USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 30
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9 Juvenal's Jour., MS., 1 et seq. Sauer bestows the highest praise upon the strict justice and humanity with which Delarof managed the affairs of the colony. Sauer's Geog. and Astron. Exped., 170-1.
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SCIENCE AND RELIGION.
stood upon the beach, armed and well guarded, serv- ing as a place of refuge in case of attack. Several gardens planted with cabbage and potatoes, and some cows and goats, added to the comfort of the settlers.10
In the report of Billings' visit to Kadiak mention is made of the water-route across the Alaska peninsula by way of Iliamna Lake. The natives persisted in calling the peninsula an island, kikhtak, because they could pass in their canoes, without portage, from She- likof Strait into Bristol Bay, their main source for supplies of walrus ivory for spear-heads, fish-hooks, and various implements.
The astronomical tent, and another constituting a portable church, had been pitched as soon as the ex- pedition arrived, and remained standing till the 6th of July, when the Slava Rossie once more set sail. Delarof accompanied Billings for the purpose of visit- ing a Spanish frigate reported by the natives to be cruising at the mouth of Cook Inlet.11 The com- mander of the expedition also intended to visit the Spanish ship, but the wind was unfavorable, and by the 8th of July they had only reached the island of Afognak where a settlement had already existed. On the 12th of July, in the neighborhood of Barren Islands, Delarof left the Slava Rossie in a canoe, giving up all hope of reaching Cook's Inlet with the ship. He was intrusted with messages for the Span- iards and the vessel was headed for Prince William Sound.
On the 19th of July the Slava Rossie was anchored
10 During the stay of the Slava Rossie at Three Saints Bay one of the officers of the company applied to the priest accompanying the expedition to baptize a native woman with whom he had been living several years and had children; they were then formally married, and Sauer speaks with much satisfaction of the excellent manner in which their household affairs were managed. From the promyshleniki and sailors in employ of the company much complaint was heard of the high prices they were obliged to pay the company for the very necessaries of life, making it almost impossible to live without becoming indebted to their employers. Id., 173.
11 On this occasion Sauer makes an evidently erroneous statement to the effect that he was informed the Spaniards were in the habit of visiting the Russian settlements annually, exchanging provisions and sea-otter skins for hardware and linen. Id., 184; Juvenal's Jour., MS., 50 et seq.
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in the same bay of Montague or Tzaklie Island where Cook passed some time in 1778. The astronomical tent was at once erected on shore under a sufficient guard, while boat parties set out to explore. The natives were quite peaceable in view of the formidable armament of the Slava Rossie, but they made bitter complaints against Russian traders who had formerly visited them, especially the party under Polutof in 1783. They were assured that they need not appre- hend any ill-treatment from government vessels car- rying the same flag as the Slava Rossie. It was found necessary, however, to exercise the greatest vigilance to prevent them from stealing.12
While at this anchorage, Captain Billings, who thought he had reached the Cape St Elias discovered by Bering, assumed, in accordance with his instruc- tions, an additional rank, the customary. oath being administered by the priest attached to the expedition. Sauer ridiculed this theory and located Cape St Elias to his own satisfaction on Kaye Island.
Lieutenant Sarychef went out with a boat's crew, and during an absence of three days he met several parties of natives and saw the cross erected by Zaïkof under Shelikof's order. On one occasion the crafty natives endeavored to entice him into a shallow chan- nel where his boat would be left grounded by the tide and his party exposed to attack. The device did not succeed, however, and Sarychef heard of the danger he had escaped only after his return to Okhotsk, from the Aleut interpreter. After Sarychef's return to the ship a very old native came on board and stated that his home was on Kaye Island which he plainly described. With regard to the number and nation-
12 Sauer states that on one occasion, when Billings entertained some of the natives in his tent on shore, the servant set down a tray in such a manner that a corner of it, containing some spoons, protruded from under the canvas. One of the natives attempted to appropriate the spoons, but a water-spaniel lying in the tent sprang at him, seized the hand holding the plunder, and held the thief until ordered to relinquish his hold-a circumstance which, in Sauer's opinion, thereafter 'kept them (the natives) honest afterwards in the dog's. presence.' Sauer's Geog. and Astron. Exped., 188.
