[1] Coxe and Mueller are the two great authorities on the early Russian fur trade. Data on later days can be found in abundance in Krusenstern's _Voyage_, London, 1813; Kohl's _History_, London, 1862; Langsdorff's _Travels_, London, 1813; Stejneger's _Contributions to Smithsonian_, 1884, and _Report on Commander Islands_; Elliott's _Our Arctic Province_; Dall's _Alaska_; Veniaminof's _Letters on Aleutians_; Cleveland's _Voyages_, 1842, Nordenskjoeld's _Voyage of the Vega_; Macfie's _Vancouver Island_; Ivan Petroff's _Report on Alaska_, 1880; Lisiansky's _Voyage Round the World_; Sauer's _Geographical Account of Expedition to Northern Parts_; Kotzebue's _Voyages of Discovery_, 1819, and _New Voyage_, 1831; Chappe d'Auteroche's _Siberia_ and Kracheninnikof's _Kamchatka_, 1764; Simpson's _Voyage Round World_, 1847; Burney's _Voyages_; Gmelin's _Siberia_, Paris, 1767; Greenhow's _Oregon_; Pallas's _Northern Settlements_; Broughton's _Voyage_, 1804; Berg's _Aleutian Islands_; Bancroft's _Alaska_; _Massa. Hist. Coll._, 1793-1795; _U. S. Congressional Reports_ from 1867; Martin's _Hudson's Bay Territories_, London, 1849. [2] Over one hundred American ships had been on the Pacific coast of America before 1812. [3] Rezanoff married the fur trader's daughter. The bride did not live long, nor does the union seem to have been a love affair; as Rezanoff's infatuation with the daughter of a Spanish don later seemed to indicate a heart-free lover. [4] See Chapter XII. {316} CHAPTER XII 1747-1818 BARANOF, THE LITTLE CZAR OF THE PACIFIC Baranof lays the Foundations of Russian Empire on the Pacific Coast of America--Shipwrecked on his Way to Alaska, he yet holds his Men in Hand and turns the Ill-hap to Advantage--How he bluffs the Rival Fur Companies in Line--First Russian Ship built in America--Adventures leading the Sea-otter Hunters--Ambushed by the Indians--The Founding of Sitka--Baranof, cast off in his Old Age, dies of Broken Heart No wilder lord of the wild northland ever existed than that old madcap Viking of the Pacific, Alexander Baranof, governor of the Russian fur traders. For thirty years he ruled over the west coast of America from Alaska to southern California despotic as a czar. And he played the game single-handed, no retinue but convicts from Siberia, no subjects but hostile Indians.