During these years many Russian companies or associations were
formed in eastern Siberia and their officers and men searched the
whole Aleutian chain for the haunts of the sea-otter. At one time
there were as many as twenty-five or thirty of these companies en-
gaged in the enterprise, and so devastating were their operations that
the number of animals dwindled from tens of thousands to tens of
hundreds in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. As the sea-
otter became scarcer, the fur traders turned their attention to the
great herds of the fur-seal, which had long been noted but not con-
sidered of great value commercially. While the pelt of the fur-seal
was not nearly so valuable as that of the sea-otter, yet it soon came
to be looked upon as an excellent substitute for the latter. In time
the traders turned their attention to Bering Sea, and in 1786, after |
more than eighteen years of unremitting search, the seal rookeries
were discovered by a rugged Muscovite ship's mate, Pribylofif by
name. He at once took possession of the islands in the name of Rus-
sia, and upon them his name was subsequently bestowed. Prior to
this, however, in 178 1, Gregory ShelikofI and other Siberian mer-
chants who had been engaged in the fur trade returned to Asia and 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 67 

formed an association, and two years later fitted out three vessels
which traversed the Pacific to the Peninsula of Alaska. The fol-
I lowing year Shelikoff erected a factory on Kadiak, from which place
I he despatched expeditions to explore the neighbouring continent and
I to establish trading posts. In 1790 he organized at Irkutsk the Shel-
' ikoff Company, which, through the patronage of Empress Cathar-
ine II, secured a partial monopoly of the American fur trade.
] Alexander Baranoff, of Sitka fame, was placed in the management of
! the factories at Kadiak and Cook's Inlet. But the operations of in-
: dependent traders were so disastrous to the Irkutsk Company, which,
moreover, had suffered by the death of Shelikoff, that the most pow-
erful of the rivals were persuaded to unite their interests with the
older association under the name of the "Shelikoff United Trading
1 Company." Further inroads into the company's field by new com-
I petitors induced the company to seek a grant of the fur trade in Amer-
1 ica and the Aleutian Islands from the Court at St. Petersburg, which
! was finally granted by the Emperor Paul on June 8, 1799, and under
imperial ukase the "Russian-American Company" was organized.
This grant gave to the company the control of all the coasts of Amer-
ica on the Pacific north of latitude 55°. The ukase created a power-
ful organization similar in its essential features to that established
in North America under the charter of the Hudson's Bay Company^
and in India by the East India Company. By its terms the Russian-
American Company practically became the agent of the Czar within
the region named. The head office of the Company, originally at
Irkutsk, was soon transferred to St. Petersburg, where most of the
( grand ducal families became shareholders in the enterprise, thus
' insuring a continuance of the favour and aid of the crown. In the
territory itself, men and things were under the direction of the auto-
cratic government of BaranofTf, who at first resided at Kadiak.
Other posts and districts were managed by inferior agents, account-
; able only to the chief director. As for the regulations, Professor
I Dall observes that they were just and humane but the enforcement
1 of them was entrusted to men with whom justice and humanity were
always subservient to interest and expediency. The morale of the
company's servants has been summed up by Krusenstern in the trench-
ant sentences : "None but vagabonds and adventurers ever entered
the company's service as promishleniks"; — "It was their invariable
i destiny to pass a life of wretchedness in America"; and "few had the 

68 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

good fortune ever to touch Russian soil again." In the days, how-
ever, when New Archangel, or Sitka, was the seat of government,
many men of refinement and intelligence, with a high sense of honour
and justice, were stationed in that little bit of old Russia transplanted
into the new world. 

Shortly after the promulgation of the ukase of 1799, Baranolf
established Fort Archangel Gabriel, Sitka Sound, to which place
he was accompanied by a large concourse of Aleutians. British and
American adventurers, however, had already found their way to the
Northwest coast, of which the first reliable information was given
to the world by Captain Cook, and the Russians were often obliged
to purchase their entire outfits in order to forestall competition. The
Thlinkets, a warlike tribe, resented the intrusion of the Russians and
fought desperately for their independence. In May, 1802, they at- 1
tacked Fort Archangel Gabriel and drove out the garrison, killing
all the officers and thirty men. In Yakutat Bay the Thlinkets made
a determined attack upon the establishment there, but were repulsed; j
but in the attack upon Urbanoflf and his fleet of ninety canoes in I
Kake Strait, the natives were victorious. In spite of the natives,
however, Baranofif laid the foundation of the new fort at Sitka, which
he called Fort Archangel Michael, and the settlement about it was
christened New Archangel. 

In these and the following years various scientific expeditions
were fitted out by the Government of Russia, notable among them
being the expedition of Krusenstern and Lisianski, who in 1804, 1805
and 1806 examined many of the unknown fiords and islands on the
coast. Langsdorff also visited the Aleutian Islands at this time.
These explorers were followed by Golofnin in 1807 and again in
1810. Lieutenant Otto von Kotzebue visited Bering Strait in 1815.
In after years Lutke, Wrangell, Etolin, Lazarefif and many explor-
ers of lesser fame charted the coast and islands and plied the north-
ern waters in all directions. They discovered islands, observed
volcanoes and described the fauna and flora of the region so thor- j
oughly that long before Alaska was ceded to the United States in
1867, Bering Sea, the wonderful chain of the Aleutian Islands, and
the Northwest coast of America, and even the shores of the Arctic
regions to the northeast of Bering Strait, were almost as familiar to
the Russians as European seas and shores. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 69 

