USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 49
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74
"I had just relieved Lieutenant Schischmareff. Be- sides myself, there were four sailors on the deck, of whom two were holding the helm; the rest of the crew I had, for greater security, sent into the hold. At four o'clock in the morning I was just looking at the height of a foaming wave, when it suddenly took its direction to the Rurik, and in the same moment threw me down senseless. The violent pain which I felt on re- covering was heightened by the melancholy sight of my ship, whose fate would be inevitable if the hurri- cane should rage for another hour; for not a corner of it had escaped the ravages of that furious wave. The first thing I saw was the broken bowsprit; and an idea may be formed of the violence of the water, which at once dashed in pieces a beam of two feet in diameter.
21 Whether these are the islands that were sighted by Captain Marshall in 1788 is uncertain. At least, Kotzebue was the first to ascertain their exact position.
501
STORM AT SEA.
The loss was the more important, as the two masts could not long withstand the tossing of the ship, and then deliverance would be impossible. The gigantic wave broke the leg of one of my sailors; a subaltern officer was thrown into the sea, but saved himself with much presence of mind by seizing the rope which hung behind the ship; the steering-wheel was broken, the two sailors who held it were much hurt, and I myself thrown violently with my breast against a corner, suf- fered severe pain, and was obliged to keep my bed for several days."
When the storm had moderated the vessel was put in order, and reached Unalaska in safety, though heavy weather prevailed during the rest of the voyage.22 She was then unrigged, unloaded, careened, and repaired, and within a month was again ready for sea. Boats, provisions, and a party of Aleuts, together with two interpreters from Kadiak, were provided by the agent, as Kotzebue had directed,23 and on the 29th of June the Rurik again sailed on her voyage northward.24 On the 10th of July St Lawrence Island was sighted, and here the commander ascertained that ice-floes had surrounded it on the south-east until three days be- fore. Anchoring at midnight off its northern prom- ontory, he found an unbroken ice-pack toward the north and east.
There was now no hope of passing Bering Strait until the end of the month, when, as Kotzebue thought,
22 Kotzebue's Voy. of Discov., ii. 160-1. The author remarks: 'I would advise no one to visit this ocean so early in the year, for the storms are frightful.'
23 Kotzebue was furnished with an order from the directors of the Russian American Company requiring Kriukof, then agent at Unalaska, to supply the expedition with all that was needed, and declares that he received every cour- tesy and assistance at the hands of the agent.
24 On the Rurik was a boy named Kadu, whom Kotzebue had taken on board at one of the Caroline Islands. He appeared to be contented on reach- ing Unalaska, though he was disappointed at not finding there any cocoa-nut or bread-fruit trees, and did not approve of the Aleutian mode of living under ground. He asked whether people lived so at St Petersburg. Gazing at the oxen on board the vessel, he expressed his joy that the meat consumed by the crew was the flesh of these animals. Being asked his reason, he confessed that he thought the Russians were cannibals, that he regarded himself as a portion of the ship's provisions, and looked forward in horror to the moment when they might be in want of food. Id., 166.
502
FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION.
the season would be too far advanced for a successful voyage. Moreover, his health was shattered; his breathing was difficult; he was suffering from spasms in the chest, fainting fits, and hemorrhage of the lungs. The surgeon of the vessel declared that to re- main longer in the neighborhood of the ice would cost him his life. "More than once," he says, "I resolved to brave death, but I felt that I must suppress my am- bition. I signified to the crew, in writing, that my ill health obliged me to return to Oonalaska. The moment I signed the paper was the most painful in my life, for with this stroke of the pen I gave up the ardent and long-cherished wish of my heart."
Returning by way of the Sandwich Islands, Kotze- bue reached Hawaii on the 27th of September. Here he was greeted by Kamehameha and his old acquaint- ance, Eliot de Castro. Sailing thence to Oahu, he found six American ships at anchor, and one-the Kudiak-belonging to the Russian American Com- pany, hauled up on the beach. In this vessel Sheffer had reached Oahu, after being expelled from Kauai, where he intended to found a settlement. A few days later the Boston arrived on her way to Canton, with a cargo of furs shipped from Novo Arkhangelsk.
Calling at St Helena on his homeward voyage, Kotzebue met with a most surly reception from the British naval officers who kept guard over the rock where the captive emperor was then entombed alive, his craft being fired upon without apparent cause.25 His reception in England was more cordial. During a visit to London, where business compelled him to spend a few days on his way to Kronstadt, he was introduced to the Prince Regent and to the Archduke Nikolai Pavlovitch. On the 23d of July, 1818, the Rurik sailed past the port of Revel, and now, after an
25 Kotzebue's purpose in calling at St Helena was to give the Russian com- missary, Count Balleman, an opportunity to send letters to his countrymen. Three shots were fired at the Rurik, one of them passing between her masts. Id., 285.
