CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE ACCORDING GENESIS

HISTORY OF ALASKA.

CHAPTER XI.

COLONIZATION AND THE FUR-TRADE.

1783-1787.

We enter here a new epoch of Alaska history. Hitherto all has been discovery, exploration, and the hunting of fur-bearing animals, with little thought of permanent settlement. Hut now Grigor Ivanovich Shelikof comes to the front as the father and founder of Russian colonies in America.

In 1783 the company of Siberian merchants of which Shelikof and Ivan Golikof were the principal shareholders, finished three ships at Okhotsk for operating on a larger scale in the region then designated as the ostrova, or the islands. The ships were the Trekh Sviatiteli, Three Saints, the Sv Simeon, and the Sv Mikhail. On the 16th of August they sailed with one hundred and ninety-two men in all, the largest force which had hitherto left the Siberian coast at one time. Shelikof and his wife, who accompanied her husband in all his travels, were on the Trekh Sviatiteli, commanded by Ismailof. The first part of the voyage was stormy, the wind contrary, and the ships were unable to leave the sea of Okhotsk, but on the 2d of September the squadron anchored near the second Kurile island, for the purpose of watering, and then passed safely into the Pacific. On the 12th a gale separated the vessels, and after prolonged and futile efforts to find the Sv Mikhail, Shelikof concluded to pass the winter on Bering Island with the two other vessels. Thanks to the enforcement of wise regulations framed by Shelikof, the crews suffered but little from scurvy, and in June of the following year the expedition steered once more to the eastward. A few stoppages were made on Copper, Atkha, and other islands, with a longer stay at Unalaska, where the two ships were repaired, and refitted with water and provisions. The Simeon had been separated from her consort during the voyage along the Aleutian chain, but she made her appearance in the harbor a few days after the arrival of the Sviatiteli. Shelikof obtained two interpreters and ten Aleutian hunters, and leaving instructions for the guidance of the Sv Mikhail he shaped his course. for the island of Kikhtak, subsequently named Kadiak. The voyage was devoid of incident, and on the 3d of August 1784 the two ships entered a capacious bay on the south-east coast of the island, between cape Barnabas and the two-headed cape of Cook, and anchored in its westernmost branch, naming it after the ship Trekh Sviatiteli, Three Saints. Armed parties of promyshleniki were sent out in boats and bidars to search for natives, but only one succeeded, and brought news that a large body of aboriginals had been found. They had avoided a meeting, however, and it was not until the following day that another exploring party returned with one of the natives. Shelikof treated the captive kindly, loaded him with presents, and allowed him to return to his people. On the 5th there was an eclipse of the sun which lasted an hour and a half, and caused much uneasiness among the natives, who naturally con­nected the phenomenon with the appearance of the Russians.

Another exploring party was sent out on the 7th with instructions to select hunting-grounds, and if possible to circumnavigate the island and observe its coasts. After two days, when about ten leagues from the anchorage, this expedition fell in with a large party of savages who had taken up a position on a kekour, or detached cliff, near the shore, surrounded by water. An interpreter was at once sent forward to open friendly intercourse, but the islanders told the messenger to inform the Russians that if they wished to escape with their lives they should leave the island at once. The natives could not be persuaded to abandon this hostile attitude, and the exploring party returned to the harbor to report.

Shelikof at once proceeded to the spot with all the men that could be spared from the encampment, but when he reached the scene he found the savages in formidable numbers and full of courage. Peaceful overtures were still continued, but were wholly lost on the savages. Arrows began to fly, and the Russians retired to the ships to prepare for defence. Not long afterward the Koniagas stole upon the Russian camp one dark night, and began a desperate fight which lasted till daylight, when the savages took to flight. But this was by no means the end of it.. From his Koniaga friend Shelikof learned that his people were only awaiting reenforcements to renew the attack. He accordingly determined to anticipate them by possessing himself at once of their stronghold on the rocky islet. A small force of picked promyshleniki approached the enemy in boats. A heavy shower of spears fell on them; but the havoc made by a few discharges of grape from the falconet aimed at the huts caused great consternation, and a general stampede followed, during which many were killed, while a large number lost their lives by jumping over the precipice, and as Shelikof claims, over one thousand were taken prisoners. The casualties on the side of the Russians were confined to a few severe and many trifling wounds. Shelikof claims that he retained four hundred of the prisoners, allowing the remainder to go to their homes, and they were held not as regular captives, but in a kind of temporary subjection. “At their own desire,” as Shelikof puts it, “they were located fifty versts away from the harbor without any Russian guards, simply furnishing hostages as a guarantee of good faith and good behavior.” The hostages consisted of children who were to be educated by the Russians.

Nor was this second battle the end of native efforts for life and liberty. Attacks still occurred from time to time, generally upon detached hunting or explora­tion parties, but in each case the savages were repulsed with loss. The promptness with which they were met evidently destroyed their confidence in themselves, arising from their easy victory over the first Russian visitors.

