USA > Alaska > Our northern domain: Alaska, picturesque, historic and commercial > Part 3
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A hunting-party of three hundred boats, under command of his sub- ordinate, Kuskof, reported engagements with considerable bodies of warlike natives, but he had routed them with large losses. Kuskof, as soon as he heard of the Sitka massacre, was eager to go and punish the Koloshi, but Baránof did not think his circumstances at the time justified such an expedition. Meantime, despatches brought from the wrecked ships informed him of the accession of Alexander I. The commandant at Okhotsk ordered him to assemble all the inhabitants of Kadiak and the surrounding countries, and require from them the oath of allegiance. Baranof, unwilling that the crippled condition of his forces should be detected, ignored the command. This disobedience was reported to Irkutsk by a subordinate named Talin, who had been dismissed from the navy for bad conduct. When the report was brought to the notice of the Senate at Petersburg, it was decided that Baránof
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OUR NORTHERN DOMAIN.
was not subject to orders from the local commander at Okhotsk. Talin was dismissed from the service, but during the two years that it took to carry the information to Alaska, Talin was able to do much mischief and cause great annoyance.
Before the consolidation of the trading companies, permission had been refused regular naval officers, on leave of absence, to command Shelikhof's ships; consequently, the Company had been obliged to de- pend on any chance navigator or " morekhódets " that offered his serv- ices. Many of them were utterly incompetent. Ivan Petrof, comment- ing on this state of things, says : - " This title was applied to anybody who had made a sea voyage, no matter in what capacity; but they were generally hunters or trappers from Siberia, who had some slight experi- ence in flat-boat navigation on the rivers. They were entirely ignorant of nautical science and unacquainted with the use of instruments, rely- ing altogether upon landmarks to make their way from Asia to America.
" The most extraordinary instances of stupidity in managing their vessels are related of some of these so-called navigators. Once out of sight of land they were lost, and compelled to trust to chance in hitting upon the right direction to make the land again. It was the practice to coast along the Kamchatka shore until nearly opposite the Commander Islands, and to wait for some clear day when the latter could be sighted; then the crossing was made; and, satisfied with such a brilliant result, the skipper would beach his craft for the remainder of the season, and pass the winter in killing fur-seals and sea-cows, and salting down the meat for his further voyage.
" Late in the following spring, rarely before the month of June, the vessel was launched again and headed, at a venture, to the nearest islands of the Aleutian chain. If the captain succeeded in finding the land, he would proceed along the chain of islands, keeping a short dis- tance to the northward, careful never to lose sight of the mountain peaks. As the trapper captain, with his crew of landsmen, knew noth- ing of keeping his craft up to the wind, no progress was made unless
LLLLLL
BLOCK HOUSE, SITKA.
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THE FOUNDING OF SITKA.
the wind was absolutely favorable, and thus another season would pass before Atka or Unalaska Island was reached, where the craft was hauled up again for the winter. A term of seven years was frequently consumed in making the round trip to the American coast and back again to Kamchatka or Okhotsk, a voyage that at the present time a schooner can accomplish in about three weeks. At least seventy-five per cent. of all the vessels that sailed upon these voyages, from the discovery of the American coast to the beginning of this century, suf- fered wreck, and every one of these disasters could be traced to the ignorance both of captains and sailors."
Beginning with 1801, capable officers were permitted to enlist in the service of the Company, and a vast improvement was initiated. The first of these officers were Lieutenants Khvostof and Davidof. They navigated an old, leaky vessel, with a crew of landlubbers, from Okhotsk to Kadiak in two months. The following year, the Company obtained permission to forward supply ships direct from Petersburg to the colonies. Two ships, of not far from five hundred tons capacity, were purchased in London, and, under the names of the " Nieva " and " Nadyezhda" (Hope), commanded respectively by Captain Lis- yansky and Captain Count von Krusenstern, set sail for Alaskan waters. The " Nieva " arrived at Kadiak early in July, 1804, after a voyage lasting nearly a year. Learning that Baránof was on his way to Sitka, with the design of punishing the natives for their treachery, he resolved to join him there and assist in the revenge.
Baránof, however, had been delayed at Yakutat, where he had to finish the equipment of two small vessels. When he reached Sitka, with his little force of forty Russians and a few hundred Aleuts, with which to engage in battle with as many thousands of the warlike Ko- loshi, his feelings may be easily imagined when he discovered Lis- yansky's ship riding at anchor in the beautiful roadstead.
