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This was a death-blow to the company's hopes. After two unsuccessful attempts to sell the establish- ment, first to the Hudson's Bay Company and then to General Vallejo,26 the entire property at Ross and
24 The average number of birds obtained was 5,000 to 10,000 a year, but in 1828, 50,000 were killed. Khlebnikof, Zapiski in Materialui, 157. 25 Hist. Cal., ii. 303 et seq., this series.
26 See Douglas, Journal, MS., 16, and Vallejo. Doc., MS., x. 60-2.
489
FAILURE IN NEW ALBION.
Bodega, apart from the real estate, including all im- provements, agricultural implements, 1,700 head of cattle, 940 horses, and 900 sheep, was sold to John A. Sutter in September 1841, for $30,000, the amount being payable in yearly instalments,27 and two thirds of it in produce, to be delivered at San Francisco, freight and duty free.28
Thus ended, in loss and failure, the company's schemes of colonization on the coast of New Albion. The experiment had been for thirty years a constant source of expense and vexation; but if the Russians could have maintained their foothold, results might have followed, more brilliant than even Rezanof con- templated. Within a few years after their departure, gold-bearing sands were discovered beyond the ranges of hills which separated from an interior valley the abandoned site of Ross.
27 Extending over four years, the first two of $5,000 and the others of $10,000 each. Ross, Contrat de Vente, MS., 1841, of which there is a copy in Spanish in Dept. St. Pap., MS., vi. 108-9.
28 Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., i. 366, states that payment was guaranteed by the Mexican government, but such was not the fact. The Bodega property, two ranchos belonging to Tschernich and Khlebnikof, and au establishment at New Helvetia, were left in the hands of the company's agents as security. Ross, Contrat de Vente, MS. The last payment was not made until about 1850. For further particulars on this matter, see Hist. Cal., iv. cap. vi., this series.
CHAPTER XXIV.
FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION.
1808-1818.
HAGEMEISTER IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS-BARANOF AGAIN DESIRES TO BE RELIEVED-ELIOT SAILS FOR CALIFORNIA IN THE 'ILMEN'-HIS CAP- TIVITY-KOTZEBUE IN THE 'RURIK' IN SEARCH OF A NORTH-EAST PASSAGE-HIS EXPLORATIONS IN KOTZEBUE SOUND-HE PROCEEDS TO UNALASKA-AND THENCE TO CALIFORNIA AND THE SANDWICH ISL- ANDS-KING KAMEHAMEHA-A STORM IN THE NORTH PACIFIC-THE ' RURIK' RETURNS TO UNALASKA-HER HOMEWARD VOYAGE-BEN- NETT'S TRIP TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS-CAPTAIN LOZAREF AT NOVO ARKHANGELSK-HIS DISPUTES WITH THE CHIEF MANAGER-SHEFFER SAILS FOR HAWAII-AND THENCE FOR KAUAI-HIS AGREEMENT WITH KING TOMARI-JEALOUSY OF AMERICAN AND ENGLISH TRADERS- FLIGHT OF THE RUSSIANS.
As only casual mention of the Ross settlement will be required in the remainder of this volume, I have thought it best to complete the brief record of its operations before proceeding further. I shall now refer to other and earlier attempts at foreign coloniza- tion ; for, as we have seen, the company's plans were far-reaching, and extended not only to both shores of the Pacific, but to the islands that lay between.
In 1808 Captain Hagemeister sailed for the Sandwich Islands in charge of the Neva, with in- structions to establish a colony there, and to survey the field with a view to future occupation by the Rus- sians.1 Arriving at a harbor on the southern side of
1 Campbell, Voy. round World, 118, states that the Neva had a crew of seventy-five men belonging to the Russian navy. He was one of those who survived the wreck of the Eclipse, in 1807. Though an illiterate seaman, his story is interesting, and in the main worthy of credit. He writes appar-
(490 )
491
HAGEMEISTER'S VOYAGE.
Oahu, the ship was boarded by a large canoe, in which was seated, dressed in European costume, King Ka- mehameha, then the potentate of the Hawaiian group. "Immediately on his coming on board," says Camp- bell, a Scotch sailor who acted as Hagemeister's in- terpreter, " the king entered into earnest conversation with the captain. Among other questions, he asked whether the ship was English or American. Being informed that she was Russian, he answered, 'Meitei, meitei,' or 'Very good.' A handsome scarlet cloak, edged and ornamented with ermine, was presented to him from the governor of the Aleutian Islands. After trying it on, he gave it to his attendants to be taken ashore. I never saw him use it afterwards. In other canoes came Tamena, one of his queens, Crymakoo, his brother-in-law, and other chiefs of inferior rank."2
Through fear of British intervention, or for other reasons not specified by the chroniclers of the time, no attempt was made to found a settlement,3 though, if we'
ently without bias, and speaks very favorably of his reception in Alaska and in the Hawaiian Islands. His work was noticed in the Edinburgh Review, vol. ix.