It must not be imagined, however, that the activities of the Rus-
tsians were confined to Alaska. On the contrary it was the ambition
of Baranofif, the great governor of the Russian- American Company,
ito plant the Russian flag not only on the Calif ornian coast but also on
the Sandwich Islands. In 1812 the governor was successful in carry-
ing his point with regard to California, and under his protection
jKusholT founded a Russian colony on Bodega Bay. This was done
jwith the concurrence of the Spanish Government, although against
Ithe wishes of the Franciscan missionaries. The colony was called the
!Ross Settlement and the men stationed there were chiefly employed
|in agricultural pursuits and in drying the meat of wild cattle,
jwhich ranged in that neighbourhood. The post was finally aban-
Idoned in 1841 because the Russian-American Company had entered
linto an agreement with the Hudson's Bay Company, under the terms
tof which the latter were to furnish the Russians annually with large
'quantities of fresh provisions and other necessaries. In 1839 the Brit-
;ish Company agreed to furnish its Russian rival with 560,000 pounds
[of wheat, 19,920 pounds of flour, 16,160 pounds of peas, 16,160
Ipounds of barley, 36,880 pounds of bacon, 19,920 pounds of beef
jand 3,680 pounds of ham at certain fixed prices. All of these were
'the products of the Hudson's Bay Company's establishment at Fort
Vancouver on the Columbia River, which under the administration
of the famous Dr. McLaughlin, had become an important agricul-
tural centre, even in those early days. 

For a period of sixty-eight years — from 1799 to 1867 — the Rus-
sian-American Company ruled Alaska, but in summing up the results
oi its policies and activities little can be said in its favour in the
'light of the ethics and standards of today, though in some respects the
present generation has little right to criticise the earlier generations
of the so-called darker ages. Possibly the Russian atrocities in
Alaska were no worse than those perpetrated in later years by the
Belgians in the Congo or by the Turks in Armenia. An effort was
made by Russian missionaries of the Greek church to convert the
Aleutians and the warlike Thlinkets and other barbarous tribes, and
they succeeded in ameliorating the condition of the natives. They
iestablished schools, churches and hospitals and worked faithfully
jand untiringly for a people whose minds were perhaps not able to
grasp the great truths of Christianity. But the primitive inhabitants
of Northwest America, ignorant, superstitious and cunning, yet child- 

70 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

like in many ways, could not survive the contact with that brutal
force which the fur wealth of the isolated islands and territories had
attracted thither. 

In 1866 William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United
States, proposed the purchase of Alaska from the Russians and nego-
tiations with that end in view were opened with St. Petersburg.
Professor Dall records, although he cannot vouch for the truth of
the story, that these negotiations had their origin in the efforts of a
company of United States citizens to purchase Alaska in order to
carry on there a trade in fish, fur and timber, and that Seward, who
had been asked to assist them, finding Russia willing to sell, secured
the territory, not for the private company but for the nation. Be
this as it may, on the 30th of March, 1867, the treaty of sale was agreed
upon; on May 28th it was ratified by the United States and pro-
claimed by the President on June 20th. On the 6th of September,
1867, Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, U. S. A., was appointed commander
of the military district of Alaska. Russian America was formally
surrendered by the Russian colonial authorities to Gen. Lovell H. ;
Rousseau, U. S. A., who had been appointed by the President to \
receive the territory, on October 18, 1867. j 

Thus ended the chapter of Russian activities in America. The
history of that occupation is too often sordid and depressing, yet,
with all its shortcomings and failures, it was in many respects a bril-
liant and heroic achievement. The outstanding features of the story
are the voyages of Bering and Chirikoff ; the adventures of the early
Russian fur traders; the founding of the Russian-American Company |
in 1799; the scientific expeditions of Krusenstern and Lisianski, Com- j
modore Billings, Kotzebue and others to northwestern America and
Bering Sea; the emperor's ukase of 182 1, claiming all territories ;
north of the fifty-first parallel and the discussions which it aroused; |
the convention of 1824 between the United States and Russia; the !
convention of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia; the disputes
between the Hudson's Bay and Russian-American Companies and
their settlement; the operations of the British and French fleets in j
the north Pacific during the time of the Crimean war; and the ces-
sion of the territory to the United States in the year 1867. , 

However, by far the most important result of that occupation i
was the bequest of the famous Alaskan boundary dispute to the states- :
men of Great Britain and the United States of a later day and gen- . 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 71 

eration. For long years the eastern boundary of the Territory of
Alaska was the subject of diplomatic discussion between the two
countries — a discussion which was not laid at rest until the Alaska
Boundary Tribunal handed down its award in 1903. 

/x> 

\ 

- '.'% 

k 

">-'JX^\, 

:^'-L 

'■■:':- <" 

■V', . 

M 

MAP OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA, CIRCA, 1775 

64 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

Siberian wastes; from Kamchatka through an unknown sea to the
inhospitable coast of Alaska; from Alaska to the mist-enshrouded
Commander Islands, where the closing scene of this great tragedy
was enacted, which ended, like the tragedies of old, in the death
of the hero — surely in that day this was no mean performance, no
small accomplishment. 

Through stress of weather and fog it will be remembered the St.
Paul, under command of Alexei Chirikofif, was separated from the
St. Peter, the two vessels failing again to come together. Chirikofif,
with the advice of his officers, having decided to continue the easterly
course, found himself on the 26th of June in latitude 48° and it
chanced that on the 30th day of the same month Bering was only
twenty miles south of that position. As early as the nth of July
Chirikofif noticed driftwood, seals and gulls. He was then some
two hundred and forty miles from land. Three or four days later
in the night he sighted the moderately high land of the west coast
of the Archipelago Alexandria, near the latitude 55° 21', and on
the following morning the conspicuous promonotory afterwards
named Cape Addington. Continuing on his way, the navigator ob-
served a group of small, rocky islands on his port bow. This group
was named the Hazy Islands by Captain Dixon in 1787. The St.
Paul ran N. W. W. parallel to the coast under the steep, woody
ridge north of the Cape Ommaney of Captain Vancouver, the Cape
"TschjrikofTf of La Perouse." On the 17th it was estimated that the
vessel was in latitude 57° in the region of Sitka Sound, which is a
great indentation about one hundred and fifty square miles in this
bold coast. In this neighbourhood a terrible disaster befell Chiri-
kofT and his people. On the 17th of July, being in need of fresh
water, the explorer despatched a boat manned by ten of his best sea-
men to the shore. Neither this boat, nor the one sent in search of it,
which was the only boat remaining, ever returned or were they heard
of again, and in all probability the men in charge of them fell vic-
tims to the savages that inhabited the place. Chirikofif was on an
unknown and dangerous coast. He had no other boat and his num-
bers were greatly reduced by this calamity. At this juncture a coun-
cil of officers decided that further attempts at geographical discovery
were impracticable and that therefore the only thing to do was to
return to Kamchatka. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 65 

