Waxel displayed great energy and excellent judgment in conducting affairs on Bering island, both before and after Bering's death, and it is gratifying to note his intellectual discrimination in dealing with de l'Isle's fictitious account of a journey in America said to have been made by one Admiral de Fonte. Waxel skilfully dissects this geographical invention, clearly proving its inconsistencies, while geographical writers in England were engaged years later in endeavoring to prove its truthfulness. {223} It is significant that although Waxel omits any reference to it, the following paragraph, which is evidently intended to be exculpatory of Bering's turning back at the most northerly point of his first voyage, forms part of Bering's report as translated by Dall: "Neither from the Chukchi coast nor to the eastward could any extension of the land be observed." This very important sentence does not appear in du Halde's account, and evidently was not in the copy which was furnished him. Possibly the person who furnished the copy to du Halde omitted it. Elsewhere Waxel adds: "I say nothing here which I have not repeatedly heard M. Bering say. I also saw his instructions." This gives value to his statements in reference to Bering's efforts to find land east of Avatscha bay, whereof Waxel quotes de l'Isle as saying: "On his return to Kamtschatka (in 1729) M. Bering learned that there was a land to the east, which could be seen in clear, fine weather. He attempted to go thither, after having repaired the damage his vessel had suffered in a storm. The second attempt was fruitless, for after sailing about forty leagues to the east without seeing land, he was assailed by a violent tempest and a contrary wind, which quickly drove him back to the port whence he had emerged." In criticism Waxel adds: "Would not this narrative lead one to believe that the second attempt of M. Bering had been made immediately after the first voyage [in 1729]? However, it was entirely otherwise: Before making this journey M. Bering wintered at Kamtschatka, set sail only on June 5, 1729, and, _without intending to return to the port which he was quitting_, doubled the southern point of Kamtschatka and went straight to the mouth of the river Bolschaia-Reka and thence to Ochozk." He further says: "Perhaps it may appear strange that M. Bering during this voyage did not fall in with the island (Bering island) whereon he was shipwrecked during his second expedition; but the isle might have been hidden by fogs, which are very common in that sea." Waxel's account of the second voyage is worth translating, being the plain tale of a participant, who is as modest as he is truthful, for Waxel nowhere mentions his own name nor the {224} efficient service he rendered first to his chief and later to his shipwrecked comrades. He writes in "Une Lettre" as follows: