USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 36
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1 Shelikof and Golikof requested that clergymen be appointed for mis- sionary work in the Aleutian Islands and offered to defray all expenses. By oukaz of June 30, 1793, Catherine II. ordered the petition granted. At the same time Shelikof asked the governor of Irkutsk to use his influence with the crown to procure the despatch of a certain number of exiles, skilled as blacksmiths, locksmiths, and foundrymen, and of ten families trained to agriculture. The request was granted by oukaz of December 31, 1793. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., i. 42-3.
2 Both built at Okhotsk. The former, though only 63 feet in length, had on board 260 tons of cargo, besides 120 casks of water.
3 There were also 121 hunters, 4 clerks, and 5 Aleuts.
" This vol., p. 227.
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PLANS FOR A TOWN.
of all that had previously been sent.5 Accompanying them was a document touching only on the private affairs of the company. Thanking Baranof for his exhaustive reports, Shelikof concludes: "And now it only remains for us to hope that, having selected on the mainland a suitable place, you will lay out the set- tlement with some taste, and with due regard for beauty of construction, in order that when visits are made by foreign ships, as can not fail to happen, it may appear more like a town than a village, and that the Russians in America may live in a neat and or- derly way, and not, as in Okhotsk, in squalor and misery caused by the absence of nearly everything necessary to civilization. Use taste as well as practical judg- ment in locating the settlement. Look to beauty as well as to convenience of material and supplies. On the plans as well as in reality leave room for spacious squares for public assemblies. Make the streets not too long, but wide, and let them radiate from the squares. If the site is wooded, let trees enough stand to line the streets and to fill the gardens, in order to beautify the place and preserve a healthy atmos- phere. Build the houses along the streets, but at some distance from each other, in order to increase the extent of the town. The roofs should be of equal height, and the architecture as uniform as possible. The gardens should be of equal size, and provided with good fences along the streets. Thanks be to God that you will at least have no lack of timber. Make the plan as full as possible, and add views of the sur-
5 The letter was dated from Okhotsk on the 9th of August, 1794. Orders had been received from the governor of Irkutsk that the agriculturists, in- cluding ten families, should be forwarded to the spot near Cape St Elias where Shelikof had promised to establish the first agricultural settlement on the north-west coast of America; but it was claimed that a clause in the in- structions permitted the site of this colony to be changed, if a more suitable location could be found, and finally the exiled agriculturists were scattered throughout the settlement and employed in various kinds of labor. Most of the exiles of whatever occupation arrived in the Catherine after much delay, caused by a stay at Unalaska, and by a violent gale in Akutan Pass, during which several head of cattle were lost. Khlebnikof, Shitn. Baranova, 24-5, states that the remainder of the live-stock reached Kadiak in safety.
HIST. ALASKA. 23
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COLONIZATION AND MISSIONS.
roundings. Your work will be viewed and discussed at the imperial court." In another part of this letter Baranof is reproached for exchanging visits with cap- tains of English vessels, and warned that he might be carried off to Nootka or California, or some other des- olate place.
The latter portion of this. epistle appears to have been written for the purpose of deceiving the empress, to whom the plans of the proposed settlement were to be shown, though we cannot but admire the compre- hensive scope of Shelikof's imagination when he thus conceives the idea of building a well ordered city in the American wilderness. Although such an under- taking would require all the means and men at the dis- posal of the Shelikof-Golikof Company, he wasengaged, besides other ventures, in forming a second association under the name of the North American Company, for the purpose of making permanent settlements on the mainland, and in building ships for yet a third enterprise of which he was the leading man-the Predtecha Company, then holding temporary possession of the Pribylof Islands, but left without means of carrying away their seal-skins by the loss of their only vessel. The estimated complement for the North American Company was a hundred and twenty men, of whom seventy were despatched in July 1794, and about thirty in 1795. Its main object was to aid in sup- planting foreigners in the trade with the natives, to extend this traffic from Unalaska to the Arctic Ocean, and to enter into commercial intercourse with the people living on the American coast, opposite Cape Tehcukotsk. Moreover, Shelikof cherished in secret the hope of making some new discovery on the Amer- ican continent, leading to the long-sought-for passage into Baffin's Bay.
