that I was enabled to get a canoe at all; viz, I paid them $26 to run out, and agreed to pay for the capture of one canoe $100, and for the fleet $500 cash.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Hon. R. H. BRISTOW,

Secretary of the Treasury, Washington, D. C.

M. P. BERRY,

Collector.

[Indorsement.]

JULY 28, 1876.

Respectfully referred to Special Agent W. G. Morris, San Francisco, Cal., for such investigation as he may be able to make and report of result of same. GEO. F. TALBOT,

Solicitor.

I personally interviewed Major Berry and Mr. Dennis upon the subject matter of this communication. They pointed out the spot to me where the canoes first hove in sight, and their avenue of escape, and it was very plainly seen how easy it was to prevent capture under the circumstances.

The trade with the Chilcat Indians has until within a very few years past been most valuable, they having the richest, most costly, and valuable furs of any tribe in Southeastern Alaska. Latterly it has not been so much sought after, owing to the low price of furs.

Our British neighbors have always been keenly alive to the value of this trade, and have reached out for it and brought it past our own doors to British Columbia, several hundred miles to the southward.

It is a source of unpleasant feeling to be compelled to admit that I have no good reason to doubt the accuracy of the statement of Major Berry, in reference to the complicity of the Rev. Mr. Duncan in the above smuggling case. Indian testimony upon this point is conclusive. He may not have been directly interested pecuniarily in the success of the venture, but that he sold the goods to the Indians cannot be a matter of doubt. Again, he is missionary, civil magistrate, Indian agent, trader, and justice of the peace, and it cannot be disputed that these Indians could not have departed upon this expedition with canoes heavily laden without Mr. Duncan being cognizant of the whole transaction.

It may be said, however, in extenuation, but not in justification, of his course, that Mr. Duncan has been on this coast trading with the Indians for over twenty years; that it has been the custom of the country and the whole coast, for a hundred years or more, for the different tribes in Russian America (Alaska) and British North America to barter furs and exchange commodities; that they have never been interfered with by the customs authorities of either nation.

There does not seem to be any moral responsibility attaching to the residents of Alaska and country adjacent thereto in regard to illicit trade. The ports of entry are few and no cruising cutters to look after canoes and boats, and trade is carried on now as it has been for a half century past. That the United States loses much revenue can easily be

seen.

Mr. Duncan is an Episcopal minister, a missionary, but is not under the jurisdiction of the lord bishop of British Columbia, and acknowledges no allegiance, spiritual or temporal, to his lordship. He runs a sort of independent diocese of his own at Metlacatlah; and, to use an expression made to me concerning him by a contemporary, "He combines the cause of religion with the sale of cotton shirts"-quite a natural thing under all the surroundings. He has been the instrument of a great deal of good. His mission school is a great success. He has done wonderful

work in christianizing and civilizing the Indians with whom he has come in contact. He has induced them to take great interest in the construction of their dwellings. In fact, he has completely metamorphosed their condition. A high compliment is paid him and a description of his labors given in the interesting report of Mr. Vincent Colyer, special Indian commissioner to Alaska in the year 1869. Judge Swan in his report likewise speaks highly of his efforts (see Appendix No. 1), and also in his letter to myself, which appears hereafter.

While according to this gentleman everything which is claimed for him by his friends and impartial' observers, it must be conceded that measures must be taken to prevent any recurrence of any like expeditions in the future. The Chilcat trade is too valuable to permit it to be the source of clandestine importations from a foreign province. It belongs of right to our own citizens, those of Alaska and elsewhere; it should be fostered and encouraged, and our own traders and merchants should be protected in taking their goods, wares, and merchandise to exchange for the choice furs and peltries of that region.

Mr. Duncan will either have to enter his goods at our custom-houses, and prevent his Indians from a repetition of this offense, else there will be some seizures, and perhaps bloodshed, in Alaskan waters.

In October, 1879, there is to be given in the Chilcat country a grand potlatch. Preparations for it will have consumed two years by the time it is had. Large quantities of rich and valuable furs and peltries of all kinds will be traded and given away. The usual amount of Hoochenoo will be consumed. This will be a rich field for the Metlacatlah Indians to work in, and unless we have a revenue-cutter there at this time, the coast will be swarming with Hudson's Bay blankets and other foreign goods.

