READING HALL "THE DOORS OF WISDOM" 2024

CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE ACCORDING GENESIS

HISTORY OF ALASKA.

CHAPTER XXV.

CLOSE OF BARANOF’S ADMINISTRATION.

1819-1821.

In 1815 an expedition to Alaska was fitted out by the imperial government in conjunction with the Russian American Company, and Hagemeister, whose voyage in the Neva has been mentioned, was placed in command. A vessel, renamed the Kutusof was purchased at Havre for £6,000 sterling, and in July of the following year was ready for sea, when Lozaref returned to Kronstadt in the Suvarof. On his arrival, the directors resolved to delay the departure of the expedition until after the decision of the naval court of inquiry, held to investigate the charges made against him by the chief manager. When the judgment was made known, the directors added to Hagemeister’s instructions a clause authorizing him to assume control in place of Baranof, if he should find it necessary.

The Suvarof arrived at Novo Arkhangelsk on the 23d of July, and her consort, the Kutusof, on the 20th of November, 1817. Both vessels had been detained at Lima, whence the former had sailed direct for Alaska, while the latter visited other Peruvian ports, and also Bodega and San Francisco, where large quantities of provisions were purchased. For these supplies Baranof expressed his thanks, but complained bitterly of the company’s refusal to listen to his renewed request to be relieved, declaring most emphatically that he was no longer able to bear the burden of his responsibility. Hagemeister meanwhile did not choose to reveal the extent of the powers conferred on him, but began at once quietly to investigate the state of affairs in the colonies and the exact status of the company’s business. During the whole winter he kept his orders concealed from Baranof, who, though almost prostrated with disease, labored assiduously in surrendering the affairs of the company. He was now failing in mind as well as in bodily health, one of the symptoms of his approaching imbecility being his sudden attachment to the church. He kept constantly about him the priest who had established the first church at Novo Arkhangelsk during the preceding summer, and urged by his spiritual adviser, made large donations for religious purposes.

Hagemeister was impressed with the great responsibilities that awaited him, and hesitated long before consenting to assume the burden. At last he saw a way out of the difficulty. Yanovsky, the first lieutenant of the Suvarof had become enamored of Baranof’s daughter, the offspring of a connection with a native woman, and had obtained his consent to become his son-in-law. Hagemeister’s consent was also necessary, and this was granted on condition that Yanovsky should remain at Novo Arkhangelsk for two years and represent him as chief manager.

At last, on the 11th of January, 1818, Hagemeister suddenly laid before Baranof his orders, and three days later despatched the Suvarof to St Petersburg with a report of his proceedings. This surprise prostrated the deposed autocrat. The fulfilment of his long-cherished desire came upon him too suddenly. He could not in reason have expected a successor until the next ship arrived from St Petersburg. Whatever may have been Hagemeister’s motive, the effect certainly was to shorten the days of Baranof, who deserved more consideration. After displaying his instructions, the former at once gave a peremptory order that all the books and property should be immediately delivered to the company’s commissioner, Khlebnikof. Making a supreme effort, Baranof rose from his bed on the day of the Suvarof’s departure and began the transfer of the company’s effects, a task which was not completed for several months. The property at Novo Arkhangelsk alone was estimated by Khlebnikof at two and a half millions of roubles. In addition to two hundred thousand roubles’ worth of furs shipped on the Suvarof, there still remained in the storehouses skins to the value of nine hundred thousand roubles. The buildings were all in excellent condition, as were the sea-going vessels. In all the complicated accounts of this vast business, Khlebnikof failed to find a single discrepancy. The cash accounts, involving millions, were in perfect order; in the item of strong liquors there was a small quantity not accounted for, but this had been caused by the hospitalities extended to naval officers and other visitors. Among the many who had been with him for long years, Baranof knew no one to whom he could intrust the irksome duty which now fell to his lot, but labored from morning to night, overcoming his weakness with stimulants. At length the task was finished, and in September 1818 he delivered a full statement of the company’s affairs to his son-in-law. “I recommend to your special care,” he said, “the people who have learned to love me, and who under judicious treatment will be just as well disposed toward those who shall watch over them in the future.”

Nearly forty years had now elapsed since Baranof had left his native land; nearly thirty since he had first landed at Kadiak. He was ill requited for his long and faithful service. To him was due, more than to all others, the success of the Russian colonies in America; by him they had been founded and fostered, and but for him they would never have been established, or would have had, at best, a brief and troubled existence. Here, amid these wintry solitudes, he had raised towns and villages, built a fleet of sea-going ships, and laid a basis of trade with American and Asiatic ports. All this he had accomplished while paying regular dividends to shareholders; and now in his old age he was cast adrift and called to render an account as an unfaithful steward. He was already in his seventy-second year. Where should he betake him during the brief span of life that yet remained?

Bitter as was the humiliation which Baranof suffered, he could not at once tear himself away from the land which he loved so well. He resolved first to pay a visit to Kadiak, meet once more the tried friends and servants who were yet living there, and take a last glance at the settlements, where first he had planted his country’s flag. He would then bid good-by to all, and join his brother at Izhiga, in Kamchatka, the only one of his kin that now survived. Finally, his old acquaintance, Captain V. M. Golovnin, who about this time had returned to Novo Arkhangelsk, urged him to return to Russia, where he could still be of great service to the company by giving advice to the managers on colonial affairs. The prospect of continued usefulness and perhaps the hope of receiving reward for past services, then much needed by the ex-manager, decided him to accept this advice. The period of general leave-taking preceding his departure was a severe ordeal. He was frequently found in tears, and the symptoms of disease increased as he was submitted again and again to the trial of bidding farewell to the men 'with whom he had been intimately associated for more than a generation, and to the children who had learned to love him from their infancy.

At length, on the 27th of November, 1818, he embarked on the Kutusof, and as the vessel entered the waters of the sound, he gazed for the last time on the settlement which was entirely of his own creation. After touching at Umata, the vessel arrived on the 7th of March at Batavia, where she was detained for thirty-six days. No more unfortunate choice could have been made for so prolonged a visit than amidst the pestilential climate of that Dutch colony. Tired of the confinement of his cabin, the ex-manager insisted upon living on shore, spending his whole time in the hostelry just outside the settlement; thence he was carried almost lifeless on board the ship, which now put to sea; on the 16th of April, 1819, he breathed his last; on the following day his obsequies were performed, and in the strait of Sunda the waters of the Indian Ocean closed over the remains of Alexandr Andreievich Baranof.

With all his faults, and they were neither few nor small, it must be admitted that in many respects Baranof had no equal among his successors. “I saw him in his seventieth year,” writes his biographer, Khlebnikof, “ and even then life and energy sparkled in his eye... He never knew what avarice was, and never hoarded riches. He did not wait until his death to make provision for the living, and gave freely to all who had any claims upon him. Some said that he had large deposits in foreign banks, but no proof of this was to be found when he died. He always lived on his means, and never drew his balance from the company while he was in their service. From Shelikof he had received ten shares, and by the Shelikof Company he was allowed twenty shares more. Of these he gave away a considerable portion to his fellow-laborers Banner and Kuskof, who were rather poorly paid. There are not a few now living in the colonies whom he helped out of difficulty, and many a remittance he sent to Russia to the relatives of persons who had died, or were by misfortune prevented from supporting those dependent upon them. An example of this occurred in the case of Mr Koch, who was sent out to relieve him but died on the way. He had assisted him formerly both with money and influence, and after his death sent large remittances to his family.”

One of the officers of the sloop-of-war Kamchatka, in which vessel Golovnin arrived at Novo Arkhangelsk, a short time before Baranof s departure, thus relates his impressions: “We had just cast anchor in port, and were sitting down to dinner when Baranof was announced. The life and actions of this extraordinary man had excited in me a great curiosity to see him. He is much below medium height. His face is covered with wrinkles, and he is perfectly bald; but for all that he looks younger than his years, considering his hard and troubled life. The next day we were invited to dine with him. After dinner singers were introduced, who, to please the late manager, spared neither their own lungs nor our ears. When they sang his favorite song, ‘The spirit of Russian hunters devised’ he stood in their midst and rehearsed with them their common deeds in the New World. I must add here a word as to his mode of life. He rises early, and eats only once during the day, having no certain time for his meal. It may be said that in this respect he resembles Suvarof, but I believe Baranof never resembled anybody, except perhaps Cortes or Pizarro. His former condition had caused him to adopt a custom of which he could never wean himself—that of keeping around him a crowd of madcaps, who were greatly attached to him, and ready, as the saying is, to go through fire and water for him. To these people he often gave feasts, when each one could drink as much as he pleased, and this explains the enormous consumption of rum which Baranof was in no condition to buy, and had to procure at the company’s expense.”

It is probable that the words which Washington Irving puts into the mouth of Astor’s agent, when he “found this hyperborean veteran ensconced in a fort which crested the whole of a high rocky promontory,” are but too near the truth. “He is continually giving entertainments by way of parade,” says Mr Hunt,  and if you do not drink raw rum, and boiling punch as strong as sulphur, he will insult you as soon as he gets drunk, which will be very shortly after sitting down to table.

“As to any temperance captain,” continues Irving, “who stood fast to his faith and refused to give up his sobriety, he might go elsewhere for a market, for he stood no chance with the governor. Rarely, however, did any cold-water caitiff of the kind darken the door of Baranof; the coasting captains knew too well his humor and their own interests; they joined in his revels; they drank and sang and whooped and hiccupped, until they all got ‘half-seas-over,’ and then affairs went on swimmingly.

“An awful warning to all ‘flinchers’ occurred shortly before Hunt’s arrival. A young naval officer had recently been sent out by the emperor to take command of one of the company’s vessels. The governor, as usual, had him at his ‘prosnics,’ and plied him with fiery potations. The young man stood on the defensive, until the old count’s ire was completely kindled; he carried his point and made the greenhorn tipsy, willy nilly. In proportion as they grew fuddled, they grew noisy; they quarrelled in their cups; the youngster paid Baranof in his own coin, by rating him soundly; in reward for which, when sober, he was taken the rounds of four pickets, and received seventy-nine lashes, taled out with Russian punctuality of punishment.

“Such was the old grizzled bear with whom Mr Hunt had to do his business. How he managed to cope with his humor, whether he pledged himself in raw rum and blazing punch, and ‘clinked’ the can with him as they made their bargains, does not appear upon record; we must infer, however, from his general observations on the absolute sway of this hard-drinking potentate, that he had to conform to the customs of his court, and that their business transactions presented a maudlin mixture of punch and peltry.”

Before taking final leave of Baranof, I will give one more quotation from a manuscript in my possession, from the dictation of one formerly in the service of the Russian American Company, who arrived at Novo Arkhangelsk in 1817, for the purpose of rejoining his father, who had been sent to the Ross colony. “On the day after our arrival, Mr Baranof sent for me. He was a small man, of yellow complexion, and with very little hair on his head. He spoke to me very kindly, and promised to send me to Mr Kuskof as soon as any of the company’s ships were going in his direction. Then he told me I could stay at his house and help the woman who was his housekeeper. He had several women about his house, young and old, and one daughter about seventeen years of age, for whom he kept a German governess. The mother had been a Kolosh woman, but she died before I came to Novo Arkhangelsk.

“Baranof was often sick, and sometimes very cross, but his daughter could always put him in good humor by playing on the piano. I have seen him send every one out of the house in a heavy snow-storm when his anger was roused, but half an hour later he sent messengers to call back the women and servants, and gave each one an order on the store for whatever they wished. Then he would send for liquor and order a feast to be prepared, and call for his singers to amuse him while he was eating. After his meal he was apt to get drunk on such occasions, and would try to make all around him drunk. Most of the people in the house liked to see him in a rage, because they knew that a carousal would follow. As soon as he began to feel the effect of drink he always sent his daughter away, but all the other women were required to stay with him and share in the revelry.

“One night Baranof came into the kitchen for some purpose, and saw the German governess taking a glass of rum. He was so enraged that he struck her on the head and drove her out of the house. On the next day he sent for her, made her some presents, and apologized for striking her. He said that she might drink now and then, but must never let his daughter see it. The governess promised to abstain from dram-drinking in the presence of her pupil, and remained with her until she was married to a young naval officer, who had arrived from St Petersburg on board a man-of-war”.

Here we have probably a truthful picture of Baranof’s household during the last years of his residence at Novo Arkhangelsk. At this period he displayed only too often the darker phase of his character, for the use of stimulants had now sapped the vigor of his manhood, and in their use alone could he find temporary relief from his constitutional fits of melancholy. That he indulged too freely in strong drink has never been disputed by his friends; but that he was, as some chronicles allege, a cruel and vindictive man, has never been proven by his enemies. It must be remembered that drunkenness was then a vice far more common among the Russians than it is today, and that it is now more prevalent in Russia than in any civilized country in the world. The aspersions made on Baranof’s character by missionaries and naval officers have already been noticed. They need no further comment. When we read the pages of Father Juvenal’s manuscript, and the remarks of such men as Lieutenant Kotzebue, in whose work he is spoken of as “a monster who purchases every gain with the blood of his fellow-creatures,” we can but wish that they had formed a truer estimate of one whose memory is still held in respect by his fellow­countrymen.

While Baranof was still at Novo Arkhangelsk, and probably under his direction, a force was despatched by land to make a thorough exploration of the territory north of Bristol Bay, and to establish a permanent station on the Nushagak River. The expedition formed on Cook Inlet, in charge of one Korasakovsky, who was well acquainted with the natives of this portion of Alaska. Proceeding to lake Ilyamna, the party descended the river Kuichak to Bristol Bay, and following the coast, reached the mouth of the Nushagak, where the leader left behind him a portion of his command with instructions to build a fort, while he went on with the remainder to the mouth of the river Tugiak, far to the westward, where the sloop Konstantin was to meet him with a cargo of supplies. After a brief rest, Korasakovsky continued his journey, rounding Cape Newenham, and finally entering the wide estuary of the Kuskokvim. It was now late in the season, and hearing from the natives that it was extremely difficult to procure subsistence during the winter, the leader turned back. On reaching the Nushagak, he found the fort nearly completed, and giving it the name of Alexandrovsk, returned to Kadiak across the Alaska peninsula.

Lieutenant Yanovsky, who was one of the party, forwarded a special report of this expedition to the board of managers at St Petersburg, with a recommendation that during the following summer the settlement should be transferred from the Nushagak to the Kuskokvim, or that a new post be established at the latter point.

During the presence of Hagemeister and Yanovsky in the colonies, occurred the first visit of a French vessel to Norfolk Sound. In 1816 a merchant of Bordeaux fitted out a ship named the Bordelais for a voyage to the farther north-west, intending to compete with the English and American traders. The vessel sailed in October 1816, with a complement of thirty-four men and three officers, in charge of Camille Roquefeuil, a naval officer. In May of the following year, while taking in water and provisions at Lima, Roquefeuil met the commanders of the Kutusof and Suvarof, then on their way to the Russian colonies, and when the Frenchman arrived at Novo Arkhangelsk, on the 5th of April, 1818, he was well received by Hagemeister, with whom he made a contract to hunt sea-otter on joint account in the channels of the Alexander Archipelago, Hagemeister agreeing to furnish him with thirty bidarkas.

On the 7th of June the Bordelais arrived off the north-west side of Prince of Wales Island, where the vessel was moored a short distance from shore, the anchorage being selected by the advice of a Kaigan. On the 9th a reconnoissance was made, but neither people nor sea-otters were seen. On the following day a fleet of twenty-nine bidarkas, each provided with a rifle, a pair of pistols, and two daggers, went forth to hunt, the long-boat serving as escort. The catch was one sea-otter. On the same day four canoes came alongside with a few skins and some fish, and the Kaigan, being discovered in secret consultation with his countrymen, was driven out of the ship. The company’s agent proposed that the Aleutian hunters should camp on shore under the guns of the ship. To this Roquefeuil consented, detailing a guard for their protection. They hunted with but little success for a few days longer, the entire catch being but twenty sea-otter, while only ten were obtained by barter.

On the morning of the 17th a large number of natives came to the beach, offering to trade; but at noon all disappeared, and remained out of sight the following day. Roquefeuil now resolved to recall his Aleuts; and landing toward evening to observe the state of the tide, passed by their camp and walked to the head of the cove. On his way he was accosted by an Indian, who was apparently unarmed. A few minutes later a musket-shot was heard, followed immediately by a volley. The captain instantly turned back, but seeing the Aleuts running toward the beach without offering resistance, he hid himself in a thicket which lined the shore, and made signals for a boat to come off to his rescue. As soon as his signal was answered, he stripped and swam off toward the ship, holding his watch between his teeth. As the boat approached, the savages opened fire on her, and wounded four out of a crew of seven, but Roquefeuil was finally rescued. Meanwhile the sailors returned the fire, and a lieutenant was sent with two sail-boats to rescue the survivors. Seven men were lifted out of their torn and sinking bidarkas, two of them being at the point of death, four severely wounded, and from a small hole in the rocks crept forth seven others, who all escaped unhurt. On the 19th a strong party was sent on shore to search for more survivors, but without success. Most of the bidarkas were recovered, a few muskets were picked up near the beach, and nineteen Aleuts lay dead within the encampment, the only traces of the fight being a few discharged pistols and broken spears.

On Roquefeuil’s return to Novo Arkhangelsk, Hagemeister offered him an opportunity to retrieve his losses by joining one of the Russian hunting parties then engaged among the islands, but the crew refused to receive on board any more Aleuts, or to engage a second time in the dangerous service of escorting them. The captain resolved, therefore, to confine himself to trading; and after repairing damages, he again sailed for the Alexander Archipelago. Hoping to deceive the savages, and capture some of their chiefs, to be held for ransom, he had painted his ship and changed the rigging; but his trouble was in vain; the ruse did not deceive the Kaigans, and not a canoe came near his craft.

Roquefeuil then sailed for San Francisco to procure a cargo of grain with which to settle his indebtedness to the company. There he was detained by the authorities for more than a month, but finally obtained Governor Sola’s permission to trade, chiefly through the intervention of Golovnin, who was then at the same port. Returning once more to Novo Arkhangelsk, he found that Hagemeister was willing to accept a small cash payment in behalf of the relatives of the Aleutian hunters, and after landing his bread-stuffs, took his final leave on the 13th of December. We may presume that he was not very deeply impressed with the advantages of the fur trade on the upper north-west coast.

The end of the period for which the company’s charter had been granted was now approaching. Anxious to make all possible progress, both in discovery and exploration, the directors ordered expeditions to be despatched in various directions, and at the same time new buildings were erected in nearly all the settlements. Two attempts had already been made to explore the head waters of the Copper River, but in both instances the leaders had been killed by the Atnas. From the Nikolaievsk redoubt another expedition was despatched, under command of Malakhof, for the purpose of exploring the country north of Cook Inlet. From Petropavlovsk the company sent the sloop Dobroie Namerenie (Good Intent) to explore the Arctic coast. This craft sailed in 1818, but was delayed at the mouth of the Anadir River, and did not return till three years later. No report of the expedition is extant, but the voyage was continued at least as far as East Cape.

The efforts made by the company at the same time to explore the Asiatic coast south of Kamchatka, and especially the mouths of the Amoor, do not properly fall within the scope of this volume, but serve to show that the monopoly was straining every nerve to obtain a renewal of its privileges.

After reorganizing the affairs of the colony and visiting the different settlements, Hagemeistor sailed on board the Kutusof for Kronstadt, where he arrived on the 7th of September, 1819. Calling at Batavia, he purchased an assortment of goods to the amount of two hundred thousand roubles, and the value of his cargo of furs was estimated at a million. The vessel was at once refitted, and again despatched to the collonies about a year later under command of Lieutenant Dokhturof, who subsequently became famous in Russian naval annals. Arriving at Novo Ark­hangelsk in October 1821, after calling at several Californian ports, she returned the following year with another cargo of furs valued at over a million.

As we have now come to the close of the first term for which the privileges of the Russian American Company were granted, I will give a brief account of its operations during this period, or so much of them as can be obtained from the records which have come down to us. The original capital of 723,000 roubles was increased by the subscriptions of new shareholders to 1,238,740 roubles; and the net earnings between 1797 and 1820, the first years including the operations of the Shelikof-Golikof Company, were 7,685,008 roubles. Of this sum about 4,250,000 roubles were distributed as dividends, and the remainder added to the capital, which amounted in 1820 to about 4,570,000 roubles. Meanwhile, furs were sold or exchanged for other commodities at Kiakhta to the amount of 16,376,696 roubles, and at Canton through foreign  vessels to the amount of 3,648,002 roubles. Of the company’s transactions elsewhere we have no complete records.

Notwithstanding the large shipments of furs made during the first twenty years of the company’s existence, the yield had greatly diminished since the first years of Baranof’s administration. In the gulf of Kenai, where Delarof had obtained 3,000 skins during his first year’s hunting, the catch decreased, until in 1812 it amounted only to 100. In Chugatsch Bay, where seal had before been plentiful, the yield fell off in the same year to 50 skins. Between that point and Novo Arkhangelsk sea-otter abounded when the Russians first took possession, but five years later they had almost disappeared. In Otter Bay, Queen Charlotte Island, and Nootka Sound they were still plentiful, but the Americans absorbed most of this trade, bartering fire-arms and rum with the Kolosh in return for skins, of which they obtained about 8,000 a year, while the Russians tried in vain to compete with them.

In Novo Arkhangelsk, which had now become the commercial centre of Russian America, there were, in 1818, 620 inhabitants, of whom more than 400 were male adults. Of the servants of the company, 190 were at that time engaged on shares, and 101 on fixed salaries. The income of the chief manager was 7,800 roubles a year; that of the head clerk from 3,000 to 4,000, of a trading skipper about the same, an assistant clerk or priest 600, and an Aleutian or creole hunter from 60 to 150 roubles. The total sum paid yearly at Novo Arkhangelsk on account of shares, salaries, premiums, and pensions, was about 120,000 roubles.

It will be seen that, with a few exceptions, the company’s servants had little chance to enrich themselves during their sojourn in the farther north-west. Moreover, the necessaries of life often became so scarce that they were beyond reach of most of the colonists. There were some exceptions, however. Bread; for instance, was usually sold to married men, at least after Hagemeister’s arrival, at cost, and in sufficient quantity. To laborers goods were issued from the stores, on a written order from the chief manager, and charged to their accounts once a month or once in three months. On these occasions they received a present of a small quantity of flour or other provisions.

CHAPTER XXVI.

SECOND PERIOD OF THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY’S OPERATIONS.

1821-1842.