188 VITUS BERING. 



fur -hunter and adventurer. Russian authors have com- 

 pared Bering with Columbus and Cook. He certainly 

 was for Russia, the land of his adoption, what the two 

 former were for Spain and England — a great discoverer, 

 an honest, hardy, and indefatigable pioneer for knowl- 

 edge, science, and commerce. He led Europe's young- 

 est marine out upon explorations that will ever stand 

 in history as glorious pages, and as living testimony 

 of what Northern perseverance is able to accomplish 

 even with most humble means. 



And yet he only partly succeeded in accomplishing 

 what for sixteen years had been the object of his en- 

 deavors. His voyage to America was merely a recon- 

 noitering expedition, which, in the following summer, 

 was to have been repeated with better equipments, 



Chirikoff, who on the expedition in 1741, about 

 simultaneously with Bering,* discovered a more southerly 



♦Bancroft, who, strange to say, calls Chirikoff "the hero of this expedi- 

 tion," gives a detailed account of the voyage of the St. Paul after its separa- 

 tion from the St. Peter. Lauridsen does not do this, for the obvious reason 

 that he considers ChirikoflF's expedition of but comparatively little import- 

 ance, although he doubtless would be willing to second Bancroft's estimate 

 of Chirikoff as a man "who, amongst Russians, was the noblest and most 

 chivalrous of them all." There seems to be no reason to doubt that 

 Chirikoff sighted the coast of Northwest America about thirty-six hours 

 before Bering did. On the 11th of July signs of land were seen, and on the 

 15th land was sighted in latitude 55° 21', according to Bancroft, who, at this 

 point in his narrative, exclaims: "Thus was the great discovery achieved." 

 Chirikoff's return voyage was fraught with hardships and suffering. Before 

 the expedition reached Avacha Bay, October 8, twenty-one were lost. The 

 pilot Yelagin alone of all the officers could appear on deck, and he finally 

 brought the ship into the harbor of Petropaylovsk. Croyt^re, the astronomer, 

 died as soon as he was exposed to the air on deck. Chirikoff, very ill, was 

 landed the same day. Eventful as the expedition in some respects was, it 

 nevertheless possesses no particular geographical or scientific interest, for 

 there is great doubt even as to where landings were made and what islands 

 were seen. Bancroft speaks very cautiously on these points. Sokoloff, how- 

 ever, declares emphatically that the land first discovered by Chirikoff was a 



