USA > Alaska > Our Arctic province, Alaska and the Seal islands > Part 2
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OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
While groping in fog and tempest on the high seas, Bering drifted one Sunday (July 18th) upon or about the Alaskan mainland coast ; he disembarked at the foot of some low, desolate bluffs that face the sea near the spot now known to us as Kayak Island, and in plain view of those towering peaks of the St. Elias Alps. He passed full six weeks in this neighborhood, while the crew were busy getting fresh food-supplies, water, etc., when, on the 3d of Septem- ber, a storm of unwonted vigor burst upon them, lasted seven days, and drove them out to sea and before it, down as far as 48° S' north latitude, and into the lonely wastes of the vast Pacific. Scurvy began to appear on board the St. Peter ; hardly a day passed without recording the death of some one of the ship's com- pany, and soon men enough in health or strength sufficient to work the vessel could not be mustered. A return to Kamchatka was resolved upon.
Bering became surly and morose, and seldom appeared on deck, and so the second in command, "Stoorman" Vachtel, directed the dreary cruise. After regaining the land, and burying a sailor named Shoomagin on one of a group of Alaskan islets that bear his name to-day, and making several additional capes and landfalls, they saw two islands which, by a most unfortunate blunder, they took to be of the Kurile chain, and adjacent to Kamchatka. Thus they erred sadly in their reckoning, and sailed out upon a false point of departure.
In vain they craned their necks for the land, and strained their feeble eyes ; the shore of Kamchatka refused to rise, and it finally dawned upon them that they were lost-that there was no hope of making a port in that goal so late in the year. The wonderful discipline of the Russian sailors was strikingly exhibited at this stage of the luckless voyage : in spite of their debilitated and emaciated condition, they still obeyed orders, though suffering frightfully in the cold and wet ; the ravages of scurvy had made such progress that the steersman was conducted to the helm by two other invalids who happened to have the use of their legs, and who supported him under the arms! When he could no longer steer from suffering, then he was succeeded by another no better able to execute the labor than himself. Thus did the unhappy crew waste away into death and impotency. They were obliged to carry few sails, for they were helpless to reef or hoist them, and such as they had were nearly worn out; and even in this case they
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DISCOVERY, OCCUPATION, AND TRANSFER.
were unable to renew them by replacing from the stores, since there were no seamen strong enough on the ship to bend new ones to the yards and booms.
Soon rain was followed by snow, the nights grew longer and darker, and they now lived in dreadful anticipation of shipwreck ; the fresh water diminished, and the labor of working the vessel became too severe for the few who were able to be about. From the 1st to the 4th of November the ship had lain as a log on the ocean, helpless and drifting, at the sport of the wind and the waves. Then again, in desperation, they managed to control her, and set her course anew to the westward, without knowing absolutely any- thing as to where they were. In a few hours after, the joy of the distressed crew can be better imagined than described, for, looming up on the gray, gloomy horizon, they saw the snow-covered tops of high hills, still distant however, ahead. As they drew nearer, night came upon them, and they judged best, therefore, to keep out at sea " off and on " until daybreak, so as to avoid the risk of wrecking themselves in the deep darkness. When the gray light of early morning dawned, they found that the rigging on the star- board side of the vessel was giving way, and that their craft could not be much longer managed ; that the fresh water was very low, and that sickness was increasing frightfully. The raw humidity of the climate was now succeeded by dry, intense cold ; life was well- nigh insupportable on shipboard then, so, after a brief consulta- tion, they determined to make for the land, save their lives, and, if possible, safely beach the St. Peter.
The small sails were alone set ; the wind was north ; thirty-six fathoms of water over a sand bottom; two hours after they de- creased it to twelve ; they now contrived to get over an anchor and run it out at three-quarters of a cable's length ; at six in the even- ing this hawser parted ; tremendous waves bore the helpless boat on in toward the land through the darkness and the storm, where soon she struck twice upon a rocky reef. Yet, in a moment after, they had five fathoms of water; a second anchor was thrown out, and again the tackle parted ; and while, in the energy of wild de- spair, prostrated by sheets of salty spray that swept over them in bursts of fury, they were preparing a third bower, a huge comb- ing wave lifted that ark of misery-that band of superlative human suffering-safely and sheer over the reef, where in an instant the tempest-tossed ship rested in calm water; the last anchor was
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OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
dropped, and thus this luckless voyage of Alaskan discovery came to an end.