Meanwhile no time was lost in pushing preparations for permanent occupancy of the island. In a few weeks dwelling-houses and fortifications were erected by the expert Russian axemen, and Shelikof took care to furnish his own residence with all the comforts and a few of the luxuries of civilization, such as he could collect from the two vessels, in order to inspire the savage breast with respect for superior culture. And, indeed, as time passed by, the chasm dividing savage and civilized was filled, the Koniagas ascending in some respects and the Russians descending. The natives watched with the greatest curiosity the construction of houses and fortifications after the Russian fashion, until they voluntarily offered to assist. A school was conducted by Shelikof in person; he endeavored to teach both children and adults the Russian language and arithmetic, and to sow the seeds of Christianity. According to his account he turned forty heathens into Christians during his sojourn on Kadiak; but we may presume that their knowledge of the faith did not extend beyond the sign of the cross, and perhaps repeating a few words of the creed without the slightest understanding of its meaning. So that when the pious colonist asserts that the converts began at once to spread the new religion among their countrymen we may conclude that he is exaggerating.

As soon as possible Shelikof turned his attention once more to the exploration of the island. A party of fifty-two promyshleniki and eleven Aleuts from the Fox Islands went to the north and north-east in four large bidars, accompanied by one hundred and ten Koniagas in their own bidarkas. This was in May 1785. The object of the expedition was to make the acquaintance of the inhabitants of the adjoining islands and the mainland. After a cruise in Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet, the party returned in August with a small quantity of furs, yet reporting a not unfriendly reception, and bringing twenty hostages from the latter place. If we consider the hostile attitude assumed by the same people two years before toward Zaikof, we must credit Shelikof with good management. On their return all proceeded for the winter to Karluk, where salmon abounded. From this point and from the original encampment on Three Saints Bay, detachments of promyshleniki explored the coast in all directions during the winter, notably along the Alaska peninsula, learning of Ili­amna Lake and of the different portage routes to the west side.

Despite all precautions the scurvy broke out in the Russian camps and carried off numbers, but instead of taking advantage of the weakened condition of the Russians, the natives willingly assisted in obtaining fresh provisions. One exception to this good understanding occurred on the island of Shuiak, situated north of Afognak. A quantity of goods had been intrusted by one of Shelikof’s agents to the chief of Shuiak, to purchase furs during the winter. When asked for a settlement he not only refused but killed the messengers. An expedition was sent in the spring which succeeded in bringing the recreant chief to terms, and in establishing fortified stations on Cook Inlet and Afognak.

On the 25th of February 1786 Shelikof received a letter from Eustrate Delarof, who was then at Unalaska, stating that the ship Sr Mikhail, which had been separated from Shelikof’s squadron in a gale, had arrived at that place the previous May. She reached the port minus one mast and otherwise damaged, and repairs to the vessel occupied nearly the whole summer. When at last ready for sea she was cast upon the rocks and injured to such an extent as to require additional repairs. Despairing of getting off the Sv Mikhail that season, Delarof despatched thirteen men divided into several detachments as messengers to Kadiak in search of assistance. Six of them succumbed to cold and hunger during a detention of many weeks on the Alaska peninsula, and five more died after reaching Kadiak. Soon after this the craft arrived at Three Saints, and the commander, Assistant Master Olessof, who had been three years making the voyage from Okhotsk to Kadiak, was deposed and the peredovchik Samoilof invested with the control of both vessels, one of which was to cruise northward and eastward from Kadiak and the other westward and northward, if possible as far as Bering Strait.

Early in March Shelikof despatched an exploring party eastward with orders to proceed to Bering’s Cape St Elias, and to erect a fort as the beginning of a settlement. He resolved to abandon the fort on Cook Inlet as too far removed from his base of operation, and to enlarge the fortified station on Afognak Island, besides establishing several others. These and other arrangements made, Shelikof prepared to return to Okhotsk, and the peredovchik, Samoilof, formerly a merchant in Siberia, was appointed to the command of the infant colony. His instructions de­manded above all the extension of Russian control and establishments eastward and south, and the ex­clusion of rival traders.

Shelikof took his departure in May, accompanied by a number of native adults and children, some to be retained and educated, others to be merely impressed with a view of Russian life and power. He landed at Bolsheretsk on the 8th of August, and thence proceeded to Petropavlovsk, and overland to Okhotsk and Irkutsk, where he arrived in April 1787, after suffering great hardships on his journey. There he lost no time in taking initiatory steps with the view of obtaining for his company the exclusive right to trade in the new colony and other privileges, the results of which belong to another chapter.

We have seen how the Cossacks were enticed from the Caspian and Black seas, drawn over the Ural Mountains, and lured onward in their century-march through Siberia to Kamchatka, and all for the skin of the little sable. And when they had reached the Pacific they were ready as ever to brave new dangers on the treacherous northern waters, for the coveted Siberian quadruped was here supplanted by the still more valuable amphibious otter. As furs were the currency of the empire, the occupation of the trapper, in the national economy, was equivalent to that in other quarters of the gold-miner, assayer, and coiner combined. In those times all the valuable skins obtained by the advancing Cossacks were immediately transported to Russia over the routes just opened.

