14 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



that additional and much larger transportation would com- 

 pletely exhaust these desolate regions and be the ruin of the poor 

 natives there, as subsequent events have shown. ^'^ 



I pass over the ten ^-ears of laborious preparation which pre- 

 ceded the second voyage — the innumerable difficulties encoun- 

 tered, the expenses, the losses of men and beasts, etc., which took 

 place during the years from 1733 to 1 741, as well as the circum- 

 stances relating to Captain Spanberg's separate expedition, ^^ 



1' The last two sentences do not occur in the MS and seem to be an 

 elaboration by Pallas. 



18 Spanberg's voyages to Japan constituted one of the two expeditions 

 subsidiary to Bering's second expedition, the second being explorations 

 along the Arctic coast of Siberia. Spanberg, using the Bolshaya River 

 as a point of departure, made three voyages, one in 1738, one in 1739, 

 and the last in 1742. On the first he explored the Kurile Islands as far 

 as 45° 30', on the second he skirted the eastern coast of Yezo and northern 

 Hondo as far as 39°, on the third he reached 39° 35' without touching 

 land or accomplishing any new discoveries. (On Spanberg's voyages see 

 the pages indicated in the following works cited in the bibliography of 

 Vol. i: Miiller, Sammlung Russischer Geschichte, Vol. 3, 1758, pp. 166- 

 185, English transl. by Jefferys, 1761, pp. 26-34; Sokolov, Zapiski 

 Hydrogr. Depart., Vol. 9, 1851, pp. 345-365 and 416-422, with map of 

 1738 and 1739 voyages; Lauridsen, Vitus Bering, Chicago, 1889, pp. 

 1 1 7-1 26, with copy of Sokolov's map; Colder, Russian Expansion on 

 the Pacific, 1914. PP- 220-231.) 



Steller's reference, immediately below in the journal, to his request 

 in 1740 to join Spanberg's second voyage to Japan relates to the voyage 

 which was ultimately carried out in 1742. The voyages of 1738 and 1739 

 were considered as a single undertaking, in which that of 1738 was a 

 preliminary effort which fell short of the mark. 



The news of Spanberg's 1739 voyage had at first been received with 

 satisfaction by the authorities in St. Petersburg, but later doubts arose 

 as to whether he had reached Japan at all, inasmuch as the current con- 

 ception, as reflected on contemporary maps, was that Japan lay on the 

 same meridian as Kamchatka and Spanberg reported his discoveries to 

 lie 11° to 12° farther west (see the works cited, e. g. Miiller, p. 183). 

 For this reason Spanberg was ordered to repeat the voyage. The order 

 reached him at Kirensk Post on the upper Lena while he was on his way 

 to St. Petersburg to report. Here Steller seems to have met him and asked 

 to be taken to Japan. Spanberg made his preparations during the 

 winter of 1 740-1 741 and actually set sail from Okhotsk in the summer 



