THE STORY OF SITKA

THE HISTORIC OUTPOST OF THE NORTHWEST COAST
THE CHIEF FACTORY OF THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY

Contributed by Joy Fisher
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THE STORY OF SITKA

THE HISTORIC OUTPOST OF THE NORTHWEST COAST
THE CHIEF FACTORY OF THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY

By C. L. ANDREWS

Seattle, Washington

PRESS OF
Lowman & Hanford Co.
SEATTLE.


TO MY MOTHER
THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED
THE AUTHOR
Copyright 1922
By C. L. ANDREWS
Seattle. Wash.

CHAPTER III

PROGRESS OF THE COLONY

The courtly Chamberlain of the Tsar, Nicholas P.
Resanof, son-in-law of Shelikof who was the founder of
the first Russian colony in America, came to Sitka in
1805, via Petropavlovsk, Siberia, on the "Nadeshda,"
one of the first Russian ships to circumnavigate the
world, and was a special representative of the Russian
American Company, of which organization he was one of
the founders.

In his report to the Company he tells us: "The fort is
on the high hill, or kekoor, on a peninsula in the
gulf. On the left side of the kekoor close on the
peninsula is built an immense barracks with two
projecting blockhouses or towers. All the building is
made from mast timber from the top to the foundation,
under which is a cellar. Besides this building are two
warehouses, a material magazine and two cellars, also
two large sheds for storing food, and under the sheds
are the quarters for the workmen. On the side opposite
the fort is a shed for storing cargo, at the right
side is the kitchen, bath, and quarters for the
servants of the Company, clerks, etc., and on the
shore are the blacksmith shops and other workshops. On
the top of the kekoor is a building, five sazhens*
long and three sazhens wide, with two rooms. In one I
live, and in the other there are two shipmasters.
There are still some old Kolosh yourts, in which live
the kayours and the Kodiak Americans (Aleuts, they are
generally called). +

"Our guns are always loaded, everywhere are sentinels
with loaded arms, and in the rooms of each of us arms
constitute the greater part of the furniture. All the
night the signals from post to post continue, war
discipline prevails; in a word, we are ready at any
minute to receive our dear guests, who generally
profit by the darkness of night to make an attack."

* The Russian sazhen is 7 feet. + Pronounced Al-e-ut.

The additional number in the garrison owing to the
arrival of the Chamberlain and his suite made it more
difficult to procure provisions for the winter. The
hostile Kolosh made hunting and fishing dangerous. In
the autumn there was but flour enough for an allowance
of a pound a week for one month for the 200 men in the
fort. For other food supply they were dependent on the
fish caught in the bay, the dried yukali and sealion
meat from Kodiak, and the dried seal meat from the
Seal Islands.

Baranof bought the ship "Juno," an American sailing
ship of about 250 tons, from Captain George D'Wolf, of
Bristol, Conn., with its cargo of flour, sugar and
other articles, for the sum of 68,000 piastres
(Spanish), equivalent to about the same number of
dollars. This relieved the immediate necessity, but
before spring the supply became so low that the
scurvy, that dread malady of the seas and of outlying
localities, attacked the garrison. This scourge often
fell heavily on the early Russian expeditions, and in
1821 the Russian ship "Borodino" lost 40 men through
its ravages in a voyage from Sitka to Kronstadt.

In March, Resanof sailed for San Francisco in the
"Juno" to purchase breadstuffs and other supplies. He
also wished to examine the coast with the view of
making other settlements farther south, at Nootka, at
the Columbia, or even farther south in California. He
secured a cargo of the products of the south and
returned to Sitka in June.

On his southward journey Resanof reconnoitred the
mouth of the Columbia River, seeking a site for a
future settlement. He was unable to enter the river
owing to contrary winds; and the condition of his
crew, debilitated by lack of proper food and suffering
from scurvy, caused him to hasten on. He heard that a
party of U. S. soldiers were building a fort there.
This rumor doubtless came from the presence of Lewis
and Clarke near the present Astoria.

While on this visit to San Francisco Resanof met the
Spanish beauty, Dona Concepcion de Arguello, of whom
one of the visitors said, "She was lively and
animated, had sparkling, love-inspiring eyes,
beautiful teeth, pleasing and expressive features, a
fine form and a thousand other charms," and he lost
his heart to her. The romance of the Russian courtier
and the fair Californian furnished to Bret Harte the
theme for some of his most beautiful verse. Resanof,
hurrying home to Russia to gain the Imperial
permission to his marriage, died at Krasnoyarsk,
Siberia, and Dona Concepcion waited for years for the
coming of her lover, not knowing that he lay dead
under the Siberian snows. When the news of his sad
fate came to her she donned the habit of a nun and
devoted herself to charitable works.

This visit to California was the beginning of a trade
that continued for many years, through all the period
of Russian occupation. During the days of the gold
discoveries in California large shipments of goods
were made from Sitka to San Francisco, and after the
sale of the territory to the United States great
quantities of merchandise were shipped from the
warehouses of the Company to the California
metropolis, amounting to over a quarter of a million
dollars in one year.

