USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 21
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28 Zaïkof had obtained rough tracings of some of the charts compiled by Cook in exchange for favors extended to the English discoverer. Tikhmenef, i. 113. It is supposed that the Sv Yerpl, 1773-79, reached the continent, and probably the Sv Nikolaï and others, but this was accidental.
29 Two natives who were kept as hostages on Zaïkof's vessel stated that Kyak was not a permanent place of residence, but was visited only in search of game by the people seen by the Russians, their homes being to the west- ward, at the distance of 'two days' paddling,' from which statement we may conclude that they were from Nuchek or Hinchinbrook Island. Zaikof's Jour- nal, in Sitka Archives, MS., iv .; Tikhmenef, Ist. Obos., ii., app. 3.
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EXPLORATION AND TRADE.
to Nuchek, where both English and Spanish ships had already called. Many days were spent by Zaïkof in futile attempts to secure a native guide to the safe harbor mentioned as having already been visited by ships, but bribes and promises proved of no avail, and at last he set out in the direction of the island of Khta-aluk (Nuchek), plainly visible to the west- ward. The commanders of the two other ships must have sailed before him and cruised about Prince Will- iam Sound-named gulf of Chugach by the Russians -in search of hunting-grounds, and this scattering of forces beyond the bounds of proper control proved dangerous, for the Chugatsches were not only fiercer than the Aleuts, but they seemed to entertain posi- tive ideas of proprietary rights.
The combined crews of the three vessels, number- ing over three hundred, including Aleut hunters, would surely have been able to withstand any attack of the poorly armed Chugatsches and to protect their hunting parties, but they wandered about in small de- tachments, committing outrages whenever they came upon a village with unprotected women and children. The Russians, who had for some time been accus- tomed to overcome all opposition on the part of the natives with comparative ease, imagined that their superior arms would give them the same advantage here. They soon discovered their mistake. The Chu- gatsches, as well as their allies from Cook Inlet, and even from Kadiak, summoned by fleet messengers for the occasion, showed little fear of Russian guns, and used their own spears and arrows to such advantage that the invaders were themselves beaten in several engagements.
In the harbor of Nuchek Nagaief met twenty- eight men from the Panof company's ship, the Alexeï, fourteen of whom had been wounded by the Chu- gatsches during a night attack. They had left their ships on the 15th of August, a month previous, in search of this bay, numbering thirty-seven men, be-
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THE PANOF COMPANY.
sides peredovchik Lazaref, who was in command, but had searched in vain. One dark night, while encamped on an island, their sentries had been surprised, nine men killed, and half of the remainder wounded. With the greatest difficulty only had they succeeded at last in beating off with their fire-arms their assailants armed merely with spears, bows and arrows, and clubs. Other encounters took place. On the 18th of Septem- ber one of the parties of Russians surprised a native village on a small island; the men fled to the moun- tains, leaving women, children, and stores of provisions. The considerate promyshleniki seized " only half" the females-probably not the oldest-and some of the food. During the next night, however, the men of the village, with reinforcements from the neighbor- hood, attacked the Russian camp, killing three Rus- sians and a female interpreter from Unalaska, and wounding nine men. During the struggle all the hos- tages thus far obtained by capture escaped, with the exception of four women and two small boys. The Russians now proceeded to the harbor selected as winter-quarters,30 and active operations ceased for the time.
The favorable season had been so foolishly wasted in roaming about and quarrelling with the natives, who took good care not to reveal to their unwel- come visitors the best fishing and hunting grounds, that food became scarce early in the winter. Be- sides this it was found necessary to keep one third of the force continually under arms to guard against sudden assaults; and this hostility naturally inter- fered with the search for the necessary supplies of fish, game, fuel, and water. The result was that scurvy of a very malignant type broke out among the crews, and nearly one half of the men died before spring re- leased them and enabled Zaïkof to refit his vessel and
30 The description of this harbor is not very clear, but the probability is that it was one of the bays on the north end of Montagu, or Sukluk, Island, which is named Zaïkof Harbor on Russian maps. This is also confirmed by traditions of the natives collected on the spot by Mr Petrof in 1881.
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EXPLORATION AND TRADE.
sail for the Aleutian isles, after an experience fully as dismal as that encountered a few years later, in nearly the same locality, by Captain Meares, who might have saved himself much misfortune had he known of Zaï- kof's attempt and its disastrous result.
