USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 6
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25
THE RUSSIANS ON THE PACIFIC.
discoveror and conqueror of Kamchatka. The Rus- sians found in Kamchatka Japanese writings and even some Japanese sailors cast ashore there by shipwreck. From the latter they learned that the land stretched far away to the south, and were at first induced to believe that Kamchatka reached as far as Japan, as indeed it is laid down on the oldest maps.
Like the Spaniards in Mexico, the first Russians in Kamchatka were highly honored, almost deified, by the natives. That the aboriginal Americans should have ascribed divinity to the first Spaniards is not strange. They came to them from off the limitless and mysterious water in huge white-winged canoes, in martial array, with gaudy trappings and glittering armor; they landed with imposing ceremonies; their leaders were men of dignified bearing and suave man- ners, and held their followers in control. The first appearance of the Russians in Kamchatka, however, presents an entirely different aspect; surely the Kam- chatkans of that day were satisfied with ungainly gods.
The Cossacks who came with Atlassof were rough- looking fellows, of small size, clad in furs like the Kamchatkans, most of them the offspring of unions between half Tartars and women from the native tribes of Siberia. They were filthy in their habits, and had just completed a weary ride of many months through the wilderness. They were naturally cruel and placed no restraint on their beastly propen- sities; nevertheless they were called gods by beings of a lower order than themselves, and it were well to propitiate them. Indeed, they did possess one attribute of the deity: they could kill. A few rusty firelocks, a few pounds of powder, and they were omnipotent. Gods are prone to quarrel as well as men, but can they die? The Kamchatkans thought not; so when they saw one of Atlassof's men struck down by another, saw the warm red blood gush from a mortal wound to stain the virgin snow, the spell
26
THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS.
was broken. These were no gods; and thenceforth the Russians had to fight for the supremacy. After many expeditions and many battles, for these people were in truth brave and lovers of liberty, the Rus- sians, in 1706, reached the southern extremity of the Kamchatka peninsula, where they saw the north- ernmost islands of the Kurile chain which points to Japan.
Thus did the Russians, after the lapse of a century full of toil and ravages, reach the extreme end of the Old World .. At the beginning of the eighteenth century they found themselves on a separate strip of coast, twelve hundred miles long, facing another twelve hundred miles' strip, the north-west end of America. It was hardly to be expected that they would rest contented where they were.
The natives of Kamchatka did not appear to have any knowledge of America, so that the Russians were left to learn of the bolshaia zemlia, or 'great land' toward the east, slowly and as they were able. Tall trunks of fir and other trees which did not grow in Kamchatka were thrown from time to time by cur- rents upon the shores along the east side of that country. Large flocks of land-birds came to the coast occasionally from the east and disappeared again in the same direction. Whales came from the east with spear-heads in their backs different from any used in Kamchatka; and now and then foreign-built boats and other unusual objects were washed upon the eastern coast. Even the waves carrying these tokens did not have as long a swell as those to the south. Hence they said this land must front a sea wholly or partially enclosed, and that toward the north the sides must be nearest together. Surely the Chukchi should know something about it. Indeed, often in their fights with these people the Russians had taken captives with pieces of walrus ivory thrust through their lips and cheeks, and speaking a language differ- ent from that of the Chukchi. And the story was
27
THE 'GREAT LAND' TO THE EAST.