The custom was to exact tribute from all natives who were conquered en passant by the Cossacks, as a diversion from the tamer pursuit of sable-hunting. As early as 1598 the tribute collected in the district of Pelymsk, just east of the Ural Mountains, amounted to sixty-eight bundles of sables of forty skins each. In 1609 this tribute was reduced from ten to seven sables per adult male, but there seemed to be no decrease in the number collected. Nine years later, however, the animal seems to have been nearly exterminated, as the boyar Ivan Semenovich Kurakin was instructed to settle free peasant families in the district. After this the principal Cossack advance was into the Tunguse country. In the tribute-books of 1620-1 the latter tribe is entered as tributary at the rate of forty-five sables for every six adult males. In 1622 nine Tunguse paid as high as ninety-four sables. Whenever a breach occurred in the flow of sable-skins into Moscow the Cossacks were instructed to move on, though the deficiency was not always owing to exhaustion of the supply.

Thus the authorized fur-gatherers advanced from one region to another across the whole north of Asia, followed, and in some instances even preceded, by the promyshleniki or professional hunters. The latter formed themselves into organized companies, hunting on shares, like the sea-faring promyshleniki of later times, and like them they allowed the business to fall gradually into the hands of a few wealthy merchants. The customs adopted by these hunters go far toward elucidating much that seems strange in the proceedings of the promyshleniki on gaining a foot­hold upon the islands of the Pacific. A brief description will therefore not be amiss.

The hunting-grounds were generally about the head­waters and tributaries of the large rivers, and the journey thence was made in boats. Three or four hunters combined in building the boat, which was covered, and so served as shelter. Provisions, arms, bedding, and a few articles of winter clothing made up the cargo. A jar of yeast or sour dough for the manufacture of kvass, to keep down the scurvy, was considered of the highest importance. Material for the construction of sleds and a few dogs were also essential, and when all these had been collected and duly stowed, each party of three or four set out upon their journey to a place previously appointed. As soon as the whole force had assembled at the rendez­vous election was made of a peredovchik, or foreman, a man of experience, and commanding respect, to whom all promised implicit obedience. The peredovchik then divided his men into chunitzi, or parties, appointing a leader for each, and assigning them their respective hunting-grounds. This division was always made; even if the artel, or station, consisted of only six men they must not all hunt together on the same ground. Until settled in winter-quarters all their belongings were carried in leather bags. Before the first snow fell a general hunt was ordered by the peredovchik to kill deer, elks, and bears for a winter’s supply of meat, after which the first traps were set for foxes, wolves, and lynx. With the first snow fall, before the rivers were frozen, the whole party hunted sables in the immediate vicinity of the general winter­quarters, with dogs and nets. The peredovchik and the leaders were in the mean time engaged in making sleds and snow-shoes for their respective chunitzis. When the snow was on the ground the whole artel was assembled at the winter-quarters and prayers were held, after which the peredovchik despatched the small parties to the sable grounds with final instructions to the leaders. The latter preceded their men by a day in order to prepare the station selected; the same practice prevailed in moving stations during the winter. The first station was named after some church in Russia, and subsequent stations after patron saints of individual hunters. The first sables caught were always donated to some church or saint, and were called God’s sables. The instructions of leaders were mainly to the effect that they should look well after their men, watch carefully their method of setting traps, and see that they did not gorge themselves in secret from the common store of provisions.

During the height of the season stations were frequently changed every day, for it was thought that prolonged camping at any one place would drive away the sables. When the season closed the small parties returned to headquarters, where the leaders rendered their accounts to the peredovchik, and at the same time reported all infractions of rules by the men. The accused were then heard, and punished by the peredovchik if found guilty. When all arrangements for returning to the settlement were completed the peredovchik would make the rounds of all the stations to see that every trap was closed or removed, so that no sable could get into them during the summer.

In Alaska the methods of the hunters underwent many changes, owing to the different physical features of the field and the peculiarities of the natives. The men engaged for these expeditions were of a very mixed class; few had ever seen the ocean, and many were wholly untrained for their vocation. They were engaged for a certain time and paid in shares taken from one half of the proceeds of the hunt, the other half of the cargo going to the outfitter or owner. If the crew consisted of forty men, including navigator and peredovchik, their share of the cargo was usually divided into about forty-six shares, of which each member received one, the navigator three, the foreman two, and the church one or two. In case of success the hunters realized quite a small fortune, as we have seen, but often the yield was so small as to keep the men in servitude from indebtedness to their employer. The vessel²⁴ was provided with but a small stock of provisions, consisting of a few hams, a little rancid butter, a few bags of rye and wheat flour for holidays, and a quantity of dried and salted salmon. The main stock had to be obtained by fishing and hunting, and to this end were provided fire-arms and other implements serving also for defence. Since furs in this new region were obtained chiefly through the natives, articles of trade formed the important part of the cargo, such as tobacco, glass beads, hatchets and knives of very bad quality, tin and copper vessels, and cloth. A large number of kleptsi, or traps, were also carried. Thus provided the vessel sets sail with bozhe pomoshtch—God’s help.

