28 REPORT ON INTRODUCTION OF 



Under the indomitable energy of Baranof, Sitka (Novo Arkhangelsk) 

 became not only the political capital of Alaska (Russian America) and 

 the headquarters of the Russian-American Company, but also the 

 commercial metropolis of the Pacific Coast, possessing docks, shipyards, 

 brass, iron, and bell foundries, machine shops, saw and flour mills, 

 brickyards, woolen cloth mills, besides manufactories for agricultural 

 implements, a* copper-engraving establishment, large warehouses, an 

 observatory, hospitals, a library, Russo-Greek and Lutheran churches, 

 the bishop's residence, schools, a theological seiniuary, and an officers' 

 clubhouse. During this period San Francisco was known simply as a 

 Roman Catholic mission to the Indians. 



Two and one-half years from the commencement of the settlement of 

 Sitka a fine brig was launched from its shipyard and christened Sitka. 

 The following summer a tbree-masted schooner of 300 tons was launched 

 and named Otkrytie {Discovery) ; and Mr. A. J. Findlay, writing to the 

 Nautical Magazine in June, 1849, says : 



The arsenal is the next object which arrests the attention of a stranger, from the 

 number of men. employed either building new or repairing old vessels. At this 

 moment they are building a new steamer, destined, I think, for Mr. Leidesdorf, of 

 California. The workmanship appears good and solid ; everything for her is made 

 on the spot, for which purposes they have casting houses, boiler makers, coopers, 

 turners, and all tbe other "ers" requisite for such an undertaking. The boiler is 

 almost completed and is made of copper. They also have their tool makers, workers 

 in tin and brass, chart engravers, sawyers, and sawmills, for all which occupations 

 suitable establishments have been made. 



At the time of the transfer a fleet of 15 sailing vessels and 2 ocean 

 steamers went and came from its harbor. Before the American occu- 

 pation of California the Sitka foundry furnished the Romish missions 

 of California with their chimes of church bells, and Sitka manufacto- 

 ries supplied the California ranchmen with their agricultural imple- 

 ments. 



The annual reports of the observatory were published by the 

 Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. The Sitka Library, estab- 

 lished by Count Rezanof in 1805, contained, in 1835, 1,700 volumes, 400 

 periodicals and pamphlets, and a valuable collection of charts. Of 

 the books, 600 were in the Russian language, 300 in French, 130 in 

 German, 35 in English, 30 in Latin, and the rest in Swedish, Dutch, 

 Spanish, and Italian. The 39 copper plates of Tebenkof's celebrated 

 Atlas of Alaska were engraved at Sitka by Terentief, a Creole. 



To provide more comfortable accommodations for unmarried officers 

 and officials of the higher rank, many of them sons of the nobility of 

 Russia, Governor Etholin built a large clubhouse. 



Within a year from the commencement of the settlement (1805) a 

 school was established. In 1820 its efficiency was greatly increased. 

 In 1839 a home school for orphan girls, daughters of the employees of 

 the company, was established. In 1840 a similar school was opened 

 for orphan boys. In 1841 a theological school was also opened. 



