USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 14
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He who would adventure here in those days must first collect the men. Then from the poor resources at hand he would select the material for his vessel, which was usually built of green timber just from the forest, and with no tool but the axe, the constant com- panion of every Russian laborer or hunter. Rope for the rigging and cables it was necessary to transport on pack-horses from Irkutsk, whence they generally arrived in a damaged condition, the long hawsers being cut into many pieces on account of their weight. Flour, meat, and other provisions were purchased at Kirensk and Yakutsk at exorbitant prices. In such crazy craft the promyshleniki were obliged to brave the stormy waters of the Okhotsk Sea and navigate along the chain of sunken rocks that lined the coast of Kamchatka.31
31 Müller says the price of iron in Okhotsk in 1746 was half a ruble, or about 40 cents, a pound. Voy., i. 82. The crews were obtained in the follow- ing manner: The merchant would notify his agent, or correspondent, living at Irkutsk, Yakutsk, or Kirensk, who would engage hunters and laborers; each agent hiring a few men, providing them with clothing, and sending them to HIST. ALASKA. 8
114
THE SWARMING OF THE PROMYSHLENIKI.
Nikofor Trapeznikof had been very fortunate in his first venture with the Boris i Gleb, and therefore concluded to continue. In 1752 he sent out the same vessel in command of Alexeï Drushinnin, a merchant of Kursk. This navigator shaped his course for Ber- ing Island, but wrecked his vessel on a sunken rock when approaching his destination. No lives were lost and enough of the wreck was saved to construct another craft of somewhat smaller dimensions, which they named the Abram. In this vessel they set out once more in 1754, but after a few days' cruising in the immediate vicinity another shipwreck confined them again to the same island in a worse predicament than before.
Meanwhile Trapeznikof had fitted out another shitika, the Sv Nikolaï, with the Cossack Radion Durnef as commander, and the Cossack Shevyrin as tribute-gatherer. Durnef called at Bering Island and took from there the greater part of the crew of the Boris i Gleb, leaving four men in charge of surplus stores and the wreck of the Abram. The Sv Nikolaï proceeded eastward and made several new discoveries. Durnef's party passed two winters on some island not previously known to the promy- shleniki, and finally they returned to Kamchatka in 1757 with a cargo valued at 187,268 rubles. This
Okhotsk. There they were first employed in building and equipping the ship; and we may imagine what kind of ship-carpenters and sailors they made. There was one benefit attending this method, however; as these men had never seen a ship or the ocean they could not realize the danger of com- mitting their lives to such vessels, though the navigators could not have been ignorant of the risk to their own lives. Before sailing, an agreement with the list of shares was drawn up and duly entered in the book. This each signed or affixed his mark thereto. For example: If the vessel carried a crew of 40 men, including the navigator and the peredovchik, or leader of hunters, acting also as ship's clerk, the whole cargo, on the return of the vessel, was divided into two equal shares, one half going to the owners, and the other half being again divided into 45, 46, or perhaps 48 shares, of which each member of the ship's company received one, while of the additional five or six shares three went to the navigator, two to the peredovchick, and one or two to the church. It sometimes happened that at the end of a fortunate voyage the share of each hunter amounted to between 2,000 and 3,000 rubles; but when the voyages were unsuccessful the unfortunate fellows were kept in perpetual indebtedness to their employer.
115
ANOTHER SEARCH FOR THE CONTINENT.
was the most successful venture of the kind under- taken since the first discovery of the island.32
In 1753 three vessels were despatched from Okhotsk, the respective owners of which were An- dreï Serebrennikof of Moscow, Feodor Kholodilof of Tomsk, and Simeon Krassilnikof of Tula. They ex- pressed their intention to search for the Great Land, as the American continent was then called by these people. Serebrennikof's vessel was commanded by Petr Bashnakof, assisted by the Cossack Maxim Lazaref, as tribute-collector, and carried a crew of thirty-four promyshleniki. Serebrennikof sailed in July 1753, shaping his course directly east from Kamchatka, and arrived at some unknown islands without touching any of those already discovered. The ship was anchored in an open bight not far from shore, when an easterly gale carried it out to sea. During the storm four other islands were sighted, but as no one on board was able to make astronomical observations the land could not be located definitely on the chart.33 For some time the heavy sea pre- vented the navigators from landing, and the wind car- ried them still farther to the east. At last three islands suddenly appeared through the fog, and before the sails could be lowered the ship was thrown upon one of them. When the mariners reached the shore they were met by armed natives, who threw spears and arrows at them. A few discharges of fire-arms, however, soon scattered the savages.34
The wrecked hunters remained on the island till
32 Neue Nachr., 31. The cargo was itemized as follows: 2,295 sea-otters killed by the ship's company, and 732 sea-otters purchased of the natives for articles of trifling value, making a formidable total of 3,027 sea-otters. The immense quantity of these animals killed by the promyshleniki themselves, is proof that the islands upon which they wintered had not been visited before. 33 Neue Nachr., 35-6.
