112 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



houses at St. Paul, the man ofteu has to get it. He trudges out with 

 a little wooden firkin or tub on his back, and brings it to the house. 



The fact that among all the savage races found on the northwest 

 coast by Christian pioneers and teachers, the Aleutians are tlie only 

 practical converts to ( •hristiiniity, goes far, in my ojnnion, to set them 

 ai)art as very differently constituted in mind and disposition from our 

 Indians and our Eskimos of Alaska. To the latter, however, tliey seem 

 to be intimately allied, though they do not mingle in the slightest degree. 

 They adopted the Christain faith with very little opposition, readily 

 exchanging their barl)arous customs and wild suj)erstitions for the 

 rites of the (ireek Catholic Church and its more refined myths and 

 legends. 



At the time of their first discovery they were living as savages in 

 every sense of the word, l)old and hardy, thnmghout the Aleutian 

 chain: but, now they respond on these islands to all outward signs of 

 Christianity as sincerely as our own church going ])eo])le. 



Up to th(! time of the transfer o( the territory and leasing of the 

 islands to the Alaska Commercial Company, in August, 1870, these 

 native inhabitants all lived in huts or sod-walled and dirt-roofed 

 houses, called ''barrabkies," partly under ground. IMost of these huts 

 were damp, dark, and exc<'edingly filthy. It seemed to be the policy 

 of the short-sighted liussian management to keep them so, and to treat 

 the natives not near so well as tlicy treated the few hogs and dogs 

 which they brought n]»tlicr<' for food and for company. Tlie useof seal 

 fat for fuel caused the deposit ujton everything within doors, of a thick 

 coat of gii'asy, black soot, strongly impregnated with a damj), moldy, 

 and inde8(Mibab]y otfensive (»doi-. They tbund along the north shore of 

 at. J'aul and at Northeast Point occasional scattered ])ieces of drift- 

 wood, which they used, carefully soaked anew in water if it had dried 

 out, sj)lit into little fragments, and, trussing the blubber with it when 

 making their fires, the <-om))ination gave rise to a roaring, spluttering 

 blaze. If this (biflwood failed them at any time when winter came 

 jound, they were obliged to huddle titgether l)eiieath skins in their cold 

 huts, and live or die, as tlui case miglit be. But the situation today 

 has changed marvcloiisly. 



When ("ongiess granted to the Alaska Commercial Comi)any of San 

 Fran(;is(;o the exclusive rigiit of taking a certain number of fnr seals 

 itvevy year lor a i)eriod of twenty years on these islands, it did so with 

 sev<'ral reservations ami con<litions, which wereconfide<l in their detail to 

 the Secretary of the Treasury. This officer and the [)resident of the 

 Alaska Commercial Com[>any agreed upon a code of icgulations which 

 should govern their Joint action in regard to the natives. It was a 

 simple agreement that these ])eoi»le should have a certain amount of 

 dried salmon furnished tliem for food every year: a certain amount of 

 fuel : a schoolhouse, and the right to go to and come fnmi the islands as 

 they chose; and also the right to work or not, understanding that in 

 case they did not work, their ])la(;es would and could be supplied by 

 other peojile who would work. 



The company, however, went far beyond this exaction of the Govern- 

 ment, it added an inex])ressil)lc boon of comfort, in the formation of 

 those (lw(d]ings now occu])ied l)y the natives, which wasneitherexpressed 

 nor thought of at the time of the granting of the lease. An enlight- 

 ened business i)olicy suggested to the com])any that it would be much 

 better for the natives, and much better lor the company too, if these 

 peojde were taken out of their filthy, unwholesome hovels, put into 

 habitable dwellings, and taught to live cleanly, for the simple reason 