503
BENNETT'S TRIP.
absence of three years, Kotzebue once more beheld his native city. A week later the vessel cast anchor in the Neva, opposite the palace of Count Romanof.26
Before making further mention of Sheffer's exploits in the Hawaiian Islands, it is necessary to refer to in- cidents which preceded the voyage of the Rurik. In April 1814 one of Baranof's American friends, Cap- tain Bennett, who had sold him two vessels and their cargoes, offered to accept fur-seal skins in part pay- ment, but having none of the required kind on hand at Novo Arkhangelsk, the chief manager induced Bennett to proceed in the Bering to the island of St Paul in search of them, and at the same time to take a cargo of furs, worth half a million roubles, to be landed at Okhotsk. There he took on board a number of the company's hunters who were awaiting passage, and a large mail of the company's despatches. He then sailed for the Sandwich Islands, where it had been arranged that he should purchase a cargo of taro,
26 In his Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Beering's Straits, for the Purpose of Exploring a North-east Passage (3 vols., Berlin, 1819, and London, 1821), the author, after a lengthy introduction, devotes the first seven chapters of the first volume to his journey from Kronstadt to Kotzebue Sound, the eighth to his trip from the latter part to Unalaska, and the ninth and tenth to his visit to California and the Sandwich Islands. In the eleventh chapter, which opens the second volume, we have an account of his explora- tions in the Caroline Archipelago. Then follow his second voyage northward, and his homeward journey, occupying the four next chapters. The remainder of the work is taken up with an Analysis of the Islands Discovered by the Rurik in the Great Ocean (written by Krusenstern), a short paper on the Diseases of the Crew during the Three Years of the Voyage, by Frederick Eschscholtz, M.D. (the ship's physician), and the Remarks and Opinions of the Naturalist of the Expedition, Adelbert von Chamisso. In his preface, Chamisso remarks that he recognizes only the German edition, ' for the various foreign subjects of which he had to treat have made him too sensible how difficult it is, when aiming at brevity to avoid obscurity, for him to answer for translations of which he cannot judge.' The precaution was justified, for in the English translation by H. E. Lloyd are many errors, caused probably by the extreme haste with which the work was rendered. A few years later Kotzebue published in two volumes his New Voyage round the World in the Years 1823-26. I have before me only the English translation (London, 1830). As on this occasion he visited Novo Arkhangelsk, California, and the Sandwich Islands, we shall hear of him again. Three years after completing his second voyage, he re- tired to his estate in Esthonia, where his decease occurred in 1846. His sons and grandsons held positions in Unalaska in the service of the Russian Amer- ican Company, until it was disincorporated, and several remained there after the purchase of Alaska by the United States. The last of them died in 1881.
504
FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION.
salt, and other provisions. Having exhausted the re- sources of Hawaii, he proceeded to Kauai, where, the captain being on shore, the ship was struck by a sudden squall, and vessel and cargo were cast on the beach. King Tomari, who was then in power at Kauai, though subject to Kamehameha's authority, offered Bennett every assistance in collecting his cargo; but when all that could be saved had been secured beyond reach of the waves, he coolly appropriated it as a perquisite of the owner of the soil. The captain and some of his crew soon afterward made their way back to Alaska.
At the time when the Rurik left Kronstadt the imperial government was fitting out two vessels, the Suvarof and Kutusof, for an expedition to Russian America. They were placed in charge of Captain Lozaref,27 and the Suvarof with the commander on board sailed from Kronstadt on the 8th of October, 1813, arriving at Novo Arkhangelsk in November of the following year. Lozaref, in common with all the naval officers, was prejudiced against Baranof. Dis- putes between the two men arose at once, and ceased only when the ship set sail from Novo Arkhangelsk.28
27 Krusenstern, who was now an admiral, recommended Kotzebue for the po- sition, but the Russian American Company, which was to pay a part of the expenses, objected on the ground of his youth. The other officers were lieutenants Unkovsky and Schveikovsky; the mates Rossysky and Dr Sylva; cadet Samsonof, Dr Sheffer, and the supercargo Molvee. The crew consisted of 23 naval seamen, 9 merchant sailors, and 7 laborers of the com- pany. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., i. 183.