289
A QUIXOTIC PLAN.
ality of ships that had visited his people, he was not positive, but remembered well that when he was a boy a ship had approached Kaye Island for the first time. When a boat was sent ashore the natives fled into the interior, returning only after their visitors had departed. They found their domiciles despoiled of many articles and some provisions, while some beads, tobacco, and iron kettles had been deposited in their place. As this account corresponds altogether with Steller's report of Khitrof's landing in 1741, Sauer and Sarychef came at once to the conclusion that Kaye Island must be the locality of Bering's discovery.
Sauer conceived a wild plan of remaining alone among the natives of Prince William Sound to carry on explorations, with a faint hope of discovering the long sought for passage into the northern Atlantic. Billings very properly refused to sanction the plan, much to the chagrin of his Quixotic secretary.
A few good spars were secured for the ship and a small supply of fresh fish, and on the 1st of August a council of officers came to the conclusion that it was best to return to Kamchatka. The stock of provi- sions was not sufficient to maintain the whole com- pany during the winter in a country apparently with- out any reliable natural resources; the season was far advanced and it appeared scarcely safe to continue the work of surveying in an almost unknown region with a single vessel. A south-westerly course was adopted, but the winds were adverse, and by the beginning of September the Slava Rossie was still tossing about in unknown seas, unable to obtain any correct observations. A squall carried away the fore- mast and other spars and it was found impossible to touch at Unalaska to replenish the water-casks and land the Aleut interpreters. On the 24th of Sep- tember one of the latter attempted suicide by cut- ting his throat, despairing of ever seeing his country again. The supply of water and provisions was almost HIST. ALASKA. 19
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THE BILLINGS SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION.
exhausted and they had reasons to believe themselves still many hundred miles from the coast of Kam- chatka; but in spite of the many evils threatening him on every side Billings continued upon his course, and at last, on the 14th of October, the Slava Rossie entered the Bay of Avatcha, with a large part of her crew suffering from scurvy.
The remainder of the expedition had arrived from Okhotsk during the summer, bringing the iron and other material saved from the wrecked Dobraia Na- merenia, and the first thing to be done was to build another ship. The ship-carpenters and a force of men were at once despatched to Nishnekamchatsk, where suitable timber was more abundant, and the work progressed vigorously under superintendence of Cap- tain Hall. The other officers passed most of their time at Bolsheretsk in the enjoyment of social inter- course with the families of government officers and merchants.
One of the navigators attached to the expedition, named Bronnikof, having died during the summer, Billings engaged in his stead Gerassim Pribylof, who in the service of the Lebedef-Lastochkin company had recently discovered the islands of St George and St Paul, the annual retreat of the fur-seals.
Early in April 1791 the members of the expedition once more assembled at Petropavlovsk, and orders were forwarded to Captain Hall, who was to command the new vessel, to meet the Slava Rossie at Bering Island between the 25th and 30th of May. In case of failure to meet, a second rendezvous was appointed at Unalaska.
On the 19th of May the ships sailed out of Avatcha Bay after a long detention by baffling winds. On the 28th Bering Island was made, but the weather being boisterous it was concluded not to wait for the con- sort, but to go on to Unalaska. The first landing was made on the island of Tanaga, where they found a village inhabited by women and a few old men, who
291
IMPERIAL REWARDS.
explained that all the able-bodied hunters had been carried off to the eastward by Lukanin and his com- pany. The people complained that this party had also taken with them many women. The Aleuts car- ried to Kamchatka against their will, during the last voyage, were here set ashore with no other compensa- tion than a few articles of clothing, a little tobacco, and a brief document exempting them from compul- sory services with the trading companies.
On the 25th of June the harbor of Illiuliuk on Unalaska Island was reached, but nothing had been heard of Hall and his vessel. Billings at once de- clared that he would give up his former intention to make a thorough exploration of Cook Inlet and vicin- ity, and proceed at once to St Lawrence Bay, in the Chukchi country, after depositing at Unalaska some provisions for Captain Hall with a few men to guard them.13 Instructions were also left for the consort to immediately follow the Slava Rossie to St Lawrence Bay. . The officers, especially Sarychef and Sauer, were greatly disappointed at this change of plans, and the latter in his journal expressed the opinion that too rapid promotion had an evil effect on Captain Billings, who seemed to have lost all ambition to make discoveries, and haughtily refused advice from the most experienced of his companions.14
After landing the men and provisions for Hall, the
13 The men left there were Surgeon Allegretti, Ensign Ivan Alexeïef and one sailor. Id., 229. Juvenal, Jour., MS., 27 et seq., refers to the doings of the Lebedef-Lastochkin Company.