that the great land was no island, but had rivers and chains of mountains without end.3
About this time the stolnik knias, Vassili Ivanovich Gagarin, was present at Yakutsk, sent thither by his uncle, the governor, Prince Matveï Petrovich Gagarin, to make discoveries. He issued several orders to the voivod, or nobleman, Trauernicht, who commanded in that section, one of them being that he should " make diligent inquiry about the islands situated opposite the mouth of the river Kolima, and the land of Kam- chatka; what people inhabited them; under whose jurisdiction they were; what was their employment;
3 Matveï Strebykhin, commander of the ostrog of Anadirsk, was instructed in 1711 to collect information concerning the Chukchi and an island or conti- nent lying to the eastward of their country. One of the results of this inves- tigation was a deposition made and sworn to by the Yakout Cossack Peter Elianovich Popof, the promyshlenik Yegor Vassilievich Toldin, and the newly converted Yukagir Ivan Vassilievich Tereshkin, and dated Anadirsk, Sept. 2, 1711. It was to the effect that on the 13th of January 1711 Popof and the two others, who served as interpreters, were sent out by Governor Fedor Kotovskoi to visit the valley of the Anadir and receive tribute from some of the Chukchi tribes. This done they were to proceed to the cape, Chukotskoi Noss, in order to persuade the Chukchi living there to become tributary to Russia. Popof met everywhere with a peremptory refusal to pay tribute. The Chukchi said that formerly the Russians had come to their country in ships, and they paid no tribute then, and therefore they would not do it now, and Popof must expect no hostages from them. The Chukchi who dwell near the cape keep tame reindeer, and in order to find pasture for their animals they frequently change their habitation. Opposite the cape on either side, in the sea of Kolima as well as in that of Anadir, islands have been seen, which the Chukchi call a large country, and they say that the people living there have large teeth in their mouths, projecting through the cheeks. Popof found ten of these men, prisoners among the Chukchi, with their cheeks still disfigured by the projecting ivory. In summer time they sail across to the Great Land in one day, and in the winter a swift reindeer team can make it in one day over the ice. In the other land there are sables, wolves, and bears. The people are, like the Chukchi, without any government. They have the wood of cedar, larch, and fir trees, which the Chukchi sometimes obtain for their bidars, weapons, and huts. About 2,000 people live at and near the cape, but the inhabitants of the other country are said to be three times that number, which is confirmed not only by prisoners but also by one of the Chukchi, who has often been there. Another statement was essentially as follows: Opposite the cape lies an island, within sight, of no great extent, devoid of timber, and inhabited by people resembling the Chukchi, though they speak their own language. It is half a day's voyage to the island from the cape. Beyond the island there is a large continent, scarcely to be seen from it, and that only on very clear days. In calm weather one may row over the sea to the continent, which is inhabited. There are large forests, and great rivers fall into the sea. The inhabitants have fortified dwellings with ramparts of earth. Their clothes are the skins of sable and fox. The Chukchi are often at war with them. Yeshemiassachnaia Sochinenia, 1786, 152-6; Muller's Voy., 24-6.
28
THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS.
how large the islands were and how distant from the continent." The commanders and Cossacks ordered to those regions were all commissioned with such in- quiries, with the promise of special rewards for such service from the emperor, who should be informed of any discoveries by express as soon as any authentic report was forwarded to Yakutsk.
Orders had been issued as early as 1710 to the commanders of Ust-Yana and Kolima to give these discoveries their special attention. In answer, a dep- osition was sent in by the Cossack Yakov Permakof of Ust-Yana, stating that he once sailed from the Lena to the River Kolima, and that on the east side of Sviatoi Noss he had sighted an island in the sea, but was unable to ascertain if it was inhabited. There was also an island situated directly opposite the river Kolima, an island that might be seen from the conti- nent. Mountains could be seen upon it, but it was uncertain whether it was inhabited.
The voivod Trauernicht was further encouraged,4 and prepared two expeditions, one from the mouth of the river Yana and one from the Kolima, simultane- ously to search for the supposed island; for which purpose the men were either to go in boats or travel on the ice till it could be definitely ascertained if such an island existed. Concerning the first-named expedi- tion, which was begun by Merkuri Vagin, a Cossack, Müller found several reports at Yakutsk, but in his opinion the documents did not deserve much consid- eration.
Vagin departed from Yakutsk during the autumn of 1711, with eleven other Cossacks, and in May
4 Knias Matveï Gagarin wrote to the voivod, under date of January 28, 1711, as follows: 'I have heard by Cossacs and Dworanes from Jakutzk that you intend to send a party of Cossacs and volunteers to the new coun- try or island opposite the mouth of the river Kolima, but that you hesitated about doing it without orders; therefore I have found it necessary to tell you that you should by no means neglect to do it; and if other islands may be discovered, you will be pleased to do the same with respect to them. But above all things the expedition is to be made this present year, 1711. This I write to you by order of his Czarish Majesty.' Muller's Voy., Intr., xv .- xvi.
29
EASTERN EXPLORATIONS.
