Schtinnikov was imprisoned and hanged for his crime. The Japanese
were sent to St. Petersburg, where they learned the Russian language
and were converted to Christianity, while some Russians in their
turn learned Japanese. The Japanese died between 1736 and 1739. Both
were from Satsuma; the elder, SOSA, had been a merchant, and the
younger, GONSA, was a pilot's son. Their vessel had been bound for
Osaka, but having been carried out of its course by a storm, had
drifted about at sea for six months, stranding at last with so
unfortunate a result for the greater part of the crew.

This sad occurrence further reminds us that much still remained
unaccomplished with respect to the geography of north-eastern Asia.
Behring's Kamchatka expedition had besides yielded no information
regarding the position of the northern extremity of Asia, or of the
part of America lying opposite to Kamchatka. A number of grave
doubts appear besides to have been started as to the correctness of
the observations during Behring's first voyage. All this induced him
to make proposals for a continuation of his explorations, offering,
along with his former companions, Spangberg and Chirikov, to take
the command of the maritime expedition which was to start from
Kamchatka to solve the questions proposed, both eastwards to
ascertain the position of the east coast of Asia in relation to the
west coast of America, and southwards to connect the areas which the
West-Europeans and the Russians were exploring.

The Russian senate, the Board of Admiralty, and the Academy of
Sciences were commissioned to develop this plan and to carry it into
execution. With respect to the way in which the commission was
executed I may be allowed to refer to Mueller's oft-quoted work, and
to a paper by VON BAER; _Peters des Grossen Verdienste um die
Erweiterung der geographischen Kenntnisse (Beitraege zur Kenntniss
des Russischen Reiches_, B. 16, St. Petersburg, 1872). Here I can
only mention that it was principally through the untiring interest
which KIRILOV, the secretary of the senate, took in the undertaking,
that it attained such a development that it may be said to have been
perhaps the greatest scientific expedition which has ever been sent
out by any country. It was determined at the same time not only to
ascertain the extent of Siberia to the north and east, but also to
examine its hitherto almost unknown ethnographical and natural
conditions. For this purpose the Gr