READING HALL "THE DOORS OF WISDOM" 2024

CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE ACCORDING GENESIS

HISTORY OF ALASKA.

CHAPTER XXIV.

FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT FOREIGN COLONIZATION. 1808-1818.

As only casual mention of the Ross settlement will be required in the remainder of this volume, I have thought it best to complete the brief record of its operations before proceeding further. I shall now refer to other and earlier attempts at foreign colonization; for, as we have seen, the company’s plans were far-reaching, and extended not only to both shores of the Pacific, but to the islands that lay between.

In 1808 Captain Hagemeister sailed for the Sandwich Islands in charge of the Neva, with instructions to establish a colony there, and to survey the field with a view to future occupation by the Russians. Arriving at a harbor on the southern side of Oahu, the ship was boarded by a large canoe, in which was seated, dressed in European costume, King Kamehameha, then the potentate of the Hawaiian group. “Immediately on his coming on board,” says Campbell, a Scotch sailor who acted as Hagemeister’s interpreter, “the king entered into earnest conversation with the captain. Among other questions, he asked whether the ship was English or American. Being informed that she was Russian, he answered, ‘Meitei, meitei,’ or ‘Very good.’ A handsome scarlet cloak, edged and ornamented with ermine, was presented to him from the governor of the Aleutian Islands. After trying it on, he gave it to his attendants to be taken ashore. I never saw him use it afterwards. In other canoes came Tamena, one of his queens, Crymakoo, his brother-in-law, and other chiefs of inferior rank.”

Through fear of British intervention, or for other reasons not specified by the chroniclers of the time, no attempt was made to found a settlement, though, if we can believe Kamehameha, Hagemeister tried to bring the natives of Oahu under subjection by threatening that ships of war should be sent against them. After calling at other islands in the Hawaiian group, and bartering seal skins and walrus tusks for salt, sandal­wood, and pearls, the captain sailed for Kamchatka, and thence for Novo Arkhangelsk, setting forth on his homeward voyage the following year. In his report to Baranof, whom, as we shall see later, he succeeded in office, he states that taro, maize, and sugar could be purchased at moderate prices in Oahu and the neighboring islands, but that European goods were held at extravagant rates.

The control of the company’s affairs had long been felt as too severe a strain by the chief manager, who was now more than sixty years of age. He had several times requested that a successor be appointed, and twice his request had been granted, but on both occasions the official who was sent to relieve him died on the way. In October 1811 the brig Maria returned to Kadiak, having sailed from Okhotsk during the previous year. In this vessel Collegiate Assessor Koch, who had been appointed Baranof’s assistant with a view to succeeding him, had taken passage, but during the voyage he fell sick, and breathed his last at Petropavlovsk. The news of his death was doubly sad to Baranof, who had been on terms of intimacy with the deceased for many years. By the Maria the chief manager received authority from the board of directors to establish a permanent settlement on the coast of New Albion wherever he might think best. Meanwhile he did not neglect to forward another petition to St Petersburg, asking that his resignation be accepted; but once more he was disappointed. Early in the month of January 1813, the inhabitants of Novo Arkhangelsk were surprised by the arrival of a small boat containing a few Russian sailors, half dead from cold and hunger. They brought the unwelcome news that the Neva, which had sailed from Okhotsk under command of Lieutenant Podushkin, had been wrecked in the vicinity of Mount Edgecumbe. One of those who perished on board this craft was Coll­giate Counsellor Bornovolokof, who had been appointed Baranof’s successor.

In December of this year the Ilmen was despatched to Ross with a cargo of goods and provisions. On board the vessel was a hunting party under the leadership of Tarakanof, and a man named Eliot, or Eliot de Castro, who had volunteered to conduct the trade with the missionaries on the Californian coast, claiming long acquaintance with the fathers.

The ship left Sitka in December 1813. On her arrival at Bodega, the Aleutian hunters were divided into detachments and scattered over the sea-otter grounds. Seal were not plentiful, and though for a time the Aleuts escaped the vigilance of the Spanish soldiery, the largest detachment, together with Eliot and Tarakanof, were surprised by a troop of horse in the vicinity of San Luis Obispo and taken to the presidio of Santa Barbara.