3+ According to Bashnakof this island was 70 versts in length and sur- rounded by 12 smaller islands. This description is applicable to the island of Tanaga, and on the strength of this circumstance Count Benyovski, the Kamchatkan conspirator, ascribes the discovery of the eastern Aleutian or Fox Islands to Serebrennikof, one of the owners of the ship. Benyovski's Memoirs and Travels, i. 83.
116
THE SWARMING OF THE PROMYSHLENIKI.
June 1754, and then sailed for Kamchatka in a small boat built out of the remains of the other. The cargo landed at Nishekamchatsk was of too little value to be registered in the official lists of shipments.35
Kholodilof's vessel sailed from Kamchatka in August 1753, and according to the custom generally adopted by the promyshleniki was hauled up on Bering Island for the winter, in order to lay in a supply of sea-cow meat. Nine men were lost here by the upsetting of the bidar, and in June of the following year the voyage was continued. A serious leak was discovered when running before a westerly gale, but an island was reached just in time to save the crew. There they remained till July 1755.36 This expedition returned to Kamchatka late in 1755 with a cargo of sixteen hundred sea-otter skins.
The vessel fitted out by Krassilnikof did not sail until the summer of 1754, immediately after Captain Nilof assumed command of the military force at Okhotsk, and temporary command of the district.37 Bering Island was reached in October, and after lay- ing in a stock of sea-cow meat and preparing the vessel, Krassilnikof set out once more in August of the following year. A stormy passage brought him to an island that seemed densely populated, but he did not deem it safe to land there; so he faced the sea again, was tossed about by storms for weeks and carried to the westward until at last Copper Island came in sight again, on which a few days later the ship was totally wrecked.33 The crew was saved and
35 Bashnakof was wrecked again in 1764, when Tolstykh picked him up on Attoo Island. Attoo, the westernmost of the Aleutian Islands. Holmberg, 1854, writes Attu, and near it another I Agattu. Cartog. Pac. Coast, MS., iii. 482; Berg, Khronol. Ist., 25-7; Neue Nachr., 35-6.
36 This was the island previously visited by Trapeznikof. In the spring, before Kholodilof's party sailed, they were joined by a Koriak and a native of Kamchatka, who stated that they had deserted from Trapeznikof's ship, intending to live among the natives. There had been six deserters originally, but four had been killed by the natives for trying to force their wives. The other two had been more cautious, and were provided with wives by their hosts, and well treated. Neue Nachr., 54; Berg, Khronol. Ist., 21.
37 Morskoi Sbornik, cv. 11, 40.
38 Neue Nachr., 37-8.
117
VOYAGE OF TOLSTYKH.
a small quantity of provisions stored in a rudely con- structed magazine. The ship's company was then divided into several small hunting parties, five· men remaining near the scene of the wreck to guard the provisions. Three of the men were drowned on the 15th of October.39 And as a crowning disaster a tidal wave destroyed their storehouse, carrying all that remained of their provisions into the sea. After a winter passed in misery they packed up their furs in the spring, a poor lot, consisting of 150 sea-otters and 1,300 blue foxes, and managed to make the cross- ing to Bering Island in two bidars, which they had constructed of sea-lion skins. From Bering Island a portion of the company returned to Kamchatka in the small boat Abram, built by Trapeznikof's men.40
In 1756 the merchants Trapeznikof, Shukof, and Balin fitted out a vessel and engaged as its com- mander the most famous navigator of the time, Andreï Tolstykh. The ship was named after the com- mander and his wife, who accompanied him, Andreian i Natalia, almost the first departure from the estab- lished custom of bestowing saint's names upon ships. Tolstykh sailed from the Kamchatka River in Sep- tember, with a crew of thirty-eight Russians and natives of Kamchatka, and the Cossack Venediet Obiukhof as tribute-collector. The usual halt for the winter was made on Bering Island, but though an ample supply of meat was obtained not a single sea- otter could be found. Fifteen years from the first discovery of the island had sufficed to exterminate the animal. Nine men of the Krassilnikof expedi- tion were here added to the crew, and in June 1757 Tolstykh continued his voyage, reaching the nearest Aleutian island in eleven days. They arrived at a
39 Berg, Khronol. Ist., 29.
40 Finding that the Abram could not carry the whole cargo of furs and crew, 12 men were selected from the ship's company to return on that small vessel, while 11 others were taken away by the ships of Serebrennikof and Tolstykh. Two were engaged by the trader Shilkin for another voyage of discovery. Neue Nachr., 39-40.
