USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 30
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 30
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All the islands in the Pacific, and every part of the north-west coasts of America, were visited by the vessels of the United States in the course of these voyages. Their principal places of resort were the Sandwich Islands, where they obtained fresh provisions, and occasionally seamen from among the natives; and the mouth of the Columbia, Nootka Sound, and Queen Charlotte's Island, in which they traded with the Indians for furs. They occasionally touched at the ports of California, where they were, however, viewed with great distrust by the Spanish authorities; and they generally made the tour of the Russian settlements, which derived from the Americans, in this way, the greater part of their supplies of European manufactures, ammunition, sugar, wines, and spirits, in exchange for peltries. The furs were, as before, sold in Canton, at prices not high, though sufficient to encourage a moderate importation ; but they seldom formed the whole cargo of the vessels arriving there, the remainder being composed of sandal-wood, and pearl and tor- toise shells.
The Sandwich Islands fell in succession under the authority of Tamahamaha, who displayed admirable sagacity in his mode of conducting the government, amid all the dangers and difficulties arising from internal opposition and the constant presence of stran- gers of various nations. Like the present pacha of Egypt, he was not only the political chief, but also the chief merchant of his territories : in his minor commercial operations he was generally
* In 1805, the ship Atahualpa, of Rhode Island, was attacked by the savages in Millbank Sound, and her captain, mate, and six seamen, were killed; after which the other seamen succeeded in repelling the assailants and saving the vessel. In March, 1803, the ship Boston, of Boston, while lying at Nootka Sound, was attacked by Maquinna and his followers, who obtained possession of her, and put to death all on board, with the exception of two men, who, after remaining in slavery four years, effected their escape. In the same manner, the ship Tonquin was, in June, 1811, seized by the natives, at the entrance of the Strait of Fuca, and her whole crew murdered in a moment, as will be hereafter more particularly related; and other instances of a similar nature might be cited.
The account of the capture of the Boston, by John R. Jewitt, the armorer of the ship, contains many curious details respecting the country around Nootka Sound, and its inhabitants, as observed by the author during his residence there, from 1803 to 1807. This little work has been frequently reprinted, and, though seldom found in libraries, is much read by boys and seamen in the United States. It presents the last notices which have been found on record of Maquinna, for whom Jewitt appears to have entertained a great admiration.
269
RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY ESTABLISHED.
1799.]
successful ; but when he ventured to extend the scale of his specu- lations, by sending vessels laden with sandal-wood to Canton, he was, as he asserted, always cheated by those to whom he committed the management of the business.
In California, the Franciscan missionaries were proceeding steadily in their course, and the number of their converts was daily increasing. The government appears to have been liberal in the appropriation of funds for their use ; but, in Spanish America, a long time always elapsed between the issue of an order for supplies and their delivery, and a large proportion of the amount originally ordered was generally subtracted before it reached those for whose use it was designed. Soldiers, whose terms had expired, were also, in some cases, allowed to remain in the country; and the com- mandants permitted a little contraband trade with the Americans, who introduced manufactured articles in return for hides.
In the mean time, the Russians of Northern Asia, though ex- cluded from the ports of China, continued their commerce with that empire, as also with Europe, as formerly, by means of caravans passing over land ; the communications being conducted principally by a company established at Irkutsk, the great mart of that part of the world. The fur trade of the northernmost coasts of the Pacific was monopolized by the association, formed in 1781, under the direction of Schelikof and Gollikof, which was protected by the empress Catharine, and endowed with many important privileges. After the death of Catharine, in 1794, her son and successor, Paul, at first determined to put an end to the association, on account of the alleged cruelty of its agents towards the natives of the American coasts : he was, however, induced to change his resolution ; and, a union having been effected, in 1798, between the two companies above mentioned, a decree was issued, on the 8th of July of the following year, conceding to them, under the title of the Russian American Company, the entire use and control, for twenty years, of all the coasts of America on the Pacific, from the 55th degree of north latitude to Bering's Strait, together with the adjacent islands, including the Kurile and the Aleutian groups, all of which were claimed as having been discovered by Russians. The company was also authorized to explore, and bring under subjection to the imperial crown, any other territories in America not previously attached to the dominions of some civilized nation; with the express provision that the natives of all these countries should be treated with kindness, and, if possible, be converted to the
270
RUSSIAN ESTABLISHMENTS IN AMERICA.
[1806.
Greek Catholic faith. These privileges were confirmed and in- creased by the emperor Alexander, whose chief minister of state, Count Romanzoff, was a zealous promoter of all that could tend to advance the power and interests of Russia in the Pacific; and the company still enjoys the favor of the government, its charter having been renewed by successive decrees in 1821 and 1839.
Under these advantageous circumstances, combined with great skill and energy in the management of its affairs, and aided by the constant increase of facilities for communication throughout the empire, the Russian American Company prospered; and its estab- lishments soon extended over the whole of the Aleutian Archipelago, and thence eastward along the coast and islands of the American continent, to the distance of more than a thousand miles. In 1803, the most eastern of these establishments was on Norfolk Sound, the Port Guadelupe of the Spaniards, near the 56th degree of latitude, at the southern entrance of the passage which separates Mount San Jacinto or Edgecumb from the largest island of King George III.'s Archipelago. This settlement, founded in 1799, was de- stroyed, in 1803, by the natives of the country, with the assistance, as it is said, of some seamen who had deserted from an American vessel ; but another was formed there in 1805, which received the name of New Archangel of Sitca, and has ever since been the capital of Russian America. The other principal establishments of the company were in Unalashka and Kodiak, and on the shores of Cook's Inlet, Prince William's Sound, and Admiralty or Bering's Bay. In 1806, preparations were made for occupying the mouth of the Columbia River ; but the plan was abandoned, although that spot, and the whole region north of it, was then, and for some time after continued to be, represented, on the maps published by the company, as within the limits of its rightful possessions.
The population of each of these establishments consisted princi- pally of natives of America, brought by the Russians from other and distant parts of the coast; between whom and the people of the surrounding country there were no ties of kindred or language, and there could be little community of feelings or interests. The Aleutian Islands and Kodiak furnished the greater number of these forced emigrants, and also a large proportion of the crews of the vessels employed in the service of the company. The Russians were enlisted in Kamtchatka and Siberia, for a term of years : they entered as Promuschleniks, or adventurers, and were employed, according to the will of their superiors, as soldiers, sailors, hunters,
271
GOVERNMENT OF RUSSIAN AMERICA.
1806.]
fishermen, or mechanics ; in the best of which situations their lot was more wretched than that of any other class of human beings within the pale of civilization, or, indeed, of any other class of per- sons whatsoever, except the natives of the American coasts, whom they assisted in keeping under subjection. Under such circum- stances, it will be easily believed that "none but vagabonds and adventurers ever entered the company's service as Promuschleniks ; " that " it was their invariable destiny to pass a life of wretchedness in America;" that " few had the good fortune ever to touch Rus- sian ground again, and very few to attain the object of their wishes by returning to Europe." *
The government of Russian America was arranged on a plan even more despotic than that of the other parts of the empire. The general superintendence of the affairs of the company was in the hands of a Directory, residing at St. Petersburg, by which all the regulations and appointments were made, and all questions were decided, with the approval, however, of the imperial depart- ment of commerce. All the territories belonging to the company, and all persons and things in them, were placed under the control of a chief agent or governor, residing at Kodiak or Sitca, from whose orders there was no appeal, except to the Directory : in like manner, each district or group of settlements was ruled by an inferior agent, accountable directly to the governor-general ; and each factory or settlement was commanded by an overseer, chosen from among the Promuschleniks, who possessed the right to pun- ish, to a certain extent, those within the circle of his authority.
