230 ALASKA. 



reasoDably assumed that I have been in the position of an im- 

 partial observer, and that my views on the subject are not 

 without a certain weight. 



I will eudeavor to state as succinctly as practicable the 

 present condition of the Aleutian people and its relation to 

 their past condition, the position which they hold in regard to 

 the traders, and what action seems to me desirable on the part 

 of the Government to protect its honor and their rights from 

 invasion. 



Briefly, the past may be summed up in the statement that 

 the Aleuts were found by the early Eussian explorers a race 

 possessed of much intelligence, not without spirit, yet far less 

 warlike and aggressive than the Eskimo of Kodiak and else- 

 where, (who are usually confounded with the Aleuts,) and an 

 entirely different people in character and disposition from the 

 Indians of the coast or the interior. They were reduced by 

 the most barbarous and inhuman treatment to less than 10 per 

 cent, of their original numbers, and were regarded as the slaves 

 of the traders. 



The first reaction against this system took place in 1794, and 

 then and afterward in 1799, 1805, and especially 1818, the 

 Eussian government, recognizing its duty, interposed between 

 the Aleuts and the trading companies regulations intended to 

 curb the exactions of the latter and improve the condition of 

 the former. 



In 1821, Father lunocentius Veniaminoff, a noble and 

 devoted missionary, now primate of the Greek Church, began 

 his labors among the Aleuts, and to him is due directly most 

 of their improvement, mental and moral, since the time men- 

 tioned. In 1861 and 1802 the report of Imperial Commissioner 

 Golovin was prepared and submitted, and the result showing 

 that the regulations of the government had been more or 

 less unsuccessful in checking the rapacity of the traders, their 

 charter was not renewed.(l) 



In the Kussian plan, the Aleuts were in a condition of serf- 

 dom to the company which controlled the colonies. Yet the 

 com})any had its own obligations to fulfill toward them, and 

 when these were enforced, no Eussian, except the commander 

 of a trading-post, could strike a native -, the xVleuts were in- 

 sured a subsistence ; the making of quass, a fermented liquor, 

 of which the basis is meal and sugar or molasses, was forbid- 

 den under heavy penalties, and intoxicating spirits were only 



