240 HISTORY OF KAMSCHATKA. [chap. 



commenced his career as a discoverer, which was destined sixteen 

 years later to be Ijrought to such a melancholy end on the island 

 that now bears his name. 



Vitus Bering, a Dane born in Jutland in 1680, who had been 

 for many years in the Piussian service, was chosen as leader of 

 the expedition. He had akeady made voyages liotli in the East 

 and West Indies before seeking his fortune under the Czar, and had 

 afterwards made himself conspicuous during the Swedish war, for 

 which he had been promoted. Martin Sparigberg and Alexei 

 Tschirikov accompanied him as lieutenants, and the party, having 

 been provided with a number of skilled workmen for the construc- 

 tion of the vessels upon their arri"\'al in Kamschatka, set out from 

 St. Petersburg on the 5th of February, 1725. The spring and 

 summer were passed in making their way eastward by the Irtish, 

 Obi, and Yenisei, and they finally went into winter quarters at Ilimsk 

 to the north of Lake Baikal, where they collected stores in readiness 

 for the continuing of their journey on the breaking up of the ice. 

 The spring of 1726 found them at Yakutsk, where, owing to the 

 difficulties of the roads and lack of sufticient transport, they were 

 obliged to di\dde forces in order to reach Okhotsk. Spangberg 

 took the river route by the Aldan, Maja, and Judoma with the 

 heavy baggage ; Bering went by land ; and Alexei Tschirikov 

 followed later with the rest of the enormous supply of provisions, 

 with which the nature of the country whence they were to sail 

 obliged them to burden themselves. Bering reached his destination 

 safely, but misfortune befell the river party from the very beginning. 

 Owing to the weight of their baggage and the rapidity of the 

 current, the ascent of the stream was a matter of much greater 

 difficulty than had been anticipated, and at the end of October 

 Spangberg was caught by the ice in the Judoma Eiver, and com- 

 pelled to undertake the rest of the journey by land. Xot only 

 was the duration of the expedition thus much lengthened, but the 

 party underwent such terrible privations that they were reduced to 

 living upon their boots and leathern belts. It was not until July, 



