return to San Francisco. I asked him to come in here in September if he could, giving my reason therefor. He informed me that his orders did not contemplate other movements than to return to San Francisco direct.

Paragraph 2. Special Agent Morris's report I am forced to confirm. The Secretary of War has been misled by the report of his officers, just as I have been myself. I have the best of reasons for believing, that if there is not a vessel dispatched at a very early day to this port, this people have been handed over bodily for slaughter to the Indians. Permit me to state that I watched and studied these Indians for three years. Their seeming desire to be on good terms with the Americans, their adaptability to our method of working, their cupidity, connected with many other things, completely misled me. Therefore it becomes my duty to say that there is danger for this community; I might say great danger. The property was received, as will be seen by other reports per this mail.

Paragraph 3. The preservation of peace, &c. If peace is to be preserved, there must be a vessel stationed at this port. From Chilcat to Tongas are the fierce people. The whole voyage of nearly 500 miles is in inside waters. The western people, or I might say those after leaving Behring's Bay, do not seem to be at all belligerent.

Liquor.-There is no necessity for using vigilance to prevent the landing of liquor; the Indians make all they want; and in town here I have been informed that there are two discharged soldiers and eight different Russians running stills. There are probably four or five Americans and two or three Russians who would purchase good liquor in small quantities for their own use.

Paragraph 4. In the first part of this report I have written of the Rush, because the captain was so positive about his destination.

Regarding a cutter to visit Wrangel when the miners are on the move, at that time Wrangel is perfectly safe. British Columbia tolerates no cutting and shooting, and it soon tames our pistol and bowie-knife gentry, when they have one or two seasons under the English law. It is at Sitka where the vessel's presence is needed, and that forthwith. At Wrangel, when the miners are moving through the country, the Indians are the supply agents. They smuggle, to sell to the whites, English liquors; and when they desire a drink, they either make or purchase from other Indians liquor of their own manufacture.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Hon. JOHN SHERMAN,

Secretary of the Treasury, Washington, D. C.

M. P. BERRY, Collector.

The following from Deputy Dennis at this time is also given:

CUSTOM-HOUSE,

DEPUTY COLLECTOR'S OFFICE,
Wrangel, Alaska, July 14, 1877.

SIR: In reply to yours under date of 29th and 30th ultimo, I have the honor to state that, since the withdrawal of the troops from Alaska, the Indians at this place and vicinity have made no hostile demonstrations toward the lives of the whites. But in regard to property, they have.

Like all Indians, they love to appropriate to their own use that which belongs to others, and small thefts are of frequent occurrence.

The taking from here by Lieutenant Humphreys, as a servant, a woman who was held as a slave, and claimed by several Indians as their individual property, came near causing trouble, but I, with others, finally pacified the claimants-not, however, till after one of the parties demanded that I should go to Port Townsend and bring the woman back.

The Indians here, representing tribes from all parts of the Territory, are continually having quarrels among themselves, which originates from the use of liquor that is manufactured by them and that which they smuggle into this port from British Columbia via Stickine River.

The Indian population of this place, including transient Indians, is always at least five hundred, and frequently reaches one thousand. Our permanent white population during the mining seasou is about one hundred, and during the winter months it reaches three hundred.

Now, in the absence of all law whereby offenders against the laws may be tried and punished, with a population as above stated, is it not reasonable to suppose that difficulties will arise?

Notwithstanding the stringent laws relating to the introduction of liquor into this Territory, and with a garrison of troops stationed here, smuggling and the manufacture of it could not be prevented, and hence whisky at this port has always been plentiful.

Under military rule here, white men, being drunk, have frequently knocked down

Indians for pastime, and the assaulted look to the military for protection and justice. But now, in case the like occurs, before whom must the aggrieved come and ask protection, there being no one empowered to administer justice? Is it not safe to predict that all, both whites and Indians, when aggrieved, will embrace the first law of nature; and such being the mode of seeking satisfaction, how long can the peace and quietness of the place be assured?

It is utterly impossible for me either to prevent the introduction of liquor into this port or the manufacture of it by the Indians, and with plenty of liquor circulating among whites and Indians, who commingle together, I apprehend trouble.

