Qass. X_£i^ o HISTORY OF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA THE HISTORY OF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA, AND THE OTHER TERRITORIES ON THE NOETH-WEST COAST OE NOHTH AMEUICA; FROM THEIR DISCOVERY TO THE PRESENT DAY. ACCOMFANIED BY A GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THOSE COUNTRIES, AND A NUM^EJJOF DOCUMENTS AS PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY. ROBERT GREENHOW, AUTHOR or A MEMOin, HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL, ON THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA, PCBLI8HED IN 1840, BY DIRECTION OP THE SENATE OK THE UNITED STATES. "the possible destiny of the united states of AMERICA, AS A NATION OF A HUNDRED MILLIONS OF FREEMEN, STRETCHING FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC, LIVING UNDER THE LAWS OF ALFRED, AND SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE OF SHAKSPEARE AND MILTON, IS AN AUGUST CONCEPTION." COLERIDGE'S TABLE TALK. FOURTH EDITION, REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED. BOSTON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY FREEMAN AND BOLLES. 1847. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1645, By Robert Gueenhow, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Columbia. 5 ielM7 boston: printed by freeman and boi.les, DEVONSHIRE STREET. TO MAJOR-GENERAL MORGAN LEWIS, LATE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW VOHK ; THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, AS A MAEK OF RESPECT AND GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE. ROBERT GREENHOW. PEBFACE. The following pages are devoted, principally, to the description and history of the portion of North America bordering on the Pacific Ocean, between the 40th and the 54th parallels of latitude, which is traversed and in a great measure drained, by the River Columbia, and to which the name of OREGON is now usually applied. It has, how- ever, been found necessary, for the objects of the work, to bestow almost equal attention on the regions embraced under the general appellation of California, extending southward from the Columbia countries, to the arm of the Pacific, called the Californian Gulf; and also to take into consideration the coasts and islands north and north-west of those countries, as far as the Arctic Sea. The vast division of America, comprehending these ter- ritories, remains, with the exception of a few isolated spots on the coasts and on the margins of the larger streams, uncultivated and inhabited only by tribes of wandering sav- ages. Its shores and some of its rivers have been exam- ined with care, and their course may be found delineated with considerable minuteness on maps. Of its interior re- gions, some have never been explored, and are indeed ap- parently impenetrable by man ; others, which offer fewer obstacles to the traveller, are only known through the vague and imperfect accounts of traders or missionaries ; and in those which have been the most frequented by civ- ilized persons, much remains to be effected by the aid of scientific observations, in order to obtain satisfactory ideas of their geography and physical characteristics. These territories, unoccupied, partially explored, and IV PREFACE. remote from all civilized countries, nevertheless present much that is interesting in their political history, as well as in their natural conformation and productions ; and events are now in progress which seem calculated, ere long, to attract towards them the views of the governments and people of many powerful nations. Every part of this division of America is in fact claimed by some civilized state as its exclusive property, in virtue either of discoveries or settlements made by its citizens or subjects, or of transfer or inheritance from some other state claiming on similar grounds, or of contiguity to its own acknowledged territories. On these points, the prin- ciples of national law are by no means clearly defined ; nor is it easy to apply such as are most generally admit- ted, to particular cases ; nor are governments ordinarily found ready to relinquish claims merely because they prove to be unfounded, agreeably to such principles : and dis- putes have in consequence arisen between different nations asserting the right of possession to the same portion of Western America, which have more than once threatened to disturb the peace of the world. Attempts have been made to settle the questions at issue by negotiation ; and certain lines of boundary have been agreed on by treaties between one and another of the claimant powers : but the arrangements thus made, can scarcely in any instance be considered definitive, as they have not received, and will probably never receive, the assent of the other parties in- terested. In the mean time these territories are daily becoming more important from the advancement of the population of adjoining countries towards them, and from the constant increase of the trade and navigation of several of the claim- ant powers in the Pacific, which would render the undis- puted possession of establishments on the coasts of that Ocean most desirable for each. The difficulty of effecting an amicable partition ol" the territories thus becomes daily PREFACE. V greater, and more urgent therefore is the necessity of en- deavoring to attain that end without delay. It was principally with the object of showing the nature, origin and extent of these various claims, that the author of the following pages composed his "Memoir, Historical and Political, on the North-West Coasts of North America and the adjacent Territories,"* which was published by order of the Senate of the United States in 1840. He there endeavored to present a complete, clear, and impar- tial view of all the discoveries and settlements, made or attempted, in those countries by civilized nations, and of all the disputes, negotiations and conventions, between different governments wnth respect to them, from the pe- riod when they were first visited by Europeans ; founding his statements as much as possible, upon original authori- ties. That memoir is the only work hitherto published, approaching in its character to a history of the western portion of North America. The History of California,! printed at Madrid, in 1758, is devoted almost exclusively to descriptions of the Californian Peninsula, and to accounts of the missionary labors of the Jesuits, in that desolate re- gion. The Introduction to the Journal of Marchand's Voyage, J which appeared in 1799, and the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes,§ published in 1802, are confined to the discoveries of European navigators on the North Pacific coasts of America, before 1793 ; upon which so many details have been made known, since the appearance of those works, that they are now entirely ob- solete, and scarcely one of their paragraphs can be cited as correct. The Journals of Cook, La Perouse, Vancou- * Extract from the Journal of the Senate of the United States.— " Monchiy, Feb. 10,1840. On motion, by Mr. Linn — Ordered, That a History of the North- West Coast of Nortli America and the adjacent Territories, communicated to tlie Select Committee on the Oregon Territory, be printed, with the accompanying map: and two thousand five hundred copies, in addition to the usual number, be printed for the use of the Senate." t See page 105. } See page 223. § See page 211. VI PREFACE. ver, Mackenzie, Krusenstern, Lewis and Clark, Kotzebue, Beechey, and Belcher, all contain important information as to the geography of the countries under consideration ; but as regards the events, which lie within the province of the historian, we have only the accounts of the Astoria enterprise, by Franchere, Cox, and Irving, all interesting, yet all limited to the occurrences of three or four years. In the most popular histories of other countries, and espe- cially of Great Britain, the circumstances relating to North- West America, are, in every material point, misrepresent- ed, either from neglect on the part of the authors, or from motives less excusable ; and these histories, being univer- sally read and received as true in England and in the Uni- ted States, it is not astonishing, that erroneous ideas should be generally entertained by the people of both na- tions, upon points, which have been, and will continue to be, the subjects of discussion between their governments. The Memoir, above mentioned, contains the outlines of the History now presented ; for which the same authori- ties, with many others since collected, consisting of pri- vate and official reports, letters and accounts, journals of expeditions by sea and land, and histories and state papers of various civilized nations, have been carefully examined and compared. Many errors of fact as well as of reason- ing in the former work, have by this means been correct- ed ; and new circumstances have been brought to light, and new arguments have been founded upon them, calcu- lated perhaps materially to modify the views of those to whom the settlement of questions relative to North-West America may be hereafter entrusted. The principal ob- ject of the author has been to present the facts relative to the discovery and settlement of those countries, fairly ; and to investigate the claims which have been deduced from them, agreeably to the immutable principles of right, and the general understanding of civilized nations : and al- though he fully appreciates, and endeavors in all cases to PREFACE. Vll place in their proper light, the merits of his own country- men, and the pretensions of his own government, he is not conscious that his desire to do so, has in any case led him to the commission of injustice towards other individuals, or nations, either by misstatements, or by suppressions of the truth. In order to unite the various parts into a regu- lar narrative, and to preserve the remembrances of events which may be interesting, if not important at future peri- ods, he has introduced circumstances not immediately tending to the attainment of the principal objects propos- ed ; but he has omitted nothing voluntarily, which if made known miarht have led to conclusions different from those here presented. Dates and references to authorities are generally given, and always in cases where the cir- cumstances related are new or material, or in which his accounts differ from those usually received ; and he has appended a number of documents, extracts and original notices as Proofs and Illustrations of the history. Among the latter, are some valuable papers never before publish- ed, others not commonly known, and others again which the reader will probably desire frequently to consult, in- cluding all the treaties and conventions hitherto concluded between civilized nations, with respect to the countries forming the subjects of the history. In the geographical view he has collected, compared, and endeavored to arrange in order, what appeared to be the most exact and striking details, presented by the nu- merous travellers who have visited the countries in ques- tion. The map has been composed, as far as possible, from original authorities ; being intended for the illustra- tion of the history, it necessarily embraces a very large portion of the surface of the globe, and will be found, per- haps, on the whole, more nearly correct than any other yet offered to the public. Washington, February, 1844. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. Since the publication of the first edition of this History, one of the countries, to which it relates, has been the subject of a most serious discussion between the two great nations claiming the sovereignty over it ; and the peace of the civilized world seemed, for a time, to depend upon the determination of the question, — whether the territory drained by the Columbia River should belong, definitively, to the United States or to Great Britain ? This question has been settled, amicably, and honorably to both the par- ties, by the Treaty of June 15, 1846, and Oregon has ceased to be the topic of the day. The war between the United States and Mexico, however, at the same time, brought California before the public ; but less interest was felt on the subject, as no one appeared to doubt that the latter country would also be speedily annexed to the Great American Re- public. By the events which have been thus consummated, or are now in progress, the foundation has been laid for a new power on the shores of the North Pacific. Thousands of American citizens are already established there, and as many more are now on their way thither, by land and by sea, carrying with them the feelings, the institutions, and the arts of their native land ; and cities will soon rise in Oregon and California, and vessels will be sent forth from their ports, under the flag of the United States, to vie with those of other civilized lands, in the trade and fish- ery of the Western Ocean. The History of North-West X PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. America will not lose its interest, in consequence of these changes, but will be studied with greater care by the political philosopher, the merchant, the agriculturist, and the man of the world ; and the rising population of those countries will treasure up the annals of their discovery and settlement, and many a barren waste, and naked promontory or islet, will be endowed with a romantic value, as the scenes of adventures of the early explorers and colonists. The author of the present work has reason to congratu- late himself, that he devoted his leisure hours to the in- vestigation of the history of Oregon and California, before the occurrence of the discussion with regard to the former country ; of which he has thus been able to contribute, in some measure, to the favorable conclusion, by removing a mass of embarrassing errors, and placing the most material points, for the first time, in a clear and distinct light. That attempts would be made, as they have been, and will continue to be, to deprive him of his share of merit, in the production of these important results, he fully antici- pated from the commencement of his labors, and he has, therefore, suffered no disappointment ; on the contrary, his work has met with a success, both in America and in Europe, far exceeding his most sanguine anticipations, and well calculated to assure him, that it will survive the memory of those, who have endeavored to destroy it, by falsehood or by affected contempt. In the present edition, the author has availed himself of all the information which he has been able to obtain, since the publication of the last preceding ; and he has parti- cularly studied the numerous reviews of his work, and answers to it, which have appeared in Europe, without allowing himself to be affected by the hostile tone in gen- eral pervading them. The objections urged by those writers, have been all carefully examined ; and, where they have been considered either well-founded, or worthy of refutation from their speciousness, corresponding altera- PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. XI tions have been made in the text. Among the portions which have thus been in a manner renewed, are those relating to Drake's voyage, (page 70) — to the boundaries of Louisiana, Canada, and the Hudson's Bay Company's territories, (pages 100 and 277) — especially to the sup- posed adoption of the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, as the separation between the Hudson's Bay countries and the French possessions, agreeably to the Treaty of Utrecht, on which, it is believed, all doubts will be now set at rest, (pages 280 and 436) — to the meaning and duration of the Nootka Convention, of 1790, between Great Bri- tain and Spain, (pages 256 and 318), in which is pre- sented (page 259,) an analysis of the law of nations, as to the effects of war and peace upon treaties. On these, and other points, more or less important, much care has been bestowed, and the views and statements of the author have been modified, as circumstances seemed to require ; while many new facts and arguments have been introduced, tending to make the whole more complete. The account of the recent discussions and treaty, between the United States and Great Britain, on the subject of Oregon, ter- minating this history, is confined entirely to essential cir- cumstances, which are related as concisely and accurately as possible, and with very few remarks of any kind ; the Treaty will be found at length, on page 482. The author must be permitted, in conclusion, to protest against the assertion which has been made, that his work is merely an argument, or brief, in favor of the claims of the United States to the possession of Oregon. It was intended to be, and is, neither more nor less than its name imports, a History of Oregon and California, and the adja- cent territories on the North-West Coast of North Amer- ica ; and not one line in it, or in the Memoir on the North-West Coast, which preceded it, has been written under the dictation, or even with the advice, of any member of the American Government. Had the author been thus influenced, contrary to his own convictions, the whole Xll PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. work would have been different ; and he would scarcely have ventured to oppose, as he has in so many, and indeed in nearly all cases, the views long established in the United States, and uniformly maintained by their Govern- ment, in its previous discussions and declarations, at the risk of the abuse and injury to which he has, as he an- ticipated, been exposed. His maxim has been, to present what he believed to be true and right, in the narration of events, and in reasoning upon them ; and while endeavor- ing to guard and advance the interests of his country, he is not conscious that he has, in any case, been the advo- cate of a course, by which those interests were to be pre- served or benefited, at the expense of its honor or of justice. The author will moreover take this occasion to say, that he expects ere long to offer to the public, another work on the same plan, and on a kindred subject, namely : "A History of Florida, Louisiana and Texas, and the adjacent countries, including the whole valley of the Mississippi, from their discovery to their incorporation with the United States," which has for some time past occupied his leisure hours, and on which he has collected a vast mass of new and interesting facts, calculated materially to change the existing opinions on many important points, relative to that portion of America. Washington, January, 1847. TABLE OF CONTENTS. GEOGRAPHY OF THE WESTERN SECTION OF NORTH AMERICA. GENERAL VIEW. Great Natural Divisions of N. America. 3 — Coasts on the Pacific and the Arctic Seas, 4 — Mountain Chains of the Pacific Section — Far-West Mountains, 5 — Rocky Moun- tains — Blue Mountains, 6 — Climate of the Pacific Section — Lakes, 7 — Rivers, 8 — Central Regions of JN. America — Animals and Vegetables of the Pacific Section — Na- tives, 9 — Establishments of civilized Nations, 10 — Political Limits, IL CALIFORNIA. Extent and Divisions — Gulf of California, 12 — Pearl Fishery — Sonora and Sinaloa, 13 — Peninsula of California — Its Climate, Soil, Productions, and Animals, 14 — Aborigines — Ports and Mexican Settlements, 15 — Continental or New California — Its Extent, Soil, Climate, 16 — Ports and Mexican Settlements — San Diego, Santa Barbara — Monterey, 17 — San Francisco — River Sacramento, 18 — Bodega — Cape Mendocino, 19 — Interior Regions — River Colorado — Utah Lake, 20. T)REGON. Natural and assumed Boundaries, 21 — Strait of Fuca, 22 — Columbia River — North llranch, 23 — South Branch — Main Trunk, 24 — Far- West Mountains, 25 — Westernmost Region of Oregon, 26 — Blue Mountains — Middle Region — Easternmost or Rocky Mo'iintiin Region, 27 — New Caledonia, 28 — North-West Archipelago, 29 — Aborigines. 30 — Hudson's Bay Company's Establishments, 31 — American Settlements, 33. RUSSIAN AMERICA. Extent and Limits — Russian American Company. 36 — District of Sitka — Sitka or New Archangel — District of Kodiak, 37 — Cook's "inlet — Prince William's Sound — Mount St. Elias — Aliaska — Aleutian Islands — Michaelof District, 38 — Kamtchatka — Kuhle Islands, 39. Sandwich Islands, 39 — Marquesas Islands — Society Islands. 40 — Projects for Canals uniting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 41. XIV CONTENTS. HISTORY OF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA, ETC. CHAPTER I. To 1543. Preliminary Observations, 43 — Efforts of the Spaniards to discover Western Passages to India — Successive Discoveries of the West Indies, the North American Continent, the Eastern Passage to India, Brazil, and the Pacific Ocean, 44 — Search for a navigable Pas- sage connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans — Supposed Discovery of such a Pas- sage, called the Strait of Anian, 45 — Discovery of Magellan's Strait and the Western Passage to India, 46 — Conquest of Mexico by Cortes, who endeavors to discover nevi^ Countries farther north-west, 48 — Voyages of Maldonado, Hurtado de Mendoza, Grijalva, and Becerra, 52 ■ — Discovery of California — Expedition of Cortes to California, 53 — Pre- tended Discoveries of Friar Marcos de Niza, 57 — Voyages of Ulloa, Alarcon, and Cabrillo, 68 — Expeditions of Coronado and Soto, 69 — The Spaniards desist from their Efforts to explore the North-West Coasts of America, 63. CHAPTER II. 1543 TO 1608. The Spaniards conquer the Philippine Islands, and establish a direct Trade across the Pacific, between Asia and America, 64 — Measures of the Spanish Government to prevent other European Nations from settling or trading in America, 66 — These Measures resisted by the E.nglish, the French, and the Dutch — Free Traders and Freebooters infest the West Indies, 68 — First Voyages of the English in the Pacific, 70 — Voyages of Drake and Cav- endish, 71 — Endeavors^of the English to discover a Worth-West Passage from the Atlan- tic to the Pacific, 76 — False Reports of the Discovery of such Passages, 78 — Supposed Voyages of Urdaneta, Maldonado, and Fonte, 77 — Voyage of Juan de Fuca, 84 — Expedi- tions of Sebastian Vizcaino, 88 — Supposed Discovery of a great River in North West America, 91. CHAPTER III. 1608 TO 1768. The North-West Coasts of North America remain nearly neglected during the whole of this Period, 93 — Efforts of the English and the Dutch to find new Passages into the Pacific — Discovery of Hudson's Bay, Baffin's Bav, and the Passage around the Cape of Good Hope, 94 — Establishment of British and French Colonies in America — Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company — Endeavors of the Spaniards to settle California unsuccessful, 95 — The Jesuits undertake the Reduction of California. 96 — Their Success, 97 — American Treaty between Great Britain and Spain; confirmed by Treaty of Utrecht, 99 — Discovery and Settlement of Louisiana by the French, 100 — Limits of Louisiana, 101 — Expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish Dominions, 106. CHAPTER I V. 1769 TO 1779. First Establishments on the West Coast of California founded by the Spaniards, 108 — Dis- pute between Spain and Great Britain respecting the Falkland Islands, 111 — Exploring Voyages of the Spaniards under Perez, 111— Heccta and Bodega, 117, and Arteaga and Bo- dega, 125 — Discovery of Nootka Sound. Norfolk Sound, and the Mouth of the Columbia River. 120 — Importance of these Discoveries, 124. CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER V. 1711 TO 1779. Discoveries of the Russians from Kamtchatka — Voyages of Bering and Tchirikof to the Arctic Sea and to the American Continent, 129 — Establishments of the Russian F'ur Tra- ders in the Aleutian Islands, 135 — Voyages of Synd, Krenitzin, and Levashef, 137 — First Voyage from Kamtchatka to Cliina, made by Polish Exiles under Benyovvsky, 138 — General Inaccuracy of the Ideas of the Russians respecting the Geography of the northernmost Coasts of the Pacific, before 1779, 139. CHAPTER VI. 1763 TO 1780. Great Britain obtains Possession of Canada, 110 — Journey of Carver to the Upper Missis- sippi, 141 — First Mention of the Oren;on River, 142 — Inaccuracy of Carver's Statements, 1+i — Journeys of Hearne throu<;h tlie Regions west of Hudson's Bay, 145 — Voyage of Captain Cook to the JNorth Pacific, 147 — His important Discoveries in that Quarter, and Death, 137 — Return of his Ships to Europe} Occurrences at Canton during their Stay in that Port, 158. CHAPTER VII. 1780 TO 1789. Commercial Results of Cook's Discoveries, 160 — Settlements of the Russians in America, 161 — Scheme of Ledyard for the Trade of the North Pacific, 162 — Voyage of La Perouse, 163 — Direct Trade between the American Coasts and Canton commenced, 163 — Voyages of the English Fur Traders — Re-discovery of the Strait of Fuca, 171 — Voyage of Meares, who endeavors to find a great River described by the Spaniards, 175 — First Voyages from the United States to the South Pacific, and to Canton, 179 — Voyage of the Columbia and Washington, under Kendrick and Gray, from Boston to the Worth Pa- cific, 180. CHAPTER VIII. 1788 AND 1789. Uneasiness of the Spanish Government at the Proceedings of the Fur Traders in the JNorth Pacific, 183 — Voyages of Observation by M.irtinez and Haro to the Russian American Settlements, 185 — Remonstrances of tlie Co\irt of Madrid to that of St. Petersburg, against the alleged Encroachments of the latter Power. 186 — Martinez and Haro sent by the Viceroy of Mexico to take Possession of JNootka Sound, 187 — Claims of Spain examined, 188 — Seizure of British and other Vessels at Nootka by Martinez, 191 — Captain Gray, in the Washington, explores the East ("oast of Queen Charlotte's Island, and enters the Strait of Fuca, 199 — Kendrick. in the Washington, passes through the Strait of Fuca — Return of the Columbia to llie United States, 200. CHAPTER IX. 1790. Controversy between Great Britain and Spain respecting the North-West Coasts of America and the Navication of the Pacific, ?02 — The Owners of the Vessels seized at Mootka apply for Redress to the British Government, which demands Satisfaction for the alleged Outrages, 203 — Spain resists the Demand, and calls on France for Aid, agreeably to the XVI CONTENTS. Family Compact, 207 — Proceedings in the JNational Assembly of France on the Subject, 208 — Spain engages to indemnify the British for the Property seized, 205 — Further De- mands of Great Britain — Designs of Pitt against Spanish America, 20G — Secret Mediation of France, through which the Dispute is settled, 209 — Convention of October, 1790, called tlie Nootka Treaty, 210 — Proceedings in Parliament, and Reflections on this Con- vention, 211. CHAPTER X. 1790 TO 1792. Vancouver sent by the British Government to explore the Coasts of America, and receive Possession of Lands and Buildings agreeably to the Convention with Spain, 216 — Passage of the Washington, under Kendnck, through the Strait of Fuca, in 1789, 218 — JNootka re- occupied by the Spaniards, 220 — Voyages of Fidalgo, Quimper, Elisa, Billings, Marchand, and Malaspina, 221 — Voyages of the American Fur Traders, Gray, Ingraham, and Ken- drick, 224 — Discovery of the Washington Islands by Ingraham, 226. CHAPTER XI. 1792 TO 1796. Vancouver and Broughton arrive on the American Coasts in 1792, and meet with Gray, who informs them of his Discovery of the Columbia River, 233 — The Strait of tuca surveyed by Vancouver, Galiano, and Valdes, 238 — Negotiations between Vancouver and Quadra at Nootka, 2-13 — Vancouver's Injustice to the Americans, 2-14, 248,256 — Broughton's Ex- amination of the Lower Part of the Columbia River, 247 — Vancouver's Proceedings at the Sandwich Islands, 249 — He completes the Survey of the North-West Coasts of America, and returns to England, 255 — The Spaniards abandon Nootka, 257 — Conclusions with Regard to the Dispute between Great Britain and Spain, and the Convention of 1790, 258. CHAPTER XII. 1788 TO 1810. Establishment of the North-West Fur Trading Company of Montreal, in 1784,261 — Expedi- tions of Mackenzie to the Arctic Sea and to the Paciiic Coast, 263 — The Trade between the North Pacific Coasts of America and Canton conducted almost exclusively by Vessels of the United States from 1796 to K;14, 266 — Establishment of the Russian American Company, 269 — Its Settlements and Factories on the American Coasts, 270 — Expedition of Krusenstern through the North Pacific, 272 — Proposition of the Russian Government to that of the United States, with Regard to the Trade of the North Pacific, 275. CHAPTER XIII. 1803 TO 1806. Cession of Louisiana by France to the United States, 276 — Inquiries as to the true Extent of Louisiana, 277 — Erroneous Supposition that its Limits towards the North had been fixed by Commissaries agreeably to the Treaty of Utrecht, 281 — President Jeti'erson sends Lewis and ("larke to examine the Missouri and Cohimbia, 284 — Account of their Expedi- tion from tlie Mississippi to the Pacific, 285. CONTENTS. XVII CHAPTER XIV. 1806 TO 1815. First Establishments of the JMorth-West Company in the Countries north of the Columbia, 2y0 — Facihc Fur Company formed at JNew York, 292 — Plan of its Founder, 293 — First Expedition from New York in the Tonquin, 295 — Foundation of Astoria near the Mouth of the Columbia River, 29G — March of the Party under Hunt and Crooks across the Continent, 298 — Arrival of the Beaver in the Columbia, 299 — Destruction of the Ton- quin by the Savages, 300 — War between the United States and Great Britain fatal to the Enterprise, 301 — Establishments of the Pacific Company sold to the JNorth-West Com- pany, 303 — Astoria taken by the British, 304 — Dissolution of the Pacific Company, 305. CHAPTER XV. 1814 TO 1820. Restitution of Astoria to the United States by Great Britain, agreeably to the Treaty of Ghent, 309 — Alleged Reservation of Rights on the Part of Great Britain, 310 — First IVe- gotiation between the Governments of Great Britain and the United States respecting the Territories west of the Rocky Mountains, and Convention for the joint Occupancy of those Territories, 314 — Florida Treaty between Spain and the United States, by which the Latter acquires the Title of Spain to the North-West Coasts, 315 — Colonel Long's exploring Expedition to the Kocky Mountains, 322 — Disputes between the British .\orth- VVest and Hudson's Bay Companies, 324 — Union of those Bodies — Act of Parliament extending the Jurisdiction of the Canada Courts to the Pacific Countries, 325 — Russian Establishments on the North Pacific, 3'27 — Expeditions in Search of Northern Passages between the Atlantic and the Pacific, 326 — Death of Tamaliamaha, and Introduction of Christianity into the Sandwich Islands, 329. CHAPTER XVI. 1820 TO 1828. Bill reported by a Committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, for the Occupation of the Columbia River, 331 — Ukase of the Emperor of Russia, with Regard to the North Pacific Coasts, 332 — Negotiations between the Governments of Great Britain, Russia, and the United States, 335 — Conventions between the L'nited States and Russia, and between Great Britain and Russia, 341 — t'urther Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain relative to the North-West Coasts, 3-44 — Indefinite Extension of the Arrangement for the joint Occupancy of the Territories west of the Rocky Moun- tains, by the British and the Americans, 351. CHAPTER XVll. 1823 TO 1843. Few Citizens of the United States in the Countries west of the Rocky Mountains between J813 and 1823, 35G — Trading Expeditions of Ashley, Sublette, Smith, Pilcher, Pattie, Bonneville, and Wyeth, 357 — Missionaries from the United States form Establishments on the Columbia, 360 — First Printing Press set up in Oregon, 361 — Opposition of the Hud- son's Bay Company to the Americans ; how exerted, 359 — Controversy between the United States and Russia, 362 — Dispute between the Hudson's Bay and the Russian American Companies; how terminated, 363 — California, 365 — Capture of Monterey by Commodore Jones. 368 — The Sandwich Islands, .369 — Proceedings of the Missionaries, ."570 — Expulsion of the Catholic Priests, and their Reinstatement by a French Force, 372 — The Sandwich Islands temporarily occupied by the British, 374— ■Exploring Expe- dition of the .\niericans under Wilkes, 375. XVllI CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVIII. 1842 TO 1846. Excitement in the United States respecting Oregon, 376 — Bill in the Senate for the imme- diate Occupation of Oregon, 379 — That Bill inconsistent with the Convention of 1827, between the United States and Great Britain, S83 — Renewal of Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain — Emigrations from the United States to Oregon, 386 — State of the Hudson's Bay Company's Possessions, 388 — Treaty concluded, 404. PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Original Account of the Voyage of the Greek Pilot Juan de Fuca along the North-West Coasts of America in 1592 4(}7 B. Furs and the Fur Trade 411 c. Correspondence between the Spanish Commandant at Nootka Sound, and the Masters of the American trading Vessels Columbia and Hope, respecting the Occurrences at that Place in the Summer of 1789 413 D. Original Documents relative to the Dispute between Great Britain and Spain, in 1790. . 418 E. Original Documents relative to the Discovery of the Columbia River, by the Spaniards and the Americans 430 F. Showing that the Forty -ninth Parallel of Latitude was not selected as the Line of Separation between the French and the British Territories in North America, by Commissioners ap- pointed agreeably to the Treaty of Utrecht 436 G. Papers relative to the American Establishment of Astoria, on the Columbia River. . . 439 H. Statements presented on each side in the course of the Conferences, held at London, in De- cember 1826, between Messrs. Huskisson and Addington, the British Plenipotentiaries, and Mr. Gallatin, the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States 446 1. Documents relating to the Hudson's Bay Company 466 K. Treaties and Conventions relative to the North-West Territories of North America. . 476 GEOGRAPHY WESTERN SECTION OF NORTH AMERICA. GEOGRAPHY OF THE WESTERN SECTION OF NORTH AMERICA GENERAL VIEW. North America borders upon three great divisions of the ocean : the Atlantic on the east — the Arctic on the north — and the Pacific on the south and west — each of which receives, either directly or through its gulfs and bays, the superfluous waters from a corresponding great section of the continent. These three great sections of North America are unequal in extent, and different in the character of their surface. At least one half of the continent is drained by streams entering the Atlantic ; and of that half, the waters from the larger, as well as the more fertile portion, are carried by the Mississippi into the Mexican Gulf Of the other two sections, that which borders on the Arctic Sea is probably the more extensive. The Atlantic and the Arctic sections present each a large proportion of sur- face, nearly plane, and comparatively little elevated above the sea; and the line of separation between them is so indistinctly marked as to be, in many places, imperceptible. The Pacific section, on the contrary, is traversed in every part by steep and lofty ridges of highland ; and it is completely divided from the other portions by a chain of mountains, extending, in continuation of the Andes of South America, from the Isthmus of Panama, north-westward, to the utmost extremities of the con- tinent in that direction. Of the Atlantic coast of America it is unnecessary here to speak particularly. The irregularity of its outline, the numerous gulfs and bays enclosed by its sinuosities, the great rivers flowing through it into the sea, the archipelagoes in its vicinity, and all its other characteristic features, may be found minutely described in many works. The only parts of this coast, to which reference will be hereafter made, are those surrounding the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson's Bay, as many of the most important discoveries on the western side of the continent have been effected in consequence of the belief in the existence of a direct navigable communi- cation between those portions of the Atlantic and the Pacific. The Pacific coast extends from Panama, near the 9th degree of latitude,* westward and northward, without any remarkable break in its outline, to * All latitudes mentioned in the following pages are north latitudes, unless other- wiae specially stated. 4 GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGKAPHT. the 23d parallel, under which the Gulf of California, separating the pen- insula of California from the main continent on the east, joins the ocean. From the southern extremity of this peninsula, called Cape San Lucas, situated near the entrance of the gulf, the American coast runs north- westward to the foot of Mount St. Elias, a stupendous volcanic peak, rising from the shore, under the 60th parallel ; beyond which the con- tinent stretches far westward, between the Pacific on the south and the Arctic Sea on the north, to its termination at Cape Prince of Wales, near the 64th degree. Cape Prince of Wales, the westernmost point of America, is the eastern pillar of Bering's Strait, a passage only fifty miles in width, separating that continent from Asia, and forming the only direct communication between the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans. Beyond it, the shores of Asia and Europe have been explored in their whole length on the Arctic Sea, though no vessel has hitherto made a voyage through that sea from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or vice vprsa. The north coast of America has been traced from Cape Prince of Wales, north-eastward, to Point Barrow, near the 71st degree of latitude, and thence, eastward, more than fifteen hundred miles, though not continuously, to the Atlantic. The portion north of Hudson's Bay is still imperfectly discovered; and the interesting question whether the Arctic Sea there mingles its waters with those of the Atlantic, or is separated from them by the extension of the continent to the north pole, remains undetermined. Many circumstances, however, combine to favor the belief that a communication will be found between the two oceans, either through Fox's Channel, the northernmost part of Hudson's Bay, or through Lancaster Sound, which joins Baffin's Bay, under the 74th parallel ; though there is little reason to expect that any facilities for commercial intercourse will be gained by the discovery. The Pacific coast, between the entrance of the Californian Gulf and the Strait of Fuca, which joins the ocean under the 49th parallel, presents few remarkable indentations, and the islands in its vicinity are neither numerous nor large. North of the 49th parallel, on the contrary, the mainland is every where penetrated by inlets and bays ; and many pen- insulas protrude from it into the sea. In its vicinity, moreover, are thousands of islands, some of them very large, lying singly or in groups, separated from each other, and from the continent, by narrow, intricate channels. The most extensive of these collections of islands is the North- West Archipelago, nearly filling a great recess of the coast, between the 48th and the 58th parallels. Kodiak is the centre of another archipelago, on the east side of the peninsula of Aliaska ; and a long line of islands, forming the Aleutian Archipelago, stretches from the southern extremity of Aliaska, westward, across the sea, in the course of the 54th parallel of latitude, to the vicinity of the opposite Asiatic peninsula of Kamtchatka, The part of the Pacific called the Sea of Kamtchatka, or Bering's Sea, north of the Aleutian chain, likewise contains several islands, situated, nearly all, close to the shores of one or the other continent. This coast, in its whole length, from the southern extremity of Call- ."ornia to Bering's Strait, is bordered by lofty mountams, which appear to form a continuous chain, partially broken, in a few places, by the passage across it of rivers from the interior. The mountains rise, for the most part, immediately from the sea-shore, above which they may be seen towermg one, two, and even three, miles in perpendicular elevation : in GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. O some places, however, the main ridge is separated from the ocean by tracts of lower country, as much as one hundred miles in breadth, trav- ersed by parallel lines of hills. This ridge, for which no general name has yet been adopted,* is almost entirely of volcanic formation ; being part of the great line or system of volcanoes, which extends from Mexico to the East Indies, passing along the west coast of America, from the south- ernmost point of California to the south-west extreme of Aliaska, thence through the Aleutian Islands to Kamtchatka, and thence southward through the Kurile, the Japan, the Philippine, and the Molucca Islands. There are many elevated peaks, nearly ail of them volcanoes, in every part of the chain ; the most remarkable break, or gap, is that near the 46th degree of latitude, through which the Columbia rushes, at the dis- tance of a hundred miles from the Pacific. The great chain of mountains which separates the streams emptying into the Pacific from those flowing into the other divisions of the ocean, runs through the northern continent, as through the southern, in a lina generally parallel with the shore of the Pacific, and much nearer to that sea than to the Atlantic. Under the 40th degree of latitude, where the western section of America is widest, the distance across it, from the summit of the dividing chain to the Pacific, is about seven hundred miles, which is not more than one third of the distance from the same point of the mountains to the Atlantic, measured in the same latitude. The dividing chain south of the 40th degree of latitude has received many names, no one of which seems to have been universally adopted. It has been called, by some geographers, the Anahuac Mountains; and by that name, though entirely unknown to the people of the adjacent country, it will be distinguished whenever reference is made to it in the fol- lowing pages. The portion of the great ridge north of the 40th parallel is generally known as the Rocky or Stony Mountains. From that latitude, its course is nearly due north-westward, and gradually approaching the line of the Pacific coast, to the 54th degree, where the main chain turns more west- ward, and continues in that direction so far as it has been traced, — prob- ably to Bering's Strait. Another ridge, called the Chipewyan Moun- tains, indeed, extends, as if in prolongation of the Rocky Mountains, from the 53d parallel, north-westward, to the Arctic Sea, where it ends near the 70th degree of latitude; but the territory on its western side is drained by streams entering that sea either directly, or passing through the ridge into the Mackenzie River, which flows along its eastern base. The Rocky Mountains, so far as their geological structure has been ascertained, consist of primary formations, principally of granite. Though rising, in many places, from eight to sixteen thousand feet above the ocean level, they do not, in general, appear very high to the beholder, on account of the great elevation of the country at their bases. On the east- ern side, within a hundred and fifty miles of the great chain, and running nearly parallel to it, are several ridges, from which the surface gradually declines, becoming more nearly plane as it approaches the Mississippi, the Red River, and Hudson's Bay. The part of the continent west of the Rocky Mountains is, as already stated, traversed, in its whole extent, by * The author of this work ventures to propose, for the great ridge here mentioned, the name of Far-West Mountains, which seems to be more definite, and in every respect more appropriate, than any otlier which could be adopted. 6 GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. lofty ridges, separated only by narrow valleys, or plains of moderate width. The country at the base of the chain, on the Atlantic side, is probably nowhere less than four thousand feet above the level of the sea ; and that on the Pacific side is doubtless much higher. The most elevated portion of the Rocky Mountains is about the 54th degree of latitude, where the chain turns towards the west; several peaks in that vicinity have been ascertained to rise more than sixteen thousand feet above the ocean level. Many points, which are undoubtedly more than ten thousand feet in height, have been found in the portion of the dividing ridge called the Wind River Mountains, near the 42d degree of latitude, and farther south, in Long's Range, where the sources of the Arkansas River are situated. Among these mountains, nearly all the greatest rivers in North America have their sources. Within a hundred miles of the point where the chain is crossed by the 41st parallel, rise — on the eastern side — the Missouri, the Yellowstone, the Platte, and the Arkansas, the waters of all which are carried through the Mississippi into the Mexican Gulf, and the River Bravo del Norte, which falls into the same arm of the Atlantic ; while — on the western side — are found the springs of the Lewis, or Snake, the princi- pal southern branch of the Columbia which enters the Pacific, and those of the Colorado, which terminates in the head or northern extremity of the Californian Gulf The sources of the Platte, and those of the Green River, the largest head-water of the Colorado, are situated at opposite ends of a cleft, or transverse valley, in the Rocky Mountains, called the South Pass, in latitude of 42 degrees 20 minutes, which seems destined to be the gate of communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific regions of the continent. In another great cleft, called by the British traders the Punch Bowl, near the 53d parallel, overhung by the highest peaks of the chain, the northern branch of the Columbia issues from a lake, situated within a few feet of another lake, from which runs the west branch of the Athabasca, one of the affluents to the Mackenzie ; and at a short distance south rises the Saskatchawine, which takes its course east- Avard to Lake Winnipeg, and contributes to the supply of Hudson's Bay. In many places between the 42d and the 50th degrees of latitude, the upper streams of the Missouri lie very near to those of the Columbia ; but no gap or depression, which appears to offer facilities for travelling or transportation of merchandise, has been discovered in that part of the dividing chain. The ridges between the Rocky Mountains and the great westernmost chain which borders the Pacific coast, appear to be all united with one or both of those chains, and to run, for the most part, in the same general direction, from south-east to north-west. The most extensive of these intermediate ridges, called the Snowy Mountains, is believed to stretcli uninterruptedly from the Rocky Mountains to the westernmost range, and even to the Pacific, nearly in the course of the 41st parallel of latitude, dividing the regions drained by the Columbia, on the north, from Cali- fornia, on the south. Another ridge, called the Blue Mountains, extends northward from the Snowy Mountains to the 47th parallel, bounding the valley of the Snake or Lewis River, the southern branch of the Columbia, on the west. A lofty ridge also runs from the westernmost chain, near the 48th degree of latitude, northward, to the Rocky Mountains, which it joins near the 54th degree, separating the waters of the northern branch GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 7 of the Columbia from those of Eraser's River on the west, and constituting another natural boundary to the territory drained by the former stream. Of the interior of California, little is known with certainty : it is, however, probable that a ridge extends from the Snowy Mountains, near their junction with the Rocky Mountains, about the 42d degree of latitude, southward, to the great westernmost chain, near the 32d degree, where the Californian peninsula joins the continent, forming the western wall of the valley of the Colorado River. The territories west of the Rocky Mountains abound in lakes, several of which present surfaces of great extent : some of them communicate with rivers ; others have no outlet, and their waters are consequently salt.