28 On his return to St Petersburg, Lozaref was tried before a naval court of inquiry on charges preferred by the board of managers of the Russian American Company. He was charged with immorality, with returning from Novo Arkhangelsk without the company's supercargo, the boy Molvee being deemed too young for such a position, without the physician appointed to the vessel, without bills of lading or any despatches from Baranof, and without the chief manager's permission. To this the captain replied that he had repeatedly asked for orders, and finally sailed, and made his way back around Cape Horn with all speed. He also stated that the misunderstanding arose from his refusal to sanction Baranof's action in seizing the brig Pedler belonging to Astor. On that occasion Lozaref stated that Baranof's anger was so great that he trained the guns of the fort upon the Suvarof, and threatened to sink her. Lozaref was also charged with having sold at Lima 60,000 roubles' worth of furs be- longing to the company. This he denied, but stated that he sold to the viceroy of Peru a few black-bear skins for the manufacture of shakoes for his soldiers, and received 22 piastras each for the skins. The other charges were of a similar nature. Zeleniy, Corr., MS., in Sitka Archives, iii.
505
LOZAREF AND SHEFFER.
Lozaref desired to pass the winter at Novo Ark- hangelsk, and to land his cargo and repair the vessel, but Baranof insisted that he should make a winter voyage to the Prybilof Islands for a cargo of furs, as there was not enough peltry at Novo Arkhangelsk to complete his freight. The captain then put to sea, but returned almost immediately, under pretence that the ship was leaking, and remained in port until the following May, when he finally executed the chief manager's orders. Soon after his return he again set sail on the 24th of July, leaving the anchorage hur- riedly and without waiting for the mail prepared by Baranof for the home office of the company. Enraged at this, the chief manager despatched a fleet bidarka after the retreating ship, and threatened to open fire on her, but did not execute his threat. The Suvarof then proceeded on her voyage to St Petersburg, call- ing at San Francisco and at the port of Callao, where a part of the cargo was exchanged for Russian prod- ucts. 29
One of the officers of the Suvarof was the German doctor, Sheffer, who, having quarrelled with the com- mander, had for that reason found favor in the eyes of Baranof. Sheffer remained at Novo Arkhangelsk, and being a plausible adventurer, and somewhat of a linguist, succeeded in convincing the autocrat of the colonies that he was the man to carry out his schemes of colonization in the Hawaiian Islands.
Bennett, who had now returned to Novo Arkhan- gelsk, urged Baranof to demand the return of the Bering's cargo, but the latter would not consent to use force for such a purpose, as he had frequently ex- changed presents and friendly messages with Kame- hameha through their mutual acquaintances among the American north-west traders. He decided, there- fore, to send Sheffer to the Sandwich Islands as a pas-
29 In 1815 Baranof despatched another cargo of furs, valued at 800,000 roubles, to Kiakhta, in the Maria, master Petrof. The vessel was wrecked at Okhotsk, but most of the cargo was saved. Khlebnikof, Shizn. Baranova, 160.
506
FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION.
senger in a foreign vessel, with instructions to open negotiations with the Hawaiian monarch. The doctor sailed on the Isabella, which left Novo Arkhangelsk on the 5th of October, 1815, and it was arranged that the Otkrytie, commanded by Lieutenant Podushkin, should follow in the spring with a number of native mechanics and laborers for the purpose of establishing a settlement.
On arriving at Hawaii, Sheffer presented himself at once before Kamehameha and delivered letters and presents from Baranof, at the same time complaining of King Tomari for seizing the cargo of the Bering. The king promised redress, and appeared to listen favorably to the doctor's proposals to establish more intimate relations with the chief manager of the Russian American Company. He even assigned to Sheffer several pieces of land, whereon to make experi- ments in the planting of grain and vegetables. One of them was situated on the island of Kauai, the domain of King Tomari. Though Sheffer continued in favor for a time, he found that he could not com- pete with the Englishmen and Americans, who were already established at Kamehameha's court, and re- solved to try his fortune with Tomari. During the first week of his stay in Kauai, it was his good fortune to cure the queen of an intermittent fever and the king of dropsy. The German adventurer was now in the good graces of his intended victim, and in a few weeks an agreement was drawn up to serve as the basis for a formal treaty, subject to the approval of the Russian government.