The breadstuifs for the colonies were procured from
California, from San Francisco and from Ross Colony,
or from Peru, until 1840, when a contract was made
with the Hudson's Bay Company under which the supplies
were brought from the farms of the Nisqually or from
Vancouver, in Oregon Territory.

Until the time of the arrival of the "Neva", 1804, all
trading goods were brought across Siberia to Okhotsk,
and thence by sailing vessel to the colony, or were
purchased from the American or English trading ships
which came to the coast for furs. To the natives the
English who came to these waters became known as "King
George Men," and the Americans were called "Boston
Men," the latter being from the great number of ships
that sailed from the great shipping port of New
England. From these traders goods were purchased by
Baranof at lower rates than those cost which were
brought from Russia. John Jacob Astor was one of the
first to engage in the trade. He sent the ship
"Enterprise" to Sitka in 1810, and the "Beaver" in
1812. From Washington Irving we have the description,
through the account of the Captain, of the
"Hyperborean veteran ensconsed in a fort which crested
the top of a high rock promontory," which is well
known to all readers of stories of western life, and
in which the impression of the character of Baranof as
given to the reader is very erroneous. The traders
exchanged their goods with the Russians for furs,
sometimes going to the Pribilof Islands to receive the
seal-skuas; sailed to China, where the furs were
traded for silks, nankins, and teas; they then voyaged
on around the world to their home port.

The sloop-of-war "Diana," the first Russian warship to
reach Sitka, arrived in 1810 under the command of
Captain Yasili M. Grolofnin, who was widely known for
his adventures while a captive in the Kingdom of the
Nipponese, where he was carried about in a bamboo cage
and exhibited to the populace. His description of his
visit to Sitka is entertaining, and of it he says:

"In the fort we met nothing so unusual or costly as to
be worthy of special remark; the fort consisted of
solid log towers, and high strong palisades, with
apertures or embrasures, in which were set guns and
carronades of different calibres. The interior
construction, barracks, storehouses, house of the
commander and other buildings were made of thick logs
and were very solid, these being very common in this
place, around which grows, so to say, within reach of
a windlass, a multitude of most beautiful trees
suitable for structures of every description.

"In the house of Mr. Baranof were ornaments and
furniture in profusion, of masterly workmanship and
costly price, brought from St. Petersburg and from
England, which corresponded with his position as the
head official of a great company. What astonished us
most was an extensive library in nearly all European
languages, and many pictures of remarkable merit. I
must confess, that I badly judge in painting, and only
could know, that in the uncultivated wild border of
America, there would be none except Mr. Baranof to
value and understand them, unless there might happen
to be educated travelers, or masters of United States
trading vessels visiting this place, there would be no
one to appreciate the fine art. Mr. Baranof, noting my
astonishment, explained the riddle, saying, that the
pictures attracting our attention were gifts of the
Company and of distinguished persons in St.
Petersburg, for the establishing of a library, and the
Directory sent them out. On these works he commented
with the following remarkable view: 'Better that our
directors had sent us a doctor, for in all the
Company's colonies there is not one doctor, nor one
doctor's assistant, nor one doctor's pupil.' "

Golofnin soon left Sitka to return to St. Petersburg.
His successful voyage, together with that of the
"Neva" and the "Nadeshda," encouraged the shipment of
goods by sea from Russia, and from that time onward
ships came regularly, laden with supplies of every
kind for the post, and returned with rich cargoes of
peltry.

By 1825 surgical and astronomical instruments of the
best quality were sent to the colony, an apothecary
shop of three rooms provided medicines, and four
Creole boys, under the charge of a doctor, attended to
the dispensing of the potions. A hospital was in
connection and the sick received fresh food, tea,
sugar, and medicines, free, upon the order of the
doctor.

An observatory, equipped with the most improved
magnetic and meteorological instruments was later
provided and there was kept a record of natural
phenomena, while a museum of objects of interest from
the surrounding country was open for the instruction
of all.

The library was brought from St. Petersburg in 1806 by
Resanof. Mr. Khlebnikof tells us that it contained
more than 1,200 volumes, valued at 7,500 rubles, and
they were in the Russian, French, German, English,
Latin and other languages.

When Mr. Resanof was preparing for his journey he
addressed letters to many of the leading men of St.
Petersburg, soliciting their contribution of books to
promote the beginning of education in the far off
possession of the Czar. Many sent a response in
writing accompanied by one or more volumes, and the
letters so sent were richly bound in a separate volume
and placed with the library in the building at Sitka.
Among the patrons were the Metropolite Ambrosia, Count
Rumiantzof, Count Stroganof, Admiral Chichagof,
Minister of Justice Dimitrief, Senator Zakarof and
others. The sentiments were varied, but many agreed in
voicing the desire to usow the seed of science in the
breasts of the peoples so far outlying from the
enlightenment of Europe." Some of them reflected the
personal character of the donors: The Metropolite
Ambrosia sent books for church services; the Minister
of Marine sent plans of ships; and Count Rumiantzof
contributed works on husbandry.*

* These books and letters were brought by Resanof in
the "Nedeshda," and upon reaching Kodiak Resanof
established the library at that place. It was
afterward removed to Sitka, probably by Baranof when
he changed the chief factory to that place in 1807.
After the United States took possession the library
disappeared, whether taken to Russia or left in Sitka
does not appear, but the books were likely left in
Sitka and gradually disappeared through theft in the
years when there was no custodian of such property.