* The largest, called the Timpanogos, or Utah Lake, among the Snowy Mountains, between the 40th and the 42d degrees of latitude, belongs to the latter class, and is probably not less than two thousand miles in area. The most extensive of the fresh-water lakes is the Kullispelm, or Clarke's Lake, formed by the expansion of the Clarke River, in a valley surrounded by high mountains, under the 48th parallel. The countries on the Pacific side of North America differ materially in climate from those east of the great dividing range of mountains situated in the same latitudes, and at equal distances from and elevations above the ocean. These differences are less within the torrid zone, and beyond the 60th parallel; but in the intermediate space, every part of the Pacific sec- tion is much warmer and much drier than places in the Atlantic or the Arctic sections under the same conditions as above expressed. Thus the north-westernmost regions of America appear to be as cold, and to receive as much rain and snow from the heavens, as those surrounding Baffin's Bay, or those in their own immediate vicinity in Asia ; but in the countries on the Pacific side corresponding in latitude and other respects with Wis- consin, Canada, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, the ground is rarely covered with snow for more than three or four weeks in each year, and it often remains unfrozen throughout the winter. In the countries on the west coast, opposite to Virginia and Carolina, the winter is merely a wet season, no rain falling at any other time; and in the Californian peninsula, which is included between the same parallels of latitude as Georgia and Florida, the temperature is as high as in any tropical region, and many years in succession pass by without a shower or even a cloud. It is likewise observed, especially between the 30th and the 50th parallels, that the interior portions of the Pacific section are much more dry, and the * Wherever water runs on or passes through tlie earth, it meets with salts, in quantities greater or less, according to the structure of the soil, and the space passed over or through : these salts it dissolves, and carries to its final recipient, either the ocean, or some lake or marsh, or sandy region, having no communication, either above or below the surface, with any lower recipient; and, as the water can only escape naturally from this recipient, by evaporation, which cannot abstract a single saline particle, it follows, as a necessary consequence, that the salt must always be accumu- lating there. Thus the Dead Sea, which has no outlet, is saturated with salts, while the Lake of Tiberias, from which it receives its waters through the Jordan, is per- fectly fresh ; and innumerable other instances may be cited. In like manner, the ground in countries from which the water is not regularly carried off by streams or infiltration, is generally impregnated with salt ; of which examples are offered in tlie high plains of Mexico, in some valleys west of the Rocky Mountains, and in many parts of the United States. The reverse may not be always true ; but the saltness of a large body of water, or a large extent of ground, affords strong reasons for suspect- ing me want of a drain from it into a lower recipient. 8 GENERAL. VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. difference in temperature between the day and the succeeding night is, at all seasons, but particularly in summer, greater than in the countries nearer to the ocean. It is scarcely necessary to add, that, in territories so scantily and irregularly supplied with water, the surface must be, in general, bare and destitute of vegetation ; and such is the character of the greater portion of the continent west of the dividing range of mountains. The central regions of the continent east of the Rocky Mountains exhibit, though in a less degree, the same peculiarities of climate with those adjoining, in the Pacific section. The vast plains, extending from the vicinity of the dividing chain towards the Mississippi, south of the 50th parallel of latitude, are almost as arid and barren as the countries on the other side of the ridge; the rains are neither frequent nor heavy during the warm months, and the surface, except in a few spots near the rivers, consists of sand and sandstone strongly impregnated with salt, and affords support only to stiff grass and shrubs. Descending towards the Mississippi, the climate and soil become more favorable to vegetable life, and the country gradually assumes the characters of the other Atlan- tic regions. North of the 50th parallel, there is more rain or snow, at all seasons, on each side of the ridge, though less on the west than on the east; the intensity of the cold, and its long duration, particularly on the eastern side, render those territories almost all uninhabitable by those who depend on agriculture for subsistence. In consequence of this greater aridity of the climate on the western side of America, the irregularity of the surface, and the proximity of the dividing chain of mountains to the coast, the rivers on that side are generally neither so long, nor so abundant in water, nor navigable to such distances from their mouths, as those which fall into the Atlantic. The Columbia and the Colorado are the only streams known to flow from America into the Pacific, which can be compared, in any of these respects, with several in the other sections of the continent; yet they are each certainly inferior to the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Plate, and probably, also, to the Macken- zie. These and the other rivers of Western America run, in nearly their whole course, through deep ravines, among stony mountains ; and they are, for the most part, crossed at short intervals by ledges of rock, pro- ducing falls and rapids, which render all navigation on them impossible, and to overcome which, all the resources of art would be unavailing. In the territory east of the dividing chain, and south of the 50th paral- lel of latitude, are many rivers flowing from the mountains to the Missis- sippi ; but none of them seem calculated to serve as channels for commu- nication between the Atlantic and the Pacific regions. The Missouri and the Yellowstone each take a devious course ; so that, after ascending either of them to the head of its navigation, the distance to the habitable countries on the Pacific is almost as great as from a point on the Missouri, more than fifteen hundred miles below. The Platte flows nearly, under the 42d parallel of latitude, from its source in the South Pass, the princi- pal cleft of the Rocky Mountains, to the Missouri, precisely in the direc- tion most favorable for intercourse between the Mississippi and the Columbia countries; but it is the most shallow of all large rivers: travers- ing a surface nearly plain, the increase of its waters, produced annually by the rains and melting of the snows, only serves to render it wider GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 9 without any considerable increase of its depth, which is every where too small for the passage of the lightest boats. Nature has, however, pro- vided a road along its banks, over which heavy wagons now annually roll between Missouri and Oregon ; and, with a little assistance from art in some places, this road may be rendered one of the best in the world. The territory farther north, extending from the Rocky Mountains to Hudson's Bay and the Arctic Sea, is traversed by innumerable rivers falling into those parts of the ocean. Of these, the principal are the Red River, of the north, the Assinaboin, and the Saskatchavvine, emptying into Lake Winnipeg, which communicates by several channels with Hudson's Bay, and the Missinippi or Churcli ill's River, falling directly into that bay ; while the Arctic Sea receives, nearly under the C9th parallel of latitude. Back's or the Great Fish River, the Coppermine, and the Mackenzie, the latter draining a territory scarcely less extensive than that of the Columbia. The regions crossed by these rivers are, in gen- eral, so nearly level, that it is, in many places, difficult to trace the limits of the tracts from which the waters flow into their respective channels or basins. They contain numerous lakes, some very large, and nearly all connected with each other, and with the Arctic Sea on the north, and Hudson's Bay on the east; and the head-waters of the rivers supplying these reservoirs are situated in the vicinity of the sources of the Missis- sippi, or of the Missouri, or of the Columbia, or of the streams falling into Lake Superior. The rivers above named are all navigable for great distances by boats, and they thus afford considerable advantages for com- mercial intercourse ; goods being now transported across the continent, from the mouth of the Columbia to Hudson's Bay or to Montreal, and vice versa, almost entirely by water. Under circumstances of climate, soil, and conformation of surface, so different, it may be supposed that considerable differences should exist between the productions of the great divisions of America here men- tioned. It has been, accordingly, found that few species of plants or of animals are common to them all, and that many which abound in one arc rare, if not entirely wanting, in the others. Some plants, especially the pines and cedars, acquire a greater development in the regions near the Pacific than in any other country ; but a large portion of those territories is, from reasons already shown, entirely and irretrievably barren. In recompense for this sterility of the soil, the rivers of the Pacific section abound in fish, particularly in salmon, which ascend them to great dis- tances from the sea, and form the principal support of the inhabitants. With respect to the aborigines of these countries, the Arctic coasts of America are occupied by a race called Esquimaux, distinguished by peculiar marks from all others, who are likewise found on the northern- most shores of the Pacific, and particularly in the islands between the two continents, intermingled with the Tchukski, the aborigines of north- ernmost Asia. The remainder of the Pacific section, and, indeed, of the whole American continent, except, perhaps, Patagonia, appears to have been inhabited, before the entrance of the Europeans, by one and the same race; the natives of the different portions differing but slightly, con- sidering the varieties of climate, soil, and situation, and the consequent varieties in modes of life. That some admixture with the races of South- eastern Asia may have taken place, is not improbable, from the fact that Japanese vessels have more than once been thrown on the north-west 2 10 GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOfiRAPHT. coasts of America since the beginning of the present century ; but no evidence or strong ground of supposition of such admixture has been discovered in the appearance of any part of the population of those coasts. The settlements of civilized nations in the Pacific section of North America are inconsiderable in extent. Those of the Russians are scat- tered along the coasts and islands north of the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes ; they are all under the direction of the Russian American Trading Company, and are devoted entirely to the collection of the furs and skins of the land and sea animals abounding in that quarter, of which large quantities are transported for sale to Asia and Europe. Those of the British and of citizens of the United States are intermingled throughout the regions south and east of the Russian territory, to Cali- fornia ; the British, in general, occupying the parts north, and the Americans those south, of the Columbia River, which enters the Pacific near the 46th degree of latitude. The people of both the last-mentioned nations have hitherto, likewise, been employed principally in the fur trade; but, that business having become less profitable of late years, from the diminution of the animals, agricultural establishments have been formed, especially by the citizens of the United States, in the vicinity of the Columbia. The British are all under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company, which possesses, in virtue of a royal grant, the privilege, in exclusion of other British subjects, of trading in all the Indian countries of North America belonging to, or claimed by, that power ; and thev are protected and restrained by British laws, under an act of Parliament extending the jurisdiction of the Canada courts over those countries, so far as relates to subjects of that nation. The citizens of the United States, on the contrary, are deprived of all protection, and are independent of all control; as they are not subject to British laws, and their own govern- ment exercises no authority whatsoever over any part of America west of the Rocky Mountains. In California, south of the 38th degree of lati- tude, are many colonies, garrisons, and missionary stations, founded by the Spaniards during the last century, and now maintained by the Mexi- cans, who succeeded to the rights of Spain in 1821. They are all situ- ated in the immediate vicinity of the coasts, the interior regions being, as yet, almost unknown. It is worthy of remark, that California, though thinly inhabited by a wretched, indolent population, is the only part of the Pacific section of North America which can be considered as regularly settled, — which possesses an organized civil and social system, and where individuals hold a property in the soil secured to them by law. Each of these four nations claims the exclusive possession of a portion of the territory on the Pacific side of America, north of the Californian Gulf; and each of them is a party to some treaty with another, for the temporary use, or definitive sovereignty, of such portion. Thus it has been agreed, by treaty, in 1819, between the United States and Spain, — renewed, in 1828, between the United States and Mexico, — that a line, drawn from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, in the course of the 42d parallel of latitude, should separate the dominions of the former power on the north from those of Mexico on the south. It was, in like manner, agreed, in 1824, by convention between the United States and Russia, that the former nation should make no establishments on the coasts north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, and that the latter GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 11 should make none south of the same line ; but this convention was neu- tralized, and, in fact, abrogated, by a treaty concluded between Russia and Great Britain in the following year, by which all the territories of the main land and islands, north and west of a line drawn from the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes, north-westward, along the highlands bordering the Pacific coasts, to Mount St. Elias, and thence due north to the Arctic Sea, were to belong to Russia, while all east and south of that line were to be the property of Great Britain. The possession of the vast territory west of the Rocky Mountains, between these two lines of boundary, long remained undetermined ; the United States claiming the portion north of the 42d parallel, and Great Britain claiming that south from the other line, to such extent as to secure to the claimant in each case the whole, or nearly the whole, valley of the Columbia : and neither nation being willing to recede from its pretensions, a compromise was made by convention, in 1818, and renewed in 1827, agreeably to which all these countries remained free and open to the people of both. At length, however, on the 15th of June, 1846, a new convention was concluded, for a definitive partition of the disputed territory, by a line drawn from the Rocky Mountains westward, along the 49th parallel of latitude, to the Strait of Fuca, and southward, through the middle of that strait, to the Pacific; all south of which line is assigned to the United States, and all north of it, including the northern portion of the Columbia, Frazer's River, and the southern division of the North- West Archipelago, to Great Britain. The long dispute, with regard to the possession of the countries on the north-wwest side of North America, was thus amicably terminated ; at the same time, however, the war between the United States and Mexico raises a doubt as to the continuance of the dominion of the latter nation in California, on which no speculations will be here offered. Having presented this concise general view of the western section of North America, its divisions will now be described in detail, beginning with the most southern, under the heads of California, Oregon, and Rus- sian America. CALIFORNIA. The name California was first assigned, by the Spaniards, in 1536, to the great peninsula which extends on the western side of North America, from the 32d degree of latitude, southwardly, to and within the limits of the torrid zone; and it was afterwards made to comprehend the whole division of the continent north-west of Mexico, just as that of Florida was applied to the opposite portion on the Atlantic side. At the present day, California is usually considered as including the peninsula, and the territory extending from it, on the Pacific, northward, as fir as the limits of Oregon, or the country of the Columbia River; Cape Mendocino, in the latitude of 40 degrees 19 minutes, being assumed as the point of separation of the two coasts. The Mexican government, however, re- gards the 42d parallel of latitude as the northern limit of California, agreeably to the treaty concluded between that republic and the United States of America in 1828. California is naturally divided into two portions — the peninsular, called Old or Lower California — and the continental, or New, or Upper Califor- nia, the line of separation between which runs nearly along the 32d parallel of latitude, from the head or northern extremity of the Californian Gulf, westward to the Pacific. The Gulf of California will be first considered. This Gulf, called by the Spaniards the Sea of Cortes, but more commonly the Vermilion Sea, (Mar Vermejo,) is a great arm of the Pacific, which joins that ocean under the 23d parallel of latitude, and thence extends north-eastward, be- tween the American continent on the east and the Californian peninsula on the west, to its head or termination, near the 32d parallel, where it receives the waters of the Colorado and Gila Rivers. Its length is about seven hundred miles ; its breadth, at its junction with the Pacific, is one hundred miles: farther north, it is somewhat wider, and, still farther, its shores gradually approach each other, until they become the banks of the Colo- rado. It contains many islands, of which the largest are Carmen, near the 25th degree of latitude, Tiburon and Santa Ines, near the 29th, and some others at the northern extremity. The western or peninsular coasts of the gulf are high, steep, and rocky, offering very few places of security for vessels; and not a single stream which deserves the name of a river enters it on that side. The eastern or continental shores are generally low, and the sea in their vicinity is so shallow as to render the navigation along them dangerous. The peninsular coast of the gulf has long been celebrated for the great size and beauty of the pearls contained in the oysters which abound in the sea on that side ; and the search for those precious stones has always formed the principal employment of people of civilized nations in that quarter The pearls are procured, with much danger and difficulty, by ' GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. IB Indians, who dive for them to the depth of twenty or more feet, and of whom a large proportion are annually drowned or devoured by sharks. A company, formed at London in 1825, sent Lieutenant Hardy to the Californian coast, with two vessels, carrying; diving-bells, by the aid of which it was expected that the pearl fishery might be conducted more safely, as well as profitably, than by the ordinary means; but, unfortu- nately, it proved that the oysters always lie in crevices of the rocks, to which no access can be had by persons in the diving-bell, and the enter- prise was, in consequence, abandoned. The value of the pearls obtained appears to be trifling when compared with the time and labor employed in the search for them. In 1825, eight vessels engaged in the business col- lected together five pounds of pearls, which were worth about ten thousand dollars. Occasionally, however, a single stone is found of value sufficient to afford compensation for years of fruitless labor; and some of the rich- est pearls in the regalia of Spain are the produce of the fishery in the Californian Gulf The territory extending east from the Californian Gulf to the summit of the great dividing chain of the Anahuac Mountains, forms two politi- cal divisions of the Mexican republic, of which the northern is called Sonora, (a corruption of Senora,) and the southern Sinaloa. These countries are, as yet, thinly inhabited : from the general productive- ness of their soil, the salubrity of their climate, and the number and rich- ness of their mines of gold and silver, they seem calculated for the support of a large population, for which the gulf, and the many rivers flowing into it from the mountains on the east, will afford the means of communi- cating with other lands. The port of Guaymas, in Sonora, in latitude of 27 degrees 40 minutes, is said to be one of the best on the Pacific side of America. Mazatlan, in Sonora, at the entrance of the Californian Gulf, has been, hitherto, more generally frequented ; but it is neither so secure as Guaymas, nor is the territory in its vicinity so productive or healthy. South-east of Mazatlan, in latitude of 27 degrees 29 minutes, is San Bias, the principal commercial port of Mexico on the Pacific, one of the hottest and most unhealthy spots on the globe ; and still farther, in the same direction, are Navidad, Acapulco, and the harbor of Tehuante- pec, all celebrated, in former times, as places of trade, but now decaying and deserted. The peninsula of California is about one hundred and thirty miles in breadth where it joins the continent, under the 32d parallel, that is to say, nearly in the same latitude with the city of Savannah, in Georgia. Thence it extends south-eastward, varying, but generally diminishing, in breadth between the Pacific on the west and the Californian Gulf on the east, to its termination in two points — Cape San Lucas, the south- westernmost, in latitude of 22 degrees 52 minutes, corresponding nearly with that of the city of Havanna, in Cuba — and Cape Palmo, 60 miles east by north of the other, at the entrance of the Californian Gulf Continental California extends, upon the Pacific, from the 32d parallel of latitude, where it joins the peninsula, about seven hundred miles north-west- ward to Oregon, from which it is divided, nearly in the course of the 42d parallel, — that is, nearly in the latitude of Boston, — by a chain of highlands called the Snowy Mountains, the Sierra Nevada of the Spaniards. Its boundaries on the west are not, as yet, determined politically by the Mexican government; nor do geographers agree with regard to its 14 GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. . natural limits in that direction. By some, it is considered as embracing, like Chili, only the territory between the Pacific and the summit of the great mountain chain, which borders the western side of the continent : others extend its limits to the Colorado; while others include in it, and others acrain exclude from it, the entire regions drained by that river. The only portion occupied by the Mexicans, or of which any distinct ac- counts have been obtained, is that between the great chain of mountains and the ocean ; the country east of that ridge to the Colorado appears to be an uninhabitable desert. The Californian peninsula is merely the southern portion of the great westernmost chain of mountains, prolonged through the Pacific. It consists entirely of high, stony ridges, separated by narrow, sandy val- leys, and contains no tracts of level ground of any extent. At its southern extremity, the earth is sometimes visited by showers in the sum- mer, but never at any other period of the year : near its junction with the continent, rain is seen only in winter; and in the intermediate por- tion, many years in succession pass by without the appearance of a drop of water from the heavens, or indeed of a single cloud, while the rays of the sun, thus uninterrupted in their passage, produce a heat as intense as that in any other region of the world. Under such circum- stances, as might be supposed, the springs of water are few and slender, and the surface is almost every where destitute of vegetation. The peninsula is, on the whole, an irreclaimable desert: yet, wherever irri- gation is practicable, the productiveness of the soil is extraordinary ; and the little oases formed by the passage of a slender rivulet through a narrow, sandy defile, may thus be made to yield all the fruits of tropical climes in abundance, and of the finest quality. The southern portion of the peninsula contains several mines of gold,[ which have been worked, though not extensively. The only mine as yet! discovered in continental California is one of gold, situated at the foot j of the great westernmost range of mountains, on the west, at the dis- I tance of twenty-five miles from Angeles, the largest town in the country, j It is said to be of extraordinary richness. The animals originally found in California were buffaloes, — though in small numbers, compared with those east of the Rocky Mountains, — deer, elk, bears, wild hogs, wild sheep, ocelotes, beavers, foxes, and many others, generally of species different from those in the Atlantic regions of the continent. Sea otters were very abundant on the northern parts of the coasts, but they have disappeared. Cattle and horses were introduced by the Spaniards from Mexico, and have increased in an extraordinary de- gree, particularly the cattle, with which the valleys near the coast of the continental portion are covered. One of the scourges of this country is the chapul, a kind of grasshopper, which appears in summer, especially after a mild winter, in clouds resembling the locusts of Southern Asia^ destroying every vegetable substance in their way. The aborigines of California are placed, by those who have had the best opportunity of studying their character and disposition, with the Hottentots, the Patagonians, and the Australians, among the lowest of the human race ; those of the continental portion being considered less fero- cious, but more indolent and vicious, than the natives of the peninsula. The Spaniards made many attempts, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to found settlements in the country, all of which proved GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 15 abortive ; until, at length, in 1699, the Jesuits, by permission of the king of Spain, undertook to convert the natives to Christianity, and to initiate them into the usages and arts of civilized life. With this view, they formed a number of missions, near the east coasts of the peninsula, and, by untiring assiduity, they had succeeded partly in their objects before 1768, when the Jesuits were, in execution of a decree issued at Madrid, expelled from the Spanish dominions ; their establishments were then confided to the Dominicans, under whose charge they have since re- mained with little advantage in any way. The number of persons in the peninsula at present has been variously estimated ; from the best accounts, it does not exceed five thousand, of whom a small proportion only are Mexicans, and very few are of European origin. The principal places now occupied by the Mexicans are — Loreto, formerly the principal mission of the Jesuits, and now the capital of Old California, a miserable village of about two hundred persons, situated near the gulf, opposite the Island of Carmen, in latitude of 25 degrees 14 minutes — La Paz, on the Bay of Pichilingue, a little farther south, the port of communication with Mexico — and Port San Jose, near Cape San Lucas, where an establishment has been recently formed in a plain, watered by a slender rill. From these places, small quantities of tortoise shells, dried meat, cheese, and dried fruits, the latter said to be excellent, are sent to San Bias, in Mexico, or sold to trading vessels which occasionally enter the gulf during their tour along the coasts. There are several other spots on the gulf oflTering good harbors for vessels, though they present no facilities for settlements ; among which the principal is the Bay of Mulege, near the latitude of 27^ degrees. On the west, or Pacific, side of the peninsula no settlement has ever been formed or attempted by a civilized nation. This coast offers many excellent harbors, but the want of fresh water in their vicinity must ever prove an effectual obstacle to their occupation. The principal harbors are, the Bay of La Magdalena, in latitude of 25 degrees, which is separated from the ocean by the long island of Santa Margarita, and appears to stretch much farther inland than had been supposed ; the Bay of Sebas- tian Vizcaino, under the 2Sth parallel, east of the Isle of Cedars; Port San Bartolome, called Turtle Bay by the British and American traders , and Port San Quintin, an excellent harbor, with fresh water near it, in lat- itude of 30 degrees 20 minutes, called by the old Spanish navigators the Port of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, which was rediscovered in 1800 by Captdin O'Kean, a fur-trader from Boston. At the distance of a hundred and twenty miles from this coast, under the parallel of 28 degrees 45 minutes, is the small, rocky island of Guadelupe, the existence of which, after it had been denied by many navigators, has been ascertained. Northward from the peninsula, the great westernmost chain of moun- tains continues nearly parallel with the Pacific coast, to the 34th degree of latitude, under which rises Mount San Bernardin, one of the highest peaks in California, about forty miles from the ocean. Farther north, the coast turns more to the west, and the space between it and the sum- mit line of the mountains becomes wider, so as to exceed eighty miles in some places; the intermediate region being traversed by lines of hills, or smaller moimtains, connected with the main range. The principal of these inferior ridges extends from Mount San Bernardin north-westward to its termination on the south side of the entrance of the great Bay of 16 GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. San Francisco, near the 38th degree of latitude, where it is called the San Bruno Mountains. Between this range and the coast run the Santa Barbara Mountains, terminating in the north at the Cape of Pines, on the south-west side of the Bay of Monterey, near the latitude of 36J degrees. North of the San Bruno Mountains is the Bolbones ridge, bordering the Bay of San Francisco on the east; and still farther in the same direction are other and much higher lines of highlands, stretching from the great chain, and terminating in capes on the Pacific. The southernmost of these regions of continental California, between the Pacific and the great westernmost chain of mountains, resembles the adjacent portion of the peninsula in climate ; being very hot and dry, except during a short time in the winter. Farther north, the wet season increases in length, and about the Bay of San Francisco the rains are almost constant from November to April, the earth being moistened dur- ing the remainder of the year by heavy dews and fogs. Snow and ice are sometimes seen in the winter on the shores of this bay, but never farther south, except on the mountain-tops. The whole of California is, however, subject to long droughts ; thus little or no rain fell in any part of the country during 1840 and 1841, in which years the inhabitants were reduced to the greatest distress. Among the valleys in this part of California are many streams, some of which discharge large quantities of water in the rainy season; but no river is known to flow through the maritime ridge of mountains from the interior to the Pacific, except perhaps the Sacramento, falling into the Bay of San Francisco, though several are thus represented on the maps. The valleys thus watered afford abundant pasturage for cattle, with which they are covered: California, however, contains but two tracts of country capable of supporting large numbers of inhabitants, which are, that west of Mount San Bernardin, about the 34th degree of latitude, and that sur- rounding the Bay of San Francisco and the lower part of the Sacramento; and even in these, artificial irrigation would be indispensable to insure success in agriculture. The earliest settlements in continental California were made by the Spaniards, in 1769, immediately after the expulsion of the Jesuits from the peninsula. These establishments were at first missionary and military ; the charge of converting the natives being committed to the Franciscans, while forts and garrisons were placed at various points, for the occupation and defence of the country. Towns were subsequently laid out and settled, and farms were cultivated, for the most part by natives, under the direction of the friars and officers. All these establishments declined considerably after the overthrow of the Spanish power, in consequence of want of funds, and the diminution of the autliority of the priesthood; but, on the other hand, the commerce of the country has increased, and many vessels, principally from the United States, resort to its ports, bringing manufactured articles, in return for which they receive hides, tallow, and other raw productions. In 1835, the number of missions was twenty- one, and of the towns seven, to which were attached about twenty-three thousand persons, mostly of the pure aboriginal race, and many of mixed breed. Since that time several missions have been abandoned, while the towns have increased in number and population. The most southern settlement on the Pacific side of California, and the GEOGRAPHY OF CAL,IFORNIA. 17 first established by the Spaniards, is San Diego, a small town of three hun- dred inhabitants, situated about a mile from the north shore of a bay which communicates with the ocean, in the latitude of 32 degrees 41 minutes. The bay runs about ten miles eastward into the land, being separated from the ocean, in its whole length, by a ridge of sand, and affords entrance to vessels of any size, which may anchor safe from all winds within a mile of the northern shore. The passage leading into it is defended by for- tifications which, if properly armed and manned, might render the harbor completely secure from all attacks by sea. The mission stands about seven miles from the town, in a valley, through which a torrent rushes in the rainy season. About sixty miles farther north-west is San Juan, a small place on an unsafe and inconvenient harbor, in latitude of 33 degrees 27 minutes; and somewhat farther in the same direction is San Pedro, on a bay open to the south-west winds, but sheltered from the north-west. The country in the immediate vicinity of these places is sandy and barren, yielding little besides grass for cattle; in the interior, however, on the north-east, is the wide tract already mentioned, extending to Mount San Bernardin, which is said to be of great fertility wherever it is properly irrigated, producing wheat, vines, olives, and fruits of various kinds. In this tract, at the distance of thirty miles north from San Pedro, stands Pueblo de los Angeles, the largest town in California, containing a thou- sand inhabitants ; and near it the mission of San Gabriel, the vineyards of which formerly yielded a large supply of good wine. From Port San Pedro the Caiifornian coast runs westward, more than a hundred miles, to Cape Conception, a point situated in latitude of 34 de- grees 22 minutes, as much dreaded by navigators, on account of the violence and frequency of the storms in its vicinity, as Cape Hatteras, near the same parallel on the eastern side of the continent. Opposite this part of the coast are the Islands of Santa Barbara, eight in number, of which four, called Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Santa Catalina, and San Clemente, contain from twenty to fifty square miles of surface each; the others being mere rocks. Between the Island of Santa Cruz and the main land on the north is the channel of Santa Barbara, on the north side of which, the town, fort, and mission of Santa Barbara are situated, in a sandy plain, stretching from the coast to the Santa Barbara range of mountains. The harbor is an open roadstead, sheltered from the north and west winds, which there prevail from November to March, but affording no protection against the south-westerly storms, which are so vio- lent and frequent during the remainder of the year. At the distance of a hundred miles north of Cape Conception, the Santa Barbara Mountains end, as already said, in a point called the Cape of Pines, (Punta de Pinos,) in latitude of 3G degrees 37 minutes; between which and another point, twenty-four miles farther north, called Cape New Year, (Punta de Nuevo Ario,) is included the extensive Bay of Mon- terey. This bay lies in an indentation of the coast, almost semi-circular; its soutliernmost part is, however, separated from the ocean by the point of land ending at the Cape of Pines, and thus forms a cove, near the southernmost part of which stands the town of Monterey, or San Carlos de Monterey, the seat of government of California. The town is a wretched collection of mud-built houses, containing about two hundred inhabitants; the castle, as it is termed, and the fort on the Cape of Pines, are merely mud walls, behind which are a few old gnns, all ineffective. 3 18 GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. The mission, situated three miles south of the town, in a valley, through which runs the torrent of San Carmelo, embraces extensive buildings, but is in a ruinous state, and nearly deserted. The surrounding country possesses a good soil and a delightful cli- mate, and might be rendered very productive by irrigation, for which two small rivers, flowing from the mountains, offer abundant supplies of water at all times; it, however, remains uncultivated, and scarcely any article of food is obtained from it, except the meat of the cattle covering the valleys. From the eastern shore of the bay, a sandy plain extends eastward to the foot of the San Bruno Mountains, traversed by a r-iver called the Buena- ventura, which is erroneously represented, on some maps, as flowing through the great ridge from the interior countries. North of the bay, at a little distance from Cape New Year, is the mission of Santa Cruz, to which vessels commonly resort for water and provisions; and farther in the interior, beyond the San Bruno range, is the town of Branciforte, one of the largest in California. The next remarkable headland on the coast north of the Bay of Mon- terey is that called Punta de los Reyes, or the Cape of Kings, composed of high white cliffs, projecting into the Pacific, under the 3Sth degree of lat- itude; when seen from the north or the south, it presents the appearance of an island, being connected with the main land on the east by low ground. A k\v miles south of this point are two clusters of rocky islets, called Farellones, immediately east of which, The Bay of San Francisco joins the Pacific by a passage or channel two miles wide, and tliree in length, under the parallel of 37 degrees 55 minutes, neirly in the same latitude with the entrance of Chesapeake Bay, and the Straits of Gibraltar. From this passage the bay extends northward and southward, surrounded by ranges of high hills, and con- taining some of the most convenient, beautiful, and secure harbors, on the Pacific, and, indeed, in the world. The southern branch of the bay extends south-eastward about thirty miles, terminiting in thrit direction in a ninnber of small arras, receiving streams from the hills. Its average breadth is about twelve miles ; and it may be considered as occupying the bottom, or northern extremity of a long valley, included between the San Bruno Mountains on the west and the Bol bones ridge on the east. Farther up this valley, in tlie south, are the large Likes of Tule, which communicate with each other and with the bay during the rainy season, and are said to be surrounded by a delightful country, containing a numerous population of natives. The northern branch of the bay becomes contracted, near the entrance, into a strait, beyond which is a basin, ten miles in diameter, called the B ly of San Pablo. A second passage, called the Strait of Carquines, connects this basin with another, containing many islands, into which empty the Sacramento, and one or two smaller streams. The Sacramento rises among the mountains of the great westernmost chain, near the 41st degree of latitude, and is said to receive a branch flowing through those mountains from the east. Thence it flows, in a very tortuous course, about lliree hundred miles, southward, to its entrance in the Bay of San Fran- cisco, being navigable by small vessels to the distance of more than one hundred miles from the bay. The lower part of the country traversed by it is an alluvial plain, parts of which are prairies, while others are cov- ered with forests of noble trees, principally oaks, and the whole appears to GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 19 be well adapted for the support of a large population. The other rivers falling into this basin are the San Joaquin from the south, and the Jesus Maria from the north, both inconsiderable streams. In the country around this bay, settlements and cultivation have ad- vanced more than in any other part of California. Near its southern ex- tremity are the town of San Jose and the mission of Santa Clara, in a delightful region, producing grains and fruits of various kinds in pro- fusion, and affording pasture to numerous herds of cattle. On the northern branch are the missions of San Raefael, and San Francisco Solano ; and many small establishments for farming or grazing have been formed at other points. The town, mission, and fort of San Francisco, are all situated near the south side of the passage connecting the bay with the Pacific, on a plain at the termination of the San Bruno Moim- tains. The principal anchorage for vessels is a cove a few miles south of the entrance-passage, between the western shore of the bay and the Island of Yerba Buena, where a settlement has been commenced by the Encrlish and Americans, who conduct nearly all the trade of that part of California. Near Cape de los Reyes, on the north, is the entrance of the Bay of Bodetra, which thence extends northward and southward, a few miles in each direction. On the shore of the northern branch, the Russians, in 1812, formed an establishment, chiefly with the view of supplying their settlements farther north with grain and meat; and some years after- wards, another, called Ross, was made by the same nation, on the coast of the Pacific, thirty miles north of Bodega, in latitude of 38 degrees 33 minutes, near the mouth of a small stream, named by them the Slavinka Ross. In 1838, each place contained a stockaded fort, enclosing maga- zines and dwellings for the officers, and surrounded by other buildings, among which were mills, shops for smiths and carpenters, and stables for cattle ; and in the neighborhood of Bodega, farms were worked, from which several thousand bushels of wheat, besides pease, and other vegetables, butter, and cheese, were annually sent to the trading posts in the north. These establishments proved constant sources of annoy- ance to the Spaniards, and to their Mexican successors, who did not, however, venture to attempt to remove them by force; in 1841, they were abandoned by the Russians, who transferred all their interests in that quarter to a company or party composed of citizens of the United States, and others, equally determined to resist the authority of Mexico. Cape Mendocino, which appears to be the natural point of junction of the coasts of California and Oregon, is the most elevated land near the Pacific in that quarter. It consists of two high promontories, situated about ten miles apart, of which the southern and the most elevated is situated under the parallel of 40 degrees 19 minutes, nearly in the same latitude with Sandy Hook, at the entrance of the bay of New York ; and is believed to be the western termination of the great chain of the Snowy Mountains, which forms the southern barrier of the regions drained by the Columbia. This cape was formerly much dreaded by the Spanish navigators, on account of the storms nsually prevailing in its vicinity ; but, those fears having passed away, the cape has lost much of the respect with which it was regarded by mariners. The interior of California, east of the mountains which border the coast, is imperfectly known. According to the vague reports of the 30 GEOGR-iPHiT OF CALIFORNIA. Catholic missionaries and American fur-traders, confirmed by the surveys of various portions recently made by Captain Fremont, the vast territory, included between the vicinity of the Pacific and the valley of the Colorado, is a waste of lofty snow-clad mountains, interspersed with plains of sand, marshes, and salt-lakes, and subjected to a heat from the sun, as intense as that experienced in the central regions of Australia. The Colorado, the only outlet of the waters of this territory, has its farthermost sources among the Rocky Mountains, near the 4'2d degree of latitude, where its main trunk is called by the Indians the Sids-kadee, and by the Americans Green River : thence it flows south-westward, through the mountains, where its course is broken by numerous ledges of rock, producing rapids and falls ; after which it receives the Navajo, the Jaquesila, the Gila, and other streams from the east, and the Uintah and Virgen from the west, and enters the Gulf of California, at its northern extremity, in latitude of 32 degrees. The country near the mouth is flat, and is overflowed during the rainy season, when the quantity of water discharged is very great ; and high embankments are thus made, on each side, similar to those of the Lower Mississippi. How far it may be ascended by vessels from the gulf, is not known : from some accounts, it seems to be navigable to the distance of at least three hundred miles ; but, more probably, obstacles are found lower down. The Utah Lake, or Lake Timpanogos of the Spaniards, near the Colo- rado, on the west, between the 40th and the 42d parallels of latitude, is the largest collection of water yet discovered in that part of America. According to the observations of Fremont, who surveyed the greater part of it in 1843, it is irregular in outline, about eighty miles long by forty wide, and contains several rocky islands. It is entirely surrounded by mountains, and is principally supplied by the Bear River entering it on the north-east : it has no outlet, and its waters are saturated with salt. Near the northernmost part of the Bear River, is an extensive plain of white calcareous earth, on the borders of which are several springs, crdled the Soda or Beer Springs, from the quantity of carbonic acid gas with which their waters are charged. Having thus presented the most remarkable features of Californin, those of Oregon, or the country of the Columbia River, next adjoining on the north, will be described. OREGON Oregon has been hitherto considered as embracing the whole division of America drained by the Columbia River, together vjfith the territories between the valley of that stream and the Pacific, and the islands ad- jacent. By the treaty concluded at Washington, on the 15th of June, 1846, a line drawn along the 49th parallel of latitude, from the Rocky Moun- tains to the Strait of Fuca, and thence southward, through the middle of the strait, to the Pacific, has been established as the line of separation, between the territories of the United States on the south, and those of Great Britain on the north ; and the name of Oregon will therefore prob- ably, in future, be confined to the portion of the continent between the 49th and the 42d parallels of latitude. It will, however, be more con- venient at present to consider these territories merely according to their natural divisions, beginning with THE COUNTRY OF THE COLUMBIA. This country extends, on the Pacific, from the vicinity of Cape Mendo- cino, five hundred miles, to Cape Flattery, at the entrance of the Strait of Fuca ; from the eastern extremity of which strait, distant one hundred miles from the ocean, a range of mountains stretches north-eastward, about four hundred miles, to the Rocky Mountains, near the 54th degree of lati- tude, separating the waters of the Columbia from those of Frazer's River. The Rocky Mountains form the eastern boundary of the Columbia regions, for about twelve hundred miles, from the 54th to the 42d parallels ; and those regions are separated from California, on the south, i)y the Snowy Mountains, which appear to extend continuously from the Rocky Moun- tains, nearly in the course of the 41st parallel, about seven hundred miles westward, to the vicinity of the Pacific. It is not easy to define these boundaries more exactly, as the directions of the mountain chains are not accurately ascertained. The territory included within these limits, and drained almost entirely by the Columbia, is not less than four hundred thousand square miles in superficial extent ; which is more than double that of France, and nearly half that of all the states of the Federal Union. Its southernmost points are in the same latitudes with Boston and with Flor- ence ; while its northernmost correspond with the northern extremities of Newfoundland, and with the southern shores of the Baltic Sea. The Pacific coast of this territory extends, in a line nearly due north, from Cape Mendocino to Cape Flattery ; in which whole distance there is but one harbor, or place of refuge for ships, namely, the mouth of the Columbia River, near the 46th degree of latitude, and that harbor is very frequently inaccessible. The shores south of the Columbia are most