The natives doughtily refused his demand for the restitution of the furs looted from his warehouse, and for hostages for future good con- duct. The first attack of the Russians was made against a fort built
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on the wooded height which overlooks Sitka. Lisyansky describes it as " an irregular polygon, its longest side facing the sea. It was pro- tected by a breastwork two logs in thickness and about six feet high. Around and above it, tangled brushwood was piled. Grape-shot did little damage, even at the distance of a cable's length. There were two embrasures for cannon in the side facing the sea, and two gates facing the forest. Within were fourteen large huts, or, as they were called then and are called at the present time by the natives, ' bará- baras.' Judging from the quantity of provisions and domestic im- plements found there, it must have contained at least eight hundred warriors."
The first attack made by the Russians was repulsed. Baránof him- self was wounded, and eleven of his men were killed; but as the ships covered his retreat, he managed to save his cannon. The following day, Lisyansky took command; the ships approached the shore and bombarded the hostile fort. An envoy asking peace arrived. The evacuation of the fort was demanded. It being delayed, bombardment was renewed. In the night, after bewailing their fate, and killing their children and dogs, the natives deserted their stronghold, leaving the bodies of their dead.
The Koloshi having beaten a retreat to Chatham Strait, Baránof was free to establish himself at Sitka, where, with Lisyansky's assist- ance, he built the great castle that was, for so many years to come, to be the seat of colossal revels, unbridled luxury, and boundless hos- pitality. When it was destroyed by fire, another still finer took its place; that again was wrecked by an earthquake, and also destroyed by fire. Around the castle a village grouped itself. The officials were housed in huge barracks, solidly built; some of them covering more than ten thousand square feet, and several stories in height. The rooms were papered, the floors were polished and covered with im- ported rugs, and heavy furniture brought from Petersburg gave an air of luxury to these quarters. Baránof himself was never more pleased than when congenial visitors arrived on some friendly ship.
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THE FOUNDING OF SITKA.
He had a system of signal lights flashing from the cupola of his castle, and beacon-fires were kindled along the shore, to pilot the way by night. A great banquet would test the capacities of the guests, especially in standing up against vast bumpers of fiery vodka and costly wines. The plate and glassware were of the richest description. Baránof had a fine library, and his walls were hung with valuable paintings.
For a time he was obliged to submit to many humiliations at the hands of supercilious naval officers, who looked down upon him as being of inferior rank. But, in recognition of his wonderful success in conducting the affairs of the Company, the Emperor, at Riazánof's suggestion, conferred upon him the title of Commercial Councillor, and the Order of St. Anne of the third class. When this honor came, he is said to have burst into tears and exclaimed : - " I am a nobleman ! I am the equal in position and the superior in ability of those insolent naval officers." Nevertheless, as long as he lived, he was having con- tinual difficulties with the Government officers, who would dispute his authority and try to undermine his power.
Shelikhof's son-in-law, Riazánof, had been a passenger on the " Nad- yezhda," but had proceeded directly to Japan, where he was accredited as Ambassador to the Emperor. His mission there proved a failure, and he next devoted himself to regulating the affairs of the Company in which he had so commanding an interest. He was the first to put an end to the indiscriminate slaughter of the seals on the Pribilof Islands. It is said that two millions were taken the first year, and the price of seal skins fell to panic rates. In order to make arrangements for the regular purchase of provisions, he bought a Boston ship and proceeded to San Francisco Bay, which was then in the hands of the Spanish. It was contrary to their instructions to hold intercourse with foreign ships, but he overcame the scruples of the Commandant, whose daughter he would have married, had he not died before he obtained permission from the Russian Emperor.
Riazánof, by this visit, inaugurated trade-relations between Spain and the Russian colonies. He foresaw the possibilities of the Pacific
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coast, and proposed the planting of Russian colonists on New Albion, as the region north of the San Francisco presidio was called. Realiz- ing how unfitted the Russians themselves were for agricultural pur- suits, he suggested that " the patient and industrious Chinese " should be brought over to man the plantations. This was in 1806.
