10 OUR ARCTIC PROVIlSrCE. 



force in the Alaskan territory, at its own expense, these forces were 

 entirely at the disposal of its governor, who passed most of his time 

 in eleefant leisure at Sitka, where the finest which the markets and 

 the vineyards of the world afforded were regularly drawn upon to 

 supply his table. No set of men ever lived in more epicurean com- 

 fort and abundance than did those courtly chief magistrates of 

 Alaska who succeeded the plain Baranov in 1818, and who estab- 

 lished and maintained the vice-regal comfort of their physical ex- 

 istence uninterruptedly until it was surrendered, with the cession 

 of their calling, in 1867. 



The charter of the Russian American Company was first granted 

 for a period of twenty years, dating at the outset from January 1, 

 1799. It also had the right to hoist its own colors, to employ naval 

 officers to command its vessels, and to subscribe itself, in its procla- 

 mation or petition, "Under the highest protection of his Imperial 

 Majesty, the Russian American Company." It began at once to 

 attract much attention in Russia, especially among moneyed men in 

 St. Petersburg and Moscow. Nobles and high officials of the Gov- 

 ernment eagerly sought shares of its stock, and even the Emperor 

 and members of his family invested in them, the latter making their 

 advances in this dii-ection under the pretext of donating their portions 

 to schools and to charitable institutions. It was the first enterprise 

 of the kind which had ever originated in the Russian Empire, and, 

 favored in this manner by the Crown, it rose rapidly into public 

 confidence. A future of the most glowing prosperity and stability 

 was prophesied for it by its supporters — a prosperity and power as 

 great as ever that of the British East India Company — while many 

 indulged dreams of Japanese annexation and portions of China, to- 

 gether with the whole American coast, including California. 



But that clause in the charter of the company, which ordered 

 that the chief manager of its affairs in Alaska should be selected 

 from the officers of the Imperial navy, had a most unfortunate ef- 

 fect upon the successful conduct of the business, as it was prose- 

 cuted throughout Russian America. After Baranov's suspension 

 and departure, in the autumn of 1818, not a single practical mer- 

 chant or business man succeeded him. The rigid personal scrutiny 

 and keen trading instinct which were so characteristic of him, were 

 followed immediately by the very reverse ; hence the dividends be- 

 gan to diminish every year, while the official writing, on the other 

 hand, became suddenly more voluminous, graphic, and declared a 



