56 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES EISII COMMISSION. 



p. 724) when lie states that he "was on the flrst sehoimer that raided Kobbeii Ishiiid, 

 the Matinee, fitted out by n. Liebes, T. P. n. Whitehiw, and Lsaae Leonard," of San 

 Francisco. 



In 1>SS1 a number of schooners again hovered around the ishmd, waitiug for the 

 guard-ship to leave, even as late as November. About the lirst of that month Mr. E. 

 V. j\Iiner arrived in the Annie Gashnutn and met three other schooners tliere. "We 

 went ashore and clubbed the seals. Our schooner's share was .S(M) skins." (Fur Weal 

 Arb., VIII, p. 701.) Those four schooners, therefore, probably secured aliout 3,200 skins. 



This feature of the schooners raiding in concert is well worth noticing. Captain 

 Folger corroborates it: " We worked together, and the schooners would divide u])." 

 The latter also mentions how the schooners succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the 

 guard-ship aud making raids duriug its absence: 



We had the guard [i.e., the Aleut workmen] iu our Jiay, micl wlicii the Lcnii, which liad been sent 

 there to guard tlio place, would go away, lights would be jiut out, and we W(uil(l come over from Cape 

 Patience, where we had men on the lookout constantly, or if wegot inijjatient the fastest sealer in 

 the fleet would go there and be chased by the Leon (a sailintj vessel), aud the others would make the 

 raid. (Eur Seal Arb., vill, p. 663.)' 



The experience of the authorities with the raiders iu 1.S81 led to more vigorous 

 attempts to protect the rookeries. Tlie first step was the issue of the consular warning 

 referred to in detail elsewhere iu this report (chapter on Kaids of Commander Island 

 Itookeries, p. lliO), aud to enforce it a stronger force of natives was sent to the islaud 

 in 1883. They were well armed and under the command of a non-commissioned kossak 

 officer. The i)roclaniatiou and tlie presence of patrolling men-of-war had evidently 

 some restraining effect upon the pirates iu so far as the Counnauder Islands were 

 concerned, but the result was only that the raiders concentrated their ettbrts on 

 Robben Islaud. At least 13 schooners hovered about that rock in 1882, and, embold- 

 ened by the previous success, they actually carried the island by armed force. As 

 the greatest loss to the island usually was inflicted after the guard-ship had left iu 

 autumn, most of the raided seals beiug females and young ones of both sexes, it was 

 determined that the guard should winter there, and the men consequently remained 

 when the Leon sailed. Shortly after, schooners anchored off the island and each 

 landed 10 well-armed men. The Aleuts, thus outnumbered, did not dare resist, aud 

 were locked up in the house. The crews of the schooners then quite leisurely went 

 about the clubbing of the seals. It is probably to this raid that E. P. Miner, schooner 

 Otome, refers when stating that the raiders "landed and killed about 12,000 seals" 

 (Fur Seal Arb., viii, p. 701). The natives, being thoroughly intimidated and seeing the 

 smoke of a steamer, took to their boat and made for it. It proved to be Philippeus's 

 supply steamer Kamchatla, on its return trii) along the Okhotsk coasts. The men 

 were taken to Korsakovski, a port near the south end of Sakhalin, and wintered there. 



This is the story of the kossak and natives. On the other hand, it has been 

 asserted that they were bribed. So far as the result is concerned, it matters very little 

 which story is the true one. The rookery was now becoming so depleted by illegal, 

 reckless, and indiscriminate slaughter that it was seriously considered by the authori- 



' So bold did the schooners become that when Lieutenant Shamof, of the cruiser SazTjoiniJc, in 1884 

 sent to gu.ird Uobbeu Island, lauded near Cai)e Patience, Sakhalin, on May 21, he found tliere two 

 sheds containing about 15,000 pounds of salt, etc., three skill's, and a whaleboat, and six Japanese, 

 the whole outfit licliinging to a schooner from Japan, of which a certain Johnson was said to be the 

 captain (Ausland, 1885, pp, 536-537). 