Mere trade soon gave way to a more effective method of obtaining furs. Natives were impressed to hunt for the Russians, who, as a rule, found it both needless and dangerous for themselves to disperse in small parties to catch furs. Either by force or by agreement with chiefs the Aleuts and others were obliged to give hostages, generally women and children, to ensure the safety of their visitors, or performance of contract. They were thereupon given traps and sent forth to hunt for the season, while the Russians lived in indolent repose at the village, basking in the smiles of the wives and daughters, and using them also as purveyors and servants. When the hunters returned they surrendered traps and furs in exchange for goods, and the task-masters departed for another island to repeat their operation.

The custom of interchanging hostages while engaged in traffic was carried eastward by the Russians and forced upon the English, Americans, and Spaniards long after the entire submission of Aleuts, Kenaï, and Chugatsches had obviated the necessity of such a course in the west. Portlock was compelled to conform to the custom at various places before he could obtain any trade, but as a rule four or five natives were demanded for one or two sailors from the ship. On Cross Sound, Sitka Bay, and Prince of Wales Island the hostages were not always given in good faith; they would suddenly disappear and hostilities begin. As soon as they ascertained, however, that their visitors were watchful and strong enough to resist, they would resume business.

Meares observes, among other things relating to Russian management, that wherever the latter settled the natives were forbidden to keep canoes of a larger size than would carry two persons. This applied, of course, only to the bidarka region, Kadiak, Cook Inlet, and portions of Prince William Sound. The bidars, or large canoes, were then as now very scarce, being made of the largest sea-lion skins, and used only for war or the removal of whole families or villages. The Russians found them superior to their own clumsy boats for trading purposes, and acquired them, by purchase and probably often by seizure under some pretext, as fast as the natives could build them. In their opinion the savages had no business to devote themselves to anything but hunting.

A portion of the catch was claimed as tribute, although the crown received a very small share, often none. Tribute-gathering was a convenient mantle to cover all kinds of demands on the natives, and there can be no doubt that in early times at least half the trade was collected in the form of tribute, by means of force or threats, while at the same time the authorities at home were being petitioned to relinquish its collection, “because it created discontent” among the natives.

The tribute collected by the earlier traders was never correctly recorded. The merchants frequently obtained permission from the Kamchatka authorities to dispense with the services of Cossack tribute­gatherers, and gradually, as the abuses perpetrated under pretext of its collection came to the ears of the home government, the custom was abandoned altogether. Subsequently the Russian American Company obtained a right to the services of the Aleuts on the plea that it should be in lieu of tribute formerly paid to the government. At the same time it was ordained that those natives who rendered no regular services to the company should pay a tribute. The latter portion of the programme was, however, never carried out. The Chugatsches and the more northerly villages of Kenai' never furnished any hunters for the company unless with some private end in view, and no tribute paid by them ever reached the imperial treasury.

Another method of obtaining furs, outside of the regular channels of trade, was in furnishing supplies in times of periodical famine caused by the improvidence of the simple Aleuts. A little assistance of this kind was always considered as a lien upon whatever furs the person might collect during the following season. This pernicious system, unauthorized as it was by the management, survived all through the regime of the Russian American Company, and one encounters traces of it here and there to the present day.

At the time of the first advance of Russians along the coast in a south-easterly direction native auxiliaries, usually Aleuts, were taken for protection as well as for the purpose of killing sea-otters. Soon the plan was extended to taking Aleut hunters to regions where trade had been made unprofitable by unlimited competition. This was first adopted on a larger scale by Shelikof and brought to perfection under the management of Delarof and Baranof. From a business point of view alone it was a wise measure, since it obviated the ruinous raising of prices by sav­ages made impudent by sudden prosperity, and at the same time placed a partial check on the indiscriminate slaughter of fur-bearing animals. Yet it opened the door to abuse and oppression of the natives at the hands of unscrupulous individuals, and in the case of the docile and long since thoroughly subdued Aleuts it led to something akin to slavery. It was also attended with much loss of life, owing to ignorance, carelessness, and foolhardiness of the leaders of parties. It certainly must have been exceedingly annoying to the natives of the coast thus visited to see the animals exterminated which brought to them the ships of foreigners loaded with untold treasures. The Kaljush hunters could not fail to perceive that the unwelcome rivals from the west, though inferior in strength, stature, and courage, were infinitely superior in skill, and indefatigable in pursuit of the much coveted sea­otter.

It was but natural that in a brief period the very name of Aleut became hateful to the Kaljush and Chugatsches, who allowed no opportunity to escape them for revenge on the despised race, not thinking that the poor fellows were but helpless tools of the Russians. Numerous massacres attested the strong feeling, but this by no means prevented the Russians from pursuing a policy which, to a certain extent, has been justified by the result. As the minds at the head of affairs became more enlightened, measures for the protection of valuable animals were adopted, the ex­ecution of which was possible with the docile Aleut hunters, while it would have been out of the question with the stubborn and ungovernable Kaljush.