Five years later, Baránof carried out Riazánof's directions and sent his chief subordinate, Kuskof, to establish himself on the Cali- fornia coast. He bought a tract of land of the Indians at Bodega, not far north of San Francisco Bay. This whole coast as far as Kadiak was now furnishing its tribute of furs to the Russian-American Com- pany. Baránof engaged " Yankee " captains to hunt the sea-otter and other fur-bearing animals on shares. It is said that during one single year the Company's share in the profits made by these partnership expeditions amounted to several hundred thousand rubles. Occasion- ally, the Yankee skippers played sharp tricks on the Company. Petrof tells of a Captain Bennett who exchanged his cargo of provisions for seal skins on the basis of a dollar apiece in trade, and then resold the skins to the Company's agent at Petropavlovsk for double that sum.
When the Directors of the Company heard of this and similar trans- actions, Baránof was ordered to change his policy. About the same time, Lázaref was despatched from Petersburg on the ship " Suvorof." He reached Sitka after a voyage which lasted thirteen months. Here a bitter controversy arose between Baránof and Lázaref, each claiming supreme rank. Finally Lázaref refused to carry out Baránof's in- structions and set sail, followed by the old commander's anathemas and ineffectual cannon shots from the fortress. Lázaref had loaded the " Suvorof " with furs and other commodities taken in trade along the Pacific coast, and he brought back to Petersburg a cargo valued at more than a million rubles. Of course, he showed his animosity against Baránof by retailing all the evil stories that he had heard about his behavior and his untrustworthiness. Accordingly, it was decided to appoint a successor to the commander.
There had been other attempts to get rid of him. Two prospective
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THE FOUNDING OF SITKA.
successors had died before reaching Sitka. In 1809, two promuísh- leniki had entered into a conspiracy to kill him. The attempt failed, but the anxiety which it caused Baránof, in addition to his increasing disabilities, had unquestionably unstrung his mind, so long keen and alert.
Washington Irving in his " Astoria " called " Count Baranhoff " " a rough, rugged, hospitable, hard-working old Russian. Somewhat of a soldier, somewhat of a trader; above all a boon companion of the old roystering school, with a strong cross of the brave."
He goes on to say :- " Mr. Hunt found this hyperborean veteran ensconced in a fort which crested the whole of a high rocky promontory. It mounted one hundred guns, large and small, and was impregnable to Indian attack, unaided by artillery. Here the old governor lorded it over sixty Russians, who formed the corps of the trading estab- lishment, besides an indefinite number of Indian hunters of the Kodiak tribe, who were continually coming and going, or lounging and loiter- ing about the fort like so many hounds round a sportsman's hunting quarters. Though a loose liver among his guests, the governor was a strict disciplinarian among his men, keeping them in perfect sub- jection, and having seven on guard, night and day. Besides these immediate serfs and dependents just mentioned, the old Russian poten- tate exerted a considerable sway over a numerous and irregular class of maritime traders, who looked to him for aid and munitions, and through whom he may be said to have, in some degree, extended his power along the whole northwest coast. . . .
" Over these coasting captains, as we have hinted, the veteran gov- ernor exerted some sort of sway; but it was of a peculiar and char- acteristic kind: it was the tyranny of the table. They were obliged to join him in his ' prosnics ' or carousals, and to drink 'potations pottle deep.' His carousals, too, were not of the most quiet kind, nor were his potations as mild as nectar. 'He is continually,' said Mr. Hunt, ' giving entertainments by way of parade, and if you do not drink raw rum and boiling punch as strong as sulphur, he will insult
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you as soon as he gets drunk, which is very shortly after setting down to table.' "
Father Juvenal, the weak young priest who was murdered by the Indians of Ilyamna, gives in his diary far from flattering pictures of Baránof, whether in Church giving the responses, - singing in his hoarse voice, - or shouting obscene songs in the midst of a drunken carousal, with a woman seated on his lap.
In 1817, Captain Hagenmeister was sent out in the ship " Suvorof " to supplant him. At first he did not disclose the real object of his visit; but on January 11th, 1818, he abruptly produced his commission and claimed the command. When he returned to Russia, he left Lieu- tenant Yanovsky as his representative. The fact that Yanovsky had married Baránof's favorite daughter, the child of a native woman, did not seem to lessen the severity of the blow. He rose from a bed of illness, arranged his papers, and turned over to the new manager property far exceeding in value what the Company had expected. He had enjoyed unlimited opportunities to enrich himself, but whatever faults he had, dishonesty was not one of them.
