Informal trading had been going on for years between missionaries in the San Francisco area and Russian farmers at Ross

++  He reported ruefully to Mr. Astor:  ++  ”They all drink an astonishing quantity, Governor Baranov not excepted.  I assure you it is no small tax on the health of a person trying to do business with him.”  ++  Of course, times had changed before Khlebnikov’s visits to the Hartnell home.  Baranov was dead since 1819, and his “colaborer,” Kuskov, last of the pioneers, had grown old and desired nothing more than to putter in his vegetable gardem at Ross, while awaiting word from St. Petersburg that he was pensioned and could return home to die.  To Khlebnikov, Russian enterprise seemed as dead as Baranov’s body and Kuskov’s spirit. ++  He himself wished to retire before long to spend the rest of his life writing his heroic biography and the ‘Zapiski o Amerikye’ (Letters on America) which one day would bring him great fame among his countrymen.  To his English friend Hartnell, Khlebnikov gave the opportunity of seeing them both in the note-making stage.  ++  His initial appearance in Alta California antedated that of Hartnell and McCulloch by two years, and had not been so timely.  At Ross, while commanding the Russian-American Company ship ‘Buldakov,’ he heard of destitution in California, caused by the Mexican Revolution.  No Spanish transports were coming through on schedule to supply the missions and ‘presidios.’ It occurred to Khlebnikov that in the then flourishing Russian settlement he could assemble a cargo to satisfy his neighbours’ needs.  He seized the chance both to do a favor and make a profit. ++  The diversity of produce from Ross already had become life-saving to more northerly Russian settlements, where at times of year no fruits and vegetables could be raised to stave off scurvy and other ills caused by malnutrition.  ++  Assembling the first shipment for California ports, Khlebnikov filled the ‘Buldakov’ with food staples, seeds, and plants.  He also stuck in items unfamiliar to the Californians, rare furs, and articles of Russian manufacture, like gilded altar decorations to entice the padres, whom he knew to be all-powerful.  Informal trading had been going on for years between missionaries in the San Francisco area and Russian farmers at Ross.  +++