Whaling, fishing, fur hunting--those were the occupations
of the islanders then, as now.
Here, then, came Pushkareff in 1762 after two years' cruising about the
Aleutian Islands. The natives are friendly, thinking to obtain iron,
and knives, and firearms like the other islanders who have traded with
the Russians. Children are given as hostages of good conduct for the
Oonalaskan men, who lead the Russians off to the hunt, coasting from
point to point. Pushkareff, the Cossack, himself goes off with twenty
men to explore; but somehow things go wrong at the native villages on
this trip. The hostages find they are not guests, but slaves. Anyway,
Betshevin's {86} agent is set upon and murdered. Two more Russians are
speared to death under Pushkareff's eyes, two wounded, and the Cossack
himself, with his fourteen men, forced to beat a hasty retreat back to
ships and huts on the coast. Here, strange enough, things have gone
wrong, too! More women and children objecting to their masters'
pleasure--slavery, the knout, the branding iron, death by starvation
and abuse.
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