Eliot and his companions remained captives until 1815, when all who had not taken unto themselves Indian wives were delivered to Lieutenant Kotzebue, who visited the California coast during his voyage of exploration in the brig Rurik.

The Rurik, a vessel of one hundred and eighty tons, was built and equipped by Count Romanof, for the purpose of exploring the supposed north-west passage by way of Davis Strait or Hudson Bay; but as an expedition was being fitted out in England for the same purpose, it was determined to attempt the passage from the eastward. Otto von Kotzebue, who a few years before had sailed with Krusenstern on board the Neva, as will be remembered, was placed in command. Sailing from Kronstadt on the 30th of July, 1815, the brig arrived at Petropavlovsk after an uneventful voyage lasting nearly a year, and thence was headed for Bering Strait. Proceeding in a north-easterly direction, the commander, after touching at St Lawrence Island, entered a large inlet, through the center of which passed the arctic circle, and whose waters extended to the eastward as far as the eye could reach, the current running strong into the entrance. From a small neighboring hill on the southern shore no land could be seen on the horizon, while high mountains lay to the north. Here, thought the Russians, is the channel that connects the two oceans, the quest of which has for three centuries baffled the greatest navigators in Europe. On the following day, the 2d of August, the vessel continued her course, and from the mast-head nothing but open sea appeared to the eastward. Toward sundown land was in sight in several directions, but at noon on the 3d the opening was still five miles in width.

On the 4th the search was continued in boats, for now the water was shoaling rapidly, and after proceeding fourteen miles farther, only a small open space was visible to the eastward. A few days later the party set forth on their return to the Rurik, but were driven back to shore by a violent storm. “It seemed,” says Kotzebue, “as if fortune had sent this storm to enable us to make a very remarkable discovery, which we owe to Dr Eschscholtz. We had climbed much about during our stay, without discovering that we were on real icebergs. The doctor, who had extended his excursions, found part of the bank broken down, and saw, to his astonishment, that the interior of the mountain consisted purely of ice. At this news, we all went, provided with shovels and crows, to examine this phenomenon more closely, and soon arrived at a place where the back rises almost perpendicularly out of the sea to a height of a hundred feet; and then runs off, rising still higher. We saw masses of the purest ice, of the height of a hundred feet, which are under a cover of moss and grass, and could not have been produced but by some terrible revolution. The place, which by some accident had fallen in and is now exposed to the sun and air, melts away, and a good deal of water flows into the sea. An indisputable proof that what we saw was real ice is the quantity of mammoths’ teeth and bones which were exposed to view by the melting, and among which I myself found a very fine tooth. We could not assign any reason for a strong smell, like that of burnt horn, which we perceived in this place.”

On the 11th of August the Rurik left the inlet which now bears the name of Kotzebue Sound, and sailed for St Lawrence Island and thence for Unalaska, where the commander gave orders to the agent of the Russian American Company to have men, boats, and supplies in readiness for the following summer, when he purposed to make a thorough exploration of the farther north-west. Remaining only long enough for needed repairs, he proceeded to San Francisco without having attempted to explore, according to his instructions, the coast of Alaska southward from Norton Sound, then a terra incognita, but, as it proved, one of the richest portions of the territory. After sharing in a .conference touching the affairs of the Ross colony, at which Kuskof and the governor of California were present, as is mentioned elsewhere, he sailed for the Sandwich Islands, taking on board Eliot and three of his fellow-captives.

