United States or Ukraine ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Baranof landed a force and occupied the kekoor, planted cannon on the top, then opened negotiations for the surrender of the other fort, but his overtures were rejected by the Indians. The ships were brought near the river fort and the cannon were trained on it.
Everywhere he heard the language of Russia, everywhere saw that Russia regarded his explorations with jealousy as intrusion; everywhere observed that Russian and savage had come to an understanding and now lived as friends, if not brothers. Twice Baranof, the little Czar of the North, sent word for Vancouver to await a conference; but Vancouver was not keen to meet the little Russian potentate.
After several days two of the sailors wandering along the shore met a Kolosh boy and persuaded him to take them to Sitka, where they arrived, cold, exhausted, and almost starving. Boats were at once fitted out by Mr. Baranof, the survivors were rescued, brought to Sitka, and their sufferings relieved.
There was fear of neither man nor devil. The whole era might have been a page from the hero epic of prehistoric days when earth was young, and men ranged the seas unhampered by conscience or custom, magnificent beasts of prey, glorying in freedom and bloodshed and the warring elements. Yet in person Baranof was far from a hero.
If the house was a double-decker, as Baranof Castle at Sitka, powder was stored in the cellar. Counting-rooms, mess room, and fur stores occupied the first floor. Sleeping quarters were upstairs, and, above all, a powerful light hung in the cupola, to guide ships into port at night.
The fort was built of thick logs in the shape of an irregular square, with portholes on the side next the sea, and inside the breast works were 14 barabaras, or native houses. The walls were of such thickness that the cannon shot from the "Neva" made but little impression on the structure. Baranof was impatient and urged an attack.
From Washington Irving we have the description, through the account of the Captain, of the "Hyperborean veteran ensconsed in a fort which crested the top of a high rock promontory," which is well known to all readers of stories of western life, and in which the impression of the character of Baranof as given to the reader is very erroneous.
A strong hand was needed a hand that could weld the warring elements into one, and push Russian trade far down from Alaska to New Spain, driving off the field those foreigners whose relentless methods liquor, bludgeon, musket were demoralizing the Indian sea-otter hunters. Destitute and bankrupt, Baranof was offered one-sixth of the profits to become governor of the chief Russian company.
To the management of his business in the Colony he established on Kodiak Island he appointed Alexander Andreevich Baranof, a Siberian trader of great ability and experience. Baranof, the wise and far-seeing Russian ruler of the Russian American Company, at his factory in St. Paul's Harbor on Kodiak Island, had long planned the extension of his settlements to the southeast.
The second vessel under Captain Lisiansky proceeded at once to Baranof's aid at Sitka. Baranof was hunting when Lisiansky's man-of-war entered the gloomy wilds of Sitka Sound. The fur company's two sloops lay at anchor with lanterns swinging bow and stern to guide the hunters home. The eight hundred hostiles had fortified themselves behind the site of the modern Sitka.
Word Of The Day