1815.] RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS IN CALIFORNIA. 327 



trade in the Pacific, and, in addition to their establishments on the 

 northernmost coasts of that ocean, they had taken possession of the 

 country adjoining Port San Francisco, which they seemed deter- 

 mined, as well as able, to retain. With this object, Baranof, the 

 chief agent of the Russian American Company, in 1812, obtained 

 from the Spanish governor of California permission to erect some 

 houses, and to leave a few men on the shore of Bodega Bay, a 

 little north of Port San Francisco, where they were employed in 

 hunting the wild cattle, and drying meat for the supply of Sitka 

 and the other settlements. In the course of two or three years 

 after this permission was granted, the number of persons thus 

 employed became so great, and their dwelling assumed so much 

 the appearance of a fort, that the governor thought proper to 

 remonstrate on the subject ; and, his representations being disre- 

 garded, he formally commanded the Russians to quit the territories 

 of his Catholic majesty. The command was treated with as little 

 respect as the remonstrance ; and, upon its repetition, the Russian 

 agent, Kuskof, coolly denied the right of the Spaniards over the 

 territory, which he asserted to be free and open for occupation by 

 the people of any civilized power. The governor of California 

 was unable to enforce his commands ; and, as no assistance could 

 be afforded to him from Mexico, in which the rebellion was then 

 at its height, the intruders were left in possession of the ground, 

 where they remained until 1840, in defiance alike of Spaniards 

 and of Mexicans. 



On the restoration of peace in Europe, in 1814, the Russian 

 American Company resolved to make another effort to establish a 

 direct commercial intercourse, by sea, between its possessions on 

 the North Pacific and the European ports of the empire. With this 

 object, the American ship Hannibal was purchased, and, her name 

 having been changed to Suwarrow, she was despatched from Cron- 

 stadt, under Lieutenant Lazaref, laden with merchandise, for Sitka, 

 whence she returned in the summer of 1815, with a cargo of furs 

 valued at a million of dollars. The adventure proving successful, 

 others of the same kind were made, until the communications be- 

 came regular, as they now are. 



After the departure of this vessel from Sitka, Baranof sent about 

 a hundred Russians and Aleutians, under the direction of Dr. 

 Schaeffer, a German, who had been the surgeon of the Suwarrow, 

 with the intention, apparently, of taking possession of one of the 

 Sandwich Islands. These men landed first at Owyhee, whence 