As soon as Shelikof had despatched his vessels from Okhotsk, he returned in 1794 to Irkutsk for the pur- pose of organizing there a central office for the man- agement of his many enterprises, thus preparing for the
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SHELIKOF'S PROJECTS.
future consolidation of all the Russian companies in America. This was the inception of the great Russian American Company, which was to be fully organized only after its originator's death. Meanwhile Baranof could do, and knew that he was expected to do, but little toward carrying out his superior's brilliant schemes of colonization. On all the principal islands of the Aleutian group, and at some points on the main- land, the best locations for agriculture and cattle-rais- ing had been selected and fortified several years before; additional hunting grounds and a few harbors had also been chosen, and sites marked out at the mouths of rivers for trading posts with the natives. But the time was not yet ripe for establishing new settlements, and meanwhile in accordance with private instructions Shelikof kept the exiles busily employed, some of them at Kadiak, and the mechanics probably at Voskres- senski, where, it will be remembered, the Delphin and Olga were launched in 1795.6
The Trekh Sviatitelei had arrived a few weeks before these vessels were completed, after a two years' voy- age from Kamchatka, with her cargo of stores and provisions in good order and intact-a rare occurrence in the early history of the Russian colonies. Several days were now devoted to feasting and rejoicing, in which traders, priests, and servants alike participated. The colonists were, however, no longer in fear of want, for experiments made in the planting of several kinds of vegetables and occasionally of cereals had been fairly successful, and, though they possessed few im- plements, they had seed in abundance for either pur- pose.7 Thus, with a never failing supply of fish, an abundance of food was, as they thought, assured.
6 Four of the exiled families selected for the company were detained by Shelikof at Okhotsk, to serve as a nucleus for a proposed settlement on one of the Kurile Islands.
7 Father Simeon and one of the lay brothers of the mission, named Philip, made some experiments in sowing turnips and potatoes which succeeded well. The archimandrite mentions a man named Saposhnikof, who planted a pound of barley in a sheltered nook and harvested 60 pounds. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. app. part ii. 102. With this exception, nothing appears to have
.
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COLONIZATION AND MISSIONS.
In December of this year Baranof set forth on a journey round Kadiak, his purpose being to make arrangements for the hunting season, and to ascertain the population of the island, which was found to con- sist of 6,206 persons, the sexes being about equally divided.8 About seven hundred bidarkas, each hold- ing two men, could be assembled at the different sta- tions.
Though the archimandrite had previously described Baranof as a man who " continually sat in his house hatching mischief," and, in a letter to Shelikof, had declared that he could see no sign that any of his schemes of colonization were likely to be carried out, the chief manager certainly took some steps toward establishing the much-talked-of settlement near Cape St Elias. Intrusting the management of affairs at Kadiak to his assistant Kuskof,9 he sailed for Yakutat in the transport Olga,10 and arrived at the village near Cape St Elias on the 15th of July, 1796, finding there the Trekh Sviatitelei, which had reached the new settle- ment on the 25th of June. The few men left at the place the previous autumn were found in good health, but complained of having been frequently in want of food during the winter. Baranof himself remained here two months, superintending the erection of build- ings; and after taking hostages from the natives and leaving a garrison of fifty men, returned to Kadiak.
Meanwhile the Ekaterina, with a portion of the exiles on board, and the transport Orel, under com- mand of Shields, had sailed for Cape St Elias, the latter convoying four hundred and fifty bidarkas bound for
been done with the imported seed of rye and oats, as the only implements for breaking up the ground were forked sticks.
8 There were 3,221 males and 2,985 females.
9 Ivan Alexandrovich Kuskof, a merchant of Totma, came to America with Baranof, in the capacity of clerk. He was soon appointed assistant, and as we shall see intrusted with important commands. He left the service of the company in 1821, returned to Russia by way of Okhotsk in 1822, and died at Totna in 1823. Khlebnikof, Shizn. Baranova, passim.
10 It was intended that Pribylof, the discoverer of the fur-seal islands, should take command, but his decease occurred before the departure of the expedition.
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COLONIAL DISASTERS.
Ltua Bay,11 where in a few days 1,800 sea otter skins were secured.
