and then
for seven days along its coast eastwards, without finding the mouth
of the river sought for by him. He therefore returned with his
object unaccomplished, carrying with him a heap of walrus-tusks,
which were sent to Yakutsk as an appendix to a proposal to send out
hunters to the Polar Sea to hunt for these animals. In the meantime
a true idea of the course of the Anadyr had been obtained through
statements collected from the natives, and a land-route had become
known between its territory and that of the Kolyma. Several Cossacks
and hunters now petitioned for the right to settle on the Anadyr,
and collect tribute from the tribes in that neighbourhood. This was
granted. Some natives were forced to act as guides. The party
started under the command of SIMEON MOTORA, and came finally to
Deschnev's _simovie_ on the Anadyr. Staduchin followed, and
traversed the way in seven weeks. He however soon quarrelled with
Deschnev and Motora, and parting from them on that account, betook
himself to the river Penschina. Deschnev and Motora built
themselves boats on the Anadyr in order to prosecute exploratory
voyages, but the latter was killed in 1651 in a fight with natives
called Anauls. They had been the first of all the natives of the
Pacific coast of North Asia to pay "jassak" to Deschnev, and he had
already at that time come into collision with them and extirpated
one of their tribes.
In 1652 Deschnev travelled down the Anadyr to the river mouth, where he
discovered a walrus-bank, whence he brought home walrus-tusks. There
afterwards arose a dispute between Deschnev and Selivestrov[301]
regarding the rights founded on the discovery of this walrus bank, which
came before the authorities at Yakutsk, and it was from the documents
relating to it that Mueller obtained the information that enabled him to
give a narrative of Deschnev's expedition. Only in this way have the
particulars of this remarkable voyage been rescued from complete
oblivion.[302]
In 1653 Deschnev gave orders to collect wood to build craft in which
he intended to carry home by sea the tribute he had collected to the
Kolyma, but he was compelled to desist from want of the necessary
materials for the building and equipment of the boats, comforting
himself with the statement of the natives that the sea was not
always so open as during his first voyage. Compelled by necessity,
he remained a year longer at the Anadyr, and in 1654 undertook a new
hunting voyage to the walrus-bank, where he met with the
before-mentioned Selivestrov. He here came in contact with the
natives (Koryaeks), and found among them a Yakut woman, who had
belonged to Ankudinov. On asking her where her master had gone to,
she answered that Feodot and Gerasim (Ankudinov) had died of scurvy,
and that their companions had been killed with the exception of some
few, who had saved themselves in boats. It appears as if the latter
had penetrated along the coast as far as to the river Kamchatka. For
when Kamchatka was conquered by Atlassov in 1697 the natives stated
that a long time before one FEODOTOV (probably a son of Feodot
Alexejev) had lived among them along with some companions, and had
married their women. They were venerated almost as gods. They were
believed to be invulnerable until they struck another, when the
Kamchadals saw their mistake and killed them.[303]
By the expeditions of Deschnev, Staduchin, and their companions, the
Russians had by degrees become acquainted with the course of the
Anadyr and with the tribes living on its banks. But it still
remained for them to acquire a more complete knowledge of the
islands which were said to be situated in the Polar Sea, and one
must be surprised at the extreme difficulties which were encountered
in attempting the solution of this apparently very simple
geographical problem. The reason indeed was that the Siberian seamen
never ventured to leave the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, a
precaution which besides is very easily explained when the bad
construction of their craft is considered. Along the shore of the
Polar Sea on the other hand, a very active communication appears to
have taken place between the Lena and the Kolyma, though of those
voyages we only know such as in one way or another gave rise to
actions before the courts or were characterised by specially
remarkable dangers or losses.
In 1650 ANDREJ GORELOJ was sent by sea from Yakutsk to impose
tribute on the tribes that lived at the sources of the Indigirka,
and on the Moma, a tributary of the Indigirka. He passed Svjatoinos
successfully, and reached the mouth of the Kroma, but was there
beset by ice, with which he drifted out to sea. After drifting about
ten days he was compelled to abandon the vessel, which was soon
after nipped, and go on foot over the ice to land. On the 22nd/12th
November he came to the _simovie_ Ujandino, where famine prevailed
during the winter, _because the vessels, that should have brought
provisions to the place, had either been lost or been compelled to
turn_; a statement which proves that at that time a regular
navigation took place between certain parts of the coast of the
Polar Sea.
The same year, the Cossack, TIMOFEJ BULDAKOV travelled by sea from
the Lena to the Kolyma to take over the command of the neighbouring
region. He reached the Kroma successfully, but was beset there and
drifted out to sea. He then determined to endeavour to get to land
over the ice. But this was no easy matter. The ice, which already
was three feet thick, went suddenly into a thousand pieces, while
the vessel drove before a furious gale farther and farther from the
shore. This was repeated several times. When the sea at last froze
over, the vessel was abandoned, and the party finally succeeded,
worn out as they were by hunger, scurvy, work, and cold, in reaching
land at the mouth of the Indigirka. The narrative of Buldakov's
voyage is, besides, exceedingly remarkable, because a meeting is
there spoken of with twelve "kotsches," filled with Cossacks,
traders, and hunters, bound partly from the Lena to the rivers lying
to the eastward, partly from the Kolyma and Indigirka to the Lena, a
circumstance which shows how active the communication then was in
the part of the Siberian Polar Sea in question. This is further
confirmed by a narrative of NIKIFOR MALGIN. While Knes IVAN
PETROVITSCH BARJATINSKY was _vojvode_ at Yakutsk (1667-75), Malgin
travelled along with a trader, ANDREJ WORIPAJEV, by sea from the
Lena to the Kolyma. During this voyage the pilot directed the
attention of all on board to an island, lying far out at sea, west
of the mouth of the Kolyma. In course of a conversation regarding
it, after Malgin had succeeded in reaching the Kolyma, another
trader, JAKOB WIAeTKA, stated that on one occasion when he was
sailing with nine "kotsches" between the Lena and the Kolyma, three
of them had been driven by wind to this island, and that the men who
had been sent ashore there, found traces of unknown animals, but no
inhabitants.
All these narratives, however, do not appear to have met with full
credence. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, accordingly,
new explorations and new expeditions were undertaken. A Cossack,
JAKOB PERMAKOV, stated that during a voyage between the Lena and the
Kolyma, he had seen off Svjatoinos an island, of which he knew not
whether it was inhabited or not, and likewise, that off the mouth of
the Kolyma there was an island which could be seen from land. In
order to make sure of the correctness of this statement, a Cossack,
MERCUREJ WAGIN, was sent out. He travelled along with Permakov, in
the month of May, in dog-sledges over the ice from Svjatoinos to the
island lying off it, that Permakov had seen. They landed there,
found it uninhabited and treeless, and fixed its circumference at
nine to twelve days' journey. Beyond this island Wagin saw another,
which, however, he could not reach for want of provisions. He
therefore determined to turn, in order to undertake the journey the
following year in a better state of preparation. During the return
journey the party suffered severely from hunger, and in order to
avoid a renewal of the dangerous and difficult journey of
exploration, the men at last murdered Permakov, Wagin, and his son.
The crime was discovered, and the knowledge we possess of this
expedition is founded on the confused information obtained during
the examination of the murderers. Mueller even throws doubts on the
truth of the whole narrative.
The attempts which were afterwards made to reach those islands,
partly by sea in 1712, by WASILEJ STADUCHIN, partly by dog-sledges
in 1714 by ALEXEJ MARKOV and GRIGOREJ KUSAKOV, yielded no result.
Ten years afterwards, "the old saga" of the islands in the Polar
Sea, induced one SIN BAJORSKI FEODOT AMOSSOV to undertake an
expedition with a view to impose tribute on their inhabitants, but
he was prevented by ice from reaching his goal. On the way he met
with a hunter, IVAN WILLEGIN, who said, that along with another
hunter, GRIGOREJ SANKIN, he had travelled over the ice to these
islands from the mouth of the river Chukotskaja. He had seen neither
men nor trees, but some abandoned huts "Probably this land extends
all the way from the mouth of the Yana, past the Indigirka and
Kolyma to the region which is inhabited by the Schelags, a Chukch
tribe." He had learned this from a Schelag named Kopai, at whose
home he had been the preceding year. In order to reach this land by
sea it was necessary to start from the coast which the Schelags
inhabited, because the sea was less covered by ice there.
As Amossov could not reach his goal by sea he travelled thither the
same year, in November, 1724, over the ice, but his description of
the land differs widely from that of his predecessor, and Mueller
appears to entertain great doubts of the truthfulness of the
narrative[304]. On the ground of a map constructed by the Cossack,
Colonel SCHESTAKOV, who, however, according to Mueller, could neither
read nor write, this new land was introduced into DELISLE and
BUACHE'S map, with the addition that the Schelag Kopai lived there,
and had there been taken prisoner by the Russians. This is so far
incorrect, as Kopai did not live on any island, but on the mainland,
and never was prisoner with the Russians, although after having paid
tribute to them, he tired of doing so, and killed some of Amossov's
people, after which no more was heard of him. Mueller complains
loudly of the incorrect statement regarding Kopai, but the learned
academician commits a much greater mistake, inasmuch as he considers
that he ought to leave the numerous accounts of hunters and Cossacks
about land and islands in the Siberian Polar Sea completely out of
account. All these lands are therefore left out of the map published
by the Petersburg Academy in the year 1758[305]. It is in this
respect much more incomplete than the map which accompanies
Strahlenberg's book.[306]
Before I begin to sketch the explorations of the great northern
expedition, some account remains to be given of the discovery of
Kamchatka. It appears from the preceding that Kamchatka was already
reached by some of Deschnev's followers, but their important
discovery was completely unknown in Moscow. Kamchatka is, however,
already mentioned in the narrative of Evert Ysbrants Ides' embassy
to China in 1693-95,[307] accounts of it had probably been obtained
from the Siberian natives, who are accustomed to wander far and
near. These accounts, however, are exceedingly incomplete, and
therefore, VOLODOMIR ATLASSOV, _piaetidesaetnik_ (_i.e._, commander of
fifty men) at Anadyrsk, is considered the proper discoverer of
Kamchatka.
While Atlassov was commander at Anadyrsk, he sent out in 1696, the
Cossack LUCAS SEMENOV SIN MOROSKO with sixteen men to bring the
tribe living to the south under tribute. The commission was
executed, and on his return Morosko stated that he not only was
among the Koryaeks, but had also penetrated to the neighbourhood of
the river Kamchatka, and that he took a Kamchadal "ostrog," and
found in it some manuscripts in an unknown language, which,
according to information afterwards obtained, had belonged to some
Japanese who had stranded on the coast of Kamchatka.[308] It was the
first hint the conquerors of Siberia obtained of their being in the
neighbourhood of Japan.
The year after Atlassov, with a larger force, followed the way which
Morosko had opened up, and penetrated to the river Kamchatka, where
as a sign that he had taken possession of the land, he erected a
cross with an inscription, which when translated runs thus: _In the,
year_ 7205 (i.e. 1697) _on the 13th July this cross was erected by
the piaetidesaetnik Volodomir Atlassov and his followers_, 55 _men_.
Atlassov then built on the Kamchatka river a _simovie_, which was
afterwards fortified and named Verchni Kamtschatskoj Ostrog. Hence
the Russians extended their power over the land, yet not without
resistance, which was first completely broken by the cruel
suppression of the rebellion of 1730.
