including the Shumagins and the magnificent island of Kodiak, and then the Sitkan group, being archipelago added to archipelago, and the whole together constituting the geographical complement to the West Indies, so that the northwest of the continent answers archipelago for archipelago to the southeast. DISCOVERY OF RUSSIAN AMERICA BY BEHRING, UNDER INSTRUCTIONS FROM PETER THE GREAT. The title of Russia to all these possessions is derived from prior discovery, which is the admitted title by which all European Powers have held in North and South America, unless we except what England acquired by conquest from France; but here the title of France was derived from prior discovery. Russia, shut up in a distant interior and struggling with barbarism, was scarcely known to the other Powers at the time they were lifting their flags in the western hemisphere. At a later day the same powerful genius which made her known as an empire set in motion the enterprise by which these possessions were opened to her dominion. Peter the Great, himself a shipbuilder and a reformer, who had worked in the ship-yards of England and Holland, was curious to know if Asia and America were separated by the sea, or if they constituted one undivided body with different names, like Europe and Asia. To obtain this information he wrote with his own hand the following instructions, and ordered his chief admiral to see them carried into execution: "One or two boats with decks to be built at Kamtschatka, or at any other convenient place, with which inquiry should be made in relation to the northerly coasts, to see whether they were not contiguous with America, since their end was not known; and this done, they should see whether they could not somewhere find an harbor belonging to Europeans or an European ship. They should likewise set apart some men who should inquire after the name and situation of the coasts discovered. Of all this an exact journal should be kept, with which they should return to Petersburg."-Müller's Voyages from Asia to America, by Jeffreys, p. 45. The Czar died in the winter of 1725; but the Empress Catharine, faithful to the desires of her husband, did not allow this work to be neglected. Vitus Behring, a Dane by birth, and a navigator of some experience, was made commander. The place of embarkation was on the other side of the Asiatic continent. Taking with him officers and ship-builders the navigator left St. Petersburg by land 5th February, 1725, and commenced the preliminary journey across Siberia, northern Asia, and the sea of Okhotsk to the coast of Kamtschatka, which they reached after infinite hardships and delays, sometimes with dogs for horses, and sometimes supporting life by eating leather bags, straps, and shoes. More than three years were passed in this toilsome and perilous journey to the place of embarkation. At last on the 20th of July, 1728, the party was able to set sail in a small vessel, called the Gabriel, and described as "like the packet-boats used in the Baltick." Steering in a northeasterly direction, Behring passed a large island, which he called St. Lawrence from the saint on whose day it was seen. This island, which is included in the present cession, may be considered as the first point in Russian discovery, as it is also the first outpost of the North American continent. Continuing northward, and hugging the Asiatic coast, Behring turned back only when he thought he had reached the northeastern extremity of Asia, and was satisfied that the two continents were separated from each other. He did not penetrate further north than 67° 30'. His In his voyage Behring was struck by the absence of such great and high waves, as, in other places, are common to the open sea, and he observed fir trees swimming in the water, although they were unknown on the Asiatic coast. Relations of inhabitants, in harmony with these indications, pointed to " a country at no great distance toward the east." work was still incomplete, and the navigator before returning home put forth again for this discovery, but without success. By another dreary land journey he made his way back to St. Petersburg in March, 1730, after an absence of five years. Something was accomplished for Russian discovery, and his own fame was engraved on the maps of the world. The straits through which he sailed now bear his name, as also does the expanse of sea which he traversed on his way to the straits. He was The spirit of discovery continued at St. Petersburg. A Cossack chief undertaking to conquer the obstinate natives on the northeastern coast, proposed also "to discover the pretended country on the Frozen sea." killed by an arrow before his enterprise was completed. Little is known of the result; but it is stated that the navigator whom he had selected, by name Gwosdew, in 1730 succeeded in reaching a "strange coast" between sixtyfive and sixty-six degrees of north latitude, where he saw