586 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



securing of proper materials for the building of safe vessels and the procuring of 

 trained seamen. Boats were hastily constructed of planks fasteneil together with 

 rawhide or seal-skin thongs. In these uusea-worthy boats, without charts or compass, 

 they boldly ventured to sea, and the half of them found a watery grave. Those who 

 did return in safety with a fair cargo received from 2,000 to 3,000 rubles each as 

 their share of the profit. 



On the 26th of September, 1745, for the fii'st time the discharge of firearms was heard 

 on the Aleutian Islands. A native was shot on the island of Agoto by a party of Rus- 

 sians under Chuprof. Then commenced a reign of lust, robbery, and bloodshed, which 

 lasted for fifty years. One Feodor Solovief is reported to have alone killed 3,000 

 Aleuts. Veniamiuof, who was the leading Greek jjriest and first bishop of Alaska, 

 declares that during that dreadful ])eriod Aleuts were used as targets for Russian 

 practice in firing. In 1764 Captain Solovief formed a settlement. His stay on the 

 Island was marked by such bloody atrocities that the few who survived were com- 

 pletely subjugated. His name has come through a hundred years of local tradition 

 as the synonym of cruelty. Among other things it is said that he experimented upon 

 the penetrative power of his bullets by binding twelve Aleuts in a row and then 

 firing through them at short range. The bullet stopped at the ninth man In 1770, 

 when the American colonists were preparing themselves for the struggle tor inde- 

 pendence, the struggle of the Aleuts was ending. They had given their lives in vam. 

 The few who were left could no longer maintain the unequal conflict and were 

 reduced to practical slavery. 



During tlie first week of June the fleet of vessels wliicli was to patrol 

 Bering Sea rendezvoused at TJnalaska. Officers and sailors gave life 

 to the hitherto deserted street, dainty revenue cutters and a trimly 

 built British gunboat rode at anchor in the harbor; saucy little 

 steam launches and natty, white boats darted about; bugle calls floated 

 out over the tranquil waters, now and then jets of flame and columns 

 of smoke would shoot from the side of some vessel at target practice 

 and a spurt of dust on the mountain side show where the shot had 

 struck. All was life and action, where there had been silence and stag- 

 nation. There were calls upon the officers of the various ships, photo- 

 graphic excursions, climbing of mountains whose ravines still held the 

 winter snows, balls, and even a wedding at high noon in which the con- 

 tracting parties were Miss Short, who had been the public-school 

 teacher at Unalaska during the past year, and Mr. Hastings, one of 

 the agents of the Alaska Commercial Company. 



On the 10th of June the United States revenue cutter Bear 

 steamed into the harbor. On this famous vessel I was to spend the 

 summer among the ships of the Arctic whaling fleet, to cruise in 

 uncharted seas whose waters are disturbed only by the skin canoes of 

 the natives and by huge ice floes, to visit the school teachers and mis- 

 sionaries exiled on the shores of the frozen ocean, and see the under- 

 ground dwellers in the Laud of the Midnight Sun and the long Arctic 

 night. 



The annual cruise of the Bear is unique in its multifarious duties and 

 its practical usefulness. In northern Bering Sea and in the Arctic 

 Ocean, and along vast stretches of coast unknown to civilization, the 

 flag of the Bear is the only evidence of the authority of the United 