During the first hours of his downfall, Baránof walked alone to his favorite retreat - a gray flat stone standing not far from the castle, with a wonderfully beautiful view of the island-studded bay - and there where he was secure from interruption, not even his favorite daughter daring to approach him while he was indulging in this silent self-communion, he prepared himself for the inevitable.
Retaining little for himself, he determined to go back to Russia, where he had left a wife and children many years before. After bid- ding a tearful farewell to his old friends and associates, he sailed from Sitka on the ship " Kutuzof," late in November. At Batavia he was taken ill with malarial fever, and the day after the ship again sailed for Petersburg, on the sixteenth of April, 1819, he died and was buried in the Indian Ocean.
CHAPTER V.
DECLINE OF THE RUSSIAN - AMERICAN COMPANY.
U NDER the direction of Lieutenant Yanovsky, further explora- tions of Alaska were conducted. One party surveyed the coast from Bristol Bay westward to the mouth of the Kuskokwim River and Nunivak Island; another reached the valley of the Kusko- kwim by an overland route; and still another went as far south as Nor- ton, but missed discovering the mouth of the Yukon, - or, as the Rus- sians called it, the " Kvikpak," - though they crossed its mouth.
In 1820 the charter of the Russian-American Company expired, but was renewed with additional privileges. The profits for some years had been more than half a million rubles: this, in spite of maintaining a large and increasing fleet and a whole army of dependents, building Churches, and establishing schools.
Hagenmeister's term as manager was short; he did not carry out his proposed plan of removing the headquarters from Sitka to Kadiak, although it would have been, in some respects, a safer and more de- sirable place of residence. He was succeeded in 1821 by Mikhail Ivan- ovitch Muravióf, under whose administration Russian America was made independent of Siberian jurisdiction, and the boundary was set- tled by treaties with England and the United States. During his administration also, great activity was displayed in converting the natives. The most zealous missionary was Ivan Veniaminof, who went to Unalaska in 1824 and carried the teachings of his Church over an enormous region, and so successfully that within three years after his arrival, it was estimated that there were between ten and eleven thou- sand communicants, four-fifths of whom were natives. Next to Bará-
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OUR NORTHERN DOMAIN.
nof, Veniamínof is the most interesting of the early Russian notables in Alaskan history. He was the first Bishop of Alaska, and gave the cathedral at Sitka many precious treasures. His memory is every- where revered. Muravióf was a stern and relentless disciplinarian, and so intimidated the natives, that his very name was a terror among them for many years. He has been called " Muraviof the Butcher."
During the administration of the Livonian Baron, Ferdinand Pet- rovitch von Wrangel, which lasted from 1831 to 1836, the quarrel be- tween the Russian-American Company and the Hudson Bay Company came to a crisis. The English company would have been glad to unite forces with the Russian competitor, but Wrangel had orders to crush the English and prevent their making any trading-stations on the Pacific Coast. He succeeded in preventing Captain Ogden from ascend- ing the Stakhin River, and when the Hudson Bay Company brought suit against the Russian-American Company for twenty-one thousand five hundred pounds damages, a settlement most advantageous to the Russian Company was effected at a conference at Hamburg.
Wrangel's successor, Captain Kupriánof, made extensive explora- tions to the north, reaching, by means of bidars or skin boats sent out from the brig " Polypheme," as far as Point Barrow, east of Kotzebue Sound.
Other explorers gave their attention to the interior. Glazúnof as- cended the Yukon, which was then known as the Kvikpak, and was the first to make the portage between the Yukon and the Kuskokwim Rivers. Another explorer, named Rosenberg, penetrated from the Nugashak River to the Kuskokwim, and from there to Nulato on the Yukon, where he established a station which was afterwards destroyed by the natives. Certainly the exploits of the brave explorers sent out by the Russian-American Company, or by such men as Count Rum- yantsof, who, at his own private expense, despatched Naval Lieutenant Kotzebue to explore the Arctic, and whose name is deservedly attached to mountain, cape or island in the far north, calls for the highest ad- miration. Through terrible deprivations, meeting almost insuperable
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DECLINE OF THE RUSSIAN - AMERICAN COMPANY.
difficulties, and enduring horrible sufferings, these men added greatly to the sum of human knowledge.