people, but could not speak with them for want of an interpreter. This must have been the coast of North America, and not far from the group of islands in Behring straits, through which the present boundary passes, separating the United States from Russia, and America from Asia. The desire of the Russian Government to get behind the curtain increased. Behring volunteered to undertake the discoveries that remained to be made. He was created a commodore, and his old lieutenants were created captains. The Senate, the Admiralty, and the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg all united in the enterprise. Several academicians were appointed to report on the natural history of the coasts visited, among whom was Steller, the naturalist, said to be "immortal" from this association. All of these, with a numerous body of officers, journeyed across Siberia, northern Asia, and the sea of Okhotsk, to Kamtschatka, as Behring had journeyed before. Though ordered in 1732, the expedition was not able to leave the western coast until 4th June, 1741, when two well-appointed ships. set sail in company "to discover the continent of America." One of these, called the St. Paul, was under Commodore Behring; the other, called the St. Peter, was under Captain Tschirikow. For some time the two kept || together; but in a violent storm and fog they were separated, when each continued the expedition alone. Behring first saw the continent of North America on 18th July, 1741, in latitude 58° 28'. Looking at it from a distance "the country had terrible high mountains that were covered with snow." Two days later he anchored in a sheltered bay near a point which he called from the saint day on which he saw it, Cape St. Elias. He was in the shadow of Mount St. Elias. On landing he found deserted huts, fire-places, hewn wood, household furniture, an arrow, edge-tools of copper with "store of red salmon. Here also several birds unknown in Siberia were noticed by the faithful Steller, among which was the blue jay, of a peculiar species, now called by his name. Steering northward, Behring found himself constrained by the elbow in the coast to turn westward, and then in a southerly direction. Hugging the shore, his voyage was constantly arrested by islands without number, among which he zigzagged to find his way. Several times he landed. On one of these occasions he saw natives, who wore upper garments of whale's guts, breeches of seal-skins, caps of the skins of sea lions, adorned with various feathers, especially those of hawks." These "Americans" as they are called were fishermen, without bows and arrows. They regaled the Russians with "whale's flesh," but declined strong drink. One of them, on receiving a cup of brandy, "spit it out again as soon as he tasted it and cried aloud, as if complaining to his countrymen how ill he had been used." This was on one of the Shumagin islands, near the southern coast of the peninsula of Alaska. 66 Such was the first discovery of these northwestern coasts; and such are the first recorded glimpses of the aboriginal inhabitants. The two navigators had different fortunes. Tschirikow, deprived of his boats, and therefore unable to land, hurried home. Adverse winds and storms interfered. He supplied himself with fresh water only by distilling the ocean or pressing rain from the sails. But at last on the 9th October he reached Kamtschatka, with his ship's company of seventy diminished to forty-nine. During this time Behring was driven, like Ulysses, on the uncertain_waves. A single tempest raged for seventeen days, so that Andrew Hosselberg, the ancient pilot, who had known the sea for fifty years, declared that he had seen nothing like it in his life. Scurvy came with its disheartening horrors. The commodore himself was a sufferer. Rigging broke. Cables snapped. Anchors were lost. At last the tempest-tossed vessel was cast upon a desert island, then without a name, where the commodore, sheltered in a ditch and half-covered with sand as a protection against cold, died 8th December, 1741. His body after his decease was 66 scraped out of the ground" and buried on this island, which is called by his name, and constitutes an outpost of the Asiatic continent. Thus the Russian navigator, after the discovery of America, died in Asia. Russia, by the recent demarcation, does not fail to retain his last resting-place among her possessions. TITLE OF RUSSIA. For some time after these expeditions, by which Russia achieved the palm of discovery, imperial enterprise slumbered in those seas. The knowledge already acquired was continued and confirmed only by private individuals, who were led there in quest of furs. In 1745 the Aleutian islands were discovered by an adventurer in search of sea otters. In successive voyages all these islands were visited for similar purposes. Among these was Ounalaska, the principal of the group of Fox islands, constituting a