It was stipulated that the Bering's cargo should be returned to the Russians, with the exception of a few articles which the king required, and for which he bound himself to pay in sandal-wood; that Tomari should send annually to the colonies a cargo of dried taro root; that all the sandal-wood on the islands sub- ject to Tomari should be placed at Sheffer's disposal, to be sold only to the Russian American Company;
507
SHEFFER IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
and that the company should have the right to estab- lish stations or factories in any part of the king's possessions. As an offset to these favors, the doctor pledged himself to furnish five hundred men, and some armed vessels, for the purpose of assisting in the over- throw of Kamehameha, and of placing Tomari on his throne. The troops were to be under Sheffer's com- mand, and in case of success, one half of the island of Hawaii was to be ceded to the company. Finally Tomari and all his people were to be placed under the protection of Russia. In order more firmly to estab- lish the king's confidence in his authority, Sheffer at once bought an American schooner for $5,000, and agreed to purchase a ship for the sum of $40,000, pay- ment to be made in furs, which he promised to order from Novo Arkhangelsk.30
In the mean time, Sheffer's intrigues had been watched by American and English traders, and by the Europeans settled on the islands under Kamehameha's protection. They took care to magnify the danger in the eyes of the latter, urging him to enter on a cam- paign against Sheffer and the would-be rebel Tomari. Though opposed to open hostility, Kamehameha's
30 Sheffer was of course playing upon the king's ambition to serve his own. He was certainly a bold man, a true adventurer, and one who led an exceed- ingly checkered life. He was born in Russia, of German parents, the date of his birth being uncertain, and entered public life as a surgeon in the Moscow police. In 1812 he was engaged in constructing balloons to watch the move- ments of Napoleon's invading army. In 1813 he was detailed as medical « officer of the ship Suvarof. We have seen how he left the ship at Novo Ark- hangelsk, but it remains to record the doctor's strange career after the col- lapse of the Sandwich Island scheme. On making his escape from Oahu, he proceeded to Canton, and thence to St Petersburg. Here he made to the imperial government the most vivid representations of the advantages to be gained by taking possession of the Sandwich Islands. The minister for in- terior affairs requested the managers of the Russian American Company to express their opinion on the subject, and they reported unfavorably. The emperor's ministers could not blind themselves to the fact that Russia did not then possess a navy which could support such an enterprise against the objec- tion of the great maritime powers, and the doctor was doomed to disappoint- ment. He left Russia in disgrace, and was lost to view for a short time, until he finally turned up again in Brazil, where he managed to ingratiate him- self with Dom Pedro I., who conferred upon him the high-sounding title of Count von Frankenthal, and intrusted him with a commission to Germany to recruit men for the imperial body-guard. Sheffer finally died peaceably in Germany, at a very advanced age.
508
FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION.
repeated orders to Tomari finally resulted in an estrangement between him and the German doctor, who by this time had succeeded in establishing plan- tations on various points of the Islands, and had erected buildings for his own accommodation, for the mechanics and laborers who had now arrived in the Otkrytie, and for housing the crops intended for shipment to Novo Arkhangelsk. The unfriendly feel- ing thus engendered increased in intensity until the Russians and Aleuts were looked upon by the Haw- aiians as enemies, and were compelled to adopt meas- ures for their defence. A few slender fortifications were erected at Wymea, the ruins of which remain to the present day.
As soon as Baranof ascertained that this, the pet scheme of his old age, must fail, he lost no time in forwarding orders to Sheffer to give up everything, and to save what he could out of the wreck which was impending. By this time news had also been received of the refusal. on the part of the imperial government to sanction the scheme of annexation. The doctor's position became more critical every day. From Novo Arkhangelsk he could expect no further support, while on the Islands the Americans and English became constantly more aggressive. A small Russian station on the island of Hawaii was sacked by sailors from an American ship, and they even threatened to destroy the company's plantations on Kauai. A report was also started that American men-of-war were on their way to the Islands. Some of the Americans in the company's service became disaffected, one of them, Captain Wosdwith, who com- manded the Ilmen, purposely running his vessel on the beach and joining the adversaries of Sheffer.
By this time the ire of Tomari's subjects had been roused against the intruders, and they forced the Russians to abandon their settlements and to seek refuge on board the Kadiak, which was anchored off the island. When the fugitives left the beach it was
509
HAWAIIAN FAILURE.
