what is afforded by the certainty of their dissolution.
It is impossible to contemplate this distressing picture a moment
longer. Let us leave it.--E.]

It is now time to give some account of the native inhabitants. To all
appearance, they are the most peaceable, inoffensive people, I ever
met with. And, as to honesty, they might serve as a pattern to the
most civilized nation upon earth. But, from what I saw of their
neighbours, with whom the Russians have no connection, I doubt whether
this was their original disposition, and rather think that it has been
the consequence of their present state of subjection. Indeed, if some
of our gentlemen did not misunderstand the Russians, they had been
obliged to make some severe examples, before they could bring the
islanders into any order. If there were severities inflicted at first,
the best apology for them is, that they have produced the happiest
consequences, and, at present, the greatest harmony subsists between
the two nations. The natives have their own chiefs in each island, and
seem to enjoy liberty and property unmolested. But whether or no they
are tributaries to the Russians, we could never find out. There was
some reason to think that they are.[16]

[Footnote 16: See the particulars of hostilities between the Russians
and the natives, in Coxe, as cited above.--D.

It will readily be inferred from what has already been mentioned of
the conduct of the Russian agents towards their own countrymen, that
the circumstance of the unfortunate islanders, who are also subjected
to their sway, cannot be very eligible. A single quotation from the
work referred to, will answer every purpose we can have in view in
alluding to them in this place. "The chief agent of the American
Company is the boundless despot over an extent of country, which,
comprising the Aleutic islands, stretches from 57 to 61 degrees
of latitude, and from 130 to 190 degrees of east longitude. The
population of the islanders annually decreasing, and the wretched
condition of the Russians living there, sufficiently proves, that,
from their first migration to these islands and to the American
coast, up to the present moment, the Company's possessions have been
entrusted to people, who were, indeed, zealous for its own advantage,
but frequently more so for that of a few subordinate agents." A
Lieutenant Davidoff, he gives us to understand, had collected some
very important notices respecting these possessions