perilous to navigators at all times ; as they are every where steep and rocky, and bordered by shoals 22 GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. and reefs, on which the waves of the Pacific are driven with fury by the prevailing north-west winds. Vessels not drawing more than eight feet may, however, enter the Umqua, a small stream falling into the Pacific, in the latitude of 42 degrees 51 minutes, immediately north of a remark- able promontory called Cape Orford, probably the Cape Blanco of the old Spanish navigators. Small vessels may also find anchorage in a cove or recess of the coast, named by the Spaniards Port Trinidad, under the parallel of 41 degrees 3 minutes, about forty miles north of Cape Mendo- cino, and in some other spots; but no place on this coast can be said to offer protection to vessels against winds or waves. North of the Columbia, the coast is less beset by dangers; and it offers, immediately under the 47th parallel, one good port, for small vessels, which was discovered in May, 1792, by Captain Gray, of Boston, and named by him Bulfinch's Harbor, though it is more commonly called Gray's Harbor, and is frequently represented on English maps as Whid- bey's Bay. The only other spot worthy of particular notice on this part of the coast is Destruction Island, near the continent, in latitude of 47J degrees, so called by the captain of an Austrian trading ship in 1787, in consequence of the murder of some of his men by the natives of the adjacent country. The Strait of Fuca is an arm of the sea separating a great island from the continent on the south and east, to which much interest was for some time attached, from the supposition that it might be a channel connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific north of America. It extends from the ocean eastward about one hundred miles, varying in breadth from ten to thirty miles, between the 4Sth and the 49th parallels of latitude ; thence it turns to the north-west, in which direction it runs, first expanding into a long, wide bay, and then contracting into narrow and intricate passages among islands, three hundred miles farther, to its reunion with the Pacific, under the 51st parallel. From its south-eastern extremity, a great gulf, called Admiralty Inlet, stretches southward into the continent more than one hundred miles, dividing into many branches, of which the principal are Hood's Canal, on the v/est, and Puget's Sound, the southernmost, extending nearly to the 47th parallel. This inlet possesses many excel- lent harbors; and the country adjacent, being delightful and productive, will, there is every reason to believe, in time become valuable, agricul- turally, as well as commercially. There are many other harbors on the Strait of Fuca, of which the principal are Port Discovery, near the entrance of Admiralty Inlet, said by Vancouver to be one of the best in the Pacific, and Poverty Cove, called Port Nunez Gaona by the Span- iards, situated a few miles east of Cape Flattery. That cape, so named by Cook, is a conspicuous promontory in the latitude of 48 degrees 27 minutes, near which is a large rock, called Tatooche's Island, united to the promontory by a rocky ledge, at times partially covered by water. The shore between the cape and Admiralty Inlet is composed of sandy cliffs overhanging a beach of sand and stones ; from it the land gradually rises to a chain of mountains, stretching southwardly along the Pacific to the vicinity of the Columbia, the highest point of which received, in 1783, the name of Mount Olympus. The interior of this part of America is, as already said, traversed by many great ranges of mountains, miming generally almost parallel with each other, and with the coast : before describing them, however, it will GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 223 be convenient to present a general view of the Columbia River and its branches. The Columbia enters the Pacific Ocean between two points of land, seven miles apart — Cape Disappointment on the north, and Cape Adams on the south, of which the former is in the latitude of 46 degrees 19 minutes, (corresponding nearly with Quebec, in Canada, and Geneva, in Switzerland,) and in longitude of 47 degrees west from Washington, or 124 degrees west from Greenwich. The main river is formed, at the distance of two hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, by the union of two large streams, one from the north, which is usually considered as the principal branch, and the other, called the Sahaptin, or Snake, or Lewis's River, from the south-east. These two great confluents receive, in their course, many other streams, and they thus collect together all the waters flowing from the western sides of the Rocky Mountains, between the 42d and the 54th parallels of latitude. The northern branch of the Columbia rises in the Rocky Mountains, near the 53d degree of latitude. One of its head-waters, the Canoe River, runs from a small lake, situated in a remarkable cleft of the great chain, called the Punch Bowl, at the distance of only a few feet from another lake, whence flows the westernmost stream of the Athabasca River, a tributary to the Mackenzie, emptying into the Arctic Sea. This cleft appears to be the only practicable pass in the mountains north of the 49th degree of latitude, and through it is conducted all the trade of British subjects between the territories on either side of the ridge. It is described, by those who have visited it, as presenting scenes of the most terrific grandeur, being overhung by the highest peaks in the dividing range, of which one, called Mount Brown, is not less than sixteen thousand feet, and another, Mount Hooker, exceeds fifteen thousand feet, above the ocean level. At a place called Boat Encampment, near the 52d degree of latitude, Canoe River joins two other streams, the one from the north, the other, the largest of the three, running along the base of the Rocky Mountains, from the south. The river thus formed, considered as the main Colum- bia, takes its course nearly due south, through defiles, between lofty mountains, being generally a third of a mile in width, but, in some places, spreading out into broad lakes, for about three hundred miles, to the latitude of 48i degrees, where it receives the Flatbow or M'Gillivray's River, a large branch, flowing, also, from the Rocky Mountains on the east. A little farther south, the northern branch unites with the Clarke or Flathead River — scarcely inferior, in the quantity of water supplied, to the other. The sources of the Clarke are situated in the dividing range, near those of the Missouri and the Yellowstone, whence it runs north- ward, along the base of the mountains, and then westward, forming, under the 48th parallel, an extensive sheet of water, called the KullerspelmLake, surrounded by rich tracts of land, and lofty mountains, covered with noble trees; from this lake the river issues, a large and rapid stream, and, after running about seventy miles westward, it falls into the north branch of the Columbia, over a ledge of rocks. From the point of union of these two rivers, the Columbia turns towards the west, and rushes through a ridge of mountains, where it forms a cataract called the Chaudiere or Kettle Falls. Continuing in the same direction eighty miles, between the 48th and the 49th parallels, it receives, in succession, the Spokan from ^4 GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON, the south, and the Okinagan from the north, and, from the rnouth 6f the latter, it pursues a southward course for one hundred and sixty miles, to its junction with the great southern branch, near the 47th degree of latitude. Of the Sahaptin, or Lewis, or Snake River, the great southern branch of the Columbia, the farthermost sources are situated in the deep valleys or holes of the Rocky Mountains, near the 42d degree of latitude, Avithin short distances of those of the Yellowstone, the Platte, and the Colorado. The most eastern of these head-waters, considered as the main river, issues from Pierre's Hole, between the Rocky Mountains and a parallel range called the Tetons, from three remarkable peaks, resembling teats, which rise to a great heigiit above the others. Running westward, this stream unites successively with Henry's Fork from the north, and the Portneuf from the south. Some distance below its junction with the latter, the Lewis enters the defile between the Blue Mountains on the west, and another rocky chain, called the Salmon River Mountains, on the east, and takes its course north-westward, for about six hundred miles, to its union with the northern branch, receiving many large streams from each side. The principal of these influent streams are the Malade or Sickly River, the Boise or Reed's River, the Salmon River, and the Kooskooskee, from the east, and the Malheur and Powder River, from the Blue Mountains, on the west. Of these two great branches of the Columbia, and the streams which fall into them, scarcely any portion is navigable by the smallest vessels for more than thirty or forty miles continuously. The northern branch is much used by the British traders for the conveyance of their furs and merchandise, by means of light canoes, which, as well as their cargoes, are carried by the boatmen around the falls and rapids so frequently inter- rupting their voyage. The Lewis River and its streams offer few ad- vantages in this way ; as they nearly all rush, in their whole course, through deep and narrow chasms, between perpendicular rocks, against which a boat would be momentarily in danger of being dashed by the current. From the point of junction of these two great branches, the course of the Columbia is generally westward to the ocean. A little below that point, it receives the Walla-Walla, and then, in succession, the Umatalln, John Day's River, and the Chutes or Falls River, all flowing from the so\uh, and some others, of less size, from the north. Near the mouth of the Falls River, eighty miles below the Walla-Walla, are situated the Falls, or Chutes, as they are called, of the Columbia, where the great stream enters a gap in the Far-West range of mountains. Four miles farther down are the Dalles, or rapids formed by the passage of the waters between vast masses of rock ; and thirty miles below these are the Cnscades, a series of falls and rapids extending more than half a mile, at the foot of which the tides are observable at the distance of a hundred and twenty miles from the Pacific. A few miles below the Cascades, a large river, called the Willamet, (the Multonomah of Lewis and Clarke,) enters the Columbia from the south, by two branches, between which is an extensive island, named Wappatoo Island, from an edible root, so called, found growing in abun- dance upon it. Twenty-five miles from the mouth of this river are its falls, where all its waters are precipitated over a ledge of rocks more than forty feet in height. Beyond this point, the Willamet has been GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 25 traced about two hundred miles, in a tortuous course, through a narrow but generally fertile valley, to its sources in the Far-West chain of mountains, near the 43d degree of latitude. In this valley were formed the earliest agricultural settlements by citizens of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains; and, from all accounts, it appears to present greater advantages of soil and climate than any other part of the country drained by the Columbia. Descending the Columbia forty miles from the lower mouth of the Wil- lamet, we find a small stream, called the Cowelitz, entering it from the north ; and, thirty miles lower down, the great river, which is nowhere above more than a mile wide, expands to the breadth of four, and, in some places, of seven, miles, before mingling its waters with those of the Pacific ; it, however, preserves its character as a river, being rapid in its current, and perfectly fresh and potable, to within a league of the ocean, except during very dry seasons and the prevalence of violent westerly winds. The Columbia may generally be ascended, by ships of three or four hundred tons, nearly to the foot of its cascades: the navigation, especially of the lower part, is, however, at all times, difficult and dangerous, in consequence of the number and the variability of the shoals; and it is only in fine weather that vessels can with safety enter or leave its mouth, which is guarded by a line of breakers, extending across from each of the capes. The other rivers which drain the parts of this territory near the sea are numerous, but generally small, the majority being merely brooks, which disappear during the dry season. The Umqua, near the 43d degree of latitude, and the Chekelis, which empties into Bulfinch's Harbor, are the principal of those streams ; but neither of them offers any facilities for commercial communication. Of the chains of mountains traversing Oregon from north to south, the most remarkable is the westernmost, for which the name of Far-West Mountains has been here proposed, running northward from California at the distance of eighty or a hundred miles from the Pacific coast. Under the 49th parallel, where the base of the chain is washed by the easternmost waters of the Strait of Fuca, it is divided into three distinct ridges, one of which stretches north-east, to the Rocky Moun- tains, separating the waters of the Columbia from those of Fraser's River ; another overhangs the sea-coast north-westward ; and the islands of theNorth-West Archipelago, which mask the shore of the continent from the 49th to the 53th parallels, may be considered as a third ridge, extending through the sea. The principal peaks of this chain, in Oregon, are Mount Baker, near the 49th parallel, Mount Rainier, under the 47th, and Mount St. Helen's, the highest of the range, which rises, probably, not less than fifteen thousand feet above the ocean level, due east of the mouth of the Columbia. South of that river are Mount Hood, near the 45th parallel ; Mount Jefferson, so named by Lewis and Clarke, under the 44th ; Mount Shasty, near the 43d ; and Mount Jackson, a stupendous pinnacle, in the latitude of 41 degrees 40 minutes, which has been also called Mount Pitt by the British traders. Some of these peaks are visible from the ocean, particularly Mount St. Helen's, which serves as a mark for vessels entering the Columbia ; when seen from the highlands farther east, they present one of the grandest spectacles in nature. This chain is entirely of vol- 4 •»b GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. canic formation ; and it must contain active volcanoes, as there are no other means of accounting for the showers of ashes which occasionally fall in many parts of Oregon, particularly in the vicinity of Mount St. Helen's. The latest of these supposed eruptions took place in 1834. The country between the Pacific coast and this westernmost chain consists, like the part of California similarly situated, of ranges of lower mountains, separated by narrow valleys, generally running parallel to the great chain, and to the coast. Its superficial extent may be estimated at about forty-five thousand square miles,* of which a small proportion only, not exceeding an eighth, is fit for cultivation. The climate, like that of California, is warm and dry in summer ; very little rain falling between April and November, though it is violent, and almost constant, during the 'remainder of the year. Snow is rarely seen in the valleys, in which the ground frequently continues soft and unfrozen throughout the winter. The soil, in some of these valleys, is said to be excellent for wheat, rye, oats, peas, potatoes, and apples ; fifteen bushels of wheat being sometimes yielded by a single acre. Indian corn, which requires both heat and moisture, does not succeed in any part of Oregon. Hogs live and mul- tiply in the woods, where an abundance of acorns is to be found ; the cattle also increase, and it is not generally necessary for them to be housed or fed in the winter. The hills and the flanks of the great moun- tains are covered with timber, which grows to an immense size. A fir, near Astoria, measured forty-six feet in circumference at ten feet from the earth ; the length of its trunk, before giving off a branch, was one hun- dred and fifty-three feet, and its whole height not less than three hundred feet. Another tree, of the same species, on the banks of the Umqua River, is fifty-seven feet in girth of trunk, and two hundred and sixteen feet in length below its branches. "Prime sound pines," says Cox, "from two hundred to two hundred and eighty feet in height, and from twenty to forty feet in circumference, are by no means uncommon." The land on which these large trees grow is good ; but the labor of clearing it would be such as to prevent any one from undertaking the task, until all the other spots, capable of cultivation, should have been occupied. From the peculiarities of climate above mentioned, it is probable that this country cannot be rendered very productive without artificial irrigation, which appears to be practicable only in a few places ; and that conse- quently the progress of settlement in it will be much slower than in the Atlantic regions of the continent, where this want of moisture does not exist. About one hundred and fifty miles east of the Far-West Mountains is another chain, called the Blue Mountains, stretching from the Snowy Mountains northward to the 47th degree of latitude, and forming the * The Strait of Fuca, which bounds this region on the north, is in latitude of 48J degrees; and, assuming the 42d parallel as the soutliern limit of the territory, its extreme length is 6^ degrees, or less than four hundred and fifty miles English. Its breadth — that is, the distance between the Pacific shore and the great chain of mountains which forms the eastern boundary of this region — does not average a hundred miles; and, by multiplying these two numbers, forty-five thousand square Enirlish miles appears as the superficial extent of the westernmost region of Oregon. It has, however, been gravely asserted and repeated on the floor of the Congress of the United States, that the valley of the Willamet, which is but an inconsiderable portion of this region, contains not less than sixtij thousand square miles of the finest land ; and many other assertions, equally extravagant, have been made, and are be- lieved, respecting the vast extent of laud in the country of the Columbia, superior in ijunlity to any in the United States. GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. ^7: western wall of the valley of the Lewis, the great southern branch of the Columbia. North of the 47th degree are other ridges, which appear to be continuations of the Blue Mountains; but they are less detined, and are distinguished by other names. The region between the Blue and the Far-West Mountains embraces several tracts of country comparatively level, and some valleys wider than those of the Pacific region ; the soil is, however, less productive, and the climate less favorable for agriculture, than in the places similarly situated nearer the ocean. The most exten- sive valleys are those traversed by the streams flowing into the Columbia from the south, between the Far-West lange and the Blue Mountaiii§., particularly the Walla-Walla, and the Falls or Chutes Rivers: the plain?., as they are called, though they are rather tracts of undulating country, are on both sides of the northern branch of the Columbia, between the 46th and the 49th parallels of latitude. The surface of the plains consists generally of a yellow, sandy clay, covered with grass, small shrubs, and prickly pears ; in the valleys farther south, the soil is somewhat better, containing less of sand and more of vegetable mould, and they give sup- port to a kw trees, chiefly sumach, cotton-wood, and other soft and use- less woods. The climate of ihis whole region is more dry than that of the country nearer the Pacific ; the days are warm, and the nights cool ; but the want of moisture in the air prevents the contrast of temperature from being injurious to health, and the country is represented, by all who have had the opportunity of judging by experience, as being of extraordi- nary salubrity. The wet season extends from November to April; but the rains are neither frequent nor abundant, and they never occur at any other period of the year. In the southern valleys there is little snow; farther north it is more common, but it seldom lies long, except on the heights. Under such circumstances, it will be seen that little encourage- ment is offered for the cultivation of this part of Oregon. On the other hand, the plains and valleys appear to be admirably adapted for the support of cattle, as grass, either green or dry, may be found at all times, within a short distance, on the bottom lands or on the hill sides. The want of wood must also prove a great obstacle to settlement, as this indis- pensable article can only be procured from a great distance up the north branch of the Columbia, or from the Pacific region, with whicli the passages of communication tiirough the mountains are few and diflicult. The country farther east, between the Blue Mountains and the Rocky Mountains, appears to be, except in a very few small detached spots, ab- solutely uninhabitable by those who depend on agriculture for subsistence. It is, in fact, a collection of bare, rocky mountain chains, separated by deep gorges, through which flow the streams produced by the melting of the snows on the summits; for in the lower grounds rain seldom falls at any time. On the borders of the Lewis, and of some of the streams falling into it, are valleys and prairies, producing grass for cattle ; but all the attempts to cultivate the esculent vegetables have failed, chiefly, as it is believed, from the great difference in the temperature between the day and the succeeding night, especially in the summer, which is commonly not less than thirty, and often exceeds fifty, degrees of Fahrenheit's ther- mometer.* North of the 4Sth parallel, the climate is less dry, and the * The thermometer was seen by Wyeth, at Fort Hall, on the Lewis, near the 43d parallel of latitude, at the freezing "point in the morning, and at ninety-two degrees of Fahrenheit in the middle of a day in August. Frosts occur at this place in nearly every month in the year. 28* GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. bases of the mountains are covered with wood ; but the temperature in most places is too cold for the production of any of the useful grains or garden vegetables. The parts of this region which appear to be the most favorable for agriculture, are those adjacent to the Clarke River, and particularly around the Kullerspelm, or Flathead Lake, where the hills are well clothed with oaks, elms, cedars, and pines, and the soil of the low grounds is of good quality. New Caledonia is the name given by the British traders to the country extending north and west of the Columbia regions, to the 56th parallel of latitude. It is a sterile land of snow-clad mountains, tortuous rivers, and lakes frozen over nearly two thirds of the year ; presenting scarcely a sinorle spot in which any of the vegetables used as food by civilized people can be produced. The waters, like those of the country farther south. however, abound in fish, which, with berries, form the principal support of the native population. • The largest lakes are the Babine, comnmni- cating with the ocean by Simpson's River, and Stuart's, Quesnel's, and Eraser's Lakes, the outlet of all which is Eraser's River, a long but shal- low stream, emptying into the Strait of Fuca at its eastern extremity. The coast of this country is very irregular in outline, being penetrated by many bays and inlets, running up from the sea among the mountains which border that side of the continent ; between it and the open Pa- cific lie the islands of the North-West Archipelago, which will be here described. The North-West Archipelago is a remarkable collection of islands, situated in, and nearly filling a recess of the American coast, about seven hundred miles in length, and eighty or one hundred in breadth, which ex- tends between the 48th and the 58th parallels of latitude; that is to say, between the same parallels as Great Britain. These islands are in number many thousands, presenting together a surface of not less than fifty thou- sand square miles; they are, however, with the exception of nine or ten, very small, and the greater part of them are mere rocks. The largest islands are all traversed, in their longest direction, from south-east to north- west, by mountain ridges; and the whole archipelago may be considered as a range connecting the Far-West mountains of Oregon with the great chain farther north, of which Mounts Fairweather and St. Elias are the most prominent peaks. The coasts of these islands are, like those of the continent in their vicinity, very irregular in outline, including numerous bays and inlets ; and the channels between them are, with one exception, narrow and tortuous. These coasts and channels were minutely surveyed, during the period from 1785 to 1795, by navigators of various nations, chiefly with the view of discovering some northern passage of communication between the Pacific and the Atlantic ; and the true geographical character of the islands, which had previously been regarded as parts of the continent, was thus ascertained. The British, under Vancouver, made the most complete examination of the archipelago, and bestowed on the islands, channels, capes, and bays, a number of names, nearly all drawn from the lists of the British royal family, peerage, and parliament, some of which still retain their places on maps, though few of them will probably be used when those parts of America are occupied by a civilized population. Of the interior of the islands little is known ; but from all accounts, ihey are generally rocky and barren. The climate of the southernmost GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 29 islands appears to resemble that of the western region of Oregon, except that it is less dry in summer ; farther north, the rainy season increases in length, but the accompanying increase in the coldness of the atmosphere neutralizes any advantages tor cultivation which might be derived from the more constant supply of moisture. Wood, however, seems to be every where abundant near the coasts; and this may prove important, as the chainiels of the archipelago offer great facilities for communication by steam vessels. It has been already said that Russia claims all the coasts and islands north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes. The ij^lands south of that line which are here considered as attached to Oregon, lie in three groups. The southernmost group embraces one large island and an infinite number of smaller ones, extending from the 49th parallel to the 51st, and separated from the continent, on the south and east, by the channel called the Strait of Fuca. The main island received, in 1792, the long and inconvenient appellation of Island of Quadra and Vancouver, in virtue of a compromise between a British and a Spanish commander, each claim- ing the merit of having ascertained its insulation. It is the largest in the archipelago, and, indeed, on the whole west coast of America, being about two hundred and fifty n)iles in length, by an average breadth of forty-five miles. On its south-western side are several large bays contain- ing islands, among which are some good ports, formerly much frequented by fur traders. The principal of these places is Nootka or King George's Sound, opening to the Pacific in the latitude of 49.^ degrees, between Woody Point, on the north, and Point Breakers, on the south; and offer- ing a safe harbor for vessels in Friendly Cove, about eight miles from the ocean. Near Nootka, on the east, is another bay, called Clyoquot; far- ther in the same direction, at the entrance of the Strait of Fuca, is Nitti- nat; and within the strait are several other harbors, generally protected by small islands. Nootka Sound was, in 1789, the scene of occurrences which gave to it much celebrity, as they first rendered the north-west coasts of America the subject of dispute and convention between the governments of European nations. Queen Charlotte's Island, so called by tlie British, or Washington's Island, as it was named by the Americans in 1789, forms the centre of another group, situated between the latitudes of 52 and 54 degrees, at a considerable distance from the continent. The principal island is of tri- angular form, and is rather smaller in superficial extent than the Island of Quadra and Vancouver, though larger than any other in the archipelago. Its north-western extremity received from the Spanish navigator Perez, who discovered it in 1774, the name of Cape Santa Margarita, but is now generally known as Cape North; the north-east end was called by the Americans Sandy Point, and afierward, by the Spaniards, Cape Invisi- ble; the southern extremity is Cape St. James. The island presents a number of bays, affording good harbors, which were first examined, sur- veyed, and named, by the American fur traders ; and afterwards received from British and Spanish navigators the appellations usually assigned to them on maps. The principal of these bavs are, on the northern side, Hancock's River, the Port Estrada of the Spaniards, near Sandy Point, and Craft's Sound, or Port Mazarredo, a little farther west ; on the Pacific coast are Port Ingraham, near North Cape, and Magee's Sound, in the latitude of 52i decrees ; on the eastern side of the island are S^ GEOGKAPHY OF OREGON. Skitikis, in latitude of 53 degrees 20 minutes, Cummashawa, a few miles farther south, and still farther in the same direction, Port Ucah and Port Sturges. The country around some of these places, especially Hancock's River and Magee's Sound, is described by the American fur traders as fertile and beautiful, and enjoying a milder climate than any other parts of the north-west coasts. The Princess Royal's, Burke's, and Pitt's Islands form a third division of the North- West Archipelago, lying near to each other and to the con- tinent, immediately east of Queen Charlotte's Island. They are all small and rocky, and nothing worthy of note appears in the accounts of them. To the aboriginal inhabitants of Oregon it would be inconsistent with the pl;in of this work to devote much attention. They are all savages; and they make no figure in the history of the country, over the destinies of which they have not exerted, and probably never will exert, any influ- ence. The principal tribes are the Clatsops and Chenooks, occupying the country on each side of the Columbia, near its mouth ; the Klamets and Killamucks, of the Umqua; the Classets, on the Strait of Fuca; the Kootanies, and the Salish or Flatheads, of the country about the northern branches of the Columbia, and the Shoshones, the Sahaptins or Nez-perces, the Kayouses, Walla-Wallas, and Chopunnish, who rove through the regions of the Lewis branch. These tribes differ in habits and disposition only so far as they are affected by the mode of life which the nature of the country occupied by them respectively compels them to adopt ; the people of the sea-coasts, who venture out upon the ocean, and attack the whale, being generally much bolder and more ferocious than those of the middle country, who derive their subsistence by the quiet and unexciting employments of fishing in the river and digging for roots. Among the peculiar habits of some of the tribes should be mentioned that of compressing the heads of their infants by boards and bandages, so as materially to alter their shape ; which induced the discoverers of the country to apply to those people the name of Flathead Indians. This custom appears to have prevailed chiefly among the tribes of the lower Columbia, and but little among those dwelling on the northern branches of the river, to whom the appellation of Flatheads is, however, at present confined. The Blackfeet, so much dreaded by travellers in the middle region, chiefly inhabit the country east of the Rocky Mountains, on the Yellowstone, and the Missouri above its falls, and annually make in- roads upon the Shoshones and the Chopunnish, whom they rob of their horses, their only wealtli. The principal tribes in the country north of the Columbia regions, are the Chilcotins and the Talcotins, between whom the most deadly hostility subsists. The natives of the North-West Ar- chipelago are the most cunning and ferocious of all these savages; par- ticularly those of the vicinity of Nootka, who appear also to be the most intelligent. The number of the aborigines of all those territories cannot be ascertained, but it is supposed not to exceed thirty thousand, and is every where diminishing. Among these people, missionaries of various Christian sects have long been laboring with assiduity, though, as it would seem, from all accounts, with little advantage. The Roman Catholics have made the greatest number of converts, if we assume the reception of baptism as the test of conversion: whole tribes submitting at once, on the first summons, to the rite. The Methodists and Presbyterians employ themselves chiefly in GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 81 imparting a knowledge of the simplest and most useful arts, and have thus induced some of the natives to engage regularly in agricultural pur- suits ; but the poverty of the soil generally renders their efforts in this way unavailing. The last-mentioned missionaries also endeavor to con- vey religious and literary instruction to the Indians through the medium of their own languages, into which books have been translated and printed in the country. Perhaps it would be better to teach the natives to speak and read English ; but the other system has been generally adopted by American missionaries in all parts of the world. The civilized inhabitants of Oregon are, as already mentioned in the General View, either citizens of the United States or servants of the British Hudson's Bay Company : the latter body enjoying, by special grant from the government, the use of all the territories claimed by Great Britain west of the Rocky Mountains, as well as the protection of British laws, in virtue of an act of Parliament ; whilst the citizens of the United States remain independent of all authority and jurisdiction whatever. The establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company have been, until recently, devoted exclusively to the purposes of the fur trade: but, within a few years past, several farms have been laid out and worked, under the direction of the agents of the company ; and large quantities of timber are cut, and salmon are taken and cured, for exportation to the Russian possessions, to Mexico, and to the Sandwich Islands. The furs are ob- tained partly by hunters and trappers, in the regular service of the com- pany, but chiefly by trade with the Indians of the surrounding country ; and they are transported from the different establishments in the interior, either to Montreal or to York Factory on Hudson's Bay, or to Fort Van- couver on the Columbia, whence they are sent in the company's vessels to London. The goods for the trade, and the supply of the establish- ments, are received in the same manner ; the interior transportation being performed almost entirely in boats, on the rivers and lakes, between which the articles are carried on the backs of the voijageurs or boatmen. The regular servants of the company, in the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, are, a chief factor, two chief traders, and about four hundred clerks, traders, voi/agrm's, &c. ; besides whom, nearly as many laborers from Canada and from Europe are employed on the farms, and Indians are occasionally engaged when wanted. The factors, traders, and clerks, are, for the most part, Scotchmen or Canadians; the hunters and other regular servants are nearly all half-breeds. The company maintains on the Pacific coasts one steamer and six or eight sail vessels, all armed, and three large ships conduct the communications between the Columbia and London. The establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company are generally called forts, and are sufficiently fortified to resist any attacks which might be expected. Those beyond the Rocky Mountains are in number about twenty-two, of which several, including all the largest, are near the coasts. Fort Vancouver, the principal of these establishments west of the Rocky Mountains, is situated near the north bank of the Columbia, at the distance of eighty-two miles in a direct line from its mouth, and about one hundred and twenty miles following the course of the stream. The fort is simply a large, square, picketed enclosure, containing houses for the residence of the factor, traders, clerks, and upper servants of the company, magazines for the furs and goods, and workshops of various 32 GEOGRAPHY OK OREGON. kinds; immediately behind it are a garden and orchard, and behind these is the farm, of about six hundred acres, with barns and all other necessary buildings. West of the fort are the hospital and houses for the voyageurs and Indians ; about two miles lower down the river are the dairy and piggery, with numerous herds of cattle, hogs, &c. ; and about three miles above the fort are water-mills for grinding corn and sawing plank, and sheds for curing salmon. The number of persons usually attached to the post is not less than seven hundred, of whom more than half are Indians of the country, the others being natives of Great Britain, Canadians, and half-breeds. The whole establishment is governed nearly on the plan of one of the small towns of Central Europe during the middle ages; the stockade fort representing the baronial castle, in which the great digni- taries of the company exercise almost absolute authority. Fort George, at the distance of ten miles from the Pacific, on the .south bank of the Columbia, occupies the site of a trading establishment called Astoria, formed by the Americans in 1811, which was taken by the British during the war in 1813, and, though subsequently restored in virtue of the treaty of Ghent, has never since been re-occupied by citizens of the United States. The first buildings were destroyed by fire in 1820 ; after which, some small houses were erected by the Hudson's Bay Com- pany on the same spot, where a trader and three or four other persons generally reside. Fort Umqua is near the mouth of the Umqua River, which enters the Pacific about a hundred and eighty miles south of the Columbia, and affords a harbor for small vessels. Fort Nasqually is at the mouth of a little river emptying into Puget's Sound, the southern- most part of the great bay called Admiralty Inlet, which extends south- wardly into the continent from the Strait of Fuca : near it the Hudson's Bay Company has large farms, which are said to be in a prosperous condition ; this place is also the seat of a Roman Catholic mission, under the direction of a bishop in partibus, (the bishop of Juliopolis,) whose influence is, no doubt, important to the company, as the majority of its servants are of that religion. Fort Langley is at the entrance of Fraser's River into the eastern extremity of the Strait of Fuca, in lati- tude of 49 degrees 25 minutes; farther north is Fort M'Loughlin, on Milbank Sound, and Fort Simpson, on Douglas Island, in the North- West Archipelago, in latitude o4:)y degrees. The company has moreover made an agreement with the Russians, who claim the coasts and islands north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, by which the British traders enjoy tlie exclusive use of the coasts of the continent, extending from that parallel to Cape Spenser, near the -SSth degree; and a post has been in consequence established near the mouth of the Stikine, a large river emptying into the channel called Prince Frederick's Sound, in the latitude of 56 degrees 50 minutes. In the interior of the continent, the Hudson's Bay Company has on the Columbia, above its falls, Fort Walla-Walla, or Nez-Perce, on the east side of the northern branch, near its confluence with the southern; Fort Okinagan, at the entrance of the Okinagan River into the north or main branch; Fort Colville, near the Kettle Falls; and some others, of less consequence. On the Lewis, or great southern branch, are Fort Boise, at the mouth of the Boise, or Reed's River, and Fort Hall, at the en- trance of the Portneuf North of the Columbia, country are Fort Al- exandria, on Fraser's River, and others on the lakes, which abound in GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. that part of the continent. All these ports are, however, on a small scale, and seldom contain more than two or three clerks or traders, and a few Indians or half-breed hunters. Fort Hall was established in 1834, by a party of citizens of the United States, under the direction of Captain Wyeth, of Boston, who endeavored, at the same time, to carry on the salmon fishery in the Lower Columbia ; the Hudson's Bay Company, however, by their active and powerful competition, soon compelled the Americans to relinquish the project, and to dispose of their posts to that body. The American trappers and hunters have been compelled, in conse- quence of these measures on the part of the Hudson's Bay Company, to abandon the regions of the Columbia, and to confine themselves to the northern parts of California, about the head-waters of the Colorado river, and the Utah lake. In the summer of each year they repair with the produce of their labors to certain places of rendezvous, where they meet the traders bringing clothes, hardware, arms, ammunition, and other articles from the Missouri; and an exchange of merchandise is effected, to the benefit of both parties. The principal rendezvous is on the banks of the Sidskadee, or Green river, one of the confluents of the Colorado, near the western extremity of the great Gap in the Rocky Mountains, called the South Pass, through which all the communications between the Mississippi regions on the one side, and Oregon and California on the other, are conducted. The citizens of the United States in the Columbia regions, previous to 1843, did not probably exceed four hundred in number, nearly all of whom were established in the valley of the Willamet, and on the Walla- Walla, as farmers, graziers, or mechanics, very few being engaged in any commercial pursuit. The greater part of them had gone thither under the guidance of missionaries of several Protestant sects, from the Mississippi, or from the Eastern States of the Union ; and their condition might be considered as prosperous, in consequence rather of their indus- try, sobriety, and niorality, than of any peculiar advantages of soil or climate, in the country. The Roman Catholics were priests from Mis- souri, chiefly Jesuits, who, as usual, devoted themselves almost exclu- sively to the instruction of the natives. In 1843, however, a large emigration took place to these countries from the United States; and it has been continued ever since, so that at the end of 1845, the number of American inhabitants was not less than six thousand, of whom perhaps three-fourths were established in the Willamet. There they organized a government on the model of those of their fatherland ; and, according to the most recent accounts, the little colony is proceeding in the most satisfactory manner, in every respect. Their chief town, called Oregon City, at the Falls of the Willamet, con- tains several hundred inhabitants; the abundance of their crops enables them to afford a sufficiency of food, not only for the supply of the new comers, but also for exportation to the Sandwich Islands; and a news- paper, moreover, issues weekly from their printing press. With their neighbors of the Hudson's Bay Company they maintain the most friendly relations ; and there is reason to believe that a large proportion of the servants of that body, in the territory, will remain, and that their child- ren, at least, will become citizens of the Republic, to which the region south of the 49th parallel is now definitively secured. 5 34 GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. The intercourse between the States of the Union and the Columbia regions, has been hitherto conducted almost entirely by land : the num- ber of emigrants who have gone to those regions by sea has been small; and the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the Red Rivers, have not as yet been used as channels of communication beyond the limits of the States. To what distance the two last-named rivers may be ascended by boats is not yet determined ; there is, however, strong reason to believe, that they may each be navigated to points, much nearer to the passes of the Rocky Mountains, than the place from which the land journey is now com- menced. The Missouri will, in all probability, never be employed for the purpose, beyond the mouths of the Kansas, or the Platte ; on account of its circuitous course, and the great elevation and barrenness of the region between its headwaters and those of the Columbia. The towns of Independence and Westport, near the confluence of the Kansas with the Missouri, on the western frontier of the state of Mis- souri, form the usual places of departure to and arrival from Oregon and New Mexico. Of the route to Oregon, a concise descriptive itinerary may not be uninteresting From Independence, the trail, as it is called, for there is as yet no road, passes along the south side of the Kansas to its ford, 80 miles — then crossing the river, it continues northwestward, ascending the valley of the Blue branch of the Kansas to the Platte, near its grand island, 220 — thence the route is west along the south bank of the Platte to the junction of its north and south forks, or branches, 115 — across the south branch, and along the south side of the north branch, to a remarkable pile of marl and limestone, called the Chimney, 155 — continuing along the south bank to Fort Larimie, a fur trading post, at the mouth of a small stream from the south, called Larimie's Fork, S2 — thence along the north branch of the Platte, to its passage through a ridge of sandstone, near the heights called the Red Buttes, 155 — following the north branch to its junction with a small stream, called the Sweet Water, on which, not far from the confluence, is the remarkable isolated eminence of granite, called Rock Independence, 50 — and along the Sweet Water, through a rugged region, up to its sources in the depression of a gap of the Rocky Mountains, called the South Pass, 110. This is the western limit of the Atlantic section of America ; within a few miles of the source of the Sweet Water, flowing towards the Mexican Gulf, is that of Sandy Creek, one of the head streams of the Colorado, which falls into the northern extremity of the Gulf of California ; and not far northwest are the springs of the Lewis, the southern branch of the Columbia. The dividing point in the South Pass, between the Sweet Water and Sandy Creek, is situated in latitude of 42^ degrees; and in longitude of 109^ degrees west from Greenwich ; 967 miles by the route, and about 750 in a straight line, from the town of Independence. The route continues westward to Sandy Creek, and down it to the Siskadee, or Green River, the main branch of the Colorado, 70 miles — then across the Green River, up one of its streams called Ham's Fork, northward, and over a ridge to Bear River, the principal feeder of the Utah, or Great Salt Lake, 135 — up Bear River, northward to the Beer or Soda Springs, where the river runs around the extremity of a line of mountains, and turns south to the lake, 50 — thence across a ridge to GEOGRAPHY OP OREGON. 