Then one may well believe that the monks set the chapel bells ringing and
the cannon roared a welcome from Avacha Bay.
Chirikoff had in May sailed in search of Bering, passing close to the
island where the castaways were prisoners of the sea, but he did not see
the Commander Islands; and all hope had been given up for any word of the
_St. Peter_. Waxel wintered that year at Avacha Bay, crossing the
mainland in the spring of 1743. In September of the same year, an
imperial decree put an end to the Northern Expedition, and Waxel set out
across Siberia to take the crew back to St. Petersburg. Poor Steller
died on the way from exposure.
So ended the greatest naval exploration known to the world. Beside it,
other expeditions to explore America pale to insignificance. La Salle
and La Verendrye ascended the St. Lawrence, crossed inland plains, rafted
down the mighty tide of the great inland rivers; but La Salle stopped at
the mouth of the Mississippi, and La Verendrye was checked by the barrier
of the Rockies. Lewis and Clark accomplished yet more. After ascending
the Missouri and crossing the plains, they traversed the Rockies; but
they were {61} stopped at the Pacific.
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