PLAN OF EXPEDITIOX 19 



it was believed with certainty that it would be easier to discover 

 America or the coasts of America projecting towards the west 

 reported by Gama^^ in this neighborhood. If, however, no land 

 were made on this course, it was the intention to proceed farther 

 between east and north, turning more and more northerly, be- 

 cause it was hoped towards the middle of July to find the sea 

 there clear of all ice and thus to lose no time. If in doing so 

 America should be reached, it was proposed to follow the coast 

 in a northerly direction until we came to the parallels of 64° 

 to 66°, where the farthest' point of Asia, or the Chukchi Promon- 

 tory, is situated, toward which it was then intended to turn in a 

 westerly direction and, after having determined the distance be- 

 tween both continents in the north, to make ready for the return 

 to the home port. However, in view of the winds and the dis- 

 tance, the necessary proviso was made that the coast should be 

 followed only long enough for the time to admit of the port 

 [Avacha] being reached again by the end of September, when 

 it was intended to let the remaining part of the investigation be 

 conditioned on a second voyage the following year. 



It is admittedly true that originally Captain Commander 

 Bering had firmly resolved to pass a winter in America and in 

 the spring to finish from America the remainder of the task, 

 which on account of the shortness of the summer and the long 

 distance would not have been accomplished in one [outward] 

 trip, and then embark upon the return voyage. In that case not 

 only would have been prevented the great disaster to the crew, 



28 Juan de Gama, a Spanish navigator, whose discoveries of islands 

 on a voyage from China to New Spain appear on a map for the first time 

 in 1649 (see bottom inset on Buache's map of 1754, reproduced in 

 Teleki's "Atlas zur Geschichte der Kartographie der Japanischen In- 

 seln," 1909, p. 141; also Vol. i of present work, pp. 2-3 and Fig. i). 

 The fact that De Gama Land was sometimes merged with Company 

 Land (see preceding footnote), which in two passages of the log book 

 of Vries' voyage (under June 21 and August 5: Leupe's edit., 1858, pp. 

 100 and 157-158; Teleki's "Atlas," pp. 118 and 126) is characterized as 

 part of America (see also Graaf's map, derived from Vries' voyage, in 

 Teleki's "Atlas," PI. 8, map 2), accounts for Steller's statement. (J) 



