40 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



it was the intention to force me against my will to inexcusable 

 neglect of my duty, I finally put all respect aside and prayed a 

 particular prayer, ^^ by which the Commander was at once molli- 

 fied so as to let me go ashore with the water carriers, without any 

 assistance whatever and with no other person but the cossack 

 Thomas Lepekhin, whom I myself had brought with me. On my 

 leaving the ship he again made a test as to how far I could dis- 

 tinguish between mockery and earnest, by causing the trumpets 

 to be sounded after me, at which, without hesitation, ^^ I accepted 

 the affair in the spirit in which it was ordered. ^^ By this time I 

 saw only too clearly why he had wanted to persuade me to go 

 along. I was to fulfill in my person one point of the instructions,''*' 

 in regard to which it would otherwise have been impossible to 

 give an accounting, namely that which related to the investiga- 

 tion of the mineral resources by certain properly qualified persons. 

 For eight years it had been forgotten to requisition them from 

 Ekaterinburg,'^ and the assayer Hartepol, who was staying at 

 Okhotsk, had been sent to Yakutsk in order to accompany Span- 

 berg, so that at the departure he could not be taken along. Under 

 the circumstances it was intended that I, though only in name, 



6' The meaning of this passage is scarcely doubtful. It is plain that 

 Steller was very much wrought up by the refusal to let him go ashore, and 

 a few lines above he had threatened to report the officers for their action. 

 Lauridsen (Vitus Bering, Danish edit., p. 136; American edit., p. 151) 

 therefore — and probably correctly — regards the "particular prayer" as 

 a euphemism for an oath. (S) 



Steller, in his report to the Senate (for reference, see, above, p. 6, 

 footnote 5), said that he swore at Bering, "Upotrebil uzhe zhestokiya 

 slova" (I now used harsh words). (G) 



68 The published version has " ohne mich zu bedenken," without hesita- 

 tion. The MS has"ohne mich zu bedancken," without returning thanks! 



69 In the MS this sentence is completed by the clause, "as I had never 

 been a braggart, nor would I care for such [attentions] even if they were 

 really intended to honor me." 



70 See Vol. I, p. 31, Article 11. 



'1 Ekaterinburg, in the Urals, was founded by Peter in 1723 and named 

 in honor of the Empress. This city soon became an important mining 

 center. (G) 