In 1700 Atlassov travelled to Moscow, carrying with him a Japanese,
who had been taken prisoner after being shipwrecked on the coast of
Kamchatka, and the collected tribute which consisted of the skins of
3,200 sables, 10 sea-otters, 7 beavers, 4 otters, 10 grey foxes and
191 red foxes. He was received graciously, and sent back as
commander of the Cossacks in Yakutsk with orders to complete the
conquest of Kamchatka. An interruption however happened for some
time in the path of Atlassov as a warrior and discoverer, in
consequence of his having during his return journey to Yakutsk
plundered a Russian vessel laden with Chinese goods, an accessory
circumstance which deserves to be mentioned for the light which it
throws on the character of this Pizarro of Kamchatka. He was not set
free until the year 1706, and then recovered his command in
Kamchatka, with strict orders to desist from all arbitrary
proceedings and acts of violence, and to do his best for the
discovery of new lands. The first part of this order he however
complied with only to a limited extent, which gave occasion to
repeated complaints[309] and revolts among the already unbridled
Cossacks. Finally, in 1711, Atlassov and several other officers were
murdered by their own countrymen. In order to atone for this crime,
and perhaps to get a little farther from the arm of justice, their
murderers, ANZIPHOROV and IVAN KOSIREVSKOJ,[310] undertook to subdue
the not yet conquered part of Kamchatka, and the two northernmost of
the Kurile Islands. Further information about the countries lying
farther south was obtained from some Japanese who were shipwrecked
in 1710 on Kamchatka.
At first in order to get to Kamchatka the difficult detour by
Anadyrsk was taken. But in the year 1711 the commander at Okotsk,
SIN BOJARSKI PETER GUTUROV, was ordered, by the energetic promoter
of exploratory expeditions in Eastern Siberia, the Yakutsk
_voivode_, DOROFEJ TRAUERNICHT, to proceed by sea from Okotsk to
Kamchatka. But this voyage could not come off because at that time
there were at Okotsk neither seagoing boats, seamen, nor even men
accustomed to the use of the compass. Some years after the governor
Prince GAGARIN sent to that town IVAN SOROKAUMOV with twelve
Cossacks to make arrangements for this voyage. For want of ships and
seamen however this could not now be undertaken, and after
Sorokaumov had created great confusion he was imprisoned by the
authorities of the place, and sent back to the Governor. Peter I.
now commanded _that men acquainted with navigation should be sought
for among the Swedish prisoners of war and sent to Okotsk, that they
should build a boat there and, provided with a compass, go by sea
along with some Cossacks to Kamchatka and return_.[311] Thus
navigation began on the Sea of Okotsk Among the Swedes who opened
it, is mentioned HENRY BUSCH,[312] according to Strahlenberg a
Swedish corporal, who had previously been a ship-carpenter.
According to Mueller, who met with him at Yakutsk as late as 1736, he
was born at Hoorn in Holland, had served at several places as a
seaman, and finally among the Swedes as a trooper, until he was
taken prisoner at Viborg in 1706. He gave Mueller the following
account of his first voyage across the Sea of Okotsk.
After arriving at Okotsk they had built a vessel, resembling the
_lodjas_ used at Archangel and Mesen for sailing on the White Sea
and to Novaya Zemlya. The vessel was strong; its length was eight
and a half fathoms, its breadth three fathoms, the freeboard, when
the vessel was loaded, three and a half feet. The first voyage took
place in June 1716. The voyagers began to sail along the coast
towards the north-east, but an unfavourable wind drove the vessel,
almost against the will of the seafarers, right across the sea to
Kamchatka. The first land sighted was a cape which juts out north of
the river Tigil. Being unacquainted with the coast the seafarers
hesitated to land. During the delay a change of wind took place,
whereby the vessel was driven back towards the coast of Okotsk. The
wind again becoming favourable, the vessel was put about and
anchored successfully in the Tigil. The men who were sent ashore
found the houses deserted. For the Kamchadales being terrified at
the large ship had made their escape to the woods. The seafarers
sailed on along the coast and landed at several places in order that
they might meet with the inhabitants, but for a long time without
success, until at last they fell in with a Kamchadal girl, who was
collecting edible roots. With her as a guide they soon found
dwellings, and even Cossacks, who had been sent out to collect
tribute. They wintered at the river Kompakova. During the winter the
sea cast up a whale, which had in its carcase a harpoon of European
manufacture and with Latin letters. The vessel left the winter haven
in the middle of May (new style) 1717, but meeting with ice-fields
was beset in them for five and a half weeks. This occasioned great
scarcity of provisions. In the end of July the seafarers were again
back at Okotsk. From this time there has been regular communication
by sea between this town and Kamchatka. The master of the vessel
during the first voyage across the Sea of Okotsk was the Cossack
SOKOLOV.[313]
[Illustration: MAP OF ASIA. From on Atlas published, by the Russian
Academy of Sciences in 1737. ]
From what I have stated it follows that, thanks to the fondness of
the hunters and Cossacks for adventurous, exploratory expeditions,
the current ideas regarding the distribution of the land and the
courses of the rivers in north-eastern Asia were in the main
correct. But, in consequence of want of knowledge of, or of doubts
regarding, Deschnev's discoveries, there prevailed an uncertainty
whether Asia at its north-east extremity was connected with America
by a small neck of land, in the same way as it is with Africa, or as
North and South America are connected with each other, a view which,
in consequence of the unscientific necessity of generalising
inherent in man, and the wish to have an explanation of how the
population extended from the old to the new world, was long
zealously defended[314]. No one, either European or native, had yet,
so far as we know, extended his hunting journeys to the northernmost
promontory of Asia, in consequence of which the position which it
was assumed to occupy only depended on loose suppositions. It was
possible for instance that Asia stretched with a cape as far as to
the neighbourhood of the Pole, or that a broad isthmus between the
Pjaesina and the Olenek connected the known portion of this quarter
of the world with an Asiatic Polar continent. Nor had geographers a
single actual determination of position or geographical measurement
from the whole of the immense stretch between the mouth of the Ob
and Japan, and there was complete uncertainty as to the relative
position of the easternmost possessions of the Russians on the one
side and of Japan on the other.[315] It was difficult to get the maps
of the Russians to correspond with those of the Portuguese and the
Dutch, at the point where the discoveries of the different nations
touched each other, which also was exceedingly natural, as at that
time too limited an extent east and west by 1700 kilometres was
commonly assigned to Siberia. In order to investigate this point, in
order to fill up the great blank which still existed in the
knowledge of the quarter of the world first inhabited by man, and
perhaps above all for the purpose of forming new commercial treaties
and of discovering new commercial routes, Peter the Great during the
latest years of his life arranged one of the greatest geographical
expeditions which the history of the world can show. It was not
until after his death, however, that it was carried out, and then it
went on for a series of years on so large a scale that whole tribes
are said to have been impoverished through the severe exactions of
transport that were on its account imposed on the inhabitants of the
Siberian deserts. Its many different divisions are now comprehended
under the name--_the Great Northern Expedition_. Through the
writings of Behring, Mueller, Gmelin, Steller, Krascheninnikov and
others, this expedition has acquired an important place for all time
in the history not only of geography but also of ethnography,
zoology, and botany, and even now the inquirer, when the natural
conditions of North Asia are in question, must return to these
works. I shall therefore, before drawing this chapter to a close,
give a brief account of its principal features.
The Great Northern Expedition was ushered in by "the first
expedition to Kamchatka". The commander of this expedition was the
Dane VITUS BEHRING, who was accompanied by Lieutenant MORTON
SPANGBERG, also a Dane by birth, and ALEXEI CHIRIKOV They left St.
Petersburg in February 1725, and took the land route across Siberia,
carrying with them the necessary materials with which in Kamchatka
to build and equip the vessel with which they should make their
voyage of exploration. More than three years were required for this
voyage, or rather for this geographico-scientific campaign, in which
for the transport of the stores and the shipbuilding material that
had to be taken from Europe the rivers Irtisch, Ob, Ket, Yenisej,
Tunguska, Ilim, Aldan, Maja, Yudoma, and Urak were taken advantage
of. It was not until the 15th/4th April that a beginning could be
made at Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog of the building of the vessel,
which was launched on the 21st/10th July, and on the 31st/20th of
the same month Behring began his voyage.
He sailed in a north-easterly direction along the coast of
Kamchatka, which he surveyed. On the 19th/8th August in 64 deg.
30' N.L. he fell in with Chukches, who had still a reputation among
the Russians for invincible courage and ferocity. First one of them
came to the vessel, swimming on two inflated seal-skins, "to inquire
what was intended by the vessel's coming thither," after which their
skin-boat lay to. Conversation was carried on with them by means of
a Koryaek interpreter. On the 21st/10th August St. Lawrence Islands
as discovered, and on the 26th/15th of the same month the explorers
sailed past the north-eastern promontory of Asia in 67 deg. 18'
and observed that the coast trends to the west from that point, as
the Chukches had before informed them. Behring on this account
considered that he had fulfilled his commission to ascertain whether
Asia and America were separated, and he now determined to turn,
"partly because if the voyage were continued along the coast ice
might be met with, from which it might not be so easy to get clear,
partly on account of the fogs, which had already begun to prevail,
and partly because it would be impossible, if a longer stay were
made in these regions, to get back the same summer to Kamchatka.
There could be no question of passing the winter off the coast of
the Chukch Peninsula, because that would have been to expose the
expedition to certain destruction, either by being wrecked on the
jagged rocks of the open unknown coast, or by perishing from want of
fuel, or finally by dying under the hands of the fierce unconquered
Chukches". On the 1st Oct/20th Sept the vessel returned to Nischni
Kamchatskoj Ostrog.[316] It was during this voyage that the sound,
which has since obtained the name of Behring's Straits, is
considered to have been discovered. But it is now known that this
discovery properly belongs to the gallant hunter Deschnev, who
sailed through these straits eighty years before. I suppose
therefore that the geographical world will with pleasure embrace the
proposal to attach the name of Deschnev along with that of Behring
to this part of our globe; which may be done by substituting Cape
Deschnev, as the name of the easternmost promontory of Asia, for
that of East Cape, an appellation which is misleading and unsuitable
in in many respects. Several statements by Kamchadales regarding a
great country towards the east on the other side of the sea, induced
Behring the following year to sail away in order to ascertain
whether this was the case. In consequence of unfavourable weather he
did not succeed in reaching the coast of America, but returned with
his object unaccomplished, after which he sailed to Okotsk, where he
arrived on the 3rd Aug/23rd July 1729. Hence he betook himself
immediately to St. Petersburg, which he reached after a journey of
six months and nine days.
In maps published during Behring's absence, partly by Swedish
officers who had returned from imprisonment in Siberia,[317]
Kamchatka had been delineated with so long an extension towards the
south that this peninsula was connected with Yezo, the northernmost
of the large Japanese islands. The distance between Kamchatka and
Japan, rich in wares, would thus have been quite inconsiderable.
