THE VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 137 



in all the departments of natural history, and promised 

 him all necessary assistance. Steller accuses Bering of 

 not having kept his promises, and, although he preserved 

 until the last a high regard for Bering's seamanship and 

 noble character, there nevertheless developed, during the 

 expedition, a vehement enmity between Steller and the 

 naval officers, especially Waxel and Khitroff, and this 

 enmity found very pregnant expression in Steller's diary,* 

 which, in this respect, is more a pamphlet than a descrip- 

 tion of travel. It is impossible, however, with our pres- 

 ent resources, to ascertain the crue state of affairs. Con- 

 cerning Bering's voyage to America, we have only the St. 

 Peter's journals kept by Waxel, Jushin, and Khitroff, and 

 an account by Waxel, all of which have been used by 

 Sokoloff in the preparation of the memoirs of the hydro- 

 graphic department. Steller's diary, which goes into a 

 detailed account of things in quite a different way than 

 the official reports, was also used by Sokoloff, but as the 

 latter had but little literary taste and still less sympathy 

 for the contending parties, especially for Bering, he does 

 not attempt to dispense justice between them. Steller's 

 criticism must be looked upon as an eruption of that ill- 

 humor which so often and so easily arises in the relations 

 between the chief of an expedition and the accompanying 

 scientists, between men with divergent interests and dif- 

 ferent aims. Bering and Steller, Cook and his natural- 

 ists, Kotzebue and Chamisso, are prominent examples of 

 this disagreement. It is well known that Cook called the 

 naturalists *'the damned disturbers of the peace," and 

 that he more than once threatened to put them off on 



* Note 56. 



