248 LETTER TO GMELIN 



person but admonished him to report only the truth about my 

 whole behavior. I yield to none in [the protection of] the honor 

 of my institution, my services, or the welfare of the general fund,^^ 









Fig. 30 — Facsimile of Steller's handwriting, constituting the end of his 

 letter to Gmelin of November 4, 1742. (From Plieninger, Reliquiae . • • 

 commercii epistolici, Stuttgart, 1861.) 



and on my return I regard it as my greatest riches that I shall 

 leave behind in Siberia neither sighs, nor debts, nor a bad reputa- 

 tion, nor accusations. 



May I beg Your Highness to be good enough to see to It that 

 I at least receive from the chancellery of the Academy an assur- 

 ance as to whether they received my reports and collections.^^ 

 To date I do not know whether they got a single one from me, 



20 This passage in German reads: "ich vergebe weder der Ehre meines 

 Collegii, meiner Dienste, noch dem Interesse der Cassa das Geringste." 



21 It is difficult to identify these. The Academy received a report from 

 Irkutsk dated February 13, 1740, and two reports from Kirensk Post 

 dated April 30, 1740 (Pekarskii, Zapiski Imp. Akad. Nauk, Vol. 15, 