Landing at the island of Hawaii, Kotzebue was met by Kamehameha, who was now king of the entire group, and thus describes his reception: “I now stood at the side of the celebrated Tamaahmaah, who has attracted the attention of all Europe, and who inspired me with the greatest confidence by his unreserved and friendly behavior. He conducted me to his straw palace, which, according to the custom of the country, consisted only of one spacious apartment; and, like all the houses here; afforded a free draught both to the land and sea breezes. They offered us European chairs very neatly made, placed a mahogany table before us, and we were then in possession of all the furniture of the palace. Tamaahmaah’s dress, which consisted of a white shirt, blue pantaloons,, a red waistcoat, and a colored neckcloth, surprised me very much, for I had formed very different notions of the royal attire. The distinguished personages present at our audience, who had all seated themselves on the ground, wore a still more singular costume than the king; for their black frocks looked very ludicrous on the naked body. One of the ministers had the waist half-way up his back; the coat had been buttoned with the greatest difficulty; he perspired freely in his tight state costume, and his distress was evident; but fashion would not permit him to relieve himself of the inconvenience. The sentinels at the door were quite naked; a cartridge-box and a pair of pistols were tied round their waist, and they held a musket in their hand.

“After the king had poured out some very good wine, and had himself drunk to our health, I made him acquainted with my intention of taking in fresh provisions, water, and wood. A young man of the name of Cook, the only white whom the king had about him, acted as interpreter. Tamaahmaah desired him to say to me as follows: ‘I learn that you are the commander of a ship of war, and are engaged in a voyage similar to those of Cook and Vancouver, and consequently do not engage in trade; it is therefore my intention not to carry on any trade with you, but to provide you gratis with everything that my islands produce. I shall now beg you to inform me whether it is with the consent of your emperor that his subjects begin to disturb me in my old age. Since Tamaahmaah has been king of these islands, no European has had cause to complain of having suffered injustice here. I have made my islands an asylum for all nations, and honestly supplied with provisions every ship that desired them.”

After alluding to the trouble caused by Hagemeister and his party, the king continues: “A Russian physician, named Scheffer, who came here some months ago, pretended that he had been sent by the Emperor Alexander to botanize on my islands. I not only gave him this permission, but also promised him every assistance; and made him a present of a piece of land, with peasants, so that he could never want for provisions. What was the consequence of my hospitality? Even before he left Owhyee, he repaid my kindness with ingratitude, which I bore patiently. Then, according to his own desire, he travelled from one place to another; and at last settled in the fruitful island of Woahoo, where he proved himself to be my most inveterate enemy; destroying our sanctuary, the Morai; and exciting against me, in the island of Atooi, King Tamary, who had submitted to my power years before. Scheffer is there at this very moment and threatens my islands.”

“I assured Tamaahmaah,” continues Kotzebue, “that the bad conduct of the Russians here must not be ascribed to the will of our emperor, who never commanded his subjects to do an unjust act; but that the extent of his empire prevented him from being immediately informed of bad actions, which, however, were not allowed to remain unpunished when they came to his knowledge. The king seemed very much pleased on my assuring him that our sovereign never intended to conquer his islands; the glasses were immediately filled, to drink the emperor’s health, and Kamehameha was even more cordial than before.”

Eliot, who before his captivity had lived for two years in the Sandwich Islands as physician and chief favorite to the king, remained at Hawaii in his former position; and taking his leave in the middle of December, Kotzebue sailed in a south-westerly direction. On the 1st of January, 1817, he discovered a low wooded islet, to which was given the name of New Year’s Island. Three days later a chain of islands was sighted, extending as far as the eye could reach, the spaces between being filled with reefs. After some weeks had been spent amid these and other groups in the Caroline Archipelago, the Rurik was again headed for Unalaska, her commander purposing to continue his explorations in search of a north­east passage. But this was not to be. On the 11th of April, when in latitude 44° 30' N. and longitude 181° 8' w., a violent storm arose, and during the following night increased to a hurricane. “The waves, which before ran high,” says Kotzebue, for I cannot do better than use his own words, “rose in immense masses, such as I had never yet seen; the Rurik suffered beyond description. Immediately after midnight the fury of the hurricane rose to such a degree, that it tore the tops of the waves from the sea, and drove them in the form of a thick rain over the surface of the ocean. Nobody who has not witnessed such a scene can form an adequate idea of it. It seems as if a direful revolution was at that moment destroying the whole stupendous fabric of nature.