There has been no little discussion as to the position of the large 

bay where the terrible disaster overtook Chirikoff. As a matter of 

geographic interest it may be stated that the general consensus of 

geographers and historians who have considered the matter is that the 

disaster occurred in Sitka Sound. It is well known that the natives 

of this region were powerful, overbearing and aggressive. At a later 

period they nearly succeeded in driving the Russians from their lands 

and they retained their Avarlike reputation even up to the time of the 

orcupation of the country by the United States. It is therefore likely 

that they were prompt to resent any imprudence or ill treatment by a 

; body of strangers. Professor George Davidson, whose personal 

1 knowledge of that whole coast line was extensive and whose researches 

add weight to his deductions, points out that there is a bare possi- 

Ibility that the disaster may have occurred in the neighbourhood of 

' latitude 57° 15', where is situated the comparatively small, but open 

ibay named Guadalupe by the Spaniard Heceta, in 1775. But an 

examination of the explorers who have coasted these shores seems 

strongly to point to Sitka Sound as the great bay of Chirikoff. 

After spending four months in that sea, Chirikofif, who had been
a victim of the dreaded scurvy, returned to the harbour of Petro-
ipavlovsk. Thus ended the voyage, which was disastrous to the men
engaged in it, important as it was geographically. Chirikofif recov-
ered from his illness and searched the neighbouring seas in the hopes
of meeting with Bering, but without success. 

The operations of the Russians in Kamchatka and the voyages
of Bering resulted in the important discovery of the hitherto un-
known fur-bearing animal — the sea-otter. It was the costly pelt of
this beautiful creature which ofifered the chief inducements for
further expeditions and explorations in the sea which separates
northeastern Asia and northwestern America. On the island where
Bering died his crew killed many of these animals, the skins of
which were later sold to Chinese merchants for large sums of money.
The Russian government, possibly tired of the worry and expense
involved in the prosecution of trans-Siberian and American adven-
;tures, did not follow up the explorations of Bering, but enterprising
individuals were always found to fit out expeditions for the hunting
of the sea-otter. In the course of their traffickings they explored
the Aleutian Islands, returning with rude sketches and maps. A
t)rief sketch of these expeditions will suffice. 

66 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

Altasoff and his band of Russians, Tartars and Cossacks arrived
at Kamchatka toward the end of the seventeenth century and found
the sea-otter, vs^hich abounded on the coast up to the middle of the
eighteenth century, when the adventurers almost extirpated it in
that country. One by one the numerous islands and groups of
islands in that quarter of the globe were found by these rude ex-
plorers, who braved storm, shipwreck and death in their crazy ves-
sels, the planks of which in many instances were held together only
by thongs of rawhide. Thus different groups of the Aleutian chain
were discovered before Glottofif, of infamous memory, reached the
Kadiak Islands in 1763. In 1764 to 1768 Synd, a lieutenant of the
Russian navy, explored Bering Strait. In fact, innumerable trad-
ers and adventurers, inflamed with the desire to make fortunes in
the fur trade, voyaged into Bering Sea and among the Aleutian
Islands, and before 1778, when Captain Cook visited that region, the
Russians were firmly established there. The traders, Dr. Dall re-
marks, were men of no education and were governed only by their
base passions and love of gain. Nevertheless their voyages added
much to the knowledge of the islands between Kamchatka and
America. 

62 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

Certain of the officers resolved to make a landing, greatly against
the wishes of their commander. He was helpless, however, as he
was practically at death's door with scurvy. The St. Peter had mi-
raculously drifted into a safe harbour off Bering Island of the Com-
mander group of islands. On landing, the place was found to be
teeming with animal life never before disturbed by predatory human
beings. The sea-lion and fur-seal were found in great numbers,
while the ponderous sea-cow fed upon the rich algae of the seashore.
Steller relates that the animals of the coast were entirely new and
strange even to him, and showed no fear whatever. The sea-otters,
they first supposed to be bears or gluttons. Arctic foxes flocked
about them in such numbers that they could strike down three or
four score of them in a couple of hours. The most valuable fur-bear-
ing animals stared at them curiously, and along the coast Steller saw
with wonderment "whole herds of sea-cows, grazing on the luxuri-
ant algae of the strand." Not only he had never seen this animal
before, but even his Kamchatkan cossack did not know it. 

Steller wisely began to make preparations for the winter and in
the sand bank near the stream he and such of his companions as could
stand the work dug a pit and roofed it over with driftwood and cloth-
ing. The frozen bodies of the foxes they had killed were piled
against the sides to prevent the arctic wind finding its way
through the cracks and crevices. The sick were gradually taken
ashore and placed under canvas on the beach. Some died as they
were carried on deck, and others in the boats as they were being taken
on shore. On every side lay the sick and the dying. "Some com-
plained of cold, others of hunger and thirst, and the majoritv of
them were so afflicted with scurvy that their gums, like a dark brown
sponge, grew over and entirely covered their teeth. The dead be-
came the prey of the foxes, of which countless numbers gathered
about the encampment ready to devour the dead or attack the dy-
ing." So it is pathetically recorded by Steller. 

