134 VITUS BERING. 



any great importance to De Plsle^s directions which were 

 based on antiquated assumptions, but on the other hand, 

 they had neither moral nor practical independence enough 

 to take their own course. The government laws, and 

 especially the Senate decrees, bound their hands. They 

 were to submit all important measures to the action of 

 a commission, and were far from being sovereign com- 

 manders in any modern sense. Under these circum- 

 stances they found it advisable, and possibly necessary, to 

 act in accordance with the opinion of these learned schol- 

 ars, so as to be able later to defend themselves in every 

 particular against the criticisms of the Academy. Hence 

 the commission resolved that the expedition should first 

 find the northern coast of Gamaland, follow this coast in 

 an easterly direction to America, and turn back in time to 

 be at home in Avacha Bay by the end of September. In 

 this way their ships were carried far into the Pacific and 

 away from the Aleutian chain of islands, which, like the 

 thread of Ariadne, would speedily have led them to the 

 western continent. 