1712 he made a voyage from Ust-Yanskoie Simovie to the frozen sea. On this occasion the Yakov Per- makof, previously mentioned, served as his guide. The party used sledges drawn by dogs, and after fol- lowing the coast to Sviatoi Noss, they emerged upon the frozen ocean and travelled directly north. They came to a desert island, without wood, which Vagin estimated to be from nine to twelve days' travel in circumference. From this island they saw, farther to the north, another island or land, but as the spring was already too far advanced, Vagin dared not pro- ceed, and his provisions running short the whole party returned to the continent, to provide themselves with a sufficient supply of fish during the summer. The point where he reached the coast was between Sviatoi Noss and the river Khroma. A Cossack had formerly erected a cross there, and after him it was named Ka- taief Krest. Being out of provisions, they failed in an attempt to reach the Khroma, and were compelled to eke out an existence on the sea-coast, devouring even the sledge-dogs. Vagin, however, still intended to prosecute his explorations ; but his Cossacks, remem- bering their sufferings, to prevent a repetition, rose against their leader and murdered him, his son, the guide Permakof, and one promyshlenik. The crime was revealed by one of the accomplices and the of- enders were brought to justice. During the trial it appeared that the guide Yakov Permakof did not believe the supposed large island to be really an island, but only vapor.
The other expedition, that from the Kolima, met with no better success. It consisted of a single vessel commanded by the Cossack Vassili Stadukhin, with twenty-two men. He merely observed a single prom- ontory, extending into the sea to the east of Kolima, surrounded by ice, impenetrable by their vessels.5
5 They used shitiki, or boats, the planks of which were fastened together with rawhide straps and thongs. They measured about 30 feet in length and 12 feet broad, with a flat bottom, calked with moss. The sails consisted of soft,
30
THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS.
Another expedition was undertaken by a Cossack named Amossof. He started in 1723 with a party to search for an island reported to extend from the mouth of the Yana beyond the mouth of the Indigirka. He proceeded to the Kolima, and was prepared to sail in July 1724. According to his account he found such shoals of ice before him that he changed his course and sailed along the coast eastward to the so- called habitation of Kopaï, which he reached on the 7th of August. Here again ice drove him back, and he returned to the Kolima. The dwelling of Kopaï was about two hundred versts cast of that river. Amossof also mentioned a small island situated near the conti- nent, and during the following winter he made another journey, with sledges, of which he sent an account to the chancellery of Yakutsk. The report was to the effect that on the 3d of November 1724 he set out from Nishnoie Kolimskoie Simovie, and met with land in the frozen sea, returning to Kolima on the 23d of the same month. Upon this land he saw nothing but old huts covered with earth; it was unknown to what people they belonged, and what had be- come of them. Want of provisions, and especially of dog-food, had obliged him to turn back without making any further discoveries. This journey was also impeded by ridges of ice piled to a great height, which had to be crossed with the sledges. The place where Amossof left the continent to go over to the island is between the Chukotcha and the Aliseia rivers. It was an island, in circumference about a day's travel with dogs, and about the same distance from the continent, whence its high mountains can easily be seen. To the north were two other islands, likewise mountainous and separated by narrow straits. These he had not visited and did not know their ex- tent. The first was without trees; no tracks of animals
dressed reindeer-skin, and in place of ropes, straps of elk-skin were used. The anchors were pieces of wood, to which heavy stones were fastened. Muller's Voy., Introd., xviii.
3]
KAMCHATKA REACHED BY SEA.
were seen but those of reindeer, which live on moss. The old huts had been constructed of drift-wood and covered with earth. It is probable that they had been made by Yukagirs or Chukchi, who had fled before the first advance of the Russians, and subse- quently returned to the continent.6
Kopaï, mentioned in Amossof's narrative, was a chief among the Shelages, living at the mouths of the Kolima and Aliseia rivers. He first paid tribute to Russia at the request of Vilegin, a promyshlenik, and in 1724 he paid tribute to Amossof. Subsequently, however, he broke his allegiance and killed some of Amossof's party.
The first passage by sea from Okhotsk to Kam- chatka took place in 1716. One of the sailors, a native of Hoorn in Holland, named Bush, was alive when Müller visited Yakutsk in 1736, and he related to him the circumstances. On the 23d of May 1714 a party of twenty Cossacks and sailors arrived at Ok- hotsk under command of Kosma Sokolof. These were followed in July by some carpenters and shipwrights. The carpenters built a vessel for sea-service, resem- bling the Russian lodkas in use between Arkhangel, Pustozersk, and Novaia Zemlia. The vessel was du- rable-fifty-one feet long, with eighteen feet beam, and drew when laden only three and a half feet of water. Embarking in June 1716, they followed the coast north-easterly till they came to the mouth of the river Ola, where a contrary wind drove them across the sea to Kamchatka. The land first sighted was a promon- tory north of the river Tigil, where they cast anchor. Some went ashore, but found only empty huts. The Kamchatkans had watched the approach of the vessel and fled to the mountains. The navigators again set sail, passed the Tigil, and arrived in one day at
6 Müller does not seem to have placed much faith in Amossof's report. He expresses the opinion that it was framed to serve private purposes and subsequently altered to suit circumstances. Voy., Introd., xx.
