passing the sentence is to determine the damages suffered by such detention, and to furnish both parties with a certified copy of this resolution.

SEC. 45. In the course of 2 days both parties shall declare whether they are satisfied with the decision of the court or not, and in the latter case (should it happen) assign it in writing.

SEC. 46. Should both parties be satisfied with the decision of the court, then the commander of Kamtchatka is to release immediately the detained vessel, returning everything to the master according to the inventory, along with the adjudged damages, exacting them from whomsoever is to pay the same.

SEC. 47. If on the contrary the court receives on the third day a repeal to its decision, it is bound to take that repeal into immediate consideration, and finding it just, to change its decision; if not, to confirm the same and make it known to the parties a second time. After this no representation shall be admitted, and both parties shall be summoned before the court, which will allow them to make their protest in writing, and will then state all the reasons why the sentence should be carried into execution.

SEC. 48. If the court find by the indictment that the vessel has been lawfully detained, then the master of the foreign vessel, or the two eldest in command under him, shall be summoned, and the reasons of their detention made known to them, giving them a certified copy of the condemnation.

SEC. 49. The court is to receive within three days, and no later, the representation of the master, and if he do not present the same within the time limited, the court summoning him with two of his crew, notifies that his silence is received as a mark of compliance, and that the condemnation is just.

SEC. 50. In this case the court comes to its final decision, which on the following day is communicated to the whole crew of the foreign vessel, who shall sign all and every one that such sentence has been made known to them, after which the commander of Kamtchatka is to carry the sentence of the court into execution, as will be explained hereafter.

SEC. 51. Should, however, the master deliver within the time limited his protest, then the court, examining it with all possible impartiality, shall call for all further explanations, and having inserted the whole into the journal of the court, shall pass a final sentence and pronounce it as stated in section 47.

SEC. 52. If by sentence of the court the arrested vessel be released and adjudged to receive damages for her detention, and if the vessel has been arrested by any of the Company's officers, and the damages are not above five thousand rubles, the commander of Kamtchatka shall demand immediate payment of said sum from the office of the Russian American Company, but if the damages exceed the sum, he is to notify it to the Company's office, and give to the foreign master a certificate; but the money can not be paid by the Company otherwise than after the inspection and resolution of its court of directors. If, on the other hand, the foreign vessel has been detained unlawfully by a Russian man-ofwar, the commander of Kamtchatka is to pay the adjudged damages, (not exceeding the sum of five thousand rubles) out of any Government sum, and to report, in order to incash it from the guilty; but if the damages should exceed the sum of five thousand rubles, the commander of Kamtchatka is to furnish a certificate for the receipt of that money, after the regulation and confirmation of the Russian Government.

SEC. 53. The reimbursement of such damages as may have been incurred by unlawful detention shall be exacted from the commander and all officers of the man-of-war who, having been called by the commander to a council, shall have given their opinion that such a ship ought to be detained.

SEC. 54. As soon as a foreign ship is sentenced to be confiscated, the commander of Kamtchatka is to make the arrangements for transporting the crew to Ochotsk, and from thence to any of the ports of the Baltic, in order to enable every one of them to reach his own country. With the confiscated ship and cargo he is to act as with a prize taken in time of war.

SEC. 55. After this the commander of Kamtchatka shall order a committee to value the vessel and her cargo. This committee is to be composed of one member appointed by the commander of Kamtchatka, one by the commander of the man-of-war, and a third by the Russian American Company.

SEC. 56. These commissioners are to make up a specified list and valuation according to the following rules:

(1) All provisions, rigging, iron, powder, and arms shall be put down at such prices as they cost Government there.

(2) All merchandise which might be used in Kamtchatka and the Company's Colonies, and which are carried there at times from Russia, shall be valued at their prices then existing.

(3) All goods which are not imported into these places from Russia, but are wanted there, shall be valued like goods brought from Russia, being the nearest to them, and in proportion to their wants.

(4) All goods not in use at Kamtchatka or the Colonies shall be sent to Irkutsk, and sold at public auction by the proper authorities.

