EXPLORATIONS ALONG THE AMERICAN COAST.--STELLER'S CENSURE OF BERING
FOR UNDUE HASTE.--BERING DEFENDED.--DALL, THE AMERICAN WRITER,
REPRIMANDED.--THE RETURN VOYAGE.
It is by no means an easy matter to form an unbiased opinion of
Bering's stay off Kayak Island. Steller is about our only authority,
but just at the point where it is most difficult to supplement his
account, he gives vent to most violent accusations against the
management of the expedition from a scientific standpoint. On the 16th
of July, when land was first seen, he says: "One can easily imagine
how happy all were to see land. No one failed to congratulate Bering,
as chief of the expedition, to whom above all others the honor of
discovery belonged. Bering, however, heard all this, not only with
great indifference, but, looking toward land, he even shrugged his
shoulders in the presence of all on board." Steller adds that on
account of this conduct charges might have been preferred against him
in St. Petersburg, had he lived.
As Bering during the first few succeeding days did not make any
preparations for a scientific exploration of the country, as he even
tried, according to Steller's assurance, to dissuade the latter from
making the island a visit, and as Steller only through a series of
oaths and threats (for thus p. 30 must undoubtedly be interpreted)
could obtain permission to make, without help or even a guard for
protection, a short stay on the island, his anger grew to rage, which
reached its culmination on the following morning when Bering suddenly
gave orders that the St. Peter should leave the island. "The only
reason for this," he says, "was stupid obstinacy, fear of a handful
of natives, and pusillanimous homesickness. For ten years Bering had
equipped himself for this great enterprise; the explorations lasted
ten hours!" Elsewhere he says derisively that they had gone to the New
World "simply to bring American water to Asia."
These accusations must seem very serious to every modern reader.
Unfortunately for Bering, his second voyage is of interest principally
from the standpoint of natural history. It is especially naturalists
that have studied it. They are predisposed to uphold Steller. Hence
his account threatens wholly to undermine Bering's reputation, and
as a matter of course, W. H. Dall, in discussing this subject, finds
opportunity to heap abuse upon Bering. He says: "On the 18th of July,
Bering saw land. On the 20th he anchored under an island. Between
two capes, which he called St. Elias and St. Hermogenes, was a bay
where two boats were sent for water and to reconnoitre. * * * With
characteristic imbecility, Bering resolved to put to sea again on the
next day, the 21st of July. Sailing to the northward, the commander
was confused among the various islands, and sailed hither and thither,
occasionally landing, but making no explorations, and showing his total
incapacity for the position he occupied. He took to his bed, and
Lieutenant Waxel assumed charge of the vessel."[81]
This is not writing history. It is only a series of errors and
incivilities. It was _not_ the 18th of July that Bering first saw land.
He did _not_ sail north from Kayak, but southwest, and hence could not
have lost his course among islands, for here there are no islands. Nor
did he sail hither and thither, but kept the course that had been laid
out, and charted the coasts he saw in this course. The most ridiculous
part of this is what this nautical author tells of the bay between
Cape St. Elias and Cape St. Hermogenes (Marmot Island off the coast of
Kadiak Island), for these points are farther apart than Copenhagen and
Bremen. If, according to this writer, Bering was unpardonably stupid,
he must have been, on the other hand, astonishingly "far-sighted."
After these statements it will surprise no one that this author
considers illness a kind of crime, and blames a patient, sixty years of
age, suffering with the scurvy, for taking to his bed! If Mr. Dall had
taken the trouble to study the Bering literature to which he himself
refers in his bibliography of Alaska, he would have been in a position
to pass an independent opinion of the navigator, and would certainly
have escaped making this series of stupid statements. His words now
simply serve to show how difficult it is to eradicate prejudice,
and how tenacious of life a false or biased judgment can be. Death
prevented Bering from defending and explaining his conduct. No one has
since that time sought to render him justice. I therefore consider it
my duty--even if I should seem to be yielding to the biographer's
besetting sin--to produce everything that can be said in Bering's
defense.
In the first place, then, it must be remembered that on the 21st of
July Bering had provisions left for no more than three months, and
that these were not good and wholesome. His crew, and he himself,
were already suffering from scurvy to such an extent that two weeks
later one-third of them were on the sick-list. Furthermore, he was
over fifty-six degrees of longitude from his nearest port of refuge,
with a crew but little accustomed to the sea. The American coast in
that latitude was not, according to Bering's judgment, nor is it
according to our present knowledge, in any way a fit place to winter,
and besides, he knew neither the sea nor its islands and depths, its
currents and prevailing winds. All this could not but urge him to
make no delay. And, in fact, Steller himself expressly says that it
was a series of such considerations that determined Bering's conduct.
