FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 371 



and was made upon the ground itself. A synopsis of this report will be found in Vol. 

 VIII of Tenth Census ot' United States, 1880, p. 102, Elliott's Report. 



Mr. Ivan PetrotF, as special agent of the Govcrnuieut, in his report to the Superin- 

 tendent of Census, August 7, lb82, referring to the seal islands, says: 



"The subject of the fur-seal industry and its commercial and physical aspects has 

 been fully discussed in a monograph written by Mr. H. W. Elliott, under the direc- 

 tion of the Superintendent of Census, and it only remains to say here that the business 

 has been so thoroughly worked up and systematized as to bring it to a par with a 

 •well-conducted cattle ranch on a large scale — with this ditterence, perhaps, that 

 greater care is lavished upon the seals, and greater caution with reference to their 

 comfort than is generally bestowed by fiirmers upon their cattle." (Vol. VIII, Tenth 

 Census United States, lb80, Petrofl''s Report, p. 22.) 



Mr. George R. Tingle, present agent, appointed by the honorable Secretary of the 

 Treasury, substantially confirms Mr. Elliott also in his above views, except that, 

 upon a careful survey made by himself iu 1886, he estimates that the fur seals in the 

 two islands had increased in number about 2,000,000 up to that time. 



We likewise beg leave to refer to the annual reports of the several agents of the 

 Treasury Department now on file. 



It must, therefore, we respectfully urge, be accepted as a fact beyond controversy, 

 that the past management of the company being continued, the Government will find 

 at the termination of the lease its intentions and policy in preserving the seal indus- 

 try, fully maintained and vindicated. The number of seals existing in 1870, at the 

 commencement of the lease, will have been increased. The great primary object of 

 the Government will have been fully conserved to its great advantage as the pos- 

 sessor of the finest seal-rookeries of the world, with the promise of its perpetuity for 

 all time, the same policy and good management being pursued. 



As this part of the sui)ject bears upon the compajiy's relation to the Government, 

 we may be excused for here calling attention to the fact that the total annual tax and 

 rental paid bv this company to the United States from July 1, 1870, to August, 1887, 

 amounts to $5,290,736.49. > 



Calculating that the full number of fur seals for the next two years to be taken and 

 and we will have paid the full sum of $5,925,7.36.49, almost six-sevenths of the entire 

 sum paid by the United States to Russia for the whole of Alaska. 



The charges of " boycotting" and driving away from the islands " Government 

 officers who, intent upon the honest, faithful discharge of their duties, refused to do 

 the bidding of its agents," could only have had foundation in some misrepresentation 

 made to the governor, for this company has always treated all the ofdcers and agents 

 of the Government with the greatest respect and kindness, as their reports on file 

 fully show. 



Second. The company in ils relations to the inhahitants of the seal islands. 



The act of Congress in authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to lease the seal 

 islands expressly provides, among other things, that iu making said lease the Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury shall have due regard to the " coujfort, maintenance, and educa- 

 cation of the natives" of said islands. The lease itself, as executed, contains a num- 

 ber of particulars prescribed by the Secretary for the benefit of the natives, which 

 the company covenants to fulfill. 



The charges made by Governor Swineford against this company in relation to its 

 treatment of the " natives" are comprehensive enough to include the inhabitants of 

 the islands of St. George and St. Paul in many particulars, and in some particulars 

 they are especially referred to as being practically enslaved " by the farming out that 

 ■which is theirs by right of inheritance" by the company, whose "ill-gotten gains" 

 have been " wrung from a hapless and helpless people." ' And it is also charged that 

 " if the Alaska Commercial Company had kept its agreement with the Government 

 most of the younger ones among them ought to be fairly well educated iu English." 



We may, therefore, be pardoned for meeting these charges here, leaving the con- 

 sideration of the inhabitants of other points of Alaska for another part of this state- 

 ment. These charges are in fact not at all new; they were long ago uttered and 

 circulated and have been heretofore made the subject of investigation by the Govern- 

 ment more than once. Thoy constitute in part the cause of the investigation made 

 by Congress in 1876, in which it was made the duty of the Committee of Ways and 

 Means, before mentioned, to examine into and leport whether this company had com- 

 plied with all its duties, and, among other things, in relation to the natives. A 

 pamphlet purporting to have been issued at San Francisco by the "Anti-Monopoly 

 Association of the Pacific Coast," containing, we believe, most if not all of the charges 

 made by Governor Swineford, was presented to the committee. General Miller, late 

 Senator from California, and before then the president of this company, was called 

 before the committee and examined under oath in relation to these charges. His 