By December the whole crew was lodged in roofed pits. The
provisions were divided among the messes, so that every man daily
received a pound of flour and some groats until the supplv was ex-
hausted. Naturally the chase was depended upon for sustenance
almost exclusively. In this wav the men succeeded in struggling
through the rigorous winter, but in spite of all Steller's precautions,
death made sad havoc amongst them. In the council held on board 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 63 

the St. Peter when land was sighted, the spirit of the great but un-
happy commander had flared up and for the hour some of his old
force and vigour returned to him, but it was only the last effort of
a dying man. He had exerted ail his remaining powers to prevent the
landing from the St. Peter and that exertion had knelled his doom.
Before leaving Okhotsk, Bering had contracted a malignant ague
Avhich had undermined his constitution and in this last expedition
scurvy had claimed him as a victim. He was sixty years old and
heavily built. He was worn out with suffering and anxiety; he
was broken in health and in spirit; yet he would no doubt have recov-
ered if he had obtained proper nourishment and warmth. In a sand
pit on Bering Island there could be no hope for him. Blubber was
the only medicine at hand and for this he had an unconquerable
loathing. Nor were the frightful sufferings of his men, his disap-
pointment at the fate of the great northern expedition, calculated
to relieve his mind or to restore health to his body. From hunger,
cold and grief he slowly pined away. An old record has preserved
an account of his death. He was, as it were, buried alive. The
sand from the sides of the pit where he lay kept continually rolling
down over his feet. At first it was removed, but towards the end
he asked that it might remain where it had fallen, as it furnished
him with a little of the warmth he so sorely needed. Soon half of
his body was under the sand, which in life had served him as a cover-
let, and in death became his winding sheet. He died on the 8th of
December (old style), 1741, two hours before the bleak day dawned.
So passed the great Dane and so ended the long drawn-out tragedy
of the great northern expedition. 

With Bering died that dynamic force which had driven for\^'ard
persistently and relentlessly two great geographic expeditions.
Through long, weary years he struggled in Siberia "to combine and
execute plans and purposes, which only under the greatest difficul-
ties could be combined and executed." With an indomitable will
and persistent activity he endeavoured to "bridge the chasm be-
tween means and measures, between ability to do and will to do —
a condition typical of the Russian society at that time." That he
surmounted the difficulties presented by a distant and unsympa-
thetic government, the voice of the traducer, a severe climate, ill-
chosen associates and an inexperienced force of men, speaks
volumes for his pertinacity and courage. From St. Petersburg across 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 59 

The Admiralty desired accurate charts; and the Academy a scientific
exploration of Siberia and Kamchatka. Not only "an account
of these regions based on astronomical determinations and geodetic
surveys, on minute descriptions and artistically executed landscape
jpictures, on barometric, thermometric and aerometric observations,
|as well as investigations in all the branches of natural history," was
[demanded but also "a detailed preparation of the ethnography, col-
jonization and history of the country together with a multitude of
Special investigations in widely different directions." The Senate
[had thrust the whole organization and the conduct of this business
'upon the shoulders of one man. Bering was made chief of all the
[enterprises east of the Ural Mountains. He was to furnish ships,
provisions and transportation. It is small wonder therefore that an
jexpedition planned upon such loose principles, and to serve such
jdiversified interests resulted in almost complete failure.
I Bearing in mind what Siberia was at that time and the stupen-
dous obstacles it offered to the transportation of such an expedition as
this, it seems almost ridiculous in these later days to read that the
academical branch of the undertaking, in charge of the astronomer
jLa Croyere, the physicist Gmelin (the elder) and the historian
^liiller, was luxuriously equipped. "Two landscape painters, one
burgeon, one interpreter, one instrument maker, five surveyors, six
scientific assistants and fourteen bodyguards," made up the retinue of
the men of science. The expedition began to move from St. Peters-
jburg in detachments in the early months of 1733. It consisted in
iail of five hundred and seventv men, in which total, however, the
thirty or forty academists and their attendants are not included.
jMore than half of the officers, many of the non-commissioned officers,
and all of the physicians were foreigners, — a fact which throws an
jinteresting sidelight on the social condition of the Russia of that
iperiod. The Senate, by promise of large increase of salary and of
promotion, if the expedition proved successful, sought to inspire the
officers with zeal. But the rank and file were to be forced to do
their duty "by threat of cruel punishments and a continued stay in
jSiberia." It has been asserted that Bering's expedition was looked
jupon in St. Petersburg as a mild sort of banishment. 

In time Bering reached the Kamchatkan Peninsula where he
founded the seaport of Petropavlovsk at the mouth of Kamchatka
River in 1740, seven years after his departure from St. Petersburg. 

60 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

The two little vessels, St. Peter and St. Paul, which had been built
at Okhotsk, sailed in September, 1740, for Petropavlovsk, where they
were frugally outfitted for a summer's cruise. Neither their stores
nor rigging were complete or even adequate, but this did not deter
the brave Dane from embarking upon his hazardous undertaking.
Nor was this all. The incessant toil and heavy hardships, the neces-
sary accompaniment of such a vast enterprise, had already under-
mined the commander's health. When Bering sailed from I
Kamchatka he was physically a wreck. The St. Peter was commanded
by Vitus Bering and the St. Paul by Alexei Chirikofif. With Ber-
ing sailed the naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, whose history of
the expedition may be counted among the most interesting of geo-
graphic memoirs. The French geographer, Joseph Nicholas Delisle
de la Croyere, accompanied Chirikoff. 

On the 4th of June, 1741, the vessels started on their memorable
voyage, but on the 20th were separated in a storm and fog and after
ineffectual attempts on the part of the St. Peter to get in touch with
the St. Paulj the search was abandoned and the St. Peter continued
the voyage, taking a course between north and east toward the western
continent. Bering now and from this time on was confined to his
cabin, sufifering from incipient scurvy which crushed his powers of
resistance. At noon on the i6th day of July, 1741, land was seen to
the northward, and on the 20th the St. Peter cast anchor off an island,
which Bering named St. Elias. The country is described by Steller
as being high, rugged and covered with snow, and the coast indented
and girt with inhospitable rocks; behind, in splendour, a snow-capped
mountain peak towered so far into the clouds that it could be seen
at a distance of seventy miles. The mountain thus described may
have been the great volcanic cone of St. Elias, some eighteen thou-
sand feet in height. The vessel remained here a few days and then
proceeded in a northwesterly direction for the purpose of examining
the continental shore and the adjacent islands. Steller, ambitious
to give a detailed account of the fauna and flora of the locality,
was greatly perturbed by this decision and in his diary gives full
vent to his ill-humour. Bering's object was to chart the coast, while
Steller wished to pursue his scientific investigations, hence the dif-
ference of opinion. 

