46 Sketches of a?i Excursion to Southern Alaska. 



But occasions which test all restraints have arisen in other societies, and wil] 

 'ioubtless arise in Alabka. The aborigines, exasperated by real or fancied 

 wrongs, may be the occasion or the instruments of intestine strife. Unscrupu- 

 lous "white" men, playing upon the fears of native ignorance and suspicion, 

 for lust or gain, may be the clandestine operators, like managing gamblers in 

 mining stocks. There is no reason for supposing that punishment for such 

 crimes will fall upon the guilty instigators, but as usual in the United States, 

 upon the helpless and deluded victim.s whom they employ and then forsake. 

 The dangers that attend anarchy are always present liabilities. No man can 

 say that they are not. 



THE EXPOSURE OF THE ABORIGINES 



to unjust treatment in case of difficulty, is fearfully increased. They are un" 

 acquainted with our modes of administering law ; they are ignorant of our 

 language ; treated with contempt and often abused, they look only for injustice; 

 and smarting under a sense of injury, stimulated by the passion of revenge, 

 they resort to means of defense or retribution which are justifiable according 

 to their code, but which our code takes out of the hand of the citizen and puts 

 into the hand of the magistrate. 



When the vindictive blow falls, it smites the innocent if the guilty cannot be 

 tound. According to primitive iileas of justice, if a white man inflicts the 

 wrong, a white man must expiate it. Then the country rings with "another 

 horrible outrage," and the public press groans, and shudders, and calls for the 

 extermination of a race that dares to retaliate for unredressed grievances and 

 wrongs. Being too familiar with some of these outbreaks on the Pacific Coast, 

 1 saw in Alaska the dread foreshadows of similar enormities. 



But our country cannot afford to be unjust to any of its inhabitants. View- 

 ing its own struggles for equal rights, il cannot throw contempt upon its history 

 by crushing the helpless, nor allowing any dominant class to usurp the posses- 

 sions of an inferior race, by fraud or violence, or by the destruction of the 

 owners. 



REMOVE THE OCCASIONS FOR OUTBREAKS 



by the impartial administration of justice and the maintainance of equity be- 

 tween man and man, and there will be no outbreaks. 



1 have indexed many references to reports and publications touching the 

 foregoing subjects; and being desirous of adding to this information the views 

 of practical men on the most urgent and practicable points, (and which are 

 seldom found in print,) I prepared a series of questions, covering the grciund 

 under survey. These were addressed to persons of various opinions, but who 

 were qualified by residence in Alaska or familiarity with it, to express intelli- 

 gent views concerning its condition and demands. 



.\mong these gentlemen, as well as among all with whom I conversed, 1 

 find a remarkable concurrence of opinion touching the duty of the G.>vernment 

 to make immediate provision for the legal protection of the inhabitants of the 