Thus, at length, the settlement on Yakutat Bay was fairly started with every prospect of success; but this, the first convict colony established in the far north, like the one sent forth two years later to people the desert wastes of Australia, was doomed to suffer many disasters. During the very first winter news reached Kadiak that the village was in danger of being abandoned for want of provisions.12 The Trekh Sviatitelei, which left the settlement on her return voyage a few days before Baranof's departure, was driven by heavy gales into Kamuishatzk Bay. There a large force of men was sent early in the following spring to repair the vessel, but she was found to be so badly damaged that her hull was set on fire, and only her iron-work was saved. At Voskressenski Bay Baranof was met by a messenger from Yakutat, who reported that twenty laborers and several women had perished of scurvy at the settlement during the past winter.
While hastening to the relief of the distressed set- tlers, the chief manager found time to visit Fort Konstantine on Nuchek Island, where the Lebedef- Lastochkin Company had hitherto maintained their principal depot. For several years no supplies had been forwarded to this place, and in consequence great dissatisfaction existed among the employees of the firm. Baranof found no great difficulty in inducing a majority of the Lebedef men to enter the service of the Shelikof Company, and the remainder were promised a passage to Okhotsk. At the same time the Chu- gatsches formally submitted to Baranof and furnished
11 Two other bidarka fleets mustering 257 boats assembled during the same year at the village of Karluk, and after obtaining supplies of dried fish were despatched in the same direction. Each bidarka carried from 100 to 125 fish, but this food was used only in case of actual necessity. As a rule, fresh fish were caught and birds killed at every halting place. Khlebnikof, Shizn. Baranova, 34-5.
12 The news was brought by one Radionof, who arrived at Kadiak from Cape St Elias in a bidar.
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COLONIZATION AND MISSIONS.
an additional quota of a hundred bidarkas to reënforce his hunting parties, thus relieving him of all apprehen- sions of a native uprising west of Yakutat, and enabling him to turn his undivided attention to the wants of the new colony.
After relieving the existing distress and establish- ing order among the settlers, Baranof returned to Ka- diak, arriving there on the first of October. Shields, who commanded the Orel, had in the mean time pro- ceeded south-west from Ltua Bay with his fleet of four hundred and fifty bidarkas, and succeeded in reaching Norfolk Sound, where he soon collected two thousand sea-otter skins.
We shall have occasion to refer later to the prog- ress of the convict colony at Yakutat. Shelikof and his colleagues, when petitioning the empress that a band of exiles should be sent to Alaska to aid in developing the resources of Russian America, and a party of clergymen to convert and educate the natives, assured the government "that their wishes tended only to add new possessions to Russia and new parishes to the church." "But," says Golovnin, who was in- structed by the government to investigate the affairs of the colony, "the clergy and the poor mechanics had hardly arrived at Kadiak, when the former were set to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, and the latter were distributed over different locali- ties, wherever furs could be got to swell the profits of the Shelikof Company. Between 1794 and 1818 the missions received from the company neither bibles nor new testaments, nor any other religious books, not even spelling-books to teach the children, while wax candles, wine, etc., necessary for the performance of sacred ceremonies, could not be obtained from them. But of the thirty-five families of mechanics only three men and one woman remained in 1818.13 The re-
13 About the year 1870 Ivan Petrof states that there are at Niniltchik, on Cook Inlet, six families, including some forty souls, claiming to be de- scendants of these exiles.
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DECEIVED SETTLERS.
