er more thoroughly appreciated
the visible resources of California than he. Baranhov, chief-manager
of the Company, had talked with American and British skippers for
twenty years, and every item he had accumulated Rezanov had extracted.
To-day he had drawn further information from Concha and her brothers;
and their artless descriptions as well as this incomparable bay had
filled him with enthusiasm. What a gift to Russia! What an
achievement to his immortal credit! The fog rolled in from the Pacific
in great white waves and stealthily enfolded him, obliterated the sea
and the land. But he did not see it. Apprehension left him. Once
more he fell to dreaming. In the course of a few years the Company
would attract a large population to the mouth of the Columbia River, be
strong enough to make use of any favorable turn in European politics
and sweep down upon California. The geographical position of Mexico,
the arid and desolate, herbless and waterless wastes intervening, would
prohibit her sending any considerable assistance overland; and, all
powerful at court by that time, he would take care that the Russian
navy inspired Spain with a distaste for remote Pacific waters. He had
long since recovered from the disappointment induced by the orders
compelling him to remain in the colonies. The great Company he had
heretofore regarded merely as a source of income and a means of
advancing his ambitions, he now loved as his child. Even during the
marches over frozen swamps and mountains, during the terrible winter in
Sitka when he had become familiar with illness and even with hunger,
his ardor had grown, as well as his determination to force Russia into
the front rank of Commercial Europe. The United States he barely
considered. He respected the new country for the independent spirit
and military genius that had routed so powerful a nation as Great
Britain, but he thought of her only as a new and tentative civilization
on the far shores of the Atlantic. After some experience of travel in
Siberia, and knowing the immensity and primeval conditions of
north-western America, he did not think it probable that the little
cluster of states, barely able to walk alone, would indulge in dreams
of expansion for many years to come. He had heard of the projected
expedition of Lewis and Clarke to the mouth of the Columbia,
but--perhaps he was too Russian--he did not take any adventure
seriously that had not a mighty nation at its