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RE PLY
OF THE
IaSIa ComneliaI Compani
TO THE CHARGES OF
GOVERNOR ALFRED P. SWINEFORD,
OF ALASKA,
Against the Company in his Annual Report for the
year 1887.




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-   c.',  -./.   -,
SAN FRANCISCO, December 13th, 1887.
To the
IhON. C. S. FAIRCHILD,
Secretary of the Treasury,
WASHINGTON, 1). C.
SIR:
By section five of the Act of Congress of May 17,
1884, "providing a civil government for Alaska," it is provided that the Governor "shall from time to time inquire
into the operations of the Alaska Seal and Fur Company,
and shall annually report to Congress the result of such inquiries and any and all violations by said company of the
agreement existing between the United States and said
company." Treating the name of the company as a mere
misnomer and that the Alaska Commercial Company was
intended, (a fact we do not contest,) the Hon. Alfred P.
Swineford, Governor of Alaska, has made two annual reports-one in the latter part of 1885, and the other in the
latter part of 1887.
In his first report, the lIon. Governor very frankly stated
his belief, "that no definite results can be attained through
an inquiry into the operations of the Alaska Commercial
Company directed from this quarter," meaning Sitka.
He further said:
"The Seal Islands are distant from the Territorial seat of government
not less than 1500 miles, and the nearest point at which that company maintains an establishment is some 300 miles to the westward of Sitka. As nearly
as I can ascertain from this distance, there is no just complaint against the
Alaska Commercial Company in connection with its operations on the Seal
Islands, leased to it by the government, and it would appear from all I can




9


learn, that its reputed monopoly of the fur trade on the main land and islands
not leased is only such as might be expected to follow the employment of a
sufficient amount of capital to defeat any and all attempts at competition.
This is a conclusion arrived at from hearsay evidence only, there being no
means of transportation to enable me to institute the personal inquiry seemingly contemplated by the act referred to. * * * Unless a Government
vessel is detailed for the purpose of conveying him [the Governor], to the
Seal Islands and the various other points where the company maintains
establishments, it will be impossible for him to institute such inquiries as
will enable him to make a report founded upon personal knowledge and investigation-unless, indeed, it be through the courtesy of the company itself,
and even then he can only do so at the expense of a trip of many thousands of miles by way of San Francisco. * * * To make the contemplated inquiry at all effective the person making it must necessarily visit the
scenes of the company's operations. This he cannot possibly do unless
the Government provides transportation."
The report further proceeds to show that it was "impossible for the Governor to have instituted the inquiries contemplated, or to have made any report based on facts secured
through personal investigation of the company's operations,"
and he claimed that he could "not be held responsible for
failure to obey a law    which, though mandatory, enjoins
upon me [him] a duty the performance of which is, and has
been, for the reasons stated, and through no fault of my [his]
own, absolutely impossible of accomplishment."       (Ex. Doc.
115-Senate 49th Cong., 1st Session.)
That the Act contemplated, as the Governor contended,
"a report founded upon personal knowledge and investigation," and that "to make the contemplated inquiry at all
effective the person making it must necessarily visit the
scenes of the company's operations," seem too obvious for
discussion.  It is equally clear as shown by him     "that no
definiite results can be attained through an inqury into the
operations of the Alaska Commercial Company directed
from this quarter"-Sitka.
The suggestion that a Government vessel be detailed to
convey the Governor "to the Seal Islands and the various
other points where the company maintains establishments,"
was not acted upon by the Government. The general conditions remained the same, and in the latter part of the year




3


1887 it was equally impossible as in the year 1885, for the
Governor "to institute such inquiries as will enable him to
make a report founded upon personal knowledge and investigation." HIe did not visit any one of the stations or " establishments" of the company, or inquire of the United States
agent, or any of the assistant agents, appointed by the Hon.
Secretary of the Treasury (Section 1973, Rev. Stat. U. S.,
p. 346). We are positively assured that he received no information from any of the U. S. Conmissioners, or Deputy
Collectors, situated in any part of the country where this
company transacts business; nor from any of the officers of
the Revenue or Signal Service; nor yet from any of the
priests or missionaries qualified by location or travel to
speak of the affairs of this company. No application was
made to the company or any of its agents for information
as to its "operations;" no inquiry made at its principal
office in San Francisco or at any of its stations in Alaska;
nor was any examination made of its books or papers, to
ascertain whether it had violated "the agreement existing
between the United States and said company."  Notwithstanding the fact that the Hon. Governor did not, or could
not, avail himself of any of these sources of information, his
report, made in the latter part of the current year, charges
upon this company a series of wrongful acts, some of which
amount to actual crimes against the very letter and spirit of
the Statutes, commencing with the very inception of its
agreement with the Government and continuing throughout
the period of its operations until the present time. Having
been afforded no opportunity for defense before the
Governor; having had no notice except from the report
itself, that any such complaints were seriously entertained,
this company begs leave now to present to you a statement,
verified by unquestionable evidence, which is deemed a
complete answer to any and all accusations presented-that
is to say, every tangible charge; for mere denunciation, nt
being an assertion of issuable facts, cannot form the basis of
such a reply as comports with the dignity of the subject, ot
the respect due the head of the Treasury Department.




4


I.
The Charge that the Lease was Fraudulently
Secured.
Beginning with the very initiative of this company's connection with the Government, it is charged in the Governor's second report that the lease of the Seal Islands from
tile Government was a " corruptly secured franchise."  At
the close of the year 1887-more than seventeen years after
the lease was signed-this charge may well be considered
stale and mouldy. More than eleven years ago it received
its death blow at the hands of the Committee of Ways and
Means of the House of Representatives, after a full and
complete examination of persons and papers.
IIo. Reps., 44th Con., 1st Session, Report No. 623.
The House itself adopted the report of the Committee on
the 7th of June, 1876, fully exonerating the company and
establishing the falsity of the charge.
Vol. IV., Pt. IV., Con. Rec., p. 3657.
The matter, therefore, stands adjudged against the
present complaint, after a full, fair and impartial hearing,
and we respectfully submit that the company is relieved
from any further answer to this accusation.
II.
Lobbying at the National Capital.
Another charge against the company in the second
report is:
"Its paid agents and lobbyists are kept at the National
Capital to oppose any and every effort that may be made to
promote the welfare of Alaska, through such legislation as
will encourage immigration and the enlistment of capital
in the development of the undeveloped wealth hidden away
in her forests, streams and mountains," etc.




9


5
It could hardly have been contemplated by Congress, in
passing the "Act providing   a civil government for
Alaska," or in that part of the same which requires the
Governor to inquire into the operations of this company
and to annually report to Congress the result of his inquiries, that his functions to be discharged at Sitka or elsewhere
in Alaska, would make him a valuable medium through
whom accurate information could be obtained as to transactions at the Capital of the nation. Congress certainly did
not intend to clothe the Governor with the power of inquiry
into offenses committed against itself at Washington, or
with the right to investigate the influence of the " lobby"
upon proposed legislation for Alaska. Neither an accurate
knowledge of the archives or State papers of Alaska, nor a
prolonged residence at Sitka, would give special knowledge
of the doings of " paid agents and lobbyists at the National
Capital."  We may, therefore, reasonably claim that the
Governor's report on this topic is in excess of the jurisdiction and duty imposed on him by the Act of Congress referred to. We, however, respectfully say that the charge
is untrue in every respect; is not warranted by the facts in
the slightest degree; but that, on the contrary, this company
has never in any manner discouraged immigration or the
investment of capital in any enterprise in Alaska, or interfered in any way with legislation looking to those ends.
We will presently show how utterly groundless these
charges are.
III.
The Generality of the Charges Made.
The report of the Governor, so far as relates to the operations of this company in Alaska and its alleged violation of
the terms of the agreement with the Government, does not
clearly distinguish between its course of business in different parts of the country, or discriminate between the "Fur
Seal Islands," which alone are embraced in the lease from
the United States, and those portions of Alaska in which




6


this company has no greater rights or privileges than any
other company or person. Various cllarges of wrong and
oppression are made to apply generally, and in connection
with the statement that the. company "does not confine its
operations to the Seal Islands leased to it by the Government, but holds and possesses most of the Aleutian chain
and the greater part of the mainland, as a principality of
its own, over which it exercises undisputed sway."
No intelligent or accurate view can be taken, no sound or
enlightened judgment exercised, and no correct or rightful
conclusion be reached without the discrimination referred
to and without considering the charges separately and in
relation to the natural divisions of the country. For these
reasons we beg leave to present the subjects treated of in
the report under the following principal heads:
1st. As to the " Fur Seal Islands" embraced in the
lease from the United States to the company:
2nd. As to the other portions of the country occupied
by the Aleuts-that is to say, the Aleutian chain, and including therein the "Aliaska peninsula:"
3rd. As to the mainland.
IV.
As to the Leased Islands.
1st. The Preservation and Protection of Fur-Seals.
The lease from the Government to the Alaska Commercial
Company bears date the 3d August, 1870, and embraces
the two Islands of St. Paul and St. George in Behring's Sea.
The lease contains specific terms, to be performed by the
company, and these for seventeen years last past have been
practically construed by the parties, and exactly performed.
This lease was made by the Government in pursuance of a
profound policy and general plan of action well considered
by Congress. It was well known in the light of the history




7


of the past, that unless (ongress took efficient steps towards
the preservation of the fur-seals on these islands, they would
very soon be annihilated as had been the case in the South
Pacific Ocean and elsewhere, except on a small island belonging to Peru and two small islands of Russia in Behring's
Sea. Of all the vast "rookeries" of the fur seals of the
earth formerly existing there remained worthy of note only
those upon the Islands of St. Paul and St. George and the
Russian islands mentioned. That of Peru is comparatively
insignificant, whilst those of Russia are far inferior to St.
Paul and St. George. Had no steps been taken by Congress
for their preservation, the "restless spirit of enterprise, unhindered,' referred to by Governor Swineford, or in other
words the invading and aggressive spirit of the fur-seal
hunter unchecked by wholesome legislation, intent alone
upon immediate and selfish gain, and unrestrained by any
wise or prudenitial rules, had before this time completely
annihilated or driven off all the fur-seals from these islands.
This subject is very fully and ably treated by Mr. H. W.
Elliott in a monograph written by him under the direction
of the Superintendent of the Census, and his great reputation for profound research and scientific attainments in connection with the Smithsonian Institute, gives to all that he
asserts the position of established fact. The value of the
Seal Islands to-day is due to the wisdom of the Russian
Government followed up by the legislation of Congress in
the same line of policy, or as Mr. Elliott says, to the wise
"restrictions and wholesome direction which the Russians
established in the North Seas, the benefits of which accrue
to us to-day, and will forever, as matters are now conducted.
Certainly it is surprising that the business thought, the hard
headed sense, of those early English navigators, should not
have been equal to that of the Russian Promyshleniks, who
were renowned as the most unscrupulous and the greediest
of gain-getters."
Vol. VIII.-10 Census U. S. 1880, p 7, Elliott's Report.




8


The treaty by which we obtained the cession of Alaska
from Russia, was proclaimed by the President on the 20th
of June, 1867. Immediately thereafter the Pribylov Islands
were invaded, and all restrictions being removed the slaughter of the fir-seals was carried on to such a tremendous extent
as to promise an early extinction of the whole of the rookeries. It took, some time for appropriate legislation to be
framed, but Congress determined to adopt the old Russian
policy of protection and regulation.
At first the killing of the fur-seals was entirely prohibited,
and it was made the special duty of the Secretary of the
Treasury "to prevent the killing of any fur-seal and to provide for the execution of the provisions" of the Statute
for the punishment of the persons killing the same.
Vol. 15, U. S. Statutes, p. 241.
On the 3d March, 1869, by a joint resolution entitled
"A resolution more efficiently to protect the fur-seal in
Alaska," the islands of St. Paul and St. George were " declared a special reservation for Government purposes," and
it was further declared to be unlawful for any person
to land or remain on either of those islands, except by the
authority of the Secretary of the Treasury. (Vol 15, U. S.
Stat., p. 348.) On July 1st, 1870, Congress passed the further Act "to prevent the extermination of fur-bearing
animals in Alaska." (Vol. 16 U. S. Stat., p. 180.) This is
limited to the islands of St. Paul and St. George, and " the
waters adjacent thereto."  The effective means of this
policy, as determined by this Act, was the leasing of the
islands upon the terms and conditions and under the restrictions prescribed in the Act. We thus see that the great
object and purpose of Congress, and its established policy,
were the preservation of the fur-seal.
In examining into the operations of this company, it
would, therefore, seem of primary importance to ascertain
how far this established policy of the Government-this
paramount and leading intent of Congress-has been maintained by the company.




9


Upon this topic the report of Governor Swineford affords
no light, though he is quite pronounced against the wisdom
of the Act of Congress in adopting the leasing system as a
means "necessary to the preservation of the fur-seal industry."
As to the scheme proposed by him as a substitute, we
beg leave to make some suggestions at a later period in
this paper, but it may be well now to state that so far the
policy of the Government in leasing the islands as a means
of preserving the fur-seal from diminution and extermination, has been most triumphantly vindicated.
Mr. Elliott, before referred to, gave this subject his special
attention under most favorable circumstances.     He was, to,
use his own language, " by the joint action of Professor
Baird and the Secretary of the Treasury, enabled to visit
the Pribylov Islands for the purpose of studying the life
and habits of these animals."      His " notes, surveys and'
hypotheses" were founded upon his own "personal observations in the seal rookeries of St. Paul and St. George,
during the seasons of 1872 to 1874, inclusive, supplemented
by his confirmatory inspection made in 1876. They were
obtained through long days and        nights of consecutive
observation, from the beginning to the close of each sealseason, and cover, by actual surveys, the entire ground occupied by these animals." Nothing could have been more
searching, thorough and efficient;    His views have been
confirmed by the numerous agents of the Treasury Department sent to Alaska, and have been acted upon by the
Government generally, if not universally. He states that:
"Provided matters are conducted on the seal islands in the future as
they are to-day, 100,000 male seals under the age of five years and over
one, may be safely taken every year from the Pribylov Islands, without the
slightest injury to the regular birth rates, or natural increase thereon; provided, also, that the fur-seals are not visited by any plague, or pests, or any
abnormal cause for their destruction, which might be beyond the control of
men; and to which, like any other great body of animal life, they might
ever be subjected to the danger of.  *  *  *  That these animals are
preyed upon extensively by killer-whales (orca gladiator), in especial, and
by sharks, and probably other sub-marine foes now unknown, is at onoe




10


evident; for, were they not held in check by some such cause they would,
as they exist to-day on St. Paul, quickly multiply, by arithmetical progression, to so great an extent that the island, nay, Bering's Sea itself, could
not contain them. The present annual killing of 100,000 out of a yearly
total of over a million males does not, in an appreciable degree, diminish
the seal life, or interfere in the slightest with its regular, sure perpetuation
on the breeding grounds every year. We may, therefore, properly look upon
this aggregate of four and five millions of fur-seals as we see them every
season on these Pribylov Islands, as the maximum limit of increase assigned
to them by natural laws. The great equilibrium, which Nature holds in
life upon this earth, must be sustained at St. Paul as well as elsewhere."
(Pp. 62, 64, Elliott's Report.)
When before the Committee of Ways and Means on the
17th March, 1876, on the investigation before alluded to,
Mr. Elliott made a similar statement giving in somewhat
greater detail the reasons for his conclusions. His evidence
will be found annexed to the report of the Committee.
(Report No. 623, Io. Rep. 44th Con., 1st Session.)
Captain Charles Bryant was also called before that Committee on the 20th March, 1876.     He was then the Treasury agent stationed on the Island of St. Paul.      He went
there first in 1869 and remained there from that date,
" every successive season of the sealing " to 1876, when he
gave his evidence to the Committee, and it will likewise be
found annexed to its report.    He fully confirms the views
of Mr. Elliott.
In support of the same conclusion will be found the report of Lieut. Washburn Maynard, U. S. N., made to the
Secretary of the Navy on the 30th November, 1874.         His
investigation was made pursuant to the Act of Congress of.
April 22nd, 1874, and was made upon the ground itself A
synopsis of this report will be found in Vol. VIII, of 10th
Census of U. S. 1880, p. 102, Elliott's Report.
Mr. Ivan Petroft, as special agent of the Government, in
his report to the Superintendent of Census, Aug. 7th, 1882,
referring to the Seal Islands, says:
"The subject of the fur-seal industry and its commercial




11


and plhysical aspects has been fully discussed in a monograph
written by Mr. II. W. Elliott, under the direction of the
Superintendent of Census, and it only remains to say here
that the business has been so thoroughly worked up and
systematized as to bring it to a par with a well-conducted
cattle ranch on a large scale-with this difference, perhaps,
that greater care is lavished upon the seals, and greater caution with reference to their comfort than is generally bestowed by farmers upon their cattle." (Vol. VIII, Tenth
Census U. S., 1880, Petroff's Report, p. 22.)
Mr. George R. Tingle, present agent, appointed by the
Hon. Secretary of the Treasury, substantially confirms Mr.
Elliott also in his above views, except that upon a careful
survey made by himself in 1886, he estimates that the furseals in the two islands had increased in number about
2,000,000 up to that time.
We likewise beg leave to refer to the annual reports of
the several agents of the Treasury Department now on file.
It must, therefore, we respectfully urge, be accepted as a
fact beyond controversy, that the past management of the
Company being continued, the Government will find at the
termination of the lease its intentions and policy in pre.
serving the seal industry, fully maintained and vindicated.
The number of seals existing in 1870, at the commencement of the lease, will have been increased. The great primary object of the Government will have been fully conserved to its great advantage as the possessor of the finest
seal-rookeries of the world, witlh the promise of its perpetuity for all time-the same policy and good management
being pursued.
As this part of the subject bears upon the company's relation to the Government, we may be excused for here calling attention to the fact, that the total annual tax and
rental paid by this Company to the United States from July
1st, 1870, to August, 1887, amounts to $5,290,736.49.
Calculating that the full number of fur-seals for the next