Mr. Kyril Khlebnikof, the accountant of the Company,
who was in charge of the counting house at Sitka from
1818 to 1832, to whom we are indebted for many
valuable writings relating to the early history of the
settlements, tells us that when Mr. Baranof left the
colony the buildings had become badly decayed and much
new construction had to be done. In 1827 there had
been built, three sentry houses, a battery of thirty
guns on the kekoor, and below them magazines, barracks
and other buildings, a bakery, wharf, arsenal, etc. In
the shops were blacksmiths, coppersmiths, locksmiths,
coopers, turners, rope spinners, chandlers, painters,
masons, etc.

At the Ozerskoe Redoubt, on Deep Lake, were barracks
and a fort, a flouring mill, a tannery, and other
buildings. A zapor, or fish trap, in the stream took
sixty thousand fish each year.

The workmen got out timber from the forest for the
building of ships, they cut fuel and burned charcoal
in large quantities; kept the buildings in repair and
did other duties required on the factory. The work of
the gardening was chiefly done by the Aleuts, who were
paid a ruble a day for their services.

The Russian Captain Lutke came to Sitka about this
time and he tells us that there were many pigs and
chickens raised by the inhabitants, and that a pig
might be had for 5 to 7 rubles, a hen for 4 to 5
rubles, and eggs at from 3% to 10 rubles per dozen.
The chief drawback to the chicken industry was the
presence of the great black ravens that carried away
the young chicks and sometimes even the old hens. The
ravens were such successful scavengers that they were
called the New Archangel police, and he says they even
bit the tails off the young pigs, so that all the hogs
of the place were tailless.

He mentions the abundance of deer on the islands and
also says that mountain sheep were killed by the
Aleuts and brought to the fort. He must have confused
the sheep with the goats, for the sheep never approach
the coast so closely, and he speaks of the wool being
used for weaving the blankets for the ceremonial
dances of the Kolosh. This would indicate that the
animal in question was the mountain goat. A later
writer says that 2,700 game animals were brought into
Sitka for sale during the winter of 1861-62.

A shipyard was established as soon as the necessary
buildings to house the garrison were completed. It
occupied a part of the present parade ground near the
Russian Barracks and included a portion of the present
street. Many vessels were built in the yard during the
Russian occupation, the first, being the tender
"Avoss," launched in 1806, followed by the brig
"Sitka," built by an American shipbuilder named
Lincoln, and for which he was paid 2,000 rubles as a
royalty upon the completion of the ship. A frigate of
320 tons was the largest vessel built before 1819, and
at that time construction was discontinued until 1834,
when work was resumed and continued until the close of
the Russian regime.

The "Politofsky" was one of the last vessels to be
built at Sitka, and it was sold by Prince Maksoutoff:
to H. M. Hutchinson and Abraham Hirsch for $4,000 in
1867. The next year it was -sold to Hutchinson, Kohl &
Co., and later was sold to a firm that ran it to Puget
Sound, and from Alaska to San Francisco. It was built
of Alaska cedar timber, the dushnoi dereva or scented
wood of the Russians, and was spiked with hand-made
copper spikes. It was taken to Alaska in the gold rush
of 1898, and found its last resting place, very
appropriately, in the land where it was built, in the
harbor of St. Michael, the old Russian port on Bering
Sea.

The fear of shipwreck, and of death at sea hung over
every soul of the community. The long voyages in
uncharted and unlighted waters with sailing ships—more
than six months at the shortest from Kronstadt— often
three months or more against baffling winds from
Okhotsk—the voyages to the redoubts and odinoslikas
(detached posts with one man only) of the Bering Sea
and of the G-ulf of Alaska, to collect the fur catch
of the year and bring it to Sitka; the long journey
via Canton on the return to Russia—all held many
dangers for the sailing ships of those days. The
"Phoenix," the first ship built on the Alaskan shores,
foundered with all on board, including the Bishop and
his retinue, in 1799, on the return voyage from
Okhotsk; the "St. Nicholas" went ashore on the coast
of Washington in 1808, and those who survived the
waves were held in bondage for years by the savages of
that coast.

During the latter part of August, 1812, the ship
"Neva" left Okhotsk—contrary winds delayed her in the
Sea of Okhotsk— storms beat her back along the
Aleutian Islands till it was November before land was
sighted in Alaska. The storms damaged the rigging and
ship until it was necessary to put into Voskresenski
Harbor (Resurrection Bay) for repairs. She arrived off
Sitka about December 1st. After four or five days Mt.
Edgecumbe was sighted but a storm drove the ship to
sea where she beat about for weeks before again
nearing the port. Scurvy afflicted the passengers and
crew and added to the general distress. On January
8th, 1813, Mt. Edgecumbe again appeared. In trying to
make the harbor the ship grounded on the rocks under
the cape on the morning of the 9th and speedily broke
to pieces under the terrific pounding of the seas.*
Some of the people on board reached shore after
incredible suffering and hardship.


