c. The fur hunters
in the main were only carrying out the far-reaching plans of Shelikoff,
who originated the charter for the company; but even Shelikoff could
hardly foresee that the country which the Russian government was
willing to sell to the United States in 1867 for seven million dollars,
would produce more than twice that during a single year in gold.
To-day all that remains to Russia of these sea voyagers' plundering are
two small islands, Copper and Bering in Bering Sea.

[1] Coxe and Mueller are the two great authorities on the early Russian
fur trade. Data on later days can be found in abundance in
Krusenstern's _Voyage_, London, 1813; Kohl's _History_, London, 1862;
Langsdorff's _Travels_, London, 1813; Stejneger's _Contributions to
Smithsonian_, 1884, and _Report on Commander Islands_; Elliott's _Our
Arctic Province_; Dall's _Alaska_; Veniaminof's _Letters on Aleutians_;
Cleveland's _Voyages_, 1842, Nordenskjoeld's _Voyage of the Vega_;
Macfie's _Vancouver Island_; Ivan Petroff's _Report on Alaska_, 1880;
Lisiansky's _Voyage Round the World_; Sauer's _Geographical Account of
Expedition to Northern Parts_; Kotzebue's _Voyages of Discovery_, 1819,
and _New Voyage_, 1831; Chappe d'Auteroche's _Siberia_ and
Kracheninnikof's _Kamchatka_, 1764; Simpson's _Voyage Round World_,
1847; Burney's _Voyages_; Gmelin's _Siberia_, Paris, 1767; Greenhow's
_Oregon_; Pallas's _Northern Settlements_; Broughton's _Voyage_, 1804;
Berg's _Aleutian Islands_; Bancroft's _Alaska_; _Massa. Hist. Coll._,
1793-1795; _U. S. Congressional Reports_ from 1867; Martin's _Hudson's
Bay Territories_, London, 1849.

[2] Over one hundred American ships had been on the Pacific coast of
America before 1812.

[3] Rezanoff married the fur trader's daughter. The bride did not live
long, nor does the union seem to have been a love affair; as Rezanoff's
infatuation with the daughter of a Spanish don later seemed to indicate
a heart-free lover.

[4] See Chapter XII.

{316}

CHAPTER XII

1747-1818

BARANOF, THE LITTLE CZAR OF THE PACIFIC

Baranof lays the Foundations of Russian Empire on the Pacific Coast of
America--Shipwrecked on his Way to Alaska, he yet holds his Men in Hand
and turns the Ill-hap to Advantage--How he bluffs the Rival Fur
Companies in Line--First Russian Ship built in America--Adventures
leading the Sea-otter Hunters--Ambushed by the Indians--The Founding of
Sitka--Baranof, cast off in his Old Age, dies of B