12


two years be taken and we will have paid the full sum of
$5,925,736.49-almost six-sevenths of the entire sum paid
by the United States to Russia for the whole of Alaska.
The charges of "boycotting" and driving away from the
islands, "government officers who, intent upon the honest,
faithful discharge of their duties, refused to do the bidding
of its agents," could only have had foundation insome misrepresentation made to the Governor, for this Company has
always treated all the officers and agents of the Government
with the greatest respect and kindness, as their reports on
file fully show.
2d.  The Company in its relation to the inhabitants of the
Seal Islands.
The Act of Congress in authorizing the Secretary of the
Treasury to lease the Seal Islands expressly provides, among
other things, that in making said lease the Secretary of the
Treasury shall have due regard to the "comfort, maintenance, and education of the natives" of said islands. The
lease itself, as executed, contains a number of particulars
prescribed by the Secretary, for the benefit of the natives,
which the company covenants to fulfill.
The charges made by Governor Swineford against this
company in relation to its treatment of the "natives," are
comprehensive endugh to include the inhabitants of the
islands of St. George and St. Paul in many particulars, and
in some particulars they are especially referred to as being
practically enslaved "by the farming out that which is
theirs by right of inheritance" by the company, wllose " illgotten gains " have been " wrung from a hapless and helpless people." And it is also charged that "if the Alaska
Commercial Company had kept its agreement with the
Government, most of the younger ones among them ought
to be fairly well educated in English."
We may, therefore, be pardoned for meeting these charges
here, leaving the consideration of the inhabitants of other




13


points of Alaska, for another part of this statement. These
charges are in fact not at all new; they were long ago uttered
and circulated and have been heretofore made the subject
of investigation by the Government more than once. They
constitute in part, the cause of the investigation made by
Congress in 1876, in which it was made the duty of the
Committee of Ways and Means, before mentioned, to examine into and report whether this company had complied
with all its duties, and, among other things, in relation to
the natives.   A  pamphlet purporting to have been issued
at Sari Francisco by the "Atlti-Monopoly Association of the
Pacific Coast," containing, we believe, most if not all of the
charges made by Governor Swineford, was presented to the
Committee.     General Miller, late Senator from    California,
and before then the President of this comptny, was called
before the Committee and examined under oath in relation
to these charges. His answer made to the then pending
charges can now    be made to these charges of Governor
Swineford. General Miller was asked by the Committee
the following questions and made the following answers:
" Q. What have you to say in reply to the charge of this pamphlet? (indicating pamphlet;) I believe it is anonymous.
A. Well, it purports to have been published by the Anti-Monopoly Association of the Pacific Coast, Charles Leisch, secretary. I don't know of
any such association on the Pacific Coast, I could not find it. I tried to
find it.
Q. What have you to say in reply to that part of the pamphlet which professes to give an account of the condition of the people there; your selling
them whiskey, your oppressions, and your refusal or omission to carry out
that portion of the law which requires you to look after those people, and
to exercise a kind of paternal government for their moral improvement?
A. I say that those statements are entirely false from beginning to end;
that the company on the Seal Islands found those people burrowing in the
ground, living in a sort of caves in the ground, in their own filth and squalor
and disease, and we began, as soon as we got this lease, the construction of
dwelling houses for them. We have gone on until we have constructed a
good, substantial, comfortable dwelling house for every family on both
islands. We have built on St. Paul Island sixty-four dwelling houses for
the native families, and on St. George something over twenty. There is one
for each family. They are all above ground, and the houses are as good as
the average houses that mechanics live in in your city. They are warm, lined
inside, filled in between the lining and the weather-boarding. We give each




14


one a stove. We charge them no rent'for those houses at all; we make no
charge for keeping them in repair. We have taught these people all we could
of the benefits of civilization; have tried to enlighten them; we have maintained schools on the islands regularly; we have hired teachers. We
have kept a physician on each island, a regular graduate of a medical
college, all the time, with medicines free of charge; no charge for medical attendance upon the people; we forbid the doctors receiving any
gratuity from the people whatever. They have surgical instruments of all
kipds there, so that if a man is sick or hurt or injured he can have the best
kind of medical attention at once. We sell as cheap as retailers sell them
in San Francisco. Our instructions are, that in no case shall there be more
than twenty-five per cent. added to the wholesale cost in San Francisco. We
make nothing at all out of the goods that we sell them. Flour we sell actually on St. George Island cheaper than we buy it in San Francisco, The
reason of that is that the price was established there a long time ago, and
those people would think it was a sort of imposition if we changed the price.
The price was established when flour was low, and we used to give them that
black flour. We give them now excellent wheat flour, of good enough quality for anybody; as good as I want. The cloth, all that we send there, is of
good quality. We have done this because it was to our interest to do it.
They are our laborers, and we want them to be in a condition to labor. We
desire to improve their condition in every way. They make better laborers
and they are better satisfied. It is our interest in every respect to do this,
and we have done it; and all these stories about their being maltreated in
any way are all false; there is not a word of truth in them. I challenge the
whole world to show an example equal to this corporation in its humane
treatment of its laborers.
Q. What is the number of the native population on the islands?
A. It is about 370. There are certain families there that have no male
protector, no person to labor, and we support those people free of charge.
Q. Has there been an increase or a decrease of the population since
your contract went into existence?
A. I don't think it has increased or decreased. The total population of
the two islands is put down here in Moore's Report as 348. I suppose that
is correct.
Q. What other employments are there on the islands except what your
company furnishes?
A. None.
Q. You employ all the male population in your business?
A. Yes, sir. They work during the sealing season. For two months
they work pretty well; they make good wages. They are quite prosperous;
they have saved up a considerable amount of money. We taught them to
save their earnings, and we act as a sort of savings bank for them. They
do not know anything about the San Francisco Savings Bank, although we
explained the matter to them; and they prefer to deposit their savings with
the company, and we consent to take them, and we are paying them interest. I believe this report of Mr. Moore's, on page 13, gives the amounts




15


correctly. In Saint Paul eighty natives are credited with $34,716.24, and
the Church with $7,969.17, making a total of $42,681.41. In Saint George
twenty-four natives are credited with $6,623.96, and the Church with
$2,006.91, making a total of $8,630.87.
Q. Have they any religious worship on the islands?
A. Yes; there is a church on each island, a Greek Catholic church, established there by the old Russian American Company.
Q. Are there any other denominations?
A. No, sir.
Q. Thereis no interference by your companywith their religious views?
A. No, sir; we do not interfere with their religious ceremonies or teachings at all; we have never attempted to change them or influence them in
their religion. We have encouraged the Church in every possible way. We
have assisted them in building the churches there.
Q. You say you have established schools there; are those schools
taught in English?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do the natives readily send their children to thos6 schools?
A. At first they did, but they do not now. They have got an idea that
by learning English they will lose the Russian; that is to say, they will not
be able to perform the rites and ceremonies of their church. They are an
intensely religious people; it is their whole life, and the ceremonies of the
Church are in the Russian language, and the older people are rather opposing the teaching of English on the islands for that reason, that it interferes
with the performance of the Church ceremonies; but a good many of them
go to school, and some of them are learning something. But it is a hard
job, our people say, to teach them anything. We have tried very hard. In
one of those schools, there was a Mrs. Fish teaching school; she was the
wife of an officer of the Signal Service Bureau; she is a very intelligent
lady, highly educated, and we put the school in her charge. She tried it on
this kindergarten system, which was found to be very good with the smaller
children. We have done everything we could to make progress, I am
informed." (Report No. 623, Ho. Rep., 44th Cong., 1st Session, pp. 29-31.)
Mr. Ivan Petrof, the special agent of the Government,
before referred to, who visited the islands in 1880 and 1881,
makes the following statement as to the manner in which
the  natives are treated by the Alaska        Commercial Companly:
" 'The people now classed as natives of the islands are in reality natives
and descendents of natives of the various islands of the Aleutian division,
a majority having sprung from Atkha and Oonalashka. When the Russian
navigator Pribylov discovered the islands, toward the end of the last century, he found them uninhabited, and in order to slay and skin the vast
numbers of seals and sea-otters then found there, it was necessary to import
laborers from the more populous districts. Under the Russian regime, when




16


these sealers were lodged in wretched subterranean hovels and were fed upon
seal meat and blubber the year round, it was considered a hardship to be
stationed there, and the managers of the Fur Company found it necessary
to relieve their force from time to time. Since the islands have fallen under
the direct management of the Tnited States Government, the condition of
the people has been improved to such an extent as to stop all applications for
removal from the islands, and to create a great demand on the part of the
people of other islands to be transplanted there. Under the terms of the
lease the lessees have erected comfortable cottages for all the families, and
provide them throughout the year with fuel and an abundant supply of salted salmon free of charge. In addition to this, each family derives from the
compensation paid by the lessees for the labor of killing and skinning the
seals, which is done upon a co-operative plan devised by the natives themselves, a cash income of from $350 to $450.
Many other opportunities arise at various times during the year for adding to their income by labor of various kinds at a good rate of wages.
Whatever necessaries, comforts, and luxuries the sealers may desire to procure from the stores are sold to them at very reasonable rates. Were it not
for the strong propensity for gambling existing among them every sealer
would have his bank account, but even now there is quite a respectable list
of names upon the books of the Company of those who draw annually interest from deposits in the savings banks of San Francisco. A school on
each island, maintained by the lessees, under direct supervision of the special agents of the Treasury Department stationed on the islands, exerts its
beneficial influence among the younger members of these isolated communities. Many of the boys and girls can exhibit quite respectable specimens
of penmanship, and even composition in the English language. These were
produced at school, and under great pressure; but if the visitor attempts to
address one of these youngsters in English the reply will be a grin and a
shake of the head. They have not thus far learned to apply the knowledge
acquired. The average attendance at the school on St. Paul is 69, and at
that on St. George 23, out of a total population of 390." (Petroff's Report, pp. 22, 23.)
We affirm    positively that what General Miller said in
1876, and what Mr. Petroff said in 1882, is true as of to-day,
and has been true during the whole interval of time since
1876. Our treatment of the natives has been uniform and
consistent up to the present time, and the history of one
year is the history of each other year.
Captain Charles Bryant, the Treasury Agent before referred to, who went to the islands in 1869 and remained until
after 1876, in which latter year he testified before the Congressional Committee, states in his testimony, that it came




17


directly within the line of his duty to observe the treatment
which the natives received from the company; that the
latter observed to the fullest extent its obligations to the
natives; "that the relations between the natives and the
government officers have always been of the most friendly
and trustworthy kind;" that he had never known a complaint from the natives or a failure on the part of the company to supply their wants or discharge their obligations
to the natives; that the natives were more comfortable than
they had ever been under any previous condition; that they
never were compelled to work, but did so voluntarily and
under the directions of their own chiefs; that their pay was
certain, regular and fair; that their whole compensation
was paid to their chiefs and distributed among themselves
according to their own rules and according to classes of their
own forming; that they were never charged extravagant or
unreasonable prices,the company uniformly charging twentyfive per cent. profit on the San Francisco wholesale prices;
that the law and all regulations are published in the Russian
language, which the natives understand, and filed with the
chiefs, so that they are constantly informed of all their
rights; that they have a school eight months in the year;
and that many of the younger children are reading simple
sentencs in English and learning simple arithmetic.
He adds:
"We encounter in the teaching of the English language some opposition
from a portion of the natives; or rather a fear exists among them lest by
teaching the English language we shall entirely supercede the Russian language, and thereby they shall lose their connection with the Russian church.
* * The old people ask us, with a good deal of reason, 'Who, when
we are dead, will read the prayers over our graves, if our children cannot
read Russian.'" (Ho. Rep., Report No. 623, 44th Cong., 1st Session,
p. 101,)
Mr. H. W. Elliott, before referred to, stated before the
Committee under oath, that he was on the islands of St.
Paul and St. George from the 28th of April, 1872, until the
10th of August, 1873, continuously, and was again there on
the 5th of July, 1874, and left on the 4th of August, 1874,,~.




18


and that whilst there he sought by inquiry and observation
to inform himself as to the condition of the natives, and
further adds:
"And to more thoroughly do that, I studied the Russian language, and
acquired sufficient knowledge of it to converse with them, and to read and
write it, and I am free to say that those people have talked to me in a very
independent, and, to my surprise, a very intelligent manner." (Report No.
623, p. 79.)
When asked by a member of the Committee what was
the feeling of the natives toward the lessees, he answered:
"Their feeling, independent of their testimony to me, is
one of gratitude and thankfulness."     (Page 79.)
Mr. Bristow, then Secretary of the Treasurer, was also
called before the same Committe to testify in regard to the
affairs of the company, and, among other things, he stated
the following:
"I ought to add that Mr. Bryant, the Special Agent, who was appointed
by Mr. Boutwell at the time of the commencement of this contract, has been
here during most of the winter, (I think he has, perhaps, just left within the
last few days,) and I have talked frequently and very freely with him on the
subject, and he gives the most positive assurances that all these charges are
false; that they are made in the interest of rivals and irresponsible persons.
So that I have not been able to discover, from any source at all, official or unofficial, any responsible person who is willing even to father the charges that
are made." (Page 69.)                                 t
The Committee of Ways and Means, as well as Congress
itself, came to the conclusion, on the evidence before it,
that there was no just ground of complaint against the
Alaska Commercial Company or any of the officers of the
Government entrusted under the law        with the power to
make the lease or see to its performance. That was in
1876, after six years had expired from the making of the
lease, and when the whole system and mode of action of
this company    was completely     established.   The   same
methods and course of proceeding have since continued
without change.
In October, 1884, Lieut. Lutz, of the United States
Marine Service, in obedience to orders from      Capt. M. A.




19
Healy, of the same service, commanding the Revenue
steamer Corwin, made a report to the same effect, now on
file in the Treasury Department, to which we beg leave to
refer. In the appendix hereto we present some extracts
from the same. (No. I of Appendix.)
In the fall of 1885, Capt. Healy himself made a report to
the Hon. Daniel Manning, Secretary of the Treasury, also
to the same effect, giving his own personal experience and
knowledge, beginning in the year 1868, extracts from
which we also append hereto. (No. 2 of Appendix.) We
also call attention to his several reports on file, and especiallv to one which we are informed has just been made to
the Treasury Department.
We also respectfully and especially refer to our correspondence with Mr. George R. Tingle, the present agent of
the Treasury Department, hereto annexed, which we feel
assured will, from his high character for integrity and
intelligence, command at the hands of the Department the
highest respect. (Nos. 3 and 4 of Appendix.)
It will thus be seen that our treatment of the natives,
from first to last, has been uniform and consistent. Probably as complete an answer upon our part, to any charge of
ill-treatment or harsh usage of the natives of these islands
is the fact that we now hold to their credit the sum of $64,.
732.11 as their surplus savings, the details of which appear
in the statement also contained in the appendix hereto.
(No. 5 of Appendix.)
In this connection it is. to be remembered that on the
Island of St. Paul there are now eighty-seven families and
eleven widows, and on St. George twenty-six families and
six widows, the entire population on both islands, men,
women and children, consisting of 347 persons.
We claim that this company has fulfilled to the uttermost its entire contract with the United States, and has also
faithfully performed all its obligations to the natives of the
islands, as the above facts fully demonstrate.




