Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter XV.
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in all the departments of natural history, and promised
him all necessary assistance. Steller accuses Bering of
not having kept his promises, and, although he preserved
until the last a high regard for Bering’s seamanship and
noble character, there nevertheless developed, during the
expedition, a vehement enmity between Steller and the
naval officers, especially Waxel and Khitroff, and this
enmity found very pregnant expression in Steller’s diary,[1]
which, in this respect, is more a pamphlet than a
description of travel. It is impossible, however, with our
present resources, to ascertain the true state of affairs.
Concerning Bering’s voyage to America, we have only the St.
Peter’s journals kept by Waxel, Jushin, and Khitroff, and
an account by Waxel, all of which have been used by
Sokoloff in the preparation of the memoirs of the
hydrographic department. Steller’s diary, which goes into a
detailed account of things in quite a different way than
the official reports, was also used by Sokoloff, but as the
latter had but little literary taste and still less sympathy
for the contending parties, especially for Bering, he does
not attempt to dispense justice between them. Steller’s
criticism must be looked upon as an eruption of that
ill-humor which so often and so easily arises in the relations
between the chief of an expedition and the accompanying
scientists, between men with divergent interests and
different aims. Bering and Steller, Cook and his
naturalists, Kotzebue and Chamisso, are prominent examples of
this disagreement. It is well known that Cook called the
naturalists “the damned disturbers of the peace,” and
that he more than once threatened to put them off on
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