Captain Kupriánof took steps to sell the California Colony, which, owing to the incapacity of the Russians as farmers, had not succeeded. During his administration, a destructive epidemic of smallpox broke out among the natives. It appeared first at Sitka, in 1836, and car- ried off four hundred of the Koloshi. Strangely enough, only one Russian suffered from the malady, and in his case it was not fatal. It spread to remote settlements. On Kadiak, seven hundred and thirty- six persons died. Vaccination proved efficacious where it was prac- tised, but many of the natives had superstitious fears of it and refused to submit to it. On Unalaska, Dr. Blashke, the resident physician of Sitka, vaccinated more than a thousand natives, and only a little more than ten per cent. died; whereas, in the district comprising Cook's Inlet, Prince William Sound, and Bristol Bay, more than a third of those attacked perished.
The disease was not stamped out until 1840, when Captain Etolin, a successful explorer of the regions north of Bering Sea, succeeded Baron Wrangel. This new manager was confronted by serious dif- ficulties, owing to the immense loss in the native population and the consequent starvation which threatened the settlements. Etolin decided to concentrate the inhabitants in a few large villages, the chiefs of which were held responsible for securing food and dealing out the stores that were to be collected.
The following year, the Russian-American Company applied for a renewal of its charter, which the Government seemed in no hurry to grant. When it was renewed, however, it made some changes in the management of the Company's affairs, but the chief control was still vested in the hands of men selected from the navy. This explains the zeal for exploration, and the fact that the trade of the Company by no means kept pace with its expenses. Petrof says : -
" After Baránof's departure, not a single practical merchant or business man had the management of colonial affairs, and the conse-
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OUR NORTHERN DOMAIN.
quence was that the dividends diminished every year, while at the same time, according to the official reports to the Directors and to the Imperial Government, the colonies seemed to be flourishing and developing rapidly. Each succeeding chief manager seemed to think only of making the greatest display of continued explorations, erection of buildings, construction of ships of all sizes, and the establishment of industries and manufactories.
" The shipyard at Sitka was complete with all kinds of workshops and magazines, even having brass and iron foundries, machine shops, and nautical-instrument makers. Experiments were made in the manu- facture of bricks, woodenware, and even woollen stuffs of material imported from California. For all these enterprises the skilled labor had to be imported from Russia at great expense, and this circum- stance alone will explain the failure attending the attempts. Vast sums were also wasted in endeavors to extract the iron from a very inferior grade of ore found in various sections of the country. The only real advantage the Company ever reaped from its many workshops at Sitka was the manufacture of agricultural implements for the ig- norant and indolent rancheros of California; thousands of plowshares of the very primitive pattern in use in those countries being made in Sitka for the California and Mexican markets. Axes, hatchets, spades and hoes were also turned out by the industrious workmen of the Sitka shipyard, while the foundry was for some time engaged in casting bells for the Catholic missions on the Pacific Coast. Many of these bells are still in existence, and bear witness to the early, though perhaps abnor- mal, industrial development on our northern coast."
Some of the trade ventures proved unprofitable, but no one can ever tell when the reward of patient waiting is to come; and at the break- ing out of the California gold fever, the Company's storehouse, which was packed with unsalable goods, was at the last relieved. Even the most shop-worn articles were sold at great profit.
Never suspecting the incalculable riches that lay, scarcely hidden, in the beach-sands and the mountain-valleys, the director despatched a
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DECLINE OF THE RUSSIAN - AMERICAN COMPANY.
party of Aleuts, under command of a subordinate, to take up and work a claim, but the results did not justify the outlay. Not more success- ful was the attempt of Lieutenant Doroshin to prospect for precious metals in Alaska. He was an experienced mining-engineer and had graduated from the College of Mines. To be sure, he discovered gold in the vicinity of Cook's Inlet, but the labors of forty men under his direction produced only a few ounces of gold-dust, and he advised that the experiment should be discontinued.
Doroshin was handicapped in many ways. Several years later, he wrote : - " The small result of my labors has cooled the ardor of the chief manager of the colonies for gold seeking. I do not cease to hope, however, that later some other engineer will be more fortunate in the path pointed out by me, with better means than were at my dis- posal. In that case, of course, nobody will think of him who first found gold where there were no ancient diggings, where no grains of gold were found in the crop of a grouse, and where the natives have not even a name for the precious metal."
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