APrENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 309 



rest of tlie world the. other half. Such is that pride of race whicli civi- 

 lization does not always oft'ace. 



For generations tliey have been warriors, prompt to take offence and 

 vindictive, as is the nature of tlie Indian race; always ready to exact an 

 eye for an eye and a tooth for a tootli. This character has not changed. 

 As was the case once in Italy, tiie dagger is an insei)aral)le companion. 

 Private quarrels are common; the duel is an institution. So isvslavery 

 still, having a tri])le origin in war, purchase, or birth. The slave is 

 only a dog, and nuist obey his master in all things, even to taking the 

 life of another. He is without civil rigiits; he cannot marry or possess 

 anything; he can eat only the offal of another, and his body, wlien 

 released l)y death, is thrown into tiie sea. A Chief sonu'times sacrific^es 

 his slaves, and then another Chief seeks to outdo liim in his inhumanity. 

 All this is indiginintly described by Sir Edward ISelcherand SirCeorge 

 Simi)Son. But a slave once a iVeed man has all tiu^ rights of a. Kolo- 

 schian. Here, too, are the distinctions of wealth. Tlie rich i)aint their 

 faces daily; tlie poor renew the paint only when the (tolours begin to 

 disappear. 



These are the same people who ibr more than a century liave been a 

 terror on this coast. It was Koloschians who received the two boats' 

 crews of the Russian discoverer in 1741, as they landed in one of its 

 wooded coves, and no survivor returned to tell their fate. They were 

 the actors in another tragedy at the beginning of the century, when the 

 Kussian fort at Sitka was stormed and its defenders i)ut to death, 

 GO some with excruciating torture. Lisiansky, whose visit was 

 shortly afterward, found theux "a shrewd, bold, though perfidi- 

 ous peo])le," whose Chiefs used "very sublime expressions," and swore 

 oaths, like that of Demosthenes, by their ancestors living and dead, 

 "calling heaven, earth, sun, moon, and stais to witness, particularly 

 when tliey want to dec^eive.''' ("Voyage,'' p. IG.) 



Since then the fort has been repeatedly threatened by these warriors, 

 who multiply by reinforcements from the interior, so that the Governor 

 in 1837 said, "Although 700 only are now in the neighbourhood, 7,000 

 may arrive in a few hours." (IJelcher's "Voyage," vol. i, j). 04.) 



A little later their constant character Avas recognized by Sir George 

 Simpson, when he pronounced them "numerous, treacherous, and fierce," 

 in contrast with Aleutians, whom he describes as " peaceful even to 

 cowardice." And yet this fighting race is not entirely indocile, if we 

 may credit recent rex)ort, that its warriors are changing to traders." 



CLIMATE. 



III. From population I ])ass to Climate^ whicli is more imjiortant, as 

 it is a constant force. Climate is the kej^ to this whole region. It is 

 the governing power whicli rules production aiul life, for Mature and 

 num each uuist conform to its laws. Here at last the observations of 

 science give to our inquiry a solid support. 



Montesquieu has a famous chapter on the inHuence of climate over 

 the customs and institutions of a people. Conclusions which in his day 

 were regarded as visionary or far-fetched are now unquestioned truth. 

 Climate is a universal master. But nowhere, perhaps, does it appear 

 more eccentric than in the southern jiortion of liussian America. 

 Without a knowledge of climatic laws the weather here would seem 

 like a freak of jSTature. But a brief explanation sh(»ws how all its 

 peculiarities are the result of natural causes, which operate with a force 

 as unerring as gravitation. Heat and cold, rain and fog, to say noth- 