This nearness was believed to be further confirmed by another
Japanese ship, manned by seventeen men and laden with silk, rice,
and paper, having stranded in July 1729 on Kamchatka, south of
Avatscha Bay. In this neighbourhood there was, along with a number
of natives, a small party of Cossacks under the command of ANDREAS
SCHTINNIKOV. He at first accepted several presents from the
shipwrecked men, but afterwards withdrew from the place where the
wreck took place. When the Japanese on this account rowed on in
their boats along the coast, Schtinnikov gave orders to follow them
in a _baydar_ and kill them all but two. The cruel deed was carried
into execution, on which the malefactors took possession of the
goods, and broke in pieces the boats in order to obtain the iron
with which the boards were fastened together. The two Japanese who
were saved were carried to Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog. Here
Schtinnikov was imprisoned and hanged for his crime. The Japanese
were sent to St. Petersburg, where they learned the Russian language
and were converted to Christianity, while some Russians in their
turn learned Japanese. The Japanese died between 1736 and 1739. Both
were from Satsuma; the elder, SOSA, had been a merchant, and the
younger, GONSA, was a pilot's son. Their vessel had been bound for
Osaka, but having been carried out of its course by a storm, had
drifted about at sea for six months, stranding at last with so
unfortunate a result for the greater part of the crew.
This sad occurrence further reminds us that much still remained
unaccomplished with respect to the geography of north-eastern Asia.
Behring's Kamchatka expedition had besides yielded no information
regarding the position of the northern extremity of Asia, or of the
part of America lying opposite to Kamchatka. A number of grave
doubts appear besides to have been started as to the correctness of
the observations during Behring's first voyage. All this induced him
to make proposals for a continuation of his explorations, offering,
along with his former companions, Spangberg and Chirikov, to take
the command of the maritime expedition which was to start from
Kamchatka to solve the questions proposed, both eastwards to
ascertain the position of the east coast of Asia in relation to the
west coast of America, and southwards to connect the areas which the
West-Europeans and the Russians were exploring.
The Russian senate, the Board of Admiralty, and the Academy of
Sciences were commissioned to develop this plan and to carry it into
execution. With respect to the way in which the commission was
executed I may be allowed to refer to Mueller's oft-quoted work, and
to a paper by VON BAER; _Peters des Grossen Verdienste um die
Erweiterung der geographischen Kenntnisse (Beitraege zur Kenntniss
des Russischen Reiches_, B. 16, St. Petersburg, 1872). Here I can
only mention that it was principally through the untiring interest
which KIRILOV, the secretary of the senate, took in the undertaking,
that it attained such a development that it may be said to have been
perhaps the greatest scientific expedition which has ever been sent
out by any country. It was determined at the same time not only to
ascertain the extent of Siberia to the north and east, but also to
examine its hitherto almost unknown ethnographical and natural
conditions. For this purpose the Great Northern Expedition was
divided into the following divisions:--
1. _An expedition to start from Archangel for the Ob_[318]--For this
expedition two _kotsches_ were employed, the _Ob_ and the
_Expedition_ 52-1/2 feet long, 14 feet broad, and 8 feet deep, each
manned with 20 men. The vessels, which were under the command of
Lieutenants PAULOV and MURAVJEV, left Archangel on the 15th/4th
July, 1734. The first summer they only reached Mutnoi Saliv in the
Kara Sea, whence they returned to the Petchora and wintered at
Pustosersk. The following year they broke up in June, but did not
penetrate farther than in 1734. The unfavourable issue was ascribed
to the vessels' unserviceableness for voyages in the Polar Sea, in
consequence of which the Board of Admiralty ordered two other boats,
50 to 60 feet long, to be built for the expedition, which were
placed under the command of SKURATOV and SUCHOTIN, Muravjev being
besides replaced by MALYGIN who sailed with the old vessels on the
7th June/27th May 1736, down the Petchora river, at whose mouth the
_Expedition_ was wrecked. Without permitting himself to be
frightened by this, Malygin ordered his men to go on board the other
vessel, in which with great dangers and difficulties they penetrated
through the drift-ice to Dolgoi Island. Here on the 18th/7th August
they fell in with the new vessels sent from Archangel. Suchotin was
now sent back to Archangel on board the _Ob_; Malygin and Skuratov
sailed in the new vessels to the Kara river and wintered there.
During the winter 1736-1737 the men suffered only slightly from
scurvy, which was cured by anti-scorbutic plants growing in the
region. The ice in the Kara river did not break up until the
12th/1st June, but so much ice still drifted about in the sea that a
start could not be made until the 14th/3rd July. On the 4th Aug/24th
July the vessels anchored in the sound which I have named Malygin
Sound. Here they were detained by head winds 25 days. Then they
sailed on round a cape, which the Samoyeds call Yalmal, up the Gulf
of Ob to the mouth of the river, which was reached on the 22nd/11th
September, 1737, and then up the river to Soswa, where the vessels
were laid up in winter quarters. The crews were taken to Beresov.
Malygin returned to Petersburg, after having given Lieut. Skuratov
and the second mate Golovin a commission to carry the vessels back
to the Dwina the following year. They did not get back until August
1739. The return voyage thus also occupied two years, and was
attended with much difficulty and danger.
Six years in all had thus gone to the voyage from Archangel to the
Ob and back, which now can be accomplished without difficulty in a
single summer. By means of Malygin's and Skuratov's voyages, and of
a land journey which the land-measurer Selifontov undertook during
July and August 1736 with reindeer along the west coast of Yalmal
and then by boat to Beli Ostrov, Yalmal and the south coast of this
large island were mapped, it would appear in the main correctly.[319]
2. _An expedition to sail from the Ob to the Yenisej_--For this
Behring ordered a double sloop, the _Tobol_, 70 feet long, 15 feet
broad, and 8 feet deep, to be built at Tobolsk. The vessel had two
masts, was armed with two small cannon, and was manned with 53 men,
among whom were a land-measurer and a priest. The commander was
Lieut. OWZYN. They sailed in company with some small craft carrying
provisions from Tobolsk on the 26th/15th May, 1734, and came to the
Gulf of Ob through the easternmost mouth-arm of the river on the
30th/19th June. There a storm damaged the tender-vessels. Of the
timber of those which had sustained most damage, a storehouse was
erected in 66 deg. 36' N.L., in which the provisions landed from
the unserviceable craft were placed. When this was done they sailed
on, but slowly in consequence of unfavourable winds and shallow
water, so that it was not until the 17th/6th August that they
reached 70 deg. 4' N.L. Hence they returned to Obdorsk, arriving
there on the 15th/4th September. Seven days afterwards the Ob was
covered with ice.
The following spring the voyage was resumed. On the 17th/6th June
they came to the depot formed the preceding year. At first ice
formed an obstacle, but on the 31st/20th July it broke up, and the
navigable water became clear. The crew had now begun to suffer so
severely from scurvy, that of 53 only 17 were in good health; Owzyn
therefore turned, that he might bring his sick men to Tobolsk. He
reached this town on the 17th/6th October, and the river froze over
soon after. Owzyn now travelled to St. Petersburg in order to give
in, in person, reports of his unsuccessful voyages and to make
suggestions as to the measures that ought to be taken to ensure
better success to next year's undertaking. His proposals on this
point were mainly in the direction of building at Tobolsk a new
vessel, which should accompany the _Tobol_ during the dangerous
voyage, and confer upon it greater safety. This was approved by the
Board of Admiralty, but the vessel could not be got ready till the
summer of 1736, on which account that year's voyage was undertaken
in the same way as that of the preceding year, and with the same
success. The new vessel was not ready until 1737. It came with the
shipbuilder KOSCHELEV and the mate MININ on the 16th/5th June to
Obdorsk, where Owzyn took command of it, handing over the old one to
Koschelev, and beginning his fourth voyage down the Gulf of Ob. This
time he had better success. After sailing past Gyda Bay, he came,
without meeting with any serious obstacles from ice, on the
27th/16th August to Cape Mattesol, and on the 12th/1st September to
a storehouse erected for the expedition by the care of the
authorities on the bank of the Yenisej in 71 deg. 33' N.L. The
Yenisej froze over on the 21st/10th October.
Four years had thus gone to the accomplishment of Owzyn's purpose,
but it can scarcely be doubted that if he had not turned so early in
the season, and if he had had steam, or a sailing vessel of the
present day at his disposal he would have been able to sail from the
Ob to the Yenisej in a few weeks. It is at all events Owzyn's
perseverance to which we are in great measure indebted for the
mapping of the Gulf of Ob, and the Bays of Tas and Gyda[320].
3. _Voyages from the Yenisej towards Cape Taimur._--In the winter of
1738 Owzyn and Koschelev were called to St. Petersburg to answer for
themselves with reference to a complaint lodged against them by the
men under their command[321]. In their room Minin got the command of
the expedition which was to endeavour to penetrate farther eastwards
along the coast of the Polar Sea. The two first summers, 1738 and
1739, Minin could not get further than to the northernmost
_sumovies_ on the Yenisej. But in 1740 he succeeded, as it appears
in pretty open water, in reaching on the west coast of the Taimur
Peninsula the latitude of 75 deg. 15'. Here he turned on the 1st
Sept./21st Aug. on account of "impenetrable" ice, but mainly in
consequence of the late season of the year. The preceding winter
Minin had sent his mate STERLEGOV in sledges to examine the coast.
On the 25th/14th April he reached 75 deg. 26' N.L., and there
erected a stone cairn on a rock jutting out into the sea. Many open
places appear to have been seen in the offing. Minin and his party
returned on account of snow-blindness, and during the return voyage
rested for a time at a _sumovie_ on the river Pjaesina, whose
existence there shows how far the Russian hunters had extended their
journeys[322].
4. _Voyage from the Lena Westward_--On the 30th July/11th June 1735,
two expeditions started from Yakutsk, each with its double sloop,
accompanied by a number of boats carrying provisions. One of these
double sloops was to go in an easterly direction under the command
of Lieut. LASSINIUS. I shall give an account of his voyage farther
on. The other was commanded by Lieut. PRONTSCHISCHEV, whose object
was to go from the Lena westwards, if possible, to the Yenisej.
The voyage down the river was successful and pleasant. The river was
from four to nine fathoms deep, and on its banks, overgrown with birch
and pine, there were numerous tents and dwelling-houses whose
inhabitants were engaged in fishing, which gave the neighbourhood
of the river a lively and pleasant appearance[323]. On the 13th/2nd
August the explorers came to the mouth of the river, which here
divides into five arms, of which the easternmost was chosen for
sailing down to the Polar Sea. Here the two seafarers were to part.
Prontschischev staid at the river-mouth till the 25th/14th August.
He then sailed in 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 fathoms water along the shore of
the islands which are formed by the mouth-arms of the Lena. On the
6th Sept./26th Aug. he anchored in the mouth of the Olenek.
A little way up the river some dwelling-houses were met with,
which hunters had built for use during summer. These were put in
order for winter, which passed happily. On the 2nd July/21st June
the ice broke up at the winter quarters, but in the sea it lay still
until the 14th/3rd August, and it was only then that Prontschischev
could go to sea. The course was shaped for the north-east.
The Chatanga was reached on the 24th/13th August. On the beach,
in 74 deg. 48' N.L., a hut was met with in which were found newly
baked bread and some dogs, and which therefore appeared to belong to
some Russian hunters absent at the time. While sailing on along the
coast the explorers, after having passed two bays projecting into the
land, came to an inlet which they erroneously took for the mouth of
the Taimur river. Among the reasons for this supposition is mentioned
the immense number of gulls which swarmed round the vessel in that
region. The bay was covered with fast ice, "which probably never
breaks up," and broad ice-fields stretched out to sea from the coast,
on which Polar bears were seen.