"Pusillanimous homesickness" can scarcely have had any influence on a
man who from his youth had roamed about in the world and lived half a
generation in the wilds of Siberia. "The good Commander," thus Steller
expresses himself, "was far superior to all the other officers in
divining the future, and in the cabin he once said to myself and Mr.
Plenisner: 'We think now that we have found everything, and many are
pregnant with great expectations; but they do not consider where we
have landed, how far we are from home, and what yet may befall us. Who
knows but what we may meet trade winds that will prevent our return? We
are unacquainted with the country, and are unprovided with provisions
for wintering here.'"
It must be conceded that his position was one fraught with
difficulties. At this point there are two things which Steller
either has not correctly understood, or suppresses. According to
his instructions, Bering was authorized to spend two years and make
two voyages in the discovery of America, and to undertake another
expedition afterwards with new preparations and equipments. And in his
explanations to the crew he calls special attention to this point.
Under these circumstances it would not have been right in him to
assume any more risks than absolutely necessary. But here again the
old opposition between Bering's nautico-geographical and Steller's
physico-geographical interests breaks out. As a discoverer of the old
school Bering's principal object was to determine some elementary
geographical facts: namely, the distribution of land and water along
the new coast, and hence he left Kayak Island, not to reach Avacha
as soon as possible, but to follow the coast of the newly discovered
country toward the west and north. All authorities agree on this
point. It was illness and the Aliaska peninsula, projecting so far
into the ocean as it does, that prevented him from sailing up toward
latitude 65°, his real goal. Even Steller testifies to this, and
although he repeats his former accusations against Bering, it does
not signify anything, as he was excluded from the councils and was
obliged to guess at what was adopted. His accusations are especially
insignificant from the fact that he definitely contradicts himself on
this point, for later on in his narrative he says that not until the
11th of August was it resolved, on account of the approaching autumn
and the great distance from home, to start immediately on the return
voyage to Kamchatka. That is to say, they had not then made a start.
Until the 11th of August, for three weeks after their departure from
Kayak, Bering pursued his task of nautical discovery along the new
coast, and it would seem that he can be blamed for nothing more than
considering this work of the expedition more important than that of the
physico-geographical investigation which Steller represented. This was
but natural. It was merely accidental that Steller accompanied Bering,
and through him the expedition received a modern cast, which was not
at all designed, and which Bering desired to make use of only under
favorable circumstances. We may regret his haste, and we may especially
regret the fact that so keen and clever a naturalist as Steller did
not get an opportunity to explore the regions west of Mount St. Elias
before European trade and white adventurers put in an appearance; but
it hardly seems a question of doubt whether anyone for that reason has
a right to make accusations against the chief of the expedition.
It was very early on the morning of July 21 that the chief suddenly,
and contrary to his custom, appeared on deck and gave the command to
weigh anchor and stand out to sea. In doing this he set aside his
instructions from headquarters to act in accordance with the ship's
council. He acted as a sovereign chief, and notwithstanding the fact
that both of his lieutenants thought it wrong to leave the newly
discovered coast without an adequate supply of water, he overruled all
objections and informed them that he assumed all responsibility for
his conduct. He was convinced of the entire necessity of it, he said,
and thought it unsafe to remain longer in this exposed anchorage. Time
did not permit him to go in search of the harbor found by Khitroff on
the day previous, and there was moreover a seaward breeze. One fourth
of the water-casks remained unfilled.
Before a strong east wind, the St. Peter on that day made fifty miles
on a southwesterly course. During the two succeeding days, he continued
in this general direction. It was misty, and the coast was invisible,
but the sounding-line continued to show a depth of from forty to fifty
fathoms. In a council, concerning the deliberations of which Steller
has a very confused and incorrect account, it was decided, on July 25,
to sail slowly towards Petropavlovsk and, at intervals as wind and
weather permitted, to head for the north and west, in order to explore
the coast they had left.
They continued on their southwesterly course, and on the next morning,
July 26, they were off the Kadiak archipelago. In a latitude of
66° 30', and about sixteen miles toward the north, they saw a high
and projecting point, which Bering called St. Hermogenes, in honor
of the patron saint of the day. He thought that this point was a
continuation of the continent they had left behind them, and as such
it is represented on both Müller's and Krasilnikoff's manuscript
maps in the archives of the Admiralty. On his third voyage, Cook
explored the Kadiak group, which he too had assumed to be a part
of the mainland. He now found that Bering's promontory was a small
island east of Afognak, but out of respect for Bering, he retained the
original name. Krusenstern also calls it St. Hermogenes Island, but
later the Russians changed it to Euratchey Island, on account of the
great number of marmots there, and since the United. States came into
possession of it, the name has been translated, and it is now known as
Marmot Island.[82] Steller has not a single word in his diary about
St. Hermogenes, and besides, his account at this point is full of
inaccuracies.
