"The orders of your Excellency [to whom the letter was addressed as written by his orders] will be complied with by me with more than one inspiring motive, and I shall not dwell on my unfitness, although I could find excellent pretexts for such an excuse, inasmuch as many of greater experience and equal application participated with me in the discoveries which resulted from the two voyages, called by us the Kamtschatkan expeditions. The only grounds on which preference could be shown me over them arise from my being charged, after my return from America, with the comparison of the journals of the various vessels together and with whatever was elsewhere to be found relative to lands situated in the South Sea, in order to therefrom construct a map which should accurately represent them all." {222} This officer, then, should be the very best authority on this question, especially as he gives details, is always exact in his dates, and sets no value on the observations. Whether or not such observations of lunar eclipses took place, these extracts tend to confirm Dall's opinion that they served no purpose in determining the longitude of Kamshatka. The letter and its author are worth some attention at our hands. As has been said, it was published anonymously, and I do not know that its authorship has ever been traced. It appears from the letter that the writer was an officer of the Russian navy; that he was a Russian; that he was on familiar terms with both Bering and de l'Isle; that he acted as interpreter between them in 1730-1731; that he was with Bering in his last voyage to America, and was one of the ship-wrecked mariners on Bering island, and that on his return to St. Petersburg he was charged with the compilations from the various ship journals. As the naval officer states he was with Bering on Bering island, it is evident that it must have been either Swen Waxel, Sophron Chitrow, or Steller, the well-known scientific professor serving with Bering's expedition. It could not have been Steller, since the professor was a German, and moreover he died in November, 1746, prior to the date of the letter. It is improbable that it was Chitrow, who was originally in a subordinate position as a master-of-fleet, but while serving in Kamshatka and prior to Bering's second voyage was made a lieutenant. It is not likely that a subordinate of Chitrow's position should have been so situated in St. Petersburg as to have served as an interpreter between Bering and de l'Isle. It is therefore more than probable that Lieutenant Swen Waxel was the author of the letter. In further confirmation, this officer says that he is charged with the preparation of a chart out of the material furnished by the maps and journals of the separate vessels. As we know from other sources, Waxel later made a chart of the Kamschatka region.