156 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



strength and ability he tried at all times to carry out the task 

 imposed on him, though he himself confessed and often lamented 

 that his strength was no longer equal to so difficult an expedition, 

 that it had been made larger and more extensive than he had 

 proposed, and likewise that at his age he could have wished to 

 have the whole task taken out of his hands and put into those 

 of a young and active man^^^ of the Russian ^^s nation. — As is 

 well known, the late lamented was not born to quick decisions 

 and swift action; however, in view of his fidelity, dispassionate 

 temper, and circumspect deliberateness, the question remains 

 whether another with more fire and heat would have overcome 

 equally well the innumerable difficulties of and obstacles to his 

 task without entirely laying waste these remote regions, when a 

 commander such as he was, free from all self-interest, could 

 scarcely keep his subordinates sufficiently under control in this 

 matter.366 — The only blame which can be laid against this excel- 

 lent man is that by his too lenient command he did as much 

 harm 367 as his subordinates by their too impetuous and often 



364 In the MS this phrase reads: "a young, active, and resolute man." 



365 This quahfying adjective appears only in the MS, and the thought 

 is there amplified by this clause following the word "nation": "who in 

 many cases could act more fearlessly and more successfully than an old 

 man and a foreigner." 



366 The passage "would have overcome ... in this matter" in the 

 MS reads as follows: "would not, in view of the innumerable disagree- 

 ments and difficulties, have delayed the work more or by too despotic 

 action entirely ruined the regions hereabout, when this careful man, free 

 from all private interest, was unable, because of the size of the command 

 and the divergent inclinations of the subordinates, to prevent that, 

 while he was busy putting out a fire [i. e. putting down trouble] in one 

 place, another started up somewhere else." By the reference to laying 

 waste or ruining these regions is probably meant that a more impetuous 

 man would have favored a policy of exploiting and abusing the natives — • 

 a condition which Steller at the beginning of this journal (p. 13) says 

 actually obtained during the first expedition, although this was probably 

 not with the approval of Bering himself. 



367 The MS reads "half as much harm." This sentence in the MS differs 

 in other respects, all unessential, from the published version. 