continuation of the Aleutian islands, whose inhabitants and productions were minutely described. In 1768 private enterprise was superseded by an expedition ordered by the Empress Catharine, which, leaving Kamtschatka, explored this whole archipelago and the peninsula of Alaska, which to the islanders stood for the whole continent. Shortly afterwards all these discoveries, beginning with those of Meanwhile, the other solitary ship, proceeding on its way, had sighted the same coast 15th July, 1741, in the latitude of 56°. Anchoring at some distance from the steep and rocky cliffs before him, Tschirikow sent his mate with the long boat and ten of his best men, provided with small-arms and a brass cannon, to inquire into the nature of the country and to obtain fresh water. The long boat disappeared in a small wooded bay, and was never seen again. Thinking it might have been damaged in landing the captain sent his boatswain with the small boat and carpenters well armed to fur-Behring and Tschirikow, were verified by the nish necessary assistance. The small boat disappeared also, and was never seen again. At the same time great smoke was observed continually ascending from the shore. Shortly afterwards two boats filled with natives sallied forth and lay at some distance from the vessel, when, crying "Agai, Agai," they put back to the shore. Sorrowfully the Russian navigator turned away, not knowing the fate of his comrades and unable to help them. This was not far from Sitka. great English navigator, Captain Cook. In 1778 he sailed along the northwestern coast, near where Tschirikow anchored in 1741;" then again in sight of mountains "wholly covered with snow from the highest summit down to the sea-coast, ""with the summit of an elevated mountain above the horizon," which he supposed to be the Mount St. Elias of Behring; then by the very anchorage of Behring; then among the islands through which Behring zigzagged, and along the coast by the island, of St. Lawrence until arrested by ice. If any doubt existed with regard to Russian discoveries it was removed by the authentic report of this navigator, who shed such a flood of light upon the geography of this region. Such from the beginning is the title of Russia, dating at least from 1741. The coast of British Columbia, next below, was discovered by Vancouver in 1790, and that of Oregon, still further down, by Gray, who, sailing from Boston in 1789, entered the Columbia river in 1790; so that the title of Russia is the earliest on the northwestern coast. I have not stopped to quote volume and page, but I beg to be understood as following approved authorities, and I refer especially to the Russian work of Müller, already cited, on the Voyages from Asia to America; the volume of Coxe on Russian Discoveries with its supplement on the Comparative View of Russian Discoveries; the volume of Sir John Barrow, on Arctic Voyages; Burney's Russian and Northeastern Voyages; and the third voyage of Captain Cook, unhappily interrupted by his tragical death from the natives of the Sandwich islands, but not until after his exploration of this coast. far as the Frozen ocean. There remains the enterprise of Lütke, at the time captain, and afterward admiral in the Russian navy, which was a voyage round the world, embracing especially the Russian possessions, commenced in 1826, and described in French with instructive fullness. With him sailed the German naturalist Kittlitz, who has done so much to illus. trate the natural history of this region. A FRENCH ASPIRATION ON THIS COAST. So little was the Russian title recognized for some time, that when the unfortunate expedition of La Pérouse, with the frigates Boussole and Astrolabe, stopped on this coast in 1787, he did not hesitate to consider the friendly harbor, in latitude 58° 36', where he was moored as open to permanent occupation. Describing this harbor, which he named Port des Francais, as sheltered behind a breakwater of rocks, with a calm sea and with a mouth sufficiently large, he says that nature seemed to have created at this extremity of the world a port like that of Toulon but vaster in plan and accommodation; and then considering that it had never been discovered before, that it was situated thirty-three leagues northwest of Remedios, the limit of Spanish navigation, about two hundred and eighty-four leagues from Nootka and a hundred leagues from Prince William sound, the mariner records his judgment that "if the French Government had any project of a factory on this coast no nation could have the slightest right to oppose it." (La Pérouse, Voyage, Tom. 2, p. 147.) Thus quietly was Russia dislodged. The frigates sailed further on their voyage and never returned to France. Their fate was unknown, until after fruitless search and the lapse of a generation their shipwrecked hulls were accidentally found on a desert island of the southern Pacific. The unfinished journal of La Pérouse