As long as operations were confined to Prince William Sound, with the inhabitants of which the Aleuts, and especially the Kadiak people, had previously measured their strength in hostile encounters, the plan worked well enough. Subsequently, however, contact with the fierce Thlinkeets of Comptroller Bay, Yakutat, and Ltua inspired the western intruders with dismay, rendering them unfit even to follow their peaceful pursuits without an escort of four or five armed Russians to several hundred hunters. On several occasions a panic occurred in hunting parties, caused merely by fright, but seriously interfering with trading operations. Vancouver mentions instances of that kind, when Lieutenant Puget and Captain Brown at Yakutat Bay successively assisted Purtof, who commanded a large party of Aleuts sent out by Baranof.

The reports of these occurrences by Purtof and his companions corroborate the statements of Puget and Brown, but naturally the former do not dwell as much upon the assistance received as upon services rendered. With regard to Captain Brown’s action, however, the Russian report differs somewhat.

Previous to the arrival of the Russians a considerable interchange of products was carried on by certain of the more enterprising tribes; the furs of one section being sold to the inhabitants of another. The long­haired skins of the wolverene were valued highly for trimming by tribes of the north who hunted the rein­deer; and the parkas or shirts made from the skins of the diminutive speckled ground-squirrel (Spermophilus) of Alaska, which occurs only on a few islands of the coast, were much sought by the inhabitants of nearly all regions where the little animal does not exist. The new­comers were not slow to recognize the advantages to be gained by absorbing the traffic. Within a few years it was taken from the natives along the coast as far north as Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound, but beyond that and in the interior a far-reaching commerce, including the coasts of Arctic Asia in its ramifications, has existed for ages and has never been greatly interfered with by the Russians, who frequently found articles of home manufacture, originally sold by traders in Siberia, in the hands of the tribes who had the least intercourse with themselves.

Captain Cook indulged in profound speculations with regard to the channels through which some of the natives he met with on the Northwest Coast had acquired their evident acquaintance with iron knives and other implements, but this, the most probable source, was unknown to him. Later navigators found evidence of the coast tribes assuming the role of middlemen between the inhabitants of the interior and the visitors from unknown parts. In August 1786 Dixon was informed by natives on Cook Inlet that they had sold out every marketable skin, but that they would soon obtain additional supplies from tribes living away from the sea-shore.

A century of intercourse with the Caucasian races has failed to eradicate the custom of roaming from one continent to another for the sake of exchanging a few articles of trifling value. The astuteness displayed by these natives in trade and barter was certainly one of the reasons which caused the Russians to devise means of getting at the furs without being obliged to cope with their equals in bartering.

As far as the region contained within the present boundaries of Alaska is concerned, the fur-trade toward the end of the last century was beginning to fall into regular grooves, which have never been essentially departed from except in the case of the Kaljush, who, relying on their constant intercourse with English and American traders, persistently refused to be reduced to routine and system, and maintained an independent and frequently a defiant attitude toward the Russians. Under the rule of the Russian American Company the prices paid to natives for furs were equal in all parts of the colonies with the exception of Sitka and the so-called Kaljush sounds, where a special and much higher tariff was in force.

A more gradual change began also to affect the share system of the Russians, embracing two kinds of share-holders, those who with invested capital had a voice in the management and their half of the gross receipts, and another class, laboring in various capacities for such compensation as fell to their lot when the settlements were made at stated times and after every other claim had been satisfied. The disadvantages of this system were obvious. On one hand the laborer was entirely dependent upon the agents or managers of his immediate station or district, who were sometimes honest, but far oftener rascals, while on the other hand the hunters and trappers and those in charge of native hunting-parties had every inducement to indulge in indiscriminate slaughter of fur­bearing animals without regard to consequences.

By the time Kamchatka was discovered and conquered the number of private traders had greatly increased, and another market for costly furs had been opened on the borders of China, a market of such importance that not only the carrying of skins to Russia was curtailed, but large shipments of furs were made from Russia to the Chinese frontier, principally beavers and land-otters from Canada, these skins being carried almost around the world at a profit.

No attempt was made by Russians during the eighteenth century to send furs to China by water. That route was opened by English traders to the Northwest Coast as soon as it became generally known that furs had been disposed of in China to great advantage by the ships of Captain Cook’s last two expeditions. The sea-otter and sable shipments from the Aleutian Isles and Kamchatka were still consigned to Irkutsk, where a careful assortment was made. The inferior and light-colored sables, the foxes of the Aleutian Isles, the second grade of sea and land otter, etc., were set aside for the Chinese market. Defective skins were sent to the annual fair at Irbit, for sale among the Tatars, and only the very best quality was forwarded to Moscow and Makaria, where Armenians and Greeks figured among the ready purchasers.

