BERING'S REPORT u 



2. Sail on these boats along the shore which bears northerly and 

 which (since its limits are unknown) seems to be a part of America. 



3. Determine where it joins with America, go to some settlement 

 under European jurisdiction; if you meet a European ship learn from 

 it the name of the coast and put it down in writing, make a landing 

 to obtain more detailed information, draw up a chart and come back 

 here. 14 



In the orders given me by General-Admiral Count Apraksin 15 it was 

 stated that I was to ask for mechanics and supplies from the provincial 

 government at Tobolsk and that I was to make monthly reports to the 

 Admiralty College. 16 



On January 24, before I received the instructions, there was dispatched 

 by the Admiralty College in the interest of the expedition one of my 

 lieutenants with 26 men and 25 wagonloads of materials. Altogether 

 there were under my command 33 men, and they were sent by way of 

 Vologda. From St. Petersburg to Tobolsk we passed en route the 

 following cities: Vologda, Totma, Veliki Ustyug, Solvychegodsk, Kai, 

 Solikamsk, Verkhotura, Turinsk (also called Epanchin), and Tyumen. 17 



On March 16 Tobolsk was reached and there we remained until May 15 

 because of the cold weather. During the stay I requisitioned the neces- 

 sary material for the expedition. On May 15 we started down the 

 Irtish to Samarovsk in four boats, known in Siberia as doshcheniki. 1 * 

 They were loaded with supplies brought from St. Petersburg as well as 

 other things gathered at Tobolsk. In the last-named city there were 

 added to my company, at my request, a monk, a commissar, petty 

 officers, and soldiers to the number of 34. 



From Samarovsk I sent ahead my marine guard, 19 who carried with 

 him orders from the provincial government of Tobolsk to the towns 

 along the way to have boats prepared at Yeniseisk and Ust-Kut, 20 but 



14 Polnoe Sobranie Zakonov Rossiiskoi Imperii, Vol. 7, Doc. 4649. 



15 Feodor Matveyevich Apraksin (1671-1728), one of Peter's right-hand men. 

 See also footnote 10. 



10 The Admiralty College was created in 1718 and became a Ministry in 1802. 



17 For the route of the expedition, see map, Fig. 3. Most of the towns named, 

 from Kai eastwards, were posts and stopping places for Siberian hunters and tra- 

 ders. Verkhotura (Upper Tura) was founded in 1598, Tyumen in 1586, and Tobolsk 

 in 1587. Turinsk was also called Epanchin because a Tatar chief of that name 

 lived here before the Russians came. 



18 A doshchenik "is built of boards without a keel, flat-bottomed, about 35 to 40 

 feet long; rows and steers with long sweeps, two men to each; is furnished with a 

 mast, and one square sail, and named from dosok, a board." (Martin Sauer: An 

 Account of a Geographical and Astronomical Expedition to the Northern Parts of 

 Russia, ... by Commodore Joseph Billings .... London, 1802, p. 20, footnote.) 



19 Peter Chaplin. 



20 Ust-Kut (Mouth of the Kut), where the Kut falls into the Lena and marks 

 the head of navigation. 