95 the Portneuf River, and down the latter 50 miles to its confluence with the Lewis, or Snake River, the southern branch of the Columbia, at which point is situated the Hudson's Bay Company's trading post, called Fort Hall, 305 miles from the South Pass. The route as far as Fort Hall presents comparatively few difficulties, and is annually traversed by hundreds of loaded wagons. The remainder of the journey is attended with many inconveniences, some arising from the nature of the ground, and others from the want of forage and water ; all of which will doubtless be diminished when the country becomes better known, and necessity should have led to the application of labor at certain points. That the obstacles cannot be very great, is conclu- sively proved by the fact, that the wagons go on from Fort Hall to the Falls of the Columbia, generally in the following line of route : From Fort Hall, along the south side of the Lewis, to the American Falls, 22 miles; thence to the Fishing Falls, 125; and thence to the crossing place of the Lewis, 40 ; there leaving the river, the trail passes through the mountains, which border it northward, to the Boise, and down that stream to its junction with the Lewis, near the trading post called Fort Boise, 130; crossing the Lewis at this place, its direction is nearly north, passing over the Malheur, Burnt and Powder Rivers, which empty into the Lewis from the west, to the Grand Rond, a beauti- ful and rich valley surrounded by an amphitheatre of mountains, and drained by a stream of the same name, falling into the Lewis, 138; thence 100 miles to Fort Walla-Walla, or Nez-perce, a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company, at the entrance of the Walla-Walla River, into the main trunk of the Columbia, nine miles below the junction of the north and south branches of the latter, and 555 miles from Fort Hall. Thus the distance along the wagon road from the Missouri, at the mouth of the Kansas to the Columbia, at the junction of its two great branches, is about 1827 miles. The wagons may proceed 115 miles farther down the valley of the Columbia to its Falls; but much labor will be required ere they can complete the passage across the continent to the Pacific. The distances on the road below Fort Walla-Walla, are, to the Umatalla River, 25 miles ; to John Day's River, 70 ; to the Falls, 20 ; to the Cascades, 45 ; and thence to Fort Vancouver, the principal trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the Rocky Mount- ains, 55. From Fort Vancouver to Oregon City is about 30 miles, and to the mouth of the Columbia, 120 : the whole distance, by the most di- rect practicable route from the city of Washington to the mouth of the Columbia being about 3312 miles. The route across the continent, through the British territories, from Fort William, near the west end of Lake Superior, to Fort Walla-Walla, is at least a thousand miles longer than that from the latter place to Independence. The passage is effected for the most part in canoes, on rivers and lakes; the remainder of the journey being pursued on foot, or on horseback : and there is no pros- pect that the route will ever be improved, either in convenience or prac- ticability. RUSSIAN AMERICA. Russia claims, as already said, in virtue of the discoveries and settle- ments of her subjects, and of treaties with the United States and Great Britain, the whole division of the American continent, and the adjacent islands, north of the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes, and west of a line drawn from that latitude, northward, along the highlands bordering the Pacific Ocean to Mount St. Eiias, and thence due north to the Arctic Sea. This power also claims the whole of Asia, extending on the Pacific north of the 5 1st parallel, all the Aleutian Islands, and all the Kurile Islands, north of the latitude of 45 degrees 40 minutes. Of the parts of America thus claimed by Russia, the islands and the coasts of the continent have been explored, and some have been surveyed with care; several rivers, also, have been traced to considerable distances from their mouths : the interior regions are, however, but little known, and, from all accounts, they do not seem to merit the labor and expense which would be required for their complete examination. Only small portions of the islands are fit for agriculture, or for any purpose useful to man, except fishing and hunting; the remaining territories present to the eye nothing but rocks, snow, and ice. The exclusive use and government of all the islands and ports of America above mentioned are granted by charter from the emperor of Russia to a body called the Russian American Trading Company, which has established on their coasts a number of forts, settlements, and factories, all devoted to the purposes of the fur trade and fishery ; the coast of the continent, south-west of the SSth degree of latitude, has, however, been, as already mentioned, leased to the Hudson's Bay Company until the 1st of June, 1850, at an annual rent, payable in furs. The inhabitants of the Kurile, the Aleutian, and the Kodiak Islands are regarded as the immedi- ate subjects of the company ; in the service of which, every man, between the ages of eighteen and fifty years, may be required to pass at least three years. The natives of the country adjoining the two great bays called Cook's Inlet and Prince William's Sound, are also under the control of this body, and are obliged to pay an annual tax in furs, though they are not con)pelled to enter the regular service. All the other aborigines are con- sidered as independent, except that they are allowed to trade only with the Russian American company. By the latest accounts, the number of Rus- sian establishments was twenty-six, all situated south of Bering's Strait. The immediate subjects of the company were seven hundred and thirty Russians, fourteen hundred and forty-two Creoles, or children of Rus- sian fathers by native mothers, and eleven thousand aborigines of the Kurile, Aleutian, and Kodiak Islands ; the number of the natives in- habiting the other regions cannot be ascertained, but must be very small, when compared with the extent of the surface. The Russian American territories are politically divided into six GEOGRAPHY OF RUSSIAN AMERICA. St districts, each of which is under the direction of an agent ; the whole being superintended by a governor-general, usually an officer of the Russian navy, residing at the capital of the possessions. The furs are collected either by persons in the regular service of the company, or as taxes from its subjects, or by trade with the independent natives ; and they are transported in its vessels to Petropawlowsk in Kamtchatka, or to Ochotsk, in Siberia, or, by special permission of the Chinese government, to Canton, or to the European ports of Russia ; the supplies being received from those places by the same vessels. The district of Sitka comprehends the islands of the North-West Ar- chipelago, and the coasts of the American continent, northward from the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, to Mount St. Elias. The islands are six large, and an infinite number of smaller ones, separated from each other, and from the main land, by narrow, but generally navigable channels. The large islands are those distinguished on English maps as Prince of Wales's Island, the southernmost, between which and the continent, on the east, are the Duke of York's and the Revillagigedo Islands; farther north, on the ocean, is King George the Third's Ar- chipelago, including Baranof's and Tchichagof's Islands; and east of these latter are Admiralty and some other islands. Opposite the western end of the channel, separating Baranof's from Tchichagof's Island, is a small island, consisting of a single and beautiful conical peak, rising from the ocean, which received from its Spanish discoverers, in 1775, the name of Mount San Jacinto, but is better known by the English appellation of Mount Edgecumb ; a narrow passage, called Norfolk Sound, separates it from Baranof's Island, on the shore of which stands Sitka, or New Archangel, the capital of Russian America. This is a small town, of wooden houses, covered mostly with iron, protected, or rather overlooked, by batteries, and inhabited by about a thousand per- sons, of whom nearly one half are Russians, the majority of the others being Creoles. The governor's house is large and substantially built, and is surmounted by a lighthouse ; the fortifications, which are also of wood, are armed by about forty guns: attached to the establishment are an extensive arsenal, including a ship-yard, a foundery, and shops for various artificers, a hospital, and a church, splendidly adorned in the interior. Sitka, moreover, though thus remote from all civilized coun- tries, contains several schools, in which the children are instructed at the expense of the company, a library of two thousand volumes, a cabinet of natural history, and an observatory supplied with the instruments most necessary for astronomical and magnetic observations. On comparing the results of meteorological observations, it appears that the mean temperature of every month of the year, at Sitka, is higher than that of any place in America, east of the Rocky Mountains, within several degrees of the same latitude. No attempts at cultivation have, however, been made there or in any other part of Russian America, except at the settlement of Ross, in California, on a scale sufficiently large to authorize any opinions as to the agricultural value of the soil. The district of Kodiak comprises all the coasts from the North-West Archipelago, northward and westward, to the southern extremity of the peninsula of Aliaska, with the adjacent islands, as also a portion of the coast of the Sea of Kamtchatka, on the north-west side of Aliaska. The largest island is Kodiak, situated near the east coast of Aliaska, from 38 GEOGRAPHY OF RUSSIAN AMERICA. which it is separated by the Strait of Schelikof, and containing, on its north-east side, St. Paul's, an inconsiderable place, formerly the capital of Russian America. Nonh of Kodiak, an arm of the ocean, called by the English Cook's Inlet, and by Russians the Gulf of Kenay, stretches northwardly into the continent nearly two hundred miles; east of which, and separated from it by a peninsula, is another great bay, called Prince William's Sound, or the Gulf of Tschugatsch, containing a number of islands; and still farther east is Comptroller's Bay, into which empties Copper River, the largest stream flowing from this part of America. Each of these bays was minutely examined by Cook, in 1778, and by Vancouver, in 1794, while in search of a passage to the Atlantic; and several good harbors were thus discovered, on the shores of which the Russians have formed trading establishments. The most remarkable natural feature of this part of America is, how- ever, the great volcanic peak of Mount St. Elias, which rises from the shore of the Pacific, under the 61st parallel of latitude, to the height of more than seventeen thousand feet above the ocean level. Near it, on the south-east, is Mount Fairweather, only two thousand feet less in elevation ; and between the two peaks lies Admiralty, or Bering's, or Yakutat Bay, where the Russian navigators Bering and Tchirikof are supposed to have first anchored on their voyage of discovery from Kamtchatka, in 1741. The peninsula of Aliaska is a chain of lofty volcanic mountains, stretching through the Pacific from the latitude of 59 degrees south-west- ward to that of 54 degrees 40 minutes. The most elevated peak, called Mount Scheschaldin, is frequently in action, throwing forth large quanti- ties of lava and ashes. Near the southern extremity of the peninsula, on the east, is the group of small islands, called the Schumagin Islands; and from the same extremity, as if in continuation of the peninsula, the Aleu- tian Islands extend, at short distances apart, in a line nearly due westward, more than six hundred miles, to the vicinity of Kamtchatka. The Aleutian Islands include two districts of the Russian American possessions. The easternmost and largest islands of the archipelago, called the Fox Islands, among which areUnimak, Unalashka, and Umnak, and the small group of the Pribulow Islands, lying a little farther north and west of Aliaska, form the district of Unalashka. The district of Atcha comprises the other islands, which are small, and are divided into three groups, called the Rat, the Andreanowsky, and the Commodore Islands. These islands are all mountains, rising above the sea, some of them, to a great height: only the larger ones are inhabited, or indeed habitable ; the others are visited at certain periods by the Russian hunt- ers and fishermen, in search of the animals which abound on their shores. The principal settlement is Illiluk, on the Bay of Samagoondha, in the north-east part of Unalashka, which is also the residence of a bishop of the Greek church. The northern, or Michaelof, district includes all the territories and islands of America, north of Aliaska, bordering on the division of the Pacific, called the Sea of Kamtchatka, which extends from the Aleutian Islands to Bering's Strait : the only establishments, however, are those on the shores of the great gulf of that sea, called Norton's Sound, south of the 64th parallel of latitude. The principal of these establishments is Fort St Michael, near Stuart's Island, to which furs, skins, oil, and GEOGRAPHY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 39 ivory tusks, are brought by the Esquimaux and Tchukskies from the islands near Bering's Strait and the shores of the Arctic Sea. Several expeditions have been recently made by Russian officers into the interior of these countries, in which tvv'o large rivers, the Kwikpak and the Kuskokwim, emptying into the sea between the 60th and the 63d de- grees of latitude, were traced to great distances from their mouths. The part of Asia bathed by the Sea of Kamtchatka, like the opposite part of America, is a waste of snow-covered rocks, among which rise chains of lofty mountains. The principal of these chains extends south- ward through the Pacific from the 60th parallel of latitude, forming the great peninsula of Kamtchatka: south of which stretch the Kurile Islands, south of these the Japan Islands, and still farther south, the Philip- pine Islands; all forming parts of the same line of volcanoes which extends along the west coasts of North America. The only place of importance in Kamtchatka is Petropavvlowsk, a small town situated on the Bay of Avatscha, in the south-east part of the peninsula, in latitude of 53 degrees 58 minutes. Near the point where the peninsula joins the continent stands another small town, called Ochotsk, on the north- ernmost shore of the Gulf of Ochotsk, which separates Kamtchatka from the main land on the west. The Kurile Islands are twenty-two in number, of which nineteen are subject to Russia, and the others to Japan. The Russian Islands form one district of the Russian American Company's possessions ; they are all small, and of little value, many of them being entirely without springs of fresh water. The Russians have but one establishment on them, called Semussir, in Urup, the southernmost of the islands, from which some seal-skins are annually carried to Petropawlowsk and Ochotsk. THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. These islands, sometimes called the Hawaiian Archipelago, are situ- ated in the north-west division of the Pacific, nearly due south of Aliaska, and west of the southern extremity of California, at nearly equal distances — that is, about two thousand five hundred miles — from each of those parts of America, and from the Bay of San Francisco. Their distance from Canton is about five thousand miles. They are ten in number, extending, in a curved line, about three hundred miles in length, from the 19th degree of latitude, north-westward, to the 22d : their whole super- ficial extent is estimated at six thousand six hundred square miles, and the number of their population, by the latest accounts, was about one hundred and fifty thousand. The south-easternmost of the islands, embracing two thirds of the surface, and more than half of the population, of the whole, is Owyhee, (or Hawaii, according to the orthography adopted by the American missionaries.*) North-west of Owyhee is Mowee, (or Maui,) the second in size of the islands, with about twenty thousand inhabitants. Near Mowee, on the west, are Tahoorowa, (Kahulawe,) Morokini, (Molokini,) Ranai, (Lanai,) and Morotai, (Molokai,) ail of them small and unimpor- tant. Farther in the same direction is Woahoo, (Oahu,) nearly as large " See account of this system at p. 330 of the History. 4Q. GEOGRAPHY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. and populous as Mowee, and perhaps the most valuable of all the islands, agriculturally and commercially; and eighty miles farther west are the large island of Atooi, (Kauai,) and the smaller ones of Oneehow, (Ni- hau,) and Tahoora, (Kaula,) which complete the number of the group. The islands are all mountainous and volcanic. On Owyhee are three great peaks — Mowna Roa, (Mauna Loa,) fourteen thousand feet high, Mowna Kea, and Mowna Hualalei, from which eruptions occasionally take place more extensive in their effects than any others on record, except, perhaps, those in Iceland. They, nevertheless, contain large tracts of fine land, which, under the influence of a regular and genial climate, are made to yield all the productions of the tropical, and many of those of the temperate regions ; and they are probably destined to be to the countries bordering upon the North Pacific what the West Indies are to those on the North Atlantic. They remain in the possession of their aboriginal occupants, who appear to evince considerable aptitude to receive instruction, and have, with the aid of some missionaries from the United States, established a regular government, in the form of a hereditary monarchy, under constitutional restrictions. The native population is, however, rapidly diminishing, while that of foreigners, especially from the United States, is increasing. The principal ports in the islands are Honoruru, (Honolulu,) on the south side of Woahoo, and Lahaina, on the west side of Mowee. The town of Honoruru contains about ten thousand inhabitants; it is much frequented, especially by the whaling vessels of the United States ; and property to a great amount in manufactured articles, provisions, oil, &c., belonging to American citizens, is often deposited there. Owyhee has no good harbor, and the only places in it where vessels find secure anchorage are the Bays of Karakakooa, (Kealakeakua,) in which Captain Cook was murdered in 1779, and Toyahyah, (Kawaihae,) on the west side of the island. About two thousand miles south-east from the Sandwich Islands are the Marquesas Islands, of which the five northernmost, the most impor- tant in the group, discovered in April, 1791, by Captain Ingraham, of the brig Hope, of Boston, and named the Washington Islands, were occupied, in 1842, by the French. Six hundred miles south-west of these lie the Society Islands, of which the largest, Otaheite, or Tahiti, according to the new nomenclature, has been the subject of conten- tion between France and Great Britain, in consequence of the at- tempts of the former power to take possession of it. The Marquesas are small, rocky, and unproductive, and cannot aflford support to more than a small number of civilized people ; so that the French will proba- bly find it prudent to abandon them. Otaheite, on the contrary, contains a large extent of the richest soil, and has every other requisite for a valuable possession to a maritime and commercial nation. PROJECTS FOR CANALS UNITING THE TWO OCEANS. 41 PROJECTS FOR CANALS UNITING THE TWO OCEANS. It will also be proper, in conclusion, to offer some observations on a subject which may be considered worthy of interest here, from its ap- parent connection with the destinies of North-West America. The only means of communication for vessels between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans at present known or believed to exist, are through the seas south of the southern extremities of America and Africa ; and each of these routes being circuitous and dangerous, the question as to the practicability of a canal, for the passage of ships through the central parts of the American continent where those seas are separated by narrow tracts of land, has been frequently agitated. Humboldt, in his justly- celebrated essay on Mexico, indicated nine places in America, in which the waters of the two oceans, or of streams entering into them respec- tively, are situated at short distances apart. Of these places it is necessary here to notice but three, to each of which attention has been strongly directed, at different times, and especially of late years, in the expectation that such a navigable passage for ships might be effected through it. They are, — the Isthmus of Panama — Nicaragua — and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. With regard to the last-mentioned of these places, it has been deter- mined, by accurate surveys, that the mountain chain, separating the two oceans, is nowhere less than a thousand feet in height above the level of the sea ; and that a canal connecting the River Guasecualco, flowing into the Mexican Gulf, with the Pacific, must pass through an open cut of nearly that depth, or a tunnel, in either case more than thirty miles in length, as there is no water on the summit to supply locks, should it be found practicable to construct them. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, however, offers many advantages for travellers, and even for the trans- portation of precious commodities, especially to the people of the United States. The mouth of the Guasecualco River, on its northern shore, is less than seven hundred miles from the mouth of the Mississippi, and only one hundred miles by the road from a port on the Pacific, near Tehuantepec, which might be made a good harbor ; so that even now a traveller might go in a fortnight from Washington to the Pacific coast, and thence, by a steam vessel, in ten days more, to the mouth of the Columbia, or to the Sandwich Islands. In Nicaragua, it has been proposed to improve the navigation of the San Juan River, from its mouth on the Mosquito coast, to the great Lake of Nicaragua, from which it flows, or to cut a canal from the Atlantic to that lake, whence another canal should be made to the Pacific. Now, without enumerating the many other obstacles to this plan, any one of them sufficient to defeat it, were all things besides favor- able, it may be simply stated, that one mile of tunnel and two of very deep cutting through volcanic rock, in addition to many locks, will be required in the fifteen miles, which, by the shortest and least difficult route, must be passed between the lake and the Pacific. Is such a work practicable 1 The Isthmus of Panama remains to be considered. From recent and minute surveys, it has been proved that no obstacles to a ship-canal are presented by the surface of this isthmus, equal to those which have been 6 42 PROJECTS FOR CANALS UNITING THE TWO OCEANS. surmounted, in many instances of a similar nature, in Europe and in the United States. On the other hand, the country contains only a few inhabitants of the most wretched description, from whose assistance in the work no advantage in any way could be derived ; so that all the laborers, with all their clothes, provisions, and tools, must be transported thither from a distance. The heat is at all times intense, and the wet season continues during eight months of the year ; the rains in July, August, September, and October, being incessant, and heavier, perhaps, than in any other part of the world. As to salubrity, there is a differ- ence of opinion ; but it is scarcely possible that the extremes of heat and dampness, which are there combined, could be otherwise than deleterious to persons from Europe, or from the Northern States of the American Union, by whom the labor of cutting a canal must be performed, unless, indeed, it should be judged proper to employ negroes from the West Indies on the work. It seems, therefore, that a canal is practicable across the Isthmus of Panama : there is, however, not the slightest probability that it will be made during this century, if ever ; the commercial utility of such a communication being scarcely sufficient to warrant the enormous ex- penses of its construction and maintenance. Ships from Europe or the United States, bound for the west coasts of America, or the North Pacific, or China, would probably pass through it, unless the tolls should be too heavy ; but those returning from China would pursue the route around the Cape of Good Hope, which would be, in all respects, more advantageous for them, as well as for vessels sailing between the Atlantic coasts and India, or Australia. Not only is the direct distance from South Asia and Australia to the Atlantic coasts greater by way of the Pacific, but vessels taking that route must deviate very far from the direct course, in order to avoid the trade winds, which blow constantly westward over the intertropical parts of the Pacific. As regards political effects, it may he assumed as certain, that, should the canal be made by any company or nation whatsoever, it will, in time, notioithstanding any precautions by treaty or otherwise, become the property of the greatest naval power, which loill derive a vast increase of political strength from the possession. HISTOEY OF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA, THE OTHER COUNTRIES ON THE NORTH-WEST COAST OE NORTH AMERICA. HI S T OE Y OF OREGON AND CALIEORNIA, ETC. CHAPTER I. To 1543. Preliminary Observations — Efforts of the Spaniards to discover Western Passages to India — Successive Discoveries of the West Indies, the North American Continent, the Eastern Passage to India, Brazil, and the Pacific Ocean — Search for a navigable Passage connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans — Sup- posed Discovery of such a Passage, called the Strait of Jlnian — Discovery of Magellan's Strait and the Western Passage to India — Conquest of Mexico by Cortes, who endeavors to discover new Countries farther north-west — Voyages of Maldonado, Hurtado de Mendoza, Grijalva, and Becerra — Discovery of Cali- fornia — Expedition of Cortes to California — Pretended Discoveries of Friar Marcos de Niza — Voyages of Ulloa, Alarcon, and Cabrillo — Expeditions of Coronado and Soto — The Spaniards desist from their Efforts to explore the North- West Coasts of America. The western coasts of North America were first explored by the Spaniards, in the sixteenth century. In order to convey a clear idea of the circumstances which led to their discovery, as well as of the claims and pretensions based upon it, a general view will be here presented of the proceedings and objects of Europeans with regard to the New World, from the period when its existence was ascertained, to that in which the exploration of its north-west coasts was begun. The islands found by Columbus, in his voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, were supposed to be situated in the immediate vicinity of Asia, the eastern limits of which were then unknown ; and their dis- covery was the result of endeavors to reach, by a western course, the shores of India, from which Europe chiefly derived its gold, silks, pre- cious stones, and spices, and those of China and Japan, of the wealth of which empires vague accounts had been brought by travellers. With the same objects in view, the Portuguese had been long engaged in exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa southward and eastward, in search of some channel or sea, by which their ships 44 TREATY OF PARTITION OF THE OCEAN. [1494. might enter the Indian Ocean ; being encouraged in their exertions by the Bull of Pope Nicholas V., issued in 1454, assuring to them the exclusive rights of navigation, trade, fishery, and conquest, in all seas and countries which they might find in that course, not before occupied by a Christian prince or people. They had, however, not reached the southern extremity of Africa when Columbus returned from his first voyage across the Atlantic ; and, immediately after- wards, the united Spanish sovereigns procured from Pope Alex- ander VI. Bulls, granting to them and their successors, forever, exclusive privileges with regard to the seas and countries which might be found by navigating towards the west, similar to those conferred on the Portuguese, as to seas and countries east of the Atlantic. Upon these extraordinary commissions, as bases, was founded the celebrated Treaty of Partition of the Ocean, concluded at Torde- sillas, on the 7th of June, 1494, between the sovereigns of Spain and the king of Portugal, then the greatest maritime powers of Europe. By this treaty, the Portuguese were to enjoy and possess the exclusive rights of discovery, trade, conquest, and dominion, in all the seas and territories not previously belonging to a Christian prince or people, east of a meridian line passing three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verd Islands ; and the Spaniards were to possess the same rights, in all seas and all pagan lands west of that line ; no provision being made for the contingency of the meeting of the parties proceeding in these opposite direc- tions. The two nations having thus, under the guaranty of the highest authority recognized in Europe, settled the conditions on which they were to appropriate to themselves, respectively, nearly all the sea and nearly all the land on the globe, without regard for the wishes or claims of any other people, each continued its search for a navigable passage to India, generally, though not always, within the limits assigned to it. In this search the Portuguese were soon successful : for, in 1499, they sailed around the southern extremity of Africa, to India, where they established their dominion or their influence over many of those regions. They also, about the same time, obtamed possession of Bra^.il, the coasts of which were found to extend east of the meridian of partition, to the great regret and constant annoyance of the Spaniards, who had hoped, by the treaty of 1494, to secure to themselves the exclusive sovereignty of all the countries on the western side of the Atlantic. 1500.] THE STRAIT OF ANIAN. 45 The English, however, disregarding the Papal prohibitions, imme- diately entered the career of discovery in the west ; and, under their flag, John Cabot, first of all Europeans, reached the American conti- nent in 1497. They were soon followed by the French, who, during the early part of the sixteenth century, made numerous expeditions across the Atlantic ; and the Portuguese, notwithstanding the restric- tions of the treaty of partition, also endeavored to find a passage to India in the same direction. It was, indeed, long believed that Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese navigator, who explored the coasts of Labrador in 1499 and 1500, had actually sailed through a narrow channel, named by him the Strait of Am an,* westward from the Atlantic, nearly in the course of the 58th parallel of latitude, into another great sea, communicating with the Indian Ocean. This channel may have been the same, now called Hudson's Strait, con- necting tiie Atlantic with Hudson's Bay, the discovery of which is generally attributed to Sebastian Cabot ; it was certainly known as the Strait of Labrador long before its entrance by the navigator whose name it bears. The belief in the existence of such a north- west passage to India, joining the Atlantic in the position assigned to the m.outh of Cortereal's Strait of Anian, caused many voyages to be made to the coasts of northern America, on both sides, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and many false reports to be circulated of the discovery of the desired channel ; the effects of which reports, in promoting the exploration of those coasts, will be hereafter shown. * " It is stated in several collections of voyages, that the name oi' .'Jnian was given to the strait supposed to have been discovered by Gaspar Cortereal, in honor of two brothers, who accompanied him ; but there are no grounds for such a supposition. * * In the earliest maps, .inia is marked as the name of the north-westernmost part of America. Jini, in the Japanese language, is said to signify brother ; hence, probably, the mistake." (Chronological History of Voyages in the Arctic Regions, by John Barrow, page 45.) — In an article on the subject of a north-west passage, in the London Quarterly Review for October, 1B16, supposed to have been written by Barrow, it is asserted that Cortereal " named the Strait of Anian, not in honor of two brothers who accompanied him, but because he deemed it to be the eastern extremity of a strait ichose western end, opening into the Pacific, had already received that name.'' The value of this assertion may be estimated from the fact, that the ocean on the western side of .America was not discovered by Europeans until thirteen years after Cortereal's voyage and death. The review abounds in similar errors. Many of the most important errors in Barrow's Chronological History have been exposed by Mr. R. Biddle, in his admirable Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, to which the reader is referred for the most exact accounts, so far as they can be obtained, of these early voyages to the north-west coasts of the Atlantic. A concise and clear view of the results of these voyages will be found in the first chapter of Bancroft's History of the United States 46 DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. [1513. The Spaniards were, in the mean time, assiduously engaged in planting colonies in the countries newly found by them beyond the Atlantic, to which they gave the collective name of JVest Indies,* and in exploring the coasts in the vicinity of the islands first dis- covered, which were soon ascertained to be the borders of a vast continent. How far south this continent extended, and whether it was united, in the north, with Asia, or with the territories seen in that direction by the English and the Portuguese, remained to be deter- mined ; and, with those objects, the Spaniards persevered in their examinations, in which they were, moreover, encouraged by the constant assurances of the natives of the coasts and islands, respecting the existence of a great sea, and rich and powerful nations, towards the setting sun. In 1513, this great sea was discovered, near the spot where Panama now stands, by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the governor of the Spanish colony of Darien. It was naturally supposed to be the Southern Ocean, which bathed the shores of India ; and, as its proximity to the Atlantic was at the same time ascertained, encour- agement was afforded for the hope that the two great waters would be found connected in a position the most favorable for navigation between Europe and Asia. The examinations of the Spaniards were, in consequence, directed particularly to the coasts of the Isthmus of Darien, and were conducted with great zeal and perse- verance, until the entire separation of the two oceans by land, in that quarter, had been proved. These researches were, however, also continued both north and south of the isthmus, until, at length, in 1520, Fernando Magalhaens, or Magellan, a Portuguese, in the naval service of Spain, discovered and sailed through the strait now bearing his name, into the sea found by Balboa, over which he pursued his voyage westward to India. The great geographical question, as to the circumnavigation of the globe, was thus solved, though not in a manner entirely satisfac- tory to the Spaniards. The Strait of Magellan was intricate, and * The name .America was first applied to the New World in a work entitled " Cosmo- graphim Instruction <^c., insupcr quatuor Americi Vcspucii JVavigationes," written by Martin Waldseemuller, under the assumed name of Hylacomylus , and printed at Saint Die, in Lorraine, in 1507. This has been clearly proved by Humboldt, in his admi- rable " Examen Critique dc VHistoirc dc la Geographic dii JVouveau Continent," in which many other interesting questions relating to the discovery of the New World are also discussed and satisfactorily determined. The Spaniards carefully avoided the use of the name America in their histories and official documents, in not one of which, anterior to the middle of the last century, can the word be found. 1518.] THE SPANIARDS AND PORTUGUESE IN INDIA. 47 the passage through it was attended with great difficulties and dangers ; besides which, it was itself almost as far from Europe as India by the eastern route. Other and more direct channels of communication between the Atlantic and the Southern Ocean might, indeed, be discovered : but the latter sea was found to be infinitely wider than had been supposed ; and, although the part of it crossed by Magellan was so little disturbed by storms that he was induced to name it the Pacific Ocean, yet he also observed that the winds blew over it invariably from eastern points. These circumstances depressed the hopes of the Spaniards with respect to the establish- ment of their power in Southern Asia, though they continued their expeditions to that part of the world by way of Magellan's Strait, and their search for new passages into the Pacific. Their expedi- tions to India brought them into collision with the Portuguese,* who had already made several settlements in the Molucca Islands, and had obtained from the Chinese, in 1518, the possession, under certain qualifications, of the important port of Macao, near Canton ; and many bloody conflicts took place, in consequence, between the subjects of those nations, in that distant quarter of the world, as well as many angry disputes between their governments, before the questions of right at issue could be settled. In the mean time, other events occurred, which consoled the Spaniards for their disappointments with regard to India, and caused them to direct their attention more particularly to the New World. Before the period of the departure of Magellan on his expedi- tion, the Spaniards had, in fact, derived from their discoveries beyond the Atlantic but few of the advantages which they anti- cipated. They had found and taken possession of countries * Spain claimed the exclusive navigation, trade, and conquest, westward, to the extremity of the peninsula of Malacca, so as to include all the Molucca Islands and China; while tlie Portuguese insisted on exercising the same privileges, without competition, eastward as far as the Ladrone Islands ; each on the ground that the meridian of partition, settled with regard to the Atlantic, in 1494, would, if continued on the other side of the globe, pass in such a manner as to place the portions claimed by itself within its own hemisphere. The question was discussed between the two courts directly, and by their commissioners who met at Badajos in 1523, but without arriving at any ^definite arrangement. At length, on the 22d of April, 1529, a treaty was concluded at Saragossa, by the terms of which the king of Spain sold all his rights to the Moluccas to the king of Portugal for 350,000 ducats of gold, ($3,080,000,) with the proviso that the latter might, by repaying the sum, be at liberty again to urge those rights. The sum was never repaid, and Spain did not again claim the islands ; though, for a long period afterwards, the Spanish empire was represented on Spanish maps as extending westward to the extremity of Malacca. 48 MEXICO CONQ,UERED BY THE SPANIARDS. [1522. extensive, rich in mines, productive in soil, and delightful in climate, but uncultivated, and thinly peopled by savages, who could neither by gentle nor by violent means be induced to labor regularly for others or for themselves; and, although the want of a working population was in part supplied by the introduction of negro slaves from Africa, there was httle prospect that Spain would ever be much benefited by these distant colonies. While Magellan's ships were on their western route to India, however, the wealthy and powerful empire of Mexico, which had been discovered in 1518 by a party of Spaniards from Cuba, was conquered by Hernando Cortes ; and Spain immediately became the richest nation of Europe. The reports of the brilliant results of this conquest drew to the West Indies crowds of adventurers, all eager to acquire wealth and renown by similar means ; who, uniting in bands, under daring and experienced captains, ranged through both the western continents, seeking mines of precious metals to work, or rich nations to plunder. In this manner Peru was subjugated by Pizarro and his followers before 1535; the other expeditions were fruitless, as respects the principal objects in view, while, in the course of them, many distant shores and interior regions were explored, whicli would otherwise, perhaps, not have been visited for centuries. The acts of these demon heroes are recorded with minuteness in the stirring pages of the chronicles of their day ; and curious narratives of several of their expeditions, written by persons engaged in them, have been pre- served by the assiduity of Spanish, Italian, English, and Dutch collectors of historical tracts. The desire to discover new passages of communication for vessels between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, was also a strong motive for the expeditions of the Spaniards along the coasts of the New World ; and no one pursued this search with more zeal and perseverance than Hernando Cortes. Scarcely had he established the authority of his sovereign in Mexico, than he commenced the exploration of the adjoining seas and countries, with that object, as well as with the hope of finding other rich nations to subdue ; and in such enterprises he spent a great portion of his time and resources, during his residence in America. In prosecution of his plans, chiefly, the long and in most places narrow territory, connecting Mexico with the southern continent, was carefully examined, until it had been ascertained that the two seas were separated by land throughout the whole extent. He, at the same 1528.] PLANS OF CORTES FOR FURTHER CONQUESTS. 49 time, employed vessels in surveying the coasts of the Mexican Gulf, and those of the Atlantic, farther north ; and he built others on the Pacific side, for similar purposes, two of which he sent, as early as 1526, to the East Indies, in aid of the armaments despatched thither from Spain, under Loyasa.* The first expedition made by the Spaniards along the Pacific coasts, westward from Mexico, was conducted by Pedro Nunez Maldonado, one of the officers of Cortes, who sailed from the moutli of the River of Zacatula in July, 1528, and passed nearly six months in surveying the shores between that point and the mouth of the River of Santiago, about a hundred leagues farther north- west. The territory of which this coast formed the southern border was then called Xalisco ; it was entirely unknown to the Europeans, and was inhabited by fierce tribes of savages, who had never been subdued by the Mexicans. Maldonado brought back flattering accounts of its fertility, and of the abundance of precious metals in its interior, which did not fail to excite the attention of his employer, as well as of otliers among their countrymen. Cortes was at that time in Spain, whither he had gone in 1528, chiefly with the object of obtaining some more definite recognition of his powers and rights in the New World than had been hitherto granted. He was received at Madrid with the most signal honors by his sovereign, the celebrated emperor Charles V. ; and, on his return to Mexico, he carried with him patents, confirming him as captain-general of that country, then called New Spain, and creating him a grandee of Castile, with the title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca ; to which was attached the possession of vast tracts of country in America, including the port of Tehuantepec, on the Pacific. He also procured from the emperor a capitulation, or charter, empowering him to discover and conquer any islands in the * The accounts of the early Spanish expeditions of discovery on the North Pacific side of America, contained in the present chapter, are derived from — the published letters of Cortes, and a number of letters and reports from him and other Spanish commanders, hitherto unpublished, copies of which, made from the originals in Madrid, were kindly placed at the disposition of the writer by W. H. Prescott, of Boston, the accomplished author of the Histories of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of the Conquest of Mexico — the Historia General de las Indias, by Herrera — the Cronica de Nueva Espaiia, by Gomara — the Historia de la Conquista de Mexico, by Bernal Dias — the Raccolte de Viaggi, by Ramusio — the Collection of Voyages and Discoveries, by Hakluyt — the History of Voyages in the Pacific, by Burney — and the Introduction to the Journal of the Voyage made, in 1792, by Captains Galiano and Valdes, in the Spanish schooners Sutil and Mexicana, published at Madrid, by order of the government, in 1802, to which references will also be fre- quently made in the succeeding chapters. 7 50 NUNO DE GUZMAN. [1530. Pacific, or other countries west of Mexico, not within the Umits assigned to any other Spanish governor ; of which countries he and his heirs forever were to enjoy the government, and one twelfth of all the precious metals, pearls, and other advantages therefrom accruing, on condition of their treating the natives with kindness, and endeavoring to convert them to the Christian faith. The politic Charles did not, however, intrust such extensive powers to one so capable and ambitious as Cortes, without at the same time providing certain checks, by means of which the conqueror of Mexico might be effectually prevented from using his faculties for any other ends than enlarging the dominions of the crown of Castile. The expenses of all his expeditions were to be borne by himself; and he could do little, if any thing, without the assent of the Audiencia, or Royal Court and Board of Administration, established at Mexico, the members of which were chosen from among his most bitter enemies. The only governor in the New World with whose claims Cortes might have been supposed to interfere, by expeditions westward from Mexico, was Nuno de Guzman, the president of the Audiencia, who had obtained from the emperor the government of Panuco, the country on the Gulf of Mexico surrounding the spot now occupied by the town of Tampico, and also that of Xalisco, of which he had received accounts from Maldonado and other adven- turers. This person, one of the same stamp with Pizarro and Davila, had been assiduously engaged in undermining the authority and influence of Cortes ; and no sooner did he learn that his rival was returning to Mexico as captain-general, than he assembled all the troops under his command in the capital, and marched for Xalisco, where he remained many years, subduing the country, and exterminating its aboriginal inhabitants. Cortes thus, on his arrival in Mexico in July, 1530, found himself deprived of the means not only of making expeditions of discov- ery, but also of maintaining his authority in the kingdom ; and he was obliged to wait two years before he could send a single vessel out on the Pacific. At length, by the middle of the year 1532, he had two ships ready for sea, which he determined to despatch on an exploratory voyage, along the western coast, whilst the others were in progress of construction at Tehuantepec. At that period, the whole eastern coast of the American contment had been explored, but imperfectly by European navigators ; though no part of the interior, north of Mexico and the countries in its 1532.] UNCERTAINTY OF ACCOUNTS OF OLD VOYAGES. 51 immediate vicinity, was known. The northernmost points occupied by the Spaniards were, — on the Atlantic side, Panuco, within a few miles of the Mexican Gulf, — and, on the Pacific side, Culiacan, which was founded by Nuno de Guzman, in 1530, at the entrance of the Gulf of California. Beyond Culiacan, towards the north and the west, the lands and the seas were entirely unexplored ; and between that place and the civilized portion of Mexico, extended a wide space of uncultivated country, including Xalisco, which was called, by the Spaniards, New Galicia. The ports occupied by the Span- iards on the Pacific side of Mexico, were Tehuantepec, the most eastern, at which Cortes had his arsenals and ship-yards ; Acapulco, the principal place of trade, and tl.e nearest to the capital; and Zacatula, and Aguatlan, on the confines of Xalisco, beyond which the coasts were little known. Before entering upon the history of the Spanish discoveries on the North Pacific side of America, it should be observed, that the accounts of these and other expeditions by sea, made at that period, which have descended to us, are very obscure and inexact, especially as regards geographical positions ; so that it is generally difficult, and often impossible, to identify places by means of the descriptions given in them. This arises partly from the circumstance, that the accounts were nearly all written by priests, clerks, or other persons unacquainted with naval matters, who paid little attention to lati- tudes, longitudes, courses, and bearings, and were unable tO record them properly ; and partly from the imperfection of the instruments then employed to determine the altitudes and relative distances of the heavenly bodies, which, even on land, and under the most favor- able conditions of the atmosphere, gave results far from accurate, and were entirely useless in a vessel on a rough sea, or in cloudy weather. This uncertainty as to the positions of places necessarily leads to confusion respecting their names ; and we accordingly find, in the account of each of these voyages along the same portion of the coast, a nomenclature of capes, bays, and islands, almost entirely dif- ferent from that contained in the narratives of all the other voyages. The expedition of discovery, made, by order of Cortes, to the coasts north-west of Mexico, in 1532, was conducted by his kins- man, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, who sailed from Tehuantepec in July of that year, with two vessels, one commanded by himself, the other by Juan de Mazuela. In the instructions drawn up by Cortes, of which a copy has been preserved, Mendoza was directed to sail within sight of the coast, and, at all convenient places, to land, and 52 VOYAGES OF MENDOZA, GRIJALVA, AND BECERRA. [1532. communicate with the natives, whom he was to concihate by every means in his power. Should he find a country which seemed to be rich, or inhabited by civihzed persons, he was immediately to return, or to send back one of his vessels, with the news.