Mr. McCook to Mr. Seward
Sir: From paragraphs in the few newspapers which reach here, I am led to believe that the climate and resources of the Russian territory recently purchased by the United States are greatly misunderstood by some of the press and people of the Atlantic States. Many of the seamen who frequent these islands have made voyages to the coast and islands of Russian America for years past, and I transmit to you such limited information concerning that country as I have derived from them, trusting that it may prove acceptable, and hoping possibly to add to the information you already possess.
Captain Meek, an old New England ship-master, and one of the most intelligent men in this community, says, that he traded with the natives of Russian America for more than twelve years; during that time he passed two winters in Sitka, and saw very little snow on the coast near the harbor, during either winter; in one, the winter of 1828, none at all, although the mountains surrounding the settlement were covered. Rain fell through a great portion of each winter, and heavy fogs frequently prevailed. The winter temperature is not so low as at points on the Atlantic coast from thirteen to fourteen degrees south of the same parallel, and although no thermometrical record was kept by him, he believed the climate during those two winters to be warmer than the sea-coast of southern New York, or nothern Virginia.
In the vicinity of Sitka, fine potatoes are raised, and all the other vegetables of the temperate zone. Barley is already cultivated, a little wheat, and all the other cereals could no doubt be cultivated to advantage. Kodiac is one of the largest of the islands, and the best for all purposes. The soil is good, the country less mountainous, and the cod and other fisheries extensive.
On some parts of most of these islands and coast, stock can be grazed for about nine months in the year; during three or four months they would have to be housed and fed. Grass is abundant in the localities fitted for stock, and apparently rich and nutritious. The summers of the westerly islands are cooler than those of Kodiac or Sitka, on account of winds from the north, which sometimes blow with much violence.
The forests on the main land are large, the trees of luxuriant growth, and capable of furnishing an almost inexhautible supply of ship timber. The fact that the coast and islands have many good harbors makes this timber accessible, and consequently valuable in the future.
The country abounds in coal of a quality not known; the captain has seen native copper, and there has always been a tradition among the traders that gold exists, although he has never seen any evidence of the fact.
The natives are treacherous, warlike, and acquainted with the use of arms. For many years one of the principal articles of traffic with them has been small-arms and ammunition; consequently they are nearly all armed with guns. The fact that they are constantly at war among themselves has heretofore made them less troublesome to their civilized neighbors. The voyage from Honolulu to Sitka has been made in ten days, and in the same time from San Francisco, under sail.
Judging from the imperfect descriptions these men have given me, the country taken altogether is anything but the uninhabitable, desolate, frozen region, many newspapers I have read represent it to be; on the contrary, it contains thousands of square miles of land, as well adapted for cultivation and stock-raising as many parts of the New England States. Its fisheries are rich and extensive, and require only development to make them a large and profitable source of revenue. It possesses that inexhaustible supply of ship timber which we will [Page 302] need to build up a navy and merchant marine on the Pacific, when the United States, pursuing the policy you have so successfully inaugurated, will have become masters of the great commerce of China and the East. It will become the birthplace and nursery of a hardy and enterprising race of seamen, who will man our ships, and make our commerce as supreme on the Pacific as it once was on the Atlantic; and it will become to the Pacific coast what New England once was to the Atlantic, before her race of adventurous and intrepid seamen had given place to generations of thrifty manufacturers.
I have the honor to be, your very obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.