* The "Neva" was long identified with the affairs of
the colony. Bought in England for the first Russian
expedition round the world, Captain Lisianski reached
Sitka in time for her to participate in the driving of
the Indians from their fortifications. She returned to
Russia later to be sailed to the colony in 1810, and
was on her third voyage at the time of her loss.

After several days two of the sailors wandering along
the shore met a Kolosh boy and persuaded him to take
them to Sitka, where they arrived, cold, exhausted,
and almost starving. Boats were at once fitted out by
Mr. Baranof, the survivors were rescued, brought to
Sitka, and their sufferings relieved. From those on
board the ship, 38 had perished, including Kalinin,
the commander, Boronovolokof, the intended future
chief manager of the Company, and five women
passengers. In the cargo was food and clothing, the
messages of the year for the exiles, and rich
vestments and furnishings for the church that was soon
to be built in Sitka, all scattered for miles along
the wild coast of Kruzof Island. This was one of the
worst disasters of the sea that visited the colony,
although many others are part of the records of the
time.

It is said that Chief Katlean tore his hair with rage
when he learned of the wreck, because he did not find
it and destroy the survivors out of revenge for his
defeat and expulsion from his home at Sitka.

There are many traditions among the residents of Sitka
concerning the wreck of the "Neva." Among them is that
there was a vast treasure of gold for the use of the
garrison and the traders. This is erroneous, for there
was no gold used in the colonies, the trade being by
barter or conducted with scrip, called assignats,
issued by the Company for the purpose. The story of
the gold has been so generally believed that serious
plans have been made for attempting the salvage of the
treasure.

The term of office of Alexander Andreevich Baranof as
the chief manager of the Russian American Company came
to a close in 1818. He had been 28 years in the
colonies, leaving Russia in 1790 for the post of Three
Saints on Kodiak Island, which at that time
constituted almost the only Russian establishment in
America, the other stations being little more than
outlying trading posts. He left their dominion an
empire in extent, reaching from the Seal Islands in
Bering Sea, at the edge of the ice pack of the Arctic,
to Fort Ross, among the sunny hills of Golden
California. Captain Hagmeister came to relieve him,
and in his 72nd year the old chief manager, bent with
the weight of years and of long and arduous service,
closed his accounts and set sail on the "Kutusof," one
of the Company's vessels, for his far-off home in
Russia.

When the time arrived for Baranof to take his
departure from the land he had made his home for so
many years, sorrowfully he took his leave of the
associates with whom he had so long shared the dangers
and hardships of the uncivilized land. Upon being
relieved of the duties of his office he first
considered building a home at the Ozerskoe Redoubt and
spending the remainder of his days in the place he had
learned to love. Later he decided to return to his
native land and sailed on the " Kutusof " for
Kronstadt. A delay at Batavia in the tropics proved
too severe for his advanced years. The day after
leaving Batavia he died and was buried at sea in the
waters of the Indian Ocean.

Captain Leontius Andreanovich Hagemeister succeeded to
the office of chief manager hut remained only a short
time at Sitka, then sailed for Russia, leaving Captain
Simeon Ivanovich Yanovski in charge.

Captain Yanovski became enamored with the beautiful
daughter of Baranof, and if you search the old records
of the Cathedral of St. Michaels at Sitka you will
find the entry as made of the marriage of Simeon
Ivanof Yanovski "with the late head governor of the
Russian American possessions, Collegiate Adviser and
Cavalier Baranof's daughter Irina, one of Creoles."

In 1830, Baron Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, scientist
and explorer, came to administer the office. He had
sailed the frozen ocean along the northern shores of
Siberia as an explorer, and Wrangell Island, Wrangell
Strait, etc., on the maps of today perpetuate his
name.

Under Baron Wrangel, as assistant to the manager,
served Adolph Carlovich Etolin, a native of Finland,
who came to the colony as an officer on the war sloop
"Kamchatka" in 1817, who sailed in the service of the
Company to nearly every port from the Seal Islands of
Bering Sea to Chile, who made several voyages around
the world, and who was made chief manager in 1840. In
1846 he returned to Russia to accept the trust of
Commercial Counsellor in the head office of the
Company in St. Petersburg.

About fourteen miles to the southwest, across the bay
and facing Edgecumbe, with a beautiful view of the
peak and islands, is the Hot Springs, well known for
their medicinal properties by the natives before the
advent of the Russians, and frequently resorted to by
both as a panacea for many ills. In the Place of
Islands (Chasti Ostrova,) is reputed to be a spring
with a sour taste, while almost within the limits of
the town of Sitka, Dr. Scheffer, a German physician
who made a sojourn in the place about 1815, claimed to
have found a medical spring whose waters were equal to
some of the famed watering places of Germany.