? Id., 127. In Campbell's work, Washington Irving's Astoria, Vancouver's Voy., and Kotzebue, Voy. of Discov. (London, 1821), the king is called Ta- maahmaah; in Meares' Voy., Tomyhomyhaw; in Portlock's Voy., Comaamaa; in Langsdorff's Voy., Tomooma; in Lisiansky, Voy. round World, Hameamea. How the monarch received so many aliases does not appear, for in Samwell's account of Captain Cook's death (Samwell was the surgeon of the Discovery), his name is spelled Tameamea. In the Hawaiian dialect consonants are often substituted for each other, a guttural even taking the place of a lingual when rendered into English characters, as in this instance. Kamehameha I., sur- named the conqueror, was already known by fame throughout Europe. In the Nuuanu Valley, it will be remembered, he routed the army of the king of Oahu, and drove hundreds of the enemy over a neighboring pali, at the foot of which their bones lie bleaching to this day. The spot is but a few miles from Honolulu.
3 Baranof certainly instructed Hagemeister to found a settlement, and a copy of his instructions has been preserved in the Sitka Archives, but no mention of this is made in the captain's report. It is probable that he was prevented by fear of British opposition, for on August 6th of the following year, Kamehameha wrote to George III. proposing to acknowledge him as his sovereign, and asking that the Islands be placed under British protection. The request was granted. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., i. 166, says that as soon as a rumor spread throughout the Islands that a vessel had been sent from Novo Arkhangelsk for the purpose of founding a settlement, an English frigate called there to ascertain the truth of the matter. This statement is not indorsed, however, by Campbell, who remained in the Islands for more than a year after the departure of the Neva. Tikhmenef would have us believe that Hagemeister was ordered to make a tour of the Russian colonies, and
492
FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION.
can believe Kamehameha, Hagemeister tried to bring the natives of Oahu under subjection by threatening that ships of war should be sent against them.ª After calling at other islands in the Hawaiian group, and bartering seal skins and walrus tusks for salt, sandal- wood, and pearls, the captain sailed for Kamchatka, and thence for Novo Arkhangelsk, setting forth on his homeward voyage the following year.5 In his report to Baranof, whom, as we shall see later, he succeeded in office, he states that taro, maize, and sugar could be purchased at moderate prices in Oahu and the neighboring islands, but that European goods were held at extravagant rates.
The control of the company's affairs had long been felt as too severe a strain by the chief manager, who was now more than sixty years of age. He had sev- eral times requested that a successor be appointed, and twice his request had been granted, but on both occa- sions the official who was sent to relieve him died on the way. In October 1811 the brig Maria returned to Kadiak, having sailed from Okhotsk during the pre- vious year. In this vessel Collegiate Assessor Koch, who had been appointed Baranof's assistant with a view to succeeding him, had taken passage, but during the voyage he fell sick, and breathed his last at Petro- pavlovsk. The news of his death was doubly sad to Baranof, who had been on terms of intimacy with the deceased for many years." By the Maria the chief
then to ascertain the exact location of certain islands lying between the Japanese and Hawaiian groups, discovered in the seventeenth century, his visit to Oahu being merely with a view to trade.
" See the king's address to Kotzebue, as related in his Voy. of Discov., i. 303.
5 After wintering at Kadiak, he was sent to Petropavlovsk, with a cargo of furs valued at over 750,000 roubles.
6 Ivan Gavrilovich Koch, a native of Hamburg, entered the Russian mili- tary service as a surgeon in 1769. He did duty during the siege and capture of Bender in 1770, and throughout the Turkish war of that period until the conclusion of peace. In 1783 he was promoted to the rank of staff surgeon and attached to the Irkutsk district. In 1784 he was transferred to the civil service, with the rank of collegiate assessor, and sent to Okhotsk as com- mandant of the garrison, which position he filled with credit until 1795. For distinguished services, he was decorated with the order of St Vladimir. Dur- ing the following years he made several official visits to Irkutsk, and was
493
DEATH OF BORNOVOLOKOF.