"Consequently, until July 26," he says, "we sailed along the coast, as
these gentlemen thought it was necessary to follow it, while it would
have been sufficient, at intervals of a hundred versts, to have sailed
a degree or two toward the north." He thus blames them for not having
followed the method which at about that time they had agreed upon, and
later did follow. His story of their having, for the first five days,
sailed along the coast, simply proves, in connection with a series of
other incidents in his work, that things were not entered in his diary
daily, but written down later from memory; hence its value as proof is
considerably diminished.
Along the southeastern coast of Kadiak the voyage was very dangerous.
The average depth was twenty-five fathoms; the water was very roily,
the weather heavy with fog and rain, and the wind violent. Not until
the 31st of July was the weather clear enough for an observation, when
they found themselves in a latitude of 54° 49', and had passed the
Kadiak archipelago.
In accordance with the plan adopted, they here veered to the northwest
to seek the mainland for the purpose of determining its trend. On
the night of August 1 (and 2), they suddenly approached land, having
only four fathoms of water below the keel. There was a heavy fog,
no wind, and a swift current, but they succeeded in shifting about
and getting out into eighteen fathoms of water, where they anchored
to await daybreak. In the morning, at eight o'clock, a small island
was seen at a distance of four miles. It was three miles long, with
an east to west trend. A long reef extended out into the sea from
the eastern point, seen by them in a direction E. S. E. by E. In the
evening they weighed anchor, having a heavy fog, and on the next
morning, the island was seen at a distance of seven geographical miles
toward the south. Its latitude was calculated as 55° 32', but as all
of Bering's determinations of latitude on his return voyage from
America show an error of from 30' to 45' less than the true latitude,
it must be concluded that the island was in latitude 56° and some
minutes. He called the island St. Stephen from the calendar day, but
his crew or lieutenants must have called it Foggy Island (Tumannoi),
as even Krasilnikoff's manuscript map, in the possession of the
Admiralty, has this name. Later the cartography of this region became
considerably confused. The name St. Stephen disappeared. Cook called
another island Fog Island, while it became customary to consider the
island discovered by Bering as identical with Ukamok (Chirikoff Island,
Vancouver's Island), where the Russians had a colony, and thus the
island itself was finally lost to geography. Notwithstanding the fact
that Admiral Krusenstern, in a clever essay, has given an able review
of the literature pertaining to this question, and has shown that where
Bering saw St. Stephen, Cook, Sarycheff, and Vancouver likewise saw an
island, different from Ukamok, and regardless of the fact that for
these reasons he restored St. Stephen on his map, Lieutenant Sokoloff,
who most recently, in Russian literature, has treated Bering's voyage
to America, has wholly disregarded Krusenstern's essay, and says
that St. Stephen is identical with Ukamok. Sokoloff's essay is very
superficial, and, compared with Krusenstern's weighty reasons, is based
on mere supposition. But, although the map of the North Pacific, in
the Russian Admiralty (1844), has a Tumannoi Island (that is, Foggy
Island, St. Stephen) somewhat northeast of Ukamok, it must be admitted
that, until the United States undertakes a new and careful survey of
the Aliaska peninsula and its southern surroundings, this question
can not be thoroughly decided, probable as it may be that Bering and
Krusenstern are both right.
August 3, the voyage was continued toward the northwest. In a latitude
of 56° (according to Steller) they saw the high snow-capped mountain
peaks of the Aliaska peninsula in a direction N. N. W. by W., but on
account of stormy and foggy weather they sought, with an easterly wind,
to get back into their main course. Thus they reached, August 4, the
Jefdokjejefski Islands in a direction S. S. E. 3/4 by E., at a distance
of twenty miles from 55° 45' N. These form a group of seven high and
rocky islands, which on Russian maps still bears the same name, but in
West Europe this name has been displaced, and they are usually called
the Semidi, or Semidin, Islands, the name of the largest of the group.
On August 7, they found themselves south of the Jefdokjejefski Islands.
