A Siberian merchant then chanced an outfit of
supplies for half what the returns might be. The commander--officer or
exile--then enlisted sailors among landsmen. Landsmen were preferable
for this kind of voyaging. Either in the sublime courage of ignorance,
or with the audacity of desperation, the poor landsmen dared dangers
which no sailors would risk on such crazy craft, two thousand miles
from a home port on an outrageous sea.
England and the United States became involved in the exploitation of
the Pacific coast in almost the same way. When Captain Cook was at
Nootka Sound thirty years after Bering's death, his crews traded {65}
trinkets over the taffrail netting for any kind of furs the natives of
the west coast chose to exchange. In the long voyaging to Arctic
waters afterward, these furs went to waste with rain-rot. More than
two-thirds were thrown or given away. The remaining third sold in
China on the home voyage of the ships for what would be more than ten
thousand dollars of modern money. News of that fact was enough.
Boston, New York, London, rubbed their eyes to possibilities of fur
trade on the Pacific coast.
Pages:
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99