discovered that the boat had been scuttled; the crew, however, reached the vessel by swimming. The natives now turned the guns of the fort against them and en- deavored to sink the ship. The shot fell harmless, but it was discovered that the vessel had sprung a-leak, and that the water was gaining rapidly. In this predica- ment, an effort was made to get off the Ilmen, which succeeded. The American captain of the Kadiak was then transferred to the Ilmen by Sheffer, and sent to Novo Arkhangelsk to carry to Baranof the news of the failure of his enterprise, a duty which the doc- tor did not wish to undertake in person. . After a brief stay at Kamehameha's court, exposed to constant annoyance from foreigners, accompanied with threats of personal violence, Sheffer finally escaped to China on board an American vessel, leaving the rest of his countrymen, and the Aleuts sent from Novo Arkhangelsk, to labor on the plantations. Of these Tarakanof took charge, and finally succeeded in se- curing their return 31 in 1818, by engaging himself and his men to an American skipper to hunt sea-otter for a brief season on the Californian coast. Thus ended the attempt at colonization in the Hawaiian Isl- ands, whereby nothing was gained, and a loss of two hundred and fifty thousand roubles was incurred by the Russian American Company. 32
31 Tarakanof, whom Kotzbue met in Oahu, where Kamehameha then held his court, declared that the men escaped almost by a miracle, as Tomari might easily have killed all the party. Only three of them were shot. Kotzebue's Voy. of Discov., ii. 197.
32 Kamehameha expected that the Russians would take revenge for the treatment of Sheffer and his party, until Captain Golovnin's arrival in 1818. After that year the company's vessels again visited the Sandwich Islands, but at long intervals. Occasional intercourse was also maintained through Amer- ican ships. The produce of the Islands, consisting of cocoa-nuts, rum, taro, and rope of cocoa-palm fibre, was exchanged for peltry and piastres. Lütke, in Materialui, Istor. Russ., part iv. 146-7. One of Baranof's plans for the es . tablishment of trade with the Philippine Islands also failed of success. For this purpose he sent one of his confidential clerks to Manila in the Ilmen. On his return he reported that the Spanish authorities were strongly opposed to extending their trade with foreigners.
CHAPTER XXV.
CLOSE OF BARANOF'S ADMINISTRATION.
1819-1821.
HAGEMEISTER SAILS FOR NOVO ARKHANGELSK-HE SUPERSEDES BARANOF- TRANSFER OF THE COMPANY'S EFFECTS-THE ACCOUNTS IN GOOD ORDER- SICKNESS OF THE EX-MANAGER-BARANOF TAKES LEAVE OF THE COL- ONIES-HIS DEATH-REMARKS OF KHLEBNIKOF AND OTHERS ON BAR- ANOF-KORASOKOVSKY'S EXPEDITION TO THE KUSKOKVIM-ROQUEFEUIL'S VOYAGE-MASSACRE OF HIS HUNTERS-FURTHER EXPLORATIONS-DIV- IDENDS AND INCREASE OF CAPITAL-COMMERCE-DECREASE IN THE YIELD OF FURS-THE COMPANY'S SERVANTS.
IN 1815 an expedition to Alaska was fitted out by the imperial government in conjunction with the Russian American Company, and Hagemeister, whose voyage in the Neva has been mentioned, was placed in command. A vessel, renamed the Kutusof,1 was purchased at Havre for £6,000 sterling, and in July of the following year was ready for sea, when Lozaref returned to Kronstadt in the Suvarof. On his ar- rival, the directors resolved to delay the departure of the expedition until after the decision of the naval court of inquiry, held to investigate the charges made against him by the chief manager.2 When the judgment was made known, the directors added to Hagemeister's instructions a clause authorizing him to assume control in place of Baranof, if he should find it necessary.
The Suvarof arrived at Novo Arkhangelsk on the 23d of July, and her consort, the Kutusof, on the
1 Of 525 tons.
? See chap. xxiv., this vol., note 28.
( 510)
511
HAGEMEISTER'S VISIT.
20th of November, 1817.3 Both vessels had been de- tained at Lima, whence the former had sailed direct for Alaska, while the latter visited other Peruvian ports, and also Bodega and San Francisco, where large quan- tities of provisions were purchased. For these sup- plies Baranof expressed his thanks, but complained bitterly of the company's refusal to listen to his re- newed request to be relieved, declaring most emphat- ically that he was no longer able to bear the burden of his responsibility. Hagemeister meanwhile did not choose to reveal the extent of the powers con- ferred on him, but began at once quietly to investi- gate the state of affairs in the colonies and the exact status of the company's business. During the whole winter he kept his orders concealed from Baranof, who, though almost prostrated with disease, labored assiduously in surrendering the affairs of the com- pany. He was now failing in mind as well as in bod- ily health, one of the symptoms of his approaching imbecility being his sudden attachment to the church. He kept constantly about him the priest who had established the first church at Novo Arkhangelsk during the preceding summer, and urged by his spirit- ual adviser, made large donations for religious pur- poses.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.