SEC. 57. The said commissioners shall present their valuation to the commander of Kamtchatka for his approbation; who, in case of not finding the same exact, shall return it with his remarks, and shall appoint other officers to inspect such articles as may appear unfairly valued.

SEC. 58. If the commissioners hereafter continue in their opinion and the commander of Kamtchatka find it impossible to agree thereto, he shall provisionally consent, and leave the final decision to Government. SEC. 59. According to this valuation, the commander of Kamtchatka shall mark for the use of Government all those articles which he thinks are wanted; the remainder is left at the disposal of the officers of the ship, or of the Russian American Company. The seized vessel shall be valued by the court, and the valuation sent immediately to the Minister of the Navy, with a report, whether such a vessel is wanted for Government service or not.

SEC. 60. The whole sum of valuation of the confiscated vessel and cargo is to be divided in the following manner: The expences necessary to forward the ship's crew to one of the ports in the Baltic are to be deducted, and the remaining sum divided, if the vessel has been taken by the Russian American Company's officers, and carried to the port of St. Peter and Paul, by a ship of said company, without the interference of a man-of-war, into five parts, of which one goes to Government and the remaining four-fifths to the American Company. If the vessel be taken in any of the Company's settlements by the Company's officers, but brought to the port of St. Peter and Paul by a man-of-war, after deducting one fifth for Government, two-fifths are to belong to the crew of the man-of-war and the remaining two-fifths to the Russian American Company; and, finally, if such foreign vessel be detained by men-of-war only, without the assistance of the Company's officers, then,

after dednefing one-fifth for Government, the remainder is left to the officers of the men-of-war.

But if the vessel be taken by the conjoint forces of a man-of-war and a Company's vessel, then the prize shall be divided between them in proportion to their strength, regulating the same according to the number of guns.

SEC. 61. The sum coming to the officers of the man-of-war shall be divided according to the rules for dividing prizes in time of war. In . all cases officers who had a share in seizing foreign vessels, convicted of the intention of infringing the privileges most graciously granted to the Russian American Company, may expect to receive tokens of His Imperial Majesty's approbation, especially when after deducting the expences for conveying the crew their part in the prize money should prove but trifling.

SEC. 62. If a foreign vessel detained by a Russian, being under the command of a Russian officer, should be cast away before reaching the port of St. Peter and Paul, the following principle shall be observed:

If the foreign vessel alone be lost and the Russian accompanying her arrive at the port of St. Peter and Paul, then the court acts according to the foregoing rules to determine whether the vessel was lawfully seized. In this case Government takes upon itself the expences of conveying to a port of the Baltic such of the ship's crew as were saved. But if such vessel should not be proved to have been detained lawfully, then independent of those expences the ship shall be valued and such valuation forwarded to Government for the payment of what may be deemed just; at the same time investigations shall be made on the loss of the vessel; and the officer that had the command (if saved) is to be tried according to the maritime rules and regulations.

SEC. 63. The Commander of Kamtehatka is bound to make a special report to the Governor-General of Siberia respecting every circumstance happening to foreign vessels, annexing copies of all documents, journals, and sentences of the court and of all papers relating there

unto.

The original is signed:

COUNT D. GURIEF,

Minister of Finances.

CHARTER OF 1821.1

Second charter of the Russian American Company.

Signed in the original by His Imperial Majesty's own hand thus: Be it accordingly

PORKHOF, September 13, 1821.

ALEXANDER.

PRIVILEGES GRANTED TO THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY FOR A PERIOD OF TWENTY YEARS FROM THIS DATE.

The following rights are most graciously conferred upon the Company:

I.

The Company established for carrying on industries and trade on the mainland of Northwest America, on the Aleutian, and on the Kurile Is

For Russian text see Tikhmenief, vol. 1, app., p. 41.

lands, remains as heretofore under the highest protection of His Imperial Majesty.

II.

