52 RUSSIAN CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO 



that no part of their cargo be discharged or sold to anybody, under 

 pain of confiscation of the ship.) It is hereby ordered that the local 

 authorities shall inform the Englishman Davis at Okhotsk and Dobello's 

 agent in Kamchatka that the Government does not permit them to re- 

 side in those places, much less to erect buildings or other immovable 

 property. In consideration of said prohibition they will be awarded 

 damages and afforded every facility on the part of the looal authorities 

 to dispose of their property and to take their departure. Mr. Dobello, 

 however, is hereby instructed that the ship which he proposes to 

 dispatch from the Philippine Islands to Kamchatka may, on this 

 single occasion, take goods as well as provisions, and he shall be per- 

 mitted to dispose of the same. But to prevent him from dispatching 

 such vessels in the future, he is permitted to supply only Russian ships 

 belonging to the Government or to our American Company, which may 

 call at Manilla for supplies. 



3. Permission is denied to Mr. Dobello to dispatch two ships to Cron- 

 stadt with tea and other Chinese goods, since such operations do not 

 accord with the views of the Government, and he is hereby informed 

 that he has been and is now required only to furnish information as to 

 the prices of Chinese goods at Manilla and as to what supi^lies and 

 production from Eastern Siberia could be i^rofitably disposed of there, 

 to the end that all such information may be used for the benefit of our 

 American Company in all its various commercial transactions. 



Pursuant to this highest decision I have already addressed the Gov- 

 ernor-general of Siberia and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and sent 

 the necessary orders to Mr. Dobello: and now the following proposi- 

 tions are laid before the board of administration of the Russian Ameri- 

 can Company : 



1. From the whaling industry on the eastern shores of Siberia the 

 Government expects not only such advantages as have been pointed 

 ouib by the Governor-General of Siberia and by the commander of the 

 districts of Kamchatka in their communication, of which copies are here- 

 with appended, but discovers in this industry the promise of special 

 advantages to the Company, and therefore hopes that the board of ad- 

 ministration will at once furnish the means necessary for taking the 

 preliminairy steps toward the inauguration of whaling in those waters 

 and proceed, without waiting for the information requested from Mr. 

 Dobello, to inform itself concerning the engagement of experienced 

 masters, etc. A ship should be purchased at once and dispatched in 

 the following year, if it be found impossible to do so during the present. 



2. Having, for the benefit of the American Company, excluded all 

 foreigners from Kamchatka and Okliotsk and prohibited them from en- 

 gaging in trade and fi'om hunting and fishing in all the waters of East- 

 ern Siberia, the Government fully expects that the Company, on its 

 part, will hold itself responsible for supplying those regions with all 

 necessaries. In connection with this requirement, and in consideration 

 of a request from the Governor-General of Siberia, the board of admin- 

 istration will report on the following points: A. As to the means by 

 which communication can be maintained between Yakutsk and Okhotsk 

 without oppression of the Yakut people. B. Whetlier the Company can 

 undertake to land at the ports of Petropavlovsk and Okhotsk provisions, 

 es])ccially flour and salt, from their correspondents in California or the 

 Philippine Islands, in such quantities as may be required by the Gov- 

 ernment forces and officials and by all other inhabitants, employing for 

 this ])urpose a ship which must visit the ])lac('s named at least once a 

 year and at a time previously fixed j also as to the probable cost of pro- 



