3 o BEGINNING OF SECOND EXPEDITION 



5. In regard to going to America, it was ordered in 1731 that ships 

 for this voyage should be built at Okhotsk. If they are ready, Bering 

 should take two of them and proceed; if they are not finished, he should 

 finish them. If they have not yet been started on, or if they are not 

 seaworthy, the Admiralty College is of the opinion that the ships should 

 not be built at Okhotsk. Bering recommends that Kamchatka, because 

 it has more timber and a better harbor, should be selected as the place 

 for shipbuilding. Bering desires to have two ships for the voyage so 

 that in case of a misfortune to one of them the other would stand by. 

 If one ship is completed at Okhotsk, it would be a good plan to take that 

 and go to the Kamchatka River and there build the other one. Bering 

 is to be in command of one of these vessels and Chirikov of the other. On 

 the voyage they are to keep together, work together, and do all that 

 is in their power to advance naval science. To help them a member of 

 the Academy of Sciences [Louis Delisle de la Croyere] is sent along. 



6. A late report of Captain Pavlutski, which was sent from Kam- 

 chatka, stated that recently Afanasi Melnikovwith a small party returned 

 from Chukchi Cape. This Melnikov was sent from Yakutsk in 1725 

 to bring the natives [Chukchi] under subjection and make them pay 

 tribute. Melnikov says that in April, 1730, while he was on Chukchi 

 Cape, there came over from an island in the sea two men who had walrus 

 teeth fastened to their own [pieces of walrus ivory in their lips]. These 

 men told Melnikov that it takes a day to go from Chukchi Cape to their 

 island, and another day from there to another island ahead of them, 

 which island is called bolshaya zemlya. On this bolshaya zetnlya all 

 kinds of animals are to be had — sables, beavers, land otters, and wild 

 deer. All kinds of green trees grow there. There are many natives on 

 bolshaya zemlya; some of them have deer, and others have not. Al- 

 though such reports cannot be trusted, yet they should be followed up 

 and a voyage should be made in the direction of the islands. If they 

 are located and people found on them, they should be treated as the 

 instructions in Article 4 indicate. Go on [from there] to America and learn 

 whether there is any continent, or islands, between Kamchatka and 

 America; for, aside from the information furnished by Pavlutski, little 

 is known on that subject. On the map of Professor Delisle a sea is 

 located between Kamchatka and the Spanish province of Mexico in 

 latitude 45 N. If the American coast is discovered, Bering should carry 

 out the instructions given him by Peter in 1725, that is to say, to go 

 to some European settlement. If a European ship is met with, he should 

 learn from it the name of the coast, write it down, make a landing, 

 obtain some definite information, draw a map, and return to Kam- 

 chatka. Be always on your guard not to fall into a trap and not to show 

 the people you meet with the way to [Kamchatka]. 