manager received authority from the board of directors to establish a permanent settlement on the coast of New Albion wherever he might think best. Mean- while he did not neglect to forward another petition to St Petersburg, asking that his resignation be ac- cepted; but once more he was disappointed. . Early in the month of January 1813, the inhabitants of Novo Arkhangelsk were surprised by the arrival of a small boat containing a few Russian sailors, half dead
from cold and hunger. They brought the unwelcome news that the Neva, which had sailed from Okhotsk under command of Lieutenant Podushkin, had been wrecked in the vicinity of Mount Edgecumbe. One of those who perished on board this craft was Colle- giate Counsellor Bornovolokof, who had beenappointed Baranof's successor.7
In December of this year the Ilmen was despatched to Ross with a cargo of goods and provisions. On board the vessel was a hunting party under the leader- ship of Tarakanof, and a man named Eliot, or Eliot de Castro, who had volunteered to conduct the trade with the missionaries on the Californian coast, claim- ing long acquaintance with the fathers.8
The ship left Sitka in December 1813. On her ar- rival at Bodega, the Aleutian hunters were divided
appointed assistant on the general staff and commissary-general. He retired with full pay in 1802. Khlebnikof, Shizn. Baranova, 145-6.
7 The wreck occurred on the 9th of January. Bornovolokof, the pilot Kalinin, the wife and son of the mate Nerodof, the boatswain, 27 promy- shleniki, and 4 women were drowned. The survivors were Lieutenant Po- dushkin, the mate Nerodof, cadet Terpigoref, a quartermaster, and 21 promy- shleniki. Three of the latter died soon afterward. During the voyage from Okhotsk 15 men had died from sickness. Id., 149-50. See also Berg, Ship- wreck of the Neva, and Golovnin Korablekrush, iv. The survivors reported that the brig Alexandr, which had sailed from Novo Arkhangelsk in June of the preceding year, with over 8,000 sea-otter skins, under command of master Petrof, had also been wrecked on the Kurile Islands.
8 Eliot is mentioned by Kotzebue in the first volume of his voyage as Eliot de Castro, a native of Portugal, and is so called by several other writers. In the argument between him and Baranof, which has been preserved in the Sitka Archives, the document is signed 'John Eliot,' and he is spoken of in the indorsement as an American. vi. 113. In Guerra, Doc. Hist. Cal., ii. 74-83, I find a number of statements relating to Eliot, but in no instance does the name of Castro occur. It is always Eliot or Don Juan Eliot.
494
FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION.
into detachments and scattered over the sea-otter grounds. Seal were not plentiful, and though for a time the Aleuts escaped the vigilance of the Spanish soldiery, the largest detachment, together with Eliot and Tarakanof, were surprised by a troop of horse in the vicinity of San Luis Obispo and taken to the presidio of Santa Barbara.9
Eliot and his companions remained captives until 1815, when all who had not taken unto themselves Indian wives were delivered to Lieutenant Kotzebue, who visited the California coast during his voyage of exploration in the brig Rurik.10
The Rurik, a vessel of one hundred and eighty tons, was built and equipped by Count Romanof, for the pur- pose of exploring the supposed north-west passage by way of Davis Strait or Hudson Bay; but as an expedi- tion was being fitted out in England for the same pur- pose, it was determined to attempt the passage from the eastward. Otto von Kotzebue, who a few years before had sailed with Krusenstern on board the Neva, as will be remembered, was placed in command. Sailing from Kronstadt on the 30th of July, 1815,11 the brig arrived at Petropavlovsk after an uneventful voyage lasting nearly a year, and thence was headed for Bering Strait. Proceeding in a north-easterly di- rection, the commander, after touching at St Law- rence Island, entered a large inlet, through the center of which passed the arctic circle, and whose waters extended to the eastward as far as the eye could reach, the current running strong into the entrance.
9In Tarakanof's official report of the matter, Cape Concepcion is mentioned as the scene of this incident.
10 In the course of his transactions with the missionaries, Eliot had sold goods to the amount of more than ten thousand piastres, for which he received payment in cash, grain, and otter skins, and transmitted the proceeds to Kuskof at Ross.
11 The naval officers who accompanied Kotzebue were lieutenants Zok- harin and Schischmaref, the scientists Chamisso and Wormskloid, Dr Esch- scholtz, and the artist Choris. Kotzebue's Voy. of Discov., i. introd. 90-1. Among the subordinate officers were the mates Petrof and Khramchemka, who subsequently figured prominently in the annals of Alaskan explorations. The vessel carried the imperial flag and was mounted with eight guns.
495
KOTZEBUE'S VOYAGE.
