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geographers of that day insisted that the Russian
government system of suppression merely aimed at
excluding the rest of Europe from that profitable maritime
trade through the Arctic seas for which the Northern
Expedition had opened the way. Ignorance on this
subject was so great that Joseph de l’Isle ventured even
before the French Academy to refer to himself as the
originator of the expedition,—to rob Bering of his dearly
bought honor, and to proclaim to the world that Bering
accomplished no more on this expedition than his own
shipwreck and death. With Buache he published a book
and a map to prove his statements. The name De l’Ilse
at that time carried with it such weight that he might
have succeeded in deceiving the world for a time, if G.
F. Müller had not, in an anonymous pamphlet written in
French, disproved these falsehoods. But even Müller’s
sketch in Sammlung Russischer Geschichte (1758), the
first connected account published concerning these
expeditions, has great defects, as we have seen, not only from
the standpoint of historical accuracy, but it also shows a
lack of appreciation of the geographical results obtained
by Bering. Hence it would have been impossible for
Cook to render the discoverer long-deferred justice, if he
had not known D’Anville’s map and Dr. Campbell’s essay.
Thus it was West Europe that last century rescued
Bering’s name from oblivion. In our day the Russian
Admiralty has had this vast archival material examined
and partly published, but much must yet be done before
a detailed account can be given of the enterprises we have
attempted to sketch, or of the man who was the soul of
them all. We hardly feel disposed, with Professor Von
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