THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY. 51 



rial Majesty, and I can assure your Excellency that the proposition 

 meets with the highest approval, and this matter is submitted to you 

 now to enable you to consider the arrangements necessary to be made 

 for tl%e purpose of taking in due time action looking toward a renewal 

 of the privileges and rights now enjoyed by the Eussian American' 

 Company under Highest i)rotectiou. 

 True copy. 



Zelenskiy, 

 Chief Cleric. 



No. 2. 



Letter from the Minuter of Finance to the Board of Administration of 

 the Russian American Company. Written from St. Petersburg, April 

 10, 1820. 



[Confidential.] 



The report of your board, dated November 14, 1819, has, up to this 

 time, remained unanswered, because the necessary information concern- 

 ing the contracts concluded with the Englishman Pigott had not been 

 received. Of this the board spoke in its report. 



The information is now at hand, having been received on the 3d 

 ultimo. At the same time I also received detailed statements of the 

 appointment by the Government of Court-Councilor Dobello as resident 

 agent on the island of Manilhx, and of the propositions of this officer to 

 dispatch a vessel from there to Kamchatka with provisions in order to 

 convince the Government how cheaply the country may be supplied 

 from the Philippine Islands. Mr. Dobello also requested permission to 

 dispatch from Manilla to Cronstadt two ships with tea and other 

 Chinese goods. 



All these propositions were duly submitted to His Majesty the Em- 

 peror, and I have now received the following highest decision of His 

 Imperial Majesty: 



1. That the contract entered into with the Englishman Pigot can not be 

 sustained by the Government; but since the whaling industry maybe of 

 use as a means of securing subsistence to the inhabitants of Kamchatka 

 and Okhotsk in case of failure in tbe fisheries, and as a basis for establish- 

 ing a new branch of trade from which the Kussian American Company 

 may derive considerable profit, His Imjierial Majesty has most gra- 

 ciously deigned to turn his attention to this subject and has expressed 

 the opinion that for tins purpose a ship should be employed, furnished 

 with all necessary implements and instruments and manned with the 

 very best officers and sailors. To enable the Company to secure skilled 

 masters for inaugurating this enterprise, Mr. Dobello has been in- 

 structed to endeavor to obtain such with the understanding that in 

 addition to their salaries they shall be entitled to certain rewards and 

 premiums, including one poud of oil from every whale or other marine 

 animal killed by them. 



2. The commander of the Government of Irkutsk is hereby instructed 

 to forbid all foreigners except such as have become Eussian subjects to 

 enter the mercantile guilds or to settle in business in Kamchatka or 

 Okhotsk ; also to entirely prohibit foreign merchant vessels fri^m trading 

 in these localities and from anchoring in any jjort of Eastern Siberia, 

 except in case of disaster. (In such cases great care should be taken 