Bering died here, on one of the Commander Islands,* where he had been wrecked as above related ; the survivors, forty-five souls in number, lived through the winter on the flesh of sea-lions, tlie sea-cow,; or manatee, and thus saved their scanty stock of flour ; they managed to build a little shallop out of the remains of the St. Peter, in which they left Bering Island-departed from this scene of a most extraordinary shipwreck and deliverance-on August 16, 1742, and soon reached Petropaulovsky in safety the 27th following. In addition to an authentic knowledge of the location of a great land to the eastward, the survivors carried from their camp at Bering Island a large number of valuable sea-otter, blue-fox, and other peltries, which stimulated, as no other induce- ment could have done, the prompt fitting ont and venture of many new expeditions for the freshly discovered land and islands of Alaska.
So, in 1745, Michael Novidiskov first, of all white men, pushed over in a rude open wooden shallop from Kamchatka, and landed on Attoo, that extreme western islet of the great Aleutain chain which forms upon the map a remarkable southern wall to the green waters of Bering Sea. No object of geographical search was in this hardy fur-hunter's mind as he perilled his life in that adventure-far from it; he was after the precious pelage of the
* Bering's Island-he was wrecked on the east coast, at a point under steep bluffs now known as "Kommandor." Scarcely a vestige of this shipwreck now remains there.
+ That curious creature is extinct. It formerly inhabited the sea-shores of these two small islands. The German naturalist Steller, who was the sur- geon of Bering's ship, has given us the only account we have of this animal's appearance and habits; it was the largest of all the Sirenians ; attained a length sometimes of thirty feet. When first discovered it was extremely abundant, and formed the main source of food-supply for the shipwrecked crew of Be- ring's vessel. Twenty-seven years afterward it became extinct, due to the merciless hunting and slaughter of it by the Russians, who, on their way over to Alaska from Kamchatka, always made it an object to stop at Bering or Cop- per Island and fill up large casks with the flesh of this sea-cow. Its large size, inactive habits, and clumsy progress in the water, together with its utter fear- lessness of man, made its extinction rapid and feasible.
I make the restoration from a careful study of the details of Steller's description.
-
Jone ideales )
THE RHYTINA, OR SEA-COW (Extinct) The flesh of this animal constituted the chief food supply of Bering's shipwrecked crew, 1741-'42
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DISCOVERY, OCCUPATION, AND TRANSFER.
sea-otter, and like unto him were all of the long list of Russian ex- plorers of Alaskan coasts and waters. These rough, indomitable men ventured out from their headquarters at Kamchatka and the Okotsk Sea in rapid succession as years rolled on, until by the end of 1768-69 a large area of Russian America was well determined and rudely charted by them .*
The history of this early exploration of Russian America is the stereotyped story of wrongs inflicted upon simple natives by ruth- less, fearless adventurers-year in and year out-the eager, persist- ent examination of the then unknown shores and interior of Alaska by tireless Cossacks and Muscovites, who were busy in robbing the aborigines and quarrelling among themselves. The success of the earliest fur-hunters had been so great, and heralded so loudly in the Russian possessions, that soon every Siberian merchant who had a few thousand rubles at his order managed to associate him- self with some others, so that they might together fit out a slovenly craft or two and engage in the same remunerative business. The records show that, prior to the autocratic control of the old Russian American Company over all Alaska in 1799, more than sixty dis- tinct Russian trading companies were organized and plying their vocation in these waters and landings of Alaska.
They all carried on their operations in essentially the same man- ner : the owner or owners of the shallop, or sloop, or schooner, as it might be, engaged a crew on shares ; the cargo of furs brought back by this vessel was invariably divided into two equal subdivis- ions-one of these always claimed by the owners who had fur- nished the means, and the other half divided in such a manner as the navigator, the trader, and the crew could agree upon between themselves. Then, after this division had been made, each partici- pant was to give one-tenth part of his portion, as received above, to the Government at St. Petersburg, which, stimulated by such gen- erous swelling of its treasury, never failed to keep an affectionate eye upon its subjects over here, and encouraged them to the ut- most limit of exertion.
