HOW THE COMMANDER SAILED.
By DAVID STARR JORDAN, President of Leland Stanford, Jr. University.[1]
ONCE there was a great sea captain,
born in Jutland, in 1681, and his name was Vitus Bering. But when he went away from Denmark and became a commander in the Russian navy they called him Ivan Ivanovich Bering, for that was easier for the Russians to say. He was a man of great stature, and greater heart, strong, brave and patient, and so the Russians chose him to lead in the explorations of Siberia and North America.
And so it chanced that in the spring of 1741 Vitus Bering found himself in the little village of Petropaulski, the harbor of Peter and Paul, which is the capita of the vast uninhabitable region of moss, volcanoes and mountain torrents they call Kamchatka.
And from the village of Peter and Paul Bering sailed forth to explore the icy sea and to find North America, and to learn how to reach it from Kamchatka. There were 77 men all told on board the St. Peter, and one of them was George Wilhelm Steller, the German naturalist, clear-headed, warm-hearted and imperative, who has told the story of the voyage.
First they sailed for Gamaland, a great island, which, on the Russian maps of that day, lay in the ocean to the southeast of Kamchatka. But when the St. Peter came to where Gamaland was, they said: "Only sea and sky; a few wandering birds, and no land at all." There never was any Gamaland, but Bering did not know this, so he was surprised to find no land nearer than the bottom of the sea.
The east wind blew and the great fogs hid the sun and stars, but still Bering sailed on. Away over the sea where Gamaland was not, away to the eastward, on and on, till at last they saw before them a great belt of land. The coast was high and jagged, covered with snow in July, and lined with wild islands, between which the sea swept in swift currents. Over the scrubby forests of stunted fir a snow-capped mountain towered so high that they could see it 70 miles away. "I do not remember," Steller wrote, "of having seen a higher mountain in all Siberia and Kamchatka." And he was right, for there was none other so high in all the Russian dominions. As it was the day of St. Elias, they named the mountain for the saint, and the bay and the cape and the island, everything they saw was named for St. Elias. And they are named for St. Elias to this day; and Mount St. Elias is the highest in all North America. They found no inhabitants in St. Elias-land. They had all run away in fear at the sight of the ship and the white men. But they found a "house of timber with a fireplace, a bath-basket, a wooden spade, some mussel-shells and a whetstone," used to sharpen copper knives. Besides these articles they found in an earth hut "some smoked fish, a broken arrow and the remains of a fire." Some of these things they took away with them. So, to make everything fair, Bering left in the house "an iron kettle, a pound of tobacco, a Chinese pipe and a piece of silk cloth." But no one was there when the Indians returned to see what use they made of these unexpected presents.
They did not stay long about the bay of St. Elias. Bering knew that the summer was well along, and that if they were to learn anything of the coast they must go along it rapidly. With their few provisions and their small ship they could not spend the winter in this rough country. Many men have blamed him for going away so soon. Whether Bering did right it is not for us to say. We know Steller's opinion, but Bering's we have not heard. Steller said: "The only rea- son for leaving was stupid obstinacy, fear of a handful of natives, and pusil-
- ↑ I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Peter Lauridseu, whose "Life of Vitus Bering" has been freely consulted in the preparation of this article.