It is not easy to determine exactly the landfall of Bering. The
explorer's own journal gives the latitude as 59° 40' and the longi* 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 61 

tude as 48° 50' east of Avatcha, but these calculations contain an
error of some eight degrees. Cook himself was uncertain on this
point and cautiously writes that Miiller's report of the voyage is
"so very much abridged, and the chart so extremely inaccurate, that
it is hardly possible, either by the one or by the other, or comparing
both together, to find out any one place which that navigator either
saw or touched at. Were I to form a judgment of Bering's pro-
ceedings on this coast, I should suppose, that he fell in with the
continent near Mount Fairweather. But I am by no means certain,
that the bay to which I have given his name, is the place where he
anchored. Nor do I know, that what I called Mount St. Elias, is
the same conspicuous mountain to which he gave that name. And
as to his Cape St. Elias, I am entirely at a loss to pronounce where
It lies." For a full discussion of this point one must turn to Pro-
fessor Davidson's able monograph entitled '^Tracks and Landfalls
of Bering and Chirikofif." 

For several weeks the St. Peter lay ofif and on the coast, and w^hile
ill the region of the Kadiak Island, Bering named a high project-
ing cape St. Hermogenes, in honour of the patron saint of the day
on which it was sighted. During the succeeding weeks the St. Peter
was buffeted by wind and wave on the turbulent waters of the Aleu-
tian Archipelago. On August 30th, the St. Peter anchored off the
Shumagin group of barren and rocky islands near the coast of
Alaska. Bering was so ill that he could not stand, and one-third of
the crew was stricken with scurvy. To refresh the sick they were
carried ashore, where they lay huddled together, sad and sorrowful.
Confusion, uncertainty and despair marked these dark days. The
officers quarrelled and bandied hot words, and the unfortunate stay
on the Shumagin Islands was marked with death and disaster. 

Leaving the Shumagin Islands, the ^S"^. Peter sailed southward to
pick up her course for Kamchatka. At times the officers expressed
a wish to return to America, to seek a harbour of refuge for the
winter, but Bering would not sanction the project. Finally, on
, November 4th, land was sighted in the supposed latitude of 53° 30'.
'! This brought joy and hope to all on board of the St. Peter. It was
presumed the vessel was off the coast of Kamchatka, but instead of
this, the land in view was but an island off the coast of that penin-
sula since named the Commander, or Bering Islands.

56 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

connected. From St. Petersburg it was announced that "Bering has
ascertained that there really does exist a northeast passage and that
from the Lena River it is possible, provided one is not prevented by
polar ice, to sail to Kamchatka and thence to Japan, China and the
East Indies." It may be taken for granted that it was this convic-
tion that led him to undertake his next great enterprise, the navigat-
ing and charting of the Northeast Passage from the Obi River to
Japan. 

It is unfortunate that the explorer was prevented from discovering
the adjacent American continent. At the narrowest part of it, Ber-
ing's Strait is scarcely forty miles wide, and under favourable clima-
tic conditions it is possible to see simultaneously the coast lines of both
continents. Captain James Cook was more fortunate than the great
Dane, for as he approached the strait the rays of the sun dispersed
the mists and fogs and at one glance both continents were seen, so
Lauridsen affirms. With Bering, as his journal explains, during the |
whole time that he was in the strait the horizon was hidden by dark
clouds. 

In 1729 Bering once more started out upon a voyage of explora-
tion, and although he actually reached the vicinity of the island upon
which later he ended his days, the locality was obscured from his
sight by heavy fogs. The remainder of the summer the navigator
employed in more accurately charting the peninsula and the northern
Kurile Islands. He also explored the channel between them and the
new and easier route to Kamchatka. In 1730 Bering returned to
Russia. 

Now if his work had amounted to no more than his accomplish-
ments of the years 1728 and 1729, Bering would still have been entitled
to the just admiration of succeeding generations of navigators.
"From the perusal of his ship's journal,!' says one who could speak
with authority, "one becomes convinced that our famous Bering was
an extraordinarily able and skilful officer; and if we consider his de-
fective instruments, his great hardships and the obstacles that had to
be overcome, his observations and the great accuracy of his journal de-
serve the highest praise. He was a man who did Russia honour."
His knowledge of and extensive travels in northeastern Asia, his
scientific qualifications, his ability to make careful and accurate ob-
servations, and his acquaintance with the works of earlier and con-
temporary explorers, put him in a position to form a more correct 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 57 

idea of that part of the earth than any other living man. No man,
however, is a prophet in his own country, and Bering was obliged
I to submit to the indignity of having his work questioned and even con-
j tradicted by the authorities of St. Petersburg. In Ivan Kirilovich
i Kiriloff, indeed, he found a friend in need, but other members of the
I Academy of Sciences refused to weigh his evidence, sound as it was.
As important and as memorable as Vitus Bering's first expedition
i was in the annals of discovery, it was neither so important nor so
j memorable as that second expedition which resulted in the discovery
of the far northwestern region of America, afterward named Alaska.
. Upon his return to Russia, imbued with a desire to explore further
j the regions he had recently visited, and to sail the unknown sea to
I the eastward, he began to make plans for future operations. Two
I months had barely elapsed after his return before he presented two
j plans to the Russian Admiralty. In the first he submitted a series
I of suggestions for the better administration of Eastern Siberia, while 

I in the second he outlined his Great Northern Expedition, perhaps
\ one of the greatest geographical enterprises the world has ever known.
i This document clearly demonstrates the fact that the plan originated
j with Bering — a fact which is important because it has since been
I stated that the idea was not his own. He proposed to explore and
i chart the western coast of America and to establish commercial rela-
I tions with that country, and also to visit Japan for the same purpose,
! as well as to chart by land and sea the Arctic coast of Siberia. It was 

I I his object to fill the vacant spaces on his chart of the region between
the known west and the known east, since doubts had been thrown
upon his first achievement. He knew that proof of the separation
of the two continents would be forthcoming if the American coast
were charted. 

