Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-28

promuschleniki. Take enough of their time
| to build you comfortable dwelling. and
| will send you, on my own account, far
| more substantial rewards than orders and
| titles. Build big house, for that matter
shall be here more or less-when l am not
| In California And he told Baranhov Of
| his proposed marriage with the daughter Of
! Don Jose Arguello.
The chief manager listened to this
dence with an even livelier satisfaction than
| to the list Of the Junos cargo.
| I'VE shall have California YETI he cried
his eyes swapping like live Goals under the
black thatGh of wig; Absorption or the the
now and we will have a line of settle
] ments as far south as San Diego. My
| plan was to feel my way down the north
ern coast of California with colony.
which should buy a tract of land from the
natives ard engage Immediately in otter
| hunting-somewhere between Cape Men
no settlements above San Francisco and
are too weak to drive out. They would
rage and buster and do nothing. Then
quietly push forward building forts and
grand manner and will accomplish in ten
| years what would have taken me fifty
| Marry this girl use your advantage over
| the entire family-whose influence l well
know-and that great personal power with
| which the Almighty has been so lavish,
and you will have the Whole weakly gar
risoned country under your foot before they
| know where they are, and the Russian
settlers pouring In Spain cannot come to
the rescue while this devil Bonaparte Is
alive, and he is young, and like yourself
| favorite of destiny. Those damned Bos-
| tonians inherit the grabbing instincts of the
too paternal race they have just rejected
| but there are thousands of miles of desert
between California and their own western
| outposts, hundreds of savage tribes to ex-
| terminate. By the time they were In a
position to attempt the occupation OF Call
fornia we should be so securely entrenched
| they would either let us alone or send
| troops that would be half dead by the time
they reached us. AS to ships, we could
soon build enough at Okhotsk and Petro-
of that. if your gifted tongue impressed
| the tsar with the riches of California there
would always be war ships on her coast,
He leaned forward and caught the strong
! shoulders above him in hands that looked
| like a tangle of baked nerves, and shook
them vigorously. You are great boy
he said with a sort of quizzical solemnity
"a great boy. This damned God-forsaken,
pestilential, demoralizng, brutalizing fac
| tory for enriching a few with the very life
blood and vitals of thousands that will
suffer and starve and never be heard OF
| Gall his language cannot be recorded, will
| make two three regulations by the
way. Mine will be one, although I'll get
nothing else shelikov is safe, but you will
have monument Well, God bless you
| grudge you nothing. Not even the happiness
! you deserve and bound to have-for
when all is said and done, RezanoV, you
are a lucky dog, lucky dog! Any man
may see that, even when these internal
! SHOWS have left him with but half an
eye. To quarrel with a destiny like yours
would be as wise as to protest because
\ California is warm and fertile, while this
| internal north is like living in a refrigera-
tor with the, deluge to vary the monotony.
! Now let us get drunk!
But Rezanov laughingly extricated HIM
| self and sending a message to DavldoV
and Khostov to come to him Immediately,
walked toward the tent he had ordered
| erected on the edge of the settlement only
itl,o of hpr
| these half-civiliZed communities.
AS he was passing the chapel, followed
again by the employees of the company, 10
| whom he had granted holiday, he sud
| denly found his hand taken possession Of
and looked up to himself confronted by
a misunderstanding person in plain clothes
dropped as if it had put forth string, and
he narrowed his eyes and demanded with
| bend of his mouth that brought the pioou
| to the face of the intruder:
| And who are you, may | ask?
The man threw back his head defiantly
| Il am Lieut.. Sookin of the imperial navy
of Russia he said in loud d der lone tone,
| And | am chamberlain of the Russian
court and commander of all America re-
| piled Rezanov coolly. Now go to your
! Quarters dress yourself in your uniform
| and present your report to me an hour
| hence"
The officer concentrating in his injected
his service for the Russian American
| Company in this region where 1t
| reigned supreme and cared no more Tor the
! admiralty than for some native chiefta1n
| covered with shells and war paint, glared
| at it's plenipotentiary as if calling upon
| his deeper resources of insolence but the
steady contemptuous gaze of the man
| who had dealt with his kind often and sue
| cessfully overcame his sodden spirit and he
turned sulkily and slouched off to his quar-
tiers to console himself with more brandy.
Rezanov shrugged his shoulders and went
on to his tent
There was no furniture In It as yet, and
he obliged to receive Davldov ana
Khostoy standing, but this he preferred.
They followed him almost Immediately, APP
prehensve and nervous and before speak
ing he looked at them for moment with
his strong, penetrating gaze. He well knew
the power of his own personality and that
IT was immmea surably enhanced by the
fact that of all with whom he had to do
in these benighted regions his will alone
was never weakened by liquor. These young
men, clever high-bred, with an honorable
record not only in Russia but in England
and America, looked upon hilarious night
as the just reward of work well done by
day. Brandy was debited to their account
by the bucket Ia bucket being trife less
than two gallons), and they found little
fault with life. But it gave commanding
spirit like ReZanov's an advantage which
they did not underestimate for moment
and they alternatively hated and wor-
SHIPPED him.
II think you have an inkling of what 1
am going to ask you to do" The cham
berlain brought out the euphemism with
i the utmost suavity. II have made up my
mind not to leave the indignity to which
Russia was subjected last year by Japan
without such punishment as 1T is in my
power to inflict at present. 1t my in
tention to build fotilla here, but owing
to the diseased condition and reduced num-
bers of the employees. that was impossible,
and I shall be obliged to content himself
with the Juno and the Avos whose keel, as
you know, was laid in November and is no
doubt finished long since These l shall fit
with ornaments in Okhotsk. / shall place
the enterprise I have spoken of in your
charge. sailing with you from Sitka five
days hence. From Okhotsk 1 desire that
you proceed to the Japanese settlements in
the lower Kurile islands, take possession
of them and bring all stores and many
of the inhabitants as the vessels will ac-
commodate, to Sitka where Baranhov will
see that they are comfortably established
on that large island In the harbor-which
we shall call Japonsky-and converted into
good servants of the company. The excuse
| for this enterprise is that those islands
were formally taken possession Of by She'll
kov, and although abandoned later. the
fact remains that the Russian flag was the
first to float over them. The stores cap
tured may not be worth much and the
| islands are of no particular use to us, but
I