36 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



action, that he did not, nor did his neighbors, have any objection to 

 the attendance of their cliildren on our English school; but, if their 

 boys and young men neglected their Russian lessons, they knew not 

 who were going to take their places, when they died, in his church, at 

 the cliristenings, and at their burial. To anyone familiar with the 

 teachings of the Greek-Catholic faith, the objection of old Philip 

 Volkov seems reasonable. I hope, therefore, that, in the course of 

 time, the Russian church service may be voiced in English; not that 

 I want to substitute any other religion for it — far from it; in my 

 opinion it is the best one we could have for these people — but until 

 this substitution of our language for the Russian is done no very 

 satisfactory work, in my opinion, will be accomplished in the way of 

 an English education oh tlie seal islands. 



The fact that among all the savage races found on the northwest 

 coast by Christian pioneers and teachers the Aleutians are the only 

 practical converts to Christianity goes far, in my opinion, to set them 

 apart as very differently constituted in mind and disposition from our 

 Indians and our Eskimos of Alaska. To the latter, however, they 

 seem to be intimately allied, though they do not mingle in the slightest 

 degree. They adopted the Christian faith with very little opposition, 

 readily exchanging their barbarous customs and wild superstitions 

 for the rites of the Greek- Catholic Church and its more refined myths 

 and legends. 



At the time of their first discovery they were living as savages in 

 every sense of the word, bold and hardy, throughout the Aleutian 

 chain, but now they respond, on these islands, to all outward signs 

 of Christianity, as sincerely as our own church-going people. 



^THE ALASKA COMMERCIAL COMPANY. 



Occupation of the islands by Americans in 1868. — The Alaska 

 Commercial Company deserves and will receive a brief but comi^re- 

 hensive notice at this point. In order that w^e may follow it to these 

 islands and clearly and correctly appreciate the circumstances which 

 gave it footing and finallj' the control of the business, I will pass back 

 and review the chain of evidence adduced in this direction from the 

 time of our first occupation, in 1867, of the Territory of Alaska. 



It will be remembered by many jjeople that when we were ratifying 

 the negotiation between our Government and that of Russia it was 

 made painfully apparent that nobody in this country knew anything 

 about the subject of Russian America. Every gclioolboy knew^ where 

 it was located, but no professor or merchant, however wise or shrewd, 

 knew what was in it. Accordingly, immediately after tlie purchase 

 was made and the formal transfer effected a large number of energetic 

 and speculative men, some coming from New England even, but most 

 of them residents of the Pacific Coast, turned their attention to Alaska. 

 They went to Sitka in a little fleet of sail and steam vessels, but among 

 their number it appears there were only two of our citizens who knew 

 of or had the faintest appreciation as to the value of the seal islands. 

 One of these, Mr. H. M. Hutchinson, a native of New Hampshire, and 

 the other, a Capt. Ebenezer Morgan, a native of Connecticut, turned 

 their faces in 1868 toward them. Mr. Hutchinson gathered his infor- 

 mation at Sitka; Captain Morgan had gained his years before by expe- 

 rience on the South Sea sealing grounds. Mr. Hutchinson represented 

 a company of San Francisco or California capitalists when he landed 

 on St. Paul; Captain Morgan represented another company of New 



