COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 255 



299 ARGUMENTS IN UNITED STATES CASE BASED ON IMPROVEMENT 



IN CONDITION OF NATIVES. 



S[)ociiiI ])r<nniiioii(;e is {^iven in the Case of the United 

 States to statements respecting? tlie in)i)rove(l eondition of 

 the natives of tlie Pribyloff Ishuids, resulting from the 

 beneficent efforts and conduct of the Government Agents, 

 and those of the Company hohling tlie lease of the islands; 

 and in addition to statements of the character cited above, UDitod states 

 Messrs. Bryant, Mclntyre, and Falconer are further cited ^"•''^^' pp- ^*2-^*^- 

 to present an extremely favourable i)i(;ture of the condi- 

 tion and surroundings of the Aleuts living upon the islands. 

 We are, in fact, it woidd appear, asked to consider the 

 commercial monopoly endeavoured to be sustained by the 

 United States as a i)h)huit]iropi(; enterprise, largely justi- 

 fied by an imi)rovement alleged to liave been brought 

 about by its means in respect to the so-called natives of 

 the Pribyloff Islands. 



It is submitted that all the statements above summa- 

 rized are wholly irrelevant to any question with which the 

 Arbitration is conversant; but as the Government of the 

 United States have imported them into their Case, it is not 

 desired to leave them entirely unnoticed. 



FACTS DISCLOSED BY OFFICIAL REPORTS CONTRADICT 

 THE CONTENTIONS IN UNITED STATES CASE. 



The notes and quotations from official Keports made to 

 the United States Government, and from other published 

 sources in conne(;tion with the general histoiy and nature 

 of the management of tlie Pribyloff Islands since their ces- 

 sion by Pussia, put a very different aspect on the state of 

 affairs there from that set forth in the United States Case. 



In addition to incidental remarks already made in con- 

 nection with other branches of the subject, a few notes spe- 

 cifically referring to the circumstances and treatment of 

 the natives may here be added. 



GENERAL DAVIS ON CONDITION OF NATIVES IN 1870. 



Major-General .Jefferson C. Davis, Commander of the 

 District of Alaska, in his official Peport, dated the 20th 

 August, 1870, addressed to the United States Secretary of 

 War, writes: 



The natives are peaceful, honest, and capable of transacting ordi- Report of Bre- 

 nary business quite well, and would doubtless improve themselves if y"'', Ma.iorGen- 

 they had a lair chance; but tlieir i»res(;nt complete enslavement and j',™, Dopai-ttnent 

 robbery, by an unscruijulous ring of Bi)eculators, will ever prevent of Alaska to Sec- 

 such progress. retary of War, 



August 20, 1870. 

 DR. W. H. DALL IN 1874. 



In August 1874 Dr. W. If. Dall, then in charge of dydro- 

 graphic surveys in Alaska, in a letter to Messrs. 



300 Elliott and Maynard, Government Commissioners to 

 the Pribyloff Islands, writes: 



The Russians left tlicse people with their self-reliance enfeebled, Elliott's "Ke- 

 but their intelligence and morals elevated to some extent above their I??''.*' '^^ ,'''?({?'■"' 

 original condition. We have done nothing to sustain them in this j,'/''\".,h1j^^"'''' 

 position, nor to cultivate their self-reliance. 1875, p. 234. 



