24 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



confided in their detail to the Secretary of the Treasury. This officer and the president of the Alaska Commercial 

 Coini)uny agreed npon a code of regulations which should govern tlieir joint action in regard to the natives. It was 

 a simple agi^eeraent that these people should have a certain amount of dried salmon furnished them for food every 

 year, a certain amount of fuel, a school-house, and the right to go to and come from the islands as they chose; and 

 also the right to work or not, understanding that in case they did not work, their places would and could be 

 supplied by other people who would work. 



The company, however, has gone far beyond this exaction of the government; it has added the inexpressible 

 boon of comfort, in the formation of the dwellings now occupied by the natives, which was not expressed nor 

 thought of at the time of the granting of the lease. An enlightened business-policy suggested to the comi)any, that 

 it would be much better for the natives, and nuich better for the company too, if these people were taken out of 

 their filthy, unwholesome hovels, put into habitable dwellings, and taught to live cleanly, for the simple reason 

 that by so doing the natives, living in this improved condition, would be able ])hysically and mentally, every season 

 when the sealing work began, to come out from their long inanition and go to work at once with vigor and energetic 

 persistency. The sequel has proved the wisdom of the comjjany. 



Before this action on their part, it was physically impossible for the inhabitants of St. Paul or St. George islands 

 to take the lawful quota of 100,000 seal-skins annually in less than three or four working months. They take 

 them in less than thirty working days now with the same number of men. What is the gain? Simply this, and it 

 is everything: The fur-seal skin, from the 1 4th of June, when it first arrives, as a rule, up to the 1st of August, is in 

 prime condition; from that latter date until the middle of October it is ra])idly deteriorating, to slowly appreciate 

 again in value as it shells and renews its coat; so much so that it is practically worthless in the markets of the 

 world. Hence, the catch taken by the Alaska Commercial Company every year is a prime one, first to last — there 

 are no low-grade "stagey" skins in it; but under the old regimen, three-fourths of the skins were taken in August, 

 in- September, and even in October, aiul were not worth their transportation to London. Comment on this is 

 unnecessary; it is the contrast made between a prescient business-i^olicy, and one that was as shiftless and 

 imi)rovident as language can well devise. 



Schools and churches. — The company found so much difficulty in getting the youth of the villages to 

 attend their schools, taught by our own iteople, especially brought up there and hired by the ■company, that they 

 have adopted the plan of bringing one or two of the brightest boys down every year and putting them into our 

 schools, so that they may grow up here and be educated, in order to return and serve as teachers there. This policy 

 is warranted by the success attending the experiment made at the time when I was up there first, whereby a sou of the 

 chief was carried down and over to Eutland, Vermont, for his education, remained there four years, then returned and 

 took charge of the school on St. Paul, which he has had ever since, with the happiest results in increased attendance 

 aiul attention from the children. But, of course, so long as the Russian church service is conducted in the Russian 

 language, we will find ou the islands more Russian-speaking people than our own. The non-attendance at school 

 was not and is not to be ascribed to indisposition on the part of the children and parents. One of the oldest and 

 most intelligent of the natives told me, explanatory of their feeling and consequent action, that he did not, nor did 

 his neighbors, have any objection to the attendance of their children on our English school ; but, if their boys and 

 young men neglected their Russian lessons, they knew not who were going to take their places, when they died, in 

 his church, at the christenings, and at their burial ? To any one familiar with the teachings of the Greek-Catholic 

 faith, the objection of old Philip Volkov seems reasonable. 1 hope, therefore, that, in the course of time, the Russian 

 church service may be voiced in English ; not that I want to substitute any other religion for it — far from it; in my 

 opinion it is the best one we could have for these people — but until this substitution of our language for the Russian 

 is done, no very satisfactory work, in my opinion, will be accomplished in the way of an English education on the 

 seal-islands. 



The fact that among all the savage races found on the northwest coast by Christian pioneers and teachers, the 

 Aleutians are the only practical converts to Christianity, goes far, in my opinion, to set them apart as very differently 

 constituted in mind and disposition from our Indians and our Eskimos of Alaska. To the latter, however, they 

 seem to be intimately allied, though they do not mingle in the slightest degree. They adopted the Christian faith 

 ■with very little opposition, readily exchanging their barbarous customs and wild superstitions for the rites, of the 

 Greek-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, bold and hardy, 

 throughout the Aleutian chain, but now they respond, on these islands, to all outward signs of Christianity, as 

 sincerely as our own church-going people. 



6. THE ALASKA COMMERCIAL COMPAISTT. 



Occupation of the islands by Americans in ISGS. — The Alaska Commercial Company deserves and will 

 receive a brief but comprehensive notice at this point. In order that we may follow it to these islands, and. clearly 

 and correctly appreciate the circumstances which gave it footing and finally the conti'ol of the business, I will pass 

 back and review the chain of evidence adduced in this direction from the time of our first occupation, in 1807, cf 

 the territory of Alaska. 