CHAPTER IV

NATIVES

Most of the Sitkan Kolosh kept aloof from the Russian
settlement after the establishment of the new fort on
Chatham Strait, near the entrance of Peril Strait. All
the kwans, the Khootznoos, the Hoonahs, the Chilkats,
the Auks, Stikines, Kakes and others, joined with the
Sitkas in the hatred of the Russians. Parties going
out from the fort at Sitka for hunting expeditions,
for cutting of wood, for traveling to the Hot Springs,
had to be on their guard and with arms at hand
prepared to fight at a moment's notice.* Small groups
were often cut off and murdered. As it was impossible
to decide which of the many kwans did the act, and as
there were those in each kwan who were peaceable, with
whom it was desired to keep the peace, revenge against
any village was inadvisable. Even as late as the date
of the lease to the Hudson Bay Co. the Russian ships
that sailed among the islands to trade with the Kolosh
were compelled to act with the strictest caution. Only
a few natives were admitted on board at a time, the
trading was done in a space near the stern, and was
conducted under the muzzles of loaded cannon concealed
in the fore part of the ship.+ The conditions were
thus until 1821, when the Sitkas were invited to
reoccupy the site of the old village and to live in
what is now known as the "Ranche," under the guns of
the redoubt.

* Golofnin, Voyage of the Sloop "Kamchatka," in Mat.
Pt. 4, p. 103. + Lutke:   Voyages. Mat. Pt. 4, p. 147.


The Thlingit nation is a strange, warlike, shrewd
people, physically strong and enduring, and possessed
of many excellent qualities. Hunters and fishermen by
nature and training, they are skillful boatmen, and in
those days they built wonderfully beautiful canoes of
the red cedar, some of them large enough to carry
sixty men at the paddles. Each spring more than a
thousand men gathered together in Sitka Bay, coming
from the different villages, to fish for herring at
the spawning time, when those fish run in countless
myriads in those waters. Hemlock boughs were placed in
the water, and on them the herring roe collected until
they were encrusted with the eggs which were then
stripped off and dried for future use.

In 1807 there were over 2,000 hostile natives gathered
in the harbor at the herring season and they
threatened an attack on the settlement. Kuskof, the
most trusted and able lieutenant of Baranof, was in
charge, and it put his wisdom and watchfulness to the
test to avert disaster. The strictest discipline was
maintained. The tribesmen waited outside day after
day, hoping for news of some relaxation of the
precautions of the defenders to be brought to them by
the women of the tribe who were married to the Russian
promishleniki (hunters). Day and night the sentinels
paced the beats on the stockade and along the
waterfront, till, weary of waiting, the Kolosh finally
dispersed to their homes.

In the great tribal houses several families lived,
sometimes as many as fifty or sixty persons. Over the
door of the house was painted the family totem, for
the Sitkas did not raise the house totem in a pole in
front as did many of the kwans of the Thlingits, and
as the Hydahs do. In these houses were held the
potlatches, or gift parties, which were made by the
wealthy chiefs.

The potlatches were of different kinds, although all
partook of the nature of a feasting or merrymaking and
were distinguished by the giving of gifts. In the
ordinary visiting potlatches, or in the berry
potlatches, the visitors came in their canoes with
which they formed a line off shore opposite the
houses, put planks from one canoe to another and on
these planks danced the tribal dance. Those on shore
danced the welcome dance and invited the guests
ashore. Then the visitors disembarked and each family
became the guest of their kinsmen of their totem or
they went to the guesthouse of the kwan. All the
people of the same totem are supposed to be blood
relations, so all those of the wolf totem go to the
Gooch-fteat, or the dwelling blazoned by the rude
heraldry with the wolf rampant. In the great social
potlatches a wealthy chief invites his friends from
many villages and entertains them for a week or more
with dancing and feasting and makes presents varied
and valuable, from Hudson's Bay blankets to bolts of
calico or of flannel, and in primitive days, copper
tows,* Chilkat blankets, and even slaves were handed
over with a lavish hospitality.

* The tows were large pieces of native copper from the
Copper River hammered out flat by the natives. These
were carried in front of the chiefs by slaves who beat
them like gongs.

On special occasions in the olden time, with great
ceremony the visitors landed at a distance from the
village, drew their canoes ashore and proceeded to the
village dressed in festive garments adorned with
sealion heads or other strange headdresses, in which
they danced the rare and picturesque "Beach Dance," in
acknowledgement to the Spirit of the Sea for the
bountiful supply of salmon and herring of the past
season—for the native American is a thankful being and
omits not to show it when occasion offers to
acknowledge it to the Giver of all good and perfect
gifts.

During the earlier years of the colony the Kolosh were
implacable enemies. War parties of young men
constantly haunted the islands of the bay, lying in
wait for any unwary hunter or fisherman from the fort.
Later, when they were settled under the walls of the
fort they became more tractable, for their homes and
families were commanded by the guns of the fortress,
but on the least provocation the savagery in their
blood would boil, from their great tribal houses they
issued forth, faces blackened to the semblance of
devils, war masks grinning, and the howling mob
shouted defiance at their neighbor over the stockade.
Many a bloody tragedy was enacted in the "Ranche" for
their code was primitive, "an eye for an eye," and a
life for a life.

