i6 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



how much my undertaking would be appreciated in high places, 

 if I should consent to go along with him. I replied that I had no 

 orders to do so and that I should not dare to take that decision 

 upon myself, especially as I had already approached the High 

 Governing Senate for permission to go to Japan; that conse- 

 quently such a decision might be regarded as a very bold and 

 thoughtless offense, particularly if the American voyage should 

 become so protracted that I should not be at hand in case the 

 order to go to Japan should arrive. The Captain Commander, 

 however, swept aside all my objections by taking upon himself 

 the responsibility for all the consequences. He also promised to 

 write about it himself to the High Governing Senate and pledged 

 himself to give me all possible opportunities so that I might 

 accomplish something worth while and to give me as many men 

 as I should want whenever needed, since I should have to leave 

 those of my own command behind. Subsequently he also sent 

 me a formal document, after having held a sea council of all the 

 oflficers attached to the expedition, officially charging me, it is 

 true, with the observation during the proposed voyage of the 

 mineral kingdom only. In consideration of all this I decided to 

 accept the offer, seeing that it could not interfere with my Kam- 

 chatka investigations, with which I was particularly entrusted. 

 I hope therefore that my venture, devoid as it was of all personal 

 gain, will be received the more graciously the more exclusively it 

 will be found to have been based upon the general good and the 

 advantage of the Imperial Academy of Sciences as well as upon 

 my own prescribed duties. I consequently expect anything but 

 punishment for undertaking something without orders, since the 

 great distance did not permit me to submit extensive representa- 

 tions and then await instructions for carrying out an enterprise 

 which could w^ait only a few days for my own arbitrary decision 

 but not for orders from far away. For this reason I venture be- 

 forehand to promise myself a gracious pardon, w^hen, after an 

 absence of fourteen months and a six months' 20 miserable and 

 dangerous sea voyage, I reappear with few useful discoveries, 

 20 June to November, I74i' 