mainder were killed or died from want and hardship, while hunting for the company. For all this I am in possession of written proofs. And thus Shelikof showed to the world that between traders on a large or small scale there is no difference. As the shopman in the market makes the sign of the cross and calls God to witness in order to sell his goods a few copeks dearer, so Shelikof used the name of Christ and this sacred faith to deceive the government and entice thirty-five unfortunate families to the savage shores of America, where they fell victims to his avarice and that of his successors."14
All this is sufficiently bitter, and if any further proof be wanted that Golovnin was somewhat biased, his mention of Baranof, whom he describes as "a man who became famous on account of his long resi- dence among the savages, and still more so because he, while enlightening them, grew wild himself and sunk to a degree below the savage," is further evi- dence.15 It is but due to the memory of Shelikof, whose decease occurred in July 1795, to quote a few lines from the letter of his widow, addressed on November 22d of that year to the governor of Tauris: "The administration of the colony has made arrangements that these settlers shall not be ham- pered in their work of constructing the new village by anxiety with regard to producing the necessary provisions during the first year, and has provided ample supplies of food to last them until they can provide for themselves, as well as tools, etc., all of which have been purchased at Okhotsk by my late husband at his own expense. At the same time an agent was appointed to attend to the issue of these supplies, according to the wants of the people. But finally they got up a conspiracy, and threatened to take the agent's life unless he gave them guns and ammunition to protect themselves against the sav-
14 Materialui Istor. Russ., i. 54.
15 Id., 53.
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COLONIZATION AND MISSIONS.
ages when they would reach the mainland, and that they would take possession of the ship and sail for the Kurile Islands, selecting one of their men as navigator. They had three great guns with ammuni- tion, all ready for use, but the chief agent of the com- pany discovered their conspiracy, and three of the ringleaders were, in accordance with the instructions of the commanding officer at Okhotsk, punished by flogging, and separated among the hunters at various stations."
Knowing how he had compromised himself in his dealings with the turbulent traders on Cook Inlet by assuming official authority which did not belong to him, Baranof had to exert all his ingenuity, and prob- ably resorted to threats and violence, in order to keep the knowledge of his proceedings from the priests, who were only too ready to meddle with the concerns of the Shelikof Company.17 Though outwardly professing the veneration of an orthodox member of the Russian church for its ordained representatives, Baranof con- sidered them as enemies and acted accordingly. He knew that in the pursuit of his business the full con- trol of the natives was essential to his success, and he believed that every one of the missionaries would strive to obtain such control for himself in the name of the holy synod. In order to lessen the number of his enemies, he urged upon Ioassaf the necessity of sending out missionaries to the savage tribes of the mainland, from whom the light of Christianity was still entirely hidden. The chief of the mission expressed his full understanding of this necessity, but winter
16 Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. app. part ii. 109.
17 The following is a list of members of this first mission: Archimandrite Ioássaf, drowned on the Feniks in 1799; Iëromonakh Juvenal, killed by the savages in northern America, as will be afterward related; Iëromonakh Makar, returned voluntarily to Okhotsk; Affanassic, returned to Irkutsk in 1825; Icrodiakon Stefan, drowned in the suite of the bishop; Nektar, sent to Irkutsk. by Father Gideon in 1807; Monk German, still among the living in 1S35; Monk Ioassaf, who died at Kadiak in 1823; and ten church servitors not be- longing to the priesthood.
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COMPLAINTS OF THE PRIESTS.
was then approaching fast and the journey to the con- tinent was becoming dangerous. Thus Baranof was obliged to face his adversaries during the whole of a long arctic winter, and to counteract their intrigues as best he might.
The attitude assumed by the first apostles of Chris- tianity in Alaska from the very beginning of their res- idence in America was decidedly hostile to all who managed and carried on business enterprises in the colonies. Previous to reaching their destination the members of this mission were detained for a whole winter in the wretched sea-port towns of eastern Siberia and Kamchatka, where they met with numbers of the former servants of the various trading com- panies, who were full of discontent and resentment, and painted to them in the blackest colors the condi- tion of the country and the people inhabiting it. The result was that the priests finally sailed for the Amer- ican coast imbued with a prejudice against everything and everybody belonging to the colonies. Being thus prepared to see nothing but evil, priestly ingenuity and craft succeeded in finding much more than had been discovered by their ignorant informers. In the correspondence transmitted by members of the mission to Shelikof, and to dignitaries of the synod, during this first period of their missionary work, they make the worst of everything.
