Bering, over the winter of 1740-41, has…

Bering, over the winter of 1740-41, has recruited for the trip ahead naturalist Georg Steller and completed the report he had promised to send.

At the same time, however, the murder of several Russians under Bering's command by native tribesmen had prompted him to send armed men to the north, with orders not to use force if it could be avoided.

Apparently it could not, because the detachment kills several native Koryaks in the settlement of Utkolotsk and enslaves the remainder, bringing them back south.

Steller is horrified to see the Koryaks tortured in search of the murderers.

His ethical complaints, like Chirikov's more practical ones before him, are suppressed.

From Petropavlovsk, Bering leads his expedition east towards North America in May, with Chirikov in the St. Paul and Vitus Bering in the St. Peter.

They are separated by a storm some time after June 20 and will never see each other again.