CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE ACCORDING GENESIS |
HISTORY OF ALASKA.1730-1885.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.CHAPTER II. THE CENTURY-MARCH OF THE COSSACKS. 1578-1724.CHAPTER III. THE KAMCHATKA EXPEDITIONS. 1725-1740.CHAPTER IV. DISCOVERY OF ALASKA. 1740-1741.CHAPTER V. DEATH OF BERING. 1741-1742.CHAPTER VI. THE SWARMING OF THE PROMYSHLENIKI. 1743-1762.CHAPTER VII.FURTHER ADVENTURES Of THE PROMYSHLENIKI. 1760-1767.CHAPTER VIII. IMPERIAL EFFORTS AND FAILURES. 1764-1779.CHAPTER IX. EXPLORATION AND TRADE. 1770-1787.CHAPTER X. OFFICIAL EXPLORATIONS. 1773-1779.CHAPTER XI. COLONIZATION AND THE FUR-TRADE. 1783-1787.CHAPTER XII.FOREIGN VISITORS. 1786-1794.CHAPTER XIII. THE BILLINGS SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION. 1785-1793.CHAPTER XIV.ORGANIZATION OF MONOPOLY. 1787-1795.CHAPTER XV. STRIFE BETWEEN RIVAL COMPANIES. 1791-1794.CHAPTER XVI.COLONIZATION AND MISSIONS. 1794-1796.CHAPTER XVII.THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY.1796-1799.CHAPTER XVIII.THE FOUNDING OF SITKA. 1798-1801.CHAPTER XIX. THE SITKA MASSACRE. 1802.CHAPTER XX.SITKA RECAPTURED. 1803-1805.CHAPTER XXI. REZANOFS' VISIT. 1804-1806.CHAPTER XXII. SEVEN MORE YEARS OF ALASKAN ANNALS. 1806-1812.CHAPTER XXIII. FOREIGN VENTURES AND THE ROSS COLONY. 1803-1841.CHAPTER XXIV. FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION. 1808-1818.CHAPTER XXV. CLOSE OF BARANOF’S ADMINISTRATION. 1819-1821.CHAPTER XXVI. SECOND PERIOD OF THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY’S OPERATIONS. 1821-1842.CHAPTER XXVII. THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY’S LAST TERM. 1842-1866.CHAPTER XXVIII.ALASKA AS A UNITED STATES COLONY. 1867-1883.CHAPTER XXIX. COMMERCE, REVENUE, AND FURS. 1868-1884.CHAPTER XXX.FISHERIES.1867-1884.CHAPTER XXXI. SETTLEMENTS, AGRICULTURE, SHIP-BUILDING, AND MINING. 1794-1884.CHAPTER XXXII. CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AND HOSPITALS. 1795-1884.CHAPTER XXXIII. ALASKA AS A CIVIL AND JUDICIAL DISTRICT.1883-1885
PREFACE.
On the whole, the people of the
United States have not paid an exorbitant price for the ground upon which to
build a nation. Trinkets and trickery in the first instance, followed by some
bluster, a little fighting, and a little money, and we have a very fair patch
of earth, with a good title, in which there is plenty of equity, humanity,
sacred rights, and star-spangled banner. What we did not steal ourselves we
bought from those who did, and bought it cheap.
Therein
we did well, have that much more to be proud of, and to confirm us in our own
esteem as a great and good nation; therein lies the great merit— the price we
paid. Had it been dear, as have been some meagre strips of European soil, over
which France, Germany, and the rest have fought for centuries, spending
millions upon millions of lives and money, all in the line of insensate folly,
and for that which they could not keep and were better off without—then we
would cease boasting and hold our peace. But our neighbors have been weak while
we are strong; therefore it is not right for us to pay them much for their
lands.
Ignoring,
as we do, the birthright of aboriginal races, that have no Christianity, steel,
or gunpowder, we may say that the title to the Mississippi Valley was settled,
and the Oregon Territory adjudged to be ours by divine right. Texas came
easily; while one month’s interest, at the then current rates, on the gold
picked up in the Sierra Foothills during the first five years of American
occupation would repay the cost of the Mexican war, and all that was given for
California and the adjoining territory.
In
the case of Alaska we have one instance where bluster would not win; fighting
was not to be thought of; and so we could pay for the stationary icebergs or
let them alone. Nor with money easy, was Alaska a bad bargain at two cents an
acre. It was indeed cheaper than stealig, now that the savages receive the
teachings and diseases of civilization in reservations.
In
1867 there were few who held this opinion, and not one in a hundred, even of
those who were best informed, believed the territory to be worth the purchase
money. If better known today, its resources are no better appreciated; and
there are many who still deny that, apart from fish and fur-bearing animals,
the country has any resources.
The
area of Alaska is greater than that of the thirteen original states of the
Union, its extreme length being more than two thousand miles, and its extreme
breadth about fourteen hundred; while its coast-line, including bays and
islands, is greater than the circumference of the earth. The island of Unalaska
is almost as far west of San Francisco as San Francisco is west of the capital
of the United States; while the distance from the former city to Fort St
Michael, the most northerly point in America inhabited by the white man, is
greater than to the city of Panama.
