196 DALL 



voted to the Archangel Michael in hope of better results, 

 whence it was commonly called New Archangel, a name 

 which has now given place to Sitka, from the native des- 

 ignation of the bay upon which it is situated. 



For some years the progress of discovery and trade was 

 slow, though not unimportant. In 1816-1817 Kotzebue 

 was engaged in the work of exploration in the Aleutians 

 and northward. In August, 1816, he entered the Arctic 

 Ocean and explored the sound which bears his name. In 



1818 the eastern shores of Bering Sea, especially Bristol 

 Bay, were explored by KorsakofT and KolmakofF. In 



1819 an expedition for geographical discovery was fitted 

 out at St. Petersburg under Vasilieff and Bellingshausen. 

 Baranoff, returning to Russia, died at Batavia April 28th, 

 being about eighty years old, and leaving, in spite of his 

 active career and exceptional opportunities, no fortune. 

 His death made practicable the more exact fixing of 

 responsibility for colonial matters, and numerous much 

 needed reforms were carried out in the subsequent ad- 

 ministration of the Company's business. 



At this time the Russians had settlements or fortified 

 trading posts in California, Sitka Sound, Prince William 

 Sound, Cook Inlet, Kadiak, five of the Aleutian Islands, 

 the Pribilof Islands, and Nushagak in Bristol Bay. 



A convention between Russia and the United States 

 relative to boundaries, privileges for hunting and fishing, 

 and regulations governing trade, was signed at St. Peters- 

 burg April 17, 1824. A less conspicuous event which 

 had for a large part of the Territory even more impor- 

 tant consequences was the arrival in the Colonies of 

 Father Innokenti Veniaminoff, who had been sent as a 

 missionary priest to Unalaska. It is one of the mysteries 

 of the human mind how a religion brought by men guilty 

 of every infamy could be accepted by their victims ; and 

 it is probable that the reasoning, if any, indulged in by 



