62 VITUS BERING. 



tion of its resources. He desired, among other things, 

 missionary work among the Yakuts, better discipline 

 among the East Siberian Cossacks, more honesty among 

 the yassak-collectors, the opening of iron mines at 

 Okhotsk and Udinsk, and various other things. But it 

 was never his intention to carry out these propositions 

 himself, and it was a great mistake for the government 

 to burden his instructions with such purely administra- 

 tive work. 



His second proposition is incomparably more inter- 

 esting. In this he indicates the general outline of his 

 Great Northern Expedition, the greatest geographical 

 enterprise that the world has hitherto known. This 

 document shows that he was the originator of the plan, 

 something that has been contradicted, and but for this 

 document might still stand contradicted. He proposed 

 to start out from Kamchatka to explore and chart the 

 western coast of America and establish commercial rela- 

 tions with that country, thence to visit Japan and 

 Amoor for the same purpose, and finally to chart either 

 by land or sea the Arctic coast of Siberia, — namely, from 

 the Obi to the Lena.* Through these three enterprises 

 and his former expedition, it was Bering's object to fill 

 the vacant space on his chart between the known West 

 and the known East, — between the Kara Sea and the 

 Japan Islands. He refused to corroborate his first 

 observations by again visiting the same localities, and 

 he rightly concluded, that absolute proof of the separa- 

 tion of the continents would be ascertained if the 

 American coast were charted. 



* Note 40. 