The archimandrite was especially bitter in his de- nunciations of the chief manager, but there is little doubt that many of his accusations were unfounded.18
18 Though the tone of his letters and reports is decidedly hostile to Baranof, the latter seems to have succeeded in concealing from the inquisitive clergy his wrongful assumption of authority in Cook Inlet, which would have exposed him to the most severe punishment by the authorities. I make the following extract from the letter of the archimandrite to Shelikof, written in May 1795: 'We have no proper church as yet, and though I personally urged Alex- ander Andreievitch [Baranof] to build a small church at this place as soon as possible, and offered a plan for a chapel only four fathoms long by a fathom and a half in width, the timber for it still remains uncut. Since my arrival at this harbor I have seen nothing but what scems to be in direct opposition to your kind intentions. The only thing which gives me satisfaction is the fact that the natives flock in from everywhere to become christianized, but the Russians not only make no effort to help
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COLONIZATION AND MISSIONS.
It must be admitted, however, that the ecclesiastics suffered many privations through the neglect of Bar- anof and the traders, who regarded them simply as intermeddlers, of whom they must rid themselves as speedily as possible. During their first winter the missionaries were without sufficient food and shelter; 19 no encouragement was afforded them in their work, and it was not until July 1796 that the first church was built in Kadiak, at Three Saints, though before that time it was claimed that twelve thousand natives had been baptized.
While making his report to Shelikof, the archiman-
in the work of enlightenment, but use every means to discourage them, and the cause of this is the vicious lives they have been leading from the first with American [native] women. I have barely succeeded in persuading a few hunters to get married, but the others will not even listen to such a proposal. Thus far I have not been enabled to discover whether it is Mr Baranof or his assistants who are endeavoring to cause ill-feeling against us and you. All I can say is that the hunters are incensed against you. All do their best to evade compliance with the written clauses of their contracts with you. Ships and other property of the company are neglected, and many say that the company's interests are opposed to those of the settlers, and try to persuade others to think the same.' Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. app. part ii. 101-2.
19 ' About the domestic arrangements,' continues Ioassaf, 'nothing good can be said. Since our arrival there has been a famine during the whole win- ter. Yukola [dried salmon] three years old is all that is offered us, and though we do not like dried fish, we are compelled to eat it. The laborers do nothing toward providing food. The nets were left on the ground near the beach all winter, being thoroughly spoiled. The dogs have eaten up two of the calves which we brought with us, and of the two sheep which remained to us on our arrival, one was devoured by dogs. The goats all perished. In accordance with your instructions, I was to accustom my clergymen to the food of the country, and to employ them at various kinds of labor, but this would have been done without your instructions. We are not troubled with an abundance of provisions, keeping our table upon the beach, picking up mus- sels, clams, and crabs. In addition to this, we have a little bread, and that will soon be exhausted. Baranof and his favorites do not suffer; for him they shoot birds, sea-lions, and seals. From the Alaskan peninsula they bring him reindeer meat. Milk he has always, even in the winter, two cows being reserved for his use alone. They used to give us milk enough for our tea, but at the present time, when ten cows have calved, we get only one tea-cupful a day, exclusive of fast-days. Our light is miserable, as we get nothing but whale-oil for that purpose. Then the winter was very cold, the roofs leaky, and the windows very bad; thus we passed the whole winter. I have never felt comfortable , since my arrival here. I bore with our miserable accommodations as long as I could, and sent the brothers to the barracks where the working people live; but it would not do for me to go there in the position of dignity I hold here; and the barracks were full and even crowded. They had frequent assemblies and games there, and often whole nights were passed in singing and dancing. They kept it up every Sunday and holiday, and sometimes even on work- days. On Ash Wednesday they came to me and asked ine to postpone the confession until evening, when they would have finished their games.' Id., 102-4.
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IOASSAF AGAINST BARANOF.
drite states that he could fill a book with the evil doings and atrocities that came under his observation, but that out of consideration for him he would not lodge a formal complaint with the supreme church authorities. He felt that even if Baranof knew that he was writing the truth to the head of the company, he would be prevented from making any further progress in his work, and perhaps even endanger his life. He expressed his firm belief that no admonition of the managers by his superiors could do any good, and that removal alone could remedy the evil. Should that be considered impracticable, he would suffer in silence, doing all the good that was possible under such unfavorable circumstances, and patiently await- ing the time when providence would carry him and his much-abused brethren back to Russia, beyond the control of their 'untiring persecutor.' The reverend correspondent likewise throws out hints of misman- agement and peculation in business affairs.20
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