But now misfortunes began to pour in upon them. They encountered
adverse winds which continued with but few interruptions during the
succeeding months. The St. Peter was tossed about on the turbulent
and unfamiliar waters of the Aleutian archipelago, where the crew
experienced an adventure so fraught with suffering and dire events
that it is quite beyond compare in the history of discoveries. At the
same time, the scurvy got the upper hand. Bering had a severe attack
which rendered him unfit for service. With his illness the bonds of
discipline were relaxed. Under these circumstances there was called,
on the 10th of August, an extraordinary council, in which all the
officers participated. At this meeting it was finally decided to give
up the charting of the American coast, and immediately start out upon
the direct route homeward on parallel 52°, the latitude of Avacha. The
whole crew, from the highest to the lowest, signed this resolution.
The facts taken into consideration were that September had been fixed
as the extreme limit of time within which to return home, and that
they were then in the middle of August. Avacha was at least 1600 miles
distant, autumn was at hand with dark nights and stormy weather, and
sixteen of the crew were already sick with the scurvy.
With a strong head-wind, in raw and foggy weather, and now and then
overtaken by fierce storms, they worked their way slowly along
until the 27th of August. The condition of affairs on board had
grown continually worse, when it was finally announced that through
carelessness and irregularity the supply of water had been reduced to
twenty-five casks, a quantity that could not possibly suffice for
the 1200 miles which, according to their calculations, yet remained.
Hence it was necessary once more to find land to take in water, and
on the 27th the St. Peter's prow was again headed for Aliaska. They
sailed north one degree and a half, and after a lapse of three days
they reached a multitude of high islands, behind which the coast of the
mainland arose in the distance.
August 30, the St. Peter lay at anchor off the Shumagins, a group of
thirteen treeless, barren, and rocky islands near the coast of Aliaska.
The journal gives their situation as latitude 54° 48' N. and longitude
35° 30' E. from Avacha. While the latitude as here determined has the
usual error, referred to several times before, the longitude has an
error of 6-1/2°. Among these islands the first death on board occurred.
It was the sailor Shumagin, who, on the 30th, died in the hands of
his mates as they were taking him ashore. The islands were named in
honor of him. On the whole the situation was most deplorable. Bering
had fallen away so much in his illness that he could not stand, and
the others that were sick were carried ashore, and lay scattered along
the coast, giving this a very sad and sorrowful aspect. Confusion and
uncertainty grew apace, as those in command could not maintain their
authority. Waxel and Khitroff, the highest in command, bandied words,
whereas the situation demanded firmness and vigor. The only one that
preserved any manner of self-possession and forethought was Steller.
He immediately went ashore, examined the vegetation of the island,
and collected a large number of anti-scorbutic plants, especially
scurvy-grass and berries, with which, in the course of a week, he
succeeded in restoring Bering to sufficient strength to be able to use
his limbs. Through the use of the same remedies the other sufferers
were relieved. But Steller thought also of the future. The medicine
chest contained "plasters and salves for half an army," but only
extremely few real medicines, and hence he suggested to Lieut. Waxel,
who was then in command, that he send a number of sailors ashore to
gather anti-scorbutic plants, but this excellent and timely advice was
rejected.
Furthermore, Steller used all his influence to procure good water. He
went ashore with the sailors for this purpose, and as they began to dip
water from the first pool they found, one, too, which was connected
with the sea during high tide, he directed them to fresh springs a
little farther in the interior, but the crew sent some samples on
board, and from there came the report that the water was good enough.
Thus it was that a new cause of disease--in spite of Steller's
protestations--was added to all the others. The water was brackish, and
on standing in the casks became unfit for use.
On the whole the stay at the Shumagins, which was unnecessarily
prolonged, was very unfortunate. The St. Peter lay at anchor south of
them in a very exposed position. On the evening of August 29, a fire
was seen on one of the islands, and on this account, Khitroff wished to
explore them more thoroughly, although Waxel firmly opposed releasing
both of the ship's boats under the present dangerous circumstances.
By applying to Bering, who was in the cabin, and hardly understood
the situation, Khitroff had his way, and left the ship with the yawl
and five men. He was gone four days, during which time the St. Peter
was forced to lie at anchor, while a favorable east wind might have
carried them several hundred miles toward home. The yawl was dashed to
pieces off one of the neighboring islands, and no more came from the
expedition than that Lieutenant Waxel, under great difficulty, found
it necessary to rescue the six shipwrecked adventurers. Moreover,
they experienced a somewhat uninteresting clash with the Innuit
(Esquimo)[83] inhabitants of the Aliaska peninsula, of which Müller and
Steller both give a detailed account.
FOOTNOTES:
[81] Note 62.
[82] Note 63.
[83] For a full description of these people see H. H. Bancroft, Native
Races, Vol. I.--TR.