Feuds raged between the different totemic families.
About 1853 a party of Wrangell Indians (Stikines)
visited Sitka, and while being entertained in the
guest-house were murdered and their bodies piled into
a canoe which was then paddled to Japonski Island. On
striking the shore it was so heavily laden with the
bodies of the dead that tradition says the canoe split
from end to end. It is said that the bones of the dead
are still to be seen in the undergrowth along the
shore. In retaliation, about 1855, the Wrangell Kolosh
made an attack on the Hot Springs settlement, burned
the buildings, stripped the inhabitants of property
and clothing and left them to make their way over the
mountains around the head of Silver Bay to Sitka,
where they arrived more dead than alive from hunger
and exhaustion. This feud was not settled until 1918,
when a peace treaty was consummated between the kwans
on Armistice Day, a coincidence which is much made of
by the tribesmen.

The Kolosh were as firm believers in witchcraft as any
of the more civilized nations. They resorted to their
shamans (ekhts) or medicine men in case of illness. If
his weird incantations failed to relieve the sufferer,
his resort was that the victim was bewitched and some
poor unfortunate paid the penalty by enduring the most
fiendish torture.

One March day in 1855 a commotion arose in the Kolosh
village. A sentry caught an Indian who was stealing
and punished him, for which the tribe called for
vengeance. Some rushed to the stockade and began to
cut away the palisades. Other forced their way into
the Koloshian Church through the outer door. From this
vantage point they fired on the garrison and in return
the batteries of the fort blazed back with solid shot
and .shrapnel. For two hours the fight continued, when
the Kolosh gave up all hope of success, and ceased the
battle. The Russian loss in killed and wounded was 20
men, while the Kolosh loss was estimated at 60. This
was the last attempt of the natives to destroy the
Russian stronghold.

At times during the later days of the colony the
Kolosh were employed as seamen and as workers in the
ice trade by the Russians and thus they occupied a
place in the industrial life. Etolin was the most
successful in conciliating them of any of the Chief
Managers, and he at one time held a fur fair at Sitka
to which peltry was brought from far and near, modeled
somewhat upon the idea of the great fur mart of Nizhni
Novgorod. Most of them, however, hunted and fished,
lived in their tribal houses, carved their canoes,
wove their baskets, and practiced their witchcraft,
while their civilized neighbors gathered the furs and
built ships.

Under the walls of the fort, in the old tribal houses
of the Kolosh which had not been destroyed, lived the
Aleuts. Properly speaking the name belongs to the
natives of the Aleutian Islands, but the term was also
applied to the natives of Kodiak Island and the
surrounding islets. These speak a different language
from the true Aleuts, but otherwise resemble them
closely. During the hunting season they scoured the
seas in their skin bidarkas, in the pursuit of fur
animals. In winter many of them remained at Sitka
instead of returning to their homes. Their time was
spent in idleness, spending the summer's earnings in
the pleasures and vices of the white man. One who saw
them in their kazhims, as their dwellings were often
called, describes them: "Morally, the Aleut is not
bloodthirsty. He delights in simple rejoicings and
will play you a game of chess with walrus ivory
pieces—a duck for a pawn and a penguin for a king—with
the greatest of good humor. Even when squabbles arrive
the argument is carried on in poetry to the
accompaniment of dancing, and one would be inclined to
prefer the Aleut angry to the Aleut amiable, did he
not know he also dances when festive and when
religious.

"Among them the social duty of visiting has its
drawbacks. Several families live together in the
kazhims, and during one's visit they all lie around in
every conceivable posture, jolly and genial, naked and
unashamed. The fumes of the blubber oil lamps and
stoves, the stores of raw meat, the many naked bodies,
well smeared with grease and scented with primitive
ungents, combine to make an atmosphere difficult to
tolerate and not easy to describe. Yet, if you will,
you may enjoy the warmest hospitality, and have heaped
upon you the most assiduous attentions."


CHAPTER V

CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS

It was not until 1816 that a priest arrived at Sitka,
and in that year the first entry is made in the church
records under the name of Alexander Sokolof. A church
was huilt at the south of the street, which was th;en
called the Governor's Walk, almost opposite the
present cathedral. A monument marks the spot where the
altar stood, and a cross marks the site of a grave,
said to be that of a priest. Tradition also tells that
there are two graves there, and assigns the other one
to the daughter of Baron Wrangell, the Chief Manager
of the Company at one time.*

* In the church records appears the entry: "Died,
August 27, 1832, Naval Captain of the 1st Rank and
Cavalier Baron Ferdinand Wrangel's daughter—Mary."
There is also to be found: "Died, December 29th, 1839,
Priest Vasili Michaeloff Ocheredin, 23 years old."