32
THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS.
the mouth of the little river Kharinzobka, in the vicinity of two small islands. From Kharinzobka they went the following day to the river Itcha, keep- ing the sea at night and making for the land in the morning. Here, again, some men were put ashore, but they could find neither inhabitants nor houses. They soon returned and the vessel sailed down the coast till they came to the river Krutogorova. They intended to make this river, but missed its mouth, and finding a convenient bay a little to the south they anchored. On searching the country, they met with a girl who was gathering edible roots in the field, and she showed them some huts, inhabited by twelve Kamchatka Cossacks, stationed there to receive tribute. The Cossacks were sent for, and served as guides and interpreters. The vessel was then brought to the mouth of the river Kompakova, and it was resolved to winter there.7
Early in May 1717 they put to sea, and on the fourth day became lodged between fields of ice, and were held there for over five weeks. At last they regained the coast of Okhotsk between the river Ola and Tanisky ostrog, where they stayed several days, and then returned to Okhotsk about the middle of July. From that time there was constant navigation between Okhotsk and Kamchatka.
In 1719 the Russian government sent two naviga- tors or surveyors, Ivan Yevreinof and Fedor Lushin, to make geographical observations, and specially to find, if possible, among the Kurile Islands the one from which the Japanese were said to obtain gold and silver. They arrived at Yakutsk in May 1720, crossed over to Kamchatka the same summer, and returned to Yakutsk in 1721.8 Yevreinof left Lushin in Sibe-
7 During the stay of Sokolof and Bush on the Kompakova, a whale was cast ashore, which had in its body a harpoon of European make, marked with Roman letters. Muller's Voy., Introd., xlii.
8 The results were kept secret and Müller could not get access to their in- structions, so that nothing more is known about this voyage. Muller's Voy., Introd., xliii.
33
THE AMERICAN SIBERIA.
ria and proceeded to Russia to report to the tsar, tak- ing with him a map of the Kurile Islands as far as he had explored them. For the next three years, that is to say to 1724, rumors and ideas concerning the east assumed more and more definiteness in Kamchatka, and at Okhotsk, Yakutsk, and other Russian settle- ments, at last reaching Moscow and St Petersburg, there to find attentive listeners.9
Obviously the Great Land opposite, if any such there was, would present aspects quite different to the tough Cossacks and to the more susceptible Europeans from the south. The American Siberia, this farther- most north-west was once called, and if to the Amer- ican it was Siberia, to the Siberian it was America. The eastern end of Asia is lashed by the keen east- ern tempests and stands bleak and bare, without vegetation, and the greater part of the year wrapped in ice and snow. The western shores of America, though desolate and barren enough within the limits of Bering sea, are wonderfully different where they are washed by the Pacific and protected from the east by high chains of mountains. Here they are open to the mild westerly winds and warm ocean currents; they have a damper climate, and, in consequence, a more vigorous growth of trees and plants. In com- paratively high latitudes they are covered with fine forests down to the sea-shore. This is a contrast which repeats itself in all northern countries. The ruder Sweden in the east contrasts in a like manner with the milder Norway in the west; the desolate
9 Müller relates ' that in the year 1715 there lived at Kamchatka a man of a foreign nation, who, upon account of the Kamchatkan cedar-nuts and the low shrubs on which they grow, said that he came from a country to the east where there were large cedars which bore bigger nuts than those of Kam- chatka ; that his country was situated to the east of Kamchatka ; that there were found in it great rivers where he lived which discharged themselves westward into the Kamchatkan sea; that the inhabitants called themselves Tontoli; they resembled in their manner of living the people of Kamchatka and made use of skin boats or baidares like those of the Kamchadales. That many years ago he went over with some more of his countrymen to Karag- inskoi ostrow where his companions were slain by the inhabitants, and he alone made his escape to Kamchatka.' Voy., Introd., xxviii.
HIST. ALASKA. 2
34
THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS.
eastern coast of Greenland buried in polar ice, with its western coast inhabited, and at times gay with flowers and verdure. Thus the great eastern coun- try, the bolshaia zemlia, rich in harbors, shelter, woods, and sea and land animals, might well become by report among the north-eastern Asiatics a garden of paradise.