The political situation favoured Bering's plans. Anna Ivanovna,
' who succeeded Catharine, had ascended the throne in 1730, and at
her court foreigners and the reform party of Peter the Great again
became influential. The Empress was ambitious and desired to shine
in Europe as the ruler of a great empire — "Europe was to be awed
by Russian greatness and Russia by European wisdom." Anna
deemed that one of the surest ways to attain the desired end was
through the equipment of scientific expeditions. She had at her dis-
posal an Academy of Science, a fleet, and the resources of a mighty
I, empire. It was therefore the desire of the Court to make the enter- 

58 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

prise as large and sensational as possible. Bering's proposals, it is
true, served as a basis for the plans of the Empress, but after the lapse
of two years these simple proposals, through the intervention of the
Senate, the Academy, and the Admiralty, assumed such vast pro-
portions that it may well be conceived that the originator had diffi-
culty in recognizing them. In April, 1732, the Empress charged the
Senate to take the necessary steps to ensure the execution of the
scheme. 

At this time the Senate was presided over by Ivan Kiriloflf, who
had been one of the most enthusiastic admirers of Peter the Great.
He acted with despatch. On May 2nd, the Senate promulgated two
ukases, in which were declared the objects of the expedition, and
the necessary means to that end indicated. It was at this point
in the preparations that the governing bodies burdened the chief of
the expedition with tasks very far removed from his original plans.
He was directed to not only explore the islands of the North Pacific
and to reach the Spanish possessions in America, but to also pro-
vide for the development of Siberia. It is peculiar that an explorer
charged wnth a certain and definite mission — that of reaching and
charting northwest America — should be directed to supply Okhotsk
with inhabitants, to introduce cattle on the Pacific Coast, to found
schools and to establish a dock-yard and iron works in that out-of-
the-way corner of the world. But even this was only the beginning
of a still larger program. In its passage through the Admiralty
and the Academy, his commission assumed startling dimensions. The
Admiralty on the one hand desired the charting of Asia from Arch-
angel to Japan; while the Academy could not be satisfied with any-
thing less than a scientific exploration of all northern Asia. Thus
decree after decree followed in rapid succession. Late in December,
1732, the Senate issued a ukase, the sixteen paragraphs of which out-
lined more or less minutely the explorations to be undertaken by the
expedition. 

To sum up^ — Bering, now a Commodore in the Russian Navy,
wath Chirikofif as his Lieutenant, was placed in command of a triple
expedition, w^hich was to cover northwestern America, Japan and
the Arctic regions. Even such an expedition as this, it would appear,
exceeded all reasonable demands, and not for several generations
later did Cook, La Perouse, and Vancouver succeed in accomplish-
ing what the Russian Senate expected Bering to do in a few short
years. 

The two expeditions of Vitus Bering are possibly unique in the
history of far northern explorations. Lauridsen, upon whose book 

54 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

the following narrative is largely based, says that the real starting
point was far beyond the farthest verge of civilization, where as yet
onlv the daring hunter and yassak-coUector had preceded him. At
that time Kamchatka was as wild and unknown a region as the North
and South Poles are today. One hundred and thirty degrees of the
earth's most inhospitable tracts — mountains, steppes, impenetrable
forests, morasses and fields of trackless snow, lay between St. Peters-
burg and the Kamchatkan Peninsula, whither Bering was to lead,
not a small expedition, such as Sir Alexander Mackenzie led across
the American continent, but an enormous provision train which was
also burdened with material for ship-building. On that memorable
journev, which seems to have almost entirely escaped the notice of
succeeding generations, flat-bottomed river boats or scows had to be
built bv the score, rough roadways constructed through morasses, or
cut through forests. Or ao;ain it would be necessarv to resort to
horses, or sledges drawn bv dogs. Through the dreary and desolate
wastes of the Yakuts and Tunguses lay the course of this wonderful
expedition. As a matter of fact, Bering's undertaking loses nothing
in comparison with the explorations of Franklin, Mackenzie, Nansen.
Pearv, Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton, and many others who have
traversed the Arctic regions. In some respects perhaps their expedi-
tions, with the lightest of equipments, are not to be compared with
Bering's effort. 

In Februars- and January, 1725, the expedition left St. Petersburg.
The officers were the two Danes, \^itus Bering, Commander-in-Chief.
Martin Spangberg, Lieutenant and second in Command, Lieutenant
Alexei Chirikofif and Second Lieutenant Peter Chaplin; the cartog-
raphers. Lushin and PatilofT, Dr. Niemann and the Reverend
Ilarion. and the mates, Richard Engel and George Morison. The
suflerings and hardships endured on that hazardous journey were
indeed terrific, but finally, on March 11, 1728, Bering reached his
destination at the lower Kamchatkan Ostrog (or stockaded post),
where he found a church and forty huts scattered along the banks of
the river. Here lived a handful ot Cossacks who, in that distant and
barbarous land maintained the sovereignty of the Czar of all the
Russias. The deprivations and isolation of that barren region had
had their effect upon the men and they were scarcely more civilized
than the natives whom thev ruled and knouted. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 55 

Here, with no other resources than those he had brought with him
)r was able to find in the country, Bering built the Gabriel, a vessel
taunch enough to withstand the buffetings of heavy gales. It is
■elated that the timber for this vessel was hauled to the shipyards by
logs; that the tar was manufactured by the sailors; while the rig-
ings, cable and anchors had been dragged two thousand miles
through the Siberian wilderness. As for the sailor's provisions —
'Fish oil was his butter and dried fish his beef and pork" ; salt he w^as
obliged to get from the sea, and he distilled spirits from sweet straw,
^^ith this meagre supply and with his crude vessel Bering started
jpon a voyage of discovery along an unknown coast and upon an
nknown sea. 'Tt is certain," says Dr. Campbell, "that no person
jetter fitted for this undertaking could have been found; no difBculty,
10 danger, daunted him. With untiring industry and almost incred-
ble patience he overcame those defects which to any one else would
lave seemed insurmountable." 

