THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY. 61 



No. 9. 



Letter from the Board of Administration of the Russian American Com- 

 pany to Captain Lieutenant of the Imperial Navy and Knight 31. I. 

 Muravief Chief Manager of the Russian American Colonies, written 

 from St. Petersburg, February 28, 1822. 



In your dispatch No. 36, dated January 21, 1821, you asked for 

 instructions as to sending in one cargo all the fiirs remaining in your 

 hands, as you did in that year, shipping 60,000 fur seals by the Boro- 

 dino. The board of administration of the Company informs you that 

 it is necessary to suspend for a time shipments of fur-seals, since those 

 shipped by the Borodino still remain unsold, and other lots are in 

 the same condition at Moscow and in Siberia. These fur-seals were not 

 sold because the demand for them as well as all other furs, has been 

 greatly reduced during the Turco-Grecian difficulty. However, you 

 need not on that account discontinue the shipments of the other 

 valuable furs by the way of Okhotsk and Kronstadt. As to far-seals, 

 however, since our Gracious Sovereign has been pleased to strengthen 

 our claims of jurisdiction and exclusive rights in these waters with his 

 strong hand, we can well afford to reduce the number of seals killed 

 annually, and to patiently await the natural increase resulting there- 

 from, which will yield us an abundant harvest in the future. 



In reference to your action in disposing of the Japanese brass can- 

 non, we fully approve of what you have done. You did not need them 

 in the colonies, since you must have on hand sufficient armament to lit 

 out all the Company's vessels as cruisers for the protection of oui- waters, 



Michael Kisselef. 



V. Kramer. 



Andrei Severin. 



No. 10. 



Letter from the Board of Administration of the Russian American Com- 

 pany to Captain- Lieutenant of the Imperial Navy and Knight M. I. 

 Muravief. Written from St. Petersburg July 31, 1822. 



From the inclosed ministerial documents and the observations thereon 

 by the board of administration you will see that England and the United 

 States are contesting the privileges and marine jurisdiction conferred 

 upon the Company. The first-mentioned power protests against the 

 boundary claimed by our Government on the line of the fifty-first 

 parallel; the other i^ower against the probibition of foreign vessels 

 from approaching within 100 miles of our colonies. In view of these 

 I^retensions His Imperial Majesty has deigned to instruct the Kussian 

 Minister to the United States to negotiate with the Government of those 

 States as to what measures could be taken which would prove satis 

 factory to both, with a view of averting further disputes. 



If you should happen to become involved in difficulties with foreign- 

 ers on that subject, you may allow yourself to be guided by the spirit 

 of the above-mentioned documents. At the same time we can inform 

 ^ on that without regard to future negotiations His Imiierial Majesty, 

 through the naval commander of his general staff, has ordered the com- 



