CHAPTER V.

Formal Transfer of the Territory to the United States -Incentive to Purchase Partially Revealed-Representatives of Subsequent Fur Monopoly Accompany Commissioners-Influx of People to Sitka-City Government by Sufferance of Military Authority-Russian Despotism Preferred to Freedom as Exemplified by Military Absolutism in Alaska-Exodus of Russians -Governmental Neglect and Unjust Denial of Rights -Ask for Bread and are Given a Stone.

The formal transfer was made at half-past 3 o'clock, October 18, 1867, with appropriate ceremonies, previously agreed upon by Captain Pestchouroff and General Lovell N. Rosseau, Commissioners on the part of Russia and the United States respectively. General Jeff. C. Davis had been appointed to the command of the military force of occupation, and the expedition, consisting of the United States ships Ossipee, Jamestown and Resaca, with the Commissioners on board, together with several transports carrying about 250 soldiers and military supplies, sailed from San Francisco on the 27th of September, and, touching at Victoria for coal, arrived at Sitka on the forenoon of October 18th. In his report of the proceedings to the Secretary of War, General Rosseau says:

"The command of General Davis, about 250 strong, in full uniform, armed and handsomely equipped, were landed about 3 o'clock and marched up to the top of the eminence on which stands the Governor's house, where the transfer was to be made. At the same time a company of Russian soldiers were marched to the ground and took their place upon the left of the flagstaff, from which the Russian flag was then floating. The command of General Davis was formed under his direction on the right. The United States flag to be raised on the occasion was in care of a color guard-a lieutenant, a sergeant, and ten men of General Davis' command. The officers above named, as well as the officers under their command, the Prince Maksoutoff and his wife, the Princess Maksoutoff, together with many Russian and American citizens, and some Indians, were present. The formation of the ground, however, was such as to preclude any considerable demonstration.

"It was arranged by Captain Pestchouroff and myself that, in firing the salute on the exchange of flags the United States should lead off, but that there should be alternate guns from the American and Russian batteries, thus giving the flag of each nation a double national salute; the national salute being thus answered the moment it was given. The troops being promptly

formed, were, at precisely half-past 3 o'clock, brought to a present arms, the signal was given to the Ossipee (Lieutenant Crossman, executive officer of the ship, and for the time in command), which was to fire the salute, and the ceremony was begun by lowering the Russian flag. As it began its descent down the flagstaff the battery of the Ossipee, with large nine-inch guns, led off in the salute, peal after peal crashing and re-echoing in the gorges of the surrounding mountains, answered by the Russian water battery (a battery on the wharf), firing alternately. But the ceremony was interrupted by the catching of the Russian flag in the ropes attached to the flagstaff. The soldier who was lowering it continued to pull at it, and tore off the border by which it was attached, leaving the flag entwined tightly around the ropes. The flag-staff was a native pine, perhaps ninety feet in height. In an instant the Russian soldiers, taking the different shrouds attached to the flag-staff, attempted to ascend to the flag, which, having been whipped around the ropes by the wind, remained tight and fast. At first, being sailors as well as soldiers, they made rapid progress, but laboring hard, they soon became tired, and when halfway up scarcely moved at all, and finally came to a standstill. There was a dilemma; and in a moment a 'boatswain's chair,' so called, was

made by knotting a rope to make a loop for a man to sit in and be pulled upward, and another Russian soldier was drawn quickly up to the flag. On reaching it he detached it from the ropes, and not hearing the calls from Captain Pestchouroff below to 'bring it down,' dropped it below, and in its descent it fell on the bayonets of the Russian soldiers.

"The United States flag was then properly attached and began its ascent, hoisted by my private secretary, George Lovell Rosseau, and again the salutes were fired as before, the Russian water battery leading off. The flag was so hoisted that in the instant it reached its place, the report of the last big gun of the Ossipee reverberated from the mountains around. The salutes being completed, Captain Pestchouroff stepped up to me and said: 'General Rosseau, by authority from His Majesty, The Emperor of Russia, I transfer to the United States the Territory of Alaska,' and in a few words I acknowledged the acceptance of the transfer, and the ceremony was at an end. Three cheers were then spontaneously given for the United States flag by the American citizens present, although this was no part of the program, and on some accounts I regretted that it occurred."

Immediately after the proclamation of the treaty of purchase by the President, one J. Mora

Moss visited Sitka, and entered into a verbal agreement with Prince Maksoutoff for the transfer to him of all the property of the RussianAmerican Company, as soon after the transfer as the agreement could be consummated by payment of the stipulated price. This verbal agreement was repudiated by Maksoutoff in favor of a more liberal offer made him by one H. M. Hutchinson, who reached Sitka on one of the supply ships of the expedition, and who was the forerunner and accredited agent of those who afterwards possessed themselves of the seal monopoly, and, subsequently as a close corporation for more than twenty years interposed an almost insuperable obstacle to the settlement and development of a country now known to be incomparably rich in the variety and magnitude of its natural resources—which for that period of time held the greater part of the territory, together with the rights and interests of its people, in a grasp as relentless as that of the old RussianAmerican Company itself.

Hutchinson purchased for his principals most of the Russian-American Company's vessels, and much other property at Sitka and elsewhere, for the sale of which the right of Maksoutoff has been seriously questioned. Among the property thus sold were the wharves at Sitka, St. Paul and Unalaska, with warehouses and build