CANOES OF THE NATIVES. 39 



length obtained a decisive superiority over them. 

 What he could not obtain by presents, he took 

 by force, and, in spite of all opposition, suc 

 ceeded in founding the settlement on this island. 

 He built some dwelling-houses, made an en 

 trenchment, and having, in his own opinion, 

 appeased the Kalushes by profuse presents, 

 confided the new conquest to a small number 

 of Russians and Aleutians. For a short time 

 matters went on prosperously, when suddenly, 

 the garrison left by Baronof, believing itself in 

 perfect safety, was attacked one night by great 

 numbers of Kalushes, who entered the en 

 trenchments without opposition, and murdered 

 all they met there with circumstances of atro 

 cious cruelty. A few Aleutians only, who hap 

 pened to be out in their little baidars,* escaped 



* The baidars, or canoes of the Aleutians, are generally 

 twelve feet long and twenty inches deep, the same breadth 

 in the middle, and pointed at each end. The smaller are 

 suited only for one man, the larger for two or three. The 

 skeleton and the keel are made of very thin deal planks, fas 

 tened together with the sinews of the whale, and covered 

 with the skin of the sea-horse cleared of the hair. It has a 

 kind of deck made of this skin, but leaving an aperture for 

 each person the canoe is intended to carry. These sit in 

 the bottom with their legs stretched out, and their bodies 