On the 31st/20th August, in 77 deg. 29' N.L., the vessel was
suddenly surrounded with so large masses of ice that it could make
no further progress, and was every instant in danger of being
nipped. Prontschischev therefore determined to turn, but this at
first was rendered impossible by a complete calm, a crust of ice
being formed at the same time in open places between the pieces of
drift-ice. If the latitude stated is correct, the turning point lay
quite close to the northernmost promontory of Asia. With a better
vessel, and above all with the help of steam, Prontschischev would
certainly have rounded it. The unbroken ice which he mentioned
several times in his narrative, ought probably to be interpreted as
belts of pretty closely packed drift-ice. Many times during my
Arctic voyages have I sailed through belts of ice which, when
observed from a boat some hundred yards from their borders, have
been reported as immense unbroken ice-fields. On the 5th Sept./25th
Aug. a high north wind began to blow which drove the vessel, with
the surrounding ice-fields, towards the south. The voyagers had
doubts as to then being saved, but the gusts of wind broke up the
ice so that the vessel got free and could sail to the mouth of the
Chatanga, which, however, was already frozen over. The explorers
were therefore compelled to continue their voyage towards the
Olenek, whose mouth was reached on the 8th Sept./28th Aug. In the
neighbourhood of the haven which they intended to make, they were
driven about by contrary winds and drift-ice about six days more,
exposed to cold and wet, and worn out by exertions and privations of
every description. Prontschischev, who before had been sick, died of
his illness on the 10th Sept./30th Aug. to the great sorrow of his
men, by whom he was held in great regard. The mate, CHELYUSKIN, now
took the command. On the 14th/3rd Sept. he succeeded in carrying his
vessel into the river Olenek. On its bank Prontschischev was buried
with all the solemnities which circumstances permitted. To
Prontschischev's melancholy fate there attaches an interest which is
quite unique in the history of the Arctic exploratory voyages. He
was newly married when he started. His young wife accompanied him on
his journey, took part in his dangers and sufferings, survived him
only two days, and now rests by his side in the grave on the
desolate shore of the Polar Sea.
On the 9th Oct./28th Sept. the Olenek was frozen over and the winter
became very severe for Chelyuskin and his companions. The following
summer they returned to Yakutsk convinced of the impossibility of
sailing round the north point of Asia, and as Behring was no longer
to be found in that town, Chelyuskin started for St. Petersburg in
order to give an oral account of Prontschischev's voyages. The Board
of Admiralty, however, did not favour Chelyuskin's views, but
considered that another attempt ought to be made by land, but if
this, too, was unsuccessful, that the coast should be surveyed by
land journeys. Lieut. CHARITON LAPTEV was appointed to carry out
this last attempt to reach the Yenisej by sea from the Lena.
Laptev, accompanied by a number of small craft carrying provisions,
left Yakutsk on the 20th/9th July, 1739, and on the 31st/20th of the
same month reached the mouth-arm of the Lena called Krestovskoj, on
which he built, on a point jutting out into the sea, a high signal
tower, one of the few monuments that are to be found on the north
coast of Asia, and which is on that account mentioned by succeeding
travellers in those regions. He sailed hence along the coast past
the mouth of the Olenek and past a large bay to which, for what
reason I know not, he gave the purely Swedish name of Nordvik. This
bay was still covered with unbroken ice. After having been beset for
several days in Chatanga Bay, the voyagers on the 31st/20th August
reached Cape Thaddeus, where the vessel was anchored the following
day in 76 deg. 47' N.L. A signal tower was built on the extremity
of the cape, and the land-measurer CHEKIN was sent to examine the
neighbouring territory, and Chelyuskin to search for the mouth of
the river Taimur. Chekin could carry out no geodetic work on account
of mist. Chelyuskin again reported that the whole bay and the sea in
the offing were, as far as the eye could reach, covered with
unbroken ice This induced Laptev to turn. After many difficulties
among the ice, he came, on the 7th Sept./27th Aug. to the confluence
of the river Bludnaya with the Chatanga. Here the winter was passed
among a tribe of Tunguses Irving on the spot, who owned no reindeer,
and were therefore settled. They used dogs as draught animals, and
appear to have carried on a mode of life resembling that of the
coast Chukches.
In spring Chekin was sent to map the coast between the Taimur and
the Pjaesina. With thirty dog-sledges and accompanied by a nomad
Tunguse with eighteen reindeer,[324] he travelled over land to the
Taimur river, followed its course to the sea, and then the coast
towards the west of a distance of 100 versts. Scarcity of provisions
and food for his dogs compelled him to turn. Laptev himself,
convinced as he was of the impossibility of rounding the north point
of Asia, now wished to carry back his vessel and the most of his
stores to the Lena. After having with great danger and difficulty
sailed down the river to the Polar Sea, reaching it on the 10th
Aug./30th July, the vessel on the 24th/13th was beset and nipped
between pieces of ice, according to a statement on a Russian map
published in 1876 by the Hydrographical Department in St.
Petersburg, on the east coast of the Taimur Peninsula in 75 deg.
30' N.L. Six days after there was a strong frost, so that thin ice
was formed between the blocks of drift-ice. Some foolhardy fellows
went over the weakly frozen together pieces of ice to land. Three
days after Laptev himself and the rest of the men could leave the
vessel. Several streams, still unfrozen, lying between them and
their old winter station, however, prevented them from going
further. They endeavoured to get protection from the cold by digging
pits in the frozen earth and lying down in them by turns one after
the other. The men were sent daily to the vessel to fetch as much as
possible of the provisions left behind, but on the 10th Sept./29th
Aug. the ice again broke up, and carried the abandoned vessel out to
sea.
By the 2nd Oct./21st Sept. the streams at last had frozen so much
that the return journey could be begun to the former year's winter
station distant more than 500 kilometres. The journey through the
desolate _tundra_, perhaps never before trodden by the foot of man,
was attended with extreme difficulties, and it was twenty-five days
before Laptev and his men could again rest in a warmed hut and get
hot food. Twelve men perished of cold and exhaustion. Laptev now
determined to remain here during the winter and to go the following
spring over the _tundra_ to the Yenisej, where he hoped to find
depots with provisions and ammunition. Nor did he now remain
inactive. For he did not wish to return until the surveys were
complete. For want of vessels these were to be made by land. Such of
the men as were not required were therefore sent in spring over the
_tundra_ to the Yenisej and the rest divided into three parties
under Laptev himself, Chekin, and Chelyuskin, who were to survey
each his portion of the coast between the Chatanga and the Pjaesina
and then meet at the Yenisej. These journeys were successfully
accomplished, the explorers travelled several times without, it
would appear, excessive difficulty, over the desolate _tundra_
between the Chatanga and the Taimur rivers, discovered Lake Taimur,
and surveyed considerable stretches of the coast. But when they were
all again assembled at Dudino, it was found that the north point of
Asia had not yet been travelled round and surveyed. This was done in
1742 by Chelyuskin in the course of a new sledge journey, of which
the particulars are only incompletely known, evidently because
Chelyuskin's statement, that he had reached the northernmost point
of Asia, was doubted down to the most recent times. After the voyage
of the _Vega_, however, there can be no more doubt on this
point.[325]
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 KINDAeKOV 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 deg. 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 CROYERE 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 deg. to
59 deg. 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 Koryaek 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 Koryaek 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 deg. 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
Croyere, 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 deg.
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 deg. 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.
8 _Journeys in the interior of Siberia_ by Gmelin, Mueller, Steller,
Krascheninnikov, de l'Isle de la Croyere, &c.--The voyages of these
_savants_ have indeed formed an epoch in our knowledge of the
ethnography and natural history of North Asia, but the north coast
itself they did not touch. An account of them therefore lies beyond
the limits of the history which I have undertaken to relate here.
The Great Northern Expedition by these journeys both by sea and land
had gained a knowledge of the natural conditions of North Asia based
on actual researches, had yielded pretty complete information
regarding the boundary of that quarter of the globe towards the
north, and of the relative position of the east coast of Asia and
the west coast of America, had discovered the Aleutian Islands, and
had connected the Russian discoveries in the east with those of the
West-Europeans in Japan and China[329]. The results were thus very
grand and epoch-making. But these undertakings had also required
very considerable sacrifices, and long before they were finished
they were looked upon in no favourable light by the Siberian
authorities, on account of the heavy burden which the transport of
provisions and other equipment through desolate regions imposed upon
the country. Nearly twenty years now elapsed before there was a new
exploratory expedition in the Siberian Polar Sea worthy of being
registered in the history of geography. This time it was a private
person, a Yakutsk merchant, SCHALAUROV, who proposed to repeat
Deschnev's famous voyage and to gain this end sacrificed the whole
of his means and his life itself. Accompanied by an exiled
midshipman, IVAN BACHOFF, and with a crew of deserters and deported
men, he sailed in 1760 from the Lena out into the Polar Sea, but
came the first year only to the Yana, where he wintered. On the 9th
August/29th July, 1761, he continued his voyage towards the east,
always keeping near the coast. On the 17th/6th September he rounded
the dreaded Svjatoinos, sighting on the other side of the sound a
high-lying land, Ljachoff's Island. At the Bear Islands, whither he
was carried by a favourable wind over an open sea, he first met with
drift-ice, although, it appears, not in any considerable quantity.
But the season was already far advanced, and he therefore considered
it most advisable to seek winter quarters at the mouth of the
neigbouring Kolyma river. Here he built a spacious winter dwelling,
which was surrounded by snow ramparts armed with cannon from the
vessel, probably the whole house was not so large as a peasant's
cabin at home, but it was at all events the grandest palace on the
north coast of Asia, often spoken of by later travellers, and
regarded by the natives with amazed admiration. In the neighbourhood
there was good reindeer hunting and abundant fishing, on which
account the winter passed so happily, that only one man died of
scurvy, an exceedingly favourable state of things for that period.
The following year Schalaurov started on the 1st August/21st July,
but calms and constant head-winds prevented him from passing Cape
Schelagskoj, until he was compelled by the late season of the year
to seek for winter quarters. For this he considered the neighbouring
coast unsuitable on account of the scarcity of forests and
driftwood, he therefore sailed back to the westward until after a
great many mishaps he came again at last on the 23rd/12th September
to the house which he had built the year before on the Kolyma.
