[Sidenote: Commencement of the New Discoveries.] The first project[17] for making discoveries in that tempestuous sea, which lies between Kamtchatka and America, was conceived and planned by Peter I. the greatest sovereign who ever sat upon the Russian throne, until it was adorned by the present empress. The nature and completion of this project under his immediate successors are well known to the public from the relation of the celebrated Muller. [Sidenote: Their progress.] No sooner had [18]Beering and Tschirikoff, in the prosecution of this plan, opened their way to islands abounding in valuable furs, than private merchants immediately engaged with ardour in similar expeditions; and, within a period of ten years, more important discoveries were made by these individuals, at their own private cost, than had been hitherto effected by all the expensive efforts of the crown.
[Footnote 17: There seems a want of connection in this place, which will be cleared up by considering, that, by the conquest of Siberia, the Russians advanced to the shores of the Eastern Ocean, the scene of the discoveries here alluded to.]
[Footnote 18: Beering had already made several expeditions in the sea of Kamtchatka, by orders of the crown, before he undertook the voyage mentioned in the text.
In 1728, he departed from the mouth of the Kamtchatka river, in company with Tschirikoff. The purport of this voyage was to ascertain, whether the two Continents of Asia and America were separated; and Peter I. a short time before his death, had drawn up instructions with his own hand for that purpose. Beering coasted the Eastern shore of Siberia as high as latitude 67° 18´; but made no discovery of the opposite Continent.
In 1729, he set sail again for the prosecution of the same design; but this second attempt equally failed of success.
In 1741, Beering and Tschirikoff went out upon the celebrated expedition (alluded to in the text, and which is so often mentioned in the course of this work) towards the coasts of America. This expedition led the way to all the important discoveries since made by the Russians.
Beering's vessel was wrecked in December of the same year; and Tschirikoff landed at Kamtchatka on the 9th of October, 1742.