English letter ⚠️ that survives ONLY as a translation 'made by Ivan Petroff' (Savage's closing note, n87/p.88, verbatim: *'The communication on the 4 preceding pages is a translation from the Russian original — made by Ivan Petroff'* — the Russian original is NOT in the volume) rebutting Capt. Beechey's (HMS *Blossom*, 1826–27) accusations that the Russians seized islands off Santa Bárbara & poached sea-otter depriving the natives — Wrangel calls it 'untrue and fabricated,' insists the RAC obeyed Mexico's otter-hunting prohibition, and pins the poaching on 'other foreigners' using 'some forty canoes' of 'our northern savages' (Aleut hunters) carrying on sea-otter hunting on the coasts of Upper & Lower California; seeks to restore Russo-Californian friendship. ✓ transcription verified accurate to the leaves (n83–n85, n87), 2026-07-05 verification pass — BUT ⚠️⚠️ this is *Petroff's* English, not Wrangel's words: Ivan Petroff has a documented forgery/embellishment record → do NOT quote as Wrangel's own voice; collate against a Russian-archives text before citing. See the Petroff-translation reliability question.
| Date | 1833-07-24 (exact) |
|---|---|
| From | Baron Ferdinand Wrangel (Chief Manager of the Russian-American Company, Ross Settlement) |
| To | Governor of Upper California |
| Series | State Papers, Sacramento |
| Tomo | X–XIX (volume range; this entry is not resolved to one tomo) |
| Original tomo page | 506–509 |
| Savage copy page | 84–88 |
| Scan leaf | n83–87 |
| Document type | English translation (Petroff-mediated — NOT a Savage-from-Spanish transcription) |
| Source | Savage abstract |
Read this leaf on the Internet Archive ↗ · leaf n83–87
Baron Ferdinand Wrangel (Chief Manager of the Russian-American Company, Ross Settlement) to Governor of Upper California, 1833-07-24, State Papers, Sacramento, X–XIX, 506–509, Archives of California, C-A 56, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. [the tomo is given as the volume’s full range: this entry has not been resolved to a single tomo within X–XIX]Cite the document by series, tomo and original tomo page, as the literature does; the C-A number locates it in the repository. To cite this catalogue entry itself, use https://archivesofcalifornia.com/record/ca56/ca56-d97.html- Previously read —. This letter survives only in Ivan Petroff's 19th-century English translation; Petroff's reliability is questioned in the literature.