rnor, seize ships and
provisions, and sailing to some of the South Sea Islands, set up an
independent government. The signal was to be given when Naplavkof, an
officer who was master plotter, happened to be on duty. On such good
terms was the despot, Baranof, with his men, that the plot was betrayed
to him from half a dozen sources. It did not trouble Baranof. He sent
the betrayers a keg of brandy, bade one of them give a signal by
breaking out in drunken song, and at the sound himself burst into the
roomful of conspirators, sword in hand, {335} followed by half a
hundred armed soldiers. The plotters were handcuffed and sent back to
Siberia.

There was something inexcusably cruel in the termination of Baranof's
services with the fur company. He was now over seventy years of age.
He was tortured by rheumatism from the long years of exposure in a damp
climate. Because he was not of noble birth, though he had received
title of nobility, he was subject to insults at the hands of any petty
martinet who came out as officer on the Russian vessels. Against these
Baranof usually held his own at Sitka, but they carried back to St.
Petersburg slanderous charges against his honesty. Twice he had asked
to be allowed to resign. Twice successors had been sent from Russia;
but one died on the way, and the other was shipwrecked. It was easy
for malignant tongues to rouse suspicion that Baranof's desire to
resign sprang from interested motives, perhaps from a wish to conceal
his own peculations. Though Baranof had annually handled millions of
dollars' worth of furs for the Russian Company, at a distance from
oversight that might have defied detection in wrong-doing, it was
afterwards proved that he had not misused or misappropriated one dime's
worth of property; but who was to believe his honesty in the face of
false charges?

In the fall of 1817 Lieutenant Hagemeister arrived at Sitka to audit
the books of the company. Concealing from Baranof the fact that he was
to be deposed, {336} Hagemeister spent a year investigating the
records. Not a discrepancy was discovered. Baranof, with the
opportunity to have made millions, was a poor man. Without
explanation, Hagemeister then announced the fact--Baranof was to be
retired. Between voluntarily retiring and being retired was all the
difference between honor and insult. The news was a blow that crushed
Baranof almost to senility. He was found doddering and constantly in
t