A gunboat or revenue cutter has a pacifying effect upon both whites and Indians, and the presence of one in these waters occasionally would have more effect toward suppressing the liquor traffic and preserving order and quiet than forty regiments of troops without means of transportation.

Economy being the policy of the government, in my opinion the best way to govern Alaska is to attach it to Washington Territory for judicial purposes, with a justice's court in which minor offenses against the laws might be tried.

I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant,

Maj. Wм. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS,

Special Agent Treasury Department,

Port Townsend, Wash. Ter.

I. C. DENNIS,

Deputy Collector]

Upon my reaching Portland, Oreg., about the last of May, 1877, I called upon General Howard for information relating to Alaskan affairs, and was handed the following order:

[General Orders No. 13.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE COLUMBIA,

Portland, Oreg., May 23, 1877.

In compliance with instructions from the Secretary of War, and the major-general commanding the division, announced in General Orders No. 1, Headquarters Military Division of the Pacific and Department of California, April 23, 1877, the companies of the Fourth Artillery garrisoning Sitka and Fort Wrangel, Alaska Territory, will be withdrawn by the first steamer leaving for Portland after the arrival at Sitka of the revenue-cutter under orders for Alaska.

Companies G and M, at Sitka, will proceed, the former to Fort Canby, Wash. Ter., and the latter to Fort Stevens, Oreg., and be reported to the respective post commanders. Company A, at Fort Wrangel, will proceed to Fort Townsend, Wash. Ter., and be reported to the commanding officer for duty.

Instructions have already been issued for the removal by the May steamer of surplus serviceable public property.

So much of the public property in charge of the military officers as cannot be removed will be transferred, at Sitka, to the collector of customs, and at Wrangel to the deputy collector of customs, officials designated by the Secretary of the Treasury to receive and receipt for it.

In addition to the receipts required by the officers in the settlement of their accounts, duplicate receipts, one for department and one for division headquarters, will be taken by them for all the public property, including lands and buildings now in their charge, transferred to the customs officials. The condition of the property will be noted on the receipts.

The lists of public buildings transferred will include, at Sitka, not only those in actual occupation by the garrison, but also all other public buildings, including those of which Col. Jefferson C. Davis repossessed the government.

Asst. Surg. William R. Hall and Acting Asst. Surg. William D. Baker will accompany the troops, the former reporting to the commanding officer, Fort Stevens, as post surgeon; the latter reporting in person to the medical director.

Ordnance Sergeant Golkell and Commissary Sergeant Brown will report to the post commander, Fort Townsend, and Commissary Sergeant Burrows to the commanding officer, Fort Stevens.

The chiefs of staff departments will issue such detailed instructions concerning the interests of their respective departments in connection with the abandonment of these posts as may be necessary to carry into execution this order or orders from superior military authority.

The post records, securely packed, will be forwarded to the assistant adjutant-general.

The post commanders and chiefs of staff departments concerned will make full report to department headquarters as to the time and manner of executing this order.

Upon the departure of the troops, Sitka and Fort Wrangel will be discontinued as military posts, and "all control of the military department over affairs in Alaska will cease."

By command of Brigadier-General Howard.

H. CLAY WOOD, Assistant Adjutant-General.

I at once informed General Howard no cutter had been permanently ordered either to Sitka or Wrangel or any portion of Southeastern Alaska. That the vessel referred to by him in his order was the revenue-steamer Richard Rush, then en route, by virtue of special act of Congress, to the Seal Islands, for the protection of the fur-seal fisheries. That she would probably touch at Wrangel and Sitka, but would remain at neither point. The following telegram was then immediately framed and sent from General Howard's headquarters:

SECRETARY TREASURY, Washington, D. C.:

PORTLAND, OREG., May 28, 1877.

General Howard, expecting the cutter Rush would remain at Sitka, so interpreted order of Secretary of War as to order military away. Subsistence, ordnance, and quartermaster stores have already been brought down. Steamer sails for Sitka June 2 to bring troops under this order. General Howard desires vessel designated, in order to complete order; will leave detachments there in charge of public property until its arrival. Please answer immediately. WM. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS,

And answered as follows:

W. G. MORRIS,

Special Agent Treasury, Portland, Oreg.:

Special Agent.

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 31, 1877.