Thus unfortunately ended the attempt of the Rus- sians to gain a foothold upon the continental coast of America. 31
The only subordinate commander of this expedition who seems to have actually explored and intelligently
31 Eustrate Delarof subsequently gave Captain Billings the following ac- count of this expedition: 'On arriving at Prince William Sound a number of canoes surrounded the vessel and on one of them they displayed some kind of a flag. I hoisted ours, when the natives paddled three times around the ship, one man standing up waving his hands and chanting. They came on board and I obtained fourteen sea-otter skins in exchange for some glass beads; they would accept no shirts or any kind of clothing; they conducted themselves in a friendly manner, and we ate, drank, and slept together in the greatest harmony. They said that two ships had been there some years previously, and that they had obtained beads and other articles from them. According to their description these vessels must have been English (they referred of course to Cook's expedition); the natives had knives and copper kettles which they said they obtained by making a 14 days' journey up a large river and trading with other natives who brought these goods from some locality still farther inland (a Hudson's Bay Company post?)-Suddenly, on the 8th of September, the natives changed their attitude, making a furious attack on my people. I knew of no cause for this change until one of my boats returned, when I learned that there had been quarrelling and fighting between the boat's crew and the natives. I have no doubt that my people were the aggressors. Polutof's vessel was at that time in the vicinity and I left him there.' Sauer's Geog.and Astron. Exped., 197. Martin Sauer, the secretary of Captain Joseph Billings, states that while at Prince William Sound in 1790 he fell in with a woman who had been forcibly detained by Polutof and had subsequently become acquainted with Zaïkof. She praised the latter as a just man and related how her people revenged themselves on Polutof for his ill-treatment. A wood-cutting party had been sent ashore from each vessel and had pitched their tents a short distance from each other. It was very dark and only one man was on the watch near a fire on the beach. The natives crawled up unnoticed by the sentry, killed him, and then stealing into Polutof's tent massacred him and his companions without molesting Zaïkof's tent or any of his people. Bitter complaints were made by the Chugatsche people of the do- ings of Polutof who had seized their furs without paying for them and had carried off by force many of the women. Sauer's Geog. and Astron. Exped., i. 187, 190; Growingk, Beitr., 323; Pallas, Nord. Beitr., i. 212. In the historical review attached by Mr Dall to his Alaska and its Resources, the author has committed blunders which can be ascribed only to his inability to understand the Russian authorities. Under date of 1781 he remarks that 'Zaïkof ex- plored in detail Chugách Gulf and wintered on Bering Island ... A vessel, called the St Aexius, commanded by Alexeïef Popof, was attacked by natives in Prince William Sound. Zaïkof explored Captain's Harbor, Unalaska, July 1-13, 1783.' Id., 307. Mr Dall's Zaïkof expedition of 1781 is, of course, the same with that of 1783, when he wintered on Montagu (not Bering) Island, in a bay still bearing his name. The Alexeï, as we have seen above, was com- manded by Delarof.
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FUR-SEALS AND OTTERS.
described these unknown regions, was Nagaief, the discoverer of Copper River. Nearly all the valuable information contained in Zaïkof's journal came from this man. 32
This failure to extend their field of operations seri- ously checked the spirit of enterprise which had hith- erto manifested itself among the Siberian merchants, and for some time only one small vessel was despatched from Siberia for the Aleutian Islands. 33
The year 1786, as already mentioned, witnessed the discovery of the Fur Seal Islands, the breeding-ground of the seals, and therefore of the highest importance. The Russian promyshleniki who first visited the Fox Islands soon began to surmise the existence of some islands in the north by observing the annual migra- tion of the fur-seals through the passes between cer- tain of the islands-northward in the spring and southward in the autumn, when they were accom- panied by their young. This surmise was confirmed by an Aleut tradition to the effect that a young chief- tain of Unimak had once been cast away on a group of islands in the north, which they called Amik.34 The
32 Nagaief told Zaïkof that the natives he had encountered called them- selves Chugatches, and that they met in war and trade five other tribes: Ist, the Koniagas, or people of Kadiak; 2d, a tribe living on a gulf of the main land between Kadiak and the Chugatsche country, named the Kinaias; 3d, the Yullits, living on the large river discovered by Nagaief; 4th, a tribe living on the coast of the mainland from Kyak Island eastward, called Lakhamit; and 5th, beyond these again the Kaljush, a warlike tribe with large wooden boats. This description of the tribes and their location was doubtless cor- rect at the time, though the 'Lakhamite' (tlie Aglegmutes) have since been pushed eastward of Kyak Island by the Kaljushes, or Thlinkeets. Nagaief also correctly stated that the Yullits, or Copper River natives, lived only on the upper river, but traded copper and land-furs with the coast people for seal- skins, dried fish, and oil. Zaïkof's Journal, MS .; Sitka Archives, iv .; Tikme- nef, Ist., Obosr., ii., app., 7, 8. Zaïkof's own description of the country, its resources, its people, and the manners and customs, is both minute and cor- rect. His manuscript journal is still in existence, and it furnishes proof positive that his visit to Prince William Sound in 1783 was the first made by him or any other Russian in a sea-going vessel.