* Hurtado de Mendoza accordingly proceeded slowly along the shore of the continent, as far north-west as the 27th degree of latitude, where, finding his crew mutinous, he sent back one of his vessels, with the greater part of his men, and continued the voyage, with a smah crew, in the other. The vessel sent back reached Culiacan River in great distress, and was there deserted by nearly all her men. Her commander then endeavored, with the remainder of his crew, to carry her to Acapulco : but she was stranded at the mouth of the River of Vanderas, near the point now called Cape Corrientes, and all on board, with the exception of three, were put to death by the natives of the country, after which the vessel was seized and plun- dered by Nuno de Guzman. As to the vessel in which Mendoza continued his voyage, a vague account was received, that she had been thrown on the coast far north, and that all her crew had perished. Cortes did not receive the news of the loss of the vessel which had been sent back by Hurtado de Mendoza until the middle of the following year; and he then immediately despatched two ships from Tehuantepec, in search of the other vessel, under the command, respectively, of Hernando Grijalva and Diego Becerra. These ships left the port together, on the 30th of September, 1533, but were soon after separated. Grijalva, going far out, discovered a group of islands situated about fifty leagues from the coast, named by him Islands of St. Thomas, (the same now called the Revillagigedo Islands,) where he remained until the following spring, and then returned to Acapulco, without having seen any new part of the continent. Becerra, with the other ship, took his course north-westward along the shore of Xalisco, near which his crew mutinied, and he was murdered by the pilot, Fortuno Ximenes. The mutineers, under the command of the pilot, then steered directly west from the main-land, and soon reached a coast not before known, on which they landed, after anchoring their ship in a small bay, near the 23d degree of latitude. There, more than twenty of their number, including Ximenes, were * Herrera, Decade v. book vii. — Manuscript letters and memorials from Cort6s to the emperor, in 1539 and 1540; and from Nunc de Guzman, in 1535 and 1540. 1535.] CORTES LANDS IN CALIFORNIA. ' 53 killed by the natives ; the survivors succeeded in carrying the vessel over to the little harbor of Chiametla, in Xalisco, where she also was seized by Nuno de Guzman. These attempts of Cortes to make discoveries in the north-west, had, in the mean time, excited Nuno de Guzman to efforts with the same object ; and he had sent several parties of men in that direc- tion, one of which appears to have traced the western shore of the continent as far as the mouth of the river now called the Colorado, and to have first brought accounts of rich and populous countries and splendid cities in the interior. Guzman had also received large accessions to his forces from Mexico, and was making many settlements, one of which soon prospered, and became, in time, the city of Guadalaxara, the second in size in New Spain. When Cortes became assured of the seizure of his vessels by Guzman, he addressed a complaint on the subject to the Audiencia ; whose decision being, however, not so determinate in his favor as he wished, he assembled a large body of troops, and marched with them to Chiametla, where he also ordered three vessels to be sent from Tehuan tepee. On the approach of these forces, Guzman advanced to meet them, but no action ensued ; and Cortes, having been joined at Chiametla by his vessels, embarked in them, with a portion of his men, and set sail for the new country, found by Ximenes in the west, which was said to abound in the finest pearls. On the 3d of May, 1535, the day of the Invention of the Holy Cross, according to the Roman Catholic calendar, the squadron anchored in the bay, on the shore of which the murderers of Becerra had met their fate in the preceding year ; and, in honor of the day, the name of Santa Cruz was bestowed on the place, of which possession was solemnly taken for the Spanish sovereign. The country thus claimed by Cortes for Spain, was the south-east part of the great peninsula, which projects from the American con- tinent on the Pacific side, in nearly the same direction, and between nearly the same parallels of latitude, as that of Florida on the Atlantic side. It soon after received the name of California, respecting the origin and meaning of which, many speculations — none of them satisfactory or even ingenious — have been offered. The bay called Santa Cruz by Cortes was probably the same now known as Port La Paz, about a hundred miles from the Pacific, near the 24th degree of latitude ; though some accounts place it in the immediate vicinity of the southernmost point of the peninsula 54 CORTES SUPERSEI^ED BY MENDOZA. [1537. On the shore of this bay, surrounded by bare mountains of rock, arid and forbidding in appearance, though not more so than the sandy waste about Vera Cruz, Cortes landed with a hundred and thirty men and forty horses, and then sent back two of his vessels to Chiametla, to bring over the remainder of the forces ; hoping to find, in the interior of the new country, another Mexico, in the conquest of which he might employ his powerful energies. The vessels soon reappeared, with a portion of the troops, and were again despatched to the Mexican coast, from which only one of them returned, the other having been wrecked on her way. Cortes thereupon embarked, with seventy men, for Xalisco, from which he came back, after encountering the greatest dangers, just in time to prevent the total destruction by famine of those left at Santa Cruz. In these operations, more than a year was consumed, without obtaining any promise of advantage. The new country, so far as it had been explored, was utterly barren, and, except that a few pearls were found on the coast, destitute of all attraction for the Spaniards. The officers of the expedition were discontented : of the men, a number had died from want and disease ; the others were mutinous, and cursed " Cortes, his island, his bay, and his dis- covery." * Meanwhile his wife, becoming alarmed by the reports of the ill success of the expedition, which had reached Mexico, sent a vessel to Santa Cruz, with letters entreating his immediate return ; and he, at the same time, learned that he had been superseded in the government of New Spain by Don Antonio de Mendoza, a noble- man of high rank and character, who had already made his entrance into the capital as viceroy. The removal of Cortes from the government of the country which had, by his means, been added to the dominions of Spain, was a heavy blow ; particularly as he was, at that moment, much embar- rassed from want of funds, his private property having been seriously injured by the expenses of his recent expeditions, from which no advantage had been obtained. He was, in consequence, obliged to return to Mexico, where he arrived in the beginning of 1537, and, soon after, to recall from Santa Cruz his lieutenant, Francisco de Ulloa, with the forces which had been left there ; and, not being able, at the time, to employ his vessels, he sent two of them, under Grijalva, to Peru, laden with arms, ammunition, and provisions, in * Bernal Dias, chap. 199. 1527.] RAMBLES OF CABEZA-VACA. 55 aid of his friend Francisco Pizarro, who was then in great difficulties, from an extensive insurrection of the natives.* Cortes, nevertheless, still claimed the right, in virtue of his capitulation with the sovereign, and as admiral of the South Sea, to make expeditions on that ocean for his own benefit; and he resolved to prosecute the discovery of California, by which he still expected to retrieve his fortunes, so soon as he could obtain the requisite funds. The advancement of this claim, however, brought him into collision with the new viceroy, who was an enlightened and determined man, and who had likewise become interested in the exploration of the regions north-west of Mexico, by the accounts of some persons recently arrived from that quarter ; and a violent con- troversy ensued between the two chiefs, which lasted until the conqueror quitted Mexico. The persons from whom the viceroy Mendoza received this information respecting the territories north-west of Mexico, were Alvaro Nunez de Cabeza-Vaca, two other Spaniards, and a negro or Moor. They had landed, in 1527, near Tampa Bay, in the peninsula of Florida, among the adventurers who invaded that country under Panfilo Narvaez, in search of mines and plunder ; and, after the destruction of their comrades by shipwreck, starvation, and the arrows of the Indians, they had wandered for nine years through forests and deserts, until they reached Culiacan, whence they were sent on to Mexico. Of their route, it is impossible to form any exact idea from the narrative published by Cabeza-Vaca : he had seen no signs of wealth or civilization in the regions which he had traversed ; but he had, in many places, received from the natives accounts of rich and populous countries, inhabited by civilized people, situated farther north-west ; and the viceroy, after hearing these accounts, thought proper to endeavor to ascertain the * A long account of the adventures of Cortes, in his Californian expedition, may be found in Herrera, Decade viii. book viii. chap. ix. and x. The descriptions of the localities given by Herrera, and other historians, are, however, so vague, that it is impossible to trace the movements of the Spaniards with exactness ; and the events related are unimportant, being merely details of disasters, such as might have occurred to ordinary men, engaged in ordinary enterprises. Those who take interest in everything connected with Cortes, — and the number of such must doubtless be greatly increased, since the publication of Mr. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, — may obtain explanations, as to the events of this expedition, from the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdcs, and from the first "volume of Burney's History of Voyages in the Pacific ; but they should avoid the account given by Fleuneu, in his Introduction to the Journal of Marchand's Voyage, which only renders confusion worse confounded. 56 ULLOA DISCOVERS THE WEST COAST OF CALIFORNIA. [1539. truth of them. For this purpose he collected a band of fifty horse- men, who were to be commanded by Dorantes, one of the compan- ions of Cabeza-Vaca ; but, that plan being overthrown by some circumstance, he was induced, by the representations of his friend, the celebrated Bartolome de las Casas, to depute two friars to make the exploration, with the view of preserving the inhabitants of the countries visited, from the violence to which miUtary men would not fail to resort, if there should be occasion, for the gratification of their cupidity. The friars, Marcos de Niza, provincial of the Franciscan order in Mexico, and Honorato, accompanied by the negro or Moor, Estavanico, who had crossed the continent with Cabeza-Vaca, accordingly set out from Culiacan, on the 7th of March, 1539, in search of the rich countries reported to lie in the north-west. Soon after the departure of the friars, the last expedition made by order of Cortts was begun.* It was commanded by Francisco de Ulloa, who sailed from Acapulco on the 8th of July, 1539, with three vessels, well manned and equipped, and took his course for California. One of the vessels was driven ashore in a storm near Culiacan : with the others Ulloa proceeded to the Bay of Santa Cruz, and thence in a few days departed to survey the coasts towards the north-east. In this occupation the ships were engaged until the 18th of October, when Ulloa returned to Santa Cruz, having in the mean time completely examined both shores of the great gulf which separates California from the main land on the east, and ascertained the fact of the junction of the two territories, near the 32d degree of latitude, though he failed to discover the Colorado River, which enters the gulf at its northern extremity. This gulf was named, by Ulloa, the »Sea of Cortes ; but it is gener- ally distinguished, on Spanish maps, as the Vermilion Sea, (Mar Vermejo,) and, in those of other nations, as the Gulf of California. On the 29th of October, Ulloa again sailed from Santa. Cruz, in order to examine the coasts farther west, and having rounded the point now called Cape San Lucas, which forms the southern extremity of California, he pursued his voyage along the coast towards the north. In this direction the Spaniards proceeded slowly, often landing and fighting with the natives, and generally opposed by violent storms from the north-west, until the end of January, 1540, when they had reached an island near the coast, under the 28th parallel of latitude, which they named the Isle of * See Narrative of Francisco Preciado, one of the officers of the Santa Agueda, in Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 283, and in Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 503. 1540.] JOURNEY OF FRIAR MARCOS DE NIZA. 57 Cedars. There they remained the greater part of the time, until the beginning of April, being prevented from advancing farther north by head winds; and then, as several of the crews of both vessels were disabled by sickness, and their provisions were insuf- ficient to enable them to continue the voyage together much longer, Ulloa resolved to send one of his ships back to Mexico. The Santa Agueda, bearing the sick and the accounts of the discoveries, accordingly sailed from the Isle of Cedars on the 5th of April, and in the beginning of the following month she arrived at Santiago, in Xalisco, where she was seized by the officers of the viceroy, who was anxious to learn the particulars of her discoveries. Of the fate of Ulloa there are contradictory accounts. Herrera says that nothing was ever heard of him after his parting with the Santa Agueda ; others of his contemporaries, however, state that he con- tinued his voyage along the west coast of California, as far as a point called Cape Engario, near the 30th degree of latitude, and thence returned safely to Mexico. Whatsoever may have been the importance of the geographical results of this voyage, they were scarcely satisfactory to Cortes ; and they attracted little attention among the Spaniards in Mexico, who were then all engaged in plans and speculations concerning the rich and delightful countries, of the discovery of which, by Friar Marcos de Niza and his companions, accounts had recently arrived. From these accounts, as contained in the letter addressed to the viceroy by Friar Marcos,* and from other evidence, it is probable that the reverend explorer did really penetrate to a considerable distance into the interior of the continent, and did find there countries partially cultivated, and inhabited by people possessing some acquaintance with the arts of civilized life ; though, as to the precise situation of those regions, or the routes pursued in reaching them, no definite idea can be derived from the narrative. The friar pretended to have discovered, north-west of Mexico, beyond the 35th degree of latitude, extensive territories, richly cultivated, and abounding in gold, silver, and precious stones, the population of which was much greater, and farther advanced in civilization, than those of Mexico or Peru. In these countries were many towns, and seven cities, of which the friar only saw one, called C'evola or Cibola, containing twenty thousand large stone houses, some of four stories, and * The letter of Friar Marcos, relating his discoveries, may be .found in Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 297, and in Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 438. See, also, Herrera, Decade vi. p. 204. 8 58 VOYAGE OF ALARCON. [1540. adorned with jewels ; yet he was assured, by the people, that this was the smallest of the cities, and far inferior, in extent and mag- nificence, to one called Totonteac, situated more towards the north- west. The inhabitants of Cibola had, at first, been hostile to tlie Spaniards, and had killed the negro ; but they had, in the end, manifested a disposition to embrace Christianity, and to submit to the authority of the king of Spain, in whose name Friar Marcos had taken possession of the whole country, by secretly erecting crosses in many places. These, and other things of a similar kind, gravely related by a respectable priest, who professed to have witnessed what he described, were universally admitted to be true ; and the viceroy Mendoza, having communicated them to his sovereign, began to prepare for the reduction of the new countries, and the conversion of their inhabitants to Christianity. Cortes, however, insisted on continuing his discoveries in the same direction, apparently giving little credit to the statements of Friar Marcos ; while his old companion in arms, the redoubtable Pedro de Alvarado, claimed to undertake the con- quest in virtue of a capitulation recently concluded between himself and the emperor. Hernando de Soto, likewise, who had just obtained a commission for the discovery of Florida, declared the seven cities to be within his jurisdiction ; and Nuno de Guzman protested that his own right was the best, and with some reason, in consequence of his labors in the subjugation and settlement of New Galicia, of which he maintained that the rich countries formed part. After these disputes had lasted some months, a compromise was made between the viceroy and Alvarado, agreeably to which the latter was to command the expedition destined for the reduction "of the rich territories in the north-west ; and, about the same time, Cortes returned in disgust to Spain, where he passed the remaining seven years of his life in vain efforts to recover his authority in Mexico, or to obtain indemnification for his losses. The viceroy Mendoza had, however, immediately on receiving the news of the discoveries from Friar Marcos, sent two bodies of armed forces, the one by land, the other by sea, to reconnoitre the rich countries, and prepare the way for their conquest. The marine armament consisted of two ships, commanded by Fernando de Alarcon, who sailed from the port of Santiago on the 9th of May, 1540, and, proceeding along the coast towards the north-west, reached the extremity of the Gulf of California in August following. There he discovered a great river, which he 1540.] EXPEDITION OF VAZQ,UEZ DE CORONADO. 59 named Rio de Nuestra Senora de Buena Guia* (or River of our Lady of Safe Conduct,) probably the same now called the Colorado. This stream Alarcon ascended, to the distance of more than eighty leagues, with a party of his men, in boats, making inquiries on the way about the seven cities ; in reply to which, he received from the Indians a number of confused stories — of kingdoms rich in precious metals and jewels — of rivers filled with crocodiles and other monsters — of droves of buflfaloes — of enchanters — and other won- derful or remarkable objects. Of Totonteac he could learn nothing ; though, at the end of his voyage up the river, he obtained what he considered some definite information respecting Cibola, and was assured that he might reach that place by a march of ten days into the interior. He, however, suspected treachery on the part of those who gave the assurance ; and, not conceiving it prudent to attempt to advance farther, he returned to his ships. In a second voyage up the river, he obtained no additional information ; and, believing it needless to continue the search, he went back to Mexico, where he arrived before the end of the year.f The land forces, despatched at the same time towards the north- west, were composed of cavalry and infantry, and were accompanied by priests, for the conversion of the natives to Christianity. They were commanded by Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, a man of resolute and serious character, and by no means disposed to exag- gerate, who had been appointed governor of New Galicia, in place of Nuno de Guzman. His letter to the viceroy,^ containing accounts of the first period of the expedition, though wanting in precision, is yet sufficiently exact to afford a general idea of the direction in wliich he marched, and even of the position of some of the principal places which he visited. * In honor of the viceroy, who bore on his arms an image of Nuestra SeTiora de Buena Guia. t Letter of Alarcon to the viceroy Mendoza, in Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 303, and in Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. .505. See, also, Herrera, Decade vi. p. 208. The Californian Gulf had thus been completely explored, as appears not only from the accounts of the voyages of Ulloa and Alarcon, but also from a chart of the coasts of California, and the west coast of Mexico, drawn, in 1541, by Domingo del Castillo, Alarcon's pilot, of which an engraved facsimile may be found in the edition of the Letters of Cortes, published at Mexico, in 1770, by Archbishop Lorenzana. The shores of the gulf, and of the west side of California, to the 30th degree of lati- tude, are there delineated with a surprising approach to accuracy. The pilot doubt- less derived his information chiefly from the journals of UUoa, which were sent back in the Santa Agueda, and were seized, by order of the viceroy, immediately on tlie arrival of that vessel in Mexico. t Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 300. Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 447, 60 CIBOLA. [1540. Agreeably to this letter, the Spaniards left Culiacan on the 22d of April, 1540, and took their way towards the north, following, as well as they could, the course described by the friar : but, ere they had proceeded far, they had abundant evidences of the incorrect- ness of the accounts of that personage ; for the route which he had represented as easy and practicable, proved to be almost impassable. They, however, made their way over mountains and deserts, and through rivers, and, at length, in July, they reached the country of the seven cities, for which Cibola appeared to be the general name ; but, to their disappointment, it proved to be only a half-cultivated region, thinly inhabited by people not absolutely savage, though destitute of the wealth and refinement attributed to them by Friar Marcos. The seven great cities were seven small towns, some of them, indeed, containing large houses of stone, rudely built, and un- ornamented. Of fruits there were none, except such as grew wild ; and the immense quantities of precious metals and stones were merely " a few turquoises, and some gold and silver, supposed to be good. In fine," says Vazquez de Coronado, in his letter to the viceroy, " of the seven cities, and the kingdoms and provinces of which the reverend father provincial made a report to your excel- lency, he spoke the truth in nothing ; for we have found all to be quite the contrary, except only as to the houses of stone." The Spaniards, nevertheless, took possession of the country, in due form, for their sovereign ; and, being pleased with its soil and climate, they entreated their commander to allow them to remain and settle there. To this inglorious proposition Vazquez refused to consent ; and, having despatched his letter to Mendoza, from one of the cities of Cibola, named by him Granada, he took his departure, with his forces, for the north-west, in search of other new countries. From the descriptions of the position, climate, productions, and animals, of Cibola, given by Vazquez de Coronado, there is some reason for believing it to be the region near the great dividing chain of mountains, east of the northernmost part of the Gulf of California, about the head-waters of the Rivers Yaqui and Gila, which fall into that arm of the Pacific. This part of America, now called Sonora, (a corruption of Senora,) though long since settled by the Spaniards, is little known to the inhabitants of other countries. It is described, by those who have recently visited it, as a most delightful, productive, and salubrious region, containing innumerable mines of silver and gold, among which are some of the richest in the world. There are, moreover, in that territory, many collections 1540—1543.] QUiviKA. 61 of ruins of large stone buildings, which were found in their present state by the first Spanish settlers, and are called casus grandes de los Azteques, (great houses of the Aztecks.) from the supposi- tion or tradition that they were built by that people before their invasion of Mexico.* Vazquez de Coronado, indeed, remarks that the inhabitants of Cibola, though not wanting in intelligence, did not appear to be capable of erecting the houses which he saw there. Of the movements of the Spaniards, after they quitted Cibola, in August, 1540, the accounts are so vague and contradictory, that it is impossible to trace their route. It seems, however, that the greater part of the forces soon returned to Mexico ; while the others, under their commander, wandered, for nearly two years longer, through the interior of the continent, in search of a country called Q^uivira, said, by the Indians, to be situated far in the north, and to be governed by " a king named Tatarrax, with a long beard, hoary- headed, and rich, who worshipped a cross of gold, and the image of the Queen of Heaven." f This country they found near the 40th degree of latitude : but the people had no other wealth than skins ; and their king, though hoary-headed, possessed no jewels, " save one of copper, hanging about his neck." Quivira is described as a level territory, covered with herds of buffaloes, which form the whole support of the inhabitants; and, if its latitude has been correctly reported, it is most probably the region about the head-waters of the Arkansas and Platte Rivers ; though Gomara places it near the sea, and says that the Spaniards saw ships on the coast, laden with East India goods. Vazquez had, probably, before leaving Quivira, learned the true value of Indian accounts of rich countries ; and, not deeming it advisable to pursue the search for them any longer, lie returned to Mexico in 1543. During the absence of Vazquez de Coronado, the great arma- ment, destined for the exploration and conquest of the north-western territories, under Pedro de Alvarado, was prepared ; but, just as the expedition was about to be commenced, a rebellion broke out among the Indians of Xalisco, and all the forces at the viceroy's disposal were required to quell it. In the campaign which ensued, in the summer of 1541, Alvarado was killed by a kick from a horse ; and Mendoza's expectations of advantage from the north-west regions were, in the mean time, so much lowered, that he resolved to reduce the scale of his expeditions for discovery in that quarter. ' Hardy s Travels in Mexico, from 1825 to 1828. < Gomara, chap. 213 62 VOYAGE OF CABRILLO. [1542, 1543. The disturbances being, at length, ended, in the spring of 1542, two vessels were placed under the command of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese of high reputation as a navigator, who was directed to examine the western side of CaUfornia, as far northward as pos- sible, seeking particularly for rich countries, and for passages leading towards the Atlantic ; while Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, a relation of the viceroy, was sent, with the remamder of the disposable vessels and forces, across the Pacific, to endeavor to form establishments in India. The two vessels under Cabrillo sailed together from Navidad, a small port in Xalisco, in June, 1542 ; and, having in a few days doubled Cape San Lucas, the survey of the west coast of California was begun from that point. It would be needless to endeavor to trace the progress of Cabrillo along this coast, or to enumerate the many capes and bays mentioned in the account of his voyage, nearly all of which places, so far as they can be identified, are now distinguished by names entirely different from those bestowed on them by him. By the middle of August, he had advanced beyond the limits of the supposed discoveries of Ulloa ; and, in November, after having examined the coast as far north as the 38th degree of latitude, he was driven back, and forced to take refuge in a harbor named by him Port Possession, situated in the Island of Smi Bernardo, one of the Santa Barbara group, near the main land, under the 34th parallel. There Cabrillo, who had been for some time sick, sank under the fatigues of the voyage, on the 3d of January, 1543, leaving the command to the pilot, Bartolome Ferrelo. The new commander, being no less zealous and determined than his predecessor, resolved, if possible, to accomplish the main objects of the expedition before returning to Mexico. He accordingly, soon after, sailed from Port Possession towards the north, and, on the 26th of February, reached a promontory situated under the 41st parallel, to which he gave the name of Cabo de Fortunas, (Cape of Perils, or Stormy Cape,) from the dangers encountered in its vicinity. On the 1st of March, the ships were in the latitude of 44 degrees, as determined by a solar observation ; but, on the fol- lowing day, they were again driven to the south ;. and, the men being, at this time, almost worn out, by long exposure to cold and fatigue, without sufiicient food or clothing, Ferrelo determined to go back to Mexico. The ships, therefore, quitted the Isle of Cedars, discovered by Ulloa, in the beginning of April, and, on the 14th of that month, they arrived at Navidad. 1543. J EXPEDITION OF SOTO. 63 From the accounts of this expedition which have been preserved, it is not easy to determine precisely how far north the American coast was discovered. The most northern point of land mentioned in those accounts is the Cape of Perils, which, though there placed under the 41st parallel, was probably the same soon after called Cape Mendocino, in the latitude of 40 degrees 20 minutes. Other authors, however, whose opinions are entitled to respect, pronounce the 43d parallel to be the northern limit of the discoveries made by the Spaniards in 1543.* Whilst these expeditions to the north-western parts of America were in progress, Hernando de Soto, and his band of Spanish adventurers, were performing their celebrated march, in quest of mines and plunder, through the regions extending north of the Gulf of Mexico, which were then known by the general name of Florida. Without attempting here to trace the line of their wanderings, suffice it to say, that they traversed, in various directions, the vast territories now composing the Southern and South- Western States of the American Federal Union, and descended the Mississippi in boats, from the vicinity of the mouth of the Arkansas to the Mex- ican Gulf, on which they continued their voyage, along the coast, to Panuco. From the accounts of the few who survived the toils and perils of that memorable enterprise, taken together with those collected by Cabeza-Vaca and Vazquez de Coronado, concerning the territories which they had respectively visited, it was considered certain that neither ivealthxj nations, nor navrgahle passages of com- munication between the Atlantic and the Pacijic Oceans, were to be found north of Mexico, wdess beyond the 40th parallel of latitude. The Spaniards, having arrived at these conclusions, for some time desisted from attempting to explore the north western section of the continent ; and circumstances, meanwhile, occurred, which impressed their government with the belief that the discovery of any passage facilitating the entrance of European vessels into the Pacific, loould be deleterious to the power and interests of Spai^i in the Neiv World. * Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, p. 35. See, also, Burney's History of Voyages in the Pacific, vol. i. p. 220. •64 CHAPTER II. 1543 TO 1606. The Spaniards conquer the Philippine Islands, and establish a direct Trade across the Pacific, between Asia and America — Measures of the Spanish Government to prevent other European Nations from settling or trading in America — These Measures resisted by the English, the French, and the Dutch — Free Traders and Freebooters infest the West Indies — First Voyages of the English in the Pacific — Voyages of Drake and Cavendish — Endeavors of the English to discover a North- West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific — False Reports of the Discovery of such Passages — Supposed Voyages of Urdaiieta, Maldonado, and Fonte — Voyage of Juan de Fuca — Expeditions of Sebastian Vizcaino — Supposed Dis- covery of a great River in North- West America. Whilst the Spaniards were thus extending their dominion in the New World, the Portuguese were daily acquiring advantages in India, with which they carried on a profitable trade, by means of their ships sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. The Spaniards, viewing this increase of the power of their rivals with jealousy and hatred, made many endeavors, likewise, to form estabUshments in Asia ; but all their expeditions for that purpose before the middle of the sixteenth century, terminated disastrously. The armaments sent from Spain to India under Loyasa, in 1525, and from Mexico, under Saavedra, in the ensuing year, were entirely ineffective. In 1542, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos crossed the Pacific with a large squadron from Mexico, and took possession of the Philippine Islands for his sovereign ; but his forces were soon after dispersed, and none of his vessels returned either to Europe or to America. In 1564, the Spaniards made another attempt to gain a footing in the East Indies, which was successful. The Philippine Islands were in that year subjugated by Miguel de Legazpi, who had been despatched from Mexico with a small squadron for the purpose ; and a discovery was also made in the course of this expedition, without which the conquest would have been of no value. Before that period, no European had ever crossed the Pacific from Asia to America; all who had endeavored to make such a voyage having confined themselves to the part of the ocean between the tropics 1564.] IMPROVEMENTS IN THE NAVIGATION OF THE PACIFIC. 65 where the winds blow constantly from eastern points. Three of Lewazpi's vessels, however, under the direction of Andres de Urdaneta, a friar, who had in early life accompanied Magellan in his expedition, and had subsequently acquired great reputation as a navigator, by taking a northward course from the Philippine Islands, entered a region of variable winds, near the 40th parallel of latitude, and were thus enabled to reach the coast of California, along which the prevailing north-westers carried them speedily to Mexico. The Spaniards thus gained, what they had so long coveted, a position in the East Indies ; and the practicability of communicating, by way of the Pacific, between Asia and America, was placed beyond a doubt. At the same time, also, Juan Fernandes discov- ered the mode of navigating between places on the west coast of South America, by standing out obliquely to a distance from the continent ; and other improvements of a similar kind having been moreover introduced, the Spanish commerce on the Pacific soon became important. Large ships, called galleons, sailed annually from Acapulco to Manilla, in the Philippine Islands, and to Macao, in China, laden with precious metals and European merchandise, in return for which they brought back silks, spices, and porcelain, for consumption in America, or for transportation over the Atlantic to Europe ; while an extensive trade in articles equally valuable was carried on between Panama and the various ports of Peru and Chili. These voyages on the Pacific were usually long, but com- paratively safe, at least so far as regards exemption from injury by winds and waves, though the crews of the vessels often suffered dreadfully from scurvy occasioned by filth and want of good water and provisions ; * and, as that ocean remained for some years undis- turbed by the presence of enemies of Spain, little care or cost was bestowed upon the defence, either of the vessels or of the towns on the coasts. The galleons, proceeding from Mexico to India, were wafted, by the invariable easterly or trade winds, directly across the ocean, in about three months ; in the return voyage, they often occupied more than double that time, and they always made the west coast of California, the principal points on which thus became tolerably well known before the end of the sixteenth century. Accounts of * For accounts of the miseries of a voyage from Manilla to Acapulco, in 1697, see Gemelli Carreri's narrative, in the fourth volume of Churchill's collection of voyages, which, if not true, is very like truth. 9 66 VOYAGE OF GALI. [1584. some of these voyages have been preserved, but they are of Uttle value at present, from their want of precision. One of them is a letter from Francisco Gali, addressed to the viceroy of Mexico, describing his passage from Macao to Acapulco, in 1584, in the course of which he sailed along the west coast of America, from the latitude of thirty-seven and a half degrees southward to Mexico.* It has, however, been maintained, on the evidence of papers found in the archives of the Indies,f that Gali arrived on that coast in the latitude of fifty-seven and a half degrees, and is therefore to be considered as the discoverer of the whole shore between that par- allel and the forty-third : but this assertion is supported by no evidence sufficient to overthrow the express statement of the navigator in his letter, the genuineness of which is not denied ; and Gali, moreover, there declares that the land first seen by him was "very high and fair, and wholly without snow,^' which could not have been the case with regard to the north-west coast of America, under the parallel of fifty-seven and a half degrees, in the middle of October. In 1595, Sebastian Cermenon, in the ship San Augustin, on his way from Manilla to Acapulco, examined the same coasts, by order of the viceroy of Mexico, in search of some harbor in which the galleons might take refuge, and make repairs, or obtain water ; but nothing has been preserved respecting his voyage, except that his ship was lost near the Bay of San Francisco, south of Cape Mendocino. The Spanish government was, in the mean time, engaged in devising, and applying to its dominions in the New World, those measures of restriction and exclusion, which were pursued so rigidly, and with so little variation, during the whole period of its supremacy in the American continent. The great object of this system was simply to secure to the monarch and people of Spain the entire enjoyment of all the advantages which were supposed to be derivable from those dominions, consistently with the perpetual maintenance of absolute authority over them ; and, for this object, it * In Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 526, the letter from Gali to the viceroy is given at length, as " translated out of the original Spanish into Dutch, by John Huyghen Van Linschoten, and out of Dutch into English." In Linschoten, as in Hakluyt, thirty- seven and a half degrees is given as the northernmost part of the coast seen by Gali. \ See the note in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, at page 46, in which two letters from the viceroy of Mexico to the king of Spain, relative to the voyage of Gali, are mentioned ; but the account there given differs in nothing, except as to the latitude, from that in the letter published by Linschoten and Hak- luyt. Humboldt adopts the opinion of the author of the Introduction, without, however, adding any information or reasoning on the subject. 1570.] SPANISH GOVERNMENT OF AMERICA. 67 was deemed expedient not only to exclude the subjects of other Euro- pean states from the territories claimed by Spain, — that is, from the whole of the New World except Brazil, — but also to prevent the rapid development of the resources of the Spanish provinces them- selves.* In these views the Spaniards have not been singular ; but no other power, in modern times, has employed measures so extreme in fulfilling them. Thus no Spaniard could emigrate to America, no new settlement could be formed there, and no new country or sea could be explored, without the express permission of the sov- ereign ; and, when expeditions for discovery were made, the results were often concealed, or tardily and imperfectly promulgated. No article could be cultivated or manufactured for commerce in Amer- ica, which could be imported from Spain ; and no intercourse could be carried on between the difterent great divisions of those posses- sions, or between either of them and the mother country, except in vessels belonging to or specially licensed by the government, or otherwise under its immediate supervision. With the rest of the world, the Spanish Americans could have no correspondence ; and all foreigners were prohibited, under pain of death, from touching the territories claimed by Spain, and even from navigating the seas in their vicinity. " Whoever," says Hakluyt, at the end of the sixteenth century, " is conversant with the Portugal and Spanish writers, shall find that they account all other nations for pirates, * The Spanish dominions in America, together with the Canary and the Philippine Islands, formed one empire, called the Indies, of which the king of Spain was, ex officio, the sovereign. The territories were divided into great sections, or kingdoms, each entirely independent of the others, except in certain prescribed contingencies , the general direction of the whole being committed to the Supreme Council of the Indies, a special ministry, residing in the palace of the king, in whose name all its orders were issued. The larger kingdoms of the Indies were under the immediate government of viceroys, representing the authority and person of the sovereign ; the others were governed by captains-general, or by presidents, whose powers were more limited. All these high officers were, however, kept in check by the courts called Audiencias, resembling the Supreme Council in their organization and attributes, one or two of which were established in each kingdom. The commerce of those countries was under the superintendence of a board, called the House of Contracts of the Indies, sitting at Seville, to and from which port all expeditions, from and to America, were, for a long time, obliged to pass. The laws and regulations of the Supreme Council were, from time to time, revised ; and those which were to remain in force were published in a collection entitled the Rccopilacion dc Leyes de Indias, (Compilation of Laws of the Indies,) containing the rules for the conduct of all the officers of the government. The provisions of this celebrated code are, in general, remarkable for their justice and humanity ; the enforcement of them, being, however, left to those who had no direct interest in the prosperity and advancement of the country, was most shamefully neglected. 68 FREE TRADERS AND FREEBOOTERS. [1570. rovers, and thieves, which visit any heathen coast that they have sailed by or looked on." Against these exclusive regulations the English and the French at first murmured and protested, and then began to act. The English government, having thrown off its allegiance to the head of the Roman Catholic church, denied the validity of the Spanish claims founded on the papal concessions, and required from Spain the recognition of the rights of Englishmen to navigate any part of the ocean, to settle in any country not occupied by another Chris- tian nation, and to trade with the Spanish American provinces. These demands having been resisted, Q,ueen Elizabeth * openly, as well as covertly, encouraged her subjects, even in time of peace, to violate regulations which she pronounced unjustifiable and inhuman ; and the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indian seas were, in conse- quence, haunted by bands of daring English, who, under the equivocal denominations of fret traders and freebooters, set at defiance the prohibitions of the Spaniards, as to commerce and territorial occupation, and plundered their ships, and the towns on their coasts. About the same time, the French Protestants began their attempts to plant colonies in Florida and Carolina, which were not defeated without considerable expenditure of Spanish blood and treasure ; and the revolt in the Netherlands, which ended in the liberation of the Dutch provinces, soon after produced a formidable addition to the forces of these irregular enemies of Spain. The efforts of the English, and of their government, to establish com- merce with the Spanish dominions in America, have, in fact, been the principal causes or motives of nearly all the wars between those nations since the middle of the sixteenth century. In these efforts the English have constantly persevered ; and the Spanish govern- ment has resolutely opposed them, during peace, during war, and * Queen Elizabeth's reply to the Spanish ambassador, who complained of the plunder of one of his sovereign's vessels by the English, in the West Indies, during peace between the two nations, is characteristic of her disposition, as well as reason- able. She said " that the Spaniards had drawn these inconveniences upon themselves, by their severe and unjust dealings in their American commerce ; for she did not understand why either her subjects, or those of any other European prince, should be debarred from traffic in the Indies ; that, as she did not acknowledge the Spaniards to have any title, by donation of the bishop of Rome, so she knew no right they had to any places other than those they were in actual possession of; for that their having touched only here and there upon a coast, and given names to a few rivers or capes, were such insignificant things as could in no ways entitle them to a pro- priety farther than in the parts where they actually settled, and continued to inhabit." — Cajnden's Annals of Queen Elizabeth's Reign, for 1580. 1570.] ALARMS AND PROHIBITIONS OF THE SPANIARDS. 69 even during alliance between the two powers, until the last moment of the existence of the Spanish authority in the American continent. Could Spain have so long retained the possession of her colonies in America, if she had adopted any other system with regard to them ? The Pacific was, for some years, preserved from the ravages of these daring adventurers, by the dread of the difficulties and dangers attending the passage of vessels into that ocean, from the Atlantic, through the Strait of Magellan ; and the Spanish govern- ment began to regard as bulwarks of defence those natural obstacles to maritime intercourse between Europe and the western side of America, to remove or counteract which so many efforts had been previously made. Thenceforward, the expeditions of the Spaniards, in search of new channels connecting the two oceans, were undertaken only with the object of securing the passage, if it should be found, against the vessels of other nations ; and the heaviest penalties were denounced against all persons who should attempt, or even propose, to form artificial communications by canals across the continent.* These circum- stances, on the other hand, served to stimulate the enemies of Spain in their endeavors to discover easier routes to the Pacific ; to effect which, the Dutch and the Enghsh navigators perseveringly labored, during the latter years of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries. In the mean time, the reports of the extent and value of the Spanish commerce on the Pacific, and of the wealth accumulated in the towns on the American coasts of that ocean, overcame all the fears of the English, who at length spread their sails on its waters, and carried terror and desolation along its coasts. * Alcedo, in his Geographical and Historical Dictionary of the West Indies, under the head Isthmus, says, " In the time of Philip II., it was proposed to cut a canal through the Isthmus of Panama, for the passage of ships from one ocean to the other ; and two Flemish engineers were sent to examine the place, with that object. They, however, found the obstacles insuperable ; and the Council of the Indies at the same time represented to the king the injuries which such a canal would occasion to the monarchy ; in consequence of which, his majesty decreed that no one should in future attempt, or even propose, such an undertaking, under pain of death." The same author, speaking of the River Strata, in New Granada, emptying into the Atlantic, — between which and the San Juan, falling into the Pacific, it was also proposed to make a canal, — says, "The Atrato is navigable for many leagues; but all persons are forbidden, under pain of death, from navigating it, in order to prevent the injuries which New Grenada would sustain, from the facility thus afforded for entering its territory." 