The first large shipment of sea-otters was brought to China by Captain Hanna, who with a brig of sixty tons collected in six weeks, on King George Sound, five hundred whole sea-otter skins, and a number of pieces amounting to about sixty more. He sailed from China in April 1785 and returned in December, making the voyage exceedingly profitable. Hanna sailed again on the same venture in 1786, but though he remained absent until the following year, his cargo did not bring over $8,000. Two other vessels, the Captain Cook and the Experiment, left Bombay in January 1786, and after visiting in both King George and Prince William sounds returned with 604 sea­otters, which sold for $24,000, an average of $40 a skin.

La Pérouse, who visited the coast in the same year, forwarded an extensive report to his government concerning the fur-trade of the Northwest Coast. He states that during a period not exceeding ten days he purchased a thousand skins of sea-otters at Port des Français, or Ltua Bay; but only few of them were entire, the greater part consisting of made-up garments, robes, and pieces more or less ragged and filthy. He thought, however, that perfect skins could easily be obtained if the French government should conclude to favor a regular traffic of its subjects with that region. La Pérouse entertained some doubts as to whether the French would be able to compete prof­itably with the Russians and Spaniards already in the field, though he declared that there was an interval of coast between the southern limits of the Russian and the northern line of Spanish operations which would not be closed for several centuries, and was consequently open to the enterprise of any nation. Among other suggestions he recommended that only vessels of 500 or 600 tons should be employed, and that the principal article of trade should be bar-iron, cut into lengths of three or four inches. The value of the 3,231 pieces of sea-otter skin collected at Port des Français is estimated in the report at 41,063 Spanish piastres.

After duly weighing the question in all its aspects the French commander came to the conclusion that it would not be advisable to establish at once a French factory at Port des Français, but to encourage and subsidize three private expeditions from some French seaport, to sail at intervals of two years.

From Dixon we learn that La Perouse’s expectations, as far as the value of his skins was concerned, were not realized. He reports that the French ships Astrolabe and Boussole brought to Canton about 600 sea-otters of poor quality, which they disposed of for $10,000 .

In January 1788 the furs collected by Dixon and Portlock in the King George and Queen Charlotte were sold as follows: The bulk of the cargo, consisting of 2,552 sea-otters, 434 pups, and 34 foxes, sold for $50,000, and at private sale 1,080 sea-otter tails brought $2,160, and 110 fur-seals $550. According to Berg the number of sea-otters shipped from the Northwest Coast to Canton previous to January 1, 1788,was 6,643,which sold at something over $200,000 in the aggregate.

After this shipments increased rapidly with the larger number of vessels engaging in this trade, as I have shown in my History of the Northwest Coast. A large proportion of them were English, though they labored under many disadvantages, and as the English captains who came to Canton were not allowed to trade in their own or their owners’ name, but were obliged to transact their business through the agents of the English East India Company, they did not take very kindly to the trade. The merchants of other nations held the advantage to the extent that, even if forced to dispose of their furs at low prices, they could realize one hundred per cent profit on the Chinese goods they brought home, while the English, on account of the privileges granted the East India Company, could not carry such goods to England. The British merchants, however, knew how to evade these regulations by sending to Canton, where the ships of all nations were free to come, vessels under the flags of Austria, Hamburg, Bremen, and others. Thus Captain Barclay, or Berkeley, who sailed from Ostend in the Imperial Eagle under the Austrian flag, was an Englishman.

On the other hand, Russian influence was continually at work on the Chinese frontier and even at Peking, to counteract the influx of furs by water into the Celestial empire. When Marchand arrived at Macao from the Northwest Coast he found a temporary interdict on the traffic? This benefited the Russian only to a certain extent, for new hunting grounds were discovered by the now roused traders, and the immense influx of fur-seal skins from the Falkland Islands, Terra del Fuego, New Georgia, South Shetland, and the coast of Chile to China caused a general depreciation in this article toward the end of the last century.

The jealousy of foreign visitors on the part of Russians was but natural in view of the mischief they created. Along the whole coast from Cook Inlet down to Sitka and Queen Charlotte Sound, whenever English and subsequently American competition entered the field, the prices of sea-otter skins experienced a steady rise till the temptation to kill the animal indiscriminately became so great as to overcome what little idea the natives had of husbanding their resources. On the other hand the most prolific sea­otter grounds, the southern end of the Alaska peninsula and the Aleutian Islands, exempt from the visits of mercantile rovers, have continued to yield their precious furs to the present day.

These foreigners had an additional variety of goods with which to tempt the untutored son of the wilderness, and were not scrupulous about selling even destructive weapons. The demand for certain articles of trade by the natives, especially among the Thlinkeets, was subject to continuous changes. When Marchand arrived in Norfolk Sound he found the savages disposed to drive hard bargains, and skins could not be obtained for trifles. Tin and copper vessels and cooking utensils were in request, as well as lances and sabres, but prime sea-otters could be purchased only with European clothing of good quality, and Marchand was obliged to sacrifice all his extra supplies of clothing for the crew. The natives seemed at that time, 1791, to have plenty of European goods, mostly of English manufacture. Favorite articles were toes of iron, three or four inches in length, and light-blue beads. Two Massachusetts coins were worn by a young Indian as ear-rings. They were nearly all dressed in European clothing and familiar with fire-arms. Hammers, saws, and axes they valued but little.

