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their duties by threats of cruel punishments and a
continued stay in Siberia. It had been the intention to
recruit the expedition through the voluntary service of
Russians, but the native officers showed but little
inclination in this direction, and it was found necessary to fill
the vacancies by draft. Van Haven assures us that
Bering’s expedition was looked upon in St. Petersburg as
a mild sort of banishment.
The necessary instruments and some provisions were
obtained in St. Petersburg. The naval officers were
supplied with quadrants, thermometers, and nocturnals, the
surveyors with astrolabes and Gunter’s-chains, and the
Academists were authorized to take from the library of
the Academy all the works they needed, and, at the
expense of the crown, to purchase such as the library did
not contain. La Croyère carried with him a whole
magazine of instruments. For presents to the natives
two thousand rubles were appropriated. In N. Novgorod
and Kazan some other necessaries were obtained, but
the enormous ship-supplies and provisions, besides men,
horses, barges and other river boats, were to be provided
by the Siberian towns and country districts.
The Siberian authorities received orders to make great
preparations. They were to buy venison, fish, and cod
liver oil, erect light-houses and magazines along the
Arctic coast, and dispatch commissions with large
transports to the Pacific coast, so as to enable Bering to begin
his work of discovery without delay. These preparations
were to be followed by efforts toward the founding of
various works, such as iron and salt works at Okhotsk, a
smaller furnace at Yakutsk for the use of the expedition,
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