70 VOYAGE OP DRAKE. [1577. The first irruption of the Enghsh into the Pacific was made in 1575, by a party of freebooters, under John Oxenham, who crossed the isthmus a little west of Panama, and, having then built a vessel on the southern side, took many valuable prizes before any attempt could be made, by the Spaniards, to arrest their progress. They, however, in a few months, fell successively into the hands of their enemies, and were nearly all executed with ignominy at Panama. Their fall was, three years afterwards, signally avenged by another body of their countrymen, under the command of the greatest naval captain of the age. It is scarcely necessary to say that this captain could be no other than Francis Drake, of whose celebrated voyage around the world — the first ever performed by one crew in one vessel — an account will be here given, as he, in the course of it, visited the north-west side of America, and is supposed, though erroneously, as will be proved, to have made important discoveries in that quarter. Drake sailed from Plymouth on the 13th of December, 1577, with five small vessels, which had been procured and armed by himself and other private individuals in England, ostensibly for a voyage to Egypt, but really for a predatory cruise against the dominions and subjects of Spain. The governments of England and Spain were then, indeed, at peace with each other : but mutual hatred, arising from causes already explained, prevailed between the two nations ; and the principles of general law or morals were not, at that period, so refined as to prevent Q,ueen Elizabeth from favor- ing Drake's enterprise, with the real objects of which she was well acquainted. For some months after leaving England, Drake roved about the Atlantic, without making any prize of value : he then refitted his vessels at Port San Julian, on the eastern coast of Patagonia ; and he succeeded in conducting three of them safely through the dread- ed Strait of Magellan, into the Pacific, which he entered in Sep- tember, 1578. Scarcely, however, was this accomplished, ere the little squadron was dispersed by a storm ; and the chief of the expedition was left with only a schooner of a hundred tons' burden, and about sixty men, to prosecute his enterprise against the power and wealth of the Spaniards on the western side of America. Notwithstanding these disheartening occurrences, Drake did not hesitate to proceed to the parts of the coast occupied by the Span- iards, whom he found unprepared to resist him, either on land or on sea. He accordingly plundered their towns and ships with little 1579.] VOYAGE OF DRAKE. 71 difficulty ; and so deep and lasting wete the impression produced by his achievements, that, for more than a century afterwards, his name was never mentioned in those countries without exciting feelings of horror and detestation. At length, in the spring of 1579, Drake, having completed his visitation of the Spanish American coasts, by the plunder of the town of Guatulco, on the south side of Mexico, and filled his vessel with precious spoils, became anxious to return to England ; but, having reason to expect that the Spaniards would intercept him, if he should attempt to repass Magellan's Strait, he resolved to seek a northern route to the Atlantic. Accordingly, on quitting Guatulco, he steered west and north-west, and, having sailed in those directions about 1400 leagues, he had, in the beginning of June, advanced beyond the 42d degree of north latitude, where his men, being thus " speedily come out of the extreme heat, found the air so cold, that, being pinched with the same, they complained of the extremity thereof." He had, in fact, reached the part of the Pacific, near the American coasts, where the winds blow con- stantly and violently, during the summer, from the north and north- west, accompanied, generally, by thick fogs, which obscure the heavens for many days, and even weeks, in succession ; and, find- ing these difficulties increase, as he went farther, " he thought it best, for that time, to seek the land." He accordingly soon made the American coast, and endeavored to approach it, so as to anchor ; but, finding no proper harbor there, he sailed along the shore south- ward, until the 17th of the month, when " it pleased God to send him into a fair and good bay, within 38 degrees towards the line." * In this bay the English remained five weeks, employed in re- fitting their vessel, and obtaining such supplies for their voyage as the country offered. The natives, " having their houses close by the water's side," at first exhibited signs of hostility : but they were soon conciliated by the kind and forbearing conduct of the strangers ; and their respect for Drake increased, so that, when they saw him about to depart, they earnestly prayed him to con- tinue among them as their king. The naval hero, though not disposed to undertake, in person, the duties of sovereignty over a * These quotations are from the Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, by Francis Pretty, one of the crew of Drake's vessel, written at the request of Hakhiyt, and published by him in 1589. It is a plain and succinct account of what the writer saw, or believed to have occurred, during the voyage, and bears all the marks of truth and authenticity. 72 DRAKE MADE KING OF NEW ALBION. [1579. tribe of naked or skin-clad savages, nevertheless "thought not meet to reject the crow^n, because he knew not what honor or profit it might bring to his own country ; whereupon, in the name, and to the use, of her majesty, Q,ueen Elizabeth, he took the crown, sceptre, and dignity, of the country into his own hands, wishing that the riches and treasure thereof might be so conveniently transported, for the enriching her kingdom at home." The coro- nation accordingly took place, with most ludicrous solemnities, and Drake bestowed on his dominions the name of New Albion. The vessel having been refitted, Drake erected on the shore a pillar, bearing an inscription, commemorating the fact of this cession of sovereignty ; and, on the 22d of July, he took leave of his worthy subjects, to their great regret. Having, however, by this time, abandoned all idea of seeking a northern passage to the Atlantic, he sailed directly across the Pacific, and thence, through the Indian Seas, and around the Cape of Good Hope, to England, where he arrived on the 26th of September, 1580. With regard to the harbor on the North Pacific side of America, in which Drake repaired his vessel, nothing can be learned from the accounts of his expedition which have been published, except that it was situated about the 38th degree of latitude, and that a cluster of small islets lay in the ocean, at a short distance from its mouth ; which description will apply equally to the Bay of San Francisco, and to the Bay of Bodega, a few leagues farther north. As to the extent of the portion of the north-west coast of America seen by Drake, the accounts differ. Before examining them, it should be first observed, that, from the great navigator him- self, nothing whatsoever has descended to us, either as written by him, or as reported by others on his authority, respecting his voyage in the North Pacific ; on the circumstances of which, all the informa- tion is derived from two narratives, — the one proceeding entirely from a person who had accompanied Drake in his expedition, and published in 1589, during the life of the hero, — the other compiled from various accounts, and not given to the world until the middle of the following century. In the first-mentioned of those narratives, called the Famous Voyage from which the preceding quotations are made, the vessel is represented as being in the forty-third degree of latitude on the ffth of June, when it was determined to seek the land ; but on what day, or in what latitude, the coast was discovered, is not stated, 1579.] PART OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST SEEN BY DRAKE. 73 though it is clear, from this account, that the part first seen formed the northernmost point of the voyage in the Pacific. In the other narrative, called the World Encompassed,* it is de- clared that, on the third of June, Drake's vessel reached the latitude of forty-two degrees, where the coldness of the air was not merely uncomfortable, as related in the Famous Voyage, but extremely se- vere ; so that, on advancing only two degrees farther north, the meat on board was frozen, as soon as removed from the fire, and the rig- ging was rendered so stiff by ice as to require double the number of hands to manage it. The men were in consequence much dis- couraged and disabled ; but their leader persevered in his course, until the fifth of the month, when they first descried the American coast, and cast anchor in a " bad bay," in latitude of forty-eight degrees. The winds had been, in the mean time, blowing con- stantly from the noi'th and north-ivest ; and, whenever their violence abated, the atmosphere was immediately filled with " most vile, thick, and stinking fogs," which continued until the winds resumed their force, " with such extremity and violence, when they came, that there was no dealing or resisting against them." The cold had also become most intense ; and, under these circumstances, it was determined to abandon all idea of going farther north. They ac- cordingly weighed anchor, and ran along the coast to the south, as far as the latitude of thirty-eight and a half degrees, where they, on the seventeenth of the month, found the convenient harbor in wiiich their vessel was refitted. Thus the two narratives, from which all our knowledge of Drake's voyage in the North Pacific is derived, differ widely as to the posi- tion of his vessel on the fifth of June : the Famous Voyage placing her on that day in the forty-third degree of latitude ; while the World Encompassed distinctly states that on the same day she first descried the American coast, and anchored near it in the forty- eighth degree. From both accounts it appears that the land first seen formed the northernmost, and the harbor in the latitude of thirty-eight degrees the southernmost points on the coast observed ; * " The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake, collected out of the Voyage of Mr. Francis Fletcher, Preacher, in this Employment, and compared with divers oth- ers' Notes that went in the same Voyage." It is a long and diifuse account of the expedition, containing little of importance that is not related in the Famous Voyage, from which many sentences, and even paragraphs, are taken, in the same or nearly the same words ; and abounding in dull speculations, intermingled with absurd false- hoods. It is supposed to have been compileef by a nephew of the navigator, and was first published in 1628. The edition here used is that of 1652. It may be also found in the folio collection of voyages, published by Osborn in 1746, vol. ii. p. 434. 10 74 THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED, BY SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. [1579. and the question is, therefore, as to the latitude of the northernmost point. Of Drake's contemporaries, Hakluyt, his most ardent ad- mirer, and ever wiUing to support to their utmost extent the claims of his countrymen as discoverers, repeatedly mentions the forty- third degree as the northern limit of this voyage in the Pacific ; in which he is confirmed by Camden and Purchas : while, on the other hand, the gallant John Davis, the laborious antiquary Stowe, and Sir William Monson, represent Drake as the first explorer of the whole line of American coast bordering upon that ocean, be- tween the parallels of thirty-eight and a half and forty-eight degrees. The former opinion is maintained by every other writer of reputa- tion, including De Laet, Ogilby, Heylin, Locke, Burchett, Lediard, and Dr. Johnson, anterior to 1750, when the idea that Drake reached the forty-eighth degree was revived in the life of the navigator, contained in the Biographia Britannica, and, since that period, it has been considered generally as established. Now, without entering into an examination of the opinions or assertions thus advanced on either side of the question, it will be observed that opinions and assertions, on matters of fact, are of weight in history only so far as they proceed from witnesses of the circumstances, or are based on the evidence of such witnesses. Statements which directly involve physical impossibilities cannot be received as evidence — at least in the affairs of modern times. Nay, more ; statements, even when conformable with probability, if accompanied by others, made on the same authority, which involve physical impossibilities, are uniformly rejected when offered as evidence in courts of justice ; and although the historian is bound by rules less rigid, yet he should always regard statements so accom- panied with great suspicion, in all cases. Now, the accounts, in the World Encompassed, of the extremity of the cold on the Pacific coast of America, between the tiiirty-eighth and the forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, in the months of June and July, are so entirely at variance with all now known of the climate of those regions at that season, that they can be viewed in no other light than as direct and absolute falsehoods. That men, suddenly trans- ferred to those latitudes from the torrid zone, would find the change of temperature disagreeable, is certain ; but the freezing of meat and rigging, and other positive effects of extreme cold, related in that narrative, could not possibly have taken place under the cir- cumstances represented ; and, no testimony containing such ac- counts would be received as evidence in any transaction. But, apart from the vitiation of the evidence of the World En- 1579.] DRAKE DID NOT GO BEYOND THE 43d DEGREE. 75 compassed, produced by these absurd stories, the statement in that narrative, that Drake's vessel reached the forty-eighth degree of latitude, itself involves inseparably what is so directly contrary to all experience, that it may be safely pronounced a physical impossi- bility. The vessel is there distinctly declared to have been in the forty-second degree of latitude on the third of June, and to have anchored, on the fifth, i?i the forty-eighth degree — that is, to have sailed northward, through six degrees of latitude, in two days, with the winds blowing constantly, and often violently, as repeatedly men- tioned in the narrative, from the north and north-west. Will any naval man risk his reputation, by affirming the possibility of per- forming such a passage, in any vessel propelled by sails ? In conclusion — it seems to be established, by sufficient testimo- ny, that Drake did, in the summer of 1579, refit his vessel in a harbor on the loest coast of North America, near the thirty-eighth degree of latitude ; but stronger evidence than has been yet presented is re- quired to establish the probability that he saw any part of that coast north of the forty-third parallel; that is to say, north of the point to which it had been explored by the Spaniards in 1543.* * This question has been examined most fully by Burney, in the first volume of his History of Voyages in the South Sea, published at London in 1803, in which he pronounces that " the part of the coast discovered by Drake is to be reckoned as beginning immediately to the north of Cape Mendocino, and extending to the forty-eighth degree of latitude ;" and Barrow, in his Life of Drake, published in 1844, makes the same assertion, without intimating, in any way, that any question had been raised, or could be raised, on the subject. Burney, determined to estab- lish his conclusion, carefully avoids every thing which could invalidate the testi- mony of the World Encompassed ; and, with regard to the accounts of the cold, be merely says that the season at which Drake visited the North Pacific was probably unusually severe. Barrow, however, rejects all these accounts as " absurd and utterly incredible," and "in direct contradiction to the usual ordination of nature." In the Sloane collection, in the British Museum, is a manuscript, purporting to be a copy of the journal of the Rev. Francis Fletcher, from which the World En- compassed is declared to have been chiefly compiled, made by John Conyers. Burney consulted this manuscript, and refers to it in confirmation of his accounts of Drake's proceedings in the South Pacific. Barrow cites it as authority, not only with regard to those proceedings, but, also and especially, as to the circumstances of the navigator's visit to the north-tcest coast of America. Now, what will be thought of Mr. Barrow; what reliance can be placed in his good faith, when we learn, as directly charged by the Edinburgh Review, in October, 1844, and never answered, that the said manuscript ends icith the arrival of Drake on the coast of Chili, in the latter part of 1598, and contains not one icord respecting the JVorth Pacific, or its coasts? Truth never requires tricks for its support. Twiss, in his Oregon Question Examined, published at London, in 1846, admits, after some little straining, the whole account in the World Encompassed ; and, in confirmation of its statements, as to the cold, he adduces the fact, that the north winds, in the early part of the summer, bring down the atmosphere, at New Orleans, to the temperature of winter I .' How strong is faith when interest bids us to believe ! 76 cavendish's expedition. [1578. The success of Drake's enterprise encouraged other English adventurers to attempt similar expeditions through the Straits of Magellan ; and it stimulated the navigators of his nation in their efforts to discover northern passages into the Pacific Ocean. Of their predatory excursions, pone were attended with success, except that of the famous Thomas Cavendish, or Candish, who rendered his name almost as terrible to the Spaniards as that of Drake, by his ravages on the west coasts of America, during his voyage of circumnavigation of the globe, in 1587. In this voyage. Cavendish lay, for some time, near Cape San Lucas, the southern extremity of California, and there captured the Manilla galleon Santa Anna, on her way, with a rich cargo of East India goods, to Acapulco, which he set on fire, after plundering her, and landing her crew on the coast. The unfortunate Spaniards, thus abandoned in a desert country, must soon have perished, had they not succeeded in repairing their vessel, which was driven ashore near them, after the extinction of the flames by a storm, and sailing in her to a port on the opposite coast of Mexico. Among these persons were Juan de Fuca and Sebastian Vizcaino, of each of whom much will be said in this chapter. About this time, the search for northern passages of communi- cation between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans was begun by the English ;* and it was prosecuted at intervals, by the navigators of that nation and of Holland, during nearly sixty years, after which it was abandoned, or rather suspended. In the course of the voyages undertaken for this object, eastward as well as west- ward from the Atlantic, many important geographical discoveries and improvements in the art and science of navigation were eflfected ; and the persons thus engaged acquired an honorable and lasting reputation, by their skill, perseverance against difficulties, and contempt of dangers. The Spanish government was, at the same period, according to the direct testimony derived from its official acts, and the accounts of its historians, kept in a state of constant alarm, by these efforts of its most determined foes to penetrate into an ocean of which it claimed the exclusive posses- sion ; and the uneasiness thus occasioned was, from time to time, increased, by rumors of the accomplishment of the dreaded discovery. These rumors were, for the most part, in confirmation of the * The first voyage made from England, with the express object of seeking a north west passage to the Pacific, was that of Martin Frobisher, in 1576. 1560.] REPORTED DISCOVERY OF URDANETA. 77 existence of the passage called the Strait of Ania7i, joining the Atlantic, under the 60th parallel of north latitude, through which Cortcreal was said to have sailed, in 1500, into a great western sea ; and those who pretended to have made northern voyages from either ocean to the other, generally asserted that they had passed through the Strait of Anian. The accounts of all such voyages yet made public are now knoAvn to be as false, with regard to the principal circumstances related, as those of the discovery of the philosopher's stone and the elixir vita3, current at the same period in Europe ; and the former, like the latter, had their origin, generally, in the knavery or the vanity of their authors, though some of them were evidently mere fictions, invented for the purpose of exercising ingenuity, or of testing the credulity of the public. But, as the conviction of the possibility of transmuting all other metals into gold, and of prolonging life indefinitely, led to the knowledge of many of the most important facts in chemistry, so did the belief in the existence of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific serve to accelerate the progress of geographical discovery and scientific navigation. Among those who were earliest believed to have accomplished northern voyages from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or vice versa, was the celebrated Friar Andres de Urdaneta, the discoverer of the mode of navigating the Pacific from east to west. " One Salvatierra, a gentleman of Victoria, in Spain, that came by chance out of the West Indies into Ireland, in 1568,"* there assured Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Henry Sydney, that Urdaneta had, more than eight years previous, told him, in Mexico, " that he came from Mar del Sur [the Pacific] into Germany through the northern passage, and showed Salvatierra a sea-card, [chart,] made by his own expe- rience and travel in that voyage, wherein was plainly set down and described the north-west passage." This was, however, most proba- bly, a falsehood or amplification on the part of Salvatierra, to induce Sir Humphrey to employ him on a voyage which he then projected, as nothing appears in the history or character of Urdaneta to justify the belief that he would have made such a declaration. In the archives of the Council of the Indies,! which have been examined * " A Discourse to prove a Passage by the North-West to Cathaia [China] and the East Indies, by Sir Humphrey Gilbert," first published in 1576, and republished by Hakluyt, in his " Voyages, Navigations, Traflics, and Discoveries, of the English Nation." See the reprint of Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 32. t Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, p. 36. 78 PRETENDED VOYAGE OF MALDONADO. [1588. with reference to this matter, are many original papers by Urdaneta, in which he mentions a report, that some Frenchmen had sailed from the Atlantic, beyond the 70th degree of north latitude, through a passage opening into the Pacific, near the 50th degree, and thence to China; and he recommends that measures should be taken, without delay, to ascertain the truth of the report, and, if the passage should be found, to establish fortifications at its mouth, in order to prevent other nations from using it to the injury of Spain. In 1574, an old pilot, named Juan Ladrillero, living at Colima, in Mexico, pretended that he had, in his youth, sailed through a passage, from the Atlantic, near Newfoundland, into the Pacific ; and other assertions, to the same effect, were made by various other individuals, either from a desire to attract notice, or with the view of obtaining emolument or employment. The most celebrated fiction of this class is the one of which Lorenzo Ferrer de Maldonado is the hero. This person, a Portu- guese by birth, who had written some extravagant works on geography and navigation, and pretended to have discovered a magnetic needle without variation, presented to the Council of the Indies, in 1609, a memoir or narrative of a voyage from Lisbon to the Pacific, through seas and channels north of America, which he declared that he himself had accomplished in 1588, accompanied by a petition that he should be rewarded for his services, and be intrusted with the command of forces, to occupy the passage, and defend its entrance against other nations. This proposition was instantly rejected by the Council : but some of the papers relating to it were retained ; and two manuscripts are now preserved, the one in the library of the duke of Infantado, at Madrid, the other in the Ambrosian library, at Milan, each purporting to be the origi- nal memoir presented by Maldonado. These papers are each entitled " A Relation of the Discovery of the Strait of Anian, made by me. Captain Lorenzo Ferrer de Maldonado, in the Year 1588 ; in which is described the Course of the Navigation, the Situation of the Place, and the Manner of fortifying it ; " and their contents are nearly the same, except that the Milan paper is, in some places, more concise than the other, from which it seems to have been, in a manner, abridged. Upon the whole, there is reason to believe the Madrid document to be a true copy of the memoir presented by Maldonado ; though it lias been pronounced, by one who has examined the subject with much care, to be a 1588.] PRETEKDED VOYAGE OP MALBONADO. t9 fabrication of a later date.* Whether the fabrication, as it un- doubtedly is, proceeded from Maldonado, or from some other person, is of no importance at the present day. A few extracts will serve to show its general character, and to bring to view the opinions entertained in Europe, during the seventeenth century, with regard to the northern parts of America. After stating the advantages which Spain might derive from a northern passage between the two oceans, and the injury which she might sustain, were it left open to other nations, Maldonado proceeds thus to describe the voyage : — , "Departing from Spain, — suppose from Lisbon, — the course is north-west, for the distance of 450 leagues, when the ship will have reached the latitude of 60 degrees, where the Island of Friesland f will be seen, commonly called File, or Fule : it is an island somewhat smaller than Ireland. Thence the course is west- ward, on the parallel of 60 degrees, for 180 leagues, which will bring the navigator to the land of Labrador, where the strait of that name, or Davis's Strait, begins, the entrance of which is very wide, being somewhat more than 30 leagues : the land on the coast of Labrador, which is to the west, is very low ; but the opposite side of the mouth of the strait consists of very high mountains. Here two openings appear, between which are these high mountains. One of the passages runs east-north-east, and the other north- west ; the one running east-north-east, which is on the right hand, and looks towards the norlji, must be left, as it leads to Greenland, and thence to the Sea of Friesland. Taking the other passage, and steering north-west 80 leagues, the ship will arrive in the latitude * See a review, supposed to be written by Barrow, of the manuscript found at Milan by Carlo Amoretti, in the London Quarterly Review for October, 1616. A translation of the most material parts of that paper may be found in Burney's History of Voyages in the Pacific, vol. 5, p. 167. A translation of the whole of the Madrid document, with copies of the maps and plans annexed to it, is given by Barrow, at the conclusion of his Chronological History of Voyages in the Arctic Regions. See, also, the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes. p. 49. The reviewer above mentioned " suspects this pretended voyage of Maldonado to be the clumsy and audacious forgery of some ignorant German, from the circumstance of 15 leagues to the degree being used in some of the computations;" but the courses are not laid down with so much exactness in the account, as to -vjarrant the assertion that 15 leagues are employed, instead of 17.^, which would have been the true subdivision of the degree of latitude in Spanish leagues. t An island of this name was long supposed to exist near the position here assigned to it, on the faith of an apocryphal account of some voyages which were said to have been made in the North Atlantic about the year 1400, by the brothers Antonio and Nicolo Zeno, of Venice. I'riesland has been, by some, considered as identical with the Feroe Islands. 80 PRETENDED VOYAGE OF MALDONADO. [1588. of 64 degrees. There the strait takes another turn to the north, continuing 120 leagues, as far as the latitude of 70 degrees, when it again turns to the north-west, and runs in that direction 90 leagues, to the 75th degree of latitude, near which the whole of the Strait of Labrador will have been passed ; that is to say, the strait begins at 60 degrees, and ends at 75 degrees, being 290 leagues in length. " Having cleared the Strait of Labrador, we began to descend from that latitude, steering west-south-west, and south-west, 350 leagues, to the 71st degree of latitude, when we perceived a high coast, without being able to discover whether it w^as part of the con- tinent, or an island ; but we remarked that, if it were the continent, it must be opposite the coast of New Spain. From this land we directed our course west-south-west 440 leagues, until we came to the 60th degree, in which parallel we discovered the Strait of Anian. "The Strait of Anian is 15 leagues in length, and can easily be passed with a tide lasting six hours ; for those tides are very rapid. There are, in this length, six turns, and two entrances, which bear from each other north and south. The entrance on the north side is less than half a quarter of a league in width, and on each side are ridges of high rocks ; but the rock on the side of Asia is higher and steeper than the other, and hangs over, so that nothing falhng from the top can reach its base. The entrance into the South Sea, near the harbor, is more than a quarter of a league in width, and thence the passage runs in an oblique direction, increas- ing the distance between the two coasts. In the middle of the strait, at the termination of the third turn, is a great rock, and an islet, formed by a rugged rock, three estadias [about one thousaaid one hundred feet] in height, more or less; its form is round, and its diameter may be 200 paces ; its distance from the land of Asia is very little ; but the sea, on that side, is full of shoals and reefs, and can only be navigated by boats. The distance between this islet and the continent of America is less than a quarter of a league in width ; and, although its channel is so deep that two or even three ships might sail abreast through it, two bastions might be built on the banks, with little trouble, which would contract the channel to within the reach of a musket-shot. " In the harbor in which our ship anchored, at the entrance of the strait, on the south side, we lay from the beginning of April to the middle of June, when a large vessel, of 800 tons' bur- den, came there from the South Sea, in order to pass the strait- Upon this, we put ourselves on our guard ; but, having come to an understanding with her, -I found them wiUing to give us some 1588.] PRETENDED VOYAGE OF MALDONADO. 81 of their merchandise, the greater part of which consisted of articles similar to those manufactured in China, such as brocades, silks, porce- lain, feathers, precious stones, pearls, and gold. These people seemed to be Hanseatics, who inhabit the Bay of St. Nicholas, or the port of St. Michael, [Archangel, on the White Sea.] In order to understand one another, we were forced to speak Latin, those of our party who understood that language talking with those on board the ship who were also acquainted with it. They did not seem to be Cathohcs, but Lutherans. They said they came from a large city, more than one hundred leagues from the strait ; and, though I cannot exactly remember its name, I think they called it Rohr, or some such name, which they said had a good harbor, and a navigable river, and was subject to the great khan, as it belonged to Tartary, and that, in that port, they left another ship belonging to their country. We could learn no more from them, as they acted with great caution, and litde confidence, being afraid of our company ; wherefore we parted from them, near the strait, in the North Sea, and set sail towards Spain." The preceding extracts, from a translation of the manuscript at Madrid, will suffice to show the course which the Portuguese pre- tended to have taken, in 1588. The remainder of the paper is devoted to descriptions of the supposed strait, and plans for its occupation and defence by Spain ; nothing being said as to the circumstances which induced the navigators to return to Europe by the same route, instead of pursuing their course to some Spanish port on the Pacific. It is needless to use any arguments' to prove that no such voyage could have been ever made ; as we know that the only connection by water between the Atlantic and the Pacific, north of America, is through the Arctic Sea and Bering's Strait, which latter passage is more than sixteen leagues in width, and is sit- uated near the 65th degree of latitude. It has, however, been sug- gested, and it is not improbable, that, before the period when Maldonado presented his memoir to the Council of the Indies, some voyage, of which we have no account, may have been made in the North Pacific.* as far as the entrance of the gulf called Cook's Inlet, and that this entrance, situated under the 60th parallel of latitude, may have been supposed, by the navigator, to be the western termination of the long-sought Strait of Anian. The story certainly attracted considerable attention at the time * Article on the north-west passage, in the Quarterly, for October, 1816, above mentioned. 11 82 STORY OF THE VOYAGE OF FONTE. [1640. when it was put forth, and allusions are made to it by several Spanish authors of the seventeenth century ; it had, however, been entirely forgotten when the French geographer M. Buache, having obtained a copy of the Madrid manuscript, endeavored to establish the truth of the most material points, in a paper read by him before the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, on the 13th of November, 1790. At his request, the archives of the Indies were examined, in search of documents relating to the supposed voyage ; and the commanders of Spanish ships, then employed in the surveying the north-west coasts of America, were instructed to endeavor to find the entrance of the Strait of Anian, near the 60th degree of latitude. These endeavors proved vain, and the name of Maldonado had again sunk into oblivion, when it was again, in 1812, brought before the world by Signor Amoretti, of Milan, who found, in the Ambrosian library, in that city, the man- uscript already mentioned, and published a French translation of it, with arguments in support of the truth of its contents. So far as is known, the falsehoods of Maldonado have injured no one, and they were ultimately productive of great good ; for it was while engaged, by order of the Spanish government, in examining the archives of the Indies respecting this pretended voyage, that Navarrete found those precious documents, relating to the expedi- tions of Columbus and other navigators of his day, which have thrown so much hght on the history of the discovery of the New World. Similar good effects have been produced by the story of the voyage of Admiral Pedro Bartolome de Fonte, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, through lakes and rivers extending across North America, which may also be here mentioned, though it belongs properly to a later period of the history ; as the voyage was said to have been performed in 1640, and the account first appeared in a periodical work entitled — Monthly Miscellany, or Memoirs of the Curious — published at London, in 1708. This account is very confused, and badly written, and is filled with absurdities and con- tradictions, which should have prevented it from receiving credit at any time since its appearance : yet, as will be shown, it was serious- ly examined and defended, so recently as in the middle of the last century, by eminent scientific men ; and some faith continued to be attached to it for many years afterwards. So far as its details can be understood, they are to the following effect : — Admiral Fonte sailed from Callao, near Lima, in April, 1640, with four vessels, under orders, from the viceroy of Peru, to repair 1640.] STOKY OF THE VOYAGE OF FONTE. 83 to the North Pacific, for the purpose of exploring its American coasts, and of intercepting certain vessels which were reported to have been equipped at Boston, in New England, in search of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. From Callao he proceeded to Cape San Lucas, where he detached a vessel to explore the Californian Gulf; thence, continuing his voyage along the west coast, he passed about two hundred and sixty leagues, in crooked channels, among a collection of islands called by him the Archipelago of St. Lazarus; and beyond them he found, under the 53d degree of latitude, the mouth of a great river, which he named Rio dc los Reyes — River of Kings. Having despatched his lieutenant, Bernardo, with one vessel, to trace the coast on the Pacific farther north, he entered the great river, and ascended it north-eastward, to a large lake, called, from the beauty of its shores, Lake Belle, containing many islands, and surrounded by a fine country, the inhabitants of which were kind and hospitable. On the south shore of the lalve was the large town of Conasset, where the admiral left his vessels ; thence he proceeded, (in what manner he does not say,) with some of his men, down a river called the Parmentier, flowing from Lake Belle eastward into another lake, to which he gave his own name, and thence, through a passage called the Strait of Ronquillo-, in honor of one of his captains, to the sea. On entering the sea, the admiral learned, from some Indians, '' that, a little way off", lay a great ship, where there had never been one before ; " and, on boarding her, he found only an old man and a youth, who told him that they came from the town called Boston, in New England. On the following day, the captain, named Nicholas Shapley, arrived, with the owner of the ship, Seymour Gibbons, " a fine gentleman, and major-general of the largest colony in New England, called Maltechusetts,'" between whom and the admiral a struggle of courtesy was begun. The Spanish com- mander had been ordered to make prize of any people seeking for a north-west or a west passage ; but he would look on the Bosto- nians as merchants, trading for skins ; so he made magnificent presents to them all, and, having received, in return, their charts and journals, he went back to his ships, in hake Belle, and thence, down the Rio de los Reyes, to the sea. In the mean time, the lieutenant, Bernardo, had ascended another river, called, by him, Rio de Haro, into a lake named Lake Velasco, situated under the 61st degree of latitude, from which he went, in 84 VOYAGE OF JUAN DE FUCA. [1592 canoes, as far as the 79th degree, where the land was seen, " still trending north, and the ice rested on the land." He was also as- sured " that there was no communication out of the Atlantic Sea by Davis's Strait ; for the natives had conducted one of his seamen to the head of Davis's Strait, which terminated in a fresh lake, of about thirty miles in circumference, in the 80th degree of north latitude ; and there were prodigious mountains north of it." These accounts, added to his own observations, led Admiral Fonte to conclude " that there loas no passage into the South Sea by what they call the north- west passage ; " and he accordingly returned, with his vessels, through the Pacific, to Peru. Such are the principal circumstances related in the account of Admiral Fonte's voyage, which was, for some time after its appear- ance, received as true, and copied into all works on Northern America. In 1750, a French translation of the account, with a chart drawn from it, and a memoir, in support of its correctness, were presented to the Academy of Sciences of Paris by Messrs. Delisle and Buache, in consequence of which, the various Spanish repositories of papers respecting America were carefully examined, in search of information on the subject ; and, in all the voyages of discovery along the north-west coasts of the continent, during the last century, endeavors were made to discover the mouth of the Rio de los Reyes. These labors, however, were vain. The exist- ence of a number of islands near the position assigned to the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, and of a large river, (the StiJcine,) entering the ocean near the 56th parallel, indeed, seems to favor the supposition that some voyage, of which we have no record, may have been made to that part of the Pacific before 1708 ; but the rivers and lakes through which Fonte was said to have passed — his town of Conasset — and his Boston ship — are now generally believed to have all emanated from the brain of James Petiver, a naturalist of some eminence, and one of the chief contributors to the Monthly Miscellany. The account of the voyage and discoveries of Juan de Fuca, on the north-western side of America, in 1592, was, for a long time, considered as less worthy of credit than those above noticed. More recent examinations in that part of the world have, however, caused it to be removed from the class of fictions ; although it is certainly erroneous as regards the principal circumstance related. All the information respecting this voyage is derived from ''A Note made by Michael Lock, the elder, touching the Strait of Sea commonly called 1592.] VOYAGE OF JUAN DE FUCA. 85 Fretum Anian, in the South Sea, through the North-west Passage of Meta Incognita" — published in 1625, in the celebrated historical and geographical collection called The Pilgrims, by Samuel Purchas.* Mr. Lock there relates that he met, at Venice, in April, 1596, " an old man, about sixty years of age, called, commonly, Juan dc Fuca, but named, properly, Apostolos Valerianos, of nation a Greek, born in Cephalonia, of profession a mariner, and an ancient pilot of ships," who, " in long talks and conferences," declared that he had been in the naval service of Spain, in the West Indies, forty years, and that he was one of the crew of the galleon Santa Anna, when she was taken by Cavendish, near Cape San Lucas, in 1587, on which occasion " he had lost sixty thousand ducats of his own goods." After his return to Mexico, he was despatched, by the viceroy, with three vessels, "to discover the Strait of Anian, along the coast of the South Sea, and to fortify that strait, to resist the passage and proceeding of the English nation, which were feared to pass through that strait into the South Sea." This expedition, however, proving abortive, he was again sent, in 1592, with a small caravel, for the same purpose, in which " he followed his course west and north-west," along the coasts of Mexico and California, <' until he came to the latitude of 47 degrees ; and, there finding that the land trended north and north-east, with a broad inlet of sea, between 47 and 48 degrees of latitude, he entered thereinto, sailing therein more than twenty days, and found that land trending still sometime north-west, and north-east, and nortii, and also east, and south-eastward, and very much broader sea than was at the said entrance, and he passed by divers islands in that sailing ; and, at the entrance of this said strait, there is, on the north-west coast thereof, a great head-land or island, with an exceeding high pinna- cle, or spired rock, like a pillar thereupon. * * * * Being entered thus far into the said strait, and being come into the North Sea already, and finding the sea wide enough every where, and to be about thirty or forty leagues wide in the mouth of the straits, where he entered, he thought he had now well discharged his oflice ; and that, not being armed to resist the force of the savage people that might happen, he therefore set sail, and returned to Acapulco." The Greek went on to say that, upon his arrival in Mexico, the vice- * The whole note will be found among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter A. 86 VOYAGE OF JUAN DE FUCA. [1592. roy had welcomed him, and promised him a great reward ; but that, after waiting in vain for two years, he had stole away to Europe, and, " understanding the noble mind of the queen of England, and of her wars against the Spaniards, and hoping that her majesty would do him justice for his goods lost by Captain Candish, he would be content to go into England, and serve her majesty in that voyage for the discovery perfectly of the north-west passage into the South Sea, if she would furnish him with only one ship of forty tons' burden, and a pinnace ; and that he would perform it in thirty days' time, from one end to the other of the strait." Mr. Lock says that, on receiving this account, he endeavored to interest Sir Walter Raleigh, and other eminent persons in England, in behalf of the Greek pilot, and to have him employed on a voyage such as he proposed to undertake ; but he was unable to do so, and, by the last accounts, the old man was dying in Cephalonia, in 1602. These are the most material circumstances respecting Juan de Fuca and his voyage, as related by Mr. Lock, who was an intelli- gent and respectable merchant engaged in the Levant trade.* Other English writers, of the same time, allude to the subject ; but they afford no additional particulars, nor has any thing been since learned, calculated to prove directly even that such a person as Juan de Fuca ever existed. On the contrary, the author of the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, who loses no opportunity to exalt the merits of his countrymen as discoverers, after examining many papers in the archives of the Lidies, relating to the period given as the date of the voyage, pronounces the whole to be a fabrication. The account attracted little attention in Eng- land, and was almost unknown, out of that kingdom, until after the publication of the journals of the last expedition of Cook, who conceived that he had, by his examinations on the north-western coasts of America, ascertained its falsehood. More recent exami- nations in that quarter have, however, served to establish a strong presumption in favor of its authenticity and general correctness, so far as the supposed narrator could himself have known ; for they show that the geographical descriptions contained in it are as nearly conformable with the truth, as those of any other account of a voyage written in the early part of the seventeenth century. Thus Juan de Fuca says that, between the 47th and 48th * He was, for some time, the Enj^lish consul at Aleppo, and was an intimate friend of Hakluyt, for whom he translated tlie Decades of Pedro Martir, .and furnished other papers published by that collector. 1595.] CONFIRMATION OF FUCa's ACCOUNT. 87 degrees of latitude, he entered a broad inlet of sea, in which he sailed for twenty days, and found the land trending north-west, and north-east, and north, and east, and south-east, and that, in this course, he passed numerous islands. Now, the fact is, that, between the 48th and 49th degrees, a broad inlet of sea does extend from the Pacific, eastward, apparently penetrating the American conti- nent to the distance of more than one hundred miles, after which it turns north-westward, and, continuing in that direction about two hundred and fifty miles farther, it again joins the Pacific Ocean. The differences as to the position and course of the inlet, between the two descriptions here compared, are few and slight, and are certainly all within the limits of supposable error on the part of the Greek, especially considering his advanced age, and the circum- stance that he spoke only from recollection ; while, on the other hand, the coincidences are too strong to be attributable only to chance. The pilot, indeed, asserts that through this inlet he sailed to the Atlantic, but he does not pretend that he reached any known coast, or previously-determined point of that ocean ; so that he is liable only to the charge of having made an erroneous estimate of the extent and value of his discovery, which he might well have done, without any intention to deceive, as the breadth of the North American continent was then unknown. Some false reports, such as those above mentioned, respecting the discovery of a northern passage between the two oceans, and the existence of rich nations in its vicinity, together with a desire to lessen the dangers of the navigation along the western side of California, by providing the ships in the Philippine trade with proper descriptions of the coasts, induced King Philip II. of Spain, in 1595, to order that measures should be taken for a complete survey of it.* There were, also, other reasons for examining that part of " " His majesty knew that the viceroys of Mexico had endeavored to discover a northern passage ; and he had found, among his father's papers, a declaration of certain strangers, to the effect tliat they had been driven, by violent winds, from the codfish coast, [about Newfoundland,] on the Atlantic, to the South Sea, through the Strait of Anian, which is beyond Cape Mendocino, and had, on their way, seen a rich and populous city, well fortified, and inhabited by a numerous and civilized nation, who had treated them well ; as also many other things worthy to be seen and known. His majesty had also been informed that ships, sailing from China to Mex- ico, ran great risks, particularly near Cape Mendocino, where the storms are most violent, and that it would be advantageous to have that coast surveyed thence to Acapulco, so that the ships, mostly belonging to his majesty, should find places for relief and refreshment when needed." Whereupon, his majesty ordered the count de Monterey, viceroy of Mexico, to have those coasts surveyed, at his own expense, with all care and diligence, &c. — Torquemada, vol. i. p. 693. 