136 REPORT ON THE INTRODUCTION OP 



CAPT. M. A. HEALY, U. S. REVENUE MARINE, REPORTS ILLEGAL TRAFFIC 



IN REINDEER. 



Revenue-Marine Steamer Bear, 



Port Clarence, Alaska, July 5, 1S9S. 

 Dear Doctor : You had no sooner left than I learned some facts that I would like 

 you to know. Mr. Bruce's indecision seems to have heen for a purpose, for all the 

 time he has been telling the whaling captains that he would not remain at the sta- 

 tion another year. I learn to-night that after we left here he bought from Capt. 

 Newth, for 150 mink skins, about $125 worth of trade goods, among which were four 

 breech-loadiug rifles and ammunition. He put these on board the schooner Berwick 

 and chartered her for $200 to goto the other side and bring over twelve deer for him. 

 He has no right to trade arms there for his private account under the consent of the 

 Russian Government, for this vessel to trade them for reindeer, and from his position 

 as superintendent of the station only brings the project into disrepute. As a pri 

 vate individual he has a right to trade legitimately, but the presence of competition 

 only enhances the price for us, and for him to engage in such trade while holding his 

 position, without saying anything about it, is underhanded and dishonorable. 



I do not tell you these things to worry you, but that you will have a better regula- 

 tion and hold on these people in the future. 

 Very respectfully, 



M. A. Healy, 

 Captain, U. S. Revenue Marine. 

 Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D., 



Unalasla, Alaska. 



AFFAIRS AT THE TELLER REINDEER STATION. 



Steamer Bear, 

 East Cape, Siberia, August 25, 1S9S. 

 My Dear Doctor: To keep good my promise to write you of our cruise, I take it 

 up where I left off, at Port Clarence. As I wrote you, the captain was very much 

 put out that Mr. Bruce should have sent Capt. Wagner for deer without speaking of 

 it. He did not like his underhand way or his assumption. Consequently, he left 

 orders with Mr. White not to permit the deer to be landed. Mr. Bruce had scarcely 

 left the harbor when Capt. Haynes arrived with the deer, and you can imagine his 

 surprise when informed that the deer could not be lauded without passing through 

 the custom-house. They were like so many elephants on his hands. He could not 

 return them to Siberia, on account of the ice, and could not land them on our shore. 

 They were eating him out of house and home. So he made application to land them 

 on St. Lawrence Island. The captain, not wishing to appear unduly severe, per- 

 mitted him to do so, provided he would enter them at the custom-house at Unalaska 

 or Kadiak. He heartily wished he had never seen Mr. Bruce or the deer. The cap- 

 tain's disgust and expressions I leave you to imagine when he learned upon arrival 

 at Enchowau that whisky had been part of the barter paid; and the Indians Avere 

 told the deer were purchased for him, and that the schooner was Capt. Healy'salso. 

 He could not make the Indians believe to the contrary. The result was, when he 

 talked deer the Indians talked whisky, and so it was all the way along the coast. 

 They would say, " You like deer, me like whisky. No whisky me, no deer you." After 



