THE GREAT ISLAND OF KADIAK. 99 



the artist always will. The "woollies," which blow fiercely off 

 from it, worry him and challenge all his nautical skill. 



Kadiak Island is the centre, geographical and commercial, of a 

 most interesting and wide-extended district, perhaps the most so, 

 of the Alaskan Territory, and Kadiak village, or Saint Paul Harbor 

 is, in turn, the central and all-important settlement of this district.* 

 It was the site of the first grand dejDot of the old Eussian American 

 Company, and also the location of the first missionary establish- 

 ment and day-scliool ever founded on the northwest coast of the 

 continent. From the quiet moorings of this beautiful Kadiak bay 

 hundreds of shallops and vessels bearing courageous monks and 

 priests have set out in every direction over all Alaska, cai'rying 

 scores of them to preach the gospel among its savage inhabitants, 

 Avho then were savage indeed to all intents and purposes. 



The first visit ever made by white men to the great Island of 

 Kadiak was the landing here in the autumn of 1763, at Alikitak Bay, 

 of Stepan Glottov, a Russian sea-otter trader, who went into winter- 

 quarters at the southeastern extremity of the island, on a spot no.w 

 called Kahgooak settlement. The natives were ugly, hostile, re- 

 fused all intercoiu'se, and ke^'Dt the Kussians in a chronic state of 

 fear. Scurvy broke out in their camp and nearly destroyed the in- 

 vaders, leaving less than one-third of them alive in the spring. 

 They managed then, with the greatest effort, to launch their vessel 

 and get away, the savages meanwhile constantly attempting to fin- 

 ish that destruction which bodily disease had so well-nigh effected. 



The beginning of the eighth decade of the eighteenth century 

 is a true date of the real epoch of Russian domination in Alaska. 

 All history of white exploration in this country prior to that is sim- 

 pl}' the cruel legend of an eager, heartless band of outraging Mus- 

 covites, doing everything just for the gain of the present moment, 

 sowing so badly that they dared not remain and reap. One of those 

 big-brained, cool, and indomitable Russians, who gave then as they 

 give now, the stainp of high character to the race, was for several 

 years prior to 1780 prominently engaged in the American fur trade. 

 Grigor Ivan Shellikov was this man. He was a citizen of the Sibe- 

 rian town of Roolsk. He resolved to survey in person those scenes 



* With the exception of Prince of Wales IsLand in the Sitkan archipelago, 

 Kadiak is the largest Alaskan island. There is not much difference between 

 these two islands in landed area ; the former, liowever, is the bigger. 



