THE VAKIOUS EXPEDITIOJSTS. 133 



of De PIsle in St. Petersburg. In the ship^s council on 

 the 4th of May, 1741, La Croyere immediately produced 

 the above-mentioned map, and directed the expedition first 

 to find Gamaland, which, it was claimed, could lie but a 

 few days' sailing toward the southeast, and would fur- 

 nish good assistance in finding America. But La Croyere 

 was only a spokesman for his brother, who in his memoir 

 had constructed his principal reasoning on this basis. He 

 says here that America can be reached from the Chuk- 

 chee peninsula as well as from the mouth of the Kam- 

 chatka River, but with greatest ease and certainty from 

 Avacha Bay in a southeasterly direction to the northern 

 coast of Gamaland. In order to support this supposition 

 he adds: '^'It grieves me not to have found other informa- 

 tion about this land seen by Don Juan de Gama than 

 what is given on the map of my late brother, his most 

 Christian Majesty's first geographer. But as he indicated 

 the position of this country with reference to Kompagni- 

 land and Je90, and as I am certain, from other sources, 

 of the position of these two countries, I am consequently 

 convinced of their correct situation and distance from 

 Kamchatka.'' 



That these miserable arguments exercised any influ- 

 ence upon the ship's council on the 4th of May, would 

 seem impossible, if we did not bear in mind the conduct 

 of the authorities in St. Petersburg. Two years previous 

 Spangberg had sailed right across Kompagniland, Staat- 

 enland and Je^o, and thus made every point in De I'Isle's 

 argument untenable. Bering and Chirikoff were familiar 

 with the results of these voyages, and shared Spangberg's 

 opinion. For this reason they could not possibly ascribe 