14 Sauer uses the following strong language: 'Nothing in the world could have afforded me less satisfaction than this resolution, which I regarded as the conclusion of an expedition that was set on foot with unbounded liber- ality by the most magnanimous sovereign in the world; which had raised the expectation of all nations to the highest pitch, and induced mankind to an- ticipate the satisfaction of obtaining the most complete knowledge of the geography of this unknown part of the globe, together with a conviction of the existence or non-existence of a north-west passage. But, alas! after so many years of danger and fatigue; after putting the government to such an extraordinary expense; after having advanced so far in the attempt, even at the very time when we were in hourly expectation of our comfort, and, as appeared to me, being just entering upon the grand part of the undertak- ing, thus to abandon it was the most unaccountable and unjustifiable of ac- tions.' Sauer's Geog. and Astron. Exped., 230.
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THE BILLINGS SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION.
Slava Rossie put to sea on the 8th of July. Passing through the Pribylof and St Matthew islands, they made land on the 20th of July, which turned out to be Clerke Island (St Lawrence). Billings landed in person; the natives who had been discerned walking on the beach disappeared as soon as the boat ap- proached the shore. The party returned in the evening, having visited some abandoned habitations and met some domesticated dogs. A party of natives crossing a lake in the direction of the ocean beach was frightened back by a musket-shot fired to warn Billings, who had strayed some distance by himself.
On the 27th of July the explorers at last caught sight of the American continent, in the vicinity of Cape Rodney. Billings, with the naturalist, draughts- man, and two other officers were landed in boats. The party made a fire of drift-wood on the beach and then dispersed in search of inhabitants. A few were found, and friendly intercourse was established by means of an Anadir Cossack who spoke the Chuk- chi language. The natives conducted their visitors to a temporary dwelling and treated them hospitably. The following day some trading was carried on and the explorers returned to the ship with considerable difficulty owing to stormy weather.15
On the 2d of August the expedition reached its highest latitude, 65° 23' 50", sighting the islands in mid-channel of Bering Strait, and the following day the Slava Rossie anchored in St Lawrence Bay. From this point Billings proposed to set out overland, with a small party, in the direction of the Kovima, while Sarychef was to take the vessel back to Unalaska. Two guides and interpreters, Kobelef and Dauerkin, had been on the coast ever since 1787, awaiting the
15 A bidar, purchased from the natives, with four sailors, did not reach the ship till the 31st. The men reported that they had been cast ashore, and . at daylight found themselves surrounded by a number of natives, with whom they traded, though giving them a bad character. Sauer remarks on this occasion: ' I cannot guess what articles of trade they had; but they obtained several skins of black and red foxes, martens, etc. I hope that the natives had not the greater reason to complain.' Id., 247.
293
AN OVERLAND JOURNEY.
expedition, and Billings lost no time in perfecting preparations for his dangerous journey, taking his final departure on the 13th of August.16
The commander appeared confident of his purpose, but those he left on the ship by no means shared that feeling. They considered the large quantity of goods carried as presents an additional danger, which proved true according to the report of the journey. As soon as they left the coast they found themselves com- pletely in the power of the Chukchi who were to accompany them across the country. They were led over a roundabout route and systematically robbed at every opportunity. As their store of goods decreased the insolence of the natives increased and on more than one occasion they narrowly escaped slaughter.
On the day after Billings' departure Sarychef sailed for Unalaska. The Slava Rossie was now but ill pro- vided with food, water, and firewood, but anxiety on account of Hall with the consort made it necessary to steer for the Aleutian isles instead of proceeding to Petropavlovsk for supplies. The passage was com- paratively short, however, and on the 28th of August they anchored once more in Illiuliuk harbor. Captain Hall had arrived there a few days after Billings' departure and sailed for St Lawrence Bay in accord- ance with instructions: thence he returned, arriving three days later.
