Part 2 (1/2)
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 _a.s.signats_, 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 const.i.tuted 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 a.s.sociates with whom he had so long shared the dangers and hards.h.i.+ps 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 but 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 Wrangell, scientist and explorer, came to administer the office. He had sailed the frozen ocean along the northern sh.o.r.es of Siberia as an explorer, and Wrangell Island, Wrangell Strait, etc., on the maps of today perpetuate his name.
Under Baron Wrangell, as a.s.sistant 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 Edgec.u.mbe, 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.[9] 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's Bay Co.
the Russian s.h.i.+ps 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 s.p.a.ce near the stern, and was conducted under the muzzles of loaded cannon concealed in the fore part of the s.h.i.+p.[10] 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.
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 sp.a.w.ning 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The ”Ranche”--Looking north from the top of the Baranof Castle. The Steamer at the left is the ”Coquitlam,” noted for her partic.i.p.ation in pelagic sealing and she was under seizure by the U. S.
Government.]
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 sh.o.r.e opposite the houses, put planks from one canoe to another and on these planks danced the tribal dance. Those on sh.o.r.e danced the welcome dance and invited the guests ash.o.r.e. 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-heat_, 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,[11] Chilkat blankets, and even slaves were handed over with a lavish hospitality.
On special occasions in the olden time, with great ceremony the visitors landed at a distance from the village, drew their canoes ash.o.r.e 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.