The rules with regard to traffic on individual account on board of these independent traders were quite as stringent as those subsequently enforced by the Russian American company. Among the instructions furnished Captain Meares by the merchant proprietors we find the following: “As every person on board you is bound by the articles of agreement not to trade even for the most trifling articles, we expect the fullest compliance with this condition, and we shall most assuredly avail ourselves of the penalty a breach of it will incur. But as notwithstanding, the seamen may have laid in iron and other articles for trade, thinking to escape your notice and vigilance, we direct that, at a proper time, before you make the land of America, you search the vessel carefully, and take into your possession every article that can serve for trade, allowing the owner its full value.”

A few years sufficed to transform the naturally shrewd and overbearing Thlinkleets into the most exacting and unscrupulous traders. Prices rose to such an extent that no profit could be made except by deceiving them as to the value of the goods given in barter. Some of the less scrupulous captains engaged in this traffic even resorted to violence and downright robbery in order to make a showing. Guns, of course, brought high prices, but in many instances, where the trader intended to make but a brief stay, a worthless article was palmed off upon the native, who, in his turn, sought to retaliate by imposing upon or stealing from the next trader.

Nor did the foreigners hesitate to commit brutalities when it suited their interest or passion, notwithstanding Meares’ prating about “humane British commerce.” The English captain certainly had nothing to boast of so far as his own conduct was concerned in the way of morality, honesty, and humanity. Cer­tain subjects of Spain and Russia were exceedingly cruel to the natives of America, but for innate wickedness and cold-blooded barbarities in the treatment of savage or half-civilized nations no people on earth during the past century have excelled men of Anglo-Saxon origin. Such was the conduct of the critical Meares toward the Chugatsches that they would probably have killed him but for the timely warning of a young woman whom he had “purchased for the winter.”

Instances of difficulties arising between English traders and natives of Prince William Sound are too numerous to mention in detail in this place, but it is certain that as soon as the former withdrew and the Russians were enabled to manage affairs in their own way, a peaceful and regular traffic was carried on. These captains were too ready to attribute cruelty to their rivals, and at times on mistaken grounds.

Captain Douglas, who visited Cook Inlet in the Iphigenia, observed what he called “tickets or passports for good usage” in the hands of the natives. Meares offers an explanation of this incident, saying that “these tickets are purchased by the Indians from the Russian traders at very dear rates, under a pretence that they will secure them from ill-treatment of any strangers who may visit the coast; and as they take care to exercise great cruelty upon such of the natives as are not provided with these instruments of safety, the poor people are only too happy to purchase them on any terms.” Meares then adds with charming self-complacency: “Such is the degrading system of the Russian trade in these parts; and forms a striking contrast to the liberal and humane spirit of British commerce.” It is scarcely necessary to say that these papers were receipts for tribute paid by these natives, who had for several years been considered and declared subjects of the ruler of all the Russias.

The cause for these insinuations must be looked for in the greater success of the Muscovites, who could be met with everywhere, and as they did not purchase the skins, but had the animals killed by natives in their service, competition was out of the question. At Prince William Sound Portlock discovered that the natives did not like the goods he had to offer; only when he obtained others from Captain Meares did trade improve. The English traders frequently complained in their journals of the Russians as having absorbed the whole traffic, yet Portlock himself acknowledges that during the summer of 1787 he sent his long-boat repeatedly to Cook Inlet, and that each time the party met with moderate success and friendly treatment on the part of Russians and natives in their service.

Vancouver, who as far as the Russians are concerned may be accepted as an impartial observer, expresses the opinion that “the Russians were more likely than any other nation to succeed in procuring furs and other valuable commodities from those shores.” He based his opinion partly upon information received from Ismailof at Unalaska, but principally upon his own observations on the general conduct of the Russians toward the natives in the several localties where he found the latter under Russian control and direction. The English explorer reasons as follows: “Had the natives about the Russian establishments in Cook’s Inlet and Prince William’s sound been oppressed, dealt hardly by, or treated by the Russians as a conquered people, some uneasiness among them would have been perceived, some desire for emancipation would have been discovered; but no such disposition appeared—they seemed to held in no restraint, nor did they seem to wish, on any occasion whatever, to elude the vigilance of their directors.” The Indians beyond Cross Sound were less tractable and the Russians evidently became satisfied to remain to the westward of that region.

Notwithstanding all the abuses to which the Aleuts had to submit at the hands of the early traders and the Russian company, it is safe to assume that a people which has absolutely no other resource to fall back upon would have long since been blotted out of existence with the extermination of the sea-otter, had they been exposed to the effects of reckless and unscrupulous competition like their more savage and powerful brethren in the east. As it is, they are indebted to former oppression for their very existence at the present day.

