USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 55
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" For the amount of business done, the men, as well as the officers, appear to be unnecessarily numerous, amounting this season to nearly five hundred, who, with their families, make about one thousand two hun- dred souls as the population of the establishment.58 Among the servants are some excellent tradesmen, such as engineers, armorers, tin-smiths, cabinet-mak- ers, jewellers, watchmakers, tailors, cobblers, builders, etc., receiving generally about three hundred and fifty roubles a year; they have come originally on engage- ments of seven years; but most of them, by drink- ing or by indulging in other extravagance,57 contrive
56 These figures probably include only the employees and their families. In Finlayson's Vancouver Island and N. W. Coast, MS., 10, it is stated that in 1840 Sitka was garrisoned by over 500 troops.
57 ' Spirits, which cost the company at Montreal $2 per gallon, were sold in the interior to their servants at $8 per quart. At this rate the company could not lose anything by increasing the salaries of drinking men.' Dunn's Oregon and British N. Amer. Fur Trade, 25 (Philadelphia, 1845).
567
SIMPSON'S VISIT.
to be so regularly in debt as to become fixtures for life." 58
58 In his Narrative of a Journey round the World during the years 1841 and 1842, Sir George Simpson gives some interesting descriptions of Novo Ark- hangelsk and its inhabitants, from which I shall give one or two extracts later. He appears to have been a keen observer, and his work was evidently written without bias. Travelling as the representative of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, he made the journey overland from Boston to Fort Vancouver. Thence, after a visit to Novo Arkhangelsk, he sailed for California and the Sandwich Islands. Returning to Novo Arkhangelsk in the spring of 1842, he soon afterward sailed for Okhotsk, and traversing Siberia and European Russia, arrived at London in October of the same year, the entire journey occupying 19 months and 26 days.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY'S LAST TERM. 1842-1866.
THE CHARTER RENEWED-ITS PROVISIONS-THE AFFAIR AT PETROPAV- LOVSK-OUTBREAKS AMONG THE NATIVES-THE NULATO MASSACRE- A SECOND MASSACRE THREATENED AT NOVO ARKHANGELSK-EXPLOR- ATIONS-THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY- WESTDAHL'S EXPERIENCE-THE COMPANY REQUESTS ANOTHER RENEWAL OF ITS CHARTER-NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE IMPERIAL .GOVERNMENT -THEIR FAILURE-POPULATION-FOOD SUPPLIES-THE YIELD OF FURS-WHAL- ING-DIVIDENDS-TRADE-BIBLIOGRAPHICAL.
AT the request of the directors, and after a care- ful investigation into the condition of the colonies, the imperial council at St Petersburg decided, on the 5th of March,1 1841, to renew the charter of the Russian American Company for a further period of twenty years. "In the variety and extent of its operations," declare the members of the council, "no other company can compare with it. In addition to a commercial and industrial monopoly, the govern- ment has invested it with a portion of its own powers in governing the vast and distant territory over which it now holds control. A change in this system would now be of doubtful benefit. To open our ports to all hunters promiscuously would be a death-blow to the fur trade while the government, having transferred to the company the control of the colonies, could not now resume it without great expense and trouble, and would have to create new financial resources for such a pur-
1 Dok. Kom. Russ. Amer. Kol., i. 40; the 7th according to Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., i. 385.
( 568 )
569
A NEW CHARTER.
pose." This opinion, together with a charter defin- ing the privileges and duties of the company, was de- livered to the tzar and received his signature on the 11th of October, 1844.
The new charter did not differ in its main features from that of 1821, though the boundary was of course changed in accordance with the English and American treaties. None of the company's rights were curtailed, and the additional privileges were granted of trading with certain ports in China, and of shipping tea direct from Shanghai to St Peters- burg. The board of managers, through its agent the governor of the colonies, was recognized as the su- preme power, though appeal could be made to the emperor through the minister of finance. A colo- nial council was established, consisting of the dep- uty governor and four naval officers, or officials of the company, with criminal jurisdiction in all but capital cases. Much indulgence was shown to naval, military, and civil officers, who while in the company's service received half-pay, and did not forfeit their right of promotion, their time of service being counted double.2
The sale of fire-arms, ammunition, and spirituous liquor to the natives was still forbidden; and this pro- hibition was followed by an order from the governor that no intoxicating drink should be sold in the col- onies. It is related that when this order was read to the servants of the company many of them could not refrain from tears. The temperance cause had but few advocates in Russian America. One of the men, named Markof, who in 1845 sailed from Novo Ark- hangelsk for San Francisco, thus relates his expe- rience: "How easily and willingly the labor of getting the ship under way was performed! Each sailor had it in his mind that he could enjoy himself for his trouble in the first tap-room in California. In the
2 The provisions of the charter of 1844 are given at length in Dok. Kom. Russ. Amer. Kol., i. 49-60; and in Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. app. part i. 11-74.