The anchorage chosen for the two vessels during the winter was a longitudinal cove on the west side of Illiuliuk Bay, protected by a low island, now con- nected with the adjoining shore by a narrow neck. Some shops and huts for officers were erected, but the greater part of the crews remained on board of the Slava Rossie and the Chernui Orel, or Black Eagle, as Captain Hall's vessel had been named. Sauer intimates that the principal reason of the sailors for
16 The company numbered 12-Capt. Billings, Dr Merck the naturalist and his assistant Mr Main, Masters Batakof and Gileïef of the navy; Varonin, the draughtsman, and Leman, surgeon's mate; the two interpreters, Kobelef and Dauerkin, and two soldiers and a boy attending on the captain. Id., 255.
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THE BILLINGS SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION.
remaining on board was, that while on the ships they were entitled to a daily allowance of brandy which could not have been issued to them on shore. The officers doomed to pass a wretched winter in this desolate place were captains Robert Hall and Gavril Sarychef, Lieutenant Christian Bering, Surgeon- major Robeck, Surgeon Allegretti, and Bakof, Baku- lin, Erling, Pribylof, and Sauer. Billings' orders had been to collect tribute from the Aleutian isles, and Hall took the necessary steps to notify the natives of his purpose. The Aleuts came voluntarily with con- tributions of fox and sea-otter skins, especially after it became known that the government officers gen- erally returned the full value of the skins in trinkets. In the expectation that at least one of his ships would winter at Unalaska, Billings had given orders that stores of dried fish should be prepared, and this order had been generally obeyed by the natives; but with all that the crews of the two vessels were but poorly provided for the long, cold winter. The knowl- edge of the dreadful sufferings of their predecessors in that harbor, Captain Levashef and his crew, of the Krenitzin expedition, in 1768, may have hastened the coming of the scurvy; at all events, a month had not passed before several men were attacked with it, and before the end of the year one victim was buried. With the new year the disease became more violent, and toward the end of February 1792 they buried as many as three in one day. In March a change for the better set in, after seventeen of the best men had found their graves. With the greatest difficulty the two ships were brought into condition to undertake the return voyage to Petropavlovsk, but the task was at last accomplished on the 16th of May.
During the winter tribute had been collected from about five hundred natives, amounting to a dozen sea- otter skins and six hundred foxes of different kinds, and in return for these all the trinkets and tobacco, quite a large quantity, had been distributed. A party
295
IMPUDENT CHUKCHI.
consisting of some Russians from Shelikof's establish- ment at Kadiak and some natives had paid a visit to the winter-quarters of the expedition in search of syphilitic remedies, brandy, and tobacco. The former they obtained from the surgeons together with proper directions for using them. The natives with this party made many complaints of ill-treatment at the hands of Russian promyshleniki, which Sauer con- sidered well founded.17
The return from Unalaska was accomplished with better despatch than might have been expected from the miserable condition of the vessels. On the 7th of June the Slava Rossie lost sight of the Chernui Orel, and on the 16th the former vessel entered Avatcha Bay. An English ship, the Halcyon, Cap- tain Barclay, was in the harbor, with a cargo of iron- ware and ship-chandlery much needed on the coast, but the stupid port authorities would not allow the captain to dispose of any of his goods.
The explorers were anxious to proceed to Okhotsk, but deeming it impracticable to enter that port with the Slava Rossie it was concluded to despatch the Chernui Orel, with as many members of the expedi- tion as she could carry, while the remainder awaited the arrival of the annual transport vessel from Okhotsk. Shortly after the sailing of the first de- tachment news was received from Captain Billings and his party. They had undergone the greatest suffer- ings, but were then, in February 1792, on the river Angarka within a few days' march of the Kovima. The object of the dangerous journey had to a great extent been frustrated by the restrictions imposed upon the helpless explorers by the impudent Chukchi.
