A thirst after riches was the chief motive which excited the Spaniards to the discovery of America; and which turned the attention of other maritime nations to that quarter. The same passion for riches occasioned, about the middle of the sixteenth century, the discovery and conquest of Northern Asia, a country, before that time, as unknown to the Europeans as Thule to the ancients. The first foundation of this conquest was laid by the celebrated Yermac, at the head of a band of adventurers, less civilized, but, at the same time, not so inhuman as the conquerors of America. By the accession of this vast territory, now known by the name of Siberia, the Russians have acquired an extent of empire never before attained by any other nation.

The first project for making discoveries in that tempestuous sea, which lies between Kamtchatka and America, was conceived and planned by Peter I., the greatest sovereign who ever sat upon the Russian throne. The nature and completion of this project under his immediate successors are well known to the public from the relation of the celebrated Muller. No sooner had Beering and Tschirikoff, in the prosecution of this plan, opened their way to islands abounding in valuable furs, than private merchants immediately engaged with ardour in similar expeditions; and, within a period of ten years, more important discoveries were made by these individuals, at their own private cost, than had been hitherto effected by all the expensive efforts of the Crown.