With
the limits of the continent at its extreme north-west, the limit of the history
of western North America is reached. But it may be asked, what a land is this
of which to write a history? Bleak, swampy, fog-begirt, and almost untenanted
except by savages—can a country without a people furnish material for a
history? Intercourse with the aborigines does not constitute all of history,
and few except savages have ever made their abiding-place in the wintry
solitudes of Alaska; few vessels save bidarkas have ever threaded her myriad
isles; few scientists have studied her geology, or catalogued her fauna and
flora; few surveyors have measured her snow-turbaned hills; few miners have dug
for coal and iron, or prospected her mountains and streams for precious metals.
Except on the islands, and at some of the more accessible points on the
mainland, the natives are still unsubdued. Of settlements, there are scarce a
dozen worthy the name; of the interior, little is known; and of any correct
map, at least four fifths must remain, today, absolutely blank, without names
or lines except those of latitude and longitude. We may sail along the border,
or be drawn by sledge-dogs over the frozen streams, until we arrive at the
coldest, farthest west, separated from the rudest, farthest east by a narrow
span of ocean, bridged in winter by thick-ribbed ice. What then can be said of
this region—this Ultima Thule of the known world, whose northern point is but
three or four degrees south of the highest latitude yet reached by man?
Such
is the general sentiment of Americans concerning a territory which not many
years ago was purchased from Russia, as before mentioned, at the rate of about
two cents an acre, and was considered dear at the price.
To
answer these questions is the purpose of the present volume. This America of
the Russians has its little century or two of history, as herein we see, and
which will ever remain its only possible inchoation, interesting to the story
of future life and progress on its borders, as to every nation its infancy
should be.
Though
it must be admitted that the greater portion of Alaska is practically
worthless and uninhabitable, yet my labor has been in vain if I have not made
it appear that Alaska lacks not resources but development. Scandinavia, her
old-world counterpart, is possessed of far less natural wealth, and is far
less grand in natural configuration. In Alaska we can count more than eleven
hundred islands in a single group. We can trace the second longest watercourse
in the world. We have large sections of territory where the average yearly
temperature is higher than that of Stockholm or Christiania, where it is milder
in winter, and where the fall of rain and snow is less than in the southern
portion of Scandinavia.
It
has often been stated that Alaska is incapable of supporting a white
population. The truth is, that her resources, though some of them are not yet
available, are abundant, and of such a nature that, if properly economized,
they will never be seriously impaired. The most habitable portions of Alaska,
lying as they do mainly between 55° and 60° n., are in about the same latitude as Scotland and southern Scandinavia. The area
of this portion of the territory is greater than that of Scotland and southern
Scandinavia combined; and yet it contains today but a few hundred, and has
never contained more than a thousand white inhabitants; while the population of
Scotland is about three millions and a half, and that of Norway and Sweden
exceeds six millions.
The
day is not very far distant when the coal measures and iron deposits of
Scotland, and the mines and timber of Scandinavia, will be exhausted; and it is
not improbable that even when that day comes the resources of Alaska will be
but partially opened. The little development that has been made of late years
has been accomplished entirely by the enterprise and capital of Americans,
aided by a few hundred hired natives. Already with a white population of five
hundred, of whom more than four fifths are non-producers, the exports of the
territory exceed $3,000,000 a year, or an average of $6,000 per capita. Where
else in the world do we find such results?
It
may be stated in answer that the bulk of these exports comes from the fur-seal
grounds of the Prybilof Islands, which are virtually a stock-farm leased by the
government to a commercial company; but the present value of this industry is
due mainly to the careful fostering and judicious management of that company;
and there are other industries which, if properly directed, promise in time to
prove equally profitable. Apart from the seal-islands, and apart from the trade
in land-furs that is diverted by the Hudson’s Bay Company, the production of
wealth for each white person in the territory is greater than in any portion of
the United States or of the world. This wealth is derived almost entirely from
the land and pelagic peltry, and from the fisheries of Alaska; for at present
her mines are little developed, and her forests almost intact. And yet we are
told that the country is without resources!
It
may be supposed that for the history of such a country as Alaska, whatever
existing information there might be would be quite accessible and easily
obtained.
I
have not found it specially so. Here, as elsewhere in my historic fields, there
were three classes of material which might be obtained: first, public and
private archives; second, printed books and documents; and third, personal
experiences and knowledge taken from the mouths of living witnesses.
Of
the class last named there are fewer authorities here than in any other part of
my territory north of latitude 32°, though proportionately more than south of
that line; and this notwithstanding three distinct journeys to that region by
my agent—a man thoroughly conversant with Alaskan affairs, and a Russian by
birth—for the purpose of gathering original and verbal information. All places
of historical importance were visited by him, and all persons of historical
note still living there were seen and questioned. Much fresh information was
thus obtained; but the result was not as satisfactory as has been the case in
some other quarters.
The chief authorities in print for the earlier epochs are in the
Russian language, and published for the most part in Russia; covering the later
periods, books have been published—at various times in Europe and America, as
will be seen by my list of authorities and have been gathered in the usual way.
The
national archives, the most important of all sources, are divided, part being
in Russia and part in America, though mostly in the Russian language. Some four
or five years were occupied by my assistants and stenographers in making
abstracts of material in Sitka, San Francisco, and Washington. For valuable
cooperation in gaining from the archives of St Petersburg such material as I
required, I am specially indebted to my esteemed friend M. Pinart, and to the
leading men of letters and certain officials in the Russian capital, from whom
I have received every courtesy.
|
