CHAPTER LVII.
Voyage of the Beaver to New Archangel.- A Russian Governor.-Roystering Rule.- The
Tyranny of the Table- Hard Drinking Bargainings.- Voyage to Kamtschatka.- Seal
Catching Establishment at St. Paul's.- Storms at Sea.- Mr. Hunt Left at the Sandwich
Islands. -Transactions of the Beaver at Canton.-Return of Mr. Hunt to Astoria.
IT will be recollected that the destination of the Boston, when she sailed from Astoria
on the 4th of August in 1812, was to proceed northwardly along the coast to Sheetka,
or New Archangel, there to dispose of that part of her cargo intended for the supply of
the Russian establishment at that place, and then to return to Astoria, where it was
expected she would arrive in October.
New Archangel is situated in Norfolk Sound, lat. 57deg 2' N., long. 135deg 50' W. It
was the head-quarters of the different colonies of the Russian Fur Company, and the
common rendezvous of the American vessels trading along the coast.
The Beaver met with nothing worthy of particular mention in her voyage, and arrived at
New Archangel on the 19th of August. The place at that time was the residence of
Count Baranoff, the governor of the different colonies; a rough, rugged, hospitable,
hard-drinking old Russian; somewhat of a soldier; somewhat of a trader; above all, a
boon companion of the old roystering school, with a strong cross of the bear.
Mr. Hunt found this hyperborean veteran ensconced in a fort which crested the whole of
a rocky promontory. It mounted one hundred guns, large and small, and was
impregnable to Indian attack, unaided by artillery. Here the old governor lorded it over
sixty Russians, who formed the corps of the trading establishment, besides an
indefinite number of Indian hunters of the Kodiak tribe, who were continually coming
and going, or lounging and loitering about the fort like so many hounds round a
sportsman's hunting quarters. Though a loose liver among his guests, the governor
was a strict disciplinarian among his men; keeping them in perfect subjection, and
having seven on guard night and day.
Besides those immediate serfs and dependents just mentioned, the old Russian
potentate exerted a considerable sway over a numerous and irregular class of maritime
traders, who looked to him for aid and munitions, and through whom he may be said to
have, in some degree, extended his power along the whole northwest coast. These
were American captains of vessels engaged in a particular department of the trade.
One of these captains would come, in a manner, empty-handed to New Archangel.
Here his ship would be furnished with about fifty canoes and a hundred Kodiak hunters,
and fitted out with provisions, and everything necessary for hunting the sea-otter on the
coast of California, where the Russians have another establishment. The ship would
ply along the California coast from place to place, dropping parties of otter hunters in
their canoes, furnishing them only with water, and leaving them to depend upon their
own dexterity for a maintenance. When a sufficient cargo was collected, she would
gather up her canoes and hunters, and return with them to Archangel; where the
captain would render in the returns of his voyage, and receive one half of the skins for
his share.
Over these coasting captains, as we have hinted, the veteran governor exerted some
sort of sway, but it was of a peculiar and characteristic kind; it was the tyranny of the
table. They were obliged to join him in his "prosnics" or carousals, and to drink
"potations pottle deep." His carousals, too, were not of the most quiet kind, nor were his
potations as mild as nectar. "He is continually," said Mr. Hunt, "giving entertainments
by way of parade, and if you do not drink raw rum, and boiling punch as strong as
sulphur, he will insult you as soon as he gets drunk, which is very shortly after sitting
down to table."
As to any "temperance captain" who stood fast to his faith, and refused to give up his
sobriety, he might go elsewhere for a market, for he stood no chance with the governor.
Rarely, however, did any cold-water caitiff of the kind darken the doors of old Baranoff;
the coasting captains knew too well his humor and their own interests; they joined in his
revels, they drank, and sang, and whooped, and hiccuped, until they all got "half seas
over," and then affairs went on swimmingly.
An awful warning to all "flinchers" occurred shortly before Mr. Hunt's arrival. A young
naval officer had recently been sent out by the emperor to take command of one of the
company's vessels. The governor, as usual, had him at his "prosnics," and plied him
with fiery potations. The young man stood on the defensive until the old count's ire was
completely kindled; he carried his point, and made the greenhorn tipsy, willy nilly. In
proportion as they grew fuddled they grew noisy, they quarrelled in their cups; the
youngster paid old Baranoff in his own coin by rating him soundly; in reward for which,
when sober, he was taken the rounds of four pickets, and received seventy-nine
lashes, taled out with Russian punctuality of punishment.
Such was the old grizzled bear with whom Mr. Hunt had to do his business. How he
managed to cope with his humor; whether he pledged himself in raw rum and blazing
punch, and "clinked the can" with him as they made their bargains, does not appear
upon record; we must infer, however, from his general observations on the absolute
sway of this hard-drinking potentate, that he had to conform to the customs of his court,
and that their business transactions presented a maudlin mixture of punch and peltry.
The greatest annoyance to Mr. Hunt, however, was the delay to which he was
subjected, in disposing of the cargo of the ship, and getting the requisite returns. With
all the governor's devotions to the bottle, he never obfuscated his faculties sufficiently
to lose sight of his interest, and is represented by Mr. Hunt as keen, not to say crafty, at
a bargain, as the most arrant waterdrinker. A long time was expended negotiating with
him, and by the time the bargain was concluded, the month of October had arrived. To
add to the delay he was to be paid for his cargo in seal skins. Now it so happened that
there was none of this kind of peltry at the fort of old Baranoff. It was necessary,
therefore, for Mr. Hunt to proceed to a seal-catching establishment, which the Russian
company had at the island of St. Paul, in the Sea of Kamtschatka. He accordingly set
sail on the 4th of October, after having spent forty-five days at New Archangel boosing
and bargaining with its roystering commander, and right glad was he to escape from
the clutches of "this old man of the sea."
The Beaver arrived at St. Paul's on the 31st of October; by which time, according to
arrangement, he ought to have been back at Astoria. The island of St. Paul is in
latitude 57deg N., longitude 170deg or 171deg W. Its shores, in certain places, and at
certain seasons, are covered with seals, while others are playing about in the water. Of
these, the Russians take only the small ones, from seven to ten months old, and
carefully select the males, giving the females their freedom, that the breed may not be
diminished. The islanders, however, kill the large ones for provisions, and for skins
wherewith to cover their canoes. They drive them from the shore over the rocks, until
within a short distance of their habitations, where they kill them. By this means, they
save themselves the trouble of carrying the skins and have the flesh at hand. This is
thrown in heaps, and when the season for skinning is over, they take out the entrails
and make one heap of the blubber. This, with drift-wood, serves for fuel, for the island
is entirely destitute of trees. They make another heap of the flesh, which, with the eggs
of sea-fowls, preserved in oil, an occasional sea-lion, a few ducks in winter, and some
wild roots, compose their food.
Mr. Hunt found several Russians at the island, and one hundred hunters, natives of
Oonalaska, with their families. They lived in cabins that looked like canoes; being, for
the most part formed of the jaw-bone of a whale, put up as rafters, across which were
laid pieces of driftwood covered over with long grass, the skins of large sea animals,
and earth; so as to be quite comfortable, in despite of the rigors of the climate; though
we are told they had as ancient and fish-like an odor, "as had the quarters of Jonah,
when he lodged within the whale."
In one of these odoriferous mansions, Mr. Hunt occasionally took up his abode, that he
might be at hand to hasten the loading of the ship. The operation, however, was
somewhat slow, for it was necessary to overhaul and inspect every pack to prevent
imposition, and the peltries had then to be conveyed in large boats, made of skins, to
the ship, which was some little distance from the shore, standing off and on.
One night, while Mr. Hunt was on shore, with some others of the crew, there arose a
terrible gale. When the day broke, the ship was not to be seen. He watched for her with
anxious eyes until night, but in vain. Day after day of boisterous storms, and howling
wintry weather, were passed in watchfulness and solicitude. Nothing was to be seen
but a dark and angry sea, and a scowling northern sky; and at night he retired within
the jaws of the whale, and nestled disconsolately among seal skins.
At length, on the 13th of November, the Beaver made her appearance; much the worse
for the stormy conflicts which she had sustained in those hyperborean seas. She had
been obliged to carry a press of sail in heavy gales to be able to hold her ground, and
had consequently sustained great damage in her canvas and rigging. Mr. Hunt lost no
time in hurrying the residue of the cargo on board of her; then, bidding adieu to his
seal-fishing friends, and his whalebone habitation, he put forth once more to sea.
He was now for making the best of his way to Astoria, and fortunate would it have been
for the interests of that place, and the interests of Mr. Astor, had he done so; but,
unluckily, a perplexing question rose in his mind. The sails and rigging of the Beaver
had been much rent and shattered in the late storm; would she be able to stand the
hard gales to be expected in making Columbia River at this season? Was it prudent,
also, at this boisterous time of the year to risk the valuable cargo which she now had on
board, by crossing and recrossing the dangerous bar of that river? These doubts were
probably suggested or enforced by Captain Sowle, who, it has already been seen, was
an over-cautious, or rather, a timid seaman, and they may have had some weight with
Mr. Hunt; but there were other considerations, which more strongly swayed his mind.
The lateness of the season, and the unforeseen delays the ship had encountered at
New Archangel, and by being obliged to proceed to St. Paul's, had put her so much
back in her calculated time, that there was a risk of her arriving so late at Canton, as to
come to a bad market, both for the sale of her peltries, and the purchase of a return
cargo. He considered it to the interest of the company, therefore, that he should
proceed at once to the Sandwich Islands; there wait the arrival of the annual vessel
from New York, take passage in her to Astoria, and suffer the Beaver to continue on to
Canton.
On the other hand, he was urged to the other course by his engagements; by the plan
of the voyage marked out for the Beaver, by Mr. Astor; by his inclination, and the
possibility that the establishment might need his presence, and by the recollection that
there must already be a large amount of peltries collected at Astoria, and waiting for the
return of the Beaver, to convey them to market.
These conflicting questions perplexed and agitated his mind and gave rise to much
anxious reflection, for he was a conscientious man that seems ever to have aimed at a
faithful discharge of his duties, and to have had the interests of his employers earnestly
at heart. His decision in the present instance was injudicious, and proved unfortunate.
It was, to bear away for the Sandwich Islands. He persuaded himself that it was a
matter of necessity, and that the distressed condition of the ship left him no other
alternative; but we rather suspect he was so persuaded by the representations of the
timid captain. They accordingly stood for the Sandwich Islands, arrived at Woahoo,
where the ship underwent the necessary repairs, and again put to sea on the 1st of
January, 1813; leaving Mr. Hunt on the island.
We will follow the Beaver to Canton, as her fortunes, in some measure, exemplify the
evil of commanders of ships acting contrary to orders; and as they form a part of the
tissue of cross purposes that marred the great commercial enterprise we have
undertaken to record.
The Beaver arrived safe at Canton, where Captain Sowle found the letter of Mr. Astor,
giving him information of the war and directing him to convey the intelligence to Astoria.
He wrote a reply, dictated either by timidity or obstinacy, in which he declined
complying with the orders of Mr. Astor, but said he would wait for the return of peace,
and then come home. The other proceedings of Captain Sowle were equally
wrongheaded and unlucky. He was offered one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for
the fur he had taken on board at St. Paul's. The goods for which it had been procured
cost but twenty-five thousand dollars in New York. Had he accepted this offer, and re-invested the amount in nankeens, which at that time, in consequence of the interruption
to commerce by the war, were at two thirds of their usual price, the whole would have
brought three hundred thousand dollars in New York. It is true, the war would have
rendered it unsafe to attempt the homeward voyage, but he might have put the goods in
store at Canton, until after the peace, and have sailed without risk of capture to Astoria;
bringing to the partners at that place tidings of the great profits realized on the outward
cargo, and the still greater to be expected from the returns. The news of such a brilliant
commencement to their undertaking would have counterbalanced the gloomy tidings of
the war; it would have infused new spirit into them all, and given them courage and
constancy to persevere in the enterprise. Captain Sowle, however, refused the offer of
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and stood wavering and chaffering for higher
terms. The furs began to fall in value; this only increased his irresolution; they sunk so
much that he feared to sell at all; he borrowed money on Mr. Astor's account at an
interest of eighteen per cent , and laid up his ship to await the return of peace.
In the meanwhile, Mr. Hunt soon saw reason to repent the resolution he had adopted in
altering the destination of the ship. His stay at the Sandwich Islands was prolonged far
beyond expectation. He looked in vain for the annual ship in the spring. Month after
month passed by, and still she did not make her appearance. He, too, proved the
danger of departing from orders. Had he returned from St. Paul's to Astoria, all the
anxiety and despondency about his fate, and about the whole course of the
undertaking, would have been obviated. The Beaver would have received the furs
collected at the factory and taken them to Canton, and great gains, instead of great
losses, would have been the result. The greatest blunder, however, was that committed
by Captain Sowle.
At length, about the 20th of June, the ship Albatross, Captain Smith, arrived from
China, and brought the first tidings of the war to the Sandwich Islands. Mr. Hunt was no
longer in doubt and perplexity as to the reason of the non-appearance of the annual
ship. His first thoughts were for the welfare of Astoria, and, concluding that the
inhabitants would probably be in want of provisions, he chartered the Albatross for two
thousand dollars, to land him, with some supplies, at the mouth of the Columbia, where
he arrived, as we have seen, on the 20th of August, after a year's seafaring that might
have furnished a chapter in the wanderings of Sinbad.