[226] The word Alaska was not improved when spelt Alashka, and the dropping of the letter h in Oonalaska seemed to show the better and more natural spelling. The following communication, more than a year after the Speech, was in answer to an inquiry about the spelling with an i, as Aliaska, which was adopted by several journals.
“Senate Chamber, May 8, 1868.
“Dear Mr. Barney,—I have your note of the 8th in reference to the spelling of Alaska.
“I think ‘Aliaska’ is a mistake, for which the Coast Survey, in the first map of this country, are partly responsible. On inquiry, I found there was no particular authority for this spelling, and at my suggestion it was altered to Alaska in a subsequent edition.
“When called to consider the purchase of this territory, I found that it had the general name of ‘Russian Possessions in America,’ or ‘Russian America.’ In the event of transfer to the United States, this was evidently improper. Looking for a name, my attention was arrested by the designation of the promontory stretching to the Aleutian Islands, called by Captain Cook, the first Englishman who visited the region, Alaska, without an i, as the large and neighboring island was called Oonalaska. This is the first time, so far as I am aware, that the name appears. Though at a later day it was sometimes written ‘Aliaska,’ it seemed to me that the earlier designation was historically more just, while in itself a better word. On this account, at the close of my speech I ventured to propose it as a name for the whole country.
“While I was doing this in Washington, General Halleck, in San Francisco, was writing an elaborate letter to the Government about the new territory, in which he proposed the same name, with, as I understand, the same spelling.
“Yours truly,
“Charles Sumner.
“Hon. Hiram Barney, New York.”
A new edition of the map appeared with the pamphlet edition of the Speech, on which Mr. Hilgard, of the Coast Survey, in a letter dated May 25th, wrote to Mr. Sumner:—