118
THE SWARMING OF THE PROMYSHLENIKI.
favorable moment; Trapeznikof's ship, the Sv Nikolaï, was on the point of sailing for Kamchatka and sev- eral chiefs had assembled to bid their visitors farewell. Satisfactory arrangements were at once entered into for the collection of tribute and a continuation of peaceful intercourse. The most influential chief, named Tunulgasan, was received with due solemnity and pre- sented with a copper kettle and a full suit of clothes of Russian pattern. This magnificent gift induced him to leave several boys in charge of the Russians, for the avowed purpose of learning their language, but really to serve as hostages.
In accordance with instructions from the Okhotsk authorities Tolstykh endeavored to persuade the chief of Attoo to visit Kamchatka in his vessel, but in this he failed. After living on this island in peace with the natives for over a year, Tolstykh departed with 5,360 sea-otters and 1,190 blue foxes, and reached Kamchatka in the autumn of 1758.41
An unfortunate voyage was made about this time by a vessel belonging to the merchant Ivan Shilkin, the Kapiton, which it will be remembered was built out of a wreck by Bakof and Novikof.42 Ignaty Studentzof was the Cossack accompanying this expe- dition, and upon his report rests all the information concerning it extant. They sailed from Okhotsk in September 1757, but were forced by stress of weather to make for the Kamchatka shore and pass the win- ter there, to repair a damage. Setting sail again in 1758 they touched at Bering Island, passed by Attoo
41 Neue Nachr., 43; Berg, Khronol. Ist., app.
42 The Kapiton had been confiscated by the government, but was finally delivered to Shilkin to reimburse him for losses incurred. Berg mentions especially that iron bolts were freely used in repairing this vessel. As early as 1752 a trader named Glazachef established iron-works at Nishekainchatsk, and being enabled to sell such iron as he could manufacture cheaper than it could be imported, he made a fortune. Subsequently Behm, commander of Kamchatka, persuaded him to transfer the works to the government, and remain in charge at a fixed salary. Glazachef finally left the service, and his successors not understanding the business, failed. The whole annual yield of the works never exceeded one thousand pounds of metal, and under Behm's successor the enterprise was abandoned altogether. Morskoi Sbornik, ciii. 13, 14.
119
ADVENTURES OF GLOTTOF.
where Tolstykh was then trading, and went on to the eastward, finally bringing up near an unknown island. A party sent ashore by Studentzof to reconnoitre were beaten off by a band of natives, and immediately after- ward a sudden gale drove the ship from her anchorage to sea.43 The mariners were cast upon a rocky island in the neighborhood, saving nothing but their lives, a small quantity of provisions, and their fire-arms. While still exhausted from battling with the icy waves they beheld approaching a large bidar with natives. There were only fifteen able to defend themselves, but they put on what show of strength and courage they could command and went to meet the enemy. One of the men, Nikolaï Chuprof, who had "been to the islands" before and spoke the Aleut language, implored the natives for assistance in their distressed condition, but the answer was a shower of spears and arrows.4 A volley from the guns, however, killing two, put them to flight as usual. Starvation followed, and there were seven long months of it. Sea-weed and the water-soaked skins of sea-otters washed ashore from the sunken vessel were their only food. Seven- teen died, and the remainder were saved only by the putrid carcass of a whale cast ashore by the sea. Rousing themselves they built a boat out of drift- wood and the remains of their wreck, killed 230 sea- otters within a few days prior to their departure, and succeeded in reaching the island where Serebrennikof's vessel was then moored, and near which they anchored. But a gale arising, their cables snapped, and the boat went down with everything on board save the crew. Only thirteen of this unfortunate company of thirty- nine finally returned to Kamchatka on Serebrennikof's vessel.45 After an absence of four years in search of a fortune they landed destitute even of clothing.
43 Berg, Khronol. Ist., 35-6.
44 This was the brother of the notorious Yakof Chuprof who committed the infamous outrages upon the natives during Nevodchikof's first voyage to the islands; Nikolaï accompanied his brother then. Berg, Khronol. Ist., 37.
45 Neue Nachr., 37-8; Berg, Khronol. Ist., 45-6.
120
THE SWARMING OF THE PROMYSHLENIKI.
