i 9 4 



BALL 



The general regulations were just and humane, but the 

 enforcement of them was entrusted to men with whom 

 justice was always subservient to expediency. Baranoff 

 maintained for twenty years an absolute and despotic sway 

 over the colonies. The orders of the Directory were often 

 unheeded by him and it was almost as easy for complaints 

 to reach the Directory from another planet as from Rus- 

 sian America. He was a man of iron energy and nerve, 

 coarse, unfeeling, shrewd, and enterprising. Among his 

 subordinates were men far more intelligent and humane 

 than himself, but any improvements were proposed in vain 

 if in his judgment they conflicted with the interests of the 

 company. Krusenstern, one of the Russian naval officers, 

 remarks of the servants of the Company, " none but vaga- 

 bonds and adventurers ever entered the Company's ser- 

 vice as traders; it was their invariable destiny to pass a 

 life of wretchedness in America; and few had the good 

 fortune to touch Russian soil again." Naturally most of 

 the personnel of the service in the colonies was drawn 

 from the ranks of those who had served in the Shelikoff 

 and other companies, and it is doubtful if the change of 

 masters made any perceptible difference to the Aleuts or 

 other natives under the control of the Russians. How- 

 ever, more business-like methods were introduced in the 

 general conduct of affairs; among the new officers of the 

 Company were some men of intelligence, refinement, and 

 kindly nature, as well as of scientific acquirements. 

 Though the Aleuts were treated as serfs of the Company 

 they were entitled to a certain amount of subsistence, and 

 the absence of competition took away many of the pre- 

 vious grounds for friction. 



The official interest in the Company grew as explora- 

 tions by Russian naval officers increased. In 1800 the 

 chief officers were moved from Irkutsk to St. Petersburg. 

 Two years later the Emperor, Empress, and Grand Duke 



