Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter VII.
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At Bolsheretsk Bering collected his men, distributed
provisions and powder, left the Fortuna with a crew
of one corporal and eleven men, and on the 14th of
July steered for Okhotsk. After a fortunate, but not
otherwise remarkable, journey, he reached St.
Petersburg on the 1st of March, 1730. “From the perusal
of his ship’s journal,” says Berch, “one becomes
convinced that our famous Bering was an extraordinarily
able and skillful officer; and if we consider his
defective instruments, his great hardships, and the obstacles
that had to be overcome, his observations and the great
accuracy of his journal deserve the highest praise. He
was a man who did Russia honor.”
Bering had thus done good work in the service of
Asiatic geography. He had shown that he possessed
an explorer’s most important qualification—never to
make positive statements where there is no definite
knowledge. By virtue of his extensive travels in
northeastern Asia, his scientific qualifications, his ability to
make careful, accurate observations, and his own
astronomical determinations, and by virtue of his direct
acquaintance with Kosyrefsky’s and Lushin’s works, he
was in a position to form a more correct opinion than
any contemporary concerning this part of the earth.
In spite of these great advantages in his favor, his
work was rejected by the leading authorities in St.
Petersburg. It is true that Bering found sincere
support in the able and influential Ivan Kirilovich Kiriloff,
but to no one else could he turn for a just and
competent judge. The great Russian empire had not yet
produced a scientific aristocracy. The Academy of
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