132 VITUS BEKIKG. 



Expedition, but this did not deter him, in 1750, from 

 ascribing to himself, on the basis of this same map and 

 an accompanying memoir, Bering^s proposition, nor from 

 publishing an entirely perverted account of Bering's 

 second expedition. He clung to all of his brother's con- 

 jectures about Gamaland, Kompagniland, and Staatenland 

 as well as Je90, although they were based on very unreli- 

 able accounts and the cartographical distortions of several 

 generations. On the other hand, he most arbitrarily 

 rejected all Russian accounts of far more recent and reli- 

 able origin, so that only Bering's and part of Yevrinoff's 

 and Lushin's outlines of the first Kuriles were allowed to 

 appear on the official map. He would rather reject all 

 Eussian works that could be made doubtful, than his 

 brother's authority, and even in 1753, over twenty years 

 after Spangberg's and Bering's voyages, he persistently 

 sought to maintain his brother Guillaume's and his own 

 unreasonable ideas concerning the cartography of this 

 region. It was in part this dogged persistence in cling- 

 ing to family prejudices that robbed Spangberg of his 

 well-earned reward and brought Bering's last expedition 

 to a sad end. 



When the second Kamchatkan expedition left St. Pet- 

 ersburg, a copy of De I'Isle's map was given to Bering as 

 well as to La Croyere. De I'Isle wrote the latter's 

 instructions — ably written, by the way — and it was a 

 result of his efforts that the Senate ordered Bering and 

 Chirikoff to consult with La Croyere concerning the 

 route to America, — a very reasonable decree in case he 

 had been a good geographer. As it was, the order simply 

 meant that they were to go according to the regulations 