The present cathedral of St. Michael, which is the
central point of historic interest, in the center of
the town at Lincoln Street, was dedicated November 20,
1848. It fronts on a small court and with its green
painted spire surmounted by the Greek Cross is so
typically Russian that it might readily be believed to
have been transplanted from old Russia. The chime of
bells, a gift from the Church at Moscow, would be
worthy of any shrine. The building is in the form of a
cross, has three sanctuaries and three altars. The
larger and central sanctuary is that of the
ArcMstrategos Michael. In the center is an elevated
platform, the episcopal Cathedra, and it is separated
from the main body of the church by a partition called
the Ikonastas, which is ornamented with twelve ikons,
or holy paintings, covered by plates of silver in
repousse work in the true Russian style of art, and
through the Royal Gates the priest appears. The silver
in the ikons is valued at over $6,000. The ikon of St.
Michael is said to have been in the wreck of the
"Neva," and was rescued after being cast up by the
sea. Another is a gift of the monks of the monastery
of Solovetsk; another was brought by Bishop
Innocentius (Yeniaminof) from Petropavlovsk. The ikon
of the Resurrection is painted on a board from a tree
in Hebron, was consecrated in Bethlehem, and bears the
autograph signature of the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

The chapel at the right is dedicated in the name of
St. John the Precursor and Prince Alexander Nevsky.

The chapel at the left is in honor of Our Lady of
Kazan. In it is a painting of a Madonna and Child from
which the beautiful Byzantine face looks down with a
sweet radiance.

The vestments and sacred vessels are rich and elegant.
The white Easter vestment is of cloth of silver and
the cloth of gold for high feast days was the personal
gift of Alexander Andreevich Baranof, the great
Russian who established the colony. The belfry clock
is said to be the work of the hands of Veniaminof. The
priest in richly brocaded vestments holds the
services, and a choir of boys chant the chorus with a
melody that would be the envy of many a far more
pretentious edifice. The worshipers stand during the
services, the clouds of incense rise toward the
rounded dome, then one by one the worshipers pass and
kiss the jeweled cross in the hand of the priest.
Father Metropolski presided over the church for many
years, and Father Sergius is one of the best known in
recent years.

There were two other churches during Russian days,
one, a Lutheran, built during Etolin's time, which
stood near the site of the first church, and is said
to have contained a small but very excellent pipe
organ, brought from Germany. The other church stood
near the blockhouse on the hill, was on the line of
the stockade, and had two doors, one inside the
fortification, the other outside and used as an
entrance by the natives. It was known as the Koloshian
Church, and its site is marked by a monument. Both
these buildings long ago fell into ruin and were
removed.

The Russian religion was closely associated with the
Government, so in the colonies the official charter of
the Company compelled them to provide well for the
church and the priests according to the standard of
the times, and the work was carried on with zeal and
fortitude by the missionaries who came from the
monasteries of the old Russian cities.

Of all the missionaries who came to Russian America,
the greatest was Ivan Veniaminof. Father John he is
often called in the old records, a wonderful man,
broad of mind and of body, combining the qualities
that inspire awe and reverence with a gentleness of
word and deed that made him beloved wherever he was
known. His zapiski, or letters, are among the best
authorities extant which remain from those years on
Alaskan matters, and they were written home to Russia
during his stay in the Aleutian Islands and at Sitka.
He came to Sitka after a ten-year stay at Unalaska,
remained there for five years working for the church
and teaching in the schools, then returned to Moscow
and was consecrated as bishop of the new diocese. He
again arrived in Sitka in 1842, and made a tour of all
the churches in the colonies, traveling by sailing
ship to every settlement, then went home to Russia
where he became Metropolite of Moscow.

The schools of Sitka, under the Russian regime, were
well maintained, and many of the mechanics, clerks,
pilots, and men of other trades were educated there.
Kadin, who drew the charts for Tebenkof's Atlas of
Alaska from the surveys made by the Russian
Navigators; Tarantief, who engraved the maps on
copper-plate at Sitka; and many of the shipmasters and
accountants in the employ of the Company, were the
product of the educational institution of Sitka. In
the time of the greatest prosperity there were five
schools. The church school was advanced to the grade
of a seminary in 1849 and there were taught
navigation, mathematics, astronomy, bookkeeping, and
other branches of learning. Some of the best pupils,
both Russian and Creole, were sent to St. Petersburg
for more advanced instruction. Chief Manager Etolin
was the especial patron of education, and made many
improvements in the system. Under the auspices of
Madame Etolin, who was a native of Helsingfors and was
educated in the schools of that city, a school was
opened and maintained by the Company for the girls of
the colony. After the transfer to the United States of
the Territory the teachers returned to Russia and the
schools were closed.

CHAPTER VI

SOCIAL LIFE

At the top of the kekoor, or the Baranof Hill as it
was called in recent years, there stood a building
occupied during Russian days as a residence by the
Chief Managers of the Russian American Company. The
one known to the residents and visitors of the earlier
days of the American occupation was known as the
Baranof Castle, although Baranof himself never lived
in it. There were three, if not four different
buildings which occupied that position. The first to
be placed there was built at once upon the founding of
the post and is described by Resanof in his letters to
the Company as being a very "Unpretentious building,
and poorly constructed." Before the close of Baranof's
administration, however, according to the account of
Captain Golofinin, it was an establishment well built
and furnished with some degree of luxury.