Rush has probably left Sitka en route for Seal Islands. No other cutter can be sent.

I subsequently made report as follows:

JOHN SHERMAN,

Secretary.

OFFICE SPECIAL AGENT TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
Portland, Oreg., June 23, 1877.

SIR: I have the honor to inform the department on the 14th instant the whole of the military were withdrawn from Sitka, and such public property as was not sold or taken away by order of the War Department duly turned over to the collector of customs.

After leaving Sitka the transport touched at Wrangel and took on board the garrison at that point. On the 28th of May I notified the honorable Secretary, by telegraph, that General O. O. Howard, U. S. A., commanding the Department of the Columbia, would leave detachments of troops in charge of public property until the arrival of a revenue-cutter, and asked the vessel be designated. This telegram was written in General Howard's presence and sent at his request.

I inclose copy of General Order No. 13, dated Headquarters, Department of the Columbia, Portland, Oreg., May 23, 1877, for the movement of the troops from Alaska. This order was based upon the supposition that the cutter Richard Rush was the vessel alluded to in the letter of the honorable the Secretary of War addressed to the General of the Army, and dated War Department, Washington City, April 10, 1877. When General Howard ascertained that the Rush was intended for service at the Seal Islands, he directed that detachments be left in charge of the public property. On the 1st of June I sent to Col. H. Clay Wood, U. S. A., assistant adjutant-general of this department, a copy of the telegram of the Secretary of the Treasury to myself, dated Washington, D. C., May 31, that the Rush had probably gone from Sitka to the Seal Islands and that no other cutter could be sent. The steamer sailed for Sitka June 2, the order for detachments to be left still in force. A member of General Howard's personal staff went to Alaska on this steamer.

Upon arrival there, in pursuance with previous orders to dispose of all surplus subsistence stores, it was found that the order had been so literally complied with as to leave nothing whatever for the subsistence of the men to be left there, such order not being contemplated by General Order No. 13.

The same condition of affairs was found to exist at Wrangel. Accordingly General Howard's staff officer directed all the troops to be immediately removed; which was done, and they arrived at this place on the morning of June 20.

It will thus be perceived that "all control of the military department over affairs in Alaska" has ceased.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS,

Special Agent.

Secretary of the Treasury, Washington, D. C.

Hon. JOHN SHERMAN,

While at Port Townsend, on Puget Sound, the mail steamer California arrived from Sitka, bringing alarming intelligence, and I immediately telegraphed the department as follows:

SECRETARY TREASURY, Washington, D. C.: Collector Berry has left Sitka very sick. Is now at Victoria for medical advice. He reports to department: "I have the best of reasons for believing that if there is not a vessel dispatched at a very early day to this port (Sitka), that this people have been handed over bodily for slaughter to the Indians." Captain Bailey, cutter Rush, informed Berry he should return to San Francisco direct from Seal Islands, according to department instructions. Captain and officers of mail-steamer California much alarmed and anticipate immediate trouble. All reports confirmatory of danger. Cutter Wolcott will not finish repairs for three weeks. Tubes for boilers have to be supplied from New York.

WM. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS,

And supplemented it with the following letter:

Special Agent.

SPECIAL AGENCY OF TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
Port Townsend, Washington Territory, July 23, 1877.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit a copy of a telegram this day sent to the department upon the present existing state of affairs at Sitka, Alaska.

On the 27th of June last I wrote from Portland, Oreg., to Collector M. P. Berry, at Sitka, requesting from him a statement of the status of affairs since the departure of the troops, and asking the reply to be sent me at this port.

On yesterday the mail-steamer California arrived here, bringing me a letter from Mr. Berry, inclosing a copy of his report to the department, dated Sitka, July 13, and also another, informing me of his presence at Victoria. I deem the report of sufficient importance to telegraph an extract to the department without delay and state other coherent information in the dispatch.

In a conversation had yesterday with Capt. Charles Thorne, master of the steamer California, he expressed to me grave fears of a general uprising of the Sitka Indians. These Indians belong to the Kolosh tribe, and about one thousand are now absent engaged in fishing. Sitka Jack, a noted chief, informed Captain Thorne that about one thousand of his tribe were absent fishing and hunting, and when they returned they intended to seize all the government buildings and other valuable property at Sitka; that the country and everything in it belonged to his tribe.