Thus from year to year the promyshleniki pushed eastward step by step. A merchant of Turinsk, Stepan Glottof, was the first to visit and carry on peaceful traffic with the inhabitants of Umnak and Unalaska. He commanded the small craft Yulian, built at Nishe- kamchatsk by Nikoforof, in which he sailed on the 2d of September 1758, accompanied by the Cossack Savs Ponomaref, who was instructed to persuade the Aleuta to become Russian subjects and pay tribute. Niko- forof intended the vessel to go at once in search of new islands without stopping at any of those already known to the promyshleniki; but long-continued con- trary gales compelled Glottof to winter at Bering Island, where he remained till the following August. Thence he sailed eastward for thirty days and landed on an unknown island.46 There the hunters con- cluded to spend the winter; but they found the na- tives so friendly that three seasons passed before Glottof thought of returning to Kamchatka. The Yulian arrived at Bolsheretsk on the 31st of August 1762, with a large and valuable cargo containing be- sides cross and red foxes the first black foxes from the Aleutian Islands.47
Two other vessels are said to have been despatched to the islands in 1758, by the merchant Simeon Krassilnikof, and Nikofor Trapeznikof, but only of one of them, the Vladimir, have we any information. The leaders of this expedition were the peredovchik, Dmitri Païkof, and the Cossack Sava Shevyrin. They put to sea from Nishekamchatsk on the 28th of Sep-
46 Umnak, according to Berg, Khronol. Ist., 36.
47 In Berg's summary of fur shipments the cargo of the Yulian is itemized as follows: Tribute to the government, 11 sea-otters and 26 black foxes; cargo, 1,465 sea-otters, 280 sea-otter tails, 1,002 black foxes, 1,100 cross foxes, 400 red foxes, 22 walrus-tusks, and 58 blue foxes; the whole valued at 130,450 rubles. Khronol. Ist., App. In the Neue Nachr., no mention of this voyage is made; Coxe also is silent on the subject. The fact of the presence of walrus-tusks shows that there was traffic in the article between the Una- laskans and the natives of the Alaska peninsula, where the huge pennipeds still abound. The Cossack Ponomaref sent to the authorities at Okhotsk quite a correct map of the Aleutian archipelago, indicating eight large islands north-east of Unalaska. He says that the merchant Peter Shishkin assisted him in compiling a chart. Berg, Khronol. Ist. 37.
121
PAIKOF AND SHEVYRIN.
tember, with a crew of forty-five men, made the pas- sage to Bering Island in twenty-four hours, and there hauled up their vessel for the winter. On the 16th of July 1759 Païkof set sail once more, taking at first a southerly course.48
It is not known how far Païkof pursued his south- erly course, but he discovered no land and returned to the north, arriving in the vicinity of Atkha Island the 1st of September. Finding no convenient harbor he went on to Umnak Island and made preparations to pass the winter. The ship's company was divided into three artels, or parties, the first of which was commanded by Alexeï Drushinnin and stationed on the island of Sitkhin.49 The Cossack, Shevyrin, took ten men to Atkha and the remainder of the crew established their winter-quarters in the immediate vicinity of the vessel under command of Simeon Pole- voi. Païkof was evidently only navigator and had no command on shore. The first season passed in apparently peaceful intercourse with the natives.50
48 A general impression prevailed among the promyshleniki of the time that there was land to the southward of the Aleutian Isles. Ivan Savich Lapin, from whom Berg obtained much information, stated that Gavril Push- karef, a companion of Bering, who had survived the terrible winter on Bering Island, always asserted positively that there must be land to the southward. The sea-otters and fur-seals, he said, though found about Bering Island and its vicinity during the summer, invariably disappeared in a southerly direction. It was known that they did not go to Kamchatka or to the Kurile Islands, and though ignorant as to the actual whereabouts of the otters and seals, Pushkaref frequently assured Lapin and Trapeznikof that they could make their fortune by discovering the winter haunts of these animals in the south. Berg, Khronol. Ist., 38.
49 According to Cook, Seetien; and La Perouse, and Holmberg, Sitchin. Cartoy. Pac. Coast, MS., iii. 474. In Neue Nachr. it is spelled Sitkin, while Berg has Sigdak. Khronol. Ist., 39; Umnak Island, south-west of Unalaska. On Cook's Atlas, 1778, written Umanak; La Perouse, 1786, Oumnak; Holm- berg, 1854, I Umnak. Cartog. Pac. Coast, MS., iii. 458; Neue Nachr., 49.