The structure known as the Baranof Castle, which stood
on the hill at the time of the transfer to the United
States, would seem to be the third building
constructed on the site, was completed about 1837,*
and was burned to the ground on the morning of March
17th, 1894.

* Narative of a Voyage Round the World, 1836-1842, by
Captain Sir Edward Belcher, Vol. 1. pages 95 et seq.

The historic building was the scene of many
interesting events, and sheltered many distinguished
persons.

The first mistress who presided over the mansion on
the kekoor was Madame Yanovski, a daughter of Baranof
and the wife of Lieutenant Yanovski, the third Chief
Manager of the Russian American Company.

Lady Wrangell was the first to come from Russia to
preside as the First Lady of Sitka, and she was
succeeded by Madame Kupreanof, who is said to have
crossed Siberia and the Pacific Ocean to accompany her
husband to his post. Sir Edward Belcher gives a
spirited account of a ball given in his honor, in the
castle, which was then, in 1837, just completed. He
says: "The evening passed most delightfully," although
"few could converse with their partners," English
being spoken by few at that time in the capital of
Russian America.

Princess Maksoutoff, the wife of the last Chief
Manager of the colonies, came from St. Petersburg, but
died soon after her arrival, and the stone which marks
her grave may be seen on the hill between the two
cemeteries, near the site of the upper Blockhouse. Her
successor, the sceond Princess Maksoutoff, young and
beautiful, presided with grace and tact over the
mansion until the transfer of the territory to the
United States. She was one of six Russian ladies
present at the ceremonies and is said to have wept
when the Russian flag was lowered.

There is a legend of a beautiful princess whose ghost
haunted the Castle for many years. The story has been
told by many at different times and is one of the
romantic tales that cluster around the old metropolis
of the fur trading days. Her lover was sent away or
killed through the influence of an ober offitzer who
sought her hand in marriage. Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore,
who wrote so delightfully of Sitka in her journeys in
Alaska in 1883, says that, "By tradition the Lady in
Black was the daughter of one of the old governors. On
her wedding night she disappeared from the ballroom in
the midst of the festivities, and after a long search
was found dead in one of the small drawing rooms."*

* Frederich Schwatka, the explorer, seems to have been
one of the first to put the story in print, which he
did in the early eighties. It appeared In the Alaska
News, a newspaper of Juneau, on December 24th, 1896,
and the time is fixed as being in the administration
of Baron Wrangell. In 1891 Hon. Henry B. Hayden
published it in verse in a small volume printed at
Sitka. John W. Arctander, in his Lady in Bltie,
elaborates it to a small volume and ascribes it to
Etolin's time.

There is a strange fact which gives some color to the
story. In the Russian American Company's Archives now
on file in the State Department, Washington. D. C..
under date of September 23rd, 1833, a letter from St.
Petersburg refers to a report of Baron Wrangell of
November 30, 1831, which reported the death of under
officer Paul Buikof, and implicating one Col, Borusof.
Unfortunately the records of 1831 are missing and so
the report cannot be had. Baron Wrangell's daughter.
Mary, died during his stay in Sitka.

The Chief Managers entertained lavishly, and the
dinners in the Castle were events long to be
remembered. They were well worthy the representatives
of a rich and powerful company, a corporation with a
domain that was greater than the realm of many a royal
ruler. Into the sumptuously furnished and richly
decorated dining-room came the bishop and priests,
resplendent in the official robes, the naval officers
glittering in their gold laced uniforms, the
secretaries, accountants, storekeepers, all in the
uniform of the Ministry of Finance, the masters and
mates of the ships in the harbor; the guests in their
best apparel; all gathered around the hospitable board
of the chief manager. At times a hundred sat at the
table and back of them dined the cadets of the naval
school. After the dinner came dancing and until
morning the gayety went merrily on, for Russian cheer
is proverbial, and their hospitality is lavish.

Usually the Captain of the port, the secretaries,
three public and two private, two masters in the navy,
the commercial agent, two doctors, and the Lutheran
clergyman, dined with the chief manager by general
invitation, Sir George Simpson tells us. The civilian
masters of vessels, accountants, engineers, clerks,
and bookkeepers, dined at a club which was organized
by Mr. Etolin, and they lived at the old club house a
little to the east of the church.

A wedding was an elaborate affair, a bridal cake which
figured in many mystic signs, tea, coffee, chocolate
and champagne; the ladies attired in muslin dresses,
white satin shoes, silk stockings, kid gloves, fans,
and other necessary appurtances. After the ceremony of
an hour and a half was consummated, the ball was
opened by the bride and the highest officer present,
and the dancing lasted until three in the morning.

Easter was an event of much hilarity after the close
of Lent, which was strictly observed by all. From
morning to night everyone ran a gauntlet of kisses;
when two persons met, one said, "Christ has risen,"
while the other replied, "He has risen, indeed," and
then followed the salutations. These seemed not to
have been distasteful to visitors, although one
remarks that most of the dames had been more liberal
with other liquids than of pure water. Throughout it
all was a continuous peal of bells, for the Russian is
fond of bell-ringing. All carried eggs, boiled into
stones, and dyed, gilded or painted, which they
presented to their friends.