* The order of this search and voyaging has been faithfully recorded by Ivan Petroff in his admirable compendium of the subject. (See Tenth Census U. S. A., Vol. VIII.) While this narrative may be interesting to a historian, yet I deem it best not to inflict it upon the general reader. Also in " Bancroft's History of Alaska," recently published at San Francisco, it is graphically and laboriously described.
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OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
This Imperial impetus undoubtedly was the spur which caused most of that cruel domination of the Russians over a simple people whom they found at first in possession of their new fur-bearing land ; the thrifty traders managed to do their business with an ex- ceedingly small stock of goods, and, where no opposition was offered, these unscrupulous commercial travellers ordered the natives out to hunt and turn over all their booty, not even condescending to pay them, except a few beads or strips of tobacco, "in return for their good behavior and submission to the crown !" Naturally enough, the treacherous Koloshes of Sitka, the dogged Kadiakers, the vivacious Eskimo or Innuits, and even the docile Aleutes, would every now and then arise and slaughter in their rage and despair a whole trading post or ship's crew of Russians ; but these outbreaks were not of preconcerted plan or strength, and never seriously interrupted the iron rule of Slavonian oppression.
The rapidly increasing number of competitors in the fur trade, however, soon began to create a scarcity of the raw material, and then the jealousies and rivalries of the trading companies began in turn to vent themselves in armed struggles against each other for possession and gain. This order of affairs quickly threw the whole region into a reign of anarchy which threatened to destroy the very existence of the Russians themselves. Facing this deplorable con- dition, one of the leading promoters of the fur-trading industry in Alaska saw that, unless a bold man was placed at the head of the conduct of his business, it would soon be ruined. This man he picked out at Kargopol, Siberia, and on August 18, 1790, he con- cluded a contract with Alexander Baranov, who sailed that day from the Okotsk, and who finally established that enduring basis of trade and Russian domination in Alaska which held till our pur- chase in 1867 of all its vested rights and title.
The wild savage life which the Russians led in these early days of their possession of this new land-their bitter personal antago- nisms and their brutal orgies-actually beggar description, and seem well-nigh incredible to the trader or traveller who sojourns in Alaska to-day. It is commonly regarded as a rude order of exist- ence up there among ourselves now ; and when we come to think back, and contrast the stormy past with the calm present, it is diffi- cult to comprehend it ; yet it is not so strange if it be remem- bered that they were practically beyond all reach of authority, and lived for many consecutive years in absolute non-restraint.
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DISCOVERY, OCCUPATION, AND TRANSFER.
It is easy to trace the several steps and understand the motives which led to our purchase of Alaska. There was no subtle state- craft involved, and no significance implied. The Russian Govern- ment simply grew weary of looking after the American territory, which was an element of annually increasing cost to the Imperial treasury, and was a source of anxiety and weakness in all European difficulties. It became apparent to the minds of the governing coun- cil at St. Petersburg that Russians could not, or at least, would not settle in Russian America to build up a state or province, or do any- thing else there which would redound to the national honor and strength. This view they were well grounded in, after the ripe ex- perience of a century's control and ownership.
One period in that history of Russian rule afforded to the au- thorities much rosy anticipation. This interval was that season in the affairs of the Russian American Company which was known as Baranov's administration, in which time the revenues to the crown were rich, and annually increasing. But Baranov was a prac- tical business man, while every one of his successors, although dis- tinguished men in the naval and army circles of the home govern- ment, was not. Comment is unnecessary. The change became marked ; the revenues rapidly declined, and the conduct of the operations of the company soon became a matter of loss and not of gain to the stockholders and to the Imperial treasury. The history, however, of the rise and fall of this great Russian trading associa- tion is a most interesting one ; much more so even than that of its ancient though still surviving, but decrepit rival, the Hudson's Bay Company.