“I had just relieved Lieutenant Schischmareff. Besides myself, there were four sailors on the deck, of whom two were holding the helm; the rest of the crew I had, for greater security, sent into the hold. At four o’clock in the morning I was just looking at the height of a foaming wave, when it suddenly took its direction to the Rurik, and in the same moment threw me down senseless. The violent pain which I felt on recovering was heightened by the melancholy sight of my ship, whose fate would be inevitable if the hurricane should rage for another hour; for not a corner of it had escaped the ravages of that furious wave. The first thing I saw was the broken bowsprit; and an idea may be formed of the violence of the water, which at once dashed in pieces a beam of two feet in diameter. The loss was the more important, as the two masts could not long withstand the tossing of the ship, and then deliverance would be impossible. The gigantic wave broke the leg of one of my sailors; a subaltern officer was thrown into the sea, but saved himself with much presence of mind by seizing the rope which hung behind the ship; the steering-wheel was broken, the two sailors who held it were much hurt, and I myself thrown violently with my breast against a corner, suffered severe pain, and was obliged to keep my bed for several days.”

When the storm had moderated the vessel was put in order, and reached Unalaska in safety, though heavy weather prevailed during the rest of the voyage. She was then unrigged, unloaded, careened, and repaired, and within a month was again ready for sea. Boats, provisions, and a party of Aleuts, together with two interpreters from Kadiak, were provided by the agent, as Kotzebue had directed, and on the 29th of June the Rurik again sailed on her voyage northward. On the 10th of July St Lawrence Island was sighted, and here the commander ascertained that ice-floes had surrounded it on the south-east until three days before. Anchoring at midnight off its northern promontory, he found an unbroken ice-pack toward the north and east.

There was now no hope of passing Bering Strait until the end of the month, when, as Kotzebue thought, the season would be too far advanced for a successful voyage. Moreover, his health was shattered; his breathing was difficult; he was suffering from spasms in the chest, fainting fits, and hemorrhage of the lungs. The surgeon of the vessel declared that to remain longer in the neighborhood of the ice would cost him his life. “More than once,” he says, “I resolved to brave death, but I felt that I must suppress my ambition. I signified to the crew, in writing, that my ill health obliged me to return to Oonalaska. The moment I signed the paper was the most painful in my life, for with this stroke of the pen I gave up the ardent and long-cherished wish of my heart.”

Returning by way of the Sandwich Islands, Kotz­bue reached Hawaii on the 27th of September. Here he was greeted by Kamehameha and his old acquaintance, Eliot de Castro. Sailing thence to Oahu, he found six American ships at anchor, and one—the Kadiak—belonging to the Russian American Company, hauled up on the beach. In this vessel Sheffer had reached Oahu, after being expelled from Kauai, where he intended to found a settlement. A few days later the Boston arrived on her way to Canton, with a cargo of furs shipped from Novo Arkhangelsk.

Calling at St Helena on his homeward voyage, Kotzebue met with a most surly reception from the British naval officers who kept guard over the rock where the captive emperor was then entombed alive, his craft being fired upon without apparent cause. His reception in England was more cordial. During a visit to London, where business compelled him to spend a few days on his way to Kronstadt, he was introduced to the Prince Regent and to the Archduke Nikolai Pavlovitch. On the 23d of July, 1818, the Rurik sailed past the port of Revel, and now, after an absence of three years, Kotzebue once more beheld his native city. A week later the vessel east anchor in the Neva, opposite the palace of Count Romanof.

