Our Arctic province : $b Alaska and the Seal IslandsElliott, Henry Wood
History
Our Arctic province : $b Alaska and the Seal Islands
Elliott, Henry Wood
Alaska -- Description and travel
[35] Marcus Baker. Unfortunately no one connected with this Coast
Survey Party was able to make an adequate drawing of the mountains,
and it was so enveloped in clouds as to be partially invisible when
the author cruised under its lee.
[36] That point, most likely, was Kruzov Island, and the bay into
which the unhappy Russians were decoyed was Klokachev Gulf. This
island forms the western shore of Sitka Sound.
[37] He reached Kamchatka on the 9th October following, with only
forty-nine survivors out of his original crew of seventy. Bering
never did; he was shipwrecked and died on a bleak island, of the
Commander group, December 8, 1741. They seem to have really sailed
over this course of six thousand miles almost together, anxiously
searching for each other, yet unconscious of their proximity.
[38] When the surveying parties of the War Department were ascending
Copper River last summer, certain Indians, who had been instrumental
in slaying the Russian party of Seribniekov in 1848, were very much
alarmed. They were sure that the fates had come for them at last.
One of these natives, an aged man, now wholly blind, was reported as
saying that he was ready to die, and knew what the white men wanted.
This old fellow, Lieutenant Allen says, was one of the finest-looking
savages that he ever saw. The face of the blind man was one of
remarkable character—a large, massive head, high aquiline nose, with
a full, thin-lipped mouth and broad forehead. He was totally blind
and his hair white as snow.
The Russian party were sleeping in their sledges, which they
compelled the natives to draw while ascending the river. At a
preconcerted signal the unwilling Indians turned and brained their
taskmasters with hatchets. These natives had welcomed the Russians;
but when they were made to perform the labor of dogs they turned
upon their white oppressors, naturally. The massacre of Seribniekov
and his party in this manner made the Indians very restless and
determined in their opposition to further intercourse with the
Russians. The memory of hostility has, however, died out, and nothing
of the kind was shown to our people last year as they charted the
valley and river.
Lieutenant H. T. Allen.
[39] Ivan Ismailov and Gayorgi Bochorov; they went in the dual
capacity of explorers and traders, lured into the undertaking by
rumors which had prevailed at Kadiak respecting great numbers of
sea-otters in this bay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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