570
THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY'S LAST TERM.
evening we could only see the outlines of our former home, traced in black, indistinct shapes against the darkening sky. 'The devil must have planted these cursed sea-otters in these out-of-the-way regions, said one of the sailors ; 'as far as we can see land up and down the coast, not a single rum-shop is to be found.' ' Yes,' answered another, 'but I remember Father Baranof. There was a time when a camp-kettle was set out brimming full, and he would shout, "Drink, children!" and he would join himself in a merry song. Those were better days,' continued he, with his eyes fixed on the waning land; 'but now what times have we! We can do nothing but work, and when that is done, we promenade, or smoke in the barrack. What a life!' 'You see,' replied his comrade, 'in this country we all have to join the temperance society.' 'What is that?' 'I don't know exactly: it is some kind of a sect. I belonged to it once, but it is so long ago I forget. I can make no reckoning of time when I get no drinks to count by; but I remember we all had to pay a beaver skin apiece.' 'A beaver skin apiece! That is a big price to pay for the privi- lege of drinking nothing but water. I'll have nothing to do with any such sect. There was that German Mukolof; he joined the sect, and in a few weeks he was dead. God knows where he is now'-crossing himself: 'I don't think there is much room for Dutch- men in heaven; so many Russians go there.''3
As soon as war between England and Russia be- came a certainty, representatives of the Russian American and Hudson's Bay companies met in Lon- don to consult on the exigences of the case. It was agreed that both companies should petition their gov- ernments for a convention of neutrality, that should include the Russian and English possessions on the
$ Ruskie na Vostotchnom, etc., or The Russians on the Eastern Ocean (2d ed., St Petersburg, 1856), 59-60, 102-4. Markof adds that, on reaching San Francisco, the first building which they entered was a drinking-saloon, kept by one of Napoleon's veterans who had served in the campaign of 1812.
571
WAR WITH ENGLAND.
north-west coast of America, the parties being al- lowed to trade freely with each other, while forbear- ing to furnish aid to the squadrons of Russia or of the allies. The powers at war, considering this a small matter, and wishing to keep their hands free in other quarters, consented to sanction the agreement. A few English cruisers appeared at the entrance of Sitka Bay at various times, but finding no vessels of war in port, nor any evidence of a violation of the agreement, inflicted no damage.4 The company suf- fered some loss, however, by the bombardment of Petropavlovsk in 1854,5 and through its destruction in the following year, on which occasion the allies burned the government buildings, plundered the Greek-catholic church, broke all the windows in the town,6 and captured a vessel belonging to the Russian American Company. A part of the allied forces then sailed for Ourup, and bombarded the Russian settle- ment on that island, burned all the buildings, seized the furs and papers belonging to the company,7 and hoisted the union-jack, the tricolor, and a sign-post declaring that they took possession of the territory on behalf of England and France. These proceedings were sufficiently disgraceful-the most disgraceful
4 This was either a fortunate accident or was due to the vigilance of the Russians. In 1852 the frigates Aurora and Diana, the corvette Navarin, and the transport Niemen were despatched from Kronstadt to Kamchatka. Morskoi Sbornik, x. 21-8. The Diana and a corvette (probably the Navarin) were expected to rendezvous at Novo Arkhangelsk. Saint Amant. Voy. en Cal. et dans l'Oregon (Paris, 1854), 637. At this time the fort of Novo Ark- hangelsk was mounted with 70 guns, including two of very long range, and was garrisoned by 250 to 300 men, well commanded, but poorly armed. Of 483 rifles sent from Tobolsk, between 1851 and 1854, only 161 were fit for use. Sitka Archives, ii. 83.
5 After the failure of the attack which followed the bombardment the English admiral Price committed suicide. When informed of this the Rus- sians would not believe it, but ascribed his death to a well aimed shot from the shore batteries. Morskoi Sbornik, xlv. 1, 2, 23. By oukaz of Dec. 2, 1849, Okhotsk was closed as a naval station and the force transferred to Petropavlovsk. Id., clv. 7.