On Julv 9, 1728, the Gabriel drifted down the river and the 13th
)f that month the sails were hoisted and the prow of the little vessel
jointed towards the north. 

Bering's course was generally along the coast and usually within
ight of land. He proceeded to a point near 67' 18' north latitude,
md 193' 7' east of Greenwich, thus establishing the fact that the
  ntinents of Asia and America were separated by a sea, the limits
)f which, however, he failed to determine. On account of cloudy
VTather he did not even catch a glimpse of the American continent.
\ccording to Du Halde, "This was Captain Bering's most northerly
)oint. He thought that he had accomplished his task and obeyed
ifders, especially as he could no longer see the coast extending toward
he north in the same way." Fearing that if he should go farther he
[light not be able to return to Kamchatka before the end of the sum-
ner, he determined to return to his base. On the 31st of August,
fter a severe buffeting by a gale in which the mainsail and foresail
vere rent and the anchor lost, the intrepid explorer reached the
nouth of the Kamchatka on September 22, 1728. From the knowl-
edge he had gained of his own expedition and from that he had
[leaned from Deschnefif's earlier expedition, and from accounts he
lad gathered from the natives of the country. Bering was convinced
hat he had sailed around the northeastern corner of Asia, and that
^is voyage had demonstrated that the two great continents were not

It is pertinent to inquire what led Peter to undertake this work.
That question is answered by Lauridsen, who avers that he was
incited to such a Herculean task "by a desire for booty, bv a keen,
somewhat barbaric, curiosity, and by a just desire to know the natural
boundaries of his dominion. He was no doubt less influenced by
the flattery of the French Academy and other institutions than is
generally supposed." Whatever may have been the motives which
prompted his activities, his great enterprise certainly brought Russia
into the front rank of those nations engaged in geographical explora-
,tion. Just before his death he planned no less than three great enter- 

52 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

prises— the establishment of a mart at the mouth of the River Kur
for the Oriental trade, the creation of maritime trade with India, and
a scientific expedition to settle once and for all the boundary between
Asia and America. 

With the first two projects, which, however, did not survive the
Czar, this work is not concerned; but Bering tenaciously held to his
plan and in the end gave up his life in the accomplishment of his task. 

Peter the Great was not a monarch to heed obstacles or to weigh
the possibilities of the success of any of his enterprises. His plans,
therefore, were always on a grand scale, if the means for carrying
them out were often entirely inadequate. His imperious and laconic
instructions left no room for doubt as to their intent, nor as to the
results of his orders. It is said that on one occasion he addressed
his commander-in-chief in Astrakhan, as follows: "When fifteen
boats arrive from Kazan, you will sail them to Baku and sack the
town." His instructions to his Danish otlicer were just as terse and
characteristic. It seems that they were written in December, 1724, five
weeks before his death, and they are substantially as follows: "I. —
At Kamchatka or somewhere else, two decked boats ought to be built.
II. — With these you are to sail northward along the coast, and as the
end of the coast is not known, this land is undoubtedly America. .1
III. — For this reason you are to inquire where the American coast
begins and go to some European colony, and when European ships
are seen you are to ask what the coast is called, note it down, make
a landing, obtain reliable information, and then, after having charted
the coast, return.'' After the navigators of the nations of Western
Europe had for two centuries wearied themselves with the search for \
a northern passage and made strenuous efforts to navigate the Strait
of Anian, Russia sought to solve the problem, perhaps in a more
practical manner, by lirst of all looking for the outlet of the strait
and starting out on a voyage round the northern part of the Old
World. Yet, perhaps some adventurous Russian sailor, unknown and
unhonoured, had already solved this problem, because it would seem
that the "Typus Orbis Terrarum" of Ortelius, printed in i i^S^, and
the even earlier map of Johann Martinez of 1562 or 1565, clearly j
show the extensive passage long since named in honour of the intrepid
explorer, a brief account of w^hose exploits are now to be related. Or |
perhaps rumours of the proximity of another continental shore near j
the northeastern corner of Asia may have drifted across Siberia. From i 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 53 

such a source the early geographers may have obtained an approxi-
mately correct idea of the relative positions of the two great continents. 

Bering's first expedition was to settle the great question of that
age — Were Asia and America connected, or were they separate? —
Were there northwest and northeast passages? 

If the above mentioned ukase is indicative of anything at all, it
would seem to show that the Czar's inquisitive mind was dwelling on
the possibility of establishing a line of communication to the Spanish
colonies in central America. 

A writer of repute has observed that "In the history of discoveries
the spirit of human enterprise has sought its way through an incalcu-
lable number of mirages. These have aroused the imagination,
caused agitations, debates and discussion, but usually have veiled an
earlier period's knowledge of the question. There are many re-dis-
covered countries on our globe." 

So it may be in this case. The northwestern part of America
almost wholly disappeared from the cartography of the seventeenth
century. Finally the geographic explorations of the eighteenth cen-
tury, provoked by political events, a zeal for knowledge and the greed
of European nations, led to the settlement of long mooted questions.
Russia, towards the end of the seventeenth century, conquered the
desolate tracts of Siberia and even penetrated the country of the war-
like Chukchees. Deschnefif's palisaded fort on the Anadyr River
maintained Russian authority in extreme northeast Kamchatka in
the early years of the eighteenth century, and thence came to Russia
the first vague rumours concerning the Pacific side of the continent of
America. It was the genius of the Czar Peter that welded these
groping efforts into something like order. Ivan Kosyrefski, the son
of a Polish officer in Russian captivity, was ordered to explore the
peninsula to its southern extremity, and some of the Kurile Islands.
In 1719 he despatched Yevrinoff and Lushin to ascertain whether
Asia and America were connected, but secretly he instructed them
to search the Kurile Islands instead for precious minerals. These and
various other expeditions collected a vast mass of information touch-
ing the geography of eastern Asia, the sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka, and
the Kuriles. Shipwrecked Japanese had also given valuable informa-
tion respecting their country. 

