THE VABIOUS EXPEDITION'S. 191 



geographers of that day insisted that the Russian gov- 

 ernment system of suppression merely aimed at exclud- 

 ing the rest of Europe from that profitable maritime 

 trade through the Arctic seas for which the Northern 

 Expedition had opened the way. Ignorance on this sub- 

 ject was so great that Joseph de FIsle ventured even 

 before the French Academy to refer to himself as the 

 originator of the expedition,— to rob Bering of his dearly 

 bought honor, and to proclaim to the world that Bering 

 accomplished no more on this expedition than his own 

 shipwreck and death. With Buache he published a book 

 and a map to prove his statements. The name De I'Isle 

 at that time carried with it such weight that he might 

 have succeeded in deceiving the world for a time, if G. 

 F. Mil Her had not, in an anonymous pamphlet written in 

 French, disproved these falsehoods. But even Miiller's 

 sketch in Sammlung RussiscTier GescUclite (1758), the 

 first connected account published concerning these expe- 

 ditions, has great defects, as we have seen, not only from 

 the standpoint of historical accuracy, but it also shows a 

 lack of appreciation of the geographical results obtained 

 by Bering. Hence it would have been impossible for 

 Cook to render the discoverer long-deferred justice, if he 

 had not known D'Anville's map and Dr. CampbelFs essay. 

 Thus it was West Europe that last century rescued 

 Bering's name from oblivion. In our day the Russian 

 Admiralty has had this vast archival material examined 

 and partly published, but much must yet be done before 

 a detailed account can be given of the enterprises we have 

 attempted to sketch, or of the man who was the soul of 

 them all. We hardly feel disposed, with Professor Von 



