FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 375 



charge of ill-treatment orliarsli usage of the natives of these islands is the fact that 

 Ave now hold to their credit the sum of $64,732.11 as their surplus savings, the details 

 of which appear in the statement also contained in the appendix hereto. (No. 5 of 

 Appendix.) 



In this connection it is to be remembered that on the Island of St. Paul there are 

 now eighty-seven families and eleven widows, and on St. George twenty-six families 

 and six widows, the entire population on both islands, men, women, and children, 

 consisting of 347 persons. 



We claim that this company has fulfilled to the uttermost its entire contract with 

 the United States, and has also faithfully performed all its obligations to the natives 

 of the islands, as the above facts fully demonstrate. 



v. — As TO THE Aleutian Chain of Islands and the Peninsula of Aliaska. 



Were this company disposed to stand upon the letter of the act of Congress, or did 

 its contract require a defense based on mere legal or technical propositions, it might 

 well insist that the duties of the governor in reporting upon the "operations " of this 

 company should be limited to its contract relations with the Government under the 

 lease, and that independently of the obligations resting upon it by reason of the terms 

 of the lease it has been free to transact business in any part of Alaska outside of the 

 islands of St. George and St. Paul, "and the waters adjacent thereto," as any other 

 company or person 'might, being at all times, of course, liable for any violation of law, 

 in the same manner, and in the same manner only, as other persons. The charges, 

 however, are so entirely without foundation, and all complaint so destitute of merit, 

 that we beg leave to present the facts themselves to the honorable Department of the 

 Treasury, that the truth may be known. It is mostly, we apprehend, in this part of 

 Alaska thac the wrongful conduct and acts of oppression of the natives by the Alaska 

 Commercial Company, as alleged by Governor Swineford, are supposed to have oc- 

 curred. Referring to the comi^any, he says: 



"It has, by the power of its great wealth, driven away all competition, and re- 

 duced the native population, wherever its operations are not supervised by Govern- 

 ment agents, to a condition of helpless dependence, if not absolute slavery. Un- 

 hampered by a healthy competition, it oflers and compels the acceptance by the 

 natives, on the pain of starvation, such beggarly prices for their peltry that it man- 

 ages invariably to keep them in its debt and at its mercy. * * * In fact, it pos- 

 sesses the iiower to compel compliance with its every exaction, and wherever it has 

 obtained a foothold neither white man nor native can live in peace and comfort ex- 

 cept by its sutterance. Without mail communication other than that supplied by the 

 company, which is their master, the natives are effectually walled in, and in the ab- 

 sence of all competition are forced, of a necessity, to sell their furs to the company at 

 whatever prices its agents may see fit to oiler. * * * ita oppression and robbery 

 of the natives is notorious. The partial responsibility, at least, of the Government 

 for the wrongs to which the inoffensive people of the Aleutian Islands and the whole 

 of northwestern Alaska have been subjected can not be ignored or denied." 



In the first place, this company has not driven away competition, but has always 

 been, and now is, subjected to competition all along the coast of the Aleutian chain. 

 The field is an open one for commercial enterprise and competition. It invites the 

 trader, the merchant, and all to its shores, but if we were the sole survivors of the 

 contest, we might well claim it to be a case of the " survival of the fittest." Time 

 and again expeditions fitted out in San Francisco and elsewhere have invaded Ber- 

 ing Sea and tried to obtain the furs there, contrary to the acts of Congress and the 

 regulations of the President and the Departments, and at the risk of criminal prose- 

 cutions and the forfeiture of valuable vessels. It would, therefore, be strange in- 

 deed if the *• restless spirit of enterprise " had not availed itself of the field offered 

 by the Aleutian chain, where it has been " unhindered " all these years. 



We annex hereto in the appendix a copy of the official map of Alaska,* with the 

 natural divisions of the country, as made by Mr. Petroff. We may be understood as 

 referring to these as we progress. We also annex a map of distances.* 



Next in importance to the fur seal is the sea-otter. The Shumagin group of islands 

 of this chain is the great center of the trade in its pelts. Different vessels of differ- 

 ent companies and individuals go there every year to buy and ti-ade, with a resulting 

 active competition. The fact is that there is a large and valuable trade all along 

 the Aleutian chain in i)eltries other than the trade of this company, as well as in fish 

 and other commodities, in which this company does not at all participate. Vessels 

 of persons and companies having no connection with the Alaska Commercial Com- 

 pany go every year to the coast, and buy, barter, and trade extensively. A large 

 amount of capital is used by e.stablishiiu'iits d(^aling in codfish and salmon, and the 