CHAPTER IV 

RUSSIAN EXPLORATIONS 

After the voyage of Vizcaino in 1603 no determined effort was
made by Spain to chart the northern way. Indeed, in a few years so
utterly forgotten were the explorations of the time of Cortes and
Mendoza that the Gulf of California was supposed to extend far
lorthward, where it connected again with the ocean. California, in
tact, was looked upon not as part of the continent, but as a large island
3f unknown length and breadth. It is not unlikely that this erroneous
dea originated with the Dutch free-booters, who in the beginning
3f the seventeenth century formed a piratical settlement on the coast
3f Lower California. They reported, that a vessel had once sailed
lorthward through the Sea of Cortes into the Pacific, thus establish-
ng the fact that California was an island. The story was believed,
ind Samuel Purchas, in the third volume of "His Pilgrimes," printed
1 map of North America, representing California as an island, and
:he Sea of Cortes, the Gulf of California, as a broad channel of enor-
nous length. The views of Purchas were received with favour and
generally adopted, and the Spaniards, forgetting the maps then lying
n their own archives, apparently shared in the belief, and about the
v'ear 1670 the name "California" was on some charts changed to "Las
[slas Carolinas," intimating that it was nothing more nor less than a
arge cluster of islands. 

The unsuccessful attempts made in this period by the Spaniards
vvith regard to discovery and development are symbolical of the state
3f decrepitude into which the one-time mighty Spanish monarchy
nad fallen. This decadence naturally affected Mexico, even as it did
:he other colonial possessions of the Empire. Commonplace and pre-
tentious explorers, quixotically styled "admirals," were employed in
the maritime service of Spain. Small wonder is it, then, that their
accomplishments were insignificant in comparison with the daring 

" Vol 1—4 

49 

I 

50 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

work of such great captains and intrepid explorers as Ulloa, Cabrillo
and Vizcaino. 

The Reverend Father Venegas avers that one reason why these
expeditions to the northward did not succeed was that no care was
taken of former reports, surveys, maps or plans. "They were not
carefully preserved and made known by print," he observes. 

California, thus practically abandoned by the Spanish Govern-
ment, however, still held the attention of the Jesuits, then powerful
and active in both divisions of the v/estern hemisphere. Thev had
established missions on the eastern side of the Gulf of California and
throughout the Pacific Provinces of Mexico. Versatile and daring,
these men furnished not only missionaries to convert and teach the
heathen, but also journalists, cosmographers and historians to nearly
all of the Spanish expeditions from earliest times down to the year
1767. For the history of the Jesuits in California one must turn to the
"Noticia de la California," by the Jesuit Miguel Venegas, which
was published in Madrid in 1757. Of the subsequent history of the
Jesuits from 1752 to 1767, when they were expelled from the country,
much has been written, but that story is beyond the scope of this work. 

While the Jesuits, by their settlements in and explorations of the
Peninsula of California, w^ere laying the foundation for further
progress tow^ards the Northwest, the Russians from the opposite direc-
tion were advancing towards the same region. Indeed, it was Mus-
covite enterprise that moved the Spanish Government to make a final
effort to establish its sovereignty at least as far northward as the fifty-
fourth parallel of latitude. In the great work of Arctic exploration
which was essentially the occupation of the navigators of the last two
centuries, it was first Russia and later England that took the lead.
Until comparatively recent times it was to these two nations that the
historian and the geographer were principally indebted for a knowl-
edge of Arctic regions. Peter Lauridsen, the biographer of Vitus
Bering, remarks that, "The English expeditions were undertaken with
better support and under circumstances better designed to attract
public attention. They have, moreover, been excellently described
and are consequently well known. But in the greatness of the tasks
undertaken, in the perseverance of their leaders, in difliculties, dangers
and tragic fates, the Russian explorations stand worthily at their side.
The geographic positions of the Russians, their dispersion through-
out the coldest regions of the earth, their frugal habits, remarkable 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 5i 

power of foresight, and their adventurous spirit, make them especially
fitted for Arctic explorations. Hence during the first half of the
eighteenth century they accomplished for Asia what the English not
until a hundred years later succeeded in doing for the other side of
the earth^ — namely, the charting of the Polar coasts." 

It was the Russians who introduced the system of sledging into
the service of Arctic expeditions, and in passing it may be observed
that it is only through the systematic development of such means that
modern explorers have been able to achieve their most signal triumphs
in desolate northern latitudes. The history of Russian exertions in
that bleak field is adorned with a series of proud names, but perhaps
the greatest of them all is that of Vitus Bering, the Dane. It redounds
to the honour of Denmark, as Peter Lauridsen, a member of the
Council of the Royal Danish Geographical Society, observes, ''that
the most brilliant chapter in the history of Russian explorations is due
to the initiative and indefatigable energy of Vitus Bering.'' In the
service of the half-civilized, if not wholly barbaric Peter the Great,
he doubled the northeastern peninsula of Asia, and on his return to
Russia prepared a plan for explorations which were to reach from
the Arctic Sea to Japan. 

It was peculiarly fitting that the equipment of Bering's first
expedition to the northeast should be one of the last administrative
acts of Peter the Great. From his death bed he set in motion forces
which in the years that followed were to conquer a new world for
human knowledge. It was not until his rugged but mighty spirit was
about to depart this world that that work w^as begun. The death of
the great Czar witnessed the birth of a force which was destined to be
memorably effective for half a century; and the results then achieved
still excite admiration.