192 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



numbers, and we almost existed upon them, varied 

 by wild sheep, wild goat, bear-meat, and salt pork, 

 and on berries of different kinds. 



Having given up the schooner as hopeless, I endea- 

 voured to persuade some of the Indians to accompany 

 me to Kodiak in canoes, but none would undertake 

 that perilous journey. Suddenly, on October 16th, 

 the schooner arrived, and a week later I found myself 

 at St. Paul, Kodiak Island, after what seemed to me 

 a terribly dangerous and fearfully stormy passage. 

 This small settlement is the headquarters in this part 

 of Alaska of the Commercial Company, though the 

 main portion of their business is carried on upon the 

 Seal Islands. 



A few days later occurred a tragedy of the most 

 desperate character. It was the last day of October, 

 and the following morning we were to sail for Cali- 

 fornia, across nearly two thousand miles of stormy 

 ocean in the stormiest time of the year. "We were 

 seated at a long table at the evening meal, Mr. Ivan 

 Petroff on my right, another white man opposite, at 

 the foot a storekeeper, and at the head of the table 

 the general agent of the Company, who was to sail 

 with us on the morrow. A fearful explosion suddenly 

 filled the apartment with smoke, covering the table 

 with fragments of broken glass and china. The general 

 agent fell back dead in his chair, and another man fell 

 down mortally wounded, and then rushed from the 

 room streaming with gore. The broken window 

 showed that some one had fired a shot from without. 



