Narrative of a Voyage Round the World, 1836-1842, by Captain Sir Edward Belcher, Vol. 1, pages 95 et seq.
Frederick Schwatka, the explorer, seems to have been one of the first to put the story in print, which he did in the early eighties. It appeared in the Alaska News, a newspaper of Juneau, on December 24th, 1896, and the time is fixed as being in the administration of Baron Wrangell. In 1891 Hon. Henry E. Hayden published it in verse in a small volume printed at Sitka. John W. Arctander, in his Lady in Blue, elaborates it to a small volume and ascribes it to Etolin’s time.
There is a strange fact which gives some color to the story. In the Russian American Company’s Archives now on file in the State Department, Washington, D. C., under date of September 23rd, 1833, a letter from St. Petersburg refers to a report of Baron Wrangell of November 30, 1831, which reported the death of under officer Paul Buikof, and implicating one Col. Borusof. Unfortunately the records of 1831 are missing and so the report cannot be had. Baron Wrangell’s daughter, Mary, died during his stay in Sitka.
Between 1821 and 1862 there were shipped by the Russian American Company, from Alaska, 51,315 sea-otter, 831,396 fur-seal, 319,514 beaver, 291,655 fox. Fur-Seal Arbitration, Vol. 2, p. 127 (Washington, Government Printing Office).
“For the largest deer, which weighs about four poods, five sazhens of calico are paid; for a duck, a quid of tobacco; for a goose, two quids; fish priced according to size all according to price list established by the commander of the post of New Archangel.” Russkie na Vostochnom Okean (Russians on the Eastern Ocean), by A. Markof, St. Petersburg, 1856.
Hunters who disposed of their furs to an English shipmaster were arrested and sent to Siberia. Russian American Archives. Corr. Vol. I, p. 275. In January of 1820 Muravief was ordered to watch certain officers of a ship who were suspected of trading for furs on their own account. Id. Vol. 2, p. 38.