Those murderous factional quarrels of the competing Russian traders throughout Alaska in 1790-98 finally compelled the Em- peror Paul to grant, in 1799, much against his will, a charter to a consolidation of the leading companies engaged in American fur- hunting, which was named the Russian American Company. It also embraced the Eastern Siberian and Kamchatkan colonies. That charter gave to this company the exclusive right to all the ter- ritory in Alaska, Kamchatka, and the Siberian Okotsk, and Kurile districts, and the privileges conferred by this charter were very great and of the most autocratic nature ; but at the same time the company was shrewdly burdened with deftly framed obligations, being compelled to maintain, at its own expense, the new govern- ment of the country, a church establishment, a military force, and,
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OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
at various points in the territory, ample magazines of provisions and stores to be used by the Imperial Government for its naval vessels or land troops whenever ordered. At a time when all such stores had to be transported on land trails over the desolate wastes of Si- beria from Russia to the Okotsk, this clause in the franchise was most burdensome, and really fatal to the financial success of the company.
The finesse of the Russian authorities is strikingly manifested in that charter, which ostensibly granted to the Russian American Com- pany all these rights of exclusive jurisdiction to a vast domain with- out selfishly exacting a single tax for the home treasury ; but in fact it did pay an immense sum annually into the royal coffers in this way. The entire fur trade in those days was with China, and all the furs of Alaska were bartered by the Russians with the Mon- gols for teas, which were sold in Russia and Europe. The records of the Imperial treasury show that the duties paid into it by this company upon these teas often exceeded two millions of silver rubles annually .*
The company was also obliged, by the terms of their charter, to make experiments in the establishment of agricultural settlements wherever the soil and climate of Alaska would permit. The natives of Alaska were freed from all taxes in skins or money, but were
* The Russian currency is always expressed in kopecks and in rubles. Gold coinage there is seldom ever seen, and was never used in Alaska. The following table explains itself :
1 copper kopeck = 1 silver kopeck. 15 silver kopecks = 1 peteealtin.
2 copper kopecks = 1 grösh. 20 silver kopecks = 1 dvoogreevenik.
3 copper kopecks = 1 alteen. 25 silver kopeeks = 1 chetvertak.
5 copper kopeeks = 1 peetak. 50 silver kopeeks = 1 polteenah.
5 silver kopecks = 1 peetak. 100 silver kopecks = 1 ruble.
10 silver kopecks = 1 greevnah.
The silver ruble is nearly equal to seventy-five eents in our coin. The paper ruble fluctuates in Russia from forty to fifty cents, specie valne ; in Alaska it was rated at twenty cents, silver. Much of the "paper " currency in Alaska during Russian rule was stamped on little squares of walrus hide.
A still smaller coin, called the "polooshka," worth } kopeek, has been used in Russia. It takes its name from a hare-skin, "ooshka," or "little ears," which, before the use of money by the Slavs, was one of the lowest articles of exchange, pol signifying half, and polooshka, half a hare's skin. From an- other small coin, the "deinga" (equal to } kopeck in value), is derived the Russian word for money, deingah or deingie.
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DISCOVERY, OCCUPATION, AND TRANSFER.
obliged to furnish to the company's order certain quotas of sea- otter hunters every season, all men between the ages of eighteen and fifty being liable to this draft, though not more than one-half of any number thus subject could be enlisted and called out at any one time.
The management of this great organization was vested in an ad- ministrative council, composed of its stockholders in St. Petersburg, with a head general office at Irkutsk, Siberia-a chief manager, who was to reside in Alaska, and was styled "The Governor," and whose selection was ordered from the officers of the Imperial navy not lower in rank than post-captain. That high official and Alaskan autocrat had an assistant, also a naval officer, and each received pay from the Russian Company, in addition to their regular govern- mental salaries, which were continued to them by the Crown.
