Few of these voyages were pushed farther than the Aleutian islands.  The natives were hostile and killed a fair proportion of the Russian explorers.  In 1781 a few merchants of Kamchatka arranged a company with a view to developing commerce in Russian America.  They equipped several ships, formed a settlement at Kodiak and conducted an extensive and profitable business.  Their agents treated the natives with great cruelty, and so bad was their conduct that the emperor Paul revoked their privileges.

A new company was formed and chartered in July, 1779, under the title of the Russian-American Company.  It succeeded the old concern, and absorbed it into its organization.

The Russian-American Company had its chief office in St. Petersburg, where the Directors formed a kind of high court of appeal.  It was authorized to explore and place under control of the crown all the territories of North-Western America not belonging to any other government.  It was required to deal kindly with the natives, and endeavor to convert them to the religion of the empire.  It had the administration of the country and a commercial monopoly through its whole extent.  All other merchants were to be excluded, no matter what their nationality.  At one time so great was the jealousy of the Company’s officers that no foreign ship was allowed within twenty miles of the coast.

The Imperial Government required that the chief officer of the company should be commissioned in the service of the crown, and detailed to the control of the American Territory.  His residence was at Sitka, to which the principal post was removed from Kodiak.  In the early history of the Company there were many encounters with the natives, the severest battle taking place on the present site of Sitka.  The natives had a fort there, and were only driven from it after a long and obstinate fight.  The first colony that settled at Sitka was driven away, and all traces of the Russian occupation were destroyed.  After a few years of conflict, peace was declared, and trade became prosperous.  The Company occupied Russian America and the Aleutian Islands, and pushed its traffic to the Arctic Ocean.  It established posts on the Kurile Islands, in Kamchatka, and along the coast of the Ohotsk Sea.  It built churches, employed priests, and was quite successful in converting the natives to Christianity.

Having a monopoly of trade and being the law giver to the natives, the Company had things in pretty much its own way.  The governor at Sitka was the autocrat of all the American Russians.  There was no appeal from his decision except to the Directory at St. Petersburg, which was about as accessible as the moon.  The natives were reduced to a condition of slavery; they were compelled to devote the best part of their time to the company’s labor, and the accounts were so managed as to keep them always in debt.