This very fiasco of a chase demonstrates the necessity of steamlaunches in these waters. If there had been a cutter cruising in the Alexander Archipelago the Indians would not have dared to attempt a voyage of the kind. A steam-launch could have easily overhauled them and thousands of dollars worth of goods confiscated.

For some unexplained reason, the accounting officers of the department disallowed the sum, $26, paid by Collector Berry for the hire of the canoe, and he was compelled to pay for the luxury out of his own pocket. He supposes it was upon the Mongolian principle of "no catchee, no pay." At all events, such rigorous stoppages are not conducive to zeal upon the part of customs officers, and this example before them will cause them to pause before they again incur a like expense.

ABOLITION OF THE CUSTOMS DISTRICT OF ALASKA.

The discussion of this question is approached with no little delicacy, inasmuch as the honorable Secretary, in his annual report at the com mencement of the second session of the Forty-fifth Congress, used the following language:

Since the withdrawal of the troops from Alaska last spring, the management of the Territory has practically devolved upon the Treasury Department. The only officers who could exercise any authority were the collector of customs at Sitka and his deputies stationed at other points within the Territory, the duties of the officers at the seal islands being confined exclusively to the protection of the seal interests. It was feared that the sudden withdrawal of the troops might result in a conflict between the whites and the Indians; but thus far little disturbance has occurred. The white population at Sitka is very limited, and the expense of maintaining customs officers there

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

and at other points within the Territory has aggregated, within the past two years, $17,418.32, while the receipts from customs have, during the same period, been very much less. It is, therefore, recommended that the port of Sitka be abolished.

It is known by me, however, that De Ahna, after one day's experience as collector of this district, did make a report to the department recommending the district be abolished, and that the honorable Secretary indorsed the report favorably. I have seen a telegraph from Governor McCormick to De Ahna to this effect.

This political gasconade, De Ahna, puffed up with his own swelling self-conceit, knows as much about the collection of the revenue in the district of Alaska as Sitting Bull does about the Sermon on the Mount.

It has been previously shown that the collections made in the district since its establishment have been about one-half of the expenses of running it, and it is respectfully urged that this district must not be considered as one of revenue, but essentially as one of protection.

It is evident this recommendation of the honorable Secretary was made on the score of economy, but it is difficult to conceive what particular saving can be made. The Alaska officers do not now receive greater compensation than their services are worth; in fact, I think all the deputies are much underpaid. A residence in this Territory at present is a banishment from all the refining influences of civilized life, and especially at the western ports amounts almost to a condition of servitude. Men in the search of gold will brave any danger and submit to any hardship, but for the meager salary paid a customs official, it does not warrant the exposure to the vicissitudes of the elements or the pleasant prospect at times of being scalped by savage tribes.

Where the pruning-knife is to be displayed in the abolition of the district I cannot see, for it certainly was not the intention of the honorable Secretary to abolish ipso facto all collections of the revenue in this quarter of the globe. It was evidently his intention to have it discontinued as an independent collection district, and have it attached to some other district for collection purposes. The same number of officers would be required as at present, there not being a surplus official in the Territory at present.

It has been suggested to attach it to the district of Puget Sound. This, in view of the fact of the additional 20,000 miles of sea-coast to look after, added to the grave difficulties which now surround the rigid enforcement of the revenue laws in that district, would, in my opinion, make the new district too large and unwieldy, and could not be productive of any beneficial result. It would impose upon the collector being responsible for the conduct of subordinate officers thousands of miles away, and very much destroy the harmony, symmetry, and efficiency which now prevail in the Puget Sound district.

I think the better policy would be to let the boundaries remain as now constituted, and continue the collection district. It is not deemed necessary specially to pursue this question further, as the whole tenor of this report goes to establish the fact that the collector and his deputies govern the whole Territory, and are the only law of any kind those benighted people have.

BOUNDARY LINE BETWEEN ALASKA AND BRITISH COLUMBIA.

I regard this unsettled question between the United States and Great Britain as one of great gravity and momentous interest, calculated, if left in its present state of abeyance, to produce confusion, bad blood, and bitter feeling.