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CHAPTER III.
THE KAMCHATKA EXPEDITIONS. 1723-1740.
PURPOSES OF PETER THE GREAT-AN EXPEDITION ORGANIZED-SETS OUT FROM ST PETERSBURG-DEATH OF THE TSAR-HIS EFFORTS SECONDED BY CATHERINE AND ELIZABETH-BERING AND CHIRIKOF AT KAMCHAT- KA-THEY COAST NORTHWARD THROUGH BERING STRAIT AND PROVE ASIA TO BE SEPARATED FROM AMERICA-ADVENTURES OF SHESTAKOF -- EXPEDITION OF HENS, FEDOROF, AND GVOZDEF-AMERICA SIGHTED-OR- GANIZATION OF THE SECOND GENERAL EXPEDITION-BIBLIOGRAPHY- PERSONNEL OF THE EXPEDITION-BERING, CHIRIKOF, SPANBERG, WALTON, CROYÉRE, STELLER, MÜLLER, FISHER, AND OTHERS-RUSSIAN RELIGION --- EASY MORALITY-MODEL MISSIONARIES -- THE LONG WEARY WAY ACROSS SIBERIA-CHARGES AGAINST BERING-ARRIVAL OF THE EXPEDITION AT OKHOTSK.
THE excessive curiosity of Peter the Great extended further than to ship-building, astronomy, and general geography. Vast as was the addition of Siberia to the Russian empire there lay something more beyond, still indistinct and shadowy in the world's mind, and the astute Peter determined to know what it was. The sea of Okhotsk had been found, and it was in the same latitude as the Baltic; the ostrog of Okhotsk had been built, and it stood upon almost exactly the same parallel as St Petersburg. Might not there be for him an American Russia, as already there was a European and an Asiatic Russia ? And might not this new Russia, occupying the same relative position to America that the old Russia did to Europe, be worth more to him than a dozen Siberias? He would see. And he would know, too, and that at once, whether the continents of Asia and America joined.
( 35 )
36
THE KAMCHATKA EXPEDITIONS.
This would be a good opportunity likewise to try his new ships, his new discipline, and see what the skilled gentlemen whom he had invited from Austria, and Prussia, and Holland could do for him. There were many around him whom his enthusiasm had inspired, and who wished to try their mettle in strange ad- venture.
Such were the thoughts arising in the fertile brain of the great Peter which led to what may be called the two Kamchatka expeditions; that is, two prin- cipal expeditions from Kamchatka, with several sub- ordinate and collateral voyages, the first of which was to ascertain whether Asia and America joined or were separate, and the second to thoroughly explore eastern Siberia, to discover and examine the American coast opposite, and to learn something more of the Kurile Islands and Japan. Both explorations were under the command of Vitus Bering, a Danish cap- tain in the Russian service, who was engaged on the first about five years, the second series occupying some sixteen years, not wholly, however, under this commander.
For the guidance of his admiral, Count Apraxin, the tsar drew up instructions with his own hand. Two decked boats were to be built at Kamchatka, and, to assist Bering in the command, lieutenants Mar- tin Spanberg and Alexeï Chirikof were appointed. Other officers as well as ship-builders and seamen were chosen, and on February 5, 1725, the expedition set out overland through Siberia. Three days there- after the monarch died; but his instructions were faithfully carried out by his successors, Catherine the wife and Elizabeth the daughter.
Much trouble was experienced in crossing the con- tinent, in obtaining provisions, and in making ready the ships; so that it was not until the 21st of August 1727 that Bering with Chirikof set sail in the Fortuna, from Okhotsk, for the southern end of the Kamchat- kan peninsula, where by July of the following year
37
BERING'S FIRST VOYAGE.
they had ready another vessel, the Gavril, or Gabriel. Leaving the river Kamchatka the 20th of July, they coasted the eastern shore of the peninsula northward, till on the 8th of August they found themselves in latitude 64° 30', at the river Anadir. The Chukchi there told them that after rounding East Cape the coast turned toward the west. Continuing, they passed and named St Lawrence Island, and the 16th of August they were in latitude 67º 18', having passed the easternmost point of Asia, and through the strait of Bering. There the coast turned abruptly westward, as they had been told. If it continued in that direction, as was more than probable, Asia and America were not united.1 Bering's mission was ac- complished, and he therefore returned, reaching Kam- chatka in September.
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