20


V.
As to the Aleutian Chain of Islands and the
Peninsula of Aliaska.
Were this company disposed to stand upon the letter of
the Act of Congress, or did its contract require a defense
based on mere legal or technical propositions, it might well
insist that the duties of the Governor in reporting upon the
"operations" of this company, should be limited to its contract relations with the Government under the lease, and
that independently of the obligations resting upon it by
reason of the terms of the lease, it has been free to transact
business in any part of Alaska outside of the islands of St.
George and St. Paul, "and the waters adjacent thereto," as
any other company or person might, being at all times, of
course, liable for any violation of law, in the same manner
and in the same manner only, as other persons. The charges,
however, are so entirely without foundation, and all complaint so destitute of merit, that we beg leave to present
the facts themselves to the Hon. Department of the Treasury, that the truth may be known.       It is mostly, we apprehend, in this part of Alaska that the wrongful conduct and
acts of oppression of the natives by the Alaska Commercial Company, as alleged by Governor Swineford, are supposed to have occurred.       Referring   to the company, he
says:
"It has, by the power of its great wealth, driven away all competition,
and reduced the native population, wherever its operations are not supervised by Government agents, to a condition of helpless dependence, if not
absolute slavery. Unhampered by a healthy competition it offers, and compels the acceptance by the natives, on the pain of starvation, such beggarly
prices for their peltry that it manages invariably to keep them in its debt and
at its mercy.  *  ' *  In fact, it possesses the power to compel compliance with its every exaction, and wherever it has obtained a foot-hold neither
white man or native can live in peace and comfort except by its sufference.
Without mail communication other than that supplied by the company
which is their master, the natives are effectually walled in, and in the absence of all competition are forced, of a necessity, to sell their furs to the
company at whatever prices its agents may see fit to offer.  *  * * *
Its oppression and robbery of the natives is notorious; the partial respon



21


sibility, at least of the Government for the wrongs to which the inoffensive
people of the Aleutian Islands and the whole of Northwestern Alaska have
been subjected cannot be ignored or denied."
In the first place this company has not driven away competition, but has always been, and now is, subjected tQ competition all along the coast of the Aleutian chain. The
field is an open one for commercial enterprise and competition. It invites the trader, the merchant and all, to its
shores, but if we were the sole survivors of the contest, we
might well claim it to be a case of the "survival of the
fittest." Time and again expeditions fitted out in San Francisco and elsewhere, have invaded Behrings' sea and tried
to obtain the furs there, contrary to the Acts of Cougress
and the regulations of the President and the Departments,
and at the risk of criminal prosecutions, and the forfeiture
of valuable vessels. It would, therefore, be strange indeed,
if the "restless spirit of enterprise " had not availed itself
of the field offered by the Aleutian chain, where it has
been "unhindered " all these years.
We annex hereto in the Appendix, a copy of the official
map of Alaska, with the natural divisions of the country
as made by Mr. Petroff. We may be understood as referring
to these as we progress. We also annex a map of distances.
Next in importance to the fur-seal is the sea-otter. The
Shumagin group of islands of this chain is the great center
of the trade in its pelts. Different vessels of different companies and individuals go there every year to buy and trade,
with a resulting active competition. The fact is that there
is a large and valuable trade all along the Aleutian chain
in peltries other than the trade of this comtpany, as well as
in fish and other commodities, in which this company does
not at all participate. Vessels of persons and companies
having no connection with the Alaska Commercial Company, go every year to the coast and buy, barter and trade
extensively., A large amount of capital is used by establishments dealing in codfish and salmon, and the proprie



22


tors not only have stationary stores and supplies on Kadiak
and other islands, but they also own their own vessels used
in the trade. These traders are always ready, too, to buy
any furs offered them. Small traders are always moving
around these islands where there is any opportunity to buy
pelts at fair prices. This company has always paid as much
as any other or as the trade warrants.
The chief fur hunting along this shore, as already stated,
is that of the sea-otter, and many are engaged in it. Not
only do the Aleuts participate in this but many white hunters.
These white hunters have mostly married native women,
and not only claim all the rights and privileges of the
natives, but have been recognized from time to time by the
various Departments at Washington as possessing all the
rights, privileges and immunities of the native Aleuts.
These white hunters are wholly in sympathy with, and in
sentiment and marriage allied to, the natives; are quite independent, and entirely capable of taking care of themselves
and their allies. They seek the highest prices, and hold their
peltries up for the highest offer. At times prices have ranged
so high that this company has been compelled to pay, for the
best sea-otter, prices equal to that of the London market.
At Kadiak alone there are about twenty of these white
hunters who own their own schooners and sloops and wllo
principally hunt the sea-otter.
Mr. Petroff in his report before referred to, says:
"As the northern portion of the Island of Kadiak and the smaller islands
to the northward are timbered, the people here have facilities for ship or
boat building, of which they avail themselves to the fullest extent. One or
more small crafts can always be found in process of construction, principally upon orders from the prosperous white sea-otter hunters of the
Shumagin islands or for the trading firms and private traders. A deputy
collector of customs stationed at Kadiak has quite a respectable list of small
crafts built and registered in the district. Sea-otter parties are fitted out in
nearly every villege, and are frequently taken to distant hunting-grounds in
sloops and schooners."
Vol. VIII, 10th Census, 1880, p. 25, Rep. of Ivan Petroff.
The sea-otter parties referred to often consist of fleets o




23


about fifty boats on departure, but divide up into lesser
numbers, as they proceed to different points. In their outfit they require considerable expense and without substantial
aid and assistance the natives would not be able to proceed,
except upon a very limited scale and with very inadequate
supplies, for a somewhat protracted absence.
Tile Alaska Commercial Company oftentimes, therefore,
furnishes the entire outfit and supplies, including the smaller
vessels intended for use by the hunters at the immediate
points which constitute the haunts of the sea-otter. The
company virtually takes the risk of success. If the expedition is successful, the hunters get paid fair prices for their
pelts, and are enabled to pay their share of the advance for
supplies. They are always well informed as to prices, for
other purchasers stand ready to buy, and thus afford ample
protection against sacrifices. As these expeditions go to
distant places, and are out for a considerable time, and
the hunters are thus absent from   their families, they
are given a limited credit at the company's stores in
anticipation of a successful result in the adventure. It
is, of course, to the interest of the company to restrict
this indebtedness as much as possible, but the credit becomes inevitable where the family stands in want of necessary articles during the absence of the hunter. In these
transactions with the natives it has always been the aim of
the company and to its interest, to deal justly and fairly and
to cultivate the most friendly relations, for the company is
more dependent on the hunters for a supply of the pelts of
the sea-otter, than the hunters are dependent on the company. In order to make the hunters satisfied and to induce
them to act with greater energy in hunting, the company
rewards the best hunters by building houses for the/n to
live in free of rent, and it constantly brings the salted carcasses of seals from St. Paul and.St. George islands to the
Aleutian chain and distributes them to the natives who
have no other supply of animal food, except fish. Besides the
pelts of the sea-otter, this company gets nothing else from




24


the Aleutian chain except a few fox skins. The supplies
from the company's stores in this part, as in all other parts
of Alaska, are furnished to the hunters and to all persons,
native or otherwise, at reasonable prices.
We have before alluded to the savings of the Aleuts
upon the islands of St. Paul and St. George.  We may
here also state that so prosperous are the hunters of the
Aleutian chain dealing with this company that they are
not only well clothed, but we now have on hand to their
credit, as the result of their savings, and upon which we
pay them interest at four per cent. per annum, the sum of
$29,396.17. This amount is due to seventeen persons, as
appears by the statement in the appendix hereto. (No.
5 of Appendix.) The number of persons and amounts of
money would be much larger if extravagance, gambling
and love of liquor, were not so prevalent. This company
has always exercised its influence as much as possible for
the suppression of these vices. It has contributed largely
to the church and to the schools, and has pursuant to the
wishes of the Government declined, as well on the Piibylov Islands as elsewhere, to supply the natives with sugar
to prevent their manufacture of an intoxicating mixture
called " quass," which they delight to drink, in the absence of other intoxicating liquids. (See ".Regulations
governing the Seal Fisheries in Alaska," issued by Mon.
Chas. J. Folger, Secretary of Treasury, April 13th, 1882.)
How this company, by carrying the United States mail
upon its vessels, on their route to and from its places of
business, "wall in " the natives and compel them "to sell
their furs to the company, at such prices as its agents see
fit to offer," is somewhat obscure. The U. S. mails are as
sacred when carried on the company's boats as elsewhere,
and as much under the protection of the law. That this
lawful act, apparently so convenient and useful to all concerned, should be a means of enslaving the Aleuts, we confess ourselves unable to comprehend.




25


Upon the subject of the treatment which the natives of
the Aleutian chain sustain at the hands of the company, we
beg leave to refer to their condition as shown by Mr. Ivan
Petrof in his report to the Superintendent of the Census
in 1882.  (Vol. VIII, Tenth Census U. S., pp. 18 and fol.)
The following is from the same authority, the "trading
firm " that he especially alludes to being the Alaska Commercial Company. Speaking of Ounalaska (p. 20), he says:
" A school, in which both English and Russian are taught, is maintained
by one of the trading firms, but the attendance is at best irregular.
Nearly 50 per cent. of the adults of Iliuliuk, however, are able to read
and write in the Aleutian language and a few in the Russian. The same
firm that maintains the school also employs a physician and keeps a wellstocked dispensary, where natives are treated free of charge."
We also refer to the statement of others on the same
subject, likewise contained in the Appendix.
This company has no disposition whatever to disparage
any part of Alaska, but as it has been charged with
hostility to its interests, as well as with attempts to prevent the influx of immigrants and the settlement of the
country, reference in reply to this accusation may be made
to the Archives of the Census Department, so that a sound
judgment may be formed on this topic in relation to the
Aleutian chain, as well to other parts of the Territory.
If the official reports be true (independently of any statement we may make), the Aleutian chain at present contains about as large a population as can there find means of
subsistence.  The settlements are necessarily confined to
the narrow margins of the sea coast, the greater part of
the interior of the islands being inaccessible.
Tlhe natives confine themselves principally to hunting the
sea-otter and fishing, and the reason why they do this, is
well ascertained from the nature of the country and the climate. It appears that the Russian Missionary Veniaminof,
under the auspices'of the Russian Government, kept and
recorded a careful account of the weather for seven years.
That recordshows that during that time there were but 53




26


clear days, leaving 1,263 cloudy days and 1,230 (lays with
snow, hail or rain. Hay can be imported from  San Francisco cheaper than it can be raised on the islands, and even
potatoes are a failure there.  The necessary resort of the
people, therefore, is to hunting and fishing, and the principal of these is sea-otter hunting. The small accession of
white men, who have intermarried with the native women,
has greatly changed the latter occupation, the better vessels of the white hunters and their greater energy enabling them to hunt at times when the Aleuts are kept at
home by gales and storms. The sea-otter seems thus destined to extermination at no remote period. What a denser
population on this chain of islands could resort to as a means
of subsistence, we are unable to suggest.
Upon this general subject, much valuable information
will be found in the report of Mr. Petroff to the Superintendent of Census in 1882. (Vol. VIII of 10th Census,
1880, pp. 18 and fol.)
VI.
Transactions of the Alaska Commercial
Company upon the Mainland.
The Governor in his report states that this company
"does not confine its operations to the seal islands leased to
it by the Government, but holds and possesses most of the
Aleutian chain, and the greater part of the mainland as a
principality of its own, over which it exercises undisputed
sway." He then proceeds to charge upon the company a
series of misdeeds and acts of oppression, as well as acts of
hostility 'to the welfare of Alaska, and even crimes against
the express letter of the Statutes of the United States:
Most of these charges impliedly refer to the acts and doings of the company on the main land, as well as upon the
Aleutian chain. The report further alleges:
" To its pernicious influence is due the fact that Alaska is not to-day
largely populated with an industrious, enterprising, prosperous people;
that millions, where there are now only hundreds, have not ere this been in





27


vested in the development of her many varied, and as I believe, incomparably'great natural resources."
If these statements be true, it is the first time in American history that the elsewhere irresistible tide of emigration, seeking congenial fields, with "incomparably great
natural resources" luring them on, has been turned aside
from its course by any company, however great. The
masses of immigrants that peopled, in turn, Illinois, Iowa,
Missouri, Kansas, California and Oregon, would have run
over and crushed out any impediment that stood in their
way. In new territory west of the Mississippi, we have
but recently seen the United States Army called out to
keep immigrants from settling upon lands in advance of the
Government's wishes, even where the country only possessed " natural resources" quite " comparable " with those
of other States and Territories. It, therefore, becomes a
matter of great historical interest, as well as of vast importance in the science of government, to ascertain how
a single corporation, with a capital of two million dollars,
has acquired such ' undisputed sway" over the greater part
of a Territory of 541,409 square miles; made it a " principality of its own," and turned aside and overcome the vast
mass of "industrious and enterprising" people, who, with
their millions, have tried in vain to reach its shores, rich in
the promise of a great future, and who have unsuccessfully
sought to invest in her "incomparably great natural resources."
The inquirer will learn with astonishment that the only
natural resources of the country in which the Alaska Commercial Company deals, are furs and the pelts of animals,
with the exception of fish to a very limited degree beyond
its supply to the natives under the terms of the lease. It
has nothing to do with mines, either of coals or pIecious
metals, forests, quarries, grain, fruits or vegetables, and
makes no investment in the "incomparably great resources"
referred to, save only in furs and the skins of wild animals.
It in no wise competes with the cod and salmon fisheries or
any of the canneries. Its vessels are intended primarily




28


for its own use, in its own business, but it freely carries
the mails and offers, to all who desire it, the full accommodation which any can obtain from a common carrier.  Yet
it competes with no lines of steamers or other vessels for the
carrying trade, and leaves the field open to any who seek it.
First. Southeastern Alaska.
The company does no business at all of any kind with
Southeastern Alaska-that is, the portion lying south and
east of Mt. St. Elias, called the Southeastern Division.
It is here that Sitka, the seat of government, is situated,
and where the greater part of the white population of
Alaska resides. It extends from  Mt. St. Elias to Portland Canal, andl contains 28,980 square miles, being larger
in area than either Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, or West Virginia, and is
nearly as large as Indiana. Compared with this large district, the Pribylov Islands leased to this company are very
insignificant in area. St. Paul is 13 miles long, and less
than six miles in point of greatest width, and contains
about 33 square miles, a large part being rocky, rugged
cones of volcanic rock, whilst a great deal of the remainder
is drifting sand dunes. St. George Island is about 10 miles
in extreme length, and about 41 miles in greatest width,
and contains about 27 square miles. Its greatest elevation
is 920 feet above the sea.
None of the vessels of this company touch at any port in
Southeastern Alaska, and as Governor Swineford says, in
his first report (that of 1885): "The Seal Islands are distant
from the Territorial seat of government not less than 1,500
miles, and the nearest point at which that company maintains at establishment is some 300 miles to the westward of
Sitka."  The Governor also shows that the only communication between Sitka and "the scenes of the company's
operations," is by "a trip of many thousands of miles by
way of San Francisco."  So far as Southeastern Alaska is
concerned, the " pernicious influence" of the Alaska Com



29


mercial Company must be a myth, and the mere creature
of an excited imagination.
As to Southeastern Alaska, its great natural resources
and general merits, we have no personal knowledge. We
do not in the least desire to underrate it, or say anything
that may reflect upon it as a country worthy of everything
good that has been, or may be, said of it. This company
only says that it has not had any business intercourse with
Southeastern Alaska, or its people; that it has no possible
motive to interfere with it, or any projects for its benefit,
and that the business enterprises and operations of this
company are too remote to have the slightest effect upon
this part of Alaska for good or ill. As well might the
Sandwich Islands or Oregon complain of this company as
Southeastern Alaska.
Second. Kadiak Division. Main Land.
If we go northward and westward from South-eastern
Alaska we pass beyond Mt. St. Elias, and into what Mr. Petroff calls the Kadiak Division, the eastern limit of which is
the eastern boundary of Alaska, north of Mt. St. Elias. The
main Alaskan range bounds this division on the north and
west. In this he embraces a part of the Aliaska peninsula
and the Island of Kadiak already mentioned. We are now,
however, speaking of the main land.
Upon the main land of this division the company has five
sub-stations, including the peninsula of Aliaska-two on
Cook's Inlet, one on English Bay, one on the peninsula
and one on Prince William's Sound. The latter is called
Nuchek, and is the "establishment" referred to by Governor
Swineford as being  300 miles to the westward of Sitka,"
and the nearest station to it. At this place this company has
one white man as a sub-agent and a few Aleuts as employes.
The population is all Indian, and the only people with
whom the company trades are Indians. The Indians are
the only hunters and they bring to the company chiefly the
skins of the martin and mink, with a few others. The com



30


pany has a small store of supplies for the Indian traders,
and its boats go there generally twice a year. The entire
business is only between $3,000 and $4,000 a year. This
station is not at all remunerative and its abandonment has
been contemplated for some time.   There is no miining in
the neighborhood, no fish industry, no canneries and no
white population.
Of this station Mr. Petroff says:
"The number of sea-otters sold at the Nuchek stores every year does not
exceed one hundred and fifty, and are all killed between the islands Nushegak
and Kaiak. The whole Eskimo population of this secluded district is only
about 500, and, as they are poor, they will probably remain in this seclusion, which is broken but once or twice a year by the arrival of the
trading schooner." (P. 28, Petroff's Rep.)
The two stations of the company on Cook's Inlet are
Toyonok and Kenai; that on English Bay is Alexandrovsk,
and that on the peninsula is Katmai.   At Toyonok, the
company has one sub-agent, who is a white man, and also
has a small store. There are no white or Aleutian hunters,
there, only Indians and but few of them. They bring in
mink, martin, bear and deer skins only. The trade is very
small. There is no town there, and but very little surrounding population.  An occasional ship comes in and the
Indians freely avail themselves of the best offer for their
peltries.
Kenai was once a station of the old Russian-American
Commercial Company. It now has only one sub-agent and
a small store.  The hunters are likewise Indians, there
being no white hunters or Aleutians there.    The trade
with this company is very small. At this place the Arctic
Fishing Company does considerable business in salmon-to
the extent probably of upwards of $6,000 per annum, and
has its own vessels and imports its own supplies for its employes and those with whom it trades. The Indians also
do the fishing.
Alexandrovsk, situated on English Bay, contains about
eighty-eight people. Of these, one is a white man, twelve




,1
o)I


are creoles or half-breeds, and the remainder are Aleutians.
The white man is the agent of the Alaska Commercial
Company, who alone and without any employes manages
the business, including one small store of supplies. The
trade is quite small and is principally confined to the seaotter, hunted exclusively by the Aleuts and creoles. Occasionally vessels of others visit this point and compete for
pelts, which are readily obtained by the offer of contraband
articles by way of barter.
Katmai, on the peninsula of Aliaska, is a sub-station ot
very small importance, and one man only with a small store
is kept there at occasional intervals. It is practically abandoned. The trade is insignificant.
We have now presented the entire operations of the company on the main land in the Kadiak division. This division contains 70,884 square miles, and how much of that
large territory is affected by the Alaska Commercial Company's operations can thus be seen at a glance. If so little
business, at such few insignificant points, on the mere margin of the country, has such a "pernicious influence" on
that main land and is such a blight to. its general prosperity,
its whole vitality and inherent strength must be very susceptible indeed.
The greater portion of this division lies between Prince
William's Sound and Mt. St. Elias.   Those who have
visited it describe it as an "Alpine region," the whole
coast' "deeply indented with coves and fiords, and towering
peaks rise abruptly from the sea. Nearly every valley and
ravine has its glacier, some of the latter being among the
most extensive in the world. In Port Valde2, at the northern
extremity of the sound, a glacier exists with a face 15 miles
in length at the sea shore, while its downward track can be
traced almost to the summit of the alps."
Vol. VIII, Tenth Census, 1880, p. 27, Petroff's Rep.
The same author gives the entire population of the
Kadiak Division in 1882 at 4,352, of which 84 are whites,




32


917 creole or half-breeds, and       the  rest Indians.     It is
doubtful if there has been any increase by immigration
since.
Whether the prospects in the Kadiak Division on the
main line are very inviting for immigration, or its prospects have been marred by this company, can be judged of
by the facts submitted.
Third. The Arctic Division.
This is described by Mr. Petroff as follows
"The Arctic Division, containing 125,245 square miles, and composing
all that portion of the North American Continent between the one hundred
and forty-first meridian in the east and cape Prince of Wales, or Bering
Strait, in the west, the Arctic Ocean in the north, and having for its southern boundary a line indicating the water-shed between the Yukon River
system and the streams emptying into the Arctic and impinging upon
the coast of Bering Sea just north of Port Clarence."
With this vast tract this company has nothing whatever
to do. The interior is virtually an unknown and unexplored region. As to the coast trade, we have no knowledge or sources of information not possessed by the public
at large.    We    believe that the facts, as stated     by Mr.
Petroff, are correct. He says:
"It is impossible to obtain statistics of the provisions, manufactured
goods, arms, and ammunition shipped to the Arctic coast of Alaska, and disposed of among the natives there, chiefly because the bulk of this trade has
fallen into the hands of illegitimate traders, who clear from American ports
for the coast of Siberia, then touch at the Sandwich Islands to lay in a supply of spirituous liquors, and finally cruise along the Alaskan coast, purchasing all the furs, fossils, and walrus ivory in the hands of the Arctic
Innuits with rum, breech-loading arms, and ammunition. This traffic,
though quite extensive in volume, lies at present altogether without the pale
of official investigation, and only the continuous presence of one or two
vessels of the revenue marine in these waters could reduce the trade of the
Arctic Division to a legitimate basis."
This company may, therefore, be excused from any
defense as to the Arctic Division.