Before making further mention of Sheffer’s exploits in the Hawaiian Islands, it is necessary to refer to incidents which preceded the voyage of the Rurik. In April 1814 one of Baranof’s American friends, Captain Bennett, who had sold him two vessels and their cargoes, offered to accept fur-seal skins in part payment, but having none of the required kind on hand at Novo Arkhangelsk, the chief manager induced Bennett to proceed in the Bering to the island of St Paul in search of them, and at the same time to take a cargo of furs, worth half a million roubles, to be landed at Okhotsk. There he took on board a number of the company’s hunters who were awaiting passage, and a large mail of the company’s despatches. He then sailed for the Sandwich Islands, where it had been arranged that he should purchase a cargo of taro, salt, and other provisions. Having exhausted the resources of Hawaii, he proceeded to Kauai, where, the captain being on shore, the ship was struck by a sudden squall, and vessel and cargo were cast on the beach. King Tomari, who was then in power at Kauai, though subject to Kamehameha’s authority, offered Bennett every assistance in collecting his cargo; but when all that could be saved had been secured beyond reach of the waves, he coolly appropriated it as a perquisite of the owner of the soil. The captain arid some of his crew soon afterward made their way back to Alaska.

At the time when the Rurik left Kronstadt the imperial government was fitting out two vessels, the Suvarof and Kutusof for an expedition to Russian America. They were placed in charge of Captain Lozaref, and the Suvarof with the commander on board sailed from Kronstadt on the 8th of October, 1813, arriving at Novo Arkhangelsk in November of the following year. Lozaref, in common with all the naval officers, was prejudiced against Baranof. Disputes between the two men arose at once, and ceased only when the ship set sail from Novo Arkhangelsk. Lozaref desired to pass the winter at Novo Arkhangelsk, and to land his cargo and repair the vessel, but Baranof insisted that he should make a winter voyage to the Prybilof Islands for a cargo of furs, as there was not enough peltry at Novo Arkhangelsk to complete his freight. The captain then put to sea, but returned almost immediately, under pretence that the ship was leaking, and remained in port until the following May, when he finally executed the chief manager’s orders. Soon after his return he again set sail on the 24th of July, leaving the anchorage hurriedly and without waiting for the mail prepared by Baranof for the home office of the company. Enraged at this, the chief manager despatched a fleet bidarka after the retreating ship, and threatened to open fire on her, but did not execute his threat. The Suvarof then proceeded on her voyage to St Petersburg, calling at San Francisco and at the port of Callao, where a part of the cargo was exchanged for Russian products.

One of the officers of the Suvarof was the German doctor, Sheffer, who, having quarrelled with the commander, had for that reason found favor in the eyes of Baranof. Sheffer remained at Novo Arkhangelsk, and being a plausible adventurer, and somewhat of a linguist, succeeded in convincing the autocrat of the colonies that he was the man to carry out his schemes of colonization in the Hawaiian Islands.

Bennett, who had now returned to Novo Arkhangelsk, urged Baranof to demand the return of the Bering’s cargo, but the latter would not consent to use force for such a purpose, as he had frequently exchanged presents and friendly messages with Kamehameha through their mutual acquaintances among the American north-west traders. He decided, therefore, to send Sheffer to the Sandwich Islands as a passenger in a foreign vessel, with instructions to open negotiations with the Hawaiian monarch. The doctor sailed on the Isabella, which left Novo Arkhangelsk on the 5th of October, 1815, and it was arranged that the Otkrytie, commanded by Lieutenant Podushkin, should follow in the spring with a number of native mechanics and laborers for the purpose of establishing a settlement.

On arriving at Hawaii, Sheffer presented himself at once before Kamehameha and delivered letters and presents from Baranof, at the same time complaining of King Tomari for seizing the cargo of the Bering. The king promised redress, and appeared to listen favorably to the doctor’s proposals to establish more intimate relations with the chief manager of the Russian American Company. He even assigned to Sheffer several pieces of land, whereon to make experiments in the planting of grain and vegetables. One of them was situated on the island of Kauai, the domain of King Tomari. Though Sheffer continued in favor for a time, he found that he could not compete with the Englishmen and Americans, who were already established at Kamehameha’s court, and resolved to try his fortune with Tomari. During the first week of his stay in Kauai, it was his good fortune to cure the queen of an intermittent fever and the king of dropsy. The German adventurer was now in the good graces of his intended victim, and in a few weeks an agreement was drawn up to serve as the basis for a formal treaty, subject to the approval of the Russian government.