The regulations for the government of these territories were, like those of the Spanish Council of the Indies, generally just and humane; but the enforcement of them, as in Spanish America, was intrusted, for some time, to men with whom justice and humanity were subordinate to expediency. The first chief agent was Alex- ander Baranof, who had accompanied Schelikof in his expedition in 1783, and was the superintendent of the settlements at Kodiak and Cook's Inlet when Vancouver visited those places in 1794. He was a shrewd, bold, enterprising, and unfeeling man, of iron frame and nerves, and the coarsest habits and manners. By his inflexible severity and energy, he seems to have maintained absolute and in- dependent sway over all the Russian American coasts for more than twenty years ; showing little respect to the orders of the Directory,
* Krusenstern's Account of his Voyage to the North Pacific.
272
GOVERNMENT OF RUSSIAN AMERICA.
[1806.
and even to those of the emperor, when they were at variance with his own views. He was, however, devoted to the interests of the company, and, its affairs being most profitably managed under his direction, he was allowed to follow his own course, and the com- plaints against him which reached the Directory were unheeded. These complaints were, it is true, not frequent; for the Directory and the imperial throne at St. Petersburg were almost as completely inaccessible to the subjects and servants of the company residing in America, as they would have been in another planet. Among the in- ferior agents were men of higher and better character than their chief ; but they were forced to bend under his authority, and their efforts to introduce improvements were vain, if they in any degree conflicted with his views as to the immediate interests of the company.
Of the furs which formed the whole returns from these territories, some were transported in the company's vessels to Petropawlowsk and Ochotsk, whence were brought back the greater part of the supplies of provisions for the use of the establishments ; the re- mainder of the furs being exchanged for arms, ammunition, spirits, wine, tobacco, sugar, and European manufactures, furnished by the trading ships of the United States, of which a large number were then constantly employed in the North Pacific. The presence of these American vessels was by no means agreeable to the Russians, who would willingly have excluded them from that part of the ocean, not only for the purpose of monopolizing the fur trade, but also in order to prevent the natives of the coasts from obtaining arms and ammunition. from the Americans, as they frequently did, to the detriment of the authority and interests of the company. This, however, could not have been effected without maintaining a large naval force in the North Pacific; nor could the settlements have been extended or supported without the supplies furnished by the Americans, unless a direct intercourse were established by sea with Europe, China, or Japan.
With the view of inquiring what measures would be most effect- ual for the advancement of the interests of the Russian American Company in these and other respects, it was determined at St. Petersburg, in 1803, that an expedition, scientific and political, should be made through the North Pacific. Two ships, the Na- deshda, commanded by Captain Krusenstern, and the Neva, by Captain Lisiansky, were accordingly despatched from Cronstadt, in August of that year, under the direction of Krusenstern, carry- ing out a large body of officers and men, distinguished in various
273
VOYAGE OF KRUSENSTERN.
1806.]
branches of science, together with the chamberlain, Von Resanoff, who was commissioned as ambassador to Japan, and as plenipoten- tiary of the Russian American Directory.
The two ships passed together around Cape Horn, touched at the Washington and the Sandwich Islands, and then separated ; the Neva going to the north-west coasts of America, and the Nadeshda to Petropawlowsk, where she arrived in the middle of July, 1804. From Kamtchatka, Krusenstern proceeded, with the ambassador, to Nangasaki, the capital of Japan, at which place their arrival only served to excite suspicions : they were not allowed to land, except for the purpose of taking exercise in a confined space; the letter and presents of the Russian emperor were rejected ; and the am- bassador was distinctly informed that no vessels belonging to his nation would, in future, be permitted to enter a Japanese port. After this rebuff, the Nadeshda returned to Kamtchatka, and Kru- senstern passed several months in examining the coasts of Tartary and the adjacent islands between that peninsula and Japan ; these labors being completed, he went to Canton, where she arrived in the end of November, 1805.