In cases of mutiny or revolt the powers of the governor were ab- solute. He had also the fullest jurisdiction at all times over offend- ers and criminals, with the nominal exception of capital crimes. Such culprits were supposed to have a preliminary trial, then were to be forwarded to the nearest court of justice in Siberia. Some- thing usually "happened " to save them the tedious journey, how- ever. The Russian servants of the company-its numerous retinue of post-traders, factors, and traders, and laborers of every class around the posts-were engaged for a certain term of years, duly indentured. When the time expired the company was bound to furnish them free transportation back to their homes, unless the unfortunate individuals were indebted to it ; then they could be re- tained by the employer until the debt was paid. It is needless to state in this connection that an incredibly small number of Russians were ever homeward bound from Alaska during these long years of Muscovitic control and operation. This provision of debtor vs. cred- itor was one which enabled the creditor company to retain in its service any and all men among the humbler classes whose services were desirable, because the scanty remuneration, the wretched pit- tance in lieu of wages, allowed them, made it a matter of utter im- possibility to keep out of debt to the company's store. Even among the higher officials it is surprising to scan the long list of those who, after serving one period of seven years after another, never seemed to succeed in clearing themselves from the iron grasp of indebted- ness to the great corporation which employed them.
As long as the Russian Company maintained a military or naval
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OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
force in the Alaskan territory, at its own expense, these forces were entirely at the disposal of its governor, who passed most of his time in elegant leisure at Sitka, where the finest which the markets and the vineyards of the world afforded were regularly drawn upon to supply his table. No set of men ever lived in more epicurean com- fort and abundance than did those courtly chief magistrates of Alaska who succeeded the plain Baranov in 1818, and who estab- lished and maintained the vice-regal comfort of their physical ex- istence uninterruptedly until it was surrendered, with the cession of their calling, in 1867.
The charter of the Russian American Company was first granted for a period of twenty years, dating at the outset from January 1, 1799. It also had the right to hoist its own colors, to employ naval officers to command its vessels, and to subscribe itself, in its procla- mation or petition, "Under the highest protection of his Imperial Majesty, the Russian American Company." It began at once to attract much attention in Russia, especially among moneyed men in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Nobles and high officials of the Gov- ernment eagerly sought shares of its stock, and even the Emperor and members of his family invested in them, the latter making their advances in this direction under the pretext of donating their portions to schools and to charitable institutions. It was the first enterprise of the kind which had ever originated in the Russian Empire, and, favored in this manner by the Crown, it rose rapidly into public confidence. A future of the most glowing prosperity and stability was prophesied for it by its supporters-a prosperity and power as great as ever that of the British East India Company-while many indulged dreams of Japanese annexation and portions of China, to- gether with the whole American coast, including California.
But that clause in the charter of the company, which ordered that the chief manager of its affairs in Alaska should be selected from the officers of the Imperial navy, had a most unfortunate ef- fect upon the successful conduct of the business, as it was prose- cuted throughout Russian America. After Baranov's suspension and departure, in the autumn of 1818, not a single practical mer- chant or business man succeeded him. The rigid personal scrutiny and keen trading instinct which were so characteristic of him, were followed immediately by the very reverse ; hence the dividends be- gan to diminish every year, while the official writing, on the other hand, became suddenly more voluminous, graphic, and declared a
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DISCOVERY, OCCUPATION, AND TRANSFER.
steady increase of prosperity. Each succeeding chief manager, or governor, vied with the reports of his predecessors in making a record of great display in the line of continued explorations, erec- tion of buildings, construction of ships of all sizes, and the estab- lishment of divers new industries and manufactories, agriculture, etc.
The second term of the Russian American Company's charter expired in 1841, and the directors and shareholders labored most industriously for another renewal ; the Crown took much time in consideration, but in 1844 the new grant was confirmed, and rather increased the rights and privileges of the company, if any- thing ; still matters did not mend financially, the affairs of the large corporation were continued in the same reckless management by one governor after the other-with the same extravagant vice-regal display and costly living-with useless and abortive experiments in agriculture, in mining and in shipbuilding, so that by the approach of the lapsing of the third term of twenty years' control, in 1864, the company was deeply in debt, and though desirous of continuing the business, it now endeavored to transfer the cost of maintaining its authority in Alaska to the home Government ; to this the Impe- rial Cabinet was both unwilling and unable to accede, for Russia had just emerged from a disastrous and expensive war, and was in no state of mind to incur a single extra ruble of indebtedness which she could avoid. In the meantime, pending these domestic difficulties between the Crown and the company, the charter ex- pired ; the Government refused to renew it, and sought, by send- ing out commissioners to Sitka, for a solution of the vexed prob- lem.
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