6 In Rodgers' Letters, MS., ii., it is stated that, in 1856, few houses were left standing at Petropavlovsk, but that the English behaved well, while the French rioted in destruction.
7 The natives of the Kurile Islands reported sea-otter plentiful on some of the group. In 1853, 108 skins were shipped from Ourup, and 200 retained for future shipment. Sitka Archives, ii. 65.
572
THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY'S LAST TERM.
affair, perhaps, of the whole war, if we except the Sinope massacre; but yet more disgraceful was the conduct of the English government which sanctioned them, on the ground that the convention of neutrality extended only to the north-west coast of America, and not to all the company's territory.
Though no attack was made, during the war, on the Alaskan settlements, the Russians suffered more severely about this date from outbreaks among the natives than at any time since the Sitka massacre. In 1851 the fort at Nulato was surprised by Indians, and most of the inmates butchered. Among the vic-
Koyu
Terentief o
R
UBolshoigor
Oungaktitatik
uAtOo
Natulateno
Mentokakato
Soonkakat
Chtolik
akatlatan
Yukokakat
·Shaktolik
Upper Kaltago
Tup-hanikva
Lower. Kaltag
... Noyakakat R.
Igowik
PLAN OF NULATO.
tims were the commandant Derzhavin and Lieutenant Barnard, an English naval officer on board the En- terprise, despatched in search of Sir John Franklin and his party.8 In that year Barnard was sent to in- vestigate the truth of certain rumors as to the mur- der of a party of his countrymen near Lake Mintokh, and in his blunt English fashion announced that he intended to send for the chief of the Koyukans,
6 In July 1850 the Herald, Plover, and Investigator, all despatched in search of Franklin and his party, met in Kotzebue Sound. While anchored off Chamisso Island during the previous year, the captain of one of these vessels caused search to be made for a cask of flour buried there by Beechey, 23 years before. It was found to be in good condition, and a dinner party was given, at which cakes and pastry made of the flour formed part of the fare. Seeman's Narr. Voy. Herald .. ii. 100, 179: Hooper's Tents of the Tuski, 213.
Kaïskako
R.
Yukon
573
MASSACRE AT NULATO.
named Larion, who was then holding festival at his village a few leagues distant. But, as Dall remarks, this man "was not accustomed to be sent for. When the Russians desired to see him, they respectfully re- quested the honor of his presence." Now Larion was a great chief, and also a shaman, and his ire was thoroughly roused at the insult. Moreover, there was another cause of provocation. One of his daugh- ters had for some time been living with Derzhavin as a concubine. This was perfectly legitimate and seemly according to the native and even the Russian code of inorals; but a second daughter had recently found favor in the eyes of the commandant, and when the shaman demanded, in person, the surrender of at least one of his children, Derzhavin coolly answered that he had at the fort a visitor, who must also be provided with a concubine. After his departure perhaps one of the damsels might be restored.
A council was called, and Larion swore that the salmon should have blood to drink before they went back to the sea. At this moment a dog-sled appeared in sight on the Yukon, by the side of which walked a Russian and a. Nulato workman. Soon afterward the sled was drawn up on the bank for the purpose of cooking the mid-day meal, and while the Nulato was searching for water, a party of Indians stole up steathily behind the Russian, and stunning him with a blow on the head, beat in his skull with their clubs. His flesh was then cut in strips, roasted, and devoured, and the Koyukans set forth at once for Nulato. Half a mile from the fort were three large buildings, in which were many Nulato families. These were set on fire, and their occupants were either smothered in the smoke or fell beneath the knives and arrows of the savages, one man only making his escape to the mountains, and a few women being spared to serve as slaves.
The Koyukans then advanced on the fort, where most of the inmates were yet asleep, and all were un-
574
THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY'S LAST TERM.
conscious of the impending danger. Derzhavin, who had just risen, was stabbed in the back and fell dead without a struggle. Barnard, who was reading in bed, grasped his gun and fired two shots, but each time the barrel was struck upward and the balls lodged in the ceiling, whereupon he was stabbed in the stomach, his intestines protruding from the wound. The work- men, who lived in a separate building in which were two Russians and a few creoles, had now taken the alarm and barricaded the door. Muskets were fired at the savages, but without effect, and were answered by a flight of arrows. At length one of them fell, where- upon the entire party at once took to flight, carrying with them their booty and prisoners.9 A new fort surrounded with a stockade was built two or three years later on the spot where it now stands, and within a hundred yards of it is a cross that marks the resting-place of Barnard and Derzhavin.
