Gavriil Pribylov is commander of the Russian…
June 1786 CE
Pribylov's discovery successfully ends an active three-year search for the lucrative breeding grounds of fur seals by Siberian merchants.
His expedition is funded jointly by Grigory Shelikhov and Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin.
Shelikhov controls a monopoly on Aleutian fur-trading activities granted by Empress Catherine II of Russia, but often takes on partners to help fund his activities; the two men will later become rivals.
More than twenty of Pribylov's crew, which is of mixed Russian and Aleut descent, are left on St. George Island to hunt the seals.
Both Russians and Aleuts stay behind for the hunt.
This plays a key role in establishing the international hunting of northern fur seals, which will continue in various forms until banned by international treaty in 1911, and will nearly force the seals to extinction.
St. George is the first of the Pribilof Islands to be discovered.
A year later in 1787, Pribylov will discover St. Paul Island, approximately fifty miles to the north of St. George.
In truth, Pribylov has not actually discovered the islands, as he has been directed to their approximate location by the son of an Aleut chief.
The then-uninhabited islands, known to the Aleuts as Amiq, are a fabled hunting ground in Aleut oral tradition.