The National tribune., 1888-06-07
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE: WASHINGTON c. THURSDAY JUNE 1885,

KoHstantinovski in the Summer of 1918,
brought few of his daily notes, which mar
rated his slow progress up the rapid stream,
where he wintered at the Forks then told of his
renewal of the journey on the 10th of May, aud
his daily advances up to the 9th of June,
when and where he was ascending the main
channel at a point Just above Tezlina Creek.
That diary of the hapless explorer thus pre-
served by the natives ceased abruptly at this
date, and, until Lieut.. Allen made his plucky
exploration of this unknown region in 1885,
not definite suggestion of the real fate of
Serebrennikov was or could be made beyond
that of his death-whether by accident starva-
ton, or by violence, it was simply impossible
to say. The Copper Indians who came down
to Noochek from the delta declared, of
course, their innocence of any knowledge of his
fate, and spoke earnestly of the dangers of such
atrip as he was endeavoriug to make where
he was obliged to cross immense
GLACIERS AND GLACIAL TORRENTS,
into the orevasses and currents of which he
was liable to be engulfed at any hour of his
journey.
But when Aliens was pushing his energetic
survey of the Chittyna or East Forks of Copper
River in April, 1885, he met one Of the most
influential aud intelligent of the Madneysk
Indians, named and known as Nicolai" by
the traders, who knew him as he annually ap-
peared at N0ochek. Nicolai reluctantly told
Alien of the fate of Serebrennikov and his
party; how these explorers had forced the ma
tlves to draw their sleds loaded with their sup
plies and upon which they also threw them
selves and slept, while the unwilling savages
toiled at the ropes dragging these unwOnted
and heavy burdens over the rotten ice and
melting snow of early June. Seeing no other
way to free themselves from this severe toll and
bondage, these exasperated savages, knowing as
they did what long and weary journey
stretched ahead Of them if the Russian object
Of reaching the source of Copper River was at
tained, arose one night. They waited until
| the Slavonians and their creole attendants
We're wrapped in sleep, then the Midnooskies
with ak and hatchet Drained every member of
that exploring party; each one must have per-
ished unconscious of the others fate.
Allen camped just below the Forks at Taral,
where Serebrennikov wintered 1847-4S; he
found the traces of the Russian odinatschka
still remaining; also part of huge Greek
Catholic cross. 1t was from this spot that the
bold Slsyonian started up the then unknown
course of the river, never TO return and until
Nicolai had informed the Lieutenant, as above
stated, not definite word of the real manner
otthe destruction of that party had ever reached
the ear of civilization
That cruel midnight massacre of Yakootat /;
that swift and bloody counterstroke at the
Noochek feast; that wholesale engulfnent of
those short surviving warriors and their booty
in the roaring surf on the ocean bar of the
Maidnevski delta, together with this belated
legend Of Serebrennikov's violent death in the
wilds of the upper country, warrant us in say
ing that it is dark page of Alaskan history
which we have turned down at Copper River.
@The narrative of Aliens remarkable plucky
ascent of Copper River, his crossing Of the Alaskan
Mountains, and his descent of Tanara River IN 1885
deserves better publication to the world than it has
received. 1t is the most noteworthy singlehanded
exploration of Alaskan terre i3cogllita made by a
white man in Alaska since the time of Zagoskin in
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