rUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 395 



poration, who may look after their interest in all the markets of the world in their 

 own time and in their own way, according to the exigencies of the season and the de- 

 mand, and who are supplied with money which they can use without public scandal 

 in the manipulation of the market. 



On this ground I feel contident in stating that the Treasury of the United States 

 receives more money, net, under the system now in operation, than it would by taking 

 the exclusive control of the business. Were any capable Government oflflcer supplied 

 with, say, $100,000, to expend in "working the market," and intrusted with the dis- 

 posal of 100,000 seal skins wherever he could do so to the best advantage of the Gov- 

 ernment, and were this agent a man of tirst-class business ability and energy, I think 

 it quite likely that the same success might attend his labor in the Loudon market 

 that distinguishes the management of the Alaska Commercial Comjpauy. But imagine 

 the cry of fraud and embezzlement that would be raised against him, however honest 

 he might be! This alone would bring the whole business into positive dispute, and 

 make it a national scandal. 



As matters are now conducted, there is no room for any scandal— not one single trans- 

 action on the islands but what is as clear to investigation and accountability as the 

 light of the noon-day sun ; what is done is known to everybody, and the tax now laid 

 by the Government upon and paid into the Treasury every year by the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company yields alone a handsouie rate of interest on the entire purchase 

 money expended for the ownership of all Alaska. 



No. 9. 

 STATEMENT OF CAPT. LEWIS W. WILL,IAMS. 



I am the principal owner of a vessel engaged in the whaling business in the Arctic 

 and Bering Seas, and am also acting as master. That has been my business for a 

 number of years past. San Francisco is my home, and my ship departs from that 

 lilace with the necessary supplies, and returns there with her cargoes of whalebone. 

 The average length of my voyages is about eight months. I touch at the St. Paul 

 Island generally every trip to obtain the weather record kept there. It was for a 

 time kept by the U. S. Signal Service, and since then by the agent of the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company. I also get the mail there, the newspapers, etc., also any supplies 

 I may desire. I have purchased tools there, and also at one time sought the profes- 

 sional assistance of the company's physician on the island. The company's agents 

 and other employes on the island have always been very obliging and clever to me 

 on my visits there. They always set signals to guide me to a safe landing, for the 

 place of landing depends on the condition of the weather. They set for me their signal 

 flags by which I am enabled to tell where to seek landing. At one time one of the com- 

 pany's pilots came out and piloted my ship in Oonalaska Harbor without any charge. 



I have also been at Oonalaska with my ship about four ditferent years. Have gone 

 there for water, for codfish, and for mails. In taking water there the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company furnished me the use of their water pipes and force pump and gave 

 me the water free of charge. I also got repairs to my vessel there by the company's 

 employes and the necessary materials cheaper than I could have had the same work 

 done in San Francisco. The men on my ship purchased articles there from the com- 

 pany's store. I heard the men speak of it among themselves on the ship, expressing 

 astonishment at the low prices paid by them. They were fully as low as San Fran- 

 cisco prices. 



We were always treated with the greatest kindness, and always cordially greeted. 



The arrival of a vessel there is quite an event to all at Oonalaska, and every one 

 comes out to see an arrival. Intercourse is free and one has an opportunity of learn- 

 ing all the news and the state of feeling existing all around. 



I always found that the natives had a very friendly feeling for the Alaska Commercial 

 Company, and I know that, in their employment by the company, the natives received 

 fair wages for little work. In fact, the natives fare better than most laborers elsewhere 

 in the United States. They are generally well dressed and seem contented, except 

 in one respect, and that is, they can not get liquor. They are very anxious to procure 

 it and I was offered at one time by a native $20 in gold for a bottle ot whisky. The 

 company discourages their use of liquors and in every way tries to prevent them from 

 getting it, even lefusing them sugar, except in very limited quantities for tea and 

 coffee. By the use of sugar they are enabled to make an intoxicating liquid called 

 "quass," upon which they get into a beastly state. They complain of the company 

 that it refuses them sugar for this purpose, but not otherwise. They are satisfied 

 with the prices they receive for skins and with the prices they pay for goods. The 

 company has tried to educate the people, I saw a school-house there and learned 



