28 CLAIMS TO THE NORTHWEST COAST. 



Russian compe- from tliG iiative cliicf tokeiis of his acceptanc.e of 



tition. SettleuK^nt 



at Kudiak Island. Russian dominion.^ As further evidence of Rus- 

 sian occupation of th.e mainhmd of the Northwest 

 Coast tlie hxunching of a vessel in 1794 from the 

 shores of Prince WilHam Sound is chronicled, this 

 being the first ship built in Alaska.^ 

 Foniiding of ]3^t the most important stcp taken by Russi a 

 to permanently establish her authority over the 

 islands and adjoining shores of the Northwest 

 Coast of the continent was the founding in the 

 beginning of the present century of New Arch- 

 angel (afterwards Sitka), ^ which soon became a 

 fortress, the principal trading post, and the seat 

 of government of the Russian American posses- 

 sions. From Kadiak, first, and from Sitka, later, 

 the Russian merchants continued to push their 

 traffic with the natives along down the mainland 

 toward the Columbia River, and in 1812 they 

 had even established a colony on the coast of 

 California,^ called Fort Ross, a few miles north of 

 the Bay of San Francisco. As early as 1810 

 Russia had gone so far as to inform the United 



' See, generally, Coxe, pp. 240-254. 



2 Tikhmcniers Historical Review of tlie Development of tlie 

 Russian American Company and of its Operations np to tlio pres- 

 ent Time, St. Petersburg, 1861, vol. I, p. 40. 



•"Vivien de Saint-Martin, vol. I, p. 56. The year 1802 is geii- 

 or.ally taken as the date of the founding of Sitka. 



•• Greeuhow's Memoir, pp. 9, 148; Vivien do Saint-Martin, vol. 

 I, p. 56. 