50 The custom of the promyshleniki after establishing themselves on an island, was to divide the cominand into small parties, each of which was sta- tioned in the immediate vicinity of a native village, whose chief was induced by presents to assist in compelling his people to hunt, on the pretext perhaps that the empress, who, although a woman, was the greatest and most benig- nant being on earth, required such service of them. When they returned their catch was taken and a few trifling presents made them, such as beads and tobacco-leaf. Two objects were at once accomplished by the cunning promyshleniki. While all the able-bodied men were thus away gathering skins for them, they were having their own way with the women of the villages. Actual trade or exchange of Russian manufactures for skins was carried on
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122
THE SWARMING OF THE PROMYSHLENIKI.
At first the Russians believed the island of Amlia to be uninhabited, but during a hunting expedition a boy of eight years was discovered hidden in the grass. He was unable or unwilling to give any information, but was taken to the Russian camp, baptized and named Yermola, and instructed in the Russian lan- guage. Subsequently a party of four men, two women, and four children were discovered and were at once employed by the promyshleniki to dig roots and gather wood for them. In time other natives visited the strangers in canoes, and exchanged seal-meat and fish for needles, thread, and glass beads.51
In the spring of the following year, when the de- tached hunting parties came back to the ship, it was found that only one Russian on Atkha Island had lost his life at the hands of the natives, and that he met his fate through his own fault. Polevoi was much pleased with the quantity of furs obtained and con- cluded to send the detachments again immediately to the same localities. Shevyrin had only just returned to Atkha with eleven men when the natives, who doubtless had suffered at the hands of the Russians during the winter, fell upon the party and killed them all. Drushinnin heard of this through the natives on Sitkhin Island and returned at once to the vessel at Amlia. The crew of the Vladimir was now reduced to such an extent that the hunters felt serious appre- hensions as to their safety, and consequently they began to make the necessary preparations for return- ing to Kamchatka at once. These preparations were interrupted, however, by the unexpected arrival of the Gavril, a vessel belonging to the merchant Be- chevin. 52
only where the natives refused to hunt for the Russians without reward. All kinds of outrages were constantly practised on the timid islanders by the ruf- fianly taskmasters.
51 Neue Nachr., 50. Amluk according to Cook, whilst Holmberg writes I Amlja. Cartog. Pac. Coast, MS., iii. 466.
52 Bechevin, a rich merchant of Irkutsk, despatched in 1760 the largest vessel hitherto sent to the Aleutian Islands. It is not known where the Gavril was built; her length was 62 feet, and she carried 40 Russians and 20
123
VOYAGE OF THE 'GAVRIL.'
The Gavril had passed through the Kurile Islands in July and arrived at Atkha on the 25th of Sep- tember.58 The fears entertained by the Vladimir's weakened crew vanished at once, and a written agree- ment was entered into by the members of the two expeditions to hunt in partnership. Strong detach- ments were sent out to the stations occupied during the previous season, and also to the island of Signam, north-east of Atkha. The result of the season's work proved gratifying; about 900 sea-otters and 400 foxes of various kinds, and 432 pounds of walrus- tusks were ready for shipment.54
A consultation was held in the following spring, when it was concluded that the Vladimir should remain at Amlia a little longer, and then return to Kamchatka with as many of the furs as she could carry, while the Gavril would proceed in search of new discoveries. The joint force was equally divided between the two vessels, and the Gavril set sail once more, taking an easterly course and touching first at Umnak Island. There they found a vessel belonging to Nikoforof55 engaged in hunting, and consequently they limited their operations to mending the sails and replenishing
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natives of Kamchatka. The authorities of Bolsheretsk placed on board a sergeant of Cossacks, Gavril Pushkaref, and three men, Andreï Shdanof, Yakof Sharipof, and Prokop Lobasklef. Bechevin also sent two of his confi- dential clerks, Nikofor Golodof and Afanassiy Askolkof. Neue Nachr., 51. Two other vessels were recorded by Berg as having sailed for the islands in 1759. Rybinskoi and his partners built a ship named the Sv Petr i Sv Pavel, and sent her out to search for land south of the Aleutian Isles. She had a crew of 33 Russians and natives of Kamchatka under Andreï Serebrenn- ikof, the former partner of Sergeant Bassof. All that is known of this voy- age is that the vessel returned in 1761, with a cargo of 2,000 sea-otters, but without having made any new discoveries. In the same year, 1759, a ship called the Zakhar i Elizaveta was fitted out by a company consisting of Postnikof of Shuysk, Krassilinikof of Tula, and Kulkof, a citizen of Vologda. Stepan Cherepanof was navigator. The vessel sailed from Nishekamchatsk, and after an absence of three years arrived at Okhotsk in 1762, with 1,750 sea-otters and 530 blue foxes. Berg, Khronol. Ist., 40-1.
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