OFFICIAL ORDER 31 



9. Bering is to take with him 2,000 rubles' worth of presents to be 

 distributed among the natives. Chinese tobacco, known as "shar log," 

 is especially worth while because the natives are eager for it. 



11. In these voyages search should be made for good harbors and for 

 forests where timber for shipbuilding is to be had. Let mineralogists 

 with a guard go ashore and prospect. If precious minerals are found in 

 some place under Russian jurisdiction, the commander of Okhotsk and 

 the principal officers elsewhere should be notified, and they shall send 

 ships, miners, workmen, instruments, machinery, and provisions and 

 begin working the mines. 



12. Geodesists should be sent to examine all the rivers that fall into 

 Lake Baikal from the east in order to find a nearer way to Kamchatka 

 than by Yakutsk. 



13. Captain Bering and all the officers in command of ships at sea 

 should keep secret the instructions from the Admiralty College. For 

 Bering, Chirikov, Spanberg, and the officers in command of the sloop 

 which is to go east of the Lena to Kamchatka, special instructions are 

 issued, and these may be made public. These public instructions are to 

 state that at the request of the St. Petersburg, Paris, and other Academies 

 the Emperor Peter the Great, of deserving and eternal fame, sent, out of 

 curiosity, an expedition along his own shores to determine whether Asia 

 and America are united. But the expedition did not settle that point. 

 Now Your Imperial Majesty, influenced by the same reasons, is ordering 

 a similar expedition and for a similar purpose. If you should come to 

 settlements under European or Asiatic jurisdiction or if you should meet 

 with ships of European or Asiatic governments, and are asked the object 

 of your voyage, you may tell them what has just been said. If they 

 demand to see your instructions, show them. This will allay their 

 suspicions, because it is well known that European Powers have sent 

 out expeditions and that the question whether Asia and America are 

 united is still unanswered. 



14. In order that the expedition may not be retarded on account of 

 delay in getting provisions and supplies of one kind and another, the 

 Admiralty College should send at once special officers to Yakutsk to 

 build boats and expedite the transportation of materials. 



15. Because this expedition is harder and farther than any that 

 have ever preceded it, will not Your Majesty reward with money all 

 those who participate in it and give them double pay during the time 

 that they are engaged, promote to the rank of sub-lieutenant the geode- 

 sists who have formerly been in Siberia, and to the rank of ensign 11 

 those who go there for the first time? All officers should receive, either 



11 Bering was made Captain Commander and Chirikov Captain Lieutenant. 