From a small neighboring hill on the southern shore no land could be seen on the horizon, while high mountains lay to the north. Here, thought the Rus- sians, is the channel that connects the two oceans, the quest of which has for three centuries baffled the greatest navigators in Europe. On the following day, the 2d of August, the vessel continued her course, and from the mast-head nothing but open sea ap- peared to the eastward. Toward sundown land was in sight in several directions, but at noon on the 3d the opening was still five miles in width.12 On the
Cape Krusenstern
KOTZEBUE'S Cape Espenberg
CHAMISSO PO
Each
KOTZEBUE SOUND.
4th the search was continued in boats, for now the water was shoaling rapidly, and after proceeding four- teen miles farther, only a small open space was visi- ble to the eastward.13 A few days later the party set forth on their return to the Rurik, but were driven back to shore by a violent storm.
" It seemed," says Kotzebue, " as if fortune had sent this storm to enable us to make a very remarkable
12 On this day an island was discovered, to which was given the name of Chamisso. Id., i. 213.
13 Probably the head of Eschscholtz, or perhaps Schischmaref Bay.
496
FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION.
discovery, which we owe to Dr Eschscholtz. We had climbed much about during our stay, without discover- ing that we were on real icebergs. The doctor, who had extended his excursions, found part of the bank broken down, and saw, to his astonishment, that the interior of the mountain consisted purely of ice. At this news, we all went, provided with shovels and crows, to examine this phenomenon more closely, and soon arrived at a place where the back rises almost perpen- dicularly out of the sea to a height of a hundred feet; and then runs off, rising still higher. We saw masses of the purest ice, of the height of a hundred feet, which are under a cover of moss and grass, and could not have been produced but by some terrible revolution.14 The place, which by some accident had fallen in and is now exposed to the sun and air, melts away, and a good deal of water flows into the sea .. An indisput- able proof that what we saw was real ice is the quan- . tity of mammoths' teeth and bones which were exposed to view by the melting, and among which I myself found a very fine tooth. We could not assign any reason for a strong smell, like that of burnt horn, which we perceived in this place."
On the 11th of August the Rurik left the inlet which now bears the name of Kotzebue Sound,15 and sailed for St Lawrence Island and thence for Una-
14 ' This result of a terrible revolution,' remarks the London Quarterly Re view, 'is considered by Chamisso, the naturalist, to be similar to the ground ice, covered with vegetation, at the mouth of the Lena, out of which the mammoth, the skeleton of which is now in St Petersburg, was thawed. He makes the height of it to be 80 feet at most; and the length of the profile, in which the ice is exposed to sight, about a musket-shot. We have little doubt that both Kotzebue and Chamisso are mistaken with regard to the formation of this ice mountain. The terrible revolution of nature is sheer nonsense; and the ground ice of the Lena is cast up from the sea, and after- ward buried by the alluvial soil brought down by the floods in the same man- ner as the huge blocks which Captain Parry found on the beach of Melville Island; this operation, however, could not take place on the face of the prom- ontory in the tranquil sound of Kotzebue. What they discovered (without suspecting it) was, in fact, a real iceberg, which had been formed in the man- ner in which all icebergs are.' xxvi. 352 (1822).
15 This name was not given until after Kotzebue's return to Russia; but other points were named by him after members of the expedition, Eschscholtz Bay being one of them. Cape Krusenstern, on the northern shore of the sound, was so called after the captain of the Nadeshda.
497
RECEPTION AT HAWAII.
laska, where the commander gave orders to the agent of the Russian American Company to have men, boats, and supplies in readiness for the following sum- mer, when he purposed to make a thorough explora- tion of the farther north-west. Remaining only long enough for needed repairs, he proceeded to San Fran- cisco without having attempted to explore, according to his instructions, the coast of Alaska southward from Norton Sound, then a terra incognita, but, as it proved, one of the richest portions of the territory.16 After sharing in a conference touching the affairs of the Ross colony, at which Kuskof and the governor of California were present, as is mentioned elsewhere,17 he sailed for the Sandwich Islands, taking on board Eliot and three of his fellow-captives.
Landing at the island of Hawaii, Kotzebue was met by Kamehameha, who was now king of the entire group, and thus describes his reception: "I now stood at the side of the celebrated Tamaahmaah, who has attracted the attention of all Europe, and who in- spired me with the greatest confidence by his unre- served and friendly behavior. He conducted me to his straw palace, which, according to the custom of the country, consisted only of one spacious apartment; and, like all the houses here, afforded a free draught both to the land and sea breezes. They offered us European chairs very neatly made, placed a mahogany table before us, and we were then in possession of all the furniture of the palace. Tamaahmaah's dress, which consisted of a white shirt, blue pantaloons, a red waistcoat, and a colored neckcloth, surprised me
16 Kotzebue probably made a great mistake when he omitted the explora- tion of this portion of the coast of Alaska, of which nothing more was known than when Cook left it between his Shoalness and Point Shallow (Cape Romanof and the mouth of the Kuskokvim). Captain Golovnin, of the sloop- of-war Diana, had definite instruction to survey it, but was prevented by his captivity among the Japanese. Count Romanof had given this instruction to Golovnin, and when the latter set out upon his second voyage around the world, in the sloop-of-war Kamchatka, he received a letter from the minister of marine, who requested him to survey the coast north of Alaska Peninsula provided that Kotzebue had not already done so.