33


Fourth. The Yukon Division.
This division lies immediately to the south of the Arctic
Division, contains 176,715 square miles and comprises the
valley of the Yukon River as far as it lies in Alaska, and
its tributaries north and south. It extends east and west
from Bchring's Sea to the British possessions, and is bounded' south, in part, by the Kadiak Division, already reviewed,
and the Koskokvim   Division, shortly to be referred to.
No State or Territory in the Uiiited States at all approaches
in area this vast Yukon Division, excepting only Texas.
Yet, within its wide domain, the Alaska Commercial Compatjy has but one station or trading post, and that is at St.
Michael or Michaelovski, situated on Norton Sound, which
its vessels visit once a year only. At this place the compally has a store and an agent and assistant agent. A captain
aid engineer to each of two small river steamers, a carpenter and a laborer. Its business is with the traders who
lumber about a dozen. It never comes in contact with the
natives or hunters, but obtains all the commodities it purchases from the traders at agreed rates, and in turn sells its
supplies to the traders at fair prices. The company also
runs two small steamers from St. Michael hp the river in
summer to carry supl)lies to the traders, and to bring down
tle peltries there purchased. It also at times receives orders or commissions for articles to be purchased at San
Francisco, which it always fulfils at fair and reasonable
r.tes, and delivers the articles at St. Michael or on the
river. The traders referred to also have two small steamers of their own running from St. Michael to carry sup-,lies up to their stations on the river and return with pelts.
These traders also have stations at various places on the
river where they keep supplies, with which to barter with
the hunters for peltries. There are eight of these stations
on the river-Ft. Reliance, Tananah, Novikakat, Nulato,
Anvik, Mission, Andreivsky and Kotlik. The entire busi.
ness of the Alaska Commercial Company in this division
amounts to about $30,000 per annum.




34
Vessels can but rarely, and for short periods, approach
the anchorage, or very near the anchorage, at St. Michael,
and never before the latter part of June, on account of large
bodies of ice that drift il the wraters of Norton Sound and
the straits between the delta of the Yukon and St. Lawrence Island. The river is not open for navigation until
July, and closes at the end of September. Sea-going vessels cannot enter the river, and all supplies for the interior
are transferred necessarily at St. Michael to the smaller
crafts that ascend the river.  The vessels of the traders are
usually frozen in near their upper trading stations in winter,
and return in the following summer, whilst the small
steamers of the Alaska Commercial Company make return trips and winter at St. Michael.
The mountains are covered with forests almost impenetrable, and the great plains are almost all swamps and covered with snow for seven and eight months of the year.
Mining has not proved a success, or sufficiently promising
to induce a large influx of miners.  Some mines have been
found on the Tennanah, paying little more than laborer's
wages, for the season is too brief to warrant any expectation of greater rewards. We respectfully refer to the statement of Mr. Schieffelin, an energetic and experienced
miner, found in the appendix. (No. 6 of Appendix.)
Whilst the river is abundant in fish and the forests in
game, the food supply from these sources is notgreater than
the demands of the Indians, for in the fishing season the
concentration of tribes on the river banks is so great as
practically to depopulate the greater part of the adjacent
territory. The better authority and most reliable explorers
of this region, state that there can be no well grounded expectation of this ever being an agricultural country.
" The whole valley of the Yukon lies within a few degrees of the Arctic
Circle. the soil, where it is level, is always swampy, and even the slopes of
the hills and mountains are never drained of their superabundant moisture.
The heat of snmn er has no effect beyond an astonishingly rapid growth of
native grasses and weeds and the bringing into life of dense clouds of mosquitoes all over the country. * * * For hundreds of miles from the sea
the Yukon River flows through low, level tundras, or mossy morasses,




35


resting upon a foundation of clay. The shifting current of the river eats
away the shores on either side with astonishing rapidity; the dull thud of
caving banks is constantly heard by the traveler, and whole reaches change
their aspect entirely within a single season. Stepping upon the shore, the
explorer must jump from hummock to hummock or wade around from knee
to waist deep. In many places the ice never disappears within a few inchea
of the surface, being protected from the rays of the sun by a non-conductive
carpet of sphagnum. * * * * The temperature as exhibited in the above.
table Ltables of mean temperature at St. Michael, Greek Church Mission,
Nulato and Fort Yukon,] would not seem to afford much encouragement to
the agricultural immigrant, even without reference to the existence of frozen,
soil throughout the year within a short distance of the surface as men
tioned above."
(Vol. VIII, Tenth Census, 1880, Petroff's Report, pp. 6
and 9.)
These statements are corroborated by Mr. E. W. NeIson, Chief Signal Officer, in his report on the meteorology
of St. Michael and vicinity, and by Mr. W. H. Dall in his
report upon the agricultural resources ot Alaska. (See same
Vol. pp., 7 and 9.)
From   the foregoing facts it will be readily seen that no
"pernicious influence" of this company bas kept that portion of Alaska from    being " to-day largely populated with
an industrious, enterprising, prosperous people," or prevented "millions where there are now hundreds" from being
invested in its "natural resources." Such language applied
to this part of Alaska clearly affords a striking instance of
remarkable exaggeration, or want of accurate information.
Fifth. Koskokvim Division.
This lies directly south of the Yukon division; north-west
of the Kadiak division; extends to Behring's Sea and includes the Koskokvim      Bay, river and valley, and Bristol
Bay, with   the Nushegak     river and valley.     It contains
114,975 square miles, and is larger than the whole Territory of Arizona.
The Alaska Commercial Company has not a single station.
in this division. It had one formerly at Kalmakovski but it
was abandoned about ten years ago.          We send a vesseL.




36


once a year to the Koskokvim River, to a point fifteen or
twenty miles above the mouth, to meet and trade with a
single trader, Mr. Sipary, who accumulates during the year
in the interior and neighborhood, the pelts of mink, martin,
bear, and other cheaper skins, and gets his supplies from
our company. The trade amounts to about $10,000.00 per
annum. Mr. Sipary is a principal in the business, and does
his own trading with the hunters. We also send a vessel
once, and sometimes twice, a year to Nushegak on the
river of that name, where we trade with a single trader, Mr.
John W. Clark, from whom we buy peltries, and to whom
we furnish snpplies. The business covers about $10,000.00
per annum. Mr. Clark has about eight employes, and has
established stores of his own at Nushegak, Togiak, and
Illamna. The Alaska Commercial Co. does not come in contact with the hunters or any other trader than Mr. Clark.
At this point, Nushlegak, there are several companies doing
a large business in salmono canneries. These are the Arctic
Packing Company, Bristol Bay Canning Company, and the
Alaska Packing Company. This is one of the finest salmon
fisheries on the Coast, the salmon being found in immense
numbers on the Nushegak and other streams emptying into
Bristol Bay. The American fishermen have been established here for many years and do a very large business.
Two of these fishing companies are of California and one
of Oregon. The Alaska Commercial Company has nothing
whatever to do with this business.
The total population of the Koskokvim division by the last
Census was 8,911, mostly Eskimos. The number of whites
and creoles together, only amounted to 114. There has
been no obstruction to immigration, except such as the
natural condition of the country presents. Between the
Koskokvim and the Nushegak Rivers, the villages of the
Indians are so very numerous and they are so very poor,
that they could not exist were it not for the abundant supply of salmon in the summer, when they lay in a supply for
themselves and dogs. They absorb the whole or nearly all
the salmon of the Koskokvim River, in connection with the




37


other natives, who also go there from the delta of the
Yukon River. This leaves nothing in the salmon line for
traders. This dense Indian population extends from Koskokvim Bay far up the river.
The headwaters of the Koskokvim is al unknown and
unexplored region.
The country between Koskokvim Bay and Bristol
Bay on the River Togiak, sometimes called the Togiak
division, is so poor in natural products sought by white
men that it is not visited by whites and has no trade. The
natives there are poor in the extreme. They live in a state
of nature of the most primitive character.
The whole of this division between the Koskokvim and
the Nushegak, including the valleys of those rivers all along
the coast of Behring's Sea and extending far inland, is so
invested in summer with mosquitoes and small poisonous
black flies, that their "pernicious influence" alone will,
until some great deliverance comes, forever exclude the
white population from that region. Writers on the subject
describe these as producing a "most terrible and poignant
infliction," not only producing the greatest distress but also
fever. Mosquitoes torture the Indian dogs to death, and
"even drive the bear and deer into the water."  The Indians protect themselves by anointing their bodies with
rancid- oil, and by wrapping mosquito nets and cloths
around their heads and wearing mittens in midsummer.
Vol. VIII, 10 Census U. S., 1880, p. 14, Petrofl's
Report.
As to these portions of Alaska, we present simple facts,
with no desire to underate any part of the country, but as
the Alaska Commercial Company does a small business
here, we may rightfully show that its operations have not
the slightest influence for good or ill, but that nature has
placed here barriers beyond human power.
At all times we have offered facilities to all miners,
* scientists, explorers, excursionists, traders, missionaries, or




38


immigrants, visiting any part of the country. We have, in
numerous instances, written to our agents to extend to
them  every courtesy. We have carried them   and their
*baggage and freight to and from all points to which our
vessels run, and it has been a pleasure to assist unfortunate
miners on their way home from remote regions to which
they have been tempted by overdrawn pictures of promising bonanzas. We present, in the Appendix, (No. 7,) a
letter of Mr. Lewis Gerstle, when President of this company, written in 1886, as a specimen of orders given our
agents from time to time, and as evidence of our general
'treatment of our fellow-citizens who visit any portions of
Alaska where we have business and agents.
We have furnished supplies at fair prices, and filled orders
and commissions on reasonable terms, acting at times in the
character not only of common carriers, but as express-men.
Our business with all persons has been on a legitimate basis,
resting on the established proposition that commercial
transactions may be conducted in such a manner as to be
of profit and advantage to all engaged.
VII.
Mutilation of U. S. Coin.
Governor   Swineford, in  his report, states of this
company:
"( In order to more effectually monopolize the trade it has marked and
mutilated the coin of the United States, and refused to receive any
other from the natives in payment for goods sold them."
As this is made a felony under Section 5459, Rev. Stat.
U. S, it should not have been charged except upon the
most reliable evidence and after the greatest consideration;
yet, it is not only utterly and wholly untrue, but this company has done no act inl reference to United States coin,
which its bitterest enemy could distort into the semblance
of this crime. On the contrary, the company has for several years past taken all the mutilated and defaced coin




39


received by it, and fiom time to time sold it as bullion
by weight in San Francisco, at its own loss, for the purpose
of getting it out of circulation in Alaska.
If an effectual monopoly of trade in territory of the
United States can be effected, and all competition overcome by defacing and mutilating United States coin, and
refusing to receive in business transatctions anything except
coin so mutilated, it involves a principle of trade and
political economy too profound for the comprehension of
this company. Certain it is that such a scheme has never
been pursued in any country ever heard of till now.
VIII.
As to Violations of the Law and Executive
Orders in Relation to the Importation
and Sale of Breech-Loading Fire-Arms
by the Company's Agents.
If the Governor has positive information on the subject
of such "flagrant violations," it is his duty to see that the
offenders are prosecuted in due course of the criminal law.
A conviction in such a case would most satisfactorily establish the fact. As yet, however, no such offense has been
charged ou the oath of any prosecuting witness, nor have
any proceedings to vindicate the law been initiated. We
apprehend that none will be, for it will be found, in the
future as in the past, that when responsibility attaches to
the making of charges, and verification is required under
oath, none will be seen so reckless as to conform to the
necessary forms of law in making accusations.
On a similar charge heretofore made, this company was
heard by this Honorable Department, and honorably acquitted.   The papers of the Department will verify this statement. The charge now made is merely a reproduction of
the old charge, without any foundation whatever.




40


This company has not, nor has any of its agents, violated
the law, or any of the executive orders, in relation to the
importation or sale of breech-loading fire-arms, or any
other fire arms.
Under the Revised St.tutes of the United States,
Section 1955, this matter is entirely within the control of
the President.  President 3Grant, on the 4th February,
1870, prohibited the importation and use of fire-arms and
ammunition into the islands of St. Paul and St. George,and
his order was promulgated by the then Secretary of the
Treasury on the 8th February, 1870.  But on the 9th
September, 1870, the President modified that order "so as
to permit the Alaska Comnmercial Company to take a
limited quantity of fire-arms ai!d ammunition to said islands,
subject to the directions of the revenue officers there
and such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe."  On
the 10th September, 1870, the Acting Secretary of the
Treasury announced the President's order and prescribed
the regulations. These pertained to the islands of St. Paul
and St. George alone.
On the 3d July, 1875, the Acting Secretary of the Treasury, with the approval of the President, issued a circular
to the Collectors of Customs, prohibiting the importation of
breech-loading rifles and fixed ammunition suitable therefor, into the Territory of Alaska.
On the 21st April, 1879, Mr. Slerman, then Secretary of
the Treasury, issued a notice announcing the effect of Section 1956 of the Revised Statutes, relating to the killing of
otter, fur-seal, etc., and prohibiting the killing of far-bearing animals by persons other than natives in Alaska, except
those taken by the Alaska Commercial Company under its
lease, and prohibiting the use of fire-arms by the natives in
killing otter in the months of May, June, July, August and
September. lIe expressly announced that "white men,
lawfully married to natives and residing within the Territory, are considered natives within the meaning of this
order."




41


On the 30th March, 1882, the Treasury Department, with
the approval of the President, issued a further circular to
the Collectors of Customs, amending and modifying so
much of the instructions of July 3rd, 1875, as prohibited
the importation of breech-loading rifles, and suitable ammunition therefor, so as to permit "each adult emigrant" who
intends to become an actual bona fide settler on the main
land, to ship to the care of the Collector of Customs at
Sitka, for his own personal protection and for hunting game
a rifle and suitable ammunition-also to each actual bona
fide resident of the main land of Alaska (not including Indians and traders), upon application to the Collector, and
with his approval, to order and ship for personal use such
arms and ammunition to his care, not exceeding one rifle
for each such person together with proper ammunition.
On the 21st of March, 1885, the Collector of Customs at
Sitka, addressed the Hon. Secretary of the Treasury a letter upon the subject, requesting an extension of the provisions of the circular of the 30th of March, 1882, and recommending, in view of the increasing population and
needs of the Territory, that such authority be extended so
as to permit actual settlers and residents, not traders or Indians, to import for their own use breech-loading arms and
suitable ammunition into all parts of Alaska, including its
islands, except the leased Pribylov Islands, and that the
Collector of Customs at San Francisco, Port Townsend and
Sitka, respectively, be empowered to grant the requisite
permits.  The Hon. Daniel Manning, then Secretary,
granted the request, and made the order accordingly in his
official letter to the Collector at Sitka, dated May 8th, 1885,
sending and directing circulars to that effect to the respective Collectors named. These latter bear date the 12th May,
1885.
On the 4th May, 1887, further regulations were issued by
the present Hon. Secretary of the Treasury, prohibiting
"the importation into said Territory of breech-loading rifles
and suitable ammunition therefor, except for the personal
use of white settlers or temporary visitors, not traders."
All these orders were approved by the President.




p


42
This company has never in the slightest degree violated
these several regulations, a fact that we stand ready to verify and sustain, whenever required by the Department, by
Congress, or by any judicial tribunal.
IX.
As to the     Rescission    of the   Lease; the
Abandonment of the Leasing          System; and
Substitution of a New Plan for the Management of the Islands of St. Paul and St.
George, Proposed by Governor Swineford.
This recommendation of Governor Swineford is not new,
but was before Congress in 1876, and we beg leave to refer
to the report of the Committee of Ways and Means of the
House of Representatives, before referred to, (44th Congress, 1st Session, Report No. 623,) and to the action of
Congress thereon. This company has in every respect fulfilled its agreement, as we have fully shown, and there was
no ground for rescission of the lease in 1876, and there is
none now. At the time the lease was about to be authorized by, Congress, there was a great deal of discussion
of this policy. Mr. Boutwell. then Secretary of the Treasury, was quite adverse to it, and favored a schleme not unlike that which Governor Swineford now advocates. Congress, however, rejected it, and adopted the present plan.
At the time the Congressional investigation referred to was
had, the system of leasing had been in force and operation
for nearly six years-a period quite ample enough to develop all its advantages and disadvantages. The committee
had before it quite a number of witnesses, and among them
the unrelenting enemies of the company, who sought to
profit by its downfall. Yet the committee found all charges
of misconduct and of breach of contract, false, and unanimously sustained the wisdom and policy of the system.
The committee, in its conclusion, in speaking of the policy
of the law under which the lease was made, said:




43


"A difference of opinion may be properly entertained on this question.
It is quite certain that the Government as such, could not perform this
trust. All experience teaches that governments are poor factors, and rarely
pursue any industry involving the manufacture and sale of products with
success or profit. We think Congress acted wisely in rejecting the recommendation of Mr. Boutwell, to conduct this business of seal-catching'on
Government account, and establishing at these islands a humanitarian institution for the care and moral training of the half-savage natives. The
contract, as made, was the best disposition of this interest that could have
been made, for it is certain that it has resulted in the receipt of very large
revenue to the Treasury, and in an amelioration of the physical and moral
condition of the natives. *  * ** The annual payment is $262,500
tax, and $55,000 rental, making an aggregLat of $317,500 every year. This
sum is nearly 4/, per centum interest on the original cost of the whole Territory of Alaska, including the two seal islands referred to. Certainly the
Government has no right to reproach itself for a want of mercantile shrewdness in the purchase of this Territory, nor in the prompt advantages which
it has been enabled to obtain from it." (Page 12.)
The   testimony   of the witnesses before the committee,
established the wise policy of the Act of Congress, and the
concurring   testimony of the various agents'of the Government and other officers is to the same effect.
We also respectfully refer to the other statements to the
same effect contained in the Appendix.
We have in our possession the statements of a number of
gentlemen engaged in various occupations who have promptly given their views of our operations in Alaska and of the
sections of the country with which they are familiar. This
reply is already so extended that we will present in the
Appendix only a few of these as specimens. They are by
uo means exhaustive of the evidence which can be presented.
To these, however, emanating as they do from          gentlemen
of the highest character in the business community and official
circles, and entirely disinterested, we respectfully invite
your earnest attention. The utmost reliance also is due to
the letter of the Right Reverend Edmund de Schweinitz,
Bishop of the Moravian Church,, a copy of which we also
append.     (Appendix, No. 11.)      The   missionaries of that
church have penetrated to       various points in the interior
of Alaska, and frequently report very fully to the Bishop
as to all matters occurrilg in the country.




