Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter XIV.
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of De l’Isle in St. Petersburg. In the ship’s council on
the 4th of May, 1741, La Croyère immediately produced
the above-mentioned map, and directed the expedition first
to find Gamaland, which, it was claimed, could lie but a
few days’ sailing toward the southeast, and would
furnish good assistance in finding America. But La Croyère
was only a spokesman for his brother, who in his memoir
had constructed his principal reasoning on this basis. He
says here that America can be reached from the
Chukchee peninsula as well as from the mouth of the
Kamchatka River, but with greatest ease and certainty from
Avacha Bay in a southeasterly direction to the northern
coast of Gamaland. In order to support this supposition
he adds: “It grieves me not to have found other
information about this land seen by Don Juan de Gama than
what is given on the map of my late brother, his most
Christian Majesty’s first geographer. But as he indicated
the position of this country with reference to
Kompagniland and Jeço, and as I am certain, from other sources,
of the position of these two countries, I am consequently
convinced of their correct situation and distance from
Kamchatka.”
That these miserable arguments exercised any
influence upon the ship’s council on the 4th of May, would
seem impossible, if we did not bear in mind the conduct
of the authorities in St. Petersburg. Two years previous
Spangberg had sailed right across Kompagniland,
Staatenland and Jeço, and thus made every point in De l’Isle’s
argument untenable. Bering and Chirikoff were familiar
with the results of these voyages, and shared Spangberg’s
opinion. For this reason they could not possibly ascribe
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