33 The Sv Georgiy left Nishekamchatsk on Panof's account, and returned in two years with a little over 1,000 fur-seals and less than 200 blue foxes, having evidently confined its operations to the Commander Islands. The same vessel made another voyage in 1787, remaining absent six years, but with an equally unsatisfactory result. Berg, Khronol. Ist., 114-15.
34 A term and incident commemorated in a native song. Veniaminof, Za- piski, ii. 269; i. 17; Sarychef, Putesh., i. 28.
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EXPLORATION AND TRADE.
high peaks of his native place had guided him back after a short stay. While furs remained abundant on the groups already known, none chose to expose him- self in frail boats to seek new lands; but in and after 1781 the rapid depletion of the hunting-grounds led to many a search for Amik; yet while it lay within two days' sail from the southern isles, a friendly mist long hid the home of the fur-seals from the hunters.
In 1786 this search was joined by Master Gerassim Pribylof,35 who for five years had been hunting and trading with little profit on the islands, in the Su Georgiy, fitted out by Lebedef-Lastochkin and his partners. Although reputed a skillful navigator, he cruised for over three weeks around the Amik group without finding them, though constantly meeting with unmistakable evidence of the close proximity of land. At last, in the first days of June, fate favored the persistent explorer; the mantle of fog was lifted and before him loomed the high coast of the eastern end of the most southern island. The discovery was named St George, after Pribylof's vessel; but finding no anchorage the commander ordered the peredovchik Popof and all the hunters to land, with a supply of provisions for the winter, while he stood away again for the Aleutian Islands, there to spread such reports as to keep others from following his path.
The shores of St George literally swarmed with sea-otters, which undisturbed so far by human beings could be killed as easily as those of Bering Island during the first winter. after its discovery. Large numbers of walrus were secured on the ice and upon the adjoining small islands; arctic foxes could be caught by hand, and with the approach of summer the fur- seals made their appearance by thousands.36
35 His name was Gerassim Gavrilovich Pribylof. Veniaminof gives his name as Gavrilo on one occasion. Zapiski, ii. 271. He was a master in the navy, connected with the port of Okhotsk, but entered the employ of Lebedef- Lastochkin and his partners in 1778. Id.
36 Shelikof in a letter to Delarof, dated Okhotsk, 1789, stated that during
193
THE LEBEDEF-LASTOCHKIN COMPANY.
On the 29th of June, 1787, an unusually clear atmosphere enabled the promyshleniki to see for the first time the island of St Paul, thirty miles to the northward; and the sea being smooth a bidar was at once despatched to examine the new discovery. The party landed upon the other island the same day, and named it St Peter and St Paul, the saints of the day.37 The first half of the name, however, was soon lost in popular usage and only St Paul retained. The group was known as the Pribylof.38
While Shelikof was one of the partners who had fitted out the Sv Georgiy, he does not appear to have held a large interest and looked with no little envy on the success achieved by what must be regarded as rivals to his own company. He did not waste much time, however, in unpleasant sentiments, but set about at once to secretly buy up more shares in the Lebedef company. In this undertaking he succeeded so well that he could look with equanimity upon the fierce rivalry growing up between the two large firms; no matter which side gained an advantage, he felt secure. He was certainly the first who fully understood the actual and prospective value of Pribylof's discovery.
the first year the hunters obtained on the newly discovered islands 40,000 fur-seal skins, 2,000 sea-otters, 400 pounds (14,400 lbs.) of walrus ivory, and more whalebone than the ship could carry. Shelikof upbraided Delarof for not having anticipated this discovery, with two good ships at his command. Tikhmenef, Ist. Obozr., ii. app. 21.
37 Owing to the constant fog and murky atmosphere that envelop the islands, the less elevated St Paul is rarely seen from St George, while the hills of the latter are frequently visible from St Paul.
