64 VITUS BERIISTG. 



After having on April 30, 1730, submitted to the 

 Admiralty his new proposition, together with the ac- 

 counts and reports of his first expedition, Bering was sent 

 to Moscow, where Anna maintained her court during the 

 first few years of her reign. Here he laid his plans 

 before the Senate, and made the map before referred to; 

 but all the leading men were then too much occupied 

 with court intrigues to be able to give his plans any of 

 their attention. Separated from his family, he wearied 

 of life in Moscow, and on January 5, 1732, the Senate 

 gave him leave of absence to go to St. Petersburg, on 

 condition that Chaplin and the steward would conclude 

 the reports. Moreover, the Senate ordered that the 

 Admiralty should pay Bering's claims against the govern- 

 ment for his services. In view of the hardships he had 

 endured, he received 1,000 rubles, double the amount to 

 which he was entitled according to the regulations of the 

 department. Almost simultaneously he was promoted, in 

 regular succession, to the position of capitain-command- 

 eur in the Russian fleet, the next position below that of 

 rear-admiral. 



In the spring of 1732, Anna, Biron, and Ostermann 

 had succeeded in crushing the Old Russian opposition. 

 The leaders of this party, especially the family of Dol- 

 goruki, had been either banished to Siberia or scattered 

 about in the provinces and in fortresses, and now there 

 was nothing to hinder the government in pursuing its 

 plans. As early as April 17, the Empress* ordered that 



*H. H. Bancroft, Vol. XXXIII., p. 42, History of Alaska, San Francisco, 

 1886, is in error when he states that this empress was Elizabeth, the daughter 

 of Peter the Great. Anna Ivanovna, a daughter of Peter the Great's half- 

 brother Ivan, was at this time on the throne. She reigned from 1730 to 1740t 

 Elizabeth Petrovna did not become empress until 1741.— Tb. 



