The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-09-30
ATTU.
A Portland Boy Playing Robinson crusoe.

The following playful letter from
Portland boy. announcing summer OF
exile. will interest our sohoolboys, when
5hey learn that it is from an officer who
was, a few years ago, a Portland school
boy and carrier Of the PRESS. who
used to sail his boat In Casoo Bay and
dream OF Just such adventures in distant
seas. 1t will be understood that he was
left. with two men at Attn, which is the
most westerly of the Aloutian islands, to
watch out for seals.
Royal Palace, Attn, Alaska,
August 81, 1896.
My Dear fether:-Hers / am reign
ing monarch for two months SO far, and
ever OCCUR to you to think, when I was
squailing babe, that that kid would
grow into KipgP Well, If you never
have been king. lot mo tell you that it
Is snap. All you have to do is to lean
: Dack on your throne and say, OFF
with his head and your Commissary
General outs Of the Goose's head.
10 tell the truth, my retinue is not SO
large as that of some kings; but then.
you know, my Kingdom is not SO very
large. and don't really mead large
ret1nue. But have Conmissary Gen.
eral and an Admiral The Admiral oap-
sized my navy the other day in squall,
and. as he had 1t loaded down with bal
last, she sank like shot, and had to
go out in another boat with q couple of
natives and pick him up. ! cast off my
habil1nents, even unto my regal under
shirt, in order to be ready to give for the
Admiral in case he went down in the
cold water before could get to him, but
he was calmly waiting for me, holding
himself up by an oar. hauled him into
the boat. rushed him on shore, turned
him over to the Commissary General and
went fishing, catching two large brook
trout and a few large salmon trout.
The next day the natives went out
with fishing lines and caught my navy.
Hooking big iron into her, they
dragged her ashore out Of thirty-six feet
depth of water, and the Admiral bai:ed
her out. ! promptly issued a Royal
Edict that the Admiral should never
put any rocks into her for ballast, and
that he shouldn't make sail unless
directed to do so by me.
My Commissary General is the best
cook in Alaska, and good hunter, too.
He and I go out and shoot the game
and he cooks it. l am ahead of him on
cider duck and geese, but he holds the
record on snipe, and is fast catching up..to
me on geese, because he is good at stalk
lDQ tnoM, Wn1lo l am not.
The other evening, inst at dusk. we
went to a lakesOn the hills, and four of
us brought back thirty zone geese, twelve
of which Fl shot, besides small salt
water duck which we1ate in the hunting
camp.
l think Capt. Hooper, who commands
the Boring Sea feet will be satisfied with
my work here. I have acted as Collector
of Customs, entering and clearing all
vessels that have touched here, twenty
seven in all; sealing the arms Of all
American vessels about to enter the Ber-
ing Sea and taking an accurate account
of the arms of all British vessels as a
check to tell whether they have been
doing any shooting in the sea between
The time of their leaving the island and
the time of their being boarded by some
Gutter.
The hunters in the sealing schooners
are, as rule, good men, but before the
mast one Is apt to find the ruff scuff of
humanity. These people have been in
the habit in HakOdate and other Japan
ese ports of taking possession of the
town, defying the police and all that
SORT Of thing. I told them that that
would not go here. / explained that
nothing would be permitted here that
would not be tolerated in Seattle, and /
thought that l was giving them plenty
of latitude then, for Seattle is a reason
ably wicked city. But one night a sealer
went into the hut of native and his
wife. The husband objecting to the be-
havior of the sealer was told to "Get to
hell out of this" and he came right
down to my house-(evidently knew
year old Colt pistol of mine and went
cunning for the gentleman, out he was
scared and hid in the grass SO that I did
not get shot at him. never was good
at stalking game, anyway. This was at
/ 80 am /. At four, learned afterwards
he crawled to the house Of one of the
other natives, shivering with cold, and
asked him to take him on board the yes-
rel which he belonged to, saying that be
had been lying ont in the wet grass all
night.
The next morning took the native
witness and identified the culprit Hav-
ing no place to imprison him in, and not
wanting that kind of man around, I
wrote asking Capt. Hooper to have the
man arrested in Unalaska. Then as
soon as ! coulu sent the man and his
wanted to go there anyway. Then I is
sued an order that no sealer was to be
allowed within the limits of the village
between o p. m. and daylight. They
saw that I meant business and was pre-
pared to enforce ssthe order, SO 1t was
obeyed to the letter; somewhat reluctant
ly IN some instances, but obeyeti never
theiess. One night, however, three men
thought they would be smart, and
speaked into hut on the edge of the
village knew of it in five:minutes, the
chief having 1t reported to him and he
coming to me. My two men and had
turned in. but we turned out, put on
our pistols. took some handouts, went
to the hut. hustled the men out, put on
the irons, took them to my house 80 that
could g at look at them for future
Identification, asked theil names, (they
gave fictitious ones as l knew they
would) then took the irons off, escorted
them to their boat and sent them on
board ship. The next morning l identi-
fed them and wrote Capt. Hooper
asking him to make it uncomfortable for
them at Unalaska. The third man had
sailed in the schooner TO which he be-
lcngfd before got arennd to him.
l reason that these natives are Ameri-
can citizens, being born here, and not
wards of the nation I am the only rep
resentative Of the United States govern
ment here. The function of govern
ment is to protect its citizens and 1 pro
posed 30 do 1T. The-.result was that there
was no trouble other than that reoounted.
and had $50 men in here this summer