Russian settlement
proceeded. Around the kekoor the native houses were removed, and along
with them more than a hundred burial houses with the ashes of the bodies
which had been burned. The great tribal houses, or barabaras, as they
are called in the Russian accounts, were spacious, some measuring 50
feet in width and 80 feet in length.[2] In their place rose the town of
New Archangel (_Novo Arkangelsk_,) and on the kekoor was built a
redoubt. This was the official name and generally recognized by the
Russians, but the name Sitka was early used by them. Baranof frequently
used the term Sitka in his letters, and in the letter of the Minister of
Finance to the Minister of Marine, from St. Petersburg, April 9, 1820,
Sitka is used in several places. The name Sitka, or Sheetkah, in the
Thlingit language, means, in this place, that this is the place, or the
best place, implying superiority over all other places.

All winter there was cutting of logs in the forest and by the spring of
1805 there were eight substantial buildings, the space for 15 kitchen
gardens had been cleared, the livestock brought on the ships were
thriving, and an air of prosperity pervaded the place.[3] Surveys of the
harbor were made by Captain Lisianski who also made the first ascent of
Mt. Edgecumbe, and who then sailed for Kronstadt, Russia, by the way of
Canton, with a cargo of furs for the China trade valued at 450,000
rubles.[4]

CHAPTER III

PROGRESS OF THE COLONY

The courtly Chamberlain of the Tsar, Nicholas P. Resanof, son-in-law of
Shelikof who was the founder of the first Russian colony in America,
came to Sitka in 1805, via Petropavlovsk, Siberia, on the "Nadeshda,"
one of the first Russian ships to circumnavigate the world, and was a
special representative of the Russian American Company, of which
organization he was one of the founders.

In his report to the Company he tells us: "The fort is on the high hill,
or kekoor, on a peninsula in the gulf. On the left side of the kekoor
close on the peninsula is built an immense barracks with two projecting
blockhouses or towers. All the building is made from mast timber from
the top to the foundation, under which is a cellar. Besides this
building are two warehouses, a material magazine and two cellars, also
two large sheds for storing food, and under the sheds are the quarters
for the workmen. On the side opposite the fort is a shed for storing
cargo, at the right side is the kitche