RAIDS ON EOBBEN ISLAND. 75 



Captain Snow affirms that I. Leonard was head hunter on board the Sarah Louise 

 in 1878, and on the Matin4e in 1879. 



In 1880 the company's schooner Leon, Captain Blair, landed at Eobben Island 

 with the Aleut workmen on June 13 and found there already two schooners, the Otsego 

 and the North Star, though they had been unable to do anything, as the seals had not . 

 yet arrived. During the summer schooners were scarce. On June 22 the Vladimir 

 touched there; on July 16 the Stella^ came around, and on July 20 the Flying Mist. 

 On September 4 the company's steamer AleJcsander II, Captain Sandman, called aud 

 took off the 3,330 skins. Sandman records in his log that he found "on shore a con- 

 siderable number of pups and females, but very few killing seals." After the lessees' 

 vessel left, however, things became lively. When Capt. A. 0. Folger arrived in tbe 

 schooner Adele^ he found 11 schooners already assembled there ^ and he states (Fnr 

 Seal Arb., viii, p. 062) that " altogether we got 3,800 seals; we killed them all or drove 

 them away." According to Snow tlie following schooners secured catches, viz : Otome, 

 558 seals; Worth Star, 1,972; Helena, 900; M. G.Bohm, 1,064:; Alexander, 1,100; total 

 in 1880, 6,594 seals. Otsego and Stella, according to him, had only 3 and 5 seals 

 respectively. 



In 1881 a number of schooners again hovered around the island, waiting for the 

 guard ship to leave, even as late as November. About the first of that month Mr. E. 

 P. Miner arrived in the Annie Gashman and met three other schooners there. " We 

 went ashore and clubbed the seals. Our schooner's share was 800 skins." (Fur Seal 

 Arb., Tin, p. 701.) Snow's figures for 1881 are as follows: Diana, 17; Helena, 380; 

 Otsego, 1,075; Adele, 1,200; M. G. Bohm, 1,450; O'Heade, 750; total, 4,872. 



This feature of the schooners raiding in concert is well worth noticing. Captain 

 Folger corroborates it : "We worked together, and the schooners would divide up." 

 The latter also mentions how the schooners succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the 

 guard ship and making raids during its absence: 



We had the guard [i. c, the Aleut workmen] in our pay, and when the Leon, which had" been sent 



there to guard the place, would go away, lights would be put out, and we would come over from Cape 



' Patience, where we had men on the lookout constantly, or if we got impatient the fastest sealer in 



the fleet would go there and be chased by the Leon (a sailing vessel), and the others would make the 



raid. (Fur Seal Arb., viii, p. 663.) ' 



The experience of the authorities with the raiders in 1881 led to more vigorous 

 attempts to protect the rookeries. The first step was the issue of the consular warning 

 referred to in detail elsewhere in this report (chapter on Eaids of Commander Island 

 Eookeries p. 188), and to enforce it a stronger force of natives was sent to the island 

 in 1882. They were well armed and under the command of a noncommissioned kossak 



> It seems that the Stella and the Adile are the same vessel. Captain Snow informs me that the 

 Stella was bought by Mr. Eetz, of Yokohama, in 1880 and renamed the AMle. 



2 Snow refers this visit to 1882 and states that the Adhle "visited Eobben Island for the iirst time 

 in 1881." The latter statement can not be correct, however, if it is true that Stella and Adele are the 

 same vessel, for I have myself extracted from the Leon's log of 1880 that the Stella visited Eobben 



Island on July 16 of that year. ^ . ., . ,„o, 



3 So bold did the schooners become that when Lieutenant Shamof, of the cruiser Sazbmnik, m 1884 

 sent to guard Eobben Island, landed near Cape Patience, Saghalin, on May 21, he found there two 

 sheds containing about 15,000 pounds of salt, etc., three skiffs, and a whaleboat, and six Japanese, 

 the whole outfit belonging to a schooner from Japan, of which a, certain Johnson was said to be the 

 captain (Ausland, 1885, pp. 536-537). 



