135deg 50' W. It was the head-quarters of the different
colonies of the Russian Fur Company, and the common rendezvous of
the American vessels trading along the coast.
The Beaver met with nothing worthy of particular mention in her
voyage, and arrived at New Archangel on the 19th of August. The
place at that time was the residence of Count Baranoff, the
governor of the different colonies; a rough, rugged, hospitable,
hard-drinking old Russian; somewhat of a soldier; somewhat of a
trader; above all, a boon companion of the old roystering school,
with a strong cross of the bear.
Mr. Hunt found this hyperborean veteran ensconced in a fort which
crested the whole of a rocky promontory. It mounted one hundred
guns, large and small, and was impregnable to Indian attack,
unaided by artillery. Here the old governor lorded it over sixty
Russians, who formed the corps of the trading establishment,
besides an indefinite number of Indian hunters of the Kodiak
tribe, who were continually coming and going, or lounging and
loitering about the fort like so many hounds round a sportsman's
hunting quarters. Though a loose liver among his guests, the
governor was a strict disciplinarian among his men; keeping them
in perfect subjection, and having seven on guard night and day.
Besides those immediate serfs and dependents just mentioned, the
old Russian potentate exerted a considerable sway over a numerous
and irregular class of maritime traders, who looked to him for
aid and munitions, and through whom he may be said to have, in
some degree, extended his power along the whole northwest coast.
These were American captains of vessels engaged in a particular
department of the trade.