It was stipulated that the Bering’s cargo should be returned to the Russians, with the exception of a few articles which the king required, and for which he bound himself to pay in sandal-wood; that Tomari should send annually to the colonies a cargo of dried taro root; that all the sandal-wood on the islands subject to Tomari should be placed at Sheffer’s disposal, to be sold only to the Russian American Company; and that the company should have the right to establish stations or factories in any part of the king’s possessions. As an offset to these favors, the doctor pledged himself to furnish five hundred men, and some armed vessels, for the purpose of assisting in the overthrow of Kamehameha, and of placing Tomari on his throne. The troops were to be under Sheffer’s command, and in case of success, one half of the island of Hawaii was to be ceded to the company. Finally Tomari and all his people were to be placed under the protection of Russia. In order more firmly to establish the king’s confidence in his authority, Sheffer at once bought an American schooner for $5,000, and agreed to purchase a ship for the sum of $40,000, payment to be made in furs, which he promised to order from Novo Arkhangelsk.

In the meantime, Sheffer’s intrigues had been watched by American and English traders, and by the Europeans settled on the islands under Kamehameha’s protection. They took care to magnify the danger in the eyes of the latter, urging him to enter on a campaign against Sheffer and the would-be rebel Tomari. Though opposed to open hostility, Kamehameha’s repeated orders to Tomari finally resulted in an estrangement between him and the German doctor, who by this time had succeeded in establishing plantations on various points of the Islands, and had erected buildings for his own accommodation, for the mechanics and laborers who had how arrived in the Otkrytie, and for housing the crops intended for shipment to Novo Arkhangelsk. The unfriendly feeling thus engendered increased in intensity until the Russians and Aleuts were looked upon by the Hawaiians as enemies, and were compelled to adopt measures for their defence. A few slender fortifications were erected at Wymea, the ruins of which remains to the present day.

As soon as Baranof ascertained that this, the pet scheme of his old age, must fail, he lost no time in forwarding orders to Sheffer to give up everything, and to save what he could out of the wreck which was impending. By this time news had also been received of the refusal, on the part of the imperial government to sanction the scheme of annexation. The doctor’s position became more critical every day. From Novo Arkhangelsk he could expect no further support, while on the Islands the Americans and English became constantly more aggressive. A small Russian station on the island of Hawaii was sacked cy sailors from an American ship, and they even threatened to destroy the company’s plantations on Kauai. A report was also started that American men-of-war were on their way to the Islands. Some of the Americans in the company’s service became disaffected, one of them, Captain Wosdwith, who commanded the Ilmen, purposely running his vessel on the beach and joining the adversaries of Sheffer.

By this time the ire of Tomari’s subjects had been roused against the intruders, and they forced the Russians to abandon their settlements and to seek refuge on board the Kadiak, which was anchored off the island. When the fugitives left the beach it was discovered that the boat had been scuttled; the crew, however, reached the vessel by swimming. The natives now turned the guns of the fort against them and endeavored to sink the ship. The shot fell harmless, but it was discovered that the vessel had sprung a-leak, and that the water was gaining rapidly. In this predicament, an effort was made to get off the Ilmen, which succeeded. The American captain of the Kadiak was then transferred to the Ilmen by Sheffer, and sent to Novo Arkhangelsk to carry to Baranof the news of the failure of his enterprise, a duty which the doctor did not wish to undertake in person. After a brief stay at Kamehameha’s court, exposed to constant annoyance from foreigners, accompanied with threats of personal violence, Sheffer finally escaped to China on board an American vessel, leaving the rest of his countrymen, and the Aleuts sent from Novo Arkhangelsk, to labor on the plantations. Of these Tarakanof took charge, and finally succeeded in securing their return in 1818, by engaging himself and his men to an American skipper to hunt sea-otter for a brief season on the Californian coast. Thus ended the attempt at colonization in the Hawaiian Islands, whereby nothing was gained, and a loss of two hundred and fifty thousand roubles was incurred by the Russian American Company.

CHAPTER XXV.

CLOSE OF BARANOF’S ADMINISTRATION.

1819-1821.