28 BEGINNING OF SECOND EXPEDITION 



dition could supervise its various activities, and therefore it 

 would be necessary for him to be within land reach of the differ- 

 ent parties. These may or may not have been the reasons, but 

 the fact remains that Bering and his parties were ordered to 

 proceed overland. 



Naval Preparations 



Because of the great distance to the Pacific, the difficulty of 

 transporting material, and the lack of laborers, skilled and 

 unskilled, for the building of sea-going vessels, the naval part of 

 the expedition needed most attention. On July 30, 1731, 4 

 Grigori Pisarev (who had been appointed commander of the 

 port of Okhotsk on May 10, 1731) 5 was ordered to proceed to his 

 post and make ready for Bering's coming. Pisarev was told to 

 take, from different regions of Siberia, Russians and Tungus and 

 settle them in the neighborhood of Okhotsk and Yudoma Cross — 

 the Russians to be put to cultivating the soil and the Tungus 

 to watch the flocks of sheep and the herds of horses and cattle 

 which Pisarev would introduce. For the peopling of Okhotsk 

 Pisarev had instructions to pick up at Yakutsk 300 young and 

 strong men from those who were in prison for debt or for other 

 crimes. In addition he was to take from Russia 20 ship carpenters 

 to build four or six ships, under the supervision of naval archi- 

 tects who were to be sent by the Admiralty College, and from 

 Ekaterinburg a number of iron workers to smelt iron and forge 

 anchors and such things. 



Official Order for the Expedition 



The official order for the expedition, in which Bering is men- 

 tioned as commander, was announced by the Senate on April 17, 

 1732, 6 and this was followed up on May 2 of the same year by a 

 general outline of the undertaking. 7 On December 28, 1732, the 



4 Polnoe Sobranie Zakonov Rossiiskoi Imperii, Vol. 8, Doc. 5813. St. Petersburg. 



5 Ibid., Vol. 8, Doc. 5753- 



6 Ibid., Vol. 8, Doc. 6023. 



7 Ibid., Vol. 8, Docs. 6041, 6042. 