recording his visit to this coast had been sent overland, by way of Kamtschatka and Siberia, to France, where it was published by a decree of the National Assembly, thus making known his supposed discovery and his aspiration. There were at least four other Russian expeditions by which this title was confirmed, if it needed any confirmation. The first was ordered by the Empress Catharine in 1785. It was under the command of Commodore Billings, an Englishman in the service of Russia, and was narrated from the original papers by Martin Sauer, secretary of the expedition. In the instructions from the Admiralty at St. Petersburg the Commodore was directed to take possession of "such coasts and islands as he shall first discover, whether inhabited or not, that cannot be disputed, and are not yet subject to any European Power, with consent of the inhabitants, if any,' ," and this was to be accomplished by setting up "posts marked with the arms of Russia, with letters indicating the time of sovereignty, a short account of the people, their voluntary submission to the Russian sovereignty, and that this was done under the glorious reign of the great Catharine the Second." (Billings's Northern Russia, Appendix.) The next was in 1803, in the interest of the Russian American Company. There were two ships, one under the command of Captain Lisiansky, and the other of Captain | Krusenstern, of the Russian navy. It was the first voyage round the world by the Russian Government, and lasted three years. During its progress these ships visited separately the northwest coast of America, and especially Sitka and the island of Kodiak. Still another enterprise organized by the celebrated minister Count Romanzoff, and at his expense, left Russia in 1815, under the command of Lieu-ginal title as discoverer of the straits between tenant Kotzebue, an officer of the Russian navy, and son of the German dramatist, whose assassination darkened the return of the son from his long voyage. It is enough for the present to say of this expedition that it has left its honorable traces on the coast even as EARLY SPANISH CLAIM. Spain also has been a claimant. In 1775 Bodega, a Spanish navigator, seeking new opportunities to plant the Spanish flag, reached the parallel of 58° on this coast, not far from Sitka; but this supposed discovery was not followed by any immediate assertion of dominion. The universal aspiration of Spain had embraced this whole region even at an early day, and shortly after the return of Bodega another enterprise was equipped to verify the larger claim, being nothing less than the ori America and Asia and of the conterminous continent under the name of Anian. This curious episode is not out of place in this brief history. It has two branches: one concerning early maps on which straits are represented between America and Asia under the name of Anian; the other concerning a pretended attempt by a Spanish navigator at an early day to find these straits. There can be no doubt that early maps exist with northwestern straits marked Anian. There are two in the Congressional Library in atlases of the years 1717 and 1680; but these are of a date comparatively modern. Engel, in his Mémoires Geographiques, mentions several earlier, which he believes to be genuine. There is one purporting to be by Zaltieri, and bearing date 1566, an authentic pen-and-ink copy of which is now before me from the collection of our own Coast Survey. On this very interesting map, which is without latitude or longitude, the western coast of the continent is delineated with straits separating it from Asia not unlike Behring straits in outline, and with the name in Italian Stretto di Anian. Southward the coast has a certain conformity with what is now known to exist. Below the straits is an indentation corresponding to Bristol bay; then a peninsula somewhat broader than that of Alaska; then comes the elbow of the coast; then lower down three islands, not unlike Sitka, Queen Charlotte, and Vancouver; and then, further south, is the peninsula of Lower California. Sometimes the story of Anian is explained by the voyage of the Portuguese navigator Caspar de Cortereal in 1500-1505,|| when, on reaching Hudson bay in quest of a passage round America, he imagined that he had found it, and proceeded to name his discovery "in honor of two brothers who accompanied him." Very soon maps began to record the straits of Anian; but this does not explain the substantial conformity of the early delineation with the reality, which seems truly remarkable. The other branch of inquiry is more easily disposed of. This turns on a Spanish document entitled "Relation of the Discovery or the Strait of Anian, made by me Captain Lorenzo Ferren Maldonado," purporting to be written at the time, although it did not see the light till 1781, when it was published in Spain, and shortly afterward became the subject of a memoir before the French