In the following year a party of Kolosh destroyed the buildings at the hot springs near the Ozerskoi re-
9 Dall, Alaska, 48-51, is probably the best authority on the Nulato mas- sacre, though, as I have before remarked, he is extremely inaccurate in mat- ters relating to the history of Alaska. I have accepted some portions of his narrative, and the remainder is taken principally from the statement of one who was present at the massacre and from which the following is an extract: 'When the Koyukans had gathered about 100 warriors they started down stream, journey .ng only by night. Finally they camped on the shore of a lake, about half a day's travel from the river, and the same distance from the fort. Several small parties and some women were then sent forward to the redoubt, to trade and act as spies. On the third day some of them returned, and during the night we advanced to within a short distance of Nulato. At day- break the attack was made, ourmen being assisted by the spies who had remained in the fort. This was the first war-party that I had ever joined, and I was very muchı frightened, and fired my musket at random. When I entered the re- doubt the victims were all dead, and our people were engaged in collecting the plunder, of which my share was two silver-mounted pistols and a box of beads; but afterward I heard Larion boast repeatedly that he killed both Deri- abin and the English officer with his own hand, and there were none to con- tradict him.' This statement was made on the 15th of January, 1879, by Ivan Konnygen, a native of the village of Unalakleet, near Mikhaielovsk. My agent obtaincd the information from Konnygen, who was a prisoner at San Quentin, where he went by the name of Korrigan. At the time of the mas- sacre he was a suitor for one of Larion's daughters. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 202, mentions only three victims-Deriabin, Barnard, and one Aleut. He also states that the reason for the attack was the protection given by the Rus- sians to some of the Nulato people who had incurred the wrath of the Koyu- kans. Russian authorities appear to be ill informed on this matter or to have purposely misrepresented it. In Dok. Kom. Russ. Amer. Kol., i. 80, it is merely stated that the attack was repulsed.
575
KOLOSH HOSTILITIES.
doubt. The inmates were stripped of all that they possessed, even to their shirts, and in this plight made their way across the mountains to the capital.1º In 1855 the Andreief station, south of Fort Michaielovsk, was destroyed by Indians, two of the company's ser- vants being slaughtered.11 In the same year an attack was made on Novo Arkhangelsk. The Sitkan Kolosh, without apparent provocation, fell upon a sentry who was guarding the wood-piles of the com- pany and wounded him with spears. The governor demanded the surrender of the guilty individuals, but was answered with threats. Two cannon-shot were then fired, whereupon the savages made a rush for the fort and began to chop down the palisade. A sharp fire of musketry and artillery was opened on them, but without effect. Some tried to force themselves through the embrasures; others broke in the door of a church, built outside the stockade for the use of natives, and returned the fusillade from the windows. If the Kolosh had been in possession of a few pieces of cannon, it is not improbable that there might have been a repetition of the Sitka massacre. For two hours they stood their ground, but after losing more than a hundred of their number,12 were forced to capitulate and give hostages to the Russians. A strict surveillance was thenceforth kept over the independ- ent native tribes, and no serious émeutes occurred.
10 About 5,000 roubles was distributed among them as compensation. Sitka Archives, ii. 107. One of them, an invalid, is supposed to have perished, as nothing was heard of him. Ward's Three Weeks at Sitka, MS., 43. During the same year 35 Stikeens were massacred by the Kolosh, while on a visit to Novo Arkhangelsk in sight of the town. On another occasion several of them were smothered while taking a steam bath, the Kolosh closing all the openings. Id., 63-4. In October 1853 a creole and an Aleut, while hunting deer near the Ozerskoi redoubt, were murdered by Kolosh. Sitka Archives, ii. 69.
11 Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 202-3. In Id., 339, is a list of the stations under the control. Among them was Nulato.
12 Dok. Kom. Russ. Amer. Kol., i. 81, where it is stated that two of the defenders were killed and 19 wounded. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 208, places the losses of the Russians at the same figures, and that of the Kolosh at 60 killed and wounded. Otherwise there is no material difference in these two accounts of the affair. A description of it is also given in the Adventures uf Zakhar Chichinof, MS., 41-6. Chichinof was an -eye-witness, as-was also Charles Kruger, in 1885 a resident of San Francisco.
576
THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY'S LAST TERM.