44


X.
Conclusion.
The violent assaults and severe charges against the Alaska
Commercial Company in 1876, were so; effective as to induce the House of Representatives, as we have seeii, to
refer the matter for investigation, to the Committee of
Ways and Means, and yet it appeared at last, that all the
the complaints made were traced to the "persevering
efforts" of a "disappointed bidder for the contract," who
even assailed the official integrity of Mr. Boutwell, Secretary of the Treasury. Yet, as the Committee announced,
" he failed to state any facts which could weaken a confidence in the integrity with which the lessees had performed' their agreement."  It there appeared that the
whole matter was the result of a conspiracy concocted in
San Francisco, and carried out by the dissemination of false
charges and libels through the medium of memorials, circulars, phamphlets and newspapers.
The conspirators finally fell out and the very one who
wrote all the scurrilous articles, confessed it, and himself
exposed the scheme.
These false charges, though so thoroughly unsupported
before the committee referred to, have from time to time
been renewed, yet every time the Hon. Secretary has
ordered an investigation or report upon the subject by an
agent or government officer, the charges have proved equally
unfounded.
Our "operations" have not only been open to the view
of the world, but have been under the immediate observation of the agents of the TreasurylDepartment and other
officers of the Government at the immediate points of our
operations. In their superintendence of our special transactions, and personal observation of our general conduct, for
over seventeen years, they have found no cause of complaint.
Their official reports to the Government impute to us no
blame. The charges now made are aspersions, from unknown and irresponsible sources, to which the Governor has




45


given his facile attention. A specification of these alone
does not seem to have been satisfactory to gubernatorial
ideas of duty, but they are supplemented by fierce denunciations culminatitg in the exhibition of this company as the
Devil-fish, so graphically described in another work of fiction
by the celebrated Victor Hugo.
We are at a loss to understand how Governor Swineford
could have been so deceived as to give credence to these old
slanders, exhumed again for a further post mortem examination. It is curious, too, that whilst the exploded conspiracy just referred to, called itself the "Anti-Monopoly Associatiol," and purported to give an account of the "wrongs of
Alaska," so now the Governor's report conies again with the
old outcry against monopoly and again sounds the refrain of
the "'wrongs of Alaska."  History repeats itself. The violence of the attacks seems to be in proportion to the weakness of the evidence. The monopoly which'the Alaska
Commercial Company has had, has been the monopoly
which the tenant enjoys of the premises leased from his
lalldlord, at a large rental. The wrongs it has done Alaska
have been the preservation and protection of its greatest
natural resource-the fur-seal iidustry-alid tlle furnishing
of employment to a large number of its native lopulation on
better terms than elsewhere prevails. We have fulfilled our
obligations to the Government, and to the natives, and have
observed the laws and the regulations of the Treasury Department.
In view, therefore, of these' facts andl ou own consciousness of rectitude in all of our transactions, we believe that
the confidence which has heretofore been reposed in us, and
the approving judgment you have given in tlle past, will
continue during tlie entire time of our official relations.
Very respectfully,
THE ALASKA COMMERCIAL COMPANY,
By LOUIS SLOSS,
President.




I
I




APPENDIX.




I




D 7- rA RTNA, F N  0 F  THE
-0-                           MAP
JOB, il'.
2w                                      'TENTH CENSUS OF TH
170'     1".                                                                          Su          E UNITED STATILa
C             0    C,
T
ofa 41,-Apple.
MAP
or
ALASIKA
AND ADJOINING
'Rt:GION.S.
Compiled by
W PETRoojp,
nA
------------------                                Speciaa
Agent, Tenth Census
y U                                           Mae.
Shuwing -'V.0luid arle a
CE0GR"RldkLDM5jW.
16TAT, Mae.'
-2
'roll                                                                             L E G Lwl lq.D
1 Arctic       Di'vision.
2 Yukon
3 Kit a k ( I't 0 i
4 Al e Uti art
P)
-------                                                                                               Kadiak
ro  OUth ZRIStern










3F.
ICA
Ftl.RLtLAWCE.  showing
DISTANCES ~*AAJOINING
-"7
'B07








I
I
I
I
I




APPENDIX.


No. I.
Extract of Report by Lieut. John E. Lutz, of the U. S. R. M., to
Capt. M. A. Healy, commanding the Rev. Str. "Corwin."
U. S. REVENUE MARINE,
SCH. " ADELE,'
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., Oct. 6, 1884.
CAPT. M. A. HEALY,
Commanding Rev. Str. "Corwin."
SIR:
I have the honor to submit the following report. In obedience to your orders of May 22, a copy of which is herewith transmitted, I landed from the "Corwin" at St.
Paul's Island June 1st.
I found the affairs of this island in excellent condition,
wholesome sanitary regulations are enforced, and unusually
good health has prevailed during the past year. All of the
natives are now living, rent free, in comfortable frame
houses, which have been erected by the lessees of the
island, in place of the damp and unhealthy " barrabhies" in
which these people formerly dwelt. Too much cannot be
said in commendation of the manner in which the Alaska
Commercial Company, the present lessees of the island, fulfill faithfully all the terms of their contract with the Government. The method of taking seal has been reduced to
an admirable system, and every precaution is taken to prevent a diminution of seal life. The natives are treated exceedingly well, and none of them are permitted to remain
in want of the necessaries of life. They are not required
to work, although such as desire are given remunerative
employment. By reason of the high price allowed for the
labor of skinning seals, these people are able to earn in
less than two months a sum amply sufficient to maintain




50


them during the entire year-a sum much larger, in fact,
than the average amount received by laboring men in the
United States for a year's work. In addition to this, they
are supplied free of charge, with a quantity of fuel, salt
meat, condensed milk, etc., while they have no rent to pay.
In religion, they adhere firmly to the tenets of the Greek
Church.  While this church doubtless exercises a good influence on these people spiritually, it drains their pockets
systematically to the extent of some thousands of dollars
annually, not for the church at St. Paul's alone but for the
benefit of the church authorities in San Francisco to whom
the major portion is sent.
Like all other primitive people, these natives possess an
inordinate longing for intoxicating liquors of any description. All means of gratifying that desire are now denied
them, fortunately.  They are allowed neither sugar nor
hops and cannot, therefore, make quass. Gambling is their
favorite pastime, and is a habit which cannot be checked.
No bad effects are perceptible, however, as the stakes are
usually small. The compalny retains to the credit of every
man a sum sufficient to buy provisions for their families
until such time as they can earn more on the seal field, thus
preventing the men from squandering all of their money
and leaving their families destitute. They would usually
invest the whole of their earnings in jellies, preserves,
sweet crackers, silks, etc., but the company will sell them
these articles in limited quantities although encouraging
them to buy useful and necessary supplies instead.
By precept and example on the part of the Government
agents and the employees of the company, these natives are
encouraged to lead an upright and industrious life. The
welfare of these people and the interests of the Government
are well taken care of by Mr. H. A. Glidden, Special Agent
in charge of the seal islands. * * * * * *
I am, sir, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
JOHN E. LUTZ,
3d Lieut. U. S. R. M.




No. 2.
Extract from Report of Capt. M. A. Healy, Commanding Rev.
Str. "Corwin," to Hon. Daniel Manning, Secretary
of the Treasury.
U. S. REVENUE MARINE,
STEAMER " CORWIN."
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., 1885.
HON, DANIEL MANNING.
Secretary of the Treasury,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
SIR:
I have the honor to submit the following report of the
Alaskan and Arctic cruise of the TJ. S. Revenue Steamer
A Corwin" under my command, during the summer of 1885.
* * *  *    Since the Territory of Alaska was ceded to
the United States, no officer of the Government has been on
official duty in Alaskan waters more than I, my first duty
having been in 1868. From personal observations covering most of the time from that date to the present year I
can truly say that the condition of the natives has improved
in a remarkable degree since the Alaska Commercial
Company'has obtained the lease of that portion of the
country from the Government.
Before the company assuned control of the Seal-Islands,
the natives were but little in advance of the Indians of
Alaska.
Their habitations formerly were mud huts and their food
and clothing such only as the country afforded. Education
even of the most primitive nature was unknown and un



52


dreamed of, and they being satisfied to live from day to
day, gave no thought whatever of the morrow.
Their huts have now given place to comfortable frame
houses, giving them an air almost of luxuriance, when compared with their former abodes.
Carpets, furniture and the ordinary comforts of the middle classes in the United States form the rule of the furnishings of their houses. In dress they border on the extravagant, silks with the women and broadcloths with the
men being not infrequent, while many of the latter have
neat sums of money placed to their credit.
Schools are maintained on the islands, and attendance at
them is compulsory.
A church costing three thousand dollars, was erected on
St. Paul's Island (the money having been advanced by the
A. C. Co.), and it is now almost clear of debt. A doctor is
employed on each of the islands of St. Paul's and St.
George's and Ounalaska, solely for the care of the natives.
The general air of cleanliness, happiness, comfort and
prosperity attest in indisputable terms that the A. C. Co..
have and do fulfill their obligations towards those people in
a most scrupulous and conscientious manner, and the result
might, I am sure, excite the wonder and envy of many
missionaries laboring among a similar class.  * *
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
M. A. HEALY,
Captain U. S. R. M.




No. 3.
Letter of Louis Sloss, President of the Alaska Commercial
Company, to Mr. George R. Tingle, U. S. Treasury Agent
Residing at St. Paul's, Alaska.
SAN FRANCISCO, December 5th, 1887.
MR. GEORGE R. TINGLE,
DEAR SIR:
Various charges have recently been made against the
Alaska Commercial Company, in reference to its operations
in Alaska, as well under its lease of the islands of St. Paul
and St. George, as generally in other parts of the country
not embraced in the lease. Among other charges are:
1. That it has reduced the native population to a condition of helpless dependence, if not slavery, and that its oppression and robbery of the natives are notorious;
2. That it compels acceptance by the natives on pain of
starvation of such beggarly prices as manages invariably to
keep them in debt and at its mercy;
3. That to effect a monopoly of the trade it has marked
and mutilated the U. S. coin and refused to receive any
other from the natives in payment of goods sold them;
4. That it has boycotted and driven from the islands
government officers, who refused to do the bidding of its
agents;
5. That it is hostile to the settlement of the country,
discourages immigration and the investment of capital in
the development of its great natural resources;
6. That to the pernicious influence of the Alaska Commercial Company is due the fact that Alaska is not to-day
largely populated with an industrious and enterprising peo



64


pie, and that additional millions are not invested in the
country;
7. That it has committed flagrant violations of the law
and executive orders in relation to the importation and sale
of breech-loading fire-arms by its agents;
8. That it has not kept its agreement with the government as to the education of the young natives in English;
9. That the lease by the government to the Alaska Commercial Company should be rescinded, if possible, and if
not, it should not be renewed.
As the agent of the government sent to the islands and
charged with the management of the seal-fisheries in
Alaska and also the performance of other duties assigned
to you by the Honorable Secretary of the Treasury, you
have had an opportunity of learning what truth there may
be in the various charges above specified.
We should be much pleased to have you state the result
of your own observation and such information from reliable
sources as you may have, as to the company's operations
and transactions on the Aleution chain and the main land,
as well as upon the islands of St. Paul and St. George. Also
what in your opinion would be the result of the abolition of
the present leasing system and the substitution in its place
of a plan in which the government should take the place
of the lessees on the two islands named; that the natives
alone should kill the fur-seals, and that the skins should
then be sold by the natives in open market in presence of
the government agent, who should collect a tax of $5 on
each skin sold.
As early a reply as your personal convenience will enable
you to make will be greatly appreciated.
Very respectfully and truly yours,
Louis SLOSS,
President of the Alaska Commercial Company.




No. 4.
Reply of Mr. Geo. R. Tingle, U. S. Treasury Agent at St. Paul's,
Alaska, to Louis Sloss, Pres't Alaska Commercial Co.
SAN FRANCISCO, December 7th, 1887.
LOUIS SLOSS, ESQ.,
President Alaska Commercial Company.
SIR:
Your letter of the 5th inst. was duly received, informing
me that "various charges have recently been made against
the Alaska Commercial Company in reference to its operations in Alaska, at well under its lease of the Islands of St.
Paul and St. George, as generally in other parts of the
country not embraced in the lease." You ask me to state
the " result of my observations and such reliable information
as I may have as to the company's operations in Alaska."
I may state that my opportunities as Treasury Agent in
charge of the fur-seal islands since the spring of 1885, and
intercourse with officers of the Revenue Marine Service in
Alaskan waters, and acquaintance with the white people and
*  natives at various stations in the territory, have been such as
to enable me to speak advisedly and answer from personal
knowledge the several questions you have propounded to
me.
No. 1. "That it (A. C. Co.) has reduced the native population to a condition of helpless dependence, if not slavery,
and that its oppression and robbery of the natives are notorious."
In answer to this it might be sufficient to say the entire
charge is false, but considering the gravity of the charges
made against your company, I will treat them more at-;




56
length. As to the first part of the charge, I have to say
that in conversation with old Kerick Buterin, the most intelligent native on the Island of St. Paul, and Antone Mellovedove, a bright, intelligent, young man, son of the old
Governor of the island under Russian rule, I learned that
before the lease of the island to the Alaska Commercial
Company, the natives lived in miserable huts half under
ground, some of which are still standing unoccupied. They
received from the Russians ten cents a day for their labor in
taking and curing seal skins, and packing on their backs was
the only mode of collecting the skins and delivering them
to the boats. Old Kerick has frequently told me he was
the highest salaried man among the natives, being headcarpenter, and the most he ever received from the Russians
was $60.00 per annum. The books in the Treasury Agent's
office on the island show his annual pay for sealing alone
since the Alaska Commercial Company.took charge to be
over $500.00 per annum, and in addition the company pay
him a monthly salary of Ten Dollars for looking after the
small boats, etc.; they also made him a present of a frame
cottage in which he has for years lived with his family.
If this be dependence and slavery, then the charge is true.
This man's case fairly represents the condition of the
whole population on the two islands.
Under the lease the company is not required to furnish
the natives, houses, physicians, medicines, etc., free, yet it
is a fact that comfortable frame houses were built and given
rent free as fast as the material could be transported after
the lease was made, and the natives were lifted from a condition of slavery and privation, by your company's generosity, to one of free American citizenship and comfort; to
them, luxury. I have never seen greater care and more
considerate treatment bestowed on any people in the States
than the company's doctors show in ministering to the
natives on the fur-seal islands as well as at Ounalaska; and
that the natives on the main-land may have the benefit of a
physician they send one every spring on the first vessel
visiting the coast line, to the eastward of Ounalaska and




57


north as far as St. Michaels. All this is a free will offering
to the natives, The natives on the seal-islands complete
their year's work in less than three months, for which they
receive in cash from your company over $500.00 to the
man; in addition you contribute to them, free, physicians,
medicines, coal, salt salmon, salt to cure blubber, eight months'
schooling annually, and comfortable houses, and they have
fresh seal meat as long as the seals remain, which is nine
months each year. The natives have absolutely nothing to
do for nine months of the year, and have now on deposit
drawing four per cent. interest, $64,732.11. If this is
"dependence and slavery " then the parties making charge
No. 1 should turn their attention to any of the great cities
of the highly civilized States east, and reform the condition
of the laboring classes who toil for their employers ten hours
each day for twelve months a year, receiving therefor less
money than you pay the natives for three months' work,
whilst the poor white laborer gets nothing for the comfort
of his family except what he can pay out of his hard-earned
wages.
I have never known an instance of abuse of natives by
your agents or employes, and when the Treasury Agent
has occasion o9 reprimand a native, no greater punishment
can be held over then than to threaten them with transportation to Sitka where they could not get your company
to work for.
As to the second clause of No. 1, the charge of "oppression and robbery of the natives are notorious."
It must be a most malicious and reckless man who would
give expression to so base a falsehood. Your company
maintains a store on each of the seal-islands, well stocked
with goods such as are found in any well regulated merchandise store; the goods are sold at reasonable prices,
quite as low as the same goods could be bought at retail in
the cities of this coast. Your local agents each year submit to my inspection, if desired, your invoices, and by
close observation in the store, and familiarity with prices




58


charged, I have ample opportunity of knowing that your
trading with Alaska natives is entirely just and fair, as
much so as if opposition stores were established alongside
of yours.
No. 2. "That it compels acceptance by the natives, on
pain of starvation, of such beggarly prices as manages invariably to keep them in debt and at its mercy."
The natives on the fur-seal islands have but little to sell;
the company, however, buy at fair prices for cash or goods
anything they may have to offer. whilst on the Aleutian
chain the company send out from Ounalaska, in their vessels, hunting parties, and place them on the best hunting
grounds, free of any cost to them, charging only each native with his supply of provisions; at the close of the season they are returned to their homes in the same manner,
and each hunter is credited with his catch, not at the
"beggarly prices," etc., but the same price they are
offered by the numerous white hunters who freely hunt and
trade in Alaskan waters. In many cases the natives do not
catch enough to pay in full the book account against them
in the company's store, whilst the more fortunate hunter
will keep square and alwayg'have a comfortable balance in
the hands of the company, bearing interest. In fact, the
natives, as a class, in Alaska, are better treated and more
liberally dealt with by your company than any set of laboring men 1 have ever known anywhere, and my experience
has been extensive. It is, to my own personal knowledge,
the practice of your company's agents to see that the natives' actual wants are supplied, with or without money;
and I have yet the first native to complain to me of oppression or ill-treatment on the part of any of the company's
employes.
No. 3.  "That to effect a monopoly of the trade, it has
marked and mutilated the U. S. coin, and refused to
receive any other from the natives, in payment of goods
sold them."