Lisiansky, in the Neva, had, in the mean time, visited Sitca, Kodiak, and other Russian establishments, on the north-west coasts of America, at which his presence was advantageous to the interests of the company, by controlling the hostile dispositions of the natives ; and having performed all that could be done by him in that quar- ter, he proceeded to Canton, with a cargo of furs, and there rejoined Krusenstern, in December, 1805. The Chinese were found equally as determined as the Japanese to allow no commerce by sea with the Russians ; and many difficulties were experienced before the furs brought by the Neva could be landed for sale. This business being at length despatched, the two vessels took their departure, and, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, reached Cronstadt in August, 1806, having carried the Russian flag for the first time across the equator and around the world.
In the mean time, also, Von Resanoff, -a singularly ridiculous and incompetent person, -after the failure of his embassy to Japan, had gone, as plenipotentiary of the Russian American Company, to Sitca, where he passed the winter of 1805-1806, engaged in devis- ing plans for the conduct of the company's affairs, all of which were quietly set aside by the chief agent, Baranof. The propriety of expelling the Americans from the North Pacific was at the same time rendered questionable, by the fact that the garrison and set-
35
274
VOYAGE OF KRUSENSTERN.
[1808.
tlers at this place would have all perished from famine, had they not fortunately been supplied with provisions by the ship Juno, from Rhode Island. This ship was purchased for the use of the company, and Von Resanoff, embarking in her, sailed along the coast to Cal- ifornia, endeavoring, in his way, but without success, to enter the mouth of the Columbia, where he proposed to form a settlement ; and having spent some time in trifling at San Francisco, he returned to Kamtchatka, on his way from which to Europe he died.
Though not one of the commercial or political objects proposed by this expedition was attained, it was, nevertheless, productive of great advantages, not only to the Russians, but to the cause of hu- manity and of science in general ; particularly by the rectification of numerous errors in the charts of the Pacific Ocean, and by the exposure of the abuses in the administration of the Russian Amer- ican Company's dominions, which led to the immediate removal of many of them. No one could have been better qualified for the direction of such an expedition than Krusenstern, whose narrative is equally honorable to him as a commander, as a man of science, and as a philanthropist. Those who wish to learn at what cost of human life and suffering the furs of the North Pacific coasts are pro- cured, will find ample information on the subject in his pages ; while, at the same time, he presents instances of fortitude, perseverance, and good feeling, on the part of his countrymen, calculated to coun- teract, in a great measure, the unfavorable impressions, with regard to them, which his other details might have produced .*
In 1808, soon after the return of Krusenstern's ships to Europe, diplomatic relations were established between Russia and the United States ; and in the following year, a representation was addressed by the court of St. Petersburg to the government of the Union, on the subject of the illicit trade of American citizens with the natives of the North Pacific coasts, by means of which those savages were supplied with arms and ammunition, to the prejudice of the authority and interests of the emperor and his people in that portion
* Accounts of this expedition have been published by Krusenstern, by Lisiansky, and by Langsdorf, the surgeon of the Nadeshda, all of which have been translated into English and other European langnages.
Krusenstern was, soon after his return to Russia, raised to the rank of admiral. He still lives at St. Petersburg, honored by his government, and esteemed by all who know him. His communications frequently appear in the reports of the proceedings of various scientifie societies in Europe ; they are chiefly respecting the hydrography of the Pacific Ocean, to which subject his labors have been long and assiduously devoted, with results important and beneficial to the whole world.
275
PROPOSITIONS OF RUSSIA TO THE UNITED STATES.
1810.]
of his dominions. A desire was at the same time expressed, that some act should be passed by Congress, or some convention be concluded between the two nations, which might have the effect of preventing the continuance of such irregularities. No disposition being shown by the American government to adopt any of those measures, Count Romanzoff, the minister of foreign affairs at St. Petersburg, proposed to Mr. John Quincy Adams, the plenipoten- tiary of the United States at that court, an arrangement, by which the vessels of the Union should supply the Russian settlements on the Pacific with provisions and manufactures, and should transport the furs of the company to Canton, under the restriction of their abstaining from all intercourse with the natives of the north-west coasts of America. Mr. Adams, in his answer, showed several reasons for which his government could not, with propriety, accede to this proposition ; and he moreover desired to know within what limits it was expected that the restriction should be observed. This question was, doubtless, embarrassing to the Russian minister, who, however, after some time, replied, that the Russian American Com- pany claimed the whole coast of America on the Pacific and the adjacent islands, from Bering's Strait, southward to and beyond the mouth of the Columbia River ; whereupon the correspondence was immediately terminated.
