page_title: Semyon Dezhnev
section_title: A discovery and its re-discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Semyon Dezhnev / A discovery and its re-discovery
caption_attribution_description: Latina: Asiae Novo Descriptio Auctore Jodoco Hondio English: "A new description of Asia". Note the presence of two Khanbaliqs (Combalich in the land of "Kitaisk" on the Ob River, and Cambalu, in "Cataia") and one Beijing (Paquin, in Xuntien (Shuntian)) Русский: "Новое описание Азии". Заметьте 2 Ханбалыка и одни Пекин
context_page_description: Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev was a Russian explorer of Siberia and the first European to sail through the Bering Strait, 80 years before Vitus Bering did. In 1648 he sailed from the Kolyma River on the Arctic Ocean to the Anadyr River on the Pacific. His exploit was forgotten for almost a hundred years and Bering is usually given credit for discovering the strait that bears his name.
context_section_description: From at least 1575 European geographers had heard of a Strait of Anián connecting the Pacific and Atlantic. Some had it at the Bering Strait (map at right) and others had it running from the Gulf of California to Baffin Bay. It is not certain that Russians in Siberia had heard of it.  The first Western map to show a Strait of Anian between Asia and North America was probably that of Giacomo Gastaldi in 1562. Many cartographers followed this lead until the time of Bering. The source is said to be an interpretation of Marco Polo, but otherwise the documents do not explain where the idea came from.
  Dezhnyov was illiterate or semi-literate and probably did not understand the importance of what he had done. He certainly did not sail across to Alaska, prove that there was no land bridge to the north or south, or compare his knowledge to that of learned geographers. Nowhere did he claim to have discovered the eastern tip of Asia, merely that he had rounded a great rocky projection on his way to the Anadyr.
  Dezhnyov left reports at Yakutsk and Moscow but these were ignored, probably because his sea route was of no practical use. For the next 75 years garbled versions of the Dezhnyov story circulated in Siberia. Early Siberian maps are quite distorted but most seem to show a connection between the Arctic and Pacific. A few have hints of Dezhnyov. Dutch travelers heard of an 'Ice Cape' at the east end of Asia. Bering heard a story that some Russians had sailed from the Lena to Kamchatka. In 1728 Vitus Bering entered the Bering Strait and, by reporting that venture in Europe, gained credit for the discovery. In 1736 Gerhardt Friedrich Müller found Dezhnyov's reports in the Yakutsk archives and parts of the story began filtering back to Europe. In 1758 he published 'Nachricten von Seereisen ....', which made the Dezhnyov story generally known. In 1890 Oglobin found a few more documents in the archives. In the 1950s some of the originals that Muller copied were rediscovered in the Yakutsk archives.
caption: A 1610 map by Jodocus Hondius showing the Strait of Anian (Anian Fretum) at the approximate location of the Bering Strait
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