Captain Thorne further states, the Indians, contrary to when Sitka was garrisoned by troops, thronged his vessel while at the dock, and were generally haughty, insolent, and overbearing in their manner; that the citizens had a ball in the house known as the "Castle," and during the festivities the Indians entered the stockade and obtruded themselves upon those present, rendering themselves peculiarly disagreeable and obnoxious. It is his opinion, and that of the officers of his ship, that an outbreak is not far distant, which will result in the destruction and plunder of private property, and, if the whites make any demonstration of resistance, a wholesale massacre will ensue. The Russian priest has already sent his family to Nanaimo in British Columbia, and general consternation and terror prevails among the whole white inhabitants.

Collector Berry has written me, requesting my presence at Victoria, which place I shall visit on the 26th instant, en route to San Francisco, and confer with him.

Not being able to make personal inspection of this portion of my district, I cannot of my own knowledge present such an array of facts as might be considered incontrovertible; but I have sought every available and reliable source of information, and have no hesitation in saying that the outlook in Alaska is exceedingly dangerous and alarming. All concurrent testimony points to a speedy outbreak and resultant bloodshed by the warlike tribes, unless restrained by the strong arm of the government;

that an armed vessel either of the Treasury or Navy Department is absolutely needed in the Sitka archipelago without delay.

I very much question whether the vessels of the revenue marine on this coast are suitable for this duty, and either in armament or crew will prove themselves equal to the service which may be demanded of them. They carry too few men and are not equivalent to a gunboat, which is the proper class of vessel for this dangerous and delicate service.

These views have heretofore been frequently expressed, and any further repetition would be unnecessary verbiage. I merely report such facts as are collated upon this frontier, and respectfully present them for the consideration and action of the depart

I then addressed the following letter to the commander of the cutter Wolcott:

OFFICE OF SPECIAL AGENT
OF THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

Port Townsend, Washington Territory, July 24, 1877. CAPTAIN: The news brought from Sitka by the steamer California on Sunday last is of an alarming character, and only confirms my belief in the expectation of serious trouble with the Kolosh Indians in that quarter.

The collector of Sitka, M. P. Berry, Esq., has left there sick and is now at Victoria. He has furnished me with a copy of a recent report made by him to the department, which I deemed of such importance as to telegraph a synopsis yesterday to the Secretary.

It is not improbable but that the vessels of the revenue marine on this coast may at once be called into active service; at all events, they should be held in readiness to comply with immediate sailing orders.

I would be pleased if you will inform me when the repairs to your vessel will be completed, and how long it will be before you can be ready to proceed to Sitka. I have no advices from the department which authorize me to indicate that you will receive orders to proceed to that quarter, I am merely anticipating an emergency likely to arise at any moment.

I have good reason however to think the department will send a cutter very soon to visit Sitka and other adjacent points, irrespective of probable Indian troubles, and it has been supposed the Rush would touch there in September, homeward bound from the Seal Islands. This is a mistake.

Collector Berry informs the department that when the Rush was at Sitka, he had a conversation with Captain Bailey, who informed him after his cruise at the Seal Islands terminated, he should proceed direct to San Francisco from Ounalaska.

Will you please inform me of the character of the armament of your vessel, and the number and pattern of small-arms you have on hand and their condition; also what supply of ammunition you have, character, and caliber, and condition.

My own conviction is, that you are neither sufficiently manned or armed to perform any effective service, or operate offensively against the hostile tribes which inhabit the Alaskan coast, and before you should be sent there, your officers and crew should be strengthened as far as the size of your vessel will admit, and you should be supplied liberally with arms and ammunition.

Will you let me have your views upon this suggestion, and in fact I think you had better make me a very full report upon the subject-matter of this letter, as I desire to communicate with the department without delay.

I shall leave here on Thursday, the 26th instant, for Victoria, to sail from there on Monday, the 30th, in the City of Panama, for San Francisco.

Please write me by return mail and address your letter to me at Victoria, care of the American consul.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

Capt. JAMES M. SELDEN,

United States Revenue Marine,

Commanding Steamer Oliver Wolcott,

Seattle, Washington Territory.

WM. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS,

Special Agent.