59


The Alaska Commercial Co. have by contract with the
Government a monopoly of the fur-seal trade in Behring's
Sea. The Islands of St. Paul and St. George being a Government reservation? no person outside of Government officials and employes of the lessees are allowed under
regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury to land on
the Islands. It is, however, within the power of the Secretary to grant permits for any number of citizens he may
see proper to establish stores on the fur-seal islands, and
supply the natives with goods, if they wish to experiment
and take chances for profit. It is my opinion, however,
the "monopoly" would retain the custom of the natives
as it has their confidence and respect. Outside of the
Seal Islands, the whole of Alaska is open to the free occupancy of any person courageous enough to establish himself
in that vast field for "enterprise and capital."  There are
no restrictions except as provided by Act of Congress. A
store, or a dozen, may be established anywhere in Alaska
alongside of the Alaska Company's stores, and compete for
business, as do the stores in this or any other city. The
cry of monopoly comes from those who would like to
possess the lease your company holds, and it is all false as
to the defacing of U. S. coin. I have no knowledge that it
has been defaced by any person for the purposes, of trade.
The circulating medium is gold and silver in Alaska. The
usual punching and marking of coinss s indulged in by natives and white people as well in Alaska as elsewhere. I
saw a collection of such coins this summer in the hands of
your agent, Dr. H. H. McIntyre, which was the accumulation of years at your various stations. The amount, though
not large, was shipped to the city for sale as mutilated coin.
I have never known your agents in Alaska to deface coin
in any way.
No. 4. "That it has boycotted and driven from the Islands, Government officers who refused to do the bidding of
its agents."
This charge is absolutely untrue, having no foundation




60


whatever since' 1 have been connected with the service.
What was done prior to my coming to the Islands, I can
only judge from the practice and deportment of your
agents since I have been in charge, and also from the
records and journals on file in the Government offices on
St. Paul and St. George. I have failed to find recorded by
any Treasury agent who preceded me in office the slightest
complaint against the company's agents for interference
with them in the discharge of their duty; there is no record
of any complaints having ever been made against the company's agents by a Government agent.      I therefore
have no hesitation in saying that before any tribunal in the
land no such charge could be proven.
No. 5. "That it is hostile to the settlement of the country, discourages immigration and the investment of capital
in the development of its great natural resources."
Your company, if hostile to the settlement of the
country, takes a queer way of showing its hostility, for
on every trip of your steamer " St. Paul," in the spring,
when I have been a passenger, she has been crowded with
persons, their luggage, and even some with their store
goods going up to establish themselves in the Territory. I
know it has been and is the practice of your company to
carry any person wishing to go to Alaska on any of your
vessels, whether for the purpose of prospecting or locating.
And just here I will say that the natives are carried by
your vessels from place to place when desiring to visit, or
for any purpose, free of any charge.
"The great natural resources " spoken of have never yet
been discovered by me; it is true in Southeastern Alaska,
as I am told, there are some " natural resources."
Outside of that and the fur-seal islands, they do not exist. The fish interests will be of importance when developed. This industry is open to the world, and no imnpediment is placed in the way by your company, or could
it, if so disposed, monopolize the catch of salmon and cod



61


fish covering a coast line of 3,000 miles within the boundaries of the salmon grounds. Capital is as fiee to seek investment in Alaska as in any State or Territory of the
United States, but I would advise any one contemplating investing, to spend a summer on one of your vessels visiting
your trading stations along the coast and on the Aleutian
chain. which I feel sure would convince the most venturesome that the "great natural resources" possessed no attractions for additional capital or enterprise.
No. 6. "That to the pernicious influence of the Alaska
Commercial Company is due the fact that Alaska is not today largely populated with an industrious and enterprising
people, and that additional millions are not invested in the
country."
My opportunities for observing the condition of the natives and their relations to your company have been the
very best; and determined that the department of the government I have the honor to represent, should be placed in
possession of all the facts through my official reports, I
would not have hesitated to arraign your company before
the Secretary of the Treasury, had I found any violation of
the law; there could be no acts of your company's agents
or employes tending to a violation of the law which could
have escaped my notice, as I think I have been reasonably
vigilant, and my official reports do not record any reflections whatever on your company. Indeed, you have in
your dealings with the natives, more than performed your
part of the contract with the government.
Instead of preventing the influx of "industrious and enterprising people," and the " investment of additional
millions" in Alaska, you have shown to the people of the
United States, by your enterprise and nerve and great outlay of money, necessary to maintain a footing on those rigorous shores and vast rivers penetrating the interior of a
country scarcely inhabitable, that you, at least, had faith
in the ultimate realization of remunerative returns. This
same Alaska is open to all comers, with no power of yours




62


to prevent their so doing. Yet how few have availed themselves of the "great resources" or been stimulated by your
example and enterprise. I consider your company with its
just mode of dealing with the natives, the greatest civilizer
and benefactor Alaska has ever had.
No. 7. "That it has committed flagrant violations of the
law and executive orders in relation to the importation
and sale of breech-loading fire-arms by its agents."
As to this charge, I have only to say that I know of no
such violation by your company's agents, but I do consider
the law a dead letter when white traders, whalers and Sitka
merchants sell natives all the breech-loading fire-arms they
want. I do not see why your company should not obtain
a permit from the Secretary to do the same thing. The law
should be so amended as to place the native on the same
footing with the white hunter in the matter of fire-arms,
and I so recommend in my report to the department.
No. 8. "That it has not kept its agreement with the
government as to the education of the young natives in
English."
The company's agreement is for eight months' schooling
annually in English on each of the islands of St. Paul and
St. George. My official report, on file in the Department
at Washington, will show that this stipulation in the agreement has each year been satisfactorily performed; and outside of the agreement, I know your company maintain a
flourishing school at Ouna]aska. Your teachers on the islands under my supervision take a great interest in their
scholars. During the winter of 1885-6, I was a daily visitor of the school taught by Mr. Gray on St. Paul; average
attendance was 55, and with pleasure I bear witness to his
faithfulness.
No. 9. "That the lease by the government to the Alaska.
Commercial Co. should be rescinded, if possible, and if not,
it should not be renewed."




63


There has been nothing done by your company since my
official connection with the fur-seal islands which would in
the slightest degree warrant the government in taking steps
to vacate the lease with you, and from the records in my
office on the islands, which I have searched very closely
from the commencement of your operations thereon, I have
failed to find any clue to fraud, and may add that my
thorough investigations during the long winter months
spent upon the islands, were in pursuance of verbal instructions from the then 1st Assistant Secretary Fairchild, to
"look closely into all the past operations of the company."
This parting injunction was prompted by the talk of those
not informed as to your operations, which, like the charges
you submit to me, have no foundation in fact to stand on.
Having fully answered your questions, I will say in conclusion in reply to the last paragraph of your letter, that
so far as I am familiar with your " operations and transactions " on the main land and Aleutian chain, they are and
have always been characterized by fair dealing, liberality
and humanity; and the abolition of the present system of
leasing the fur seal islands and taking of the seal skins by
the natives and selling them in open market, with a Treasury agent to "stand by and collect $5 per skin" tax, is
absurd and impracticable, and shows the mind who could
conceive such a plan to be wholly unfit to grasp and deal
with the fur-seal question. To protect and perpetuate the
government's vast seal property, it must be run as a monopoly, whether that monopoly is operated by the government, or a corporation of American citizens, or one individual. Otherwise the seals would soon be exterminated, and
the valuable fur lost to the people of the world.
I am, very respectfully,
GEO. R. TINGLE.




No. 5.


Statement of Liabilities of the Alaska Commercial Company to
the Natives-Showing the Surplus Earnings of
the latter.
AT ST. PAUL'S ISLAND ON AUGUST 1, 1887.
Artarnonoff, Kerick....................$    2,804 44
Arkosheff, Kerick's widow...........            290 00
Arkosh ef, Arseney.....................       443 03
Austegoff, Peter..................     500 89
Akunsky, Dometay.....................          621 22
Butrin, Kerick..........................    3,295 90
Butrin, Harp...........................        614 60
Bourdukofsky, Apollon...............           786 56
Bogdanoff, Nicoli.......................      243 59
Emanoff, George.......................         575 75
Fratis, John..............................   2,444   29
Gromoff, Nicoli..........................      507 13
Golkin Agoka...........................         556 24
Glotofif  John.............................    385 17
Golokteonoff, Alexander.............           212 99
Haberoff, Paul..........................        544 57
Hopoff, John.............................      444 27
Kotchuten, John.......................         384 70
Kotchuten, Jacob......................         613 60
Kotchuten, Eupheme...............              500 89
Kotchuten, George.....................          616, 22
Kozeroff, Stephan......................        619 23
Kozeroff, Paul..........................       558 74
Krukoff, Peter..........................       575 90
Krukoff, Nicoli..........................       553 90
Krukoff, Maxim........................         446 03
Kushin, Aggie..........................        611 72
Amount carried forward, $20,751           57




65
Amount brought forward, $20,751 57
Kuznitzoff, Pemen..................... 1,079 22
Kashevnikoff, Eupheme.........    553 74
Mandregin, Neon.................,....  619  60
Mandregin, Vassiley.................  328 16
Mercullieff, Dosephay.................  616 63
Nedarazoff, Alexey..............  526 15
Nedarazoff, Martin.....................  616 60
Nedarazoff, Stephan.............  559 90
Paranchin, Daniel...............  564 74
Pahomoff, Joseph's widow........  765 72
Pankoff, Porfin.........................  499  89
Peeshinkoff, Peter..............  560 90
Popoff, Martin's widow...........  285 79
Popoff, Matfay......................  504 89
Rookaveshnikoff, Zacher..........  616 22
Serebreniko;, Timofay's sister.....  289 00
Shoposhnikoff, Agopy................  269 31
Sedick, Theodore...............  615 60
Sedick, Nassiley........................  579  74
Sutyagiu, Metrofan..............  443 03
Sutyagin, Jacob's widow..............  288 00
Sheishnikoff, Paul..................... 4,366  36
Shabolin, Csesar...................  537 57
Shabolin, Necon........................ 389 17
Stepetin, Terrenti.......................  738  60
Stepetin, Elary.........................  588  75
Stepetin, Darofay.......................  368  70
Tarokanoff, Kerick....................  556 74
Tetoff, Philot..........................  617  60
Tetoff, Peten.........................  501  89
Tetoff, Neon......................355  17
Volkoff, Markel........................  1,519  39
Viotkin, Yeolampy.....................  616 60
Yatzmelleff, John..............  621 22
Zaharoff, Yeomany..............  503 56
Amount carried forward, $44,215 69




66


Amount brought forward, $44,215 69
Shaishnikoff, Zachar's widow.......  261 62
Melovidoff, Madam A..................3,401 99
Volkoff, Ellen...........................  492  00
Vicooloff, Avelotia....................  30 00
Shutyagin, Catherine.................  2:37 93
Haberoff, Natalia........................  27 58
Terentova, Anna........................  25 62
Natives' fund for trans. of Bible... 1,876 56
Melovidoff, Anton.....6..........  678 60
Bezyazekoff, Joseph.................  520 74
Sedule, Vassiley........................  520  74
Melovidoff, Simeon....................  462 89


$52,757 96


AT ST. GEORGE ISLAND, ON AUGUST 1, 1887.
Golanin, Bores......................$  352 14
Golanin,  Gavril..........................  225  23
Gorokoff, Cornelia..............   406 88
Kulikoloff, Ivan........................  220 88
Lestinkoff, Inokenty........... 1,968 50
Lestinkoff, Danitry....................  635 31
Merculieff, Sourvestian..............  457 18
Merculieff, Kouprian..................  628 42
M erculief;f  Esia........................  352  61
Malowansky, Nicoli.............  225 00
Malowansky, Vassily..............  211 16
Nedarazoff, Arkenti..............   463 38
Oustykoff, Alexey..............  407 06
Oustykoff, Zachar..............  350 07
Oustvkoff, Simeon.....................  211  24
Philemonoff, Simeon............  406 79
Philemonoff, Eoff.....................  407 13
P'hilemonoft, Andronic.............  350 61
I'hilemonoff; Andrean.................  211 09
Resanzoff, Andronic..................  349 96
Amount carried forward,


8,840 64
$61,598 60




67


Amount brought forward,
Resanzoff, Lazar.......................  $352 61
Rasanzoff, Peter.......................  407 29
Swetzoff, Eustan......................  352 46
Shene,  Foka...........................  407  62
Vikoloff, Platon........................   402 89
Vikoloff, Samuel's widow...........  194 88
Malowansky, Vladimir...............  109 12
Merkulieff, Joseph.....................  109 42
Leshanoff, Stepan...............  109 42
St. George Church.....................  687 40


$61,598 60
3,133 51
$64,732 11


AT OUNALASKA STATION ON JANUARY 1, 1887.
Sheishnikoff, Alexander............. $2,131 00
Melovidoff, Simon...................... 1,059 48
Kamelkoshin, Nicoli.................. 1,552 45
Ounalaska Church Hospital Fund. 1,409 33
Ounalaska Church.....................  777 06
Mrs. Sheishnikoff, widow............. 3,953 45
Mrs. Sheishnikoff of March 4, '87.. 2,576 26
Mrs. Iennig, widow.................... 2,579 66


16,038 69


AT KODIAC STATION ON APRIL 1, 1887.
Demedoff, Feodon..................              2,692    75
Famin, Nicoli..........................         1,893    60
Malachoff, M.............................    652 10
Debrowalsky, Peter....................          1,082 90
Chichenoff, Peter......................         2,590   00
Gregorioff, Elisia......................          761 98
Demedoff, Alexander.................               399 84
Stafieff, W......................   1,695    88
Pawloff, Nicolai..........................       1,588 43


13,357 48.AW94-12R 29




No. 6.


Statement of Mr. Edward Schieffelin.
I reside in Alameda, California, and am  engaged in
prospecting for mines. In 1882 a small company of persons,
of whom I was one, concluded to make an expedition to the
Yukon River in Alaska, for the purpose of prospecting for
mines. I had had experience in that business and had heard
encouraging accounts of that country. We fitted out our
expedition in San Francisco, and went on a schooner,
chartered for the purpose, with our own supplies of all
we deemed most desirable for the adventure. We carried
up on the schooner a small steamer, so that we could tranship
our supplies at St. Michaels, and by this means reach the supposed mining regions which were our ultimate destination.
Whilst in San Francisco before our departure I accidentally
met in a place of business, Mr. Lewis Gerstle, President of
the Alaska Commercial Company. On being introduced
to him and after a brief conversation about my intended
excursion, he very promptly offered me any assistance I
might desire and gave me a letter of introduction and credit
to the agents of that company in Alaska. This letter instructed the agents to advise and assist me in every way. I
found the agents of the company very kind and obliging. In every respect their conduct and treatment was
all that one gentleman could expect of another. They expressed great cordiality and offered every encouragement
to me to advance on my expedition, and to remain in the
country.,
On the way up we stopped a short time at Ounalaska and
about a week at St. Michaels. At the latter place we transferred part of our supplies to the small steamer and embarked
for the Yukon River. I remained in the interior all that




69


winter of 1882-3.  During that time I visited various
stations on the Yukon and went back and forth to various
points, prospecting for mines. After a pretty thorough exploration, I came to the conclusion that the prospects were
too poor to justify my sojourn any longer and I abandoned
the country, returning to San Francisco in 1883. On the
Yukon, I found very few mines and only a few traders. I
found in all places at which I stopped or visited that the
relations between the Alaska Commercial Company and the
inhabitants were of the mostly friendly nature. I heard no
complaints and had no reason to suspect the existence of
any unkind feeling against the company. I purchased some
supplies from the company's agents at most reasonable
rates and found them ready to supply all others on the same
terms. They treated strangers with great kindness and
welcomed them to the country. All their dealings were
conducted on a scale of fairness and liberality. I returned
from St. Michaels to San Francisco on the U. S. Revenue
Steamer " Corwin," commanded by Captain ftealy. I have
never been in the employment of the Alaska Commercial
C ompany.
ED. SCHIEFFELIN.
SAN FRANCISCO, December, 1887.




