292 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



Exhibit P. 



Office of Special Agent, Treasury Department, 



St. Paul Isla7i(l, Aufjiist 6, 1891. 



Sir : I am informed that there is quite a si;m of money left with you hy one Bishop 

 Valdimir, who claims authority for his actiou, to transport to San Francisco. It is 

 alleged that he succeeded in getting this money out of the natives by false repre- 

 sentations. I would request that you defer taking the money oft' the islands until 

 the matter can be reported to the Secretary of the Treasury for instructions. 

 Very respectfully, 



Wm. H. Williams, 



Special Treasury Agent. 

 Geo. R. Tingle, Esq., 



General Agent North American Commercial Company. 



Exhibit R. 



REPORT OF assistant AGENT MURRAY. 



Office of Special Agent, 

 Treasury Department, November 1, 1891. 



Sir : I have the honor to submit my annual report of the condition of affairs on St. 

 Paul Island, Alaska, during the period of my administration there, and to suggest a 

 few changes in the treatment of the native inhabitants of the seal islands — changes 

 which I believe to be essential to their moral and physical advancement. 



Your predecessor, Mr. Charles J. Golf, sailed for San Francisco on the 10th of 

 August, 1890, leaving me in charge of St. Paul Island, with instructions to see to it 

 that the natives were not allowed to suffer for the necessaries of life, and to certify 

 to the North American Commercial Company for all goods, food, and clothing fur- 

 nished b}' them, gratuitously, to the natives. No such goods were needed, however, 

 for those who had money were quite economical, and the compauy supplied rations 

 to all whom they believed to be entitled to them according to the terms of the lease. 



The only difference between the Government and the company agents was caused 

 by the widows' fund, which Mr. Goff" ordered to be expended only for clothing for 

 the most needy, while the superintendent of the compauy had ordered the local 

 agent not to issue rations to any but helpless widows until the widows' fund should 

 be exhausted. There is a class of unfortunates here who are mothers, but neither 

 wives nor widows, and two of them, with children, were in a destitute condition, 

 and I ordered them rations, to be paid for from the widows' fund. In the meantime 

 I arranged with two respectable families to take two of the children, and later with 

 a third family to take one of the young women, where she earns her board and 

 clothing and is kept out of evil companionship. The second woman has been work- 

 ing out among the neighbors, but is without a permanent home, and, under the 

 cii'cumstances, ought to be supported by the compauy. 



The widows' fund is now exhausted, and it will be wise policy never to call it 

 again into existence, for it was a wroug from its first inception. 



It will be well, too, to definitely settle what the weekly ration of food and the 

 yearly allowance of clothing shall be for all who are unable to provide for them- 

 selves. 



On the 28th of September, 1890, the island was visited by an epidemic influenza 

 which resulted in severe sickness to the greater part of the pciople, nine of whom 

 died from the 18th of October to the 81st of December, inclusive. 



I herewith inclose the report of the resident physician. Dr. Lutz, in which, from 

 a professional standpoint, he fully describes the malady and its ravages. His report 

 was written at a time when I was anxions to have it reach the Secretary of the 

 Treasury, but, owing to the lack of mail facilities, there was no opportunity to send 

 it off' the island. 



That the natives are dying off" very rapidly, that the deaths exceed the birtlis 

 every year, is only too true; and j'et, in all the references made to the prevalence of 

 disease and sickness here by those who have written or spoken on the subject, I have 

 yet to see or hear of one in which one of the principal causes of the trouble is 

 named. 



That the germs of consumption, scrofula, and kindred diseases have a firm hold on 

 many of the natives is not to be denied; but it is equally true that with some slight 

 and almost inexpensive changes in the manner of their living there need not be more 

 than one-half their present fearful death rate. 



To follow up the question in all its details would require more space than can be 



