218 General A. W. Greely — Bering^ s First Voyage. 



succession, to the position of captain-commander in the Russian fleet, tlie 

 next position below tliat of rear-admival." 



This indicates that the expedition was decided on at least as 

 early as January 5, 1732 ; possibly earlier. Fortunately we are 

 not left to inference, for elsewhere the Russian officer says : 



" Mr. de risle ' throws discredit on our discoveries by leaving on his 

 chart the fictitious land of Gama, which, in order to avoid conflicting 

 with our accounts, he places (in 1752) a little more to the west and south 

 than he did on his chart of 1732.' " 



This definitely fixes the year in Avhich de ITsle presented the 

 map to the Senate. 



We learn, however, from Lauridsen that " as early as April 

 17 (1732) the Empress ordered that Bering's proposition should 

 be executed, and charged the Senate to take the necessary steps 

 for that purpose. * * * On May 2 it [i. e., the Senate] pro- 

 mulgated two ukases, in which it declared the objects of the ex- 

 j^edition and sought to indicate the necessary means." It is 

 very improbable that, in the case of so dilatory a man as de 

 I'Isle, this chart could have been elaborated and drawn, the 

 memoir written, a report made by the Academy to the Senate, 

 and action be taken in the fifteen days which elapsed between 

 the order for the chart and Bering's instructions. It is possible 

 that the chart was drawn at the end of 1731, and that de ITsle, 

 for obvious reasons, gave it the earliest possible date. 



In giving an account of Bering's provisions, as Dall says, every 

 historian has followed a mutilated, if not garbled, paragraph 

 from Bering's original report. The excerpts from Brooke's trans- 

 lation of du Halde, Avhich was followed in Campbell's edition of 

 Harris' Voyages, are as follows : 



" The provisions consisted of carrots for want of corn [= grain or wheat], 

 the fat of fish, uncured, served instead of butter, and salt fish supplied the 

 place of all other meats." 



" Fish oil was his butter and dried fish his beef and pork. Salt he was 

 obliged to get from the sea ; * * * he distilled spirits from ' sweet 

 straw.' " 



It appears from Bering's own journal, as well as from du 

 Halde's account, that in 1727 Bering ordered one of his officers 

 to endeavor to " deliver to the command at Kamschatka some 

 part of the provisions, iron, and tar." Bering himself said that 

 he was obliged to use tar made from the native spruce, " since 