There was, certainly, no disposition, on the part of the United States, to encourage their citizens in the trade which formed the subject of the complaints of the Russians, or to offend that power by refusing to cooperate in suppressing such a trade. But the American government properly considered that no means existed for enforcing the restrictions, with justice and regularity, even on the coasts which might be admitted to belong to Russia ; while, at the same time, the right of that nation to the possession of the coasts so far south as the Columbia, could not be recognized, for reasons which will be made apparent in the ensuing chapter.
276
CHAPTER XIII.
1803 TO 1806.
Cession of Louisiana by France to the United States - Inquiries as to the true Extent of Louisiana - Erroneous Supposition that its Limits towards the North had been fixed by Commissaries agreeably to the Treaty of Utrecht - President Jefferson sends Lewis and Clarke to examine the Missouri and Columbia - Account of their Expedition from the Mississippi to the Pacific.
THE discovery, or rediscovery, of the Columbia River, by Gray, remained almost entirely unknown, until it was communicated to the world by the publication of the narrative of Vancouver's expedition, in 1798 ; at which time, and for several years afterwards, no one imagined that any thing connected with that river would ever be- come particularly interesting to the people or government of the United States of America.
The territories of the United States were, at that time, all in- cluded between the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Mississippi River on the west. In the north were the British provinces ; in the south lay Florida, belonging to Spain ; and beyond the Mississippi, the Spaniards also claimed the vast region called Louisiana, stretch- ing from the Gulf of Mexico northward and north-westward to an undefined extent. Thus all communication between the States of the Federal Union and the Pacific was completely cut off, by the in- terposition of countries possessed by foreign and unfriendly nations.
The position of the United States, and of their government and people, with regard to the north-western portion of the continent, was, however, entirely changed after the 30th of April, 1803, when Louisiana, which had been ceded by Spain to France in 1800, came into their possession, by purchase from the latter power. From that moment, the route across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pa- cific lay open to the Americans ; and nothing could be anticipated capable of arresting their progress in the occupation of the whole territory included between those scas.
Before relating the measures taken by the government of the United States in consequence of the acquisition of Louisiana, it will
277
GRANT OF LOUISIANA TO CROZAT.
1712.]
be convenient to present some observations respecting the northern and western limits of that portion of America.
The first discovery of the southern part of the Mississippi and the adjacent countries, by the Spaniards, in the sixteenth century, has been already mentioned. The northern branches of that river were explored in the latter years of the seventeenth century, by the French, from Canada ; * and before 1710, many French colonies and posts had been established on its banks, in virtue of which, King Louis XIV. claimed possession of all the territories to a great distance on either side of the stream. In 1712, the exclusive trade of the southern division of these territories, then called Louisiana, was granted by King Louis to Antoine Crozat, in a royal decree or charter, bearing date the 17th of September, which contains the earliest exposition of the limits of that region. The words of the decree are as follows : + " Nous avons par ces présentes, signées de notre main, établi et établissons ledit Sieur Crozat, pour faire seul, le commerce dans toutes les terres par Nous possédées, et bornées par le Nouveau Mex- ique, et par celles des Anglais de la Caroline, tous les établissements, ports, havres, rivières, et principalement le port et havre de l'isle Dauphine, appellée autrefois de Massacre, le fleuve St. Louis, au- trefois appellée Mississippy, depuis le bord de la mer jusqu'aux Illinois, ensemble les rivières St. Philippe, autrefois appellée des Missourys, et St. Hierosme, autrefois appellée Ouabache, avec tous les pays, contrées, lacs dans les terres, et les rivières qui tombent directement ou indirectement dans cette partie du fleuve St. Louis. Voulons
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