There can be no doubt that in their hands alone would the wealth of the coast region be husbanded, for their interests now began to demand an economic management, and their influence by far exceeded that of any other nation with whom the natives had come in contact. Long before the universal sway of the Russian American Company had been introduced we find unmistakable signs of this predilection in favor of those among all their visitors who apparently treated them with the greatest harshness while driving the hardest bargains. The explanation lies in the fact that the Russians were not in reality as cruel as the others, and, above all, that they assimilated more closely with the aborigines than did other traders. At all outlying stations they lived together with and in the manner of the natives, taking quite naturally to filth, privations, and hardships, and on the other hand dividing with their savage friends all the little comforts of rude civilization which by chance fell to their lot.

Cook and Vancouver expressed their astonishment at the miserable circumstances in which they found the Russian promyshleniki, and both navigators agree as to the amicable and even affectionate relations existing between the natives of the far north-west of this continent and their first Caucasian visitors from the eastern north. Captains Portlock and Dixon even complained of this good understanding as an injury to the interests of others with equal rights to the advantages of traffic with the savages. The traffic then carried on throughout that region is scarcely worthy of the name of trade; it was a struggle to seize upon the largest quantity of the most valuable furs in the shortest time and at the least expense, without regard for consequences.

When Portlock and Dixon visited Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound in 1786 the trade in those localities seemed to be already on the decline. In the former place a few days were sufficient to drain the country of marketable furs.

How much the fur-trade had deteriorated on Cook Inlet at the beginning of the last decade of the eighteenth century is made evident by such reports of managers as have been preserved. The total catch for several years, during which time two ships well manned and hundreds of natives were employed, did not exceed 500 sea-otters and a comparatively small number of other furs. This was certainly a great falling-off, but it may be partly ascribed to the wrangling of rival companies whose retainers used every means to interfere with each other. Large quantities of furs were destroyed, houses and boats were broken up, and blood was sometimes shed. The decline of trade during this period was not arrested till the country had been for years subjected to the arbitrary rule of the Russian American Company, though of course the fur business never recovered its former prosperity.

Traces of populous settlements abound on the shores of the inlet, and it is evident that the numerous villages were abandoned to desolation at about the same time. The age of trees now growing over former dwellings enables the observer to fix the date of depopulation within a few years, long before any of the epidemics which subsequently swept the country.

With the unrestrained introduction of fire-arms along the coast southward from Prince William Sound the sea-otters were doomed to gradual extermination throughout that region, though the country suffered no less from imported Aleuts, who far surpassed the native sea-otter hunters in skill, and had no interest in husbanding production. Long before American traders took a prominent part in these operations the golden days of the sea-otter traffic had passed away.

In 1792 Martin Sauer predicted that in fifteen years from that time the sea-otter would no longer exist in the waters of north-western America, and he had not seen the devastation on the coast south of Yakutat. The organization of the Russian American Company alone prevented the fulfilment of his prophecy as far as concerns the section which came under his observation.

This state of affairs the traders had not failed to reveal to the government long before this, coupled with no little complaint and exaggeration. Officials in Siberia aided in the outcry, and the empress was actually moved to order war vessels to the coast, but various circumstances interfered with their departure. Nevertheless, from the rivalry of English and American traders, the Shelikof and Golikof Company does not appear to have suffered to any great extent, if we may judge from a list of cargoes imported by that firm during a term of nine years. Their vessels during the time numbered six; one, the Trekh Sviatiteli, making two trips. The total value of these shipments between the years 1788 and 1797 was 1,500,000 roubles—equal then to three times the amount at the present day

This result was due partly to more widespread and thorough operations than hitherto practised, and partly to the compensation offered by a varied assortment of furs. Thus, while the most valuable fur­bearing animal, the sea-otters, were becoming scarce in the gulf of Kenai, large quantities of beavers, martens, and foxes were obtained there.

The distribution of fur-bearing animals during the last century was of course very much the same as now, with the exception that foxes of all kinds came almost exclusively from the islands. The stone foxes—blue, white, and gray—were most numerous on the western islands of the Aleutian chain and on the Pribylof group. Black and silver-gray foxes, then very valuable, were first obtained from Unalaska by the Shilof and Lapin Company and at once brought into fashion at St Petersburg by means of a judicious presentation to the empress. Shipments of martens and minks from a few localities on the mainland were insignificant, and the same may be said of bears and wolverenes. The sea-otter’s range was not much more extended than at present; but on the south­eastern coast they were ten times more numerous than now. They were never found north of the  Aleutian isles and the southern extremity of the Alaska peninsula.

The fur-seal frequented the same breeding-grounds as now and many were killed on the Aleutian and Commander islands while on their annual migration to and from the rookeries. The value of the skins was small and the market easily overstocked, often necessitating the destruction of those on hand. Beavers and land­otters were obtained only in Cook Inlet, as the vast basin of the Yukon had not then been tapped. The skins of this class for the overland trade with China, as has been stated, were purchased in England of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and carried nearly around the globe. Black bears were occasionally purchased, but rarely appeared in the market, being considered as most suitable presents to officials and persons of high rank whose good-will might serve the interest of individual traders or companies. Lynx and marmot skins found only a local demand in the form of garments and trimmings.

CHAPTER XII.

FOREIGN VISITORS. 1786-1794.