198 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
the coast of America in 56° N.L. The mate Abraham Demen¬ 
tiev was then sent ashore in the longboat, which was armed with 
a cannon and manned by ten well-armed men. When he did not 
return, another boat was sent after him. But this boat too did 
not come back. Probably the boats’ crews were taken prisoners 
and killed by the Indians. After making another attempt to 
find his lost men, Chirikov determined to return to Kamchatka. 
He first sailed some distance northwards along the coast of 
America without being able to land, as both the vessel’s boats 
were lost. Great scarcity of drinking-water was thus occasioned, 
which was felt the more severely as the return voyage was very 
protracted on account of head-winds and fog. During the voyage 
twenty-one men perished, among them de I’lsle de la Croyere, 
who died, as is said often to be the case with scurvy patients on 
board ship, while he was being carried from his bed up on deck 
to be put on land.^ 
The voyages of Behring and Chirikov, attended as they were by 
the sacrifice of so many human lives, gave us a knowledge of the 
position of North-western America in relation to that of North¬ 
eastern Asia, and led to the discovery of the long volcanic chain 
of islands between the Alaska peninsula and Kamchatka. 
7. Voyages to Japan. —For these Captain Spangberg ordered 
a Imcher, the Erkeengeln Michael, and a double sloop, the 
NadescJida, to be built at Okotsk, the old vessel Gahricl being 
at the same time repaired for the same purpose. Spangberg 
himself took command of the Michael, that of the double sloop 
was given to Lieutenant Walton, and of the Gabriel to Midship¬ 
man Cheltinga. Drift-ice prevented a start until midsummer, 
and on that account nothing more could be done the first year 
(1738) than to examine the Kurile Islands to the 46th degree 
of latitude. From this point the vessels returned to Kamchatka, 
^ In this account of Behring’s and Chirikov’s voyages, I have followed 
Muller (iii. pp. 187-268). More complete original accounts of Behring’s 
voyage are quoted further on in the sketch of our visit to Behring Island. 