17 Hist. Cal., ii. 31, this series.
HIST. ALASKA. 32
498
FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION.
very much, for I had formed very different notions of the royal attire. The distinguished personages pres- ent at our audience, who had all seated themselves on the ground, wore a still more singular costume than the king; for their black frocks looked very ludicrous on the naked body. One of the ministers had the waist half-way up his back; the coat had been buttoned with the greatest difficulty; he perspired freely in his tight state costume, and his distress was evident; but fashion would not permit him to relieve himself of the inconvenience. The sentinels at the door were quite naked; a cartridge-box and a pair of pistols were tied round their waist, and they held a musket in their hand.
"After the king had poured out some very good wine, and had himself drunk to our health, I made him acquainted with my intention of taking in fresh provisions, water, and wood. A young man of the name of Cook, the only white whom the king had about him, acted as interpreter. Tamaahmaah desired him to say to me as follows: 'I learn that you are the commander of a ship of war, and are engaged in a voyage similar to those of Cook and Vancouver, and consequently do not engage in trade; it is there- fore my intention not to carry on any trade with you, but to provide you gratis with everything that my islands produce. I shall now beg you to inform me whether it is with the consent of your emperor that his subjects begin to disturb me in my old age. Since Tamaahmaah has been king of these islands, no European has had cause to complain of having suf- fered injustice here. I have made my islands an asylum for all nations, and honestly supplied with provisions every ship that desired them.'"
After alluding to the trouble caused by Hagemeis- ter and his party, the king continues: "A Russian physician, named Scheffer, who came here some months ago, pretended that he had been sent by the Emperor Alexander to botanize on my islands. I
499
KOTZEBUE'S VOYAGE.
not only gave him this permission, but also promised him every assistance; and made him a present of a piece of land, with peasants, so that he could never want for provisions. What was the consequence of my hospitality? Even before he left Owhyee,18 he repaid my kindness with ingratitude, which I bore patiently. Then, according to his own desire, he travelled from one place to another; and at last settled in the fruitful island of Woahoo,19 where he proved himself to be my most inveterate enemy ; destroying our sanctuary, the Morai; and exciting against me, in the island of Atooi,20 King Tamary, who had submitted to my power years before. Schef- fer is there at this very moment and threatens my islands."
"I assured Tamaahmaah," continues Kotzebue, "that the bad conduct of the Russians here must not be ascribed to the will of our emperor, who never com- manded his subjects to do an unjust act; but that the extent of his empire prevented him from being immediately informed of bad actions, which, however, were not allowed to remain unpunished when they came to his knowledge. The king seemed very much pleased on my assuring him that our sovereign never intended to conquer his islands; the glasses were immediately filled, to drink the emperor's health, and Kamehameha was even more cordial than before."
Eliot, who before his captivity had lived for two years in the Sandwich Islands as physician and chief favorite to the king, remained at Hawaii in his former position; and taking his leave in the middle of Decem- ber, Kotzebue sailed in a south-westerly direction. On the 1st of January, 1817, he discovered a low wooded islet, to which was given the name of New Year's Island. Three days later a chain of islands was sighted, extending as far as the eye could reach,
18 Hawaii.
19 Oahu. 20 Kauai.
500
FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION.
the spaces between being filled with reefs.21 After some weeks had been spent amid these and other groups in the Caroline Archipelago, the Rurik was again headed for Unalaska, her commander purpos- ing to continue his explorations in search of a north- east passage. But this was not to be. On the 11th of April, when in latitude 44° 30' N. and longitude 181° 8' w., a violent storm arose, and during the following night increased to a hurricane. "The waves, which before ran high," says Kotzebue, for I cannot do better than use his own words, "rose in immense masses, such as I had never yet seen; the Rurik suffered beyond description. Immediately after midnight the fury of the hurricane rose to such a degree, that it tore the tops of the waves from the sea, and drove them in the form of a thick rain over the surface of the ocean. Nobody who has not witnessed such a scene can form an adequate idea of it. It seems as if a direful revolution was at that moment destroying the whole stupendous fabric of nature.
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