He proposed immediately to make a renewed attempt the following
spring to reach his goal. But now his stores were exhausted, and the
wearied crew refused to accompany him. In order to obtain funds for
a new voyage he travelled to Moscow, and by means of the assistance
he succeeded in procuring there, he commenced in 1766 a voyage from
which neither he nor any of his followers returned. COXE mentions
several things which tell in favour of his having actually rounded
Cape Deschnev and reached the Anadyr. But Wrangel believes that he
perished in the neighbourhood of Cape Schelagskoj. For in 1823 the
inhabitants of that cape showed Wrangel's companion Matiuschkin a
little ruinous house, built east of the river Werkon on the coast of
the Polar Sea. For many years back the Chukches travelling past had
found there human bones gnawed by beasts of prey, and various
household articles, which indicated that shipwrecked men had
wintered there, and Wrangel accordingly supposes that it was there
that Schalaurov perished a sacrifice to the determination with which
he prosecuted his self-imposed task of sailing round the
north-eastern promontory of Asia.[330]
In order to ascertain whether any truth lay at the bottom of the
view, generally adopted in Siberia, that the continent of America
extended along the north coast of Asia to the neighbourhood of the
islands situated there, CHICHERIN, Governor of Siberia, in the
winter of 1763 sent a sergeant, ANDREJEV with dog-sledges on an ice
journey towards the north. He succeeded in reaching some islands of
considerable extent, which Wrangel, who always shows himself very
sceptical with respect to the existence of new lands and islands in
the Polar Sea, considers to have been the Bear Islands. Now it
appears to be pretty certain that Andrejev visited a south-westerly
continuation of the land named on recent maps "Wrangel Land," which
in that case, like the corresponding part of America, forms a
collection of many large and small islands. Andrejev found
everywhere numerous proofs that the islands which he visited had
been formerly inhabited. Among other things he saw a large hut built
of wood without the help of iron tools. The logs were as it were
gnawed with teeth (hewed with stone axes), and bound together with
thongs[331]. Its position and construction indicated that the house
had been built for defence, it had thus been found impossible in the
desolate legions of the Polar Sea to avoid the discord and the
strife which prevail in more southerly lands. To the east and
north-east Andrejev thought he saw a distant land, he is also
clearly the true European discoverer of Wrangel Land, provided we do
not consider that even he had a predecessor in the Cossack, FEODOR
TATARINOV, who according to the concluding words of Andrejev's
journal appears to have previously visited the same islands. It is
highly desirable that this journal, if still in existence, be
published _in a completely unaltered form_. How important this is
appears from the following paragraph in the instructions given to
Billings--"One Sergeant Andrejev saw from the last of the Bear
Islands a large island to which they (Andrejev and his companions)
travelled in dog-sledges. But they turned when they had gone twenty
versts from the coast, because they saw fresh traces of a large
number of men, who had travelled in sledges drawn by reindeer."[332]
In order to visit the large land in the north-east seen by Andrejev,
there was sent out in the years 1769, 1770, and 1771 another
expedition, consisting of the three surveyors, LEONTIEV, LUSSOV, and
PUSCHKAREV, with dog-sledges over the ice to the north-east, but
they succeeded neither in reaching the land in question, nor even
ascertaining with certainty whether it actually existed or not. Among
the natives, however, the belief in it was maintained very
persistently, and they even knew how to give names to the tribes
inhabiting it.
The New Siberian Islands, which previously had often been seen by
travellers along the coast, were visited the first time in 1770 by
LJACHOFF, who besides Ljachoff's island lying nearest the coast,
also discovered the islands Maloj and Kotelnoj. On this account he
obtained an exclusive right to collect mammoth tusks there, a branch
of industry which since that time appears to have been earned on in
these remote regions with no inconsiderable profit. The importance
of the discovery led the government some years after to send thither
a land surveyor, CHVOINOV,[333] by whom the islands were surveyed,
and some further information obtained regarding the remarkable
natural conditions in that region. According to Chvoinov the ground
there consists at many places of a mixture of ice and sand with
mammoth tusks, bones of a fossil species of ox, of the rhinoceros,
&c. At many places one can literally roll off the carpet-like bed of
moss from the ground, when it is found that the close, green
vegetable covering has clear ice underlying it, a circumstance which
I have also observed at several places in the Polar regions. The new
islands were rich not only in ivory, but also in foxes with valuable
skins, and other spoils of the chase of various kinds. They
therefore formed for a time the goal of various hunters'
expeditions. Among these hunters may be named SANNIKOV, who in 1805
discovered the islands Stolbovoj and Faddejev, SIROVATSKOJ, who in
1806 discovered Novaya Sibir, and BJELKOV, who in 1808 discovered
the small islands named after him. In the meantime disputes arose
about the hunting monopoly, especially after Bjelkov and others
petitioned for permission to establish on Kotelnoj Island _a hunting
and trading station_. (?)[334] This induced ROMANZOV, then Chancellor
of Russia, to order once more these distant territories to be
explored by HEDENSTROeM,[335] a Siberian exile, who had formerly been
secretary to some eminent man in St. Petersburg. He started in
dog-sledges on the 19th/7th March, 1809, from Ustjansk going over
the ice to Ljachoff's Island, and thence to Faddejev Island, where
the expedition was divided into two parts. Hedenstroem continued his
course to Novaya Sibir, the south coast of which he surveyed. Here
he discovered among other things the remarkable "tree mountain,"
which I have before mentioned. His companions KOSCHEVIN and SANNIKOV
explored Faddejev, Maloj and Ljachoff's Islands. On Faddejev,
Sannikov found a Yukagir sledge, stone skin-scrapers, and an axe
made of mammoth ivory, whence he drew the conclusion that the island
was inhabited before the Russians introduced iron among the savage
tribes of Siberia.
The explorations thus commenced were continued in 1810. The
explorers started on the 14th/2nd March from the mouth of the
Indigirka, and after eleven days' journey came to Novaya Sibir. It
had been Hedenstroem's original intention to employ reindeer and
horses in exploring the islands, but he afterwards abandoned this
plan, fearing that he would not find pasture for his draught
animals. Both Hedenstroem and Sannikov believed that they saw from
the north coast of the island bluish mountains on the horizon in the
north-east. In order to reach this new land the former undertook a
journey over the ice. It was so uneven, however, that in four days
he could only penetrate about seventy versts. Here on the 9th
April/28th March, he met with quite open water, which appeared to
extend to the Bear Islands, _i.e._ for a distance of about 500
versts. He therefore turned southward, and reached the mainland
after forty-three days' very difficult travelling over the ice.
During the journey Hedenstroem was saved from famine by his success
in killing eleven Polar bears. A new attempt, which he made the same
spring to reach with dog-sledges the unknown land in the north-east,
was also without result in consequence of his meeting with broad,
impassable "leads" and openings in the ice, but even on this
occasion he believed that he found many indications of the existence
of an extensive land in the direction named. It was only with great
difficulty that on the 20th/8th May he succeeded in reaching the
mainland at Cape Baranov over very weak ice.
The same year Sannikov explored Kotelnoj Island, where he fell in
with Bjelkov and several hunters, who had settled for the summer on
the west coast of the island to collect mammoth tusks and hunt foxes
there. He found also a Greek cross erected on the beach and the
remains of a vessel, which, to judge from its construction and the
hunting implements scattered about in the neighbourhood, appeared to
have belonged to an Archangel hunter, who had been driven by wind or
ice from Spitzbergen or Novaya Zemlya.
Next summer "the Hedenstroem expeditions" were concluded with the
survey of the north coast of Novaya Sibir by CHENIZYN, and by a
repetition of the attempt to penetrate from Cape Kamennoj over the
ice in a north-easterly direction, this time carried out by the
Cossack TATARINOV, and finally by a renewed exploration of Faddejev
Island by Sannikov. Tatarinov found the ice, probably in the end of
March, so thin, that he did not dare to proceed farther, and beyond
the thin ice the sea was seen to be quite open. Sannikov first
explored Faddejev Island. He thought he saw from the hills of the
island a high land in the north-east, but when he attempted to reach
it over the ice, he came upon open water twenty-five versts from
land. He therefore returned the same spring to Ustjansk in order
there to equip a caravan consisting of twenty-three reindeer, which
started on the 14th/2nd May to go over the ice to Kotelnoj Island,
which could be reached only with great difficulty in consequence of
"leads" in the ice and the large quantity of salt water which had
accumulated upon it. The reindeer were exceedingly enfeebled, but
recovered rapidly on reaching land, so that Sannikov was able under
specially favourable circumstances to make a large number of
interesting excursions, among others one across the island. He
stated that on the heights in the interior of it there were found
skulls and bones of horses, oxen, "buffaloes" (Ovibos?) and sheep in
so large numbers, that it was evident that whole herds of gramimvora
had lived there in former times. Mammoth bones were also found
everywhere on the island, whence Sannikov drew the conclusions, that
all these animals had lived at the same time, and that since then
the climate had considerably deteriorated. These suppositions he
considered to be further confirmed by the fact that large, partially
petrified tree-stems were found scattered about on the island in
still greater numbers than on Novaya Sibir[336]. Besides he found
here everywhere remains of old "Yukagir dwellings"; the island had
thus once been inhabited. After Sannikov had fetched Chenitzyn from
Faddejev Island, where he had passed the summer in great want of
provisions, and ordered him, who was probably a greater adept at the
pen, to draw up a report of his own interesting researches, he
commenced his return journey on the 8th Nov./27th Oct. and arrived
at Ustjansk on the 24th/12th November.
[Illustration: PETER FEODOROVITSCH ANJOU. Born in 1798 in Russia,
died in 1869 in St. Petersburg. ]
[Illustration: FERDINAND VON WRANGEL. Born in 1790 at Pskov, died
in 1870 at Dorpat. ]
It may be said that through Hedenstroem's and Sannikov's exceedingly
remarkable Polar journeys, the titles have been written of many
important chapters in the history of the former and recent condition
of our globe. But the inquirer has hitherto waited in vain for these
chapters being completed through new researches carried out with
improved appliances. For since then the New Siberian Islands have
not been visited by any scientific expedition. Only in 1823 ANJOU,
lieutenant in the Russian Navy, with the surgeon FIGURIN, and the
mate ILGIN, made a new attempt to penetrate over the ice to the
supposed lands in the north and north-east, but without success.
Similar attempts were made at the same time from the Siberian
mainland by another Russian naval officer, FERDINAND VON WRANGEL,
accompanied by Dr. KUeBER, midshipman MATIUSCHKIN, and mate KOSMIN.
They too were unsuccessful in penetrating over the ice far from the
coast. Wrangel returned fully convinced that all the accounts which
were current in Siberia of the land he wished to visit, and which
now bears the name of Wrangel Land, were based on legends, mistake,
and intentional untruths. But Anjou and Wrangel did an important
service to Polar research by showing that the sea, even in the
neighbourhood of the Pole of cold, is not covered with any strong
and continuous sheet of ice, even at that season of the year when
cold reaches its maximum. By the attempts made nearly at the same
time by Wrangel and Parry to penetrate farther northwards, the one
from the north coasts of Siberia, and the other from those of
Spitzbergen, Polar travellers for the first time got a correct idea
how uneven and impassable ice is on a frozen sea, how little the way
over such a sea resembles the even polished surface of a frozen
lake, over which we dwellers in the north are accustomed to speed
along almost with the velocity of the wind. Wrangel's narrative at
the same time forms an important source of knowledge both of
preceding journeys and of the recent natural conditions on the north
coast of Asia, as is only too evident from the frequent occasions on
which I have quoted his work in my sketch of the voyage of the
_Vega_.
It remains for me now to enumerate some voyages from Behring's
Straits westward into the Siberian Polar Sea.
1778 _and_ 1779--During the third of his famous circumnavigations of
the globe JAMES COOK penetrated through Behring's Straits into the
Polar Sea, and then along the north-east coast of Asia westwards to
Irkaipij, called by him Cape North. Thus the honour of having
carried the first seagoing vessel to this sea also belongs to the
great navigator. He besides confirmed Behring's determination of the
position of the East Cape of Asia, and himself determined the
position of the opposite coast of America.[337] The same voyage was
approximately repeated the year after Cook's death by his successor
CHARLES CLARKE, but without any new discoveries being made in the
region in question.