No. 7.


Letter of Instruction of Lewis Gerstle, President Alaska Commercial Co., to M. Lorenz, Agent at St. Michael.
SAN FRANCISCO, May 7th, 1886.
MR. M. LORENZ,
Agent, St. Michael, Alaska.
DEAR SIR:
We have been informed that a large number of miners
have already started to the Yukon and Stewart River
mines, and it is probable that many others will be attracted
to that section of the Territory in consequence of the supposed existence of rich diggings in that district. Considering that the company's station at St. Michael is the nearest
source of supply, an extra amount of groceries and provisions have been sent to you to meet the possible demands
likely to be made upon you during the coming winter. It
must not be understood, however, that the shipment
referred to is made for the purpose of realizing profits
beyond the regular schedule of prices heretofore established; our object is to simply avoid any possible suffering
which the large increase of population insufficiently provided
with articles of food, might occasion.  Hence you are
directed to store the supplies as a reserve to meet the probable contingency herein indicated, and in that case to dispose of the same to actual customers only, and in such
quantities as will enable you to relieve the wants and necessities of each and every person that may have occasion to
ask for it.  In this connection, we deem it particularly
necessary to say to you that traders in the employ of the'
company, or such others as draw their supplies from the
stores of the company, doing business on their own account,




71
must not be permitted to charge excessive profits, otherwise all business relations with such parties must cease, as
the company cannot permit itself to be made an instrument of oppression toward any one that they may come in
contact with.
It is useless to add that, in case of absolute poverty
and want, the person or persons placed in that unfortunate
position should be promptly furnished with the means of
subsistence without pay, simply reporting such facts at
your earliest convenience to the Home Office.
Asking your strict compliance with the foregoing instructions, which we hope will be carried out with due discretion on your part, I am, with kind regards to yourself
and Mrs. Lorenz,
Yours truly,
LEWIS GERSTLE, Pres.




No. 8.


Extracts from the Report of Henry W. Elliott to the Superintendent of Census, from Vol. VIII, Tenth Census U. S,
1880, pp. 26-27.
It will remembered that, at the time of the question of
leasing the islands was before Congress, much opposition to
the proposal was made, on several grounds, by two classes,
one of which argued against a "monopoly," the other urging
that the Government itself would realize more by taking
the whole management of the business into its own hands.
At that time far away from Washington, in the Rocky
Mountains, I do not know what arguments were used in the
committee rooms, or who made them; but since my careful
and prolonged study of the subject on the ground itself, and
of the trade and its conditions, I am now satisfied that the
Act of June, 1870; directing the Secretary of the Treasury
to lease the seal-islands of Alaska to the highest bidder,
under the existing conditions and qualifications, did the
best and the only correct and profitable thing that could
have been done in the matter, both with regard to the
preservation of the seal life in its originalintegrity, and the
pecuniary advantage of the treasury itself. To make this
statement perfectly clear, the following facts, by way of
illustration, should be presented:
First. When the Government took possession of these
interests, in 1868 and 1869, the gross value of a seal skin laid
down in the best market, at London, was less in some instances, and in others but slightly above, the present tax and
royalty paid upon it by the Alaska Commercial Company.
Second. Through the action of the intelligent business
men who took the contract from the Government, in stimu



73


lating and encouraging the dressers of the raw material, and
in taking sedulous care that nothing but good skins should
leave the islands, and in combination with leaders of fashion
abroad, the demand for the fur, by this' manipulation and
management, has been wonderfully increased.
Third. As matters now stand, the greatest and best interests of the lessees are identical with those of the Government; what injures one instantly injures the other. In
other words, both strive to guard against anything that
shall interfere with the preservation of the seal life in its
original integrity, and both having it to their interest, if
possible, to increase that life; if the lessees had it in their
power, which they certainly have not, to ruin these interests
by a few seasons of rapacity, they are so bonded and so environed that prudence prevents it.
Fourth. The frequent changes in the office of the Secretary
of the Treasury, who has very properly the absolute control
of the business as it stands, do not permit upon his part
that close, careful scrutiny which is exercised by the lessees,
who, unlike him, have but their one purpose to carry out. The
character of the leading men among them is enough to assure the public that the business is in responsible hands,
and in the care of persons who will use every effort for its
preservation and perpetuation, as it is so plainly their best
end to serve. Another great obstacle to the success of the
business, if controlled entirely by the Government, would
be encountered in disposing of the skins after they had
been brought down from the islands. It would not do to
sell them up there to the highest bidder, since that would
license the sailing of a thousand ships to be present at the
sale. The rattling of their anchor chains, and the'scrapingl of their keels on the beaches of the two little islands,
would alone drive every seal away and over to the Russian
grounds in a remarkably short space of time. The Government would therefore need to offer them at public auction
in this country, and it would be simply history repeating
itself-the Government would be at the mercy of any well...




74


organized combination of buyers. The agents conducting
the sale could not counteract the effect of such a combination
as can the agents of a private corporation, who may look
after their interest in all the markets of the world in their
own time and in their own way, according to the exigencies
of the season and the demand, and who are supplied with'
money which they can use, without public scandal, in the
manipulation of the market. On this ground I feel confident
in stating, that the treasury of the United States receives
more money, net, under the system now in operation, than.
it would by taking the exclusive control of the business.
Were any capable government officer supplied with, say,
$100,000, to expend in "working the market," and intrusted
with the disposal of 100,000 seal skins wherever he could
do so to the best advantage of the Government, and were
this agent a man of first-class business ability and energy,
I think it quite likely that the same success might attend
his labor in the London market that distinguishes the
management of the Alaska Commercial Company. But
imagine the cry of fraud and embezzlement that would be
raised against him, however honest he might be! This
alone would bring the whole business into positive dispute,
and make it a national scandal.
As matters are now conducted, there is no room for any
scandal-not one single transaction on the islands but what
is as clear to investigation and accountability as the light of
the noon day sun; what is done is known to everybody, and
the tax now laid by the Government upon, and paid into the
Treasury every year by the Alaska Commercial Company,
yields alone a handsome rate of interest on the entire
purchase money expended for the ownership of all Alaska.,




No. 9.


Statement of Captain Lewis W. Williams.
I am the principal owner of a vessel engaged in the
whaling business il the Arctic and Behring's Seas, and am
also acting as Master. That has been my business for a
number of years past. San Francisco is my home, and my
ship departs from that place with the necessary supplie,
and returns there with her cargoes of whalebone.  The
average length of my voyages is about eight months. I
touch at the St. Paul's Island generally every trip to obtain
the weather record kept there.  It was for a time kept
by the U. S. Signal Service, and since then by the agent of
the Alaska Commercial Company.   I also get the mail
there, the newspapers, etc., also any supplies I may desire.
I have purchased tools there, and also at one time sought
the professional assistance of the company's physician on
the island. The company's agents and other employes on
the island have always been very obliging and clever to me
on my visits there. They always set signals to guide me
to a safe landing, for the place of landing depends on the
condition of the weather. They set for me their signal
flags by which I am enabled to tell where to seek landing.
At one time one of the company's pilots came out and
piloted my ship in Ounalaska Harbor without any charge.
I have also been at Ounalaska with my ship about four
different years. Have gone there for water, for codfish,
and for mails. In taking water there the Alaska Commercial Company furnished me the use of their water pipes
and force pump, and gave me the water free of charge. I
also got repairs to my vessel there by the company's employes, and the necessary materials cheaper than I could
have had the same work done in San Francisco. The men




76


on my ship purchased articles there from the company's
store. I heard the men speak of it among themselves on
the ship, expressing astonishment at the low prices paid by
them. They were fully as low as San Francisco prices.
We were always treated with the greatest kindness, and
always cordially greeted. The arrival of a vessel there is
quite an event to all at Ounalaska, and every one comes out
to see an arrival. Intercourse is free, and one has an opportunity of learning all the news and the state of feeling
existing all around. I always found that the natives had a
very friendly feeling for the Alaska Commercial Company,
and I know that, in their employment by the company, the
natives received fair wages for little work. In fact, the
natives fare better than most laborers elsewhere in the
United States. They are generally well dressed and seem
contented, except in one respect, and that is, they cannot
get liquor. They are very anxious to procure it, and I was
offered at one time by a native $20 in gold for a bottle of
whisky. The company discourages their use of liquors and
in every way tries to prevent them from getting it, even
refusing them sugar, except in very limited quantities for
tea and coffee. By the use of sugar they are enabled to
make an intoxicating liquid called "quass," upon which
they get into a beastly state. They complain of the company that it refuses them sugar for this purpose, but not
otherwise. They are satisfied with the prices they receive
for skins, and with the prices they pay for goods. The
company has tried to educate the people. I saw a schoolhouse there, and learned that two employes of the company themselves taught the native children. I have been
frequently in the company's stores and seen trading going
on between the agents and the natives, as well as others.
I have seen coin passed back and forth, but I never saw
any defaced or mutilated coin, and never heard of any in
use at any of the company's stations or stores. In 1886 my
company sent up a tender with supplies to meet one of my
ships at Ounalaska, but as she missed the ship she landed
her supplies, and they were taken charge of by the Alaska




77


Company's agents, and afterwards our whalebone on the
ship was transferred to the Alaska Commercial Company's
vessels and brought to San Francisco.  The company
treated us very liberally, and for the services rendered
charged very low rates. We saved money by the arrangement.
They carry people on the vessels at low rates, and give
good accommodations. I never saw anything in their conduct which showed any desire to keep out immigrants from
any part of Alaska; on the contrary, they received all new
comers with a hearty welcome.
The natives, with their wives and children, constantly
travel on the Alaska Commercial Company's vessels among
the islands, free of all charge, and often from Ounalaska to
St. Paul and the reverse.
LEWIS W. WILLIAMS.
San Francisco, December, 1887.




No. 10.


Statement of Mr. Werner Stauf.
I reside at San Francisco, California, and have since
1872, except the portion of time I was in Alaska. In 1876,
I went to Wood Island, near Kadiak, in Alaska, as agent
of the American Russian Commercial Company, a corporation organized to supply California with ice. It also did a
small business in purchasing the skins of wild animals. I
remained there as agent of the company from 1876 to 1881,
inclusive. In 1882, I went to Ounalaska, as agent for the
Western Fur and Trading Company, a California corporation, of which the old established firm of Falkner, Bell &
Co., of San Francisco, were the general agents, and remained there during 1882, and part of 1883. The business
of the company was to purchase furs and trade with the
hunters and others in Alaska. While there as its agent, it
had vessels of its own plying between San Francisco and
Ounalaska, and also coasting along the Aleutian chain. It
carried up supplies consisting of groceries, clothing, boots
and shoes, provisions and hardware-in a word, all the variety usually found in country stores. It had numerous
stations supplied with these articles-in fact, at almost every
point where the Alaska Commercial Company had a station
in Alaska. At each place it had a sub-agent. It' bought
peltries from the hunters and traders, giving in return mostly goods, but sometimes cash. Its business amounted to
from $75,000 to $100,000 a year. The general plan of doing business was the same as that of the Alaska Commercial Company. Both companies fitted out hunting ex[editions in search of sea-otter at their own expense, taking the
general risk of success, for if unsuccessful, the supplies
furnished the hunters were rarely.paid for. When these
excursions were successful, the hunters would be paid for
their peltries fair prices and would be enabled to pay for
the supplies furnished them or their families in their ab



79


sence. A limited credit was always given to those deemed
reliable, and was always eagerly sought by the natives. The
two companies paid about the same prices for these pelts,
and obtained the same prices for their goods. The relation
of the two companies was about the same as that of competing establishments elsewhere.  Their several agents
were friendly and obliging to each other, yet each strove to
do the best business he could for his own company. I
never found the agents of the Alaska Commercial Company
unfair or unreasonable, or guilty of any dishonorable conduct. Other traders came there occasionally every year
trying to buy furs and trying to barter their merchandise
brought there for that purpose. Purchasers of furs can
hardly ever buy for cash, and always do better by bartering
their goods-that is, such supplies as are suitable to the
place and as are desired by the natives. The prices paid
by the Alaska Commercial Company for peltries, whilst I
was in Alaska, were always fair and reasonable and at times
I thought high, for my own company at the same prices
lost money. During my entire time there I had ample opportunity to know of the treatment which the native population received from the Alaska Commercial Company. I
know that treatment was always kind and liberal, and that
their relations were pleasant and agreeable. There are
good and bad people there as elsewhere-some of the native people are industrious, honest and reliable, others are
just the reverse. The natives are much more likely to take
advantage of the company than the company is to take advantage of the natives. The company always cultivates
friendly relations with the natives to secure their trade, for
otherwise they would not be able to obtain from them the
skins of the sea-otter, which is the principal thing sought
on the Aleutian chain.
I always found the agents of the Alaska Commercial
Company. fair and honorable in all their dealings, and
though I was in the employment of a rival company, I was
always treated fairly and with courtesy. That company always extended every hospitality to strangers, and afforded




So0


every facility to persons to reach the parts of Alaska wherethe company does business, and the interior, whether they
were miners, excursionists, missionaries or settlers. I saw
no act on the part of the company or its agents tending to
discourage immigration. I know that the Alaska Commercial Company established at its own expense schools for the
instruction of the native children at Ounalaska and other
places. At Ounalaska, the free school was taught by the
employes of the company. The house of H. Liebes & Co., of
San Francisco, has been engaged in dealing and bartering
for furs on the Aleutian chain for ten years or more last
past. They have had several vessels on the coast every
year carrying up supplies and carrying back peltries. They
had a store for several years at Belkovsky. That firm
seems to have been quite successful in the business At all
times there are oceasional trading vessels passing along the
coast seeking to barter for furs. The hunters always keep
well posted in prices and go from place to place seeking the
highest price.
I never saw any mutilated coin in circulation in Alaska,
and if the Alaska Comnercial Company had encouraged its
use in any way, I would have known it. I know that no
company could secure trade or obtain any advantage in
business on that coast by the use or circulation of mutilated coin, or by requiring its payment for supplies.
The Alaska Commercial Company has never had any
trade of any kind with Southeastern Alaska, and consequently exercises no influence over its prosperity.
The Aleutian chain and coast has no qualities calculated
to invite any large immigration. The mines are not promising, and there is nothing on which to base any expectation of success in agriculture. Even hay, to feed the few
horses and horned cattle there, is imported from San Francisco.
I have never been in the employment of the Alaska Commercial Company, and have no business relations with it.
San Francisco, December, 1887.
WERNER STAUF.




No. II.
Letter of Rev. Edmund de Schweinitz, Bishop of the Moravian
Church.
BETHLEHEM, PA., Dec. 8, 1887.
To the
ALASKA COMMERCIAL CO.
GENTLEMEN:
Your letter of the 28th of November has been received.
The charges which the Governor of Alaska has brought
against you have filled me with astonishment. Not one of
them is substantiated by the experiences which our Mission
Board has made in its relations to your company.
That you are said to have reduced the entire population
of the Territory to a condition of absolute slavery, is preposterous. I have never received from our missionaries
the slightest hint of such a thing.
That you are said to have marked and mutilated the
coin of the U. S., and refused to receive any other from
the natives in payment of goods sold them, is an accusation of which our missionaries know nothing-for they
would undoubtedly have reported it, if it were a fact; especially as they have the best opportunity of finding out
the truth, because they live in the midst of the Esquimaux
of Western Alaska and within a quarter of a mile of one
of your trading posts.
That you are said to have discountenanced every attempt at immigration or settlement, and that no white
man or native can live in peace and comfort in that Territory, except by your sufferance, I emphatically deny.
You have aided us in furnishing our missionary settlement




82


at Bethel, on the Koskokvim River; you have faithfully
acted as our agents; you have annually provided and
shipped, at very reasonable prices, the supplies for our
missionaries; your trader at the post near Bethel helps
them in every way within his power. When the two explorers whom we sent to Western Alaska prior to beginning a Mission returned, they both spoke in high terms of
the free entertainment you had given them at Ounalaska,
and of all the kindness they had received at your hands.
The entire Board approves of and indorses the sentiments I have expressed in this letter. I wrote to-day to
Messrs. Weinland & Hartmann, and beg them to send their
testimonials.
I am very respectfully and sincerely yours,
EDMUND DE SCHWEINITZ,
Bishop of the Moravian Church, and President of its Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen.




No. 12.


Letter from the Rev. William H. Weinland, Written at Request
of Bishop de Schweinitz.
GRACEHILL, IOWA, Dec. 13th, 1887.
THE ALASKA COMMERCIAL COMPANY.
GENTLEMEN:
The letter you wrote to Bishop dle Schweinitz reached
me last evening, and I have prepared the enclosed testimony, hoping it may be of service to you in proving false
these groundless accusations.
Wishing for you the continued prosperity which you
deserve,
I am,
Very sincerely yours,
WILLIAM H. WEINLAND.
GRACEHILL, WASHINGTON Co., IoWA,
Dec. 13th, 1887.
TO WHOMEVER IT MAY CONCERN:
-In regard to the charges made by the Governor of
Alaska against the Alaska Commercial Company, the undersigned, for two years a resident missionary of the
Moravian Church, laboring on the Koskokvim River,
Alaska, begs to submit the following:
The Governor charges that the Alaska Commercial Company discountenances every attempt at immigration or settlement; and whenever it has obtained a foothold, neither
white man nor native can live in peace or comfort, except
by its sufferance.




