Chapter VI: THE GREAT ISLAND OF KADIAK pp. 98-126

Kadiak the Geographical and Commercial Centre of Alaska.—Site of
the First Grand Depot of the Old Russian Company.—Shellikov and his
Remarkable History, 1784.—His Subjection of the Kaniags.—Bloody
Struggle.—He Founds the First Church and School in Alaska at Three
Saints Bay, 1786, One Hundred Years ago.—Kadiak, a Large and Rugged
Island.—The Timber Line drawn upon it.—Luxuriant Growth of Annual
and Biennial Flowering Plants.—Reason why Kadiak was Abandoned
for Sitka.—The Depot of the Mysterious San Francisco Ice Company
on Wood Island.—Only Road and Horses in Alaska there.—Creole
Ship and Boat Yard.—Tough Siberian Cattle.—Pretty Greek Chapel
at Yealovnie.—Afognak, the Largest Village of “Old Colonial
Citizens.”—Picturesque and Substantial Village.—Largest Crops
of Potatoes raised here.—No Ploughing done; Earth Prepared with
Spades.—Domestic Fowls.—Failure of Our People to Raise Sheep at
Kolma.—What a “Creole” is.—The Kaniags or Natives of Kadiak; their
Salient Characteristics.—Great Diminution of their Numbers.—Neglect
of Laws of Health by Natives.—Apathy and Indifference to
Death.—Consumption and Scrofula the Scourge of Natives in Alaska;
Measles equally deadly.—Kaniags are Sea-otter Hunters.—The Penal
Station of Ookamok, the Botany Bay of Alaska.—The Wild Coast of
the Peninsula.—Water-terraces on the Mountains.—Belcovsky, the
Rich and Profligate Settlement.—Kvass Orgies.—Oonga, Cod-fishing
Rendezvous.—The Burial of Shoomagin here, 1741.—The Coal Mines here
Worthless.