12 BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITION 



he himself was to proceed to Yakutsk. After leaving Samarovsk 

 we went up the Ob to Surgut and to Narim, thence up the river Ket 

 to Makovska Post. 21 Along the course that we followed from Tobolsk 

 to Makovska live the Ostyaks, 22 who were formerly idolaters but through 

 the labors of Metropolitan Philophei 23 of Tobolsk were converted to 

 Christianity in 1715. We proceeded overland from Makovska to Yeni- 

 seisk and there went aboard four boats and worked our way up the 

 rivers Yenisei and [Upper] Tunguska to the mouth of the Ilim River. On 

 the Tunguska there are three rapids (poroga) and several rocky shoals 

 (shkver). In the rapids there are large submerged rocks across the whole 

 width of the stream so that a boat can get through in only one or two 

 places; the shoals likewise have rocks above and below the surface but 

 they [the shoals] are not very large. The shoals differ from the rapids in 

 that the former have little water and continue for a verst or two at a 

 stretch, which causes some trouble in getting over them. At Yeniseisk 

 I took for my service, in accordance with instructions from Tobolsk, 30 

 carpenters and blacksmiths. The rapids and shoals made it impossible 

 to go up the Ilim to Ilimsk, and on that account there were sent out 

 from that town smaller craft. On these the heavier materials were taken 

 to Ilimsk, but the lighter were transported to the same place in the course 

 of the winter. 



Lieutenant Spanberg with 39 men, carpenters and laborers, was 

 sent overland to Ust-Kut, where, during the winter, they con- 

 structed 15 barges for taking the men and supplies down the Lena to 

 Yakutsk. With the other members of the party I wintered at Ilimsk 

 because there were not enough accomodations for all at Ust-Kut 

 and we could not go through to Yakutsk owing to the snow and cold, 

 the lack of teams, and the uninhabited country. According to orders 

 from Tobolsk we were to receive our food supplies from Irkutsk and 

 Ilimsk, as no grain grows at Yakutsk. During the winter I went from 

 Ilimsk to Irkutsk to consult with the voivode 24 of that city, who formerly 

 held a similar position at Yakutsk, about that country, of which we knew 

 very little, and to find out the best way of going from there to Okhotsk 

 and Kamchatka. Towards the end of the winter I took over to Ust-Kut 



21 Built as a palisaded fort (ostrog) in 1610. 



22 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they made trouble for the Russians, 

 but they are of no importance now. In 191 1 the total number of Ostyaks in Siberia 

 was 20,000. 



23 Philophei (Leszczynski) (1650-1727). In 1702 Peter put him in charge of the 

 Siberian missions, and it is recorded that through his efforts 40,000 natives were 

 converted to Christianity. 



24 Mikhaelo Izmailov, voivode from October, 1724, to April, 1731. In the Annals 

 of Irkutsk (V. P. Sukachev: Pervoe stolyetie Irkutska, St. Petersburg, 1902, pp. 

 133-134) it is recorded that Spanberg and "Ivan Bering" were there in the course 

 of this winter. 



