beking's great northern expedition. 75 



seems to us entirely incomprehensible. But Sokoloff, 

 who was himself a Russian naval officer, says on this 

 point, that the laws of the empire, which at that time 

 were in full force, required of every superior officer that 

 he should consult his subordinates before inaugurating 

 any new movement. In its instructions to Bering the 

 Senate expressly emphasized this decree of the law, and 

 it actually went so far as to order him, even in matters of 

 comparative unimportance, to seek the opinion of his 

 Academical associates, and always act in the strictest 

 accordance with his Russian colleague Chirikoff^s propo- 

 sitions. 



The chiefs of the different branches of the expedition 

 were of course subject to the same regulation. In this 

 way Bering was deprived of a sovereign chiefs power and 

 authority, and it afforded him but little reparation that 

 the government gave him the power to reduce or promote 

 an officer, — only naval officers, however. Necessary re- 

 gard for the needs of the service and for his own princi- 

 ples forbade him to use this weapon in that arbitrary 

 manner which alone could have neutralized the unfor- 

 tunate influence of the government laws. Hence this 

 feature of his instructions, besides causing much delay, 

 became a source of the most incredible troubles and 

 aggravations, which, as we shall see later, laid him in his 

 grave on the bleak coasts of Bering Island. 



Everything carefully considered, it could have sur- 

 prised no one if the Northern Expedition had collapsed 

 in its very greatness, and it was without any doubt due to 

 Bering that this did not happen. In many respects 

 Bering was unqualified to lead such an expedition into a 



