Chapter I: Introduction

If the writer could materialize in the reader’s mind that large aggregate of printed matter now stacked on book-shelves and filed in newspaper columns, which has been published to the world during the last eighty years upon Alaska, the effect would certainly be startling.

Scores of weighty volumes, hundreds of pamphlets and magazine articles, and a thousand newspaper letters, have been devoted to the subject of Alaskan life, scenery, and value. In contemplation of this, viewed from the author’s standpoint of extended personal experience, he announces his determination to divest himself of all individuality in the following chapters, to portray in word, and by brush and pencil, the life and country of Alaska as it is, so clearly and so truthfully, that the reader may draw his or her own inference, just as though he or she stood upon the ground itself.

How differently a number of us are impressed in the viewing of any one subject, by which observation we utterly fail to agree as to its character and worth! This variance is handsomely illustrated by the diverse opinion of Alaskan travellers.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
_February 26, 1886_.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

DISCOVERY, OCCUPATION, AND TRANSFER pp. 1-12

The Legend of Bering’s Voyage.—The Discovery of Russian America,
or Alaska, in July, 1741.—The Return Voyage and Shipwreck of the
Discoverer.—The Escape of the Survivors.—They Tell of the Furs
and Ivory of Alaska.—The Rush of Russian Traders.—Their Hardy
Exploration of the Aleutian Chain, Kadiak, and the Mainland, 1760-80,
inclusive.—Fierce Competition of the Promyshlineks finally Leads
to the Organization and Domination of the Russian American Company
over all Alaska, 1799.—Its Remarkable Success under Baranov’s
Administration, 1800-18, inclusive.—Its Rapid Decadence after
Baranov’s Removal.—Causes in 1862-64 which Led to the Refusal of
the Russian Government to Renew the Charter of the Russian American
Company.—Steps which Led to the Negotiations of Seward and Final
Acquisition of Alaska by the U. S. Government, 1867.