FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 9 



wlieie tbe fomentatioia is carried on to where it produces alcohol iu a 

 cousiderable quantity, and then they put some berries in it which have 

 a tendency to produce some poisonous substance. I saw a case during 

 my stay there, where a woman indulged in quass one evening and was 

 found dead in the morning. The doctor said it was nothing else thar. 

 drinking that beverage. Now, they wanted that beverage very badly, 

 and that was a very great grievance against the company. The com- 

 pany took very stringent measures so as not to sell any family more 

 sugar than was absolutely necessary for their tea. 



Q. Did the company induce or promote the introduction of intoxicat- 

 ing liquors there at all ? — A. No, sir ; on the contrary, the agent of the 

 company, Mr. Mclntyre, was a temperance man himself, and he was 

 very stringent, and sometimes I even had to intercede for the natives. 

 I would say, after the consultation with the doctor, "let him have some." 

 That was on prescription of the doctor; not that he was actually sick, 

 but in change from his habits to total abstiuejice it was necessary to 

 gradually bring him to temperance habits. But the agent was very 

 stringent. 



Q. Did the use of intoxicants prove hurtful by producing breaches of 

 the peace and disturbances of good order among the natives when they 

 were permitted to have them at all ; was the tendency that way ? — 

 A. They would get loud and boisterous, but I do not know that they 

 ever fight. I never saw a light among the Aleutians. 



Qs Have you any knowledge of murders, or violence, or fisticufls 

 while you were there ? — A. Not any murder, and I do not imagine how 

 a murder could occur. They are a very good-natured people. I speak 

 only of the Aleutian tribe ; I do not speak of the Indian tribes that in- 

 habit the continent. 



Q. I am directing my attention to the Pribylov Islands. — A. Most of 

 the inhabitants are the Aleutian tribes that were brought over by the 

 Eussian company years ago. 



Q. I want to understand the effect of the administration of the Alaska 

 Commercial Company upon the social condition of the natives. — A. I 

 can only give you my experience of vrhat it was there the first nine 

 months. The measures taken and the orders issued by the company 

 and their agents were directed toward an improvement in the moral and 

 material condition of the natives, and some results were obtained then 

 by the building of a few houses and by eliminating the use of intoxi- 

 cants, and by starting a school. 



Q. Have they a church f — A. They have churches on both islands. 



Q. Administered by Catholic or Russian priests'? — A. At the time 

 there was a Russian priest, 1 think, on St. Paul and a native subpriest 

 at St. George. I do not know that they are able now to educate native 

 priests there. Under the Russian administration there was a branch 

 consistory of the Eussian church at Sitka where they educated natives 

 for assistant clergymen, and then promoted them, as Father Veniam- 

 inov was a native Aleutian. 



Q. By your observation was there any necessity for the i)reseucc of 

 a peace officer upon these islands to preserve order and settle difficult- 

 ies "? — A. Not the slightest; they were afraid of an ofiticer of any kind, 

 whether an agent of the company or an agent of the Government; they 

 considered them ])owerful authoriti^is and would not work against them 

 unless the two agents would incite them against each other. That might 

 happen. In my time there was nothing of the kind. Mr. Mclntire was 

 a perliict gentleman and was willing to do anything suggested, as the 

 agent of the company. If there was rivalry between the agent of the 



