Nature's Evil

The colonists developed scurvy. The monks tried to grow watermelons and tobacco but were successful only with potatoes, radishes and barley. Living with their Aleutian wives and creole children, the colonists had no desire to return to Russia. There was no Russian currency in the colony; it was either completely banned or ersatz banknotes were printed on seal skin. There was no ownership of land; as the colony depended entirely on trading fur in exchange for provisions, land had no value. The real unit of exchange was barrels of American rum. From the naval officers to the downtrodden Aleutians, practically everyone was constantly drunk.

In 1802 skirmishes broke out between the Russian colonists and the Tlingit warrior tribe. The Tlingits traded fur with the Americans and possessed firearms: a sea otter pelt went for a musket. After two years of war the Tlingits retreated to the mountains, and the Russians captured their citadel, Sitka. 23 This now became the capital of Russian America, Novo-Arkhangelsk. The bay provided a convenient anchorage for American sailors, and they willingly exchanged provisions for fur; moreover, they could hire Aleutians and their kayaks to hunt sea otters in California. An American sea captain, John DeWolf, sold Rezanov an eight-cannon ship with a cargo of tobacco and rum; Rezanov paid with a promissory note from the Russian-American Company and 572 sea otter pelts. The bargain was kept – having sent the pelts to Canton, DeWolf crossed Siberia overland, received his money in St Petersburg, and returned to Connecticut. This Russian-speaking Yankee had an interesting nephew, the writer Herman Melville, who learnt about whales, travel and determination from him. In an official letter to the Russian-American Company, Rezanov warned that the fur trade would lead to extinction and suggested a diversification plan. From his base in Alaska, he planned to export timber, develop Sakhalin Island and oust the Spanish from California. He planned to sow wheat, which would finally solve the problem of provisioning Russian America. Following the English model, he proposed to export criminals from central Russia to Alaska and, in addition, to buy up male serfs. The women would be brought from the Aleutian population.

In 1803 President Jefferson bought Louisiana from the French at the price of 3 cents per acre; this almost doubled the territory of the United States, and Napoleon got the money for his European war. Rezanov knew that the world would be made anew, and he intended to be a part of it. In 1806 he set off for the Spanish colony of California. In San Francisco he fell in love with the daughter of the Spanish governor, and fifteen-year-old Conchita accepted his proposal. After the betrothal, his ship took on grain and the happy Rezanov started planning new projects. Russian-Spanish America would stretch from Alaska to California. Prairie farming, the timber trade and new industries would compensate for the depletion of fur. But to marry Conchita he needed to receive the blessing of the emperor and the permission of the pope.

While galloping to St Petersburg, Rezanov fell off his horse, and he died in Krasnoyarsk, in the middle of Siberia, in 1807. Conchita Argüello never married. During her long life she used to tell friends about her love for her dead Russian fiancé. The Russian-American Company paid smaller and smaller dividends. Its main investor, Alexander I of Russia, died unexpectedly in 1825. This led to the uprising of liberal-minded officers and intellectuals in St Petersburg, the so-called Decembrist Revolt. It was crushed by artillery fire, and an investigation found that officials from the Russian-American Company were implicated in the revolt. The rebels had held their meetings in the company’s mansion; they were planning to create a constitution along American lines. The new tsar withdrew his investments. Despite having killed 73,000 sea otters, about 30,000 beavers and 30,000 sables, more than a million foxes and an incalculable number of seals, the Russian-American Company was insolvent. Alaska was sold to America in 1867 at 2 cents per acre. 24