It enjoys the privilege of hunting and fishing, to the exclusion of all other Russian or foreign subjects throughout the territories long since in the possession of Russia on the coasts of Northwest America, beginning at the northern point of the island of Vancouver, in latitude 51 north, and extending to Bering Strait and beyond, as well as on all islands adjoining this coast and all those situated between this coast and the eastern shore of Siberia, as well as on the Kurile Islands, where the Company has engaged in hunting down to the south cape of the Island Urupa, in latitude 45° 50'.

III.

To enjoy and use all that has been found or discovered within the limits of the localities described, on the surface as well as in the bowels of the earth, and all that they may hereafter discover, regardless of any claims advanced by others.

IV.

To make new discoveries beyond the limits defined above; and such newly discovered localities, if they have not been previously occupied or taken possession of by other European nations or subjects of the American United States, may be occupied by the Company as Russian possessions; but no permanent settlements must be established there without highest permission.

V.

The Company is permitted to establish in the future, as necessity may require or its interests may demand, within the limits mentioned in section II, new settlements and fortifications to protect such settlements, or to extend and improve original settlements, dispatching to those regions ships with goods and reënforcements of men without interference.

VI.

In order that the Company alone may enjoy the exclusive rights bestowed upon it, and to prevent in the future any molestation or disturbance on the part of Russian subjects or foreigners, rules and regulations have been established indicating how to proceed with those who either intentionally or by accident violated the prohibition against visiting the regions contained within the limits described in section II of these privileges. Therefore these rules must be strictly observed both by the Company and by the officials concerned.

VII.

To carry on intercourse by sea with all adjoining nations and to trade with them with the consent of their respective governments, excepting with the Chinese Empire, the shores of which must not be visited by the Company's ships. Care must also be taken that the Company's ships do not engage in any traffic with other nations or in any other intercourse prohibited by their respective governments.

VIII.

The board of administration of the Russian American Company is to be recognized in all courts of law as being intrusted with the management of the Company's affairs, and if suits are brought in courts of justice in connection with its business it must not be done in the name of any individual partner of the company, but in that of the board of ad ministration.

IX.

Having intrusted to the management of the Company so vast an extent of country, with considerable numbers of inhabitants, in order to enable it to carry out more effectively the object of the Government the following special privileges are granted to its employés in all its interior and coast stations and agencies, whether managers, bookkeepers, cashiers and their assistants, supercargoes, ship's clerks, or others: (1) To the chief manager, on his assumption of the duties of the post, are extended the privileges granted by the ukase of March 21, 1810. defining the status of officials in the government of Siberia, provided he hold rank in the military or civil service of the Empire.

(2) All officials who are entitled to enter the service of the Company under the provisions of the ukase of April 9, 1802, are considered as in active service in regard to reward and promotions, with the exception of such grades as are conferred only by reason of seniority or continued service with a special command. They are also entitled to half pay and to military servants under the provisions of the same requirement.

(3) Officers or officials who have been retired prior to entering the Company's service retain their original rank and are to be considered in every respect as in active service. This right is also extended to those who, since the grant of highest privileges in the year 1799, have entered the Company's service in various capacities. All individuals belonging to classes entitled to enter the Imperial service, but who have not previously held any rank, will, after two years' service with the Company, receive the rank of collegiate registrar upon due application by the board of administration; the succeeding grades to be obtained by continued service under the provisions of general laws. On leaving the service these individuals will retain their rank only when they have served five years and have been recommended by the board of administration as worthy and efficient.1

XVII.

The Russian American Company is most graciously permitted to load the ships dispatched from Kronstadt around the world, and from Okhotsk to our colonies, both with Russian products and with foreign goods upon which duty has been paid; also to unload the ships returning from the colonies with cargoes of furs and other products without detention, upon declarations made at the custom-house at Kronstadt by the board of administration and at Okhotsk by the agent stationed there. On shipping such cargoes from one Russian port to another no duties shall be collected unless a special internal tax on furs be estab lished hereafter by law.

* 1 Sections X-XXI contain regulations relating only to internal management, and have therefore been omitted in this translation.