690 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



resumed, but the seals of the old time were missing. I have told you before how my 

 father complained again, and how, in 1819, Capt. Yahnovsky came up to the islands. 

 He was the guest of my father, who gave his house up to him and his servants. He 

 was deeply moved by what he saw. He was up there from June until late in October, 

 watching the work.^ I told you that he saw things just as my father said they were, 

 and he tried hard in his report to get the directors to agree with him for a zapooska, 

 for, he said, if they continued to drive all of the choice young male seals to slaughter, 

 as they had been doing there, that the species would become extinct. 

 s "Why was his advice ignored? Ah, Mr. Elliott, Capt. Yahnovsky was high in the 

 court circles of St. Petersburg. He did not have so much influence, however, as 

 others who were there, too. The times were getting hard for the company; it was 

 failing to make money by reason of the failure of the sea-otter chase; it needed money 

 badly to meet the demands of the investors in its stock who were also members of the 

 Imperial Government. That is the cause of Yahnovsky 's failure to have his way. 

 Baranov was getting old and worried over the loss of money to the company, so he 

 was removed. His successors were also worried about money; so instead of resting 

 .these seals, in 1820, they resumed the killing, and continued to get everything that 

 they could secure up to the close of 1821. 



"Then my father saw that the natives would not have anything to do or live upon 

 in 1822, as the sealing and walrus work was gone, too, if the company determined to 

 continue the killing. He resolved even at the risk of the displeasure of the authorities 

 to tell the truth and insist upon a zapooska for the small number of seals that were 

 left. He also wrote to Bishop Veniaminov at the same time, telling him the sad 

 condition of the rookeries, and urged him to see the governor (Moorayvev) and give 

 orders to have a zapooska made at -once, and to let about half of the natives return 

 to Unalaska, where they could live easier, since there was always an abundance of 

 fish there, and that food supply is very uncertain to get in the Seal Islands all through 

 the year. 



"Moorayvev was a merciful and enlightened man. and in spite of the fact that the 

 treasury of the company was empty, he gaA'e the order to stop all killing in St. Paul 

 Island above 10.000 and on St. George above 600 until the directors should be finally 

 heard from. This relief for the seals, the first real relief that had been given them 

 since a short zapooska of 1808-1810, was due entirely to the prayers of the good bishop 

 and m\ father's letter. 



" Capt. Yahnovsky and Bishop Veniaminov are the only high officials who ever 

 visited the Seal Islands. Gen. Resanov was there in 1804 for a few hours only. He 

 came ashore at Bay Zapadnie and looked at the seals, and the natives told him then 

 that the seals were surely getting fewer and fewer every year. He was our minister 

 to Japan and charged with the examination into the affairs of the company by the 

 Imperial Government. Baranov was making a great many jealous at court by his 

 energy and zeal, and Russia was to see if their charges were well placed. Among other 

 charges was the one that Baranov was regulating the Seal Islands and not getting as 

 many seals as he ought, thus losing money lor the stockholders of the company. Gen. 

 Besanov promptly acquitted Baranov of that charge and nearly everything else of 

 that sort. Besanov reported that too many seals were being killed, and urged a 

 diminution of the killing. 



"It was a great event in the hves of those natives, that visit of Gen. Resanov in a 

 warship. He was a fine-looking man, and the old natives used to tell my father that 

 the smell of the carcasses on the killing ground made him sick soon after he stood 

 there, and that made his visit a short one. to their exceeding regret. My father 

 never saw him. for the general came in July and father came up in the November 

 following. 



"From that time until Capt. Yahnovsky came to the islands nothing was done in 

 the way of sending a commissioner to the islands. Resanov did manage by great 

 effort at St . Petersburg to get a rest for the seals in St. Paul in 1808-1810 — two years — 

 too short a time, but the directors again demanded skins, and Baranov did not care, 

 so the killing was resumed, but they never could get as many as he wanted, and 

 he had to so report. Then the directors at St. Petersburg resolved to send some one 

 up there whom they could all trust in the court. As ('apt. Yahnovsky was chosen, 

 he arrived at Sitka the autumn of 1818, and presented his letter to the governor. 

 Moorayvev was glad he came, because he knew that my father was telling him the 

 truth about the seals, and that his (Moorayvev) word was doubted in St. Petersburg. 



" Capt. Yahnovsky came up to St. Paul in the May month, 1819. He was a very 



quiet man, and asked questions all the time. He was on the seal grounds every 



rking da v. and made notes, notes, notes, which my father says lie wrote down 



every day. H - the whole season in St. Paul, only going over to St. George 



once, and not remaining there long. He said that the business over there was just 



