Steller, who had cursed him for not remaining longer at
Mount St. Elias, bore the highest testimony to his integrity and worth.
It may be said that a stronger type of hero would have scrunched into
nothingness the vampire blunderers who misled the ship; but it must be
remembered that stronger types of heroes usually save their own skins and
let the underlings suffer. While Bering _might_ have averted the
disaster that attended the expedition, it must not be forgotten that when
he perished, there perished the very soul of the great enterprise, which
at once crumbled to pieces.
On a purely material plane, what did Bering accomplish?
{56} He dispelled forever the myth of the Northeast Passage if the world
would have but accepted his conclusions. The coast of Japan was charted
under his direction. The Arctic coast of Asia was charted under his
direction. A country as large as from Maine to Florida, or Baltimore to
Texas, with a river comparable only to the Mississippi, was discovered by
him. The furs of this country for a single year more than paid all that
Russia spent to discover it; all that the United States later paid to
Russia for it.
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