Academy. If this early account of a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific were authentic the whole question would be settled, but recent geographers indignantly discard it as a barefaced imposture. Clearly Spain once regarded it otherwise; for her Government in 1789 sent out an expedition "to discover the strait by which Maldonado was supposed to have passed in 1588 from the coast of Labrador to the Great Ocean." The expedition was not successful, and nothing more has been heard of any claim from this pretended discovery. The story of Maldonado has taken its place in the same category with that of Munchausen. REASONS FOR THIS CESSION BY RUSSIA. Turning from this question of title, which time and testimony have already settled, I meet the inquiry, why does Russia part with possessions thus associated with the reign of her greatest emperor and filling an important chapter of geographical history? On this head I have no information which is not open to others. But I do not forget that the first Napoleon in parting with Louisiana was controlled by three several considerations: first, he needed the purchase-money for his treasury; secondly, be was unwilling to leave this distant unguarded territory a prey to Great Britain in the event of hostilities which seemed at hand; and thirdly, he was glad, according to his own remarkable language, "to establish forever the power of the United States and give to England a maritime rival destined to humble her pride." Such is the record of history. Perhaps a similar record may be made hereafter with regard to the present cession. It is sometimes imagined that Russia, with all her great empire, is financially poor, so that these few millions may not be unimportant to her. It is by foreign loans that her railroads have been built and her wars have been aided. All, too, must see that in those "coming events," which now more than ever cast their shadows before," it will be for her advantage not to hold outlying possessions from which thus far she has obtained no income commensurate with the possible expense for their protection. Perhaps, like a wrestler, she now strips for the contest, which I trust sincerely may be averted. Besides I cannot doubt that her enlightened emperor, who has given pledges to civilization by an unsurpassed act of Emancipation, would join the first Napoleon in a desire to enhance the maritime power of the United States. These general considerations are reënforced when we call to mind the little influence which Russia has thus far been able to exercise in this region. Though possessing dominion over it for more than a century this gigantic Power has not been more genial or productive there than the soil itself. Her government there is little more than a name or a shadow. It is not even a skeleton. It is hardly visible. Its only represenative is a fur company, to which has been added latterly an ice company. The immense country is without form and without_light; without activity and without progress. Distant from the imperial capital, and separated from the huge bulk of Russian empire, it does not share the vitality of a common country. Its life is solitary and feeble. Its settlements are only encampments or lodges. Its fisheries are only a petty perquisite, belonging to local or personal adventurers rather than to the commerce of nations. In these statements I follow the record. So little were these possessions regarded during the last century that they were scarcely recognized as a component part of the empire. I have now before me an authentic map, published by the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg in 1776, and reproduced at London in 1787, entitled "General Map of the Russian Empire," where you will look in vain for Russian America, unless we except that link of the Aleutian chain nearest to Asia, which appears to have been incorporated under the Empress Anna at the same time with Siberia. (See Coxe's Russian Discoveries.) Alexander Humboldt, whose insight into geography was unerring, in his great work on New Spain, published in 1811, after stating that he is able from official documents to give the position of the Russian factories on the American continent, says that they are "nothing but sheds and cabins employed as magazines of furs." He remarks further that "the larger part of these small Russian colonies do not communicate with each other except by sea," and then, putting us on our guard not to expect too much from a name, he proceeds to say that "the new denomination of Russian America or Russian possessions on the new continent must not make us think that the coasts of Behring's Basin, the peninsula of Alaska, or the country of Tchuktchi have become Russian provinces in the sense given to this word, when we speak of the Spanish provinces of Sonora or New Biscay." (Humboldt, Essai Politique sur La Nouvelle Espagne, Tom. I, pp. 344, 345.) Here is a distinction