88 FIRST VOYAGE OF VIZCAINO. [1596. the continent, as the Spaniards were then engEiged in the settlement of New Mexico, or the country traversed by the River Bravo del Norte, in which their colonies extended nearly to tiie 40th degree of latitude ; and they had no clear idea of the distance between that region and the Pacific. The count de Monterey, viceroy of Mexico, in consequence, despatched three vessels from Acapulco, in the spring of 1596, under the command of Sebastian Vizcaino, a distinguished officer, who had been in the ship Santa Anna, when she was taken and burnt by Cavendish, off Cape San Lucas. Nothing, however, was gained by this expedition. For reasons of which we are not informed by the Spanish historians, Vizcaino did not proceed beyond the CaUfornian Gulf, on the shores of which he endeavored to plant colonies, first at a place called St. Sebastian, and after- wards at La Paz, or Santa Cruz, where Cortes had made a similar attempt sixty years before : but both these places were soon aban- doned, on account of the sterility of the surrounding country, and the ferocity of the natives ; and Vizcaino returned to Mexico before the end of the year.* The viceroy had most probably hoped, by means of this voyage, to escape the infliction of the heavy expenses of an expedition such as that which he was enjoined to make by the royal decree ; but King Philip IL died in 1598, and one of the first acts of the reign of his successor, Philip IIL, was a peremptory order for the immediate despatch of a squadron from Mexico, to complete the survey of the west coasts of the continent, agreeably to the previous instructions. The viceroy thereupon commenced preparations for the purpose on an extended scale of equipment. Two large ships and a fragata, or small vessel, were provided at Acapulco, and furnished with all the requisites for a long voyage of discovery ; and, in addition to their regular crews, a number of pilots, draughtsmen, and educated priests, were engaged, forming together, says the * This expedition is thus noticed by liakluyt, vol. iii. p. 522 : — " We have seen a letter written the Sth of October, 1507, at a town called Puehla de los Angeles^ eighteen leagues from Mexico, making mention of the islands of Cal- ifornia, situated two or three hundred leagues from the main land of New Spain, in the South Sea, as that thither have been sent, before that time, some people to con- quer them, which, with loss of some twenty men, were forced back, after that they had well visited, and found those islands or countries to be very rich of gold and silver mines, and of very fair Oriental pearls, which were caught, in good quantity, upon one fathom and a half, passing, in beauty, the pearls of Margarita. The report thereof caused the viceroy of Mexico to send a citizen of Mexico, with two hundred man, lo conquer the same." 1602.] SECOND VOYAGE OF VIZCAINO. 89 historian Torquemada, " the most enhghtened corps ever raised in New Spain." The direction of the whole expedition was intrusted to Sebastian Vizcaino, as captain-general, who sailed in the largest ship ; the other being commanded by Toribio Gomez de Corvan, as admiral — an office equivalent in rank to that of vice-admiral in the British service : the fragata was under ensign Martin de Aguilar.* All things being prepared, the vessels took their departure from Acapulco on the 5th of May, 1602, and, after many troubles and delays at various places on the Mexican coast, they were assembled in the small Bay of San Bernabe, now called Port San Jose, imme- diately east of Cape San Lucas, the southern extremity of the Californian peninsula. There they remained until the 5th of July, when they rounded the cape, and the survey of the west coast was commenced from that point. The prosecution of the enterprise was thenceforward attended by constant difficulties : the scurvy, as usual, soon broke out among the crews ; and the Spaniards had their courage and perseverance severely tried by their " chief enemy, the north-west wind," which was raised up, says Torque- mada, " by the foe of the human race, in order to prevent the advance of the ships, and to delay the discovery of those countries, and the conversion of their inhabitants to the Catholic faith." Vizcaino and his followers, however, bore up nobly against all these obstacles, and executed the duty confided to them most faithfully. Proceeding slowly northward, they reached the exten- sive Bay of La Magdalena, between the 24th and 25th parallels of latitude, of which Vizcaino's survey was, until recently, the only one upon record ; and before the end of August, the vessels which had been separated almost ever since quitting Cape San Lucas, were again united in a harbor in the island called Isia de Cedros, or Isle of Cedars, by Cabrillo, but now generally known as Isla de Cerros, or Isle of Mountains. Continuing their examination, they found a bay near the 31st degree of latitude, which they named the Port of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, now called Po7-t San Quintin, and said to be an excellent harbor ; and farther north they entered the Port San Miguel of Cabrillo, to which they assigned the appella- * Torquemada, vol. i. p. 694. — Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, p. 60. — Torquemada's accounts are derived chiefly from the Journal of Fray An- tonio de la Asencion, the chaplain of one of the ships. The author of the Introduc- tion, &c., had recourse to the original notes of the expedition, from which he con Btructed a chart of the coast surveyed. 12 90 VIZCAINO REACHES MONTEREY. [1603. tion of Port San Diego. There Vizcaino received accounts, from the natives, of people residing in the interior, who had beards, vi^ore clothes, and dvi^elt in cities ; but he could learn no further particulars, and w^as, upon the whole, inclined to believe that, unless the Indians were deceiving him, these people must be the Spaniards recently settled in New Mexico, on the River Bravo del Norte. Having minutely surveyed Port San Diego, the Spaniards quitted it on the 1st of December, and sailed through the Archipelago of Santa Barbara, in one of the islands of which Cabrillo died sixty years previous ; then doubling the Cape de Galera of that navigator, to which they gave the name of Cape Conception, now borne by it, they anchored, in the middle of the month, in a spacious and secure harbor, near the 37th parallel, where they remained some time, engaged in refitting their vessels and obtaining a supply of water. This harbor — the Port of Pines of Cabrillo — was named Port Monterey by Vizcaino, in honor of the viceroy of Mexico ; and as, before reaching it, sixteen of the crews of the vessels had died, and many of the others were incapable of duty from disease, it was determined that Corvan, the admiral, should return to Mexico in his ship, carrying the invalids, with letters to the viceroy, urging the immediate establishment of colonies and garrisons at San Diego and Monterey. Corvan, accordingly, on the 29th, sailed for Acapulco, where he arrived after a long and perilous voyage, with but few of his men alive ; whilst Vizcaino, with his ship and the fragata, prosecuted their exploration along the coast towards the north. On the 3d of January, 1603, after the departure of Corvan, Vizcaino, accompanied by the small vessel under Aguilar, quitted Monterey ; but, ere proceeding much farther north, they were driven back by a severe gale, in the course of which the two vessels were separated. The ship took refuge in the Bay of San Francisco, which seems to have been then well known ; and search was made for the wreck of the San Augustin, which had been there lost, as already mentioned, in 1595, during her voyage from the Philippine Islands to Acapulco. Finding no traces of that vessel, Vizcaino again put to sea ; and, passing a promontory, which he sup- posed to be Cape Mendocino, he, on the 20th of January, reached a high, white bluff, in latitude, as ascertained by solar observation, of 42 degrees, which, in honor of the saint of that day, was named Cape San Sebastian. By this time, few of his men were fit for 1603.] VIZCAINO RETURNS TO MEXICO. 91 service ; the weather was stormy, the cold was severe, the pro- visions were nearly exhausted ; and, as the small vessel did not appear, the commander, with the assent of his officers, resolved to direct his course towards Mexico. He did so, and arrived at Acapulco on the 21st of March. The fragata, or small vessel, also reached Mexico about the same time, having, however, lost, by sickness, her commander, Martin de Aguilar, her pilot, Flores, and the greater part of her crew. Tor- quemada's account of her voyage, after parting with Vizcaino's ship, is short, and by no means clear ; but the circumstances therein related have attracted so much attention, that a translation of it should be here presented. The historian says, — " The fragata parted from the capitana, [Vizcaino's ship,] and, supposing that she had gone onward, sailed in pursuit of her. Being in the latitude of 41 degrees, the wind began to blow from the south-west ; and the fragata, being unable to withstand the waves on her beam, ran before the wind, until she found shelter under the land, and anchored near Cape Mendocino, behind a great rock, where she remained until the gale had passed over. When the wind had become less violent, they continued their voyage close along the shore ; and, on the 19th of January, the pilot, Antonio Flores, found that they were in the latitude of 43 degrees, where the land formed a cape or point, which was named Cape Blanco. From that point, the coast begins to turn to the north-west ; and near it was discovered a rapid and abundant river, with ash-trees, willows, brambles, and other trees of Castile, on its banks, which they endeavored to enter, but could not, from the force of the current. Ensign Martin de Aguilar, the commander, and Antonio Flores, the pilot, seeing that they had already reached a higher latitude than had been ordered by the viceroy, in his instructions, that the capitana did not appear, and that the number of the sick was great, agreed to return to Acapulco ; and they did so, as I shall hereafter show. It is supposed that this river is the one leading to a great city, which was discovered by the Dutch when they were driven thither by storms, and that it is the Strait of Anian, through which the ship passed, in sailing from the North Sea to the South Sea ; and that the city called Quivira is in those parts ; and that this is the region referred to in the account which his majesty read, and which induced him to order this expedition." This account of the discovery of a great river, near the 43d 92 SUPPOSED KIVER OF AGUILAR. [1603. degree of latitude, was, for a long time, credited, and excited many speculations. The supposed river was first generally believed to be the Strait of Anian. It was then, upon the statement of the cap- tain of a Manilla ship, in 1620, universally considered as the west- ern mouth of a passage, or channel, connecting the ocean with the northern extremity of the Californian Gulf ; and, accordingly, for more than a century after, California was represented on maps as an island, of which Cape Blanco was the northern end. When this error had been corrected, the existence of a great river, flowing from the centre of America into the Pacific, under the 43d parallel, was again affirmed by some geographers ; while others placed at this point the western entrance of a passage to the Atlantic. It is now certain that no such stream as that which Aguilar is reported to have seen falls into the Pacific within three degrees of the 43d parallel ; although the mouths of two small rivers are situated near the point where that line crosses the western coast of America. Several headlands project into the ocean, not far from the positions assigned to Capes Blanco and San Sebastian : the former may have been the promontory, in latitude of 42 degrees ^^2 minutes, on which Vancouver, in 1792, bestowed the name of Cape Orford. On comparing the accounts of Vizcaino's voyage with those of Cabrillo's, it appears that very nearly the same portions of the American coast were seen by both commanders. The expedition of Vizcaino was, however, conducted in a much more efficient manner than the other ; and a mass of valuable information, re- specting the geography of the western side of California, was collected, in the shape of notes, plans, and sketches, upon which were founded the first maps of that coast approaching to correct- ness. Vizcaino, after his return to Mexico, ^deavored to prevail upon the viceroy to establish colonies on the western side of California, at places which he recommended, in order to facilitate the trade with India, and to prevent the occupation of the American coasts by other nations. His eflforts, with this view, however, produced no effect, as the viceroys never encouraged such enterprises, being generally obliged to pay the costs themselves ; and Vizcaino, in consequence, went to Spain, where, after many years of solicitation, he at length procured the royal mandate, and a promise of means for its execution. With these he hastened back to Mexico, but was there seized with a sickness, of which he died in 1608, and the enterprise was then abandoned. 93 CHAPTER III. 1608 TO 1768. The North-West Coasts of North America remain nearly neglected during the whole of this Period — Efforts of the English and the Dutch to find new Passages into the Pacific — Discovery of Hudson's Bay and Baffin's Bay — Discovery of the Passage around Cape Horn — Establishment of the Hudson's Bay Trading Com- pany — Endeavors of the Spaniards to settle California unsuccessful — The Jesuits undertake the Reduction of California — Establishments of the Jesuits in the Peninsula, and their Expulsion from the Spanish Dominions. For more than a hundred and sixty years after the death of Vizcaino, no attempt was made, by the Spaniards, to form estab- Hshments on the west coast of Cahfornia, or to extend their discoveries in that part of America. Those countries, in the mean time, remained unknown, and almost entirely neglected, by the civilized world. The Spanish galleons, on their way from Manilla to Acapulco, annually passed along the coasts south of Cape Mendocino, which were described in Spanish works on the navigation of the Pacific ; and some spots, farther north, were, as will be hereafter particularly shown, visited by the Russians, in their exploring and trading voyages from Kamt- chatka : but no new information, of an exact nature, was obtained with regard to those regions, and they were represented on maps according to the fancy of the geographer, or to the degree of faith which he placed in the last fabrication respecting them. Numerous were the stories, gravely related and published in France and England, of powerful nations, of great rivers, of interior seas, and of navigable passages connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific, north of California. The most remarkable of these stories is the account of the voyage of Admiral Fonte, already presented. Captain Coxton, a veteran bucanier, who flourished in the latter part of the seventeenth century, also declared that he had, in 1688, sailed from the North Pacific, far eastward, into the American continent, through a river which ran out of a great lake, called the Lake of Thoyaga, containing many islands, inhabited by a numerous 94 Hudson's bay and cape horn discovered. [1616. and warlike population ; and, upon the strength of the assertions of this worthy, the lake and river, as described by him, were laid down on many of the maps of that time. North-west America was, indeed, during the period here mentioned, the terra incognitissima, the favorite scene of extraordinary adventures and Utopian ro- mances. Bacon there placed his Atlantis ; and Brobdignag, agree- ably to the very precise description of its locality furnished by its discoverer, the accomplished and veracious Captain Lemuel Gulli- ver, must have been situated near the Strait of Fuca. During this period, however, the attention of the maritime powers of Europe was constantly directed towards the Atlantic coasts of North America and the West India Islands, on which settlements were made, early in the seventeenth century, by the French, the English, and the Dutch ; and many discoveries were at the same time effected, some of which were of great and im.mediate impor- tance, while the others served to strengthen the expectation that a north-west passage, or navigable channel of communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, north of America, would be speedily found. Thus, in 1608, Henry Hudson discovered, or rediscovered, the strait, and the bay connected by it with the Atlantic, to both of which his name is now attached ; and, eight years afterwards, the adventurous William Baffin penetrated, through the arm of that ocean, now called BaJjUiv's Bay, separating Greenland from Ameri- ca, into a passage extending westward, under the 74th parallel of latitude, where his ship was arrested by ice. The most important discovery made in the seventeeth century was, however, that of the open sea, south of Magellan's Strait, through which the Dutch navigators, Lemau'e and Van Schouten, sailed, in 1616, from the Atlantic into the Pacific, around the island promontory named by them Cape Horn, in honor of their native city in Holland. By means of this new route, the perils and diffi- culties of the navigation between the two oceans were so much lessened, that voyages from Europe to the Pacific were no longer regarded as very hazardous enterprises ; and the Spanish posses- sions and commerce on that ocean were ever after annoyed by the armed ships of nations at war with Spain, or by pirates and smug- glers of various classes and denominations. The European colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America were founded, for the most part, by companies under the authority of charters from the respective governments, conveying to the gran- tees the whole territory within certain limits therein described, gen- 1669.] Hudson's bay company chartered. 95 erally with the qualification that such territory should not have been previously possessed by some other Christian prince or state. For the determination of the limits, certain parallels of latitude w^ere usually adopted, between which each colony was declared to pos- sess the whole division of the continent extending from the Atlantic indefinitely westward, or westward to the Pacific Ocean. In one case, however, a different mode of description was used. On the 2nd of May, 1670, King Charles II. of England granted to an association of noblemen and gentlemen, styled " the Com- pany of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay," and to their successors forever,* the possession, almost in sovereignty, of Hudson's Bay and Straits, and all their coasts, and all the territories traversed or drained by streams falling into them, not previously possessed by any other British subjects, or by subjects of any other Christian prince or state ; natural boundaries being thus substitu- ted for artificial, imaginary lines. The pirates who frequented the Pacific during the seventeenth century were principally English and Dutch. The Gulf of Cali- fornia was the principal resort of the Dutch, who, under the name of Pichilingues, kept the inhabitants of the west coasts of Mexico in constant anxiety. For the purpose of dislodging these depre- dators, and also of obtaining advantages from the pearl fishery in the gulf, several attempts were made, by the government of Spain, and by individuals in Mexico, to establish colonies, garrisons, and fishing or trading posts, on the eastern side of the peninsula of California. The details of the expeditions for these purposes, made by Vicufia and Ortega in 1631, by Barriga and Porter in 1644, by Pinadero in 1664 and 1667, by Lucenilla in 1668, and by Atondo in 1683, are devoid of interest. Many pearls were obtained, among which are some of the most valuable in the regalia of Spain ; but the estabhshments all failed from want of funds, from the extreme barrenness of the soil, and the determined hostility of the natives of the peninsula, and, above all, from the indolence and vicious- ness of the persons employed in the expeditions. In the last attempt of this kind, under the direction of Don Isidro de Atondo, a number of settlers, soldiers, and Jesuits, were carried out from Mexico, and distributed at points on the gulf where the establish- ments were to be formed ; but these stations were all abandoned be- fore the end of a year, and it was thereupon resolved, in a council of the chief authorities of Mexico, that the reduction of California by such means was impracticable. * See Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter I, No. 1 96 JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. [1697. The Jesuits who had accompanied Atondo to Cahfornia, while concurring in this opinion with the council, nevertheless insisted that the desired political objects might be attained by a diflferent course, namely, by the civilization and conversion to Christianity of the natives of that country ; and this task they offered them- selves to undertake, doubting not that their labors would be crowned with the same success which had attended them in Paraguay. Their proposition was, as might have been expected, coldly received by the authorities, who could gain nothing by its execution. The Jesuits, however, not being disheartened by this refusal, perambu- lated the whole country, preaching, and exhorting all to contribute to the accomplishment of an enterprise so pious and so politic. By such means, and by the cooperation of their brethren in Europe, they raised a small fund ; and finally, in 1697, they procured royal warrants, authorizing them to enter upon the reduction of California for the king, and to do all that might tend to that object at their own expense. On receiving these warrants. Father Salvatierra, the chief missionary, immediately sailed, with a few laborers and sol- diers, to the land which was to be the scene of their operations. There he was soon after joined by Fathers Kuhn, (a German, called, by the Spaniards, Kino,) Piccolo, Ugarte, and others, all men of courage and education, and enthusiastically devoted to the cause in which they were engaged ; and, in November, 1697, the first estab- lishment, called Loreto, was founded on the eastern side of the peninsula, about two hundred miles from the Pacific. The Jesuits, on entering California, had to encounter the same perils and obstacles which had rendered ineftectual all the other attempts to occupy that country. They were attacked by the natives, to whose ferocity several of the fathers fell victims ; the land was so barren, that it scarcely yielded the means of sustaining life to the most industrious agriculturist, for which reason, the set- tlements were all located near the sea, in order that the necessary food might be procured by fishing ; and the persons employed in their service, being drawn from the most miserable classes in Mexico, were always indolent and insubordinate, and generally preferred loitering on the shore, in search of pearls, to engaging in the regular labors required for the support of settlers in a new region. The operations of the Jesuits were also, for some time, confined within the narrowest limits, from want of funds. Their brethren and friends occasionally made remittances to them, in money or goods ; and the king was persuaded to assign, for their 1716.] JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. 97 use, a small annual allowance : but the Mexican treasury, which was charged with the payment of this allowance, was seldom able to meet their drafts when presented ; and the assistance derived from all these sources was much diminished in value before it reached those for whom it was destined. Embarrassments of this nature occurred in 1702, at the commencement of the undertaking, in consequence of the great costs of the expeditions from Mexico for the occupation of Texas, and the establishment of garrisons, at Pensacola and other places in Florida, as cliecks upon the French. By perseverance and kindness, however, rather than by any other means, the Jesuits overcame all the difficulties to which they were exposed ; and, within sixty years after their entrance into Cal- ifornia, they had formed sixteen principal establishments, called missions, extending in a chain along the eastern side of the penin- sula from Cape San Lucas to the head of the gulf. Each of these missions comprised a church, a fort garrisoned by a few soldiers, and some stores and dwelling-houses, all under the entire control of the resident Jesuit ; and it formed the centre of a district containing several rancherias, or villages of converted Indians. The principal mission, or capital, was Loreto ; south of it was La Paz, the port of communication with Mexico, probably the same place called Santa Cruz by Cortes, where he endeavored to plant a colony in 1535 ; and near Cape San Lucas was San Jose, at which an attempt was made to provide means for the repair and refreshment of vessels employed in the Philippine trade. No establishments were formed on the west coast, vvjiich does not seem to have been visited by the Jesuits, except on one occasion, in 1716. The villages were each under the superintendence of Indians selected for the purpose, of whom one possessed the powers of a governor, another took care of the church or chapel, and a third summoned the inhabitants to prayers, and reported the delinquents. The children were taught to speak, read, write, and sing, in Spanish, and were initiated into the doctrines and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion. The converts were directe " June 29th. At noon the latitude was 48 degrees 39 minutes north, at which time we had a complete view of an inlet, whose entrance appeared very extensive, bearing east-south-east, distant about six leagues. We endeavored to keep up with the shore as much as possible, in order to have a perfect view of the land. This was an object of particular anxiety, as the part of the coast along lohich xve ivere now sailing had not been seen by Captain Coolc, and we knew no other navigator, said to have been this way, except Maurelle ; and his chart, which we now had on board, convinced us that he had either never seen this part of the coast, or that he had purposely misrepresented it. By three o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived at the entrance of the great inlet, which appeared to be twelve or fourteen leagues broad. From the mast head, it was observed to stretch to the east by the north, and a clear and unbounded horizon was seen, in this direction, as far as the eye 176 MEARES SEEKS FOR THE GREAT RIVER. [1788. could reach. The strongest curiosity impelled us to enter this strait, which we shall call by the name of its original discoverer, John de Fuca." To examine the passage, — of which he thus claims the discovery, after having distinctly assigned the merit of it to another, — Meares sent his mate, Duffin, with a party of men, in a boat. In a few days the boat returned, with several of her crew disabled by wounds received in a conflict with the natives on the northern shore. " She had sailed," writes Meares, " near thirty leagues up the strait ; and, at that distance from the sea, it was fifteen leagues broad, with a clear horizon stretching to the east for fifteen leagues more." Yet, from Dufiin's journal, which is given entire in Mr. Meares's work, it seems that the boat did not advance ten miles within the strait ; and we now know that the width of the passage nowhere, within thirty leagues of its mouth, exceeds five leagues. From the entrance of this passage, which has ever since been distinguished by the name of Strait of Fuca, Meares sailed along the shore of the continent, towards the south. His object was to examine the opening in the coast, laid down on Spanish charts in his possession, near the 46th degree of latitude, under the name Rio de San Roque, or River of Sai7it Roc, which had been first observed by Heceta, on the 16th of August, 1775, as mentioned in the account of that voyage.* Proceeding in this course, he, on the 5th of July, remarked a headland, in the latitude of 46 degrees 47 minutes, which he named Caj)e Shoalwater ; on the following day, he writes in his journal, — " At half past ten, being within three leagues of Cape Shoalwater, we had a perfect view of it ; and, with the glasses, we traced the line of coast to the southward, which presented no opening that promised any thing like an harbor. An high, bluflf promontory bore off" us south-east, at the distance of only four leagues, for which we steered to double, with the hope that between it and Cape Shoalwater we should find some sort of harbor. We now discovered distant land beyond this promontory, and we pleased ourselves with the expectation of its being Cape St. Roc of the Spaniards, near which they are said to have found a good port. By iialf past eleven, we doubled this cape, at the distance of three miles, having a clear and perfect view of the shore in every part, on which we did not discern a living creature, or the least trace of habitable life. A prodigious easterly swell rolled on the shore, and • Page 120. 1788.] MEARES DOES NOT FIND THE GREAT RIVER. 177 the soundings gradually decreased from forty to sixteen fathoms, over a hard, sandy bottom. After we had rounded the promontory, a large bay, as we had imagined, opened to our view, that bore a very promising appearance, and into which we steered with every en- couraging expectation. The high land that formed the boundaries of the bay was at a great distance, and a flat, level country occu- pied the intervening space ; the bay itself took rather a westerly direction. As we steered in, the water shoaled to nine, eight, and seven fathoms, when breakers were seen from the deck, right ahead, and, from the mast head, they were observed to extend across the bay ; we therefore hauled out, and directed our course to the opposite shore, to see if there was any channel, or if we could discover any port. The name of Cape Disappointment was given to the promontory, and the bay obtained the title of Deception Bay. By an indifterent meridian observation, it lies in the latitude of 46 degrees 10 minutes north, and in the computed longitude of 235 degrees 34 minutes east. " We can noio with safety assert that there is no such river as that of St. Roc exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts. To those of Maurelle we made continual reference, but without deriving any information or assistance from them. We now reached the opposite side of the bay, where disappointment continued to accompany us ; and, being almost certain that there we should obtain no place of shelter for the ship, we bore up for a distant headland, keeping our course within two miles of the shore." This distant headland, in the latitude of 45 degrees 37 minutes, named by Meares Cape Lookout, and probably the same called by the Spaniards Cape Falcon, was the southernmost point seen by him-, thence he re- turned to the Strait of Fuca, without again observing the land, having, as he conceived, " traced every part of the coast, which unfavorable weather had prevented Captain Cook from approaching." The language of Mr. Meares in the preceding extracts, though somewhat ungrammatical, is yet clear and explicit. He records with satisfaction his conviction, founded on his own observations, that " no such river as that of St. Roc exists, as laid dotim in the Spanish charts ; " in token of which conviction, he assigns the names of Deception Bay and Cape Disappointment to the places on the American coast, near the latitude of 46 degrees 10 minutes, where the mouth of the river should have been found, according to the Spanish charts. Yet, strange though it may appear, the com- missioners, appointed by the British government, in 1826, to treat 23 178 MEARES RETURNS TO CHINA. [1788. with the plenipotentiary of the United States at London, on the subject of the claims of the respective parties to territories on the north-west side of America, insisted that Meares, on this occasion, discovered the great River Columbia, which actually enters the Pacific at Deception Bay, and cited, in proof of their assertion, the very parts of his narrative above extracted.* On his way back to Nootka, Meares visited the two large bays, called by the natives Clyoquot and Nittinat, and by himself Port Cox and Po7't EJjingham, situated a little north-west of the entrance of Fuca's Strait, where, he declares in his Memorial to Parliament, " he obtained from Wicanish, the chief of the surrounding districts, in consequence of considerable presents, the promise of a free and exclusive trade with the natives of the district, as also permission to build any storehouses or other edifices which he might judge necessary ; and he also acquired the same privileges of exclu- sive trade from Tatooche, the chief of the country bordering upon the Strait of Fuca, and purchased from him a tract of land within the said strait, which one of his officers took possession of, in the king's name, calling the same Tatooche, in honor of the chief." These purchases and cessions of territory are not, however, in any manner noticed, either in the documents annexed to the Memorial, or in the narrative of the voyage, which is most tediously minute as to the circumstances of Mr. Meares's interviews with those chiefs. At the end of July, Meares returned to Nootka Sound, where the Iphigenia soon after arrived from the northern coasts, laden with furs. The small vessel, which had been begun at Friendly Cove, was then launched, and received the name of the North- West America ; and Meares, considering the season as not too far ad- vanced for a voyage across the Pacific, transferred to the Felice all the furs which had been collected, and sailed in her, on the 28th of September, for China, leaving directions that the Iphigenia and the North- West America should proceed to the Sandwich Islands for the winter, and return in the following spring to Nootka, where he would rejoin them. Before the departure of Meares from Nootka, two other vessels entered the sound, whose voyages merit particular attention. Immediately after the recognition of the independence of the United States of America, the citizens of that republic resumed the * See British statement, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, letter H. 1787.] AMERICANS ENGAGE IN TRADE IN THE PACIFIC. 179 whale and seal fishery around Cape Horn, which they had carried on before the revolution, and also engaged in the direct trade with India and China. In the latter countries, however, they labored under great disadvantages, from the inferiority in value of the articles carried thither to those brought back by them, in conse- quence of whicli they were obliged to take out large quantities of specie, in order to obtain .full homeward cargoes. With the view of obviating this inequality, some merchants of Boston, in 1787, formed an association for the purpose of combining the fur trade of the North Pacific with the China trade, as attempted by the King George's Sound Company of London ; and in such an enter- prise they certainly had reason to anticipate success, as, with industry and nautical skill unsurpassed by any other nation, the Americans were free from the restrictions imposed on British subjects by the charters of the South Sea and East India Com- panies.* In prosecution of this scheme, the ship Columbia, of two hundred and twenty tons, and the sloop Washington, of ninety tons, were fitted out at Boston in the summer of 1787, and laden with blan- kets, knives, iron bars, copper pans, and other articles proper for the trade with the Indians on the north-west coasts. The Columbia was commanded by John Kendrick, to whom was intrusted the * The first American citizens who engaged in the whaling and sealing business around Cape Horn, after the peace of 1783, were the Nantucket men, as will be here- after more particularly stated. The first American vessel which entered the port of Canton was the ship Empress of China, from New York, commanded by Daniel Parker, with Samuel Shaw as supercargo : she arrived in China in the latter part of the summer of 1764, and returned to New York in Ma}^ of the following year. Mr. Shaw was appointed consul of the United States at Canton in January, 1796; and, on the 3Ist of Decem- ber of the same year, he addressed to his government, from Canton, an interesting memoir on the state of commerce at that place, which still remains, with many other communications from him, unpublished, in the archives of the Department of State at Washington. In 1787, not less than five American vessels were employed in the trade with China; among them were the Canton, under Captain Thomas Truxton, who afterwards distinguished himself in the naval service of his countr}', and the old frigate JllUancc, so celebrated during the war of the revolution, which had been sold by order of Congress, and fitted out as a trading vessel, under the command of John Reed. The Alliance entered Canton on the 2i3th of December, 1787; and her arrival at that season caused much astonishment, as it had been previously considered impos- sible for a vessel to sail from the Cape of Good Hope to China between October and April, on account of the violence of the winds, blowing constantly, during that period, from the north-ea^t. Reed, however, had steered eastward from the Cape of Good Hope, to the southern extremity of Van Dieman's Land, around the east coasts of which island, and of New Holland, he sailed into the China Sea ; and the course thus pointed out by him has been since often taken, especially by American vessels. 180 VOYAGES OF THE COLUMBIA AND WASHINGTON. [1788. direction of the expedition ; and her mate was Joseph Ingraham, whose name will often appear in the following pages. The master of the Washington was Robert Gray. They were provided with sea letters issued by the federal government, agreeably to a resolution of Congress, and with passports from the state of Massa- chusetts ; and they received letters from the Spanish minister plenipotentiary in the United States, recommending them to the attention of the authorities of his nation on the Pacific coasts. They, moreover, carried out, for distribution at such place? as they might visit, a number of small copper coins, then recently issued by the state of Massachusetts,* and likewise medals of copper, struck expressly for the purpose, of one of which a representation is here given. The two vessels sailed together from Boston on the 30th of September, 1787 : thence they proceeded to the Cape Verd Islands, and thence to the Falkland Islands, in each of which places they procured refreshments ; and, in January, 1788, they doubled Cape Horn, immediately after which they were separated during a violent gale. The Washington, continuing her course through the Pacific, made the north-west coast in August, 1788, near the 46th degree of latitude, where she was in danger of destruction, having grounded while attempting to enter an opening, which was, most probably, the mouth of the great river afterwards named by Gray the Columbia. She was also attacked there by the savages, who killed one of her men, and wounded the mate ; but she escaped without further injury, and, on the 17th of September, reached Nootka Alexander Mackenzie, in July, 1793, found, in the possession of a native of the country east of the Strait of Fuca, a "halfpenny of the state of Massachusetts Bay, coined in 1787," which was doubtless one of those taken out by Kendrick and Gray. 1788.] VOYAGES OF THE COLUMBIA AND WASHINGTON. 181 Sound, where the Felice and Iphigenia were lying, as already mentioned.* The Columbia did not enter the sound until some days afterwards. She had been seriously injured in the storm which separated her from her consort ; and Kendrick was obliged, in consequence, to put into the harbor of the Island of Juan Fer- nandez, where he was received with great kindness, and aided in refitting his vessel, by Don Bias Gonzales, the commandant of the Spanish garrison. The repairs having been completed, the Columbia continued her voyage, and arrived at Nootka, which had been selected as the place of rendezvous, without further accident, in October. Soon after the arrival of the Columbia at Nootka, the Iphigenia and North- West America took their departure for the Sandwich Islands, where they remained until the spring of 1789. The two American vessels spent the winter in the sound, where the Columbia also lay during the whole of the following summer, whilst the important events related in the next chapter were in progress. * Meares, in his narrative, gives the following account of the arrival of the Washington at Nootka Sound : — " September 17th, 1788. — A sail was seen in the ofBng. The long-boat was imme- diately sent to her assistance, which, instead of the British vessel we expected, conveyed into the sound a sloop named the Washington, from Boston, in New England, of about one hundred tons' burthen. Mr. Gray, the master, informed us that he had sailed, in company with his consort, the Columbia, a ship of three hundred tons, in the month of August, 1787, being equipped, under the patronage of Congress, to examine the coast of America, and to open a fur trade between New England and this part of the American continent, in order to provide funds for their China ships, to enable them to return home teas and China goods. The vessels were separated in a heavy gale of wind, in tlie latitude of 59 south, and had not seen each other since the period of their separation ; but, as King George's Sound was the place of ren- dezvous appointed for them, the Columbia, if she was safe, was every day expected to join her consort at Nootka. Mr. Gray informed me that he had put into an harbor on the coast of New Albion, where he got on shore, and was in danger of being lost on the bar; he was also attacked by the natives, had one man killed, and one of his officers wounded, and thought himself fortunate in having been able to make his escape. This harbor could only admit vessels of small size, and must lie somew"here near the cape to which we had given the name of Cape Lookout." That this harbor was the mouth of the great river since called the Columbia, is most probable from its situation, and because there is no evidence or reason to suppose that Gray visited that part of the coast on any other occasion prior to his meeting with Vancouver, oi the 29th of April, 1792, as will be related in the eleventh chapter. 182 CHAPTER VIII. 1788 AND 1789. Uneasiness of the Spanish Government at the Proceedings of the Fur Traders in the North Pacific — Voyage of Observation by Martinez and Haro to the Russian American Settlements — Remonstrances of the Court of Madrid to that of St. Petersburg, against the alleged Encroachments of the latter Power — Martinez and Haro sent by the Viceroy of Mexico to take Possession of Nootka Sound — Seizure of British and other Vessels at Nootka by Martinez — Captain Gray, in the Washington, explores the East Coast of Queen Charlotte's Island, and en- ters the Strait of Fuca — Return of the Columbia to the United States. Having, in the preceding chapter, presented a sketch of the geo- graphical discoveries effected on the north-west coasts of America, in the interval between the time of Cook's last voyage and the year 1790, we now proceed to relate the important events of a political nature, which occurred on those coasts during the latter part of the same period. These events have been variously represented — or rather misrepresented — by the historians to whom reference is usu- ally made for information respecting them ; * and ample proofs will be here offered, that the most essential circumstances have been ex- hibited in false forms, and under false colors, either designedly, or from indifference and want of research on the part of the authors. The movements of the fur traders in the North Pacific were, from the beginning, regarded with dissatisfaction and mistrust by the court of Madrid. It was at first proposed to counteract them by monopolizing that branch of commerce ; for which object an agent was despatched to California, in 1786, with orders to collect all the * Namely, the histories of England, by Bissett, MilTer, Belsham, (in which latter the accounts are more fair and more nearly correct than in any other,) Hughes, Wade, and the Pictorial History of England — Schocll's Histoire des Traites de Paix — Bren- ton's Naval History of Great Britain, last edition — Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdcs — History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, by T. D. Cooley — Gilford's Life of William Pitt, &-c. In the most recent ol these works, namely, the Pictorial History of England, the account is farthest from the truth; the author has evidently not consulted any original evidence on the subject, except, possibly, the Memorial of Meares, or the abstract of that paper in the Annual Register. 1786.] APPREHENSIONS OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT. 183 sea otter skins * obtainable there, and carry them for sale to Canton : but the enterprise proved unsuccessful, as the agent could only ob- tain a small number of furs, of inferior quality, the produce of the sale of which in China did not cover the expenses of their trans- portation. Considerable uneasiness was also created at Madrid, by the en- deavors of the British government to advance the whale and seal fishery in the seas surrounding the southern extremity of America. A number of experienced whalers, especially from Nantucket, had been induced, immediately after the peace of 1783, to engage in this business, under the British flag ; and high premiums were offered by act of Parliament, in 1786, to encourage perseverance in the pursuit. As British vessels and subjects would thus necessa- rily frequent the unoccupied coasts of Patagonia and the adjacent islands, it was apprehended, by the Spanish government, that estab- lishments might be formed in those regions, for their protection ; the natural consequence of which would be, the introduction of foreign merchandise, and of opinions contrary to the interests of Spain, into the contiguous provinces. In order to provide against these evils, the Spaniards increased their garrison at Port Soledad, in the Falkland Islands, as well as their naval force in that quarter ; and an attempt was made, under the patronage of their government, to organize a company for the whale and seal fishery in the South- ern Ocean, which proved entirely abortive. It was from Russia, however, that the Spanish government an- ticipated the greatest danger to its dominions on the Pacific side of America. Of the commerce and establishments of that nation on the northernmost coasts of the Pacific, enough had been learned from the narrative of Cook's expedition, and other works then re- cently published, to show their advancement, and the enterprise of those by whom they were conducted, as well as tfie determination of the Russian government to maintain and encourage them ; and La Perouse, during the stay of his ships at Conception, in Chili, in 1786, promised, at the particular request of the captain-general, to communicate confidentially to the viceroy of Mexico the results of the observations on those subjects which he might make in Kamt- chatka and the islands and coasts of America adjacent. La Pe- rouse, however, did not return to America after his visit to Kamt- chatka, nor was any information on the points in question received from him by the Spanish authorities ; and the viceroy of Mexico, * La Perouse — Portlock. 