After his return from the colonies, Tebenkof, who succeeded Etholen as governor, published, in 1852, an atlas, in which the results were exhibited of all the explorations of the previous twelve years, to- gether with many of former periods.13 To mention the discoveries of all the exploring parties that were despatched during the company's third term would serve but to tax the reader's patience.14 More inter- esting are the operations of the scientific corps that sailed from Stuart Island on the 17th of September, 1865, under the auspices of the Western Union Tele- graph Company.
It was intended by the managers to build an overland line to Europe through Alaska, across Bering Strait, and through Siberia by way of the Amoor River. 15 The cooperation of the Russian government was obtained, and a party of explorers organized for mak-
13 It was published in 1852, named The North-western Coast of America, from Bering Straits to Cape Corrientes and the Atlantic Islands, with the Ad- dition of a Few Points on the North-eastern Coast of Asia. The maps, which numbered 39, were engraved at Novo Arkhangelsk by the creole Terentief. The discoveries up to 1842 have already been related. In 1843 two parties explored the Sustchina and Copper rivers for the purpose of extending trade with the natives. During Tebenkof's administration, explorations included the coast from Anchor Point in Kenaï Bay to Sukli Island in Chugasch Bay, the. whole of Kadiak and the smaller islands to the south of it, Voskressenski Bay, Andreianof, Afognak, Unmak, Unalaska, Shumagin, Ourup, and other islands; the shores of Baranof and Cruzof islands from Cape Ommaney to Mount Edgecumbe, Norton Bay, and Bering and Kurile straits. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 247-8; Dok. Kom. Russ. Amer. Kol., i. 98.
14 In this connection may be mentioned the exploration of the Aleutian Isl- ands, made by Lieutenant Gibson in the United States schooner Fenimore Cooper, in 1856, as mentioned in the Rogers Letters, MS., ii. (Washington, D. C.), Blake's survey of the Stikeen River, as related in his Russian America, 1-2, and Kennicott and Kirby's journeys from the Mackenzie River to the Yukon, as narrated in the Smithsonian Reports, 1861, 39-40, and 1864, 416-20. Kennicott was appointed director of the scientific corps, in connection with the Western Union Telegraph Company, but died a few months before the expedition set forth. Dall's Alaska, 4-5.
15 The project is credited to Major Collins, to whom the Russian govern- ment gave the privilege of constructing, maintaining, and working a line from the mouthi of the Amoor to the boundary between Russian territory and British America. He was allowed to crect block-houses and other neces- sary defences. He might cut timber, open roads, navigate rivers, and in fact do almost anything except organize a new empire. Knox., Russ. Amer. Tel., 242. In 1862 a committee of the U. S. Senate reported in favor of a survey for a line via Siberia. U. S. Sen. Com., Report, 37th cong., 2d sess., xiii. In the same year the U. S. Minister in Russia was ordered to favor the enterprise. U. S. Sen. Ex. Doc., 37th cong., 2d sess., x.
577
TELEGRAPH EXPEDITION.
ing preliminary surveys on the American continent and in Siberia. Captain C. S. Bulkley was appointed to superintend the expedition, and for this purpose proceeded to Novo Arkhangelsk in the spring of 1865. A steamer, three barks, and other craft were pur- chased for the use of the members, and with the per- mission of the secretary of the treasury several revenue officers participated in the enterprise. One vessel sailed for British Columbia, the intention being to penetrate from the head waters of the Frazer River to those of the Yukon; another to Novo Arkhangelsk, a third to Fort Mikhaielovsk, and a fourth to the mouth of the Anadir River in Siberia. In the fol- lowing year explorations were continued; but in 1867, a few months after the first pole was raised,16 the com- pany, after having incurred an expense of three millions of dollars, abandoned the enterprise and recalled its ex- plorers, finding that the line could not compete with the Atlantic cable. The details of their operations do not concern the purposes of this volume, but we have some interesting descriptions, which will be men- tioned later, of the condition of the Russian settle- ments, especially in the work of Dall, who was ap- pointed director of the scientific corps.
I shall venture also to give a brief extract from a statement made in 1878 by Ferdinand Westdahl, who who was employed to survey Norton Sound and other points for the purpose of determining their ex- act position on the company's chart, and had not then heard of his recall: "We lay at Unalakleet until February, when we went into the field and continued to work on the line, putting up some 30 miles-the posts only-for we had no wire. The country is a complete bog. If you dig down on the hills there two feet, you strike ice. We dug three holes with crow-
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