38 The claim of Pribylof to their first European discovery was thrown into doubt by the report that the Russians on reaching the island of St Paul found the brass hilt and trimming of a sword, a clay pipe, and the remains of a fire. The statement was confirmed by all who effected the first landing on St Paul. Veniaminof, Zapiski, ii. 268. Berg, who has traced the course of nearly every other vessel in these waters, states that nothing was known of Pribylof's present voyage beyond his return with a rich cargo. Khronol, Ist., 104. One reason for this was the secrecy observed for some time. La Pérouse met Pribylof shortly after his return, but learned nothing.
HIST. ALASKA. 13
CHAPTER X.
OFFICIAL EXPLORATIONS. 1773-1779.
RUSSIAN SUPREMACY IN THE FARTHEST NORTH-WEST-THE OTHER EUROPEAN POWERS WOULD KNOW WHAT IT MEANS-PEREZ LOOKS AT ALASKA FOR SPAIN-THE 'SANTIAGO' AT DIXON ENTRANCE-CUADRA ADVANCES TO CROSS SOUND-COOK FOR ENGLAND EXAMINES THE COAST AS FAR AS ICY CAPE-NAMES GIVEN TO PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND AND COOK INLET- REVELATIONS AND MISTAKES -LEDYARD'S JOURNEY-AGAIN SPAIN SENDS TO THE NORTH ARTEAGA, WHO TAKES POSSESSION AT LATITUDE 59° 8'-BAY OF LA SANTÍSIMA CRUZ-RESULTS ATTAINED.
THE gradual establishment of Russian supremacy in north-westernmost America upon a permanent basis had not escaped the attention of Spanish statesmen. Within a few years after the disastrous failure of the Russian exploring expeditions under Krenitzin and Levashef, a succinct account of all that had been ac- complished by the joint efforts of the promyshleniki and the naval officers, under the auspices of the imperial government, had been transmitted to the court of Spain by its accredited and secret agents at St Petersburg.1
Alarmed by tidings of numerous and important discoveries along the extension of her own South Sea coast line, Spain ordered an expedition for exploring
1 The communications concerning Russia's plans of conquest in Asia and America, forwarded to the court of Spain from St Petersburg, make mention of an expedition organized in 1764. Two captains, named Cweliacow and Ponobasew in the document, were to sail from Arkhangel in the White Sea, and meet Captain Krenitzin, who was to sail from Kamchatka. This is a somewhat mixed account of the Krenitzin and Levashef expedition, which did not finally sail till 1768, but was expected to fall in with lieutenants Chichagof and Ponomaref, who were instructed to coast eastward along Siberia and to pass through Bering Strait.
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SECRET INSTRUCTIONS.
and seizing the coast to the northward of California. In 1773 accordingly the viceroy of Mexico, Revilla Gigedo, assigned for this purpose the new transport Santiago, commanded by Juan Perez, who was asked to prepare a plan of operations. In this he expressed his intention to reach the Northwest Coast in latitude 45° or 50°; but his orders to attain a higher latitude were peremptory, and it is solely owing to this that the voyage falls within the scope of the present volume. Minute directions were furnished for the ceremonies of claiming and taking possession. The wording of the written declaration, to be deposited in convenient and prominent places, was prescribed. The commander was instructed to keep the object of his voyage secret, but to strike the coast well to north, in latitude 60° if possible, and to take possession above any settle- ments he might find, without, however, disturbing the Russians. Appended to his instructions was a full translation of Stæhlin's Account of the New Northern Archipelago, together with the fanciful map accompanying that volume. Each island of the Aleu- tian group was described in detail, besides many others, the product of the fertile imagination of such men as Stæhlin and De l'Isle de la Croyère. Even the island of Kadiak, which had then only been twice visited by promyshleniki, was included in the list.
The Santiago sailed from San Blas January 24, 1774, with eighty-eight men, including two mission- aries and a surgeon. The incidents of nearly the whole of this voyage occurred south of the territory embraced by this volume; but between the 15th and 17th of July Perez and his companions sighted two capes, the southernmost of which he thought was in latitude 55°, and the other about eight leagues to the north. These points were named Santa Margarita and Santa Magdalena, respectively.2
2 The latitude given by Perez, if correct, would make it difficult to locate these capes so as to agree with the minute and circumstantial description of the contours of the coast; but allowing for an error which might easily arise
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OFFICIAL EXPLORATIONS.