184 APPREHENSIONS OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT. [1787. having waited in vain for the promised intelligence until the ena of 1787, resolved to despatch vessels to the North Pacific, in order to ascertain the truth with regard to the trade and settlements of the Russians and other foreign nations on the coasts of that division of the ocean. Before relating the particulars of the expedition made for that purpose, a circumstance may be mentioned, which serves to show the state of feeling of the Spanish government at the period in question, with regard to the proceedings of foreigners in the Pacific, and the extent of the measures which it was ready to adopt in order to exclude them from that ocean. It has been said, in the preced- ing chapter, that the ship Columbia having received some damage on her way from Boston to the north-west coast of America, in May, 1788, entered a harbor in the Island of Juan Fernandez, where as- sistance was afforded in refitting her by the Spanish commandant Don Bias Gonzales and his garrison. After her departure, the commandant communicated the circumstances, by a despatch, to his immediate superior, the captain-general of Chili, who thereupon recalled Gonzales from the island, and placed him in arrest, address- ing, at the same time, a report on the subject, with a request for instructions, to the viceroy of Peru. The viceroy, after consulting with his official legal adviser, replied to the captain-general at length on the subject, and expressed his surprise and displeasure at the mis- conduct of the commandant of Juan Fernandez, in allowing the strange ship to leave the harbor, instead of seizing her and her crew ; as he should have known that, by the royal ordinance of November, 1692, every foreign vessel found in those seas, without a license from the court of Spain, was to be treated as an enemy, even though belonging to a friend or ally of the king, seeing that no other nation had, or ought to have, any territories, to reach which its vessels should pass around Cape Horn or through Magellan's Straits. In so serious a light did the viceroy regard the matter, that a ship was sent from Callao to track or intercept the Columbia ; the authori- ties on the coasts of Peru and Chili were specially enjoined to be vigilant, and, in case any foreign vessel should appear in the vicini- ty, to seize her ; and the whole affair was made known by a de- spatch to the viceroy of Mexico, in order that similar precautions might be adopted on his part. The unfortunate commandant Gon- zales was cashiered for his remissness ; and he subsequently ad- dressed a petition to the government of the United States for its intercession with his sovereign. Thus were half of the Spanish do- 1788.] VOYAGE OF MARTINEZ AND HAKO. 185 minions in America thrown into alarm and agitation, by the appear- ance of a trading ship from the United States on the Pacific: yet Teodor Lacroix, the viceroy of Peru, and Ambrose O'Higgins, cap- tain-general of Chili, were men of education and experience, distin- guished for their courage and sagacity ; but such was the jealous system which they were bound to support.* For the expedition of inquiry to the north-west coasts of America, the viceroy of Mexico employed two vessels, the corvette Princesa, commanded by Estevan Martinez, (who had been the pilot in the voyage of Juan Perez, in 1774,) and the schooner San Carlos, under Lieutenant Gonzalo Haro. They were instructed to proceed direct- ly to Prince William's Sound, and to make every possible inquiry and examination respecting the establishments of the Russians there and in other parts of America adjacent ; having completed which, they were to explore the coasts southward to California, if time should be left for that purpose, seeking particularly for places convenient for the reception of Spanish colonies: and they were especially enjoined to treat the natives of the places which they might visit with kindness, and not to engage in any quarrel with the Russians, Of this voyage of Martinez and Haro, a short account will suffice. They quitted San Bias on the 8th of March, 1788, and, on the 25th of May, they anchored in the entrance of Prince William's Sound, where they lay nearly a month, without making any attempt to examine the surrounding shores. At length, in the end of June, Haro, having sailed, in the San Carlos, along the coast of the ocean farther south-west, discovered a Russian establishment on the east side of the Island of Kodiak, under the command of a Greek, named Delaref, with whom he was able to communicate ; and from this person he received detailed accounts of all the Russian establish- ments in that quarter. On the 3d of July, Haro rejoined Martinez, who had, in the mean time, explored the coasts of Prince William's Sound ; and they proceeded together along the eastern side of the * The petition of Gonzales, with copies of his reports to the captain-general, and the sentence pronounced against him, remain in manuscript in the archives of the Department of State at Wasliington. Mr. Jefferson, secretary of state of the United States, recommended his case to the Spanish government, in a letter to Mr. Carmi- chael, then plenipotentiary at Madrid, dated April 11th, 1790, with what success is not known. The other particulars here related of this curious affair are derived from the General Report, or Instructions, left by the viceroy of Peru to his successor, on his retirement from that office, which was published at London in 1822, in the Biblio- teca Americana. 24 186 VOYAGE OF MARTINEZ AND HARO. [1789. peninsula of Aliaska, to Unalashka, the largest of the Aleutian Islands, where they arrived on the 30th of August. There they re- mained until the 18th of September, receiving every attention from the Russians belonging to the factory, and then sailed for the south. In their voyage homew^ard, the vessels were separated : Haro reached San Bias on the 22d of October ; Martinez did not enter that port until the 5th of December, having put into Monterey for refresh- ments.* The geographical observations made in this expedition were of little value at the time ; and it would be needless to notice them here, as the coasts to which they relate have been since completely surveyed. Agreeably to the report presented by Martinez, on his return to the viceroy of Mexico, the Russian establishments in Amer- ica at that time were in number eight, all situated east of Prince William's Sound, on which, however, one was then in progress ; and they contained, together, two hundred and fifty-two Russian subjects, nearly all of whom were natives of Kamtchatka or Sibe- ria. Martinez was, moreover, informed that two vessels had been sent in that summer from Kodiak, to found a settlement at Nootka Sound, and that two large ships were in preparation at Ochotsk, for further operations of the same nature. The vessels sent from Ko- diak were doubtless those which proceeded, under IsmylofT and Betscharef, along the coast eastward to the foot of Mount St. Elias ; the others were those intended for the expedition under Billings, which was not begun until 1790. These accounts of the establishments and projects of the Rus- sians were immediately communicated to the court of Madrid, which addressed to the empress of Russia a remonstrance against *uch encroachments of her subjects upon the territories of his Cath- olic majesty. In the memorial conveying this remonstrance, it is to be remarked that Prince William^ s Sound is assumed as separating the dominions of the two sovereigns ; it being doubtless intended, * The preceding account of this voyage is derived from the journal of Martinez, of which a copy, in manuscript, was obtained from the hydrographical office at Madrid. The first notice of this expedition, published in Europe, was taken from a letter written at San Bias, soon after the arrival of Haro at that port, in which it was said that the Spaniards had found Russian establishments bcticecn the forty-ninth and the fiftieth degrees of latitude, instead oihettoccn the fifty-ninth and the sixtieth degrees , and on this error, such as is daily committed by persons ignorant jf nautical matters, M. Poletica, the Russian envoy in the United States, endeavored, in 1822, to found a claim for his sovereign to the lohole of the Jlmerican coasts and islands on the Pacific ■north of the forty-ninth parallel. See hereafter, chap. xvi. 1789.] CLAIMS OF SPAIN EXAMINED. 187 by means of this geographical obscurity, to leave undefined the del- icate question as to the limits of Spanish America in the north- west. The empress of Russia answered — that orders had been given to her subjects not to make settlements in places belonging to other nations ; and, if those orders had been violated with regard to Spanish America, she desired the king of Spain to arrest the en- croachments, in a friendly manner. With this answer, more cour- teous than specific, the Spanish minister professed himself content ; observing, however, in his reply, that Spain " could not be respon- sible for what her officers might do, at places so distant, whilst they were acting under general orders to allow no settlements to be made by other nations on the Spanish American continent." * In the mean time, however, the viceroy of Mexico, Don Manuel de Flores, had, in virtue of his general instructions, taken a decisive measure with regard to Nootka Sound. For that purpose, he de- spatched Martinez and Haro from San Bias, early in 1789, with their vessels manned and equipped eflfectively ; ordering them, in case any British or Russian vessel should appear at Nootka, to receive her with the attention and civility required by the peace and friendship existing between Spain and those nations, but, at the same time, to declare the paramount rights of his Catholic majesty to the place, and the adjacent coasts, firmly, though discreetly, and without using harsh or insulting language.f Before entering upon the narrative of the events which followed, it should be observed, with regard to the right of the Spanish gov- ernment thus to take possession of Nootka, that,' before the 6th of May, 1789, when Martinez entered the sound with that object, no settlement, factory, or other establishment whatsoever, had been founded or attempted, nor had any jurisdiction been exercised by the authorities or subjects of a civilized nation, in any part of America bordering upon the Pacific, between Port San Francisco, near the 38th degree of north latitude, and Prince William's Sound, near the 60th. The Spaniards, the British, the Russians, and the French, had, indeed, landed at many places on those coasts, where they had displayed flags, performed ceremonies, and erected monu- ments, by way of takiiig possession — as it was termed — of the ad- * Memorial addressed by the court of Spain to that of London, dated June 13th, 1790, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter D, No. 3. t Abstract of these instructions to Martinez, in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, p. 106. 188 RIGHTS DERIVED FROM DISCOVERT. [1789. jacent territories for their respective sovereigns ; but such acts are^ and were then, generally considered as empty pageants, securing no real rights to those by whom, or in whose names, they were per- formed. Nor does it appear that any portion of the above-men- tioned territories had become the property of a foreigner, either by purchase, occupation, or any other title, which can be regarded as valid. It has been already said that Mr. Meares, in his Memorial, addressed to the British Parliament, in 1790, laid claim to certain tracts of land about Nootka Sound, as having been ceded to him by the natives of the country, in 1788 ; but it was, at the same time, shown that this claim was unsupported by sufficient evidence, and was, moreover, directly, as well as indirectly, contradicted by Mr. Meares himself, in his journal of the same proceedings : and other circumstances will be mentioned hereafter, serving to prove the falsehood of that person's assertions, and of his pretensions to the possession of any part of the American territory. The right of exclusive sovereignty over these extensive regions was claimed by Spain, in virtue of the papal concession, 1493, of the first discovery of their coasts by Spanish subjects, and of the contiguity of the territories to the settled dominions of Spain. Of the validity of the title derived from the papal concession it appears to be needless, at the present day, to speak. That the Spaniards were the first discoverers of the west coasts of America, at least as far north as the 56th parallel of latitude, has been already shown ; and the fact is, and has been ever since the publication of Maurelle's Journal, in 1781, as indisputable as that the Portuguese discovered the south coasts of Africa. The extent of the rights derived from discovery are, however, by no means clearly defined by writers on public law ; and the practice of nations has been so different in dif- ferent cases, that it seems impossible to deduce any general rule of action from it. That a nation whose subjects or citizens had as- certained the existence of a country previously unknown, should have a better right than any other to make settlements in that coun- try, and, after such settlement, to own it, and to exercise sovereignty over it, is in every respect conformable with nature and justice ; but this principle is liable to innumerable difficulties in its application to particular cases. It is seldom easy to decide how far a discovery may have been such, in all respects, as should give this strongest right to settle, or to what extent of country a title of sovereignty may have been acquired by a particular settlement : and even where the novelty or priority and sufficiency of the discovery are admit- 1789.] NEW EXPEDITION FROM MACAO. 189 ted, the right to occupy thus derived cannot surely te regarded as subsisting forever, to the exclusion of all other nations ; and the claims of states already occupying contiguous territories are always to be taken into consideration. Agreeably to these views, it could not with justice be assumed that Spain, from the mere fact of the first discovery of the north- west coasts of America by her subjects, acquired the right to exclude all other nations from them forever ; but it would be most unjust to deny that her right to occupy those vacant territories, contiguous as they were to her settled dominions, even if they had not been first discovered by her subjects, was much stronger than that of any other nation. Thus the occupation, and even the exploration, of any part of the north-west coasts by another power, might have been reasonably considered by Spain as an unfriendly, if not as an offensive, act ; while she might, on the contrary, have extended her establishments at least as far north as the 56th parallel, and have claimed the exclusive right to occupy all the coasts south of her most northern estabUshment, without giving just cause of dissatisfaction to any other power. The right to occupy must be here distinguished from the right of sovereignty ; as no nation could be justified, by virtue of the former right, and without occupation or the performance of acts indicating an intention soon to occupy, in depriving others of the trade of extensive vacant sea-coasts, un- less upon the ground that the exercise of such trade would be injurious to its actual interests in those countries. Resuming the narrative of events in the North Pacific — It has been mentioned, in the preceding chapter, that Meares sailed in the Felice from Nootka Sound to China, in the end of September, 1789. On reaching Macao, in December following, he learned that during his absence, Juan Cavallo, the Portuguese merchant, whose name appeared on the papers of the Felice and Iphigenia as their owner, had become a bankrupt. What steps were taken immediate- ly, in consequence of this event, is not related ; but an arrangement was soon after made between the anonymous merchant proprietors and Mr. Etches, the agent of the King George's Sound Company, who was then at Macao, with the ship Prince of Wales and sloop Princess Royal, for a union of the interests of the two parties. Agreeably to this arrangement, the Felice was sold, and the Prince of Wales returned to England ; and a ship called the Argonaut was purchased, in whicii Colnett, a lieutenant in the British navy, previ- ously commanding the Princess Royal, was despatched, in April, 190 NEW EXPEDITION PROM MACAO. [1789. 1789, to Nootka, as captain, and agent for the proprietors on the American coast, accompanied by the Princess Royal, under Captain Wilhani Hudson. The management of the affairs of the association at Macao ap- pears to have been committed entirely to Meares, who drew up the instructions for Colnett. From these instructions, of which a copy is appended by Meares to his Memorial, it is evident that there was really an intention to found a permanent establishment on some part of the north-west coast of America, although no spot is desig- nated as its site, and no hint is given of any acquisition of territory having been already made at or near Nootka Sound. Indeed, the only reference to that place, in the whole paper, is contained in the words, " We recommend you, if possible, to form a treaty with the various chiefs, particularly at Nootka." Yet Meares, in his Memo- rial, strangely enough says, " Mr. Colnett was directed to fix his residence at Nootka Sound, and, with that view, to erect a substan- tial house on the spot which your memorialist had purchased in the preceding year, as will appear hy a copy of his instructions hereunto annexed.^' The Argonaut and Princess Royal were, moreover, certainly navigated under the British flag ; there being no object in using any other, as they were both provided with licenses from the East India and the South Sea Companies, which afforded them the requisite authorization.* Whilst these vessels were on their way to Nootka Sound, their first place of destination on the coast, the brig Iphigenia, and schooner North- West America, belonging to the same association, though under Portuguese colors, arrived in that bay from the Sandwich Islands, where they had passed the winter, agreeably to the instructions of Mr. Meares. They entered the sound on the 20th of April, in the most wretched condition imaginable. The Iphigenia was a mere wreck ; according to the journal of Douglas, her supercargo or captain, annexed to the Memorial of Meares, * The following account of the occurrences at Nootka in the summer of 1789 is taken from — the journal or narrative of the voyage of Meares, and the documents attached to it, consisting of his Memorial to Parliament, and papers in proof, among which is especially worthy of notice tlie journal of Douglas, the captain or supercargo of the Ipiiigenia — the journal of Colnett's voyage, in 1793, in which some of those circumstances are related in a note, at page 96 — the journal of Vancouver's voyage in 1792 — the letter addressed by the American Captains Gray and Ingraham to the Spanish comniandant at Nootka, in 1792, which will be found at length among the Proofs and Illustrations, at the end of this volume, under the letter C — and the memorials and other papers relative to the dispute which ensued between Great Britain, in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter D. 1789.] SEIZURE OF THE IPHIGENIA. 191 " she had hke to have foundered at sea, for want of pitch and tar to stop the leaks ; she had no bread on board, and nothing but salt pork for her crew to hve on ; she was without cables," and, on attempting to moor her in the harbor, it was necessary to " borrow a fall from the American sloop Washington," which, with the ship Columbia, was found lying there. The North-West America was in no better condition ; and, as they had no articles for barter with the natives, they must have remained inactive for some time, had they not procured some assistance and supphes from the American vessels, by means of which the schooner was enabled to leave the sound on the 28th of the month, for a short trading trip along the coasts. The Washington, about the same time, also departed on a similar expedition ; and the Iphigenia, lying at Friendly Cove, and the Columbia, at Mawhinna, a few miles higher up, were the only vessels in Nootka Sound on the 6th of May, when the Spanish commander Martinez arrived there in the corvette Princesa, to take possession of the country for his sovereign. Martinez immediately communicated his intentions to the captains of the other vessels, whose papers he also examined ; and, appear- ing to be content, he landed materials and artillery, and began to erect a fort on a small island at the entrance of Friendly Cove. With this assumption of authority on his part, no dissatisfaction appears to have been expressed or entertained by either of the other parties ; on the contrary, the utmost good feeling for some time prevailed on all sides : the officers of the different vessels visited and dined with each other, and Martinez readily supplied the Iphigenia with articles of which she was in need, in order to go to sea immediately, accepting, in return for them, bills drawn by her Portuguese captain, Viana, upon Juan Cavallo, the Portuguese merchant of Macao, as her owner. Things remained thus at Nootka for a week, at the end of which time the other Spanish vessel, the San Carlos, arrived, under Captain Haro. On the following day, the 15th of May, Martinez invited Viana and Douglas to come on board his ship ; and, on their doing so, he immediately told them that they were prisoners, and their vessel was to be seized. " I inquired," says Douglas, in his journal, " the cause of his not taking the Washington sloop, as he had orders from the king of Spain to take every vessel he met out on this coast. He gave me no satisfactory answer, but told me my papers were bad ; that they mentioned I was to take all English, Russian, and Spanish vessels that were of inferior force to the 192 THE IPHIGENIA RELEASED BY MARTINEZ. [1789. Iphigenia, and send or carry their crews to Macao, there to be tried for their Uves as pirates. I told him they had not interpreted the papers right ; that, though I did not understand the Portuguese, I had seen a copy of them in English, at Macao, which mentioned, if I was attacked by any one of those nations, to defend myself, and, if I had the superiority, to send the captains and crews to Macao, to answer for the insult they had offered." Martinez, however, was not, or did not choose to be, content with this explanation, which certainly did not place the Iphigenia and her owners in a position conformable with the usages of civilized nations ; and, in obedience to his orders, that brig was boarded by the Spaniards, her men, with her charts, papers, and instruments, were transferred to the ships of war, and preparations were begun for sending her, as a prize, to San Bias. Whilst these preparations were in progress, the Spanish com- mandant altered his intentions, and proposed to release the Iphigenia and her crew, on condition that her officers would sign a declaration to the effect that she had not been interrupted, but had been kindly treated and supplied by him during her stay at Nootka. This proposition was at first refused ; an arrangement was, however, afterwards made between the parties, in consequence of which the declaration was signed by the officers of the Iphigenia, and she and her crew were liberated on the 26th of May. Messrs. Viana and Douglas at the same time engaged for themselves, as " captain and supercargo respectively, and for Juan Cavallo, of Macao, as owner of the said vessel," to pay her value, on demand, to the order of the viceroy of Mexico, in case he should pronounce her capture legal. This seizure of the Iphigenia by Martinez can scarcely be con- sidered unjust or unmerited, when it is recollected that, if, in attempting to enforce, with regard to her, the orders of his govern- ment, — which were perfectly conformable with the principles of national law as then recognized, and with treaties between Spain and the other powers, — he had been resisted and overcome, he, with his officers and men, would have been carried to Macao as prisoners, to be tried in Portuguese courts for piracy. Moreover, he had been informed that Meares was daily expected to arrive at Nootka, with other vessels belonging to the same concern ; and it was his duty to provide against the probability of being overpowered or insulted, by lessening the forces of those from whom he had every reason to apprehend an attack. He was, indeed, specially enjoined, by the viceroy of Mexico, to treat English and Russian 1789.] THE IPHIGENIA RETURNS TO CHINA. 193 vessels with respect ; but the contingency of his meeting with a Portuguese vessel at Nootka, furnished with such instructions as those carried by the Iphigenia, could not have been foreseen ; and the only grounds upon which he could have excused himself to his government for releasing her, even under the pledge given by her officers, must have been, that, at the time when those instruc- tions were written, it was not anticipated, by her proprietors, that Spain would take possession of any place on the north-west coast of America. That the detention of the Iphigenia by the Spaniards was not injurious to the interests of her owners, is clearly proved. The distressed condition in which she reached Nootka has been already shown from the accounts of her officers ; and she must have remained at that place, unemployed, during the greater and better part of the trading season, had she not been refitted and supplied as she was by the Spaniards. According to the narrative of Meares, she sailed from the sound on the 1st of June, to the coasts of Queen Charlotte's Island, where she collected a number of valuable furs in a few weeks: the trade was "so brisk," writes Meares, ^'^ that all the stock of iron was soon expended, and they were wider the necessity of cutting up the chain plates and hatch-bars of the vessel,'^ in order to find the means of purchasing the skins offered ; thence she departed for the Sandwich Islands, and, after a short stay there, continued her voyage to Macao, where she arrived in October, with about seven hundred sea otter skins, all collected since leaving Nootka Sound. Mr. Meares, in his Memorial, however, presents a very different picture of these circumstances : he there says, " During the time the Spaniards held possession of the Iphigenia, she was stripped of all the merchandise which had been prepared for trading, as also of her stores, provisions, nautical instruments, charts, &c., and, in short, of every article, except twelve bars'of iron, which they could conveniently carry away, even to the extent of the master's watch, and articles of clothing ; " he then goes on to state that, "on leaving Nootka Sound, the Iphigenia, though in a very unfit condition for such a voyage, proceeded from thence to the Sandwich Islands, and, after obtaining there such supplies as they were enabled to purchase ivith the iron before mentioned, returned to China, and anchored there in the month of October, 1789" — thus omitting all notice of the trip to the northern coasts, and of the brisk trade with the natives, in which the whole stock of iron 25 194 SEIZURE OF THE NORTH-WEST AMERICA. [1789. (including, of course, the twelve bars before mentioned) was ex- changed for furs. Before taking leave of the Iphigenia, it may be added, in evi- dence of her true character, that Douglas quitted her immediately on her arrival in China ; after which she continued to trade under the command of Viana, and under the flag of Portugal. On tlie 8th of June, after the departure of the Iphigenia, the schooner North- West America returned from her voyage along the southern coasts, in which she had collected about two hundred sea otter skins, and was immediately seized by Martinez, in consequence, as he at first said, of an agreement to that effect between himself and the captain of the Iphigenia. This agreement is expressly de- nied by Douglas, who declares that both promises and threats had been used in vain to induce him to sell the small vessel at a price far below her real value ; and, in proof, he cites a letter given by him to Martinez, addressed to the captain of the North- West Amer- ica, in which he merely tells the latter to act as he may think best for the interest of the owners. Meares, in his Memorial, however, admits that the letter did not contain what Martinez understood to be its purport when he received it, and that advantage had been taken by Douglas of the Spaniard's ignorance of the English language ; from which circumstances it is most probable that the agreement, whether voluntary on the part of the captain of the Iphigenia, or unjustly extorted from him, was actually made as asserted by Marti- nez. A few days afterwards, the sloop Princess Royal, one of the vessels sent from Macao by the associated companies, entered the sound under the command of William Hudson, bringing infor- mation of the failure of Cavallo, the Portuguese merchant, upon whom, as owner of the Iphigenia, the bills in payment for the sup- plies furnished to that vessel, were drawn. Upon learning this, Martinez announced his determination to hold the North-West America in satisfaction for the amount of those bills : she was thereupon immediately equipped for a trading voyage, and sent out under the command of one of the mates of the Columbia ; but her officers and men were at the same time liberated, and nearly all tiie skins collected by her were placed on board the Princess Royal, for the benefit of the owners in China. The Princess Royal remained at Nootka until the 2d of July, during which period she was undisturbed, and her officers and men were treated with perfect civility and respect by the Span- 1789.] SEIZURE OF THE ARGONAUT AT NOOTKA. 195 iards. As she was leaving the sound on that day, her consort, the ship Argonaut, came in from Macao, under Captain Colnett, who, as already mentioned, had been charged by the associated companies with the direction of their affairs on the American coasts, and the establishment of a factory and fort for their benefit. What followed with regard to this ship has been represented under various colors ; but the principal facts, as generally admitted, were these : — As soon as the Argonaut appeared at the entrance of the sound, she was boarded by Martinez, who presented to Colnett a letter from the captain of the Princess Royal, and pressed him earnestly to enter the sound, and supply the Spanish vessels with some arti- cles of which they were much in want. Several of the officers of the North- West America and the Columbia also came on board the Argonaut, and communicated what had occurred respecting the Iphigenia and the small vessel to Colnett, who, in consequence, hes- itated as to entering the sound ; but he was finally induced, by the assurances of Martinez, to do so, and before midnight his ship was anchored in Friendly Cove, between the Princesa and the San Carlos. On the following day, Colnett, having supplied the Spanish ships with some articles, was preparing, as he states, to leave the sound, when he received an invitation to go on board the commandant's ship and exhibit his papers. He accordingly went, in uniform, and with his sword by his side, into the cabin of the Princesa, where he displayed his papers, and informed Martinez of his intention to take possession of Nootka, and erect a fort there under the British flag. The commandant replied, that this could not be done, as the place was already occupied by the forces and in the name of his Catholic majesty ; and an altercation ensued, the results of which were the arrest and confinement of Colnett, and the seizure of the Argonaut by the Spaniards. From the moment of his arrest, Colnett became insane or delirious, and continued in this state for several weeks, during which Duffin, the mate of his vessel, acted as the representa- tive of the proprietors : in the mean time, her cargo had been all placed on board the Spanish ships of war ; and, on the 13th of July, she sailed, with her officers and nearly the whole of her crew as prisoners, under the command of a Spanish lieutenant, for San Bias. If the accounts of these transactions, presented by Meares in his Memorial, and by Colnett in the narrative which he afterwards published, be admitted as conveying a full and correct view of the 196 SEIZUKE OF THE ARGONAUT AT NOOTKA. [1789. circumstances, the conduct of Martinez must be considered as nearly equivalent to piracy. From these accounts it would appear that the ship was treacherously seized, without any reasonable ground, or even pretext, and with the sole premeditated object of plundering her ; and that the most cruel acts of violence, insult, and restraint, were wantonly committed upon the officers and men during the whole period of their imprisonment. Colnett relates * — that, when he presented his papers to Martinez in the cabin of the Princesa, the commandant, without examining them, pronounced them to be forged, and immediately declared that the Argonaut should not go to sea — that, upon his ^^remonstrating [in what terms he does not say] against this breach of good faith, and forgetfulness of ivord and honor pledged,'^ the Spaniard rose, in apparent anger, and introduced a party of armed men, by whom he was struck down, placed in the stocks, and then closely confined — that he was after- wards carried from ship to ship like a criminal, threatened with instant execution as a pirate, and subjected to so many injuries and indignities as to throw him into a violent fever and delirium, which were near proving fatal — and that his officers and men were impris- oned and kept in irons from the time of their seizure until their arrival at San Bias, where many of them died in consequence of ill treatment. Meares, in his Memorial, makes the same assertions, many of which are supported by the deposition of the officers and seamen of the North- West America, taken in China, and appended to the Memorial. On the other hand. Gray, the captain of the Washington, and Ingraham, the mate of the Columbia, both of whom were at Nootka during the occurrence of the aflair, " were informed by those whose veracity they had no reason to doubt," -j^ that Colnett, in his interview with Martinez on board the Princesa, denied the right of the Spaniards to occupy Nootka, and endeav- ored to impose upon the Spanish commandant, by representing himself as acting under direct orders from the British government ; and that he afterwards insulted the Spaniard by threatening him and drawing his sword. Colnett himself says that he attempted to draw his sword on the occasion, but that it was in defence against those who assailed him ; and it must be allowed to be very difficult to "remonstrate" with a man upon "his breach of faith, and forgetful- * Account of his Voyage in the Pacific in 1793, note at p. 96 ; also Vancouver's Journal, vol. iii. p. 492. These tvro accounts differ in some points. t Letter of Gray and Ingraham, in the Proofs and Illustrations, letter C. 1789.] SEIZURE OF THE ARGONAUT. 197 ness of his word and honor pledged,'^ without insulting him. Duffin, the mate of the Argonaut, writing to Meares from Nootka, ten days after the seizure of the ship, gives nearly the same account of the interview, adding that the misunderstanding was probably occa- sioned by the interpreter's ignorance of the English language : he says that Martinez appeared to be very sorry for what had hap- pened, and had " behaved with great civility, by obliging his pris- oners with every liberty that could be expected ; " and he com- plains of no violence, either to the feelings or to the persons of any of the crews of the vessels seized, although he charges the Span- iards with plundering both openly and secretly. Moreover, Duffin declares, and Meares repeats, in his Memorial, that the disease with which Colnett was afflicted after his arrest was a fit of insanity, oc- casioned by fear and disappointment operating upon a mind natu- rally weak and hereditarily predisposed to such alienation. On the part of Spain, the only statements which have been pub- licly made are those contained in the notes and memorials ad- dressed by the court of Madrid to other governments in 1790; and in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes — all of which, though officially presented, are nevertheless imperfect and evidently erroneous on several important points.* Upon reviewing the circumstances of the affair, there appears to be no reason to doubt that Colnett entered the sound, relying on the assurances of Martinez, that he should be undisturbed while * These notes and memorials, which will be mentioned more particularly hereafter, may be found in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter D. All that is said in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes respecting the dispute, or the circumstances which led to it, is contained in the paragraph of which the following is a translation : — " On the 2d of July, the English ship Argonaut, which had been sent by an Eng- lish company from Macao, entered the port. Her captain, James Colnett, came, with authority from the king of England, to take possession of the port of Nootka, to for- tify it, and to establish there a factory for the collection of sea otter skins, and to prevent other nations from engaging in this trade, with which objects he was to build a large ship and a schooner. This manifest infraction of the rights over that region led to a serious quarrel between the Spanish commandant and the English captain, which extended to Europe ; and, the two powers being alarmed, the world was for some time threatened with war and devastation, the results of discord. Captain Col- nett refused, repeatedly and obstinately, to exhibit to Martinez the instructions which he brought; and he expressed himself in language so indecorous and irritating, that our commandant, having exliausted all the measures of prudence which he had hith- erto employed, resolved to arrest the British captain in the cabin of his ship, and to declare all the persons on board the Argonaut prisoners of war, and to send them to San Bias, to be there placed at the disposition of the viceroy of Mexico." 198 SEIZURE OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL. [1789, there, and be allowed to depart at his pleasure ; and it seems to be equally certain that the English captain did afterwards conduct himself with so much violence and extravagance towards the Span- ish commandant, as to render his own arrest perfectly justifiable. The seizure of the Argonaut, the imprisonment of her other officers and crew, and the spoliation of her cargo, cannot, however, be defended on those or on any grounds afforded by the evidence of any of the parties ; for Martinez had no reason to apprehend an attack from the Argonaut, and he had been specially instructed, by his immediate superior, the viceroy of Mexico, to suspend, with regard to British vessels on the north-west coasts, the execution of the general orders to Spanish commandants, for the seizure of foreign vessels entering the ports of the American dominions. Still less excusable was the conduct of Martinez towards the sloop Princess Royal, on her second arrival at Nootka. She appeared at the entrance of the sound on the 13th of July, having made a short trading cruise along the northern coasts ; and her captain, Hudson, on coming up to Friendly Cove in a boat, was arrested, after which his vessel was boarded and brought in as a prize by a party of Spaniards despatched for the purpose. On the following day, the majority of her crew were transferred to the Argonaut, which carried them as prisoners to San Bias ; her cargo was then taken out, and she was herself afterwards employed for nearly two years in the Spanish service, under Lieutenant Q,uimper. The schooner North- West America was also retained in the national service of Spain ; her officers and men, with some of those of the Argonaut and Princess Royal, were, however, placed on board the American ship Columbia, to be carried as passengers to China, one hundred of the sea otter skins found in the Princess Royal being allowed in payment of their wages and transportation. Martinez remained at Nootka until November, when he departed, with his three vessels, for San Bias, agreeably to orders received by him from Mexico. The Columbia had remained in the sound ever since her first arrival there, in October, 1788; the Washington being, in the mean time, engaged in trading along the coasts north and south of that place, to which she, however, frequently returned, in order to deposit the furs collected. The officers of these vessels were thus witnesses of nearly all the occurrences at Nootka during the summer of 1789, in which, indeed, they frequently took part as mediators ; 1789.] CONDUCT OF THE AMERICANS AT NOOTKA. 199 and the only evidence, with regard to those events, except the journal of Douglas, which can bear the test of strict examination, is contained in a letter addressed, three years afterwards, to the Spanish commandant of Nootka, by Gray, the captain of the Washington, and Ingraham, the mate of the Columbia.* Meares and Colnett endeavor to cast blame on the Americans for their conduct in these proceedings ; their complaints, however, on exam- ination, seem to rest entirely on the fact that the Washington and Columbia were undisturbed, while their own vessels were seized by the Spaniards. That Gray and Kendrick profited by the quarrels between the other two parties is probable, and no one can question their right to do so ; but no evidence has been adduced that they, on any occasion, took an unfair advantage of either : though it is also probable that their feelings were rather in favor of the Spaniards, by whom they were always treated with courtesy and kindness, than of the British, to whom, if we are to judge by the expressions of Meares and Colnett, they were, from the commencement, the objects of hatred and ridicule. In one of the above-mentioned trading excursions of the Wash- ington, made in June, 1789, Gray explored the whole east coast of Queen Charlotte's Island, which had never before been visited by the people of any civilized nation, though Duncan, in the Princess Royal, had, in the preceding year, sailed through the sea separating it from the main land and other islands. The American, being ignorant of this fact, as also of the name bestowed on the territory by Dixon, called it WashingtorC s Island; and thus it was, for a long period, always distinguished by the fur traders of the United States. Meares endeavors, in his narrative, to secure to Douglas, the captain of the Iphigenia, the merit of having first established the insulation of the territory ; though Douglas, in his journal annexed to that narrative, expressly alludes to the previous visits of the Washington to many places on the east coast. The assertion of this claim for Douglas was one of the causes of the dispute between Meares and Dixon, in 1791, which will be hereafter men- tioned more particularly. In a subsequent excursion from Nootka, Gray entered the opening south-east of that place, between the 48th and 49th parallels of latitude, which had been found by Berkely in 1787, and was sup- posed to be the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Through * See Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter D. 200 RELEASE OF COLNETT. [1789. this opening Gray sailed, as he informed Vancouver in 1792, " fifty miles in an east-south-east direction, and found the passage five leagues wide." He then returned to the Pacific, and, on his w^ay to Nootka, he met the Columbia, which had just quitted the sound, with the crew of the North- West America on board as passengers, for China ; and it was agreed between the two captains that Kendrick should take command of the sloop, and remain on the coast, while Gray, in the Columbia, should carry to Canton all the furs which had been collected by both vessels. This was according- ly done ; and Gray arrived, on the 6th of December, at Canton, where he sold his furs, and took in a cargo of tea, with which he entered Boston on the 10th of August, 1790, having carried the flag of the United States for the first time around the world. Kendrick, immediately on parting with the Columbia, proceeded in the Washington to the Strait of Fuca, through which he passed, in its whole length, as will be hereafter more fully shown. The Argonaut, with Colnett and his men on board as prisoners, arrived, on the 16th of August, at San Bias, near which place they were kept prisoners until the arrival of the commandant of that department. Captain Bodega y Quadra, by whom Colnett was treated with great kindness, and soon after sent to the city of Mexico. There he remained several months, during which the examination of the cases of the seized vessels was in progress ; and it was at length decided — that, although Martinez had acted con- formably with the general laws and regulations of Spain, forbidding all aliens from resorting to the Spanish American coasts, and the vessels might therefore be retained as lawful prizes, yet, in con- sideration of the apparent ignorance of their officers and owners with regard to the laws and rights of Spain, as also for the sake of peace with England, they should be released, with the understand- ing, however, that they were not again to enter any place on the Spanish American coasts, either for the purpose of settlement or of trade with the natives. In virtue of this decision, Colnett returned to San Bias, where he learned that several of his men had died of the fever endemic at that place, and his ship was much injured by the service to which she had been subjected ; she was, nevertheless, refitted, and, with the remainder of her crew, he sailed in her for Nootka, to receive possession of the Princess Royal, for which he had an order. On arriving at the sound, Colnett found the place deserted ; and, not knowing where to seek 1790.] THE PRINCESS ROYAL RESTORED. 201 the sloop, he sailed for Macao, which he reached in the latter part of 1790. Thence he went, in the following year, to the Sandwich Islands, where the Princess Royal was restored to him, in March, by Lieutenant Quimper, the Spanisn officer under whose command she had been employed for nearly two years. The political discussions between the governments of Great Britain and Spain, which had meanwhile taken place, in con- sequence of the seizures at Nootka, will be related in the en- suing chapter. 26 202 CHAPTER IX. 1790. Controversy between Great Britain and Spain respecting the Nortn-West Coasts of America and the Navigation of the Pacific — The Owners of the Vessels seized at Nootka apply for Redress to the British Government, which demands Satis- faction for the alleged Outrages — Spain resists the Demand, and calls on France for Aid, agreeably to the Family Compact — Proceedings in the National Assembly of France on the Subject — Spain engages to indemnify the British for the Property seized — Further Demands of Great Britain — Designs of Pitt against Spanish America — Secret Mediation of France, through which the Dispute is settled — Convention of October, 1790, called the Nootka Treaty — Proceedings in Parliament, and Reflections on this Convention. The Columbia arrived at Macao from Nootka in December, 1789, bringing as passengers the officers and crew of the North- West America, who communicated the news of the capture of that vessel, and of the Argonaut and Princess Royal, by the Spaniards. The owners immediately determined to apply to the British govern- ment for redress ; and Meares was accordingly despatched to Lon- don, where he arrived in April, 1790, provided with depositions, and other documents, in substantiation of their claims. While he was on his way, however, the circumstances on which his applica- tion was to be founded had already become the subject of a serious discussion between the courts of London and Madrid. On the 10th of February, 1790, the Spanish ambassador at London presented to the British ministry a note, in which, after communicating the fact of the seizure of a British vessel (the Argonaut) at Nootka, he required, in the name of his government, that the parties who had planned the expedition should be punished, in order to deter other persons from making settlements on territo- ries long occupied and frequented by the Spaniards ; and he at the same time complained of the trade and fishery, by British subjects, in the seas adjoining the Spanish American continent on the west, as contrary to the rights of Spain, guarantied by Great Britain in the treaty of Utrecht, and respected by all European nations. To this the British ministers answered, on the 26th, that, although they had not received exact information as to the facts stated by the 1790.] DISCUSSIONS IN LONDON. 203 ambassador, yet the act of violence against British subjects described in his note necessarily suspended all discussion of the claims ad- vanced by him, until adequate atonement should have been made for the outrage. In the mean time, they demanded the immediate restoration of the vessel seized, reserving further proceedings on the subject until more complete details of the circumstances could be obtained. This unexpected answer, with other circumstances, induced the Spanish cabinet to suspect that more was meant than had been openly declared by Great Britain ; that this power was, in fact, only seeking an occasion to break the peace with Spain for some ulte- rior object : and, under the influence of this suspicion, preparations for war were commenced in all the naval arsenals of the latter king- dom. The king of Spain being, however, anxious to prevent a rupture, if possible, his ambassador at London addressed another note to the British government in April, declaring that, although the Spanish crown had an indubitable right to the continent, islands, harbors, and coasts, of America on the Pacific, founded upon trea- ties and immemorial possession, yet, as the viceroy of Mexico had released the vessel seized at Nootka, his Cathohc majesty regarded the affair as concluded, without entering into any disputes and dis- cussions on the undoubted rights of Spain ; and, desiring to give a proof of his friendship for Great Britain, he should rest satisfied, if her subjects were commanded to respect those rights in future. This last communication was received about the time when Meares arrived in London from China ; and the information brought by him was not calculated to render the British government inclined to accept the pacific overture of Spain. On the contrary, orders were issued for arming two large fleets, and the whole affair, which