between the foothold of Spain in California and the foothold of Russia in North America, which will at least illustrate the slender power of the latter in this region. In ceding possessions so little within the sphere of her empire, embracing more than one hundred nations or tribes, Russia gives up no part of herself, and even if she did the considerable price paid, the alarm of war which begins to fill our ears, and the sentiments of friendship declared for the United States would explain the transaction. THE NEGOTIATION, IN ITS ORIGIN AND COMPLETION. I am not able to say when the idea of this cession first took shape. I have heard that it was as long ago as the administration of Mr. Polk. It is within my knowledge that the Russian Government was sounded on the subject during the administration of Mr. Buchanan. This was done through Mr. Gwin, at the time Senator of California, and Mr. Appleton, Assistant Secretary of State. For this purpose the former had more than one interview with the Russian minister at Washington some time in December, 1859, in which, while professing to speak for the President unofficially, he represented "that Russia was too far off to make the most of these possessions; and that, as we are near, we can derive more from them." In reply to an inquiry of the Russian minister Mr. Gwin said that "the United States could go as high as $5,000,000 for the purchase," on which the former made no comment. Mr. Appleton, on another occasion, said to the minister that "the President thought that the acquisition would be very profitable to the States on the Pacific; that he was ready to follow it up, but wished to know in advance if | Russia was ready to cede; that if she were, he would confer with his Cabinet and influential members of Congress." All this was unofficial; but it was promptly communicated to the Russian Government, who seem to have taken it into careful consideration. Prince Gortschakow, in a dispatch which reached here early in the summer of 1860, said that "the offer was not what might have been expected; but that it merited mature reflection; that the Minister of Finance was about to inquire into the condition of these possessions, after which Russia would be in a condition to treat. The prince added for himself that "he was by no means satisfied personally that it would be for the interest of Russia politically to alienate these possessions; that the only consideration which could make the scales incline that way would be the prospect of great financial advantages; but that the sum of $5,000,000 does not seem in any way to represent the real value of these possessions," and he concluded by asking the minister to tell Mr. Appleton and Senator Gwin that the sum offered was not considered "an equitable equivalent." The subject was submerged by the presidential election which was approaching, and then by the Rebellion. It will be observed that this attempt was at a time when politicians who believed in the perpetuity of slavery still had power. Mr. Buchanan was President, and he employed as his intermediary a known sympathizer with slavery, who shortly afterward became a rebel. Had Russia been willing, it is doubtful if this controlling interest would have sanctioned any acquisition too far north for slavery. Meanwhile the Rebellion was brought to an end, and peaceful enterprise was renewed, which on the Pacific coast was directed toward the Russian possessions. Our people there wishing new facilities to obtain fish, fur, and ice, sought the intervention of the national Government. The Legislature of Washington Territory, in the winter of 1866, adopted a memorial to the President of the United States, entitled "in reference to the cod and other fisheries," as follows: To his Excellency ANDREW JOHNSON, President of the United States: Your memorialists, the Legislative Assembly of Washington Territory, beg leave to show that abundance of codfish, halibut, and salmon of excellent quality have been found along the shores of the Russian possessions. Your memorialists respectfully request your Excellency to obtain such rights and privileges of the Government of Russia as will enable our fishing vessels to visit the ports and harbors of its possessions to the end that fuel, water, and provisions may be easily obtained, that our sick and disabled fishermen may obtain sanitary assistance, together with the privilege of curing fish and repairing vessels in need of repairs. Your memorialists further request that the Treasury Department be instructed to forward to the collector of customs of this Puget sound district such fishing licenses, abstract journals, and log-books as will enable our hardy fishermen to obtain the bounties now provided and paid to the fisherman in the Atlantic States. Your memorialists finally pray your Excellency to employ such ships as may be spared from the Pacific naval fect in exploring and surveying the fishing |