1785-94.--The success which attended Cook in his exploratory voyages
and the information, unlooked for even by the Russian government,
which Coxe's work gave concerning the voyages of the Russian hunters
in the North Pacific, led to the equipment of a grand new
expedition, having for its object the further exploration of the sea
which bounds the great Russian Empire on the north and east. The
plan was drawn up by Pallas and Coxe, and the carrying out of it was
entrusted to an English naval officer in the Russian service, J.
BILLINGS, who had taken part in Cook's last voyage. Among the many
others who were members of the expedition, may be mentioned Dr.
MERK, Dr. ROBECK, the secretary MARTIN SAUER, and the Captains HALL,
SARYTCHEV, and BEHRING the younger, in all more than a hundred
persons. The expedition was fitted out on a very large scale, but in
consequence of Billings' unfitness for having the command of such an
expedition the result by no means corresponded to what might
reasonably have been expected. The expedition made an inconsiderable
excursion into the Polar Sea from the 30th/19th June to the 9th
Aug/29th July 1787, and in 1791 Billings sailed up to St. Lawrence
Bay, from which he went over land with eleven men to Yakutsk. The
rest of this lengthened expedition does not concern the regions now
in question.[338]
Among voyages during the century it remains to give account of those
which have been made by OTTO VON KOTZEBUE, who during his famous
circumnavigation of the globe in 1815-18, among other things also
passed through Behring's Straits and discovered the strata,
remarkable in a geological point of view, at Eschscholz Bay; LUeTKE,
who during his circumnavigation of the globe in 1826-29, visited the
islands and sound in the neighbourhood of Chukotskoj-nos; MOORE, who
wintered at Chukotskoj-nos in 1848-49, and gave us much interesting
information as to the mode of life of the Namollos and Chukches;
KELLET, who in 1849 discovered Kellet Land and Herald Island on the
coast of Wrangel Land; JOHN RODGERS, who in 1855 carried out for the
American government much important hydrographical work in the seas
on both sides of Behring's Straits; DALLMANN, who during a trading
voyage in the Behring Sea landed at various points on Wrangel Land;
LONG, who in 1867, as captain of the whaling barque _Nile_,
discovered the sound between Wrangel Land and the mainland (Long
Sound) and penetrated from Behring's Straits westwards farther than
any of his predecessors, DALL, who, at the same time that we are
indebted to him for many important contributions to the knowledge of
the natural conditions of the Behring Sea, also anew examined the
ice-strata at Eschscholz Bay, and many others--but as the historical
part of the sketch of the voyage of the _Vega_ has already occupied
more space than was calculated upon, I consider myself compelled
with respect to the voyages of these explorers to refer to the
numerous and for the most part accessible writings which have
already been published regarding them.[339]
Was the _Vega_ actually the first, and is she at the moment when
this is being written, the only vessel that has sailed from the
Atlantic by the north to the Pacific? As follows from the above
narrative, this question may perhaps be answered with considerable
certainty in the affirmative, as it may also with truth be
maintained that no vessel has gone the opposite way from the Pacific
to the Atlantic.[340] But the fictitious literature of geography at
all events comprehends accounts of various voyages between those
seas by the north passage, and I consider myself obliged briefly to
enumerate them.
The first is said to have been made as early as 1555 by a Portuguese,
MARTIN CHACKE, who affirmed that he had been parted from his companions
by a west wind, and had been driven forward between various islands to
the entrance of a sound which ran north of America in 59 deg. N.L.; finally
that he had come S.W. of Iceland, and thence sailed to Lisbon, arriving
there before his companions, who took the "common way," _i.e._ south of
Africa. In 1579 an English pilot certified that he had read in Lisbon in
1567 a printed account of this voyage, which however he could not
procure afterwards because all the copies had been destroyed by order of
the king, who considered that such a discovery would have an injurious
effect on the Indian trade of Portugal (_Purchas_, iii. p. 849). We now
know that there is land where Chacke's channel was said to be situated,
and it is also certain that the sound between the continent of America
and the Franklin archipelago lying much farther to the north was already
in the sixteenth century too much filled with ice for its being possible
that an account of meeting with ice could be omitted from a true sketch
of a voyage along the north coast of America.
In 1588 a still more remarkable voyage was said to have been made by
the Portuguese, LORENZO FERRER MALDONADO. He is believed to have
been a cosomographer who among other tilings concerned himself with
the still unsolved problem, of making a compass free from variation,
and with the question, very difficult in his time, of finding a
method of determining the longitude at sea (see the work of AMORETTI
quoted below, p. 38). Of his imaginary voyage he has written a long
narrative, of which a _Spanish_ copy with some drawings and maps was
found in a library at Milan. The narrative was published in Italian
and French translations by the superintendent of the library,
Chevalier CARLO AMORETTI,[341] who besides added to the work a number
of his own learned notes, which however do not give evidence of
experience in Arctic waters. The same narrative has since been
published in English by J. BARROW (_A Cronological History of
Voyages into the Arctic Regions_, &c., London, 1818 App. p. 24.) The
greater part of Maldonado's report consists of a detailed plan as to
the way in which the new sea route would be used and fortified by
the Spanish-Portuguese government.[342] The voyage itself is referred
to merely in passing. Maldonado says that, in the beginning of March
he sailed from Newfoundland along the north coast of America in a
westward direction. Cold, storm, and darkness, were at first very
inconvenient for navigation, but at all events he reached without
difficulty "Anian Sound," which separates Asia from America. This is
described in detail. Here various ships were met with prepared to
sail through the sound, laden with Chinese goods. The crews appeared
to be Russian or Hanseatic. Conversation was carried on with them in
Latin. They stated that they came from a very large town, situated a
little more than a hundred leagues from the sound. In the middle of
June Maldonado returned by the way he came to the Atlantic, and on
this occasion too the voyage was performed without the least
difficulty. The heat at sea during the return journey was as great
as when it was greatest in Spain, and meeting with ice is not
mentioned. The banks of the river which falls into the haven at
Anian Sound (according to Amoretti, identical with Behring's
Straits) were overgrown with very large trees, bearing fruit all the
year round among the animals met with in the regions seals are
mentioned, but also two kinds of swine, buffaloes, &c. All these
absurdities show that the whole narrative of the voyage was
fictitious, having been probably written with the view of thereby
giving more weight to the proposal to send out a north-west
expedition from Portugal, and in the full belief that the supposed
sound actually existed, and that the voyage along the north coast of
America would be as easy of accomplishment as one across the North
Sea.[343] The way in which the icing down of a vessel is described
indicates that the narrator himself or his informant had been
exposed to a winter storm in some northern sea, probably at
Newfoundland, and the spirited sketch of the sound appears to have
been borrowed from some East Indian traveller, who had been driven
by storm to northern Japan, and who in a channel between the islands
in that region believed that he had discovered the fabulous Anian
Sound.
Of a third voyage in 1660 a naval officer named DE LA MADELENE gave in
1701 the following short account, probably picked up in Holland or
Portugal, to Count DE PONTCHARTRIN: "The Portuguese, DAVID MELGUER,
started from Japan on the 14th March, 1660, with the vessel _le Pere
eternel_, and following the coast of Tartary, _i.e._ the east coast of
Asia, he first sailed north to 84 deg. N.L. Thence he shaped his course
between Spitzbergen and Greenland, and passing west of Scotland and
Ireland came again to Oporto in Portugal." M. de la Madelene's narrative
is to be found reproduced in M. BUACHE'S excellent geographical paper
"Sui les differentes idees qu'on a eues de la traversee de la Mere
Glaciale arctique et sur les communications ou jonctions qu'on a
supposees entre diverses rivieres." (_Historie de l'Academie, Annee
1754_, Paris, 1759, _Memoires_, p. 12) The paper is accompanied by a
Polar map constructed by Buache himself, which, though the voyage which
led to its construction was clearly fictitious, and though it also
contains many other errors--for instance, the statement that the Dutch
penetrated in 1670 to the north part of Taimur Land--is yet very
valuable and interesting as a specimen of what a learned and critical
geographer knew in 1754 about the Polar regions. That Melguer's voyage
is fictitious is shown partly by the ease with which he is said to have
gone from the one sea to the other, partly by the fact that _the only
detail_ which is to be found in his narrative, viz. the statement that
the coast of Tartary extends to 84 deg. N.L., is incorrect.
All these and various other similar accounts of north-east,
north-west, or Polar passages achieved by vessels in former times
have this in common, that navigation from the one ocean to the other
across the Polar Sea is said to have gone on as easily as drawing a
line on the map, that meeting with ice and northern animals of the
chase is never spoken of, and finally that every particular which is
noted is in conflict with the known geographical, climatal, and
natural conditions of the Arctic seas. All these narratives
therefore can be proved to be fictitious, and to have been invented
by persons who never made any voyages in the true Polar Seas.
The _Vega_ is thus the first vessel that has penetrated by the north
from one of the great world-oceans to the other.
[Footnote 289: I quote this because the movement of the tides is
still, in our own time, made use of to determine whether certain
parts of the Polar seas are connected with each other or not. ]
[Footnote 290: Marco Polo, in 1271, at the age of seventeen or
eighteen, accompanied his father Nicolo, and his uncle Maffeo Polo,
to High Asia. He remained there until 1295 and during that time came
into great favor with Kubla Khan, who employed him, among other
things, in a great number of important public commissions, whereby
he became well acquainted with the widely extended lands which lay
under the sceptre of that ruler. After his return home he caused a
great sensation by the riches he brought with him, which procured
him the name _il Millione_, a name however which, according to
others, was an expression of the doubts that were long entertained
regarding the truthfulness of his, as we now know, mainly true
accounts of the number of the people and the abundance of wealth in
Kublai Khan's lands. "Il Millione," in the meantime, became a
popular carnival character, whose cue was to relate as many and as
wonderful "yarns" as possible, and in his narratives to deal
preferably with millions. It is possible that the predecessor of
Columbus might have descended to posterity merely as the original
of this character if he had not, soon after his return home, taken
part in a war against Genoa, in the course of which he was taken
prisoner, and, during his imprisonment, related his recollections of
his travels to a fellow-prisoner, who committed them to writing, in
what language is still uncertain. The work attracted great attention
and was soon spread, first in written copies, then by the press in a
large number of different languages. It has not been translated into
Swedish, but in the Royal Library in Stockholm there is a very
important and hitherto little known manuscript of it from the middle
of the fourteenth century, of which an edition is in course of
publication in photo-lithographic facsimile. ]
[Footnote 291: Homines illius regionis sunt pulchri, magni, et
corpulenti, sed sunt multum pallidi. . . . et sunt homines inculti,
et immorigerati et bestialiter viventes. ]
[Footnote 292: See note at page 54, vol i., for an account of von
Herberstein and his works. ]
[Footnote 293: As the copy of the original map to which I have had
access, being coloured, is unsuitable for photo-lithographing, I
give here instead a photo-lithographic reproduction of the map in
the Italian edition printed in 1550. The map itself is unchanged in
any essential particular, but the drawing and engraving are better.
There is, besides, a still older map of Russia in the first edition
of Sebastian Munster's _Cosmographia Universalis_. I have not had
access to this edition, but have had to the third edition of the
same work printed at Basel in 1550. A very incomplete map of Russia
engraved on wood, on which, however, the Obi and the "Sybir" are to
be found, is inserted in this work at page 910. The Dwina here falls
not into the White Sea but into the Gulf of Finland, through a lake
to which the name Ladoga is now given; places like Astracan, Asof,
Viborg, Calmahori (Kolmogor), Solowki (Solovets), &c., are indicated
pretty correctly, and in the White Sea there is to be seen a very
faithful representation of a walrus swimming. ]
[Footnote 294: The river Ob is mentioned the first time in 1492, in
the negotiations which the Austrian ambassador, Michael Snups,
carried on in Moscow in order to obtain permission to travel in the
interior of Russia (Adelung, _Uebersicht der Reisenden in Russland_,
p. 157). ]
[Footnote 295: As before stated, Marco Polo mentions Polar bears but
not walruses. ]
[Footnote 296: Herodotus places Andropagi in nearly the same regions
which are now inhabited by the Samoyeds. Pliny also speaks of
man-eating Scythians. ]
[Footnote 297: Arctic literature contains a nearly contemporaneous
sketch of the first Russian-Siberian commercial undertakings,
_Beschryvinghe vander Samoyeden Landt in Tartarien, nieulijcks
onder't ghebiedt der Moscoviten gebracht. Wt de Russche tale
overgheset_, Anno 1609. Amsterdam, Hessel Gerritsz, 1612; inserted
in Latin, in 1613, in the same publisher's _Descriptio ac Delineatio
Geographica Detectionis Freti_ (Photo-lithographic reproduction, by
Frederick Mueller, Amsterdam, 1878). The same work, or more
correctly, collection of small geographical pamphlets, contains also
Isak Massa's map of the coast of the Polar Sea between the Kola
peninsula and the Pjaesina, which I have reproduced. ]
[Footnote 298: It is a peculiar circumstance that the vanguard of the
Russian stream of emigration which spread over Siberia, advanced
along the northernmost part of the country by the Tas, Turuchansk,
Yakutsk, Kolyma, and Anadyrsk. This depended in the first place
upon the races living there having less power of resistance against
the invaders, who were often very few in number, than the tribes
in the south, but also on the fact that the most precious and
most transportable treasures of Siberia--sable, beaver, and
fox-skins--were obtained in greatest quantity from these northern
regions. ]
[Footnote 299: Flat-bottomed, half-decked boats, twelve fathoms in
length. The planks were fastened by wooden pins, the anchors were
pieces of wood with large stones bound to them, the rigging of
thongs, and the sails often of tanned reindeer hides (J.E. Fischer,
_Sibirische Geschichte_, St. Petersburg, 1768, i. p. 517). ]
[Footnote 300: G.P. Mueller, _Sammlung Russischer Geschichte_, St.
Petersburg, 1758 Mueller asserts in this work that it was he who, in
1736, first drew from the repositories of the Yakutsk archives the
account of Deschnev's voyage, which before that time was known
neither at the court of the Czar nor in the remotest parts of
Siberia. This, however, is not quite correct, for long before
Mueller, the Swedish prisoner-of-war, Strahlenberg, knew that the
Russians travelled by sea from the Kolyma to Kamchatka, which
appears from his map of Asia, constructed during his stay in
Siberia, and published in _Das Nord- und Ostliche Theil von Europa
und Asia_, Stockholm, 1730. On this map there is the following
inscription in the sea north of the Kolyma--"Hie Rutheni ab initio
per Moles glaciales, quae flante Borea ad Littora, flanteque Anstro
versus Mare iterum pulsantur, magno Labore et Vitae Discrimine
transvecti sunt ad Regionem Kamtszatkam." ]
[Footnote 301: Selivestrov had accompanied Staduchin during his Polar
Sea voyage, and had, at his instance, been sent out to collect
walrus tusks on account of the State. He appears to have come to
the Anadyr by land. ]
[Footnote 302: Strahlenberg must have collected the main details of
this voyage by oral communications from Russian hunters and
traders. ]
[Footnote 303: According to Mueller Krascheninnikov (_Histoire et
description du Kamtschatka_, Amsterdam, 1770, ii. p. 292) states,
evidently from information obtained in Kamchatka, that the river
Nikul is called Feodotovchina after Feodot Alexejev, who not only
penetrated thither, but also sailed round the southern promontory of
Kamchatka to the River Tigil where he and his followers perished in
the way described by Mueller. ]
[Footnote 304: But we ought to remember that the oldest accounts of
islands in the Polar Sea relate to no fewer than four different
lands, viz, 1. The New Siberian Islands lying off the mouth of the
Lena and Svjatoinos; 2. The Bear Islands; 3. Wrangel Land; 4. The
north-western part of America. Contradictions in accounts of the
islands in the Polar Sea probably depend on the uninhabited and
treeless New Siberian islands being confused with America, which, in
comparison with North Siberia, is thickly peopled and well wooded,
with the small Bear Islands, with Wrangel Land, &c. ]
[Footnote 305: _Nouvelle carte des decouvertes faites par des
vaisseaux russiens aux cotes inconnues de l'Amerique, Septentrionale
avec les pais adiacentes, dressee sur des memoires authentiques des
ceux qui ont assiste a ces decouvertes et sur d'autres connoissances
dont on rend raison dans un memoire separe_ St. Petersbourg,
l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences, 1758. ]
[Footnote 306: In this sketch of the discovery and conquest of
Siberia I have followed J.E. Fischer, _Sibirische Geschichte_, St.
Petersburg, 1768, and G.P. Mueller, _Sammlung Russischer
Geschichte_, St. Petersburg, 1758. ]
[Footnote 307: In the twentieth chapter of _Dreyjaehrige Reise nach
China, &c._, Frankfort, 1707. The first edition came out at Hamburg
in 1698. ]
[Footnote 308: Mueller, iii. p. 19. An account of Atlassov's conquest
of Kamchatka (_Bericht gedaen door zeker Moskovisch krygs-bediende
Wolodimer Otlasofd, hoofl-man over vyftig, &c._) is besides to be
found in Witsen (1705, _Nieuwe uitguaf_, 1785, p. 670) An account,
written from oral communication by Atlassov himself, is to be found
inserted in Strahlenberg's _Travels_, p. 431. Strahlenberg considers
Kamchatka and Yezo to be the same land. A history of the conquest of
Kamchatka, evidently written according to traditions current in the
country, is to be found in _Krascheninnikov_ (French edition of
1770, ii. p. 291). In this account 1698 and 1699 are given as the
years of Morosko's and Atlassov's expeditions. ]
[Footnote 309: Complaints were made, among other things, that in
order to obtain metal for making a still, he ordered all the copper
belonging to the crown which he carried with him, to be melted down.
When the Cossacks first came to Kamchatka and were almost without a
contest, acknowledged as masters of the country, they found life
there singularly agreeable, with one drawback--there were no means
of getting drunk. Finally, necessity compelled the wild adventurers
to betake themselves to what we should now call chemico-technical
experiments, which are described in considerable detail by
Krascheninnikov (_loc. cit._ ii. p. 369). After many failures they
finally succeeded in distilling spirits from a sugar-bearing plant
growing in the country, and from that time this drink, or _raka_, as
they themselves call it, has been found in great abundance in that
country. ]
[Footnote 310: He afterwards became a monk under the name of
Ignatiev, came to St. Petersburg in 1730, and himself wrote a
narrative of his adventures, discoveries, and services, which was
printed first in the St. Petersburg journals of the 26th March,
1730, and likewise abroad (_Mueller_, iii. p. 82) ]
[Footnote 311: Von Baer, _Beitraege zur Kentniss des Russischen
Reiches_, xvi. p. 33. ]
[Footnote 312: Ambjoern Molin, lieutenant in the Scanian cavalry
regiment, who was taken prisoner at the Dnieper in 1709, also took
part in these journeys. Compare _Beraettelse om de i Stora Tartariet
boende tartarer, som traeffats laengst nordost i Asien, pa aerkebiskop
E. Benzelii begaeran upsatt af Ambjoern Molin (Account of the Tartars
dwelling in Great Tartary who were met with at the north east
extremity of Asia, written at the request of Archbishop E. Benzelius
by Ambjoern Molin_), published in Stockholm in 1880 by Aug.
Strindberg, after a manuscript in the Linkoeping library. ]
[Footnote 313: Mueller, iii. p. 102. According to an oral
communication by Busch, Strahlenberg's account (p. 17) of this
voyage appears to contain several mistakes. The year is stated as
1713, the return voyage is said to have occupied six days. ]
[Footnote 314: As late as 1819, James Burney, first lieutenant on one
of Captain Cook's vessels during his voyage north of Behring's
Straits, afterwards captain and member of the Royal Society,
considered it not proved that Asia and America are separated by a
sound. For he doubted the correctness of the accounts of Deschnev's
voyage. Compare James Burney, _A Chronological History of North
eastern Voyages of Discovery_ London, 1819, p. 298; and a paper by
Burney in the _Transactions_ of the Royal Society, 1817. Burney was
violently attacked for the views there expressed by Captain John
Dundas Cochrane. _Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia
and Siberian Tartary_, 2nd ed. London, 1824, Appendix. ]
[Footnote 315: The first astronomical determinations of position in
Siberia were, perhaps, made by Swedish prisoners of war; the first
in China by Jesuits (Cf. _Strahlenberg_, p. 14). ]
[Footnote 316: A short, but instructive account of Behring's first
voyage, based on an official communication from the Russian
Government to the King of Poland, is inserted in t. iv. p. 561 of
_Description geographique de l'Empire de la Chine, par le P.J.B.
Du Halde_, La Haye, 1736. The same official report was probably the
source of Mueller's brief sketch of the voyage (_Mueller_, iii. p.
112). A map of it is inserted in the 1735 Paris edition of Du
Halde's work, and in _Nouvel Atlas de la Chine, par M. D'Anville_,
La Haye, 1737. ]
[Footnote 317: _Histoire genealogique des Tartares_ (note, p. 107),
and Strahlenberg's oft-quoted work (map, text, pp. 31 and 384). ]
[Footnote 318: This expedition was under the command of the
Admiralty; the others under that of Behring. In my account I have
followed partly Mueller and partly Wrangel, of whom the latter, in
his book of travels, gives a historical review of previous voyages
along the coasts of the Asiatic Polar Sea. The accounts of the
voyages between the White Sea and the Yenisej properly belong to a
foregoing chapter in this work, but I quote them first here in order
that I may treat of the different divisions of the Great Northern
Expedition in the same connection. ]
[Footnote 319: Wrangel, i. p. 36. ]
[Footnote 320: Wrangel, i. p. 38. ]
[Footnote 321: According to P. von Haven (_Nye og forbedrede
Efterretningar om det Russiske Rige_, Kjoebenhavn, 1747, ii. p. 20),
"it was the custom in Petersburg to send away those whose presence
was inconvenient to help Behring to make new discoveries". It
also went very ill with many of the gallant Russian Polar travellers,
and many of them were repaid with ingratitude. Behring was received
on his return from his first voyage, so rich in results, with
unjustified mistrust. Steller was exposed to continual trouble,
was long prevented from returning from Siberia, and finally
perished during his journey home, broken down in body and soul.
Prontschischev and Lassinius succumbed to hardships and sufferings
during their voyages in the Polar Sea. Owzyn was degraded, among
other things, because he used to be too intimate at Obdorsk with
exiles formerly of distinction. A few years before the voyage of the
_Vega_, Chelyuskin's trustworthiness was still doubted. All the
accounts of discoveries of islands and land in the Polar Sea by
persons connected with Siberia, have till the most recent times,
been considered more or less fictitious, yet they are clearly in the
main true. ]
[Footnote 322: Wrangel, i. p. 46. ]
[Footnote 323: According to Wrangel (i., note at p. 38 and 48),
probably after a quotation from Prontschischev's journal. The Lena
must be a splendid river, for it has since made the same powerful
impression, as on the seamen of the Great Northern Expedition, on
all others who have traversed its forest-crowned river channel. ]
[Footnote 324: These all perished "for want of fodder." This,
however, is improbable. For, in 1878, we saw numerous traces of
these animals as far to the northward as Cape Chelyuskin, and very
fat reindeer were shot both in 1861 and 1873, on the Seven Islands,
the northernmost of all the islands of the Old World, where
vegetation is much poorer than in the regions now in question. ]
[Footnote 325: Wrangel, i. pp. 48 and 72. Of the journey round the
northernmost point of Asia, Wrangel says--"Von der Tajmur-Muendung
bis an das Kap des heiligen Faddej konnte die Kueste nicht beschifft
werden, und die Aufnahme, die der Steuermann Tschemokssin
(Chelyuskin) auf dem Eise in Narten vornahm, ist so oberflaechlich
und unbestimmt, dass die eigentliche Lage des nordoestlichen oder
Tajmur-Kaps, welches die noerdlichste Spitse Asiens ausmacht, noch
gar nicht ausgemittelt ist." ]
[Footnote 326: Wrangel, i, p. 62. I have sketched the voyages
between the White Sea and the Kolyma, principally after Engelhardt's
German translation of Wrangel's Travels. It is, unfortunately, in
many respects defective and confused, especially with respect to the
sketch of Chariton Laptev and his followers, sledge journeys,
undertaken in order to survey the coast between the Chatanga and the
Pjaesina. Mueller mentions these journeys only in passing. Wrangel
gives as sources for his sketch (i. note at p. 38) _Memoirs of the
Russian Admiralty_, also the original journals of the journeys.
Chelyuskin he calls Chemokssin. ]
[Footnote 327: In this account of Behring's and Chirikov's voyages, I
have followed Mueller (iii. pp. 187-268). More complete original
accounts of Behring's voyage are quoted further on in the sketch of
our visit to Behring Island. ]
[Footnote 328: Mueller, iii. p. 164. ]
[Footnote 329: It deserves to be noted as a literary curiosity that
the famous French _savant_ and geographer, Vivien do Saint Martin,
in his work, _Histoire de la Geographie et des Decouvertes
geographiques_, Paris, 1873, does not say a single word regarding
all those expeditions which form an epoch in our knowledge of the
Old World. ]
[Footnote 330: An account of Schalaurov is given by COXE (_Russian
Discoveries_, &c., 1780, p. 323) and Wrangel (i. p. 73). That the hut
seen by Matiuschkin actually belonged to Schalaurov appears to me
highly improbable, for the traditions of the Siberian savages seldom
extend sixty years back. ]
[Footnote 331: Wrangel, i. p. 79. ]
[Footnote 332: Sauer, _An Account, &c._, Appendix, p. 48. ]
[Footnote 333: Sauer, _loc. cit._ p. 103, according to an oral
communication by Ljachoff's follower Protodiakonov. ]
[Footnote 334: Compare Wrangel, i. p. 98. ]
[Footnote 335: Matthias Hedenstroem, Aulic Councillor, whose name
indicates that he was of Swedish birth, died at the village
Hajdukovo, seven versts from Tomsk, on the 2nd October (20th
September), 1845, at the age of sixty-five. Biographical notes
regarding Hedenstroem are to be found in the Calendar for the Irkutsh
government for the year 1865, pp. 57-60; I have not, however,
succeeded in procuring this work, or in finding any other notices of
Hedenstroem's birthplace and life. ]
[Footnote 336: A very remarkable geological fact is the number of
tree-stems in all stages of decay and petrifaction, which are
embedded in the rocks and earthy strata of Siberia, having their
origin all along from the Jurassic age till now. It appears as if
Siberia, during the whole of this immense period of time, has not
been subjected to any great changes in a purely geographical
respect, whereas in Europe there have been innumerable alternations
of sea and land, and alps have been formed and disappeared. The
Siberians call the tree-stems found on the _tundra_ far from the sea
and rivers _Adam's wood_, to distinguish them from more recent sub
fossil trees, which they call _Noah's wood_. ]
[Footnote 337: The first European who visited the part of America
lying right opposite to Asia was Schestakov's companion, the
surveyor Gvosdev. He crossed Behring's Straits to the American side
as early as 1730 (_Mueller_, iii. p. 131), and therefore ought
properly to be considered as the discoverer of this sound. The
north-westernmost part of America, Behring's Straits and the islands
situated in it, are besides shown in Strahlenberg's map, which was
made at least a decade before Gvosdev's voyage. There north-western
America is delineated as a large island, inhabited by a tribe, the
_Pucho-chotski_, who lived in a constant state of warfare with the
_Giuchieghi_, who inhabited the islands in the sound. Wrangel Land
is also shown in this remarkable map. In 1767, eleven years before
Cook's voyage in the Polar Sea, the American side of Behring's
Straits was also visited by Lieut. SYND with a Russian expedition,
that started from Okotsk in 1764. In the short account of the voyage
which is to be found in William Coxe's, _Account of the Russian
Discoveries, &c._, London, 1780, p. 300, it is said expressly that
Synd considered the coast on which he landed to belong to America.
On Synd's map, published by Coxe, the north part of the Behring Sea
is enriched with a number of fictitious islands (St. Agaphonis, St.
Myronis, St. Titi, St. Samuels, and St. Andreae). As Synd, according
to Sarytchev in the work quoted below, p. 11, made the voyage in a
boat, it is probable that by these names islands were indicated
which lay quite close to the coast and were not so far from land as
shown in the map, besides, the mountain-summits on St. Lawrence
Island, which are separated by extensive low lands, may perhaps have
been taken for separate islands. ]
[Footnote 338: Billings' voyage is described in Martin Sauer's
_Account of a Geographical and Astronomical Expedition to the
Northern Parts of Asia, &c., by Commodore Joseph Billings_, London,
1802, and Gavrila Sarychev's _Achtjaehrige Reise im noerdlichen
Siberien, auf dem Eismeere und dem nordoestlichen Ocean. Aus dem
Russischen uebersetzt von J.H. Busse_, Leipzig, 1805-1806. As
interesting to our Swedish readers it may be mentioned that the
Russian hunter Prybilov informed Sauer that a Swedish brigantine,
_Merkur_, coppered, carrying sixteen cannon, commanded by J.H.
Coxe, in 1788, cruised in the Behring Sea in order to destroy the
Russian settlements there. They however, according to Prybilov's
statement to Sauer, "did no damage, because they saw that we had
nothing worth taking away. They instead gave us gifts, because they
were ashamed to offer violence to such poor fellows as we" (Sauer,
p. 213). ]
[Footnote 339: Otto von Kotzebue, _Entdeckungs-Reise in die Sud-See
und nach der Behrings Strasse_, Weimar, 1821 (Part III.,
Contributions in Natural History, by Adelbert von Chamisso)--Louis
Choris, _Voyage pittoresque autour du monde_, Paris, 1822.
Frederik Luetke, _Voyage autour du monde_, Paris, 1835-36.--F.H. von
Kittlitz, _Denkuuerdigkeiten einer Reise nach dem russischen Amerika,
nach Mikronesien und durch Kamtschatka_, Gotha, 1858.
Kellet, _Voyage of H.M.S. "Herald,"_ 1845-51, London, 1853
(Discovery of Herald Island and the east coast of Wrangel Land).
W.H. Hooper, _Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski_, London, 1853
(Moore's wintering at Chukotskoj-nos).
John Rodgers, Behring's Sea and Arctic Ocean, from Surveys of the
North Pacific Surveying Expedition, 1855 (only charts).--W. Heine,
_Die Expedition in die Seen von China, Japan und Ochotsk, unter
Commando von Commodore Colin Ringgold und Commodore John Rodgers_,
Leipzig, 1858 (the expedition arrived at the result that Wrangel
Land did not exist).
(Lindemann) _Wrangels Land im Jahre_ 1866, _durch Kapiten Dallmann
besucht (Deutsche Geograph. Blaetter_, B. iv. p. 54, 1881).
Petermann, _Entdeckung eines neuen Polar-Landes durch den amerikan,
Capt Long_, 1867 (Mittheil. 1868, p. 1).--_Das neu-entdeckte
Polar-Land_, &c. (Mittheil 1869, p. 26). ]
[Footnote 340: It ought to be remembered that the voyage of the
distinguished Arctic explorer, McClure, carried out with so much
gallantry and admirable perseverance, from the Pacific to the
Atlantic along the north coast of America, took place to no
inconsiderable extent _by sled journeys over the ice_, and that no
English vessel has ever sailed by this route from the one sea to the
other. The North-west Passage has thus never been accomplished by a
vessel. ]
[Footnote 341: Amoretti, _Viaggio del mare Atlantico al Pasifico per
la via del Nord-Ovest, &c. Fatto del capitano Lorenzo Ferrer
Maldonado, l'anno MDLXXXVIII_. Milano, 1811. ]
[Footnote 342: At the date of Maldonado's voyage Spain and Portugal
were united. ]
[Footnote 343: The narratives of the Russian voyagers in the Polar
Seas bear a quite different stamp. Details are seldom wanting in
these, and they correspond with known facts, and the discoveries
made are of reasonably modest dimensions. I therefore consider, as I
have said already, that the doubts of the trustworthiness of
Deschnev, Chelyuskin, Andrejev, Hedenstroem, Sannikov, &c., are
completely unfounded, and it is highly desirable that all journals
of Russian explorers in the Polar Sea yet in existence be published
as soon as possible, and not in a mutilated shape, but in a complete
and unaltered form. ]
CHAPTER XIV.
Passage through Behring's Straits--Arrival at Nunamo--
Scarce species of seal--Rich vegetation--Passage to America--
State of the ice--Port Clarence--The Eskimo--Return to Asia--
Konyam Bay--Natural conditions there--The ice breaks up in
the interior of Konyam Bay--St. Lawrence Island--Preceding
visits to the Island--Departure to Behring Island.
After we had passed the easternmost promontory of Asia, the course
was shaped first to St. Lawrence Bay, a not inconsiderable fjord,
which indents the Chukch peninsula, a little south of the smallest
part of Behring's Straits. It was my intention to anchor in this
fjord as long as possible, in order to give the naturalists of the
_Vega_ expedition an opportunity of making acquaintance with the
natural conditions of a part of Chukch Land which is more favoured
by nature than the bare stretch of coast completely open to the
winds of the Polar Sea, which we hitherto had visited. I would
willingly have stayed first for some hours at Diomede Island, the
market-place famed among the Polar tribes, situated in the narrowest
part of the Straits, nearly half-way between Asia and America, and
probably before the time of Columbus a station for traffic between
the Old and the New Worlds. But such a delay would have been
attended with too great difficulty and loss of time in consequence
of the dense fog which prevailed here on the boundary between the
warm sea free from drift-ice and the cold sea filled with drift-ice.
[Illustration: SEAL FROM THE BEHRING SEA. _Histriophoca fasciata_,
Zimm. ]