ALASKA AS IT WAS AND IS. 
127 
the canoes innumerable wolfish dogs snarled, fought, or 
played the scavenger. 
The natives still retained to some extent their original 
style of dress, modified now and then by a Russian kerchief 
or a woolen shirt. As a rule, they were barefooted, stolid, 
sturdy, uncompromising savages, who looked upon the white 
man with a defiance but slightly tempered by fear and a 
desire to trade. The mission church of that day was built 
into the stockade, with doors entering it both from the In¬ 
dian and the Russian town. When services were held the 
outer door was opened, the town door closed and stoutly 
barred. Once these fierce clansmen had endeavored to rush 
into and take the settlement when the door leading inward 
had been left unfastened. From the time when the first 
white men to touch these shores, Chirikoff’s boat’s crew in 
1741, were without provocation massacred, these natives 
had not failed to maintain their reputation for courage, 
greed, treachery, and intelligence. 
These conditions outside the settlement necessitated a 
military discipline within it. Sentries regularly paced the 
walks by day and night, the sullen Indians were systematic¬ 
ally watched, and the little batteries kept in readiness for use. 
The needs of the business of the company made Sitka a 
lively manufacturing town, in spite of the multitudinous 
Russian holidays. Society there was like a bit of old Russia, 
with the manners, vices, and sturdy qualities of sailor, peas¬ 
ant, and courtier fully exemplified within its narrow limits. 
A fishery at Deep lake, a few miles away, furnished fresh 
salmon in abundance, which was freely distributed to all 
comers twice or thrice a week during the season. The com¬ 
pany furnished each employe with certain stated rations of 
flour, sugar, tea, etc., at fixed prices; the harbor, within a 
few yards of the stockade, contained abundance of seafish, 
and the Indians’ price for a deer, skinned and dressed, was a 
silver dollar or a glass of vodka. The primeval forest came 
close to the town ; the demand for firewood and timber had 
made little impression upon it. White settlements in the 