These capes, the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island, and the north point of Queen Charlotte Island, lie on both sides of the present boundary of Alaska, but Perez and his men had intercourse with the inhabitants of the latter cape only. The mere sighting of one of the southern capes of Alaska, and its location by rough estimate, would scarcely justify a discussion of the voyage of Juan Perez in the annals of Alaska, were it not for an apparently trifling incident · mentioned in the various diarios of this expedition. In the hands of the natives were seen an old bayonet and pieces of other iron implements, which the pilot con- jectured must have belonged to the boats' crews lost from Chirikof's vessel somewhere in these latitudes in 1741.3 In the absence of all knowledge of any civ- ilized visitor to that section during the interval be- tween Chirikof's and Perez' voyages we cannot well criticise the conclusion arrived at. It could scarcely be presumed that at that early date a Russian bayo- net should have passed from hand to hand or from. tribe to tribe, around the coast from the Aleutian Islands, or perhaps Kadiak, a distance of from eight hundred to one thousand miles. It appears highly probable that Chirikof's mishap occurred in this vicin- ity, the Prince of Wales or Queen Charlotte Islands, and in that case the present boundary of Alaska would be very nearly identical with the northern limit of the territorial claims of Spain as based upon the right of discovery. The avowed objects of this. voyage had not been obtained by Perez; he did not ascend to the latitude of 60°; he did not ascertain the existence of permanent Russian establishments, and he made no discoveries of available sea-ports. His intercourse with the Alaskan natives, if such they
from the imperfect instruments of the times, we must come to the conclusion that Perez discovered Dixon Sound. The allusion to an island situated to the west of the northernmost cape, the Santa Christina or Catalina of the re- corders of the voyage, can scarcely refer to any point but the Forrester Island of our modern maps.
3 Maurelle, Compendio de Noticias, MS., 169.
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SECOND SPANISH EXPEDITION.
were, was carried on without anchoring. The details of the expedition of Perez, so far as they relate to incidents that occurred south of the line of 54° 40', are discussed in my History of the Northwest Coast.4
The second Spanish expedition which extended its operations to Alaskan waters was organized in the following year, 1775. The command was intrusted to Bruno Heceta, a lieutenant and acting captain, who selected the Santiago as his flag-ship. Juan Perez sailed with Heceta as pilot and second in com- mand. The small schooner Sonora, or Felicidad, accompanied the larger craft as consort, commanded by Lieutenant Juan Francisco de Bodega y Cuadra, with Antonio Maurelle as pilot.5
The expedition sailed from San Blas March 16th. After going far out to sea and returning to the coast again in latitude 48° on the 14th of July, taking pos- session of the country, and after a disastrous encounter with the savages of that region, the two vessels be- came separated during a northerly gale on the 30th of July.6
The Sonora alone made discoveries within the pres- ent boundaries of Alaska. After the separation the little craft, only 36 feet in length, was boldly headed
4 Not less than four journals or diaries of the voyage are extant. Two of these were kept by the missionaries or chaplains of the expedition, Crespi and Peña; the first has been printed in Palou, Noticias, i. 624-88, and the other was copied from the manuscript Viages al Norte de California, etc., in the Spanish Archives. The third journal, entitled Perez, Relacion del Viage, etc., 1774, is contained in the Mayer manuscripts and also in Maurelle, Com- pendio de Noticias, MS., 159-75. The fourth journal is also a manuscript under the title, Perez, Tabla Diaria, etc., contained in Maurelle, Compendio, 179-85. Brief mention of this voyage can also be found in Navarrete, Sutil y Mex., Viage, 92-3; Humboldt, Essai Pol., 331-2; Mofras, Explor., i .; Navar- rete, Viages Apóc., 53-4; Greenhow's Mem., 69; Id., Or. and Cal., 114-17; Twiss' Hist. Or., 55-6; Id., Or. Question, 66-7; Falconer's Or. Question, 19; Id., Discov. Miss., 62; Bustamante, in Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. 119; Palou, Vida, 160-2; Forbes' Hist. Cal., 114-16; Calvo, Col. Trat., i. 338; Nicolay's Oregon Ter., 30-2; Findlay's Directory, i. 349-50; Poussin, Question de l'Ore- gon, 38-9; MacGregor's Prog. Amer., i. 535; Tikhmenef, Istor. Obosr., i. preface; Baranof, in Sitka Archives, MS., i. Nos. 5 and 6.
5 See Hist. Northwest Coast, i. 158, this series.
6 The outward and homeward voyage of the Santiago has been fully re- lated in Hist. Northwest Coast, i., this series.
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OFFICIAL EXPLORATIONS.
60
Lituya Bayor Port des Francais
C.Spencer .. Cross Sound &
Highest lat.of Cuudtra 1775
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