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already existing.

There were then in Novo-Arkhangelsk about 300 residents,
the majority of whom consisted of Aleuts that had been trans-
ported there from the Fox Islands [the Aleutian Islands] 3 and
Kadiak Island. The rest were Russian traders employed in the
work of the dockyards and serving as sailors on the vessels
of the Company. The Aleuts, however, caught fish and went in
their baidars into the straits of the archipelago to catch
beavers [i.e. sea otters]. Their toions [leaders] came to
our sloop every Sunday to wish the captain a good holiday and
to receive a glass of rum and a few leaves of tobacco.

The condition of the colony at that time, with reference
to stores of provisions, was very good. The grain store-
houses were full, but despite that, they allowed only one pood
of wheat flour per person from the stores, and the management
sent the office manager, Mr. Khlebnikov, on a large ship to
California for the purchase of new provisions. Such pre-
caution was necessary in colonies not producing their own
grain because if the California monks suddenly decided not to
sell wheat, or if the ship sent out should encounter a misfor-
tune, then the residents would have to feed themselves with
just yukola [dried fish] and fish, quite inadequate for so
many people. And this time these measures proved beneficial.
Mr. Khlebnikov, who was expected back in the middle of Sep-
tember, did not return, and came back only at the end of Jan-
uary of the next year. He suffered a shipwreck near Bodiaga