17 He also says: 'Shelikhof has formed a project to obtain the sole priv- ilege of carrying on this trade without a rival, and he will probably, one day or other, succeed; but not before the scarcity of furs lessens the value of this trade and renders fresh capital necessary for making new excursions to dis- cover other sources of commerce, or rather of wealth; then the directors of the present concern will explore the regions of Amercia, and if nothing advantageous occurs, they will doubtless retire from the concern, secure in their possessions, and leave the new members to pursue the undertaking.' Id., 275-6.
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THE BILLINGS SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION.
They had destroyed the surveying outfit and would not allow any notes to be taken or calculations to be made. Captain Billings communicated his intention of proceeding to Yakutsk with all possible speed and desired Sauer to join him there as soon as practi- cable. 18
Letters from St Petersburg were received about the same time, announcing that a French vessel, under the flag of the republic, had sailed for Petropavlovsk, and ordering that every facility of trade should be afforded to the supercargo, a M. Torckler. A few days later the ship arrived and was found to be the La Flavia-also heard of on the American coast- with a crew of sixty men besides the officers. Her cargo consisted chiefly of brandy. One cannot but note the difference in official action with regard to the useful cargo of iron-ware brought by Barclay the same year, and that of the La Flavia, consisting of the chief element of destruction and ruin among the half-savage inhabitants of that region. The French ship remained during the whole winter, retailing the cargo, for nobody in Petropavlovsk had the means to buy it in bulk. She sailed June 1, 1793, for Canton.
Thus came to an end, as far as concerns the Russian possessions in America, an expedition inaugurated on a truly magnificent scale after long years of prepara- tion. The geographical results may be set down at next to nothing, with the exception of the thorough surveys of Captain Bay in Illiuliuk Harbor on Una- laska Island. Every other part of the work had already been done by Cook. The knowledge obtained by Billings during his march from St Lawrence Bay to the Kovima proved of no great importance, based as it was to a great extent on hearsay from the treacherous Chukchi, who would not allow any mem-
18 The members of the expedition still at Petropavlovsk were Capt. Bering, Masters Bakof and Bakulin, Mr Sauer, and Surgeon-general Robeck. Major Shmalef was in command of the province. Id., 285.
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RESULTS.
ber of the band to make personal observations. An important feature, however, was the preliminary ex- perience gained by Sarychef, who subsequently pub- lished the most complete and reliable charts of the Aleutian Islands, a work upon which, as far as the territory included in Sarychef's own observations is concerned, even Tebenkof could make few if any im- provements. Their reliability stands acknowledged to the present day. But few corrections have been made in his special charts of harbors by modern sur- veys. As far as it is possible to judge now, it seems that Martin Sauer's estimate of his commander was nearly correct, and we may concur in his opinion that the failure of the expedition in its chief objects was due to the leader's incapacity and false pride, which prevented him from accepting the advice of others well qualified and willing to give it; but there were also other reasons, as we shall see. It was almost a miracle that he did not furnish a tragic finale to a series of blunders by losing his life during his fool- hardy journey through the country of the Chukchi.
The principal benefit derived from this costly undertaking was the ventilation of abuses practised by unscrupulous traders upon helpless natives. The authorities in Siberia and St Petersburg became at last convinced that an end must be put to the bar- barous rule of the promyshleniki. The cheapest and easiest way to accomplish this was to grant control of the whole business with American coasts and islands to one strong company that might be held responsible to the government for its conduct. Those members of the Billings expedition who revealed the unsatis- factory state of affairs in these outlying possessions of Russia did not intend to aid Shelikof and his part- ners in their ambitious schemes, but such was the effect of their reports. Another result was to abolish the custom of collecting tribute from the Aleuts; the method introduced by Sarychef-to return the full value in tobacco and trinkets for skins tendered as
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THE BILLINGS SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION.
tribute-would have effectually prevented the govern- ment from deriving any benefit from that source.
If the expedition revealed abuses it also gave rise to others. Many private individuals enriched them- selves by contracts for supplying the expedition at the different stages of its progress, especially at Irkutsk, Yakutsk, and Okhotsk. Sauer mentions in his jour- nal that on his return voyage he found the officials at Yakutsk, whom he had left in comparative poverty, in much improved circumstances, bordering upon affluence, and he ascribes the change to the fact that these people had been engaged in furnishing horses for the transportation of stores to the Kovima and to Okhotsk.
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