84


The writer first became acquainted with the officers of
the Alaska Commercial Company on April 28th, 1884,
when, in company with the Rev. Adolphus IHartmann, of
Canada, he was on his way to Alaska to inspect that Territory, with a view to locating a Moravian Mission. We had
been sent from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, by the Society
for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, the principal missionary society of the Moravian Church.  From
Washington, 1). C., transportation to Alaska had been furnished for us on the U. S. R. Cutter, "Corwin," Captain
Mark Healy in command, and through the kindness of this
gentleman we were introduced to the officers of the Alaska
Commercial Company. Upon learning our destination and
business, they showed us every attention and kindness possible, offered us free transportation on any of the vessels of
the company, and also furnished us with letters of introduction to their various agents and traders in the Territory.
The company's agent at Ounalaska, Mr. Reudolph Neumann, gave us all the information asked, and assisted us on
our way to Nushegak, where Mr. John Clark, the company's agent, put himself to no small inconvenience to assist
us in gathering information, and in other ways forwarding
the cause which we represented. This was again our experience on the Koskokvim River, where the agents of
the company did all in their power to assist us.
Upon our return to San Francisco, on Sept. 12th, 1884,
we informed the President of the Alaska Commercial Company that we had decided to locate our Mission on the
Koskokvim River, near the company's trading post at
Mumtrekhlagamute, and he at once offered such assistance
in establishing the Mission as the company might be able
to give.
The following spring, the writer, in company with a
party of Missionaries, sailed directly to the Koskokvim
River, and during the following summer we located our
Mission at the place selected. On the 10th of August,
1885, Mr. Hans Torgersen, our carpenter, was accidentally




85


drowned. Being thus left without human assistance of any
kind, we were thankful to have the agents of the company to
turn to for advice and aid, and most nobly did they respond,
offering us even their own houses until we could construct
our own. The A. C. Co. also acted as agents for our missionary
society in the East, and, at great cost of time and care,
selected our goods for us according to the commissions entrusted to them, so that we were as well pleased with the
goods sent as if we ourselves had done the selecting.
We had constant business transactions with their agents
at Ounalaska, Nushegak, on the Koskokvim River, and
also on the Yukon River, and we always found these agents
courteous, gentlemanly, considerate and helpful to our Mission, even as we found the officers of the company themselves.
Furthermore, we ourselves have witnessed the assistance
which the company and its agents gave to prospectors and
miners, who visited our northwestern part of Alaska for the
purpose of looking into the resources of the country, and,
having had a fair opportunity to judge, I testify that, in my
estimation, the company has done all that could reasonably
be expected of them in opening up the country, in encouraging the fishing industries started alongside of its own
business, and in other ways encouraging such immigration
and settlement in Alaska as the climate and resources of
the Territory will warrant.
2d. It is further charged that the company has mutilated
the coin of the United States, and refused to take any other
from the natives in payment of goods sold them. This
charge I believe to be absolutely false and without the least
foundation. Throughout north-western Alaska but very
little money is in circulation, and this is almost exclusively
confined to the company's agents and the few white people
scattered through the country.  Between the traders
and the natives there is but little coin passed, the trading
being for the most part in kind, the natives receiving only
the BEST grades of goods in exchange for their peltries.




86


Of the money which is in circulation in Alaska, the writer
passed various amounts during his stay at San Francisco,
and had it been mutilated this fact would have been known
by me without a doubt. I testify, therefore, that all the
United States coin which I saw or handled in Alaska, was
not in any way mutilated.
3d. It is further charged that the Alaska Commercial
Company has, by the beggarly prices paid for their peltries,
and by a system of contant oppression, reduced the entire
population of the Territory, both white and natives, to a
condition of absolute slavery.
No one having the least personal knowledge of the true'
condition of the natives of north-western Alaska, where
most of the trading posts of the Alaska Commercial Company are established, could possibly make this charge, unless it be from pure malice. The wild, uncivilized tribes
of Alaska, who live by fishing and hunting, reduced to
slavery by a Commercial Company!!! As well speak of reducing the ocean to slavery! These wild tribes are not in
any way dependent on the company for the necessaries of
life, for they live on the products of the country, which are
as free to the natives as the air they breathe.
But furthermore, having lived for two years within half a
mile of one of the company's trading posts, and having
gained a personal insight into the manner in which
the company deals with the natives, both at the three
stations on the Koskokvim Kiver, and at other stations
north and south from there, and besides this, having had personal dealings with these natives, I testify that the company
has treated the natives fairly, paying reasonable prices for
the peltries bought. Furthermore, they have, in many
ways, looked after the welfare of these natives.  In
times of epidemics or islolated cases of sickness, the physicians in the employ of the company have done all in their
power to relieve the suffering coming within their reach,
and in times of famine the agents of the company have fed
as many of the natives as they could procure food for.




87
As regards the oppression of the white population at the
hands of the company, this can only refer to the employes
of the company, for no other class of whites are within their
power. The fact that these employes retire from active
service in the Territory after terms of service of varying
length, either with comfortable livings or handsome fortunes,
according to their individual thrift or the lack of it, proves
this charge false.
I therefore testify, that, to the best of my knowledge,
these charges are not in any way founded on the actual
state of affairs throughout the entire north-western part of
Alaska, where the most of the trading posts of the Alaska
Commercial Company are situated. Sitka is not Alaska,
any more than is New Orleans the United States.
THE REV. WILLIAM H. WEINLAND.




No. 13.


Statement of Mr. George C. King.
I am a resident of Alameda, California, and have been a
resident there and at Oakland.for ten years past. I am a
miner by profession and have been since 1849, in various
States and Territories, though I have a part of the time
been merchandising.
In 1881, in company with nine others, I fitted out the
schooner "W. F. March," for a mining expedition in
Alaska. We left San Francisco 5th May, 1881, and proceeded directly to Golovin Bay, on Norton's Sound, without stopping, except for a few days at Ounimak Island (one.
of the Aleutian Islands), for fishing and exploring the
islands. We found it uninhabited and no signs of mineral.
We arrived at Golovin Bay the early part of June of that
year. We went up Fish River in one of our small boats
about 100 miles. We found and located a mine called
Oomielak. We remained on the ground prospecting the
mine for about a month, and returned to Golovin Bay to
the schooner, leaving some miners on the ground. I the'n
crossed Norton's Sound with the schooner and crew to St.
Michael, remaining about a day to send off some letters.
Met there the agent of the Alaska Commercial Company.
We then went to Good News Bay, about forty miles south
of the mouth of Koskokvim Bay. There I left the vessel
and with two others went about 600 miles up the Koskokvim River in one of our small boats to Kolmakofski, to
prospect for cinnabar there. We found it in small bodies
but not sufficient to encourage us to remain. We returned
to Good News Bay, within 30 miles of which we lost our
small boat. We remained at Good News Bay waiting for
the return of the schooner. As we afterwards learned,
the schooner was lost on Golovin Bay, and after waiting for
her until October, we worked our way back part of the
way till met by Mr. Sipary, the Alaska Commercial Con



89


pany's trader, who had come down about 200 miles to meet
us and help us back to Kolmakofski, where he had a station. We arrived the 28th January, 1882. We traveled
mostly by sleds, drawn by the Eskimo dogs. We remained
there till about the latter part of June, of 1882, not being
able to get away sooner on account of ice. Mr. Sipary
brought us down to Koskokvim Bay to a vessel of the
Western Fur and Trading Company by means of which
we reached St. Michaels. There I met Mr. Neuman, agent
of the Alaska Commercial Company, and applied for passage to San Francisco on one of its steamers. Mr. Neumal treated us very kindly and supplied all our wants
whilst there, and gave us passage on the steamer Dora to
San Francisco, touching at St. Paul. St. George and Ounalaska. We were destitute of means, having lost our vessel
and all of our supplies, and except with the aid of the
Alaska Commercial Company's agents, would have been
without help. We obtained supplies from them and all that
was necessary. We received anything we asked for. On
the way back we stopped at St. Paul and St. George Islands
in the sealing season and went ashore to see the driving
and killing of the seals.
We stopped at Ounalaska about a week and observed
everything there. Also prospected there for mineral;
found some indications, but nothing sufficient to justify any
*locations.
Everywhere I visited then and afterwards, the relations
between the native population and the agents of the Alaska
Commercial Company were of a very friendly character.
The natives were treated better than any of the laboring
classes elsewhere to my knowledge; they seemed to be sat-,
isfied with the prices paid them for labor and furs and
charged for supplies furnished them. 1 saw nothing of any
defaced or mutilated coin, and heard of none whilst I was in
the country. I learned on St. Paul's and also at Ounalaska
of the free schools at each place carried on by the Alaska
Commercial Company, and everything seemed kept in good
condition. I saw no oppression or hard treatment of the




90


natives and heard of none. The natives seem well clothed
and provided for and had a contented appearance.
In 1886 I again visited Alaska.  Went from San Francisco in a fishing schooner of a San Francisco Company to
Unga; remained there and in the neighborhood and along
the Aleutian chain and mainland about four months. I
was prospecting for mineral. I found some veins on the
main land of gold, silver, copper and galena, but located
none anywhere except at Unga, a mine now owned by the
Sitka Mining and Commercial Company, an incorporated
company, the stock of which is owned at San Francisco.
During most of the time I was travelling on the vessels of
the Alaska Commercial Company. Without the facilities
offered by it I could not have done anything. I found that
I could purchase so reasonably from the company's stores,
that I did not take any supplies from San Francisco. They
sold to me everything at San Francisco wholesale prices,
with 25 per cent. added. I understood that was their general rule.
I saw nothing to indicate any disposition on the part of
thQ company to prevent the going in of immigrants. On
the contrary, they appeared to treat all with hospitality, offered the means of transportation to all points at which
their vessels visited. I returned in the fall of 1886 to San
Francisco by the Alaska Commercial Company's steamer.
In March, 1887, I went again on the same steamer of the
company's to Unga and went all along the Aleutian chain
and on the mainland prospecting; and the general facts before stated as to the Alaska Commercial Company are true
of my last visit there. Through the facilities it offered I
was enabled to pursue my business, and I made several other
locations and discoveries, both on the main land and islands.
Some of these I consider promising, two of them now being
developed.
G. C. KING.
San Francisco, December 13th, 1887.




No. 14.


Statement of Captain George F. Bauldry.
I reside at San Francisco, and have so resided for ten
years last past. My occupation is that of commanding a
vessel belonging to the Pacific Coast Steamship Co. (Goodall, Perkins & Co.) I have been in that service for the last
five years, engaged in whaling. In 1886 and 1887 I was
twice at St. Paul's Island in Behring's Sea. Last year I
was also at Ounalaska. I went there for tools and supplies,
and the agents of the Alaska Commercial Company supplied.me with all I desired at reasonable rates, and were very
courteous and obliging in all things. They invited me very
cordially to stop at their stations and seemed desirous of
encouraging our frequent visits. In other years I was prevented by the ice from visiting these places. We took them
letters and papers, and carried the mails also for them from
Ounalaska to St. Paul. From my opportunities of seeing
the company's business at Ounalaska and St. Paul, I can
confirm the statement made by Captain Lewis W. Williams,
which I have read, in reference to the same and the company's treatment of the natives. Whilst at their stations I
saw transactions between them and the company's agents
in which money passed, and I got some money changed
there myself. I saw no mutilated coin there and heard of
none. That which I saw the natives receive from the company for skins bought was good United States coin. Some
of the men on my ship bought supplies at the company's
stores at Ounalaska and expressed themselves surprised at
the cheapness of the prices. The prices I paid myself
were very low. The prices the company paid the natives
for skins I thought high prices.
GEORGE F. BAULDRY.
SAN FRANCISCO, December, 1887.




No. 15.


Statement of Captain Elijah E. Smith.
I reside in San Francisco, and that has been my home
for 27 years. In the year 1865 I was in the employment of
the Western Union Telegraph Company, and went in
that year to Alaska on an exploring expedition for the
purpose of laying out the route for the telegraph line. I
went first to Sitka and then to St. Michaels, on Norton
Sound, on the bark " Golden Gate."
I went up again in the year 1866, in the same employment, and spent the winter of 1866-7 in Alaska, with my
headquarters at Ounalakleet, a large Indian village at the
head of Norton's Sound. I went up in the bark " H. L.
Rutgers," whilst the ship "Nightingale" carried up on her
deck a small stern-wheel steamer, built at San Francisco.
I found the steamer unfit for the service, and resorted to
canoes, with which we moved about in summer, but in
winter we traveled on sleds drawn by dogs. At that time
there were Russian trading posts in various parts of the
country. My explorations carried me far into the interior.
During that winter (1866-7) I went up the Yukon River
from Ounalakleet toNulato. I also visited Anvikthat year.
In the years 1868 and 1869 I was a member of the Pioneer
Fur Co., composed of four Canadian Frenchmen, myself
and others, formed for the purpose of the fur trade in
Alaska. This continued for two years, during which we
traded in fur-seal skins and other pelts, around Northwestern Alaska, from Nunivak Island, northward.  We also
bought and traded for walrus ivory. In 1870-1871 I was
engaged in whaling in the Arctic and Behring's Seas, with
others, and traded on the Alaska coast and islands for furs
and ivory. In 1872 to 1874 I was in the employment of




93


the Alaska Commercial Company, and commanded one of
their vessels running from San Francisco to Alaska. I
made one trip a year in 1872, 1873 and 1874, stopping at
Ounalaska, and at the islands of St. Paul and St. George, and
also at St. Michaels. In 1874 I went into the business of
whaling in the Arctic and Belring's Seas on my own account, and continued in the same business in 1875 and
1876.  Since then I have been in the employment of
various shipping companies, as well as in the U. S. revenue
service. I am very familiar with the Aleutian chain of
islands; and the coast of Alaska from thence northward to
St. Michaels, and in fact to the Arctic Ocean. I have been
through Behring's Straits, and around as far as Anxiety
Point, on the northern coast of Alaska.
I am well acquainted with the Alaska Commercial Company and its agents in Alaska, as well as with its mode of
doing business there, especially in connection with its trading with the natives, both on the Pribylov Islands and on
the Aleutian chain and elsewhere. Whilst I was in the
company's employment, my instructions were to treat the
natives everywhere fairly and liberally in all matters, and
I know those were the instructions to others in their employment. I know that, by its fair dealing, the company
has made itself popular with the natives and others with
whom it has business. In their purchases from the natives
and in their sales of supplies, and all dealings with them,
they have always, where I have been, acted fairly and reasonably, and I never heard any complaints to the contrary.
The only complaint I ever heard fiom the natives against
the company was that they could not obtain as much sugar
as they wanted. They, therefore, could not make the intoxicating liquor they call "quass," which they manufacture in absence of the usual spirituous liquors. I have myself seen great improvements on the Aleutian chain of
islands, in the natives, since they have been cut off from the
manufacture of "quass." This quass is the worst of intoxicating drinks, and I believe that if the company desired to
take unfair advantages of the natives, they could find no




94


more certain plan than by selling them plenty of sugar,
with which to make "quass."  The company, however,
refuses to do so, and in every way encourages them in sobriety and good morals. Whilst doing business on my own
account, and for others, with the Alaska Commercial Company, I was always treated fairly and liberally.
In 1885, one of my vessels was shipwrecked, and in consequence of that I spent several weeks at Ounalaska, where
I was treated with great kindness by the agents of the
Alaska Commercial Company. Neither at that time nor
at any previous time did I see any mutilated coin received
or paid out. I saw coin paid in transactions between the
natives and the Commercial Company, but it was good,
current coin of the United States. Had the company ever
attempted to limit the natives to the use of mutilated coin
in their dealing with the company, I should have known it.
I saw no oppression of the natives, or any hard usage of
them whatever, by the company.
E. E. SMITH.


SAN FRANCISCO, December, 1887.




No. 16.


Statement of Captain A. H. McGregor,
I am Master of the whaling bark Atlantic, of New Bedford, Mass. I was in command of her on the coast of
Alaska in Behring's Sea in the spring of 1884. I was caught
in the ice foe and held for six weeks and got stoved there.
I came very near abandoning my ship. I was finally able
to reach Ounalaska. Captain Healy, of the Revenue vessel
Corwin, came to me and piloted my ship into port. We
beached her on the 15th June, 1884, and there repaired her.
I found there Mr. Neuman, agent of the Alaska Commercial Company, in charge of that company's business. He
was very obliging and afforded me every facility possible.
He furnished me with materials for repairs and gave me the
use of the blacksmith shop and wharf free of any charge
whatever, and also offered me a supply of water. He informed me that I could have from the company's store anything they had, at San Francisco wholesale prices with the
freight only added. I made some purchases on those terms.
The surveyors of the ship thought the expenses of her repair would be about $1,000 to $1,500. But with the assistance of Mr. Neuman, and the labor I employed there,
my expenses did not exceed $56, and I was delayed only
four or five days. He also cashed, at the company's store,
my draft on the owners at San Francisco, and otherwise
treated me and my crew with great kindness and hospitality.
A. H. McGREGOR.


San Francisco, December, 1887.




No. 17.


Letter of the Secretary of the Navy, in acknowledgment of services rendered by the Alaska Commercial Co.
NAVY DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, February 10, 1885.
THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS OF THE
ALASKA COMMERCIAL COMPANY.
GENTLEMEN:
I desire to convey, through you, the thanks of the Navy
Department to your agent Mr. Neuman at Ounalaska and
Mr. Laurence at St. Michaels for their kindness and assistance to Lieutenant George M. Stoney, U. S. N., Commanding
the U. S. S. (" Ounalaska;" and also especially to Captain
Hague, Commanding your steamer " Dora," whose valuable
assistance to the "Ounalaska" when in Analga pass last
October, contributed to the safety of that vessel.
With a high appreciation of the services rendered by
Captain Hague and the courtesies of your agents, I have
the honor to subscribe myself,
Very respectfully,
WM. E. CHANDLER,
Secretary of the Navy.




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