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country, and are unprovided with provisions for
wintering here.’”
It must be conceded that his position was one fraught
with difficulties. At this point there are two things which
Steller either has not correctly understood, or suppresses.
According to his instructions, Bering was authorized to
spend two years and make two voyages in the discovery
of America, and to undertake another expedition
afterwards with new preparations and equipments. And in his
explanations to the crew he calls special attention to this
point. Under these circumstances it would not have been
right in him to assume any more risks than absolutely
necessary. But here again the old opposition between
Bering’s nautico-geographical and Steller’s
physico-geographical interests breaks out. As a discoverer of the old
school Bering’s principal object was to determine some
elementary geographical facts: namely, the distribution
of land and water along the new coast, and hence he left
Kayak Island, not to reach Avacha as soon as possible,
but to follow the coast of the newly discovered country
toward the west and north. All authorities agree on this
point. It was illness and the Aliaska peninsula,
projecting so far into the ocean as it does, that prevented him
from sailing up toward latitude 65°, his real goal. Even
Steller testifies to this, and although he repeats his former
accusations against Bering, it does not signify anything,
as he was excluded from the councils and was obliged to
guess at what was adopted. His accusations are especially
insignificant from the fact that he definitely contradicts
himself on this point, for later on in his narrative he says
that not until the 11th of August was it resolved, on
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