"Eröffnung eines Vorschlages zu Verbesserung der Russischen Historie
Durch den Druck eines Stückweise herauszugebenden Sammelungen von
allerly zu den Umstanden und Begebenheiten dieses Reichs gehorigen
Nachrichten. St. Petersburg, bey der Keyserl. Academie der
Wissenschaften, 1732."
The succeeding volumes have the running title "Sammlung Russische
Geschichte" with the number of the parts subjoined but no other
title-page.
The account of the Russian Voyages is stated by Müller to have been
prepared at the direction of the Empress and endorsed by the Academy of
Sciences. It contains invaluable material on the early explorations,
which, if it had not been for Müller's painstaking researches, would
have been totally lost, as the archives of Yakutsk from whence the data
were derived by Müller were subsequently destroyed by fire. The errors
which occur in it are chiefly due to Müller's endeavor to utilize the
inexact geographical data of the Promyschleniks and Cossacks by
combining them with the less detailed but more precise observations of
later observers. In this attempt he added many valuable details to the
charts, but at the same time introduced several errors. The exaggerated
distances reported by the first explorers who were unable to correct
their estimates by observations of precision, distort those parts of
the map due to their reports. The peninsula of Aliaska becomes hugely
exaggerated as does the Shelagskoi promontory on the Arctic Sea. But no
unprejudiced person can read Müller's account without perceiving his
great caution in accepting unreservedly these imperfect contributions,
the really important additions which he made to cartography, the
preciousness of the facts which he rescued from oblivion, and his
desire to be fair to everybody.
The insinuations of malice and of a desire to injure Bering by means of
this account given by Müller, which Lauridsen attributes to the latter,
appear to be entirely the product of a suspicious temperament and an
excited imagination. Certainly I have seen nothing anywhere cited which
lends to such suspicions any tint of probability. The facts cited in
support of them can easily be otherwise explained, if one desires to
view the subject judicially, and for the most part are not quite
thoroughly understood by the Danish author.
One error upon which the latter lays great stress, is due to a
manipulation of the record, originated or at least adopted by Bering
himself, and which is incorporated in the map and report which all
authors agree proceeded directly from Bering's own hand.
The next map of importance was issued by the Imperial Academy of
Sciences, St. Petersburg in 1754. It was made under the inspection of
Gerhard Friedrich, Staatsrath von Müller, who revised and corrected it
subsequently, when an edition dated 1758 was issued. This map comprised
the geographical results of the great Siberian expedition sent out by
the Russian government; of Bering's voyages; and of the records of the
hunters (Promishleniks) and traders in northeastern Siberia preserved
in the archives of Yakutsk. The sources of this map are fully explained
by Müller in the "Russian Discoveries" (Jefferys' translation, p. 108
et seq.). I have not been able to examine a copy of the original map,
and have therefore relied on the English version of it which is to be
found in Jefferys' translation, second edition, London, 1764.
Among the improvements introduced on this map may be specified, the
correction of the shores of the Okhotsk Sea, and Gulf of Penjina, the
correcter location of the mouth of the Anadyr river and its estuary,
the introduction of the results of the voyages of Gvosdeff, Bering and
Chirikoff to the northwest coast of America, and a multitude of details
relating to northeastern Siberia. The island of St. Deomid (Diomede) is
not represented though its name appears on the 65th parallel in Bering
Strait. The island may have been on the original map and carelessly
omitted by Jefferys' engraver on his copy. Among the errors, or rather
mistaken hypotheses of others, which are suggested in this map by
dotted lines, are the extension westward to 174° E. of Greenwich, of
the peninsula of Aliaska which is also given a wholly uncalled-for
width; and the northward extension of the coast on each side of Bering
Strait. In the former case the cartographer was misled by the errors of
the map of Bering and Chirikoff's last voyage and rumors reported by
other navigators; and in the second case he followed Bering in adopting
an erroneous position and exaggerated form for the coast eastward from
Koliuchin Bay, due to the uncorrected sketches of the Cossacks and
traders. The northern extension of the American coast opposite, was
purely hypothetical and for this Müller must be held responsible. Many
of the western Aleutians are exaggerated in size and erroneous in
position but the chart of Bering's last voyage, and the exaggerated
reports of the hunters who followed him, must be held responsible for
this, in the main.
The work in which this chart appears is largely derived from Müller's
"Sammlung russische geschichte," St. Petersburg, 1758, vol. iii, Parts
I-III (cf. antea). The first edition is entitled, according to
bibliographies:
"Voyages from Asia to America for completing the discoveries of the
northwest coast of America. A summary of voyages made by the Russians
on the frozen sea. From the high Dutch of S[taatsrath]. Muller by T.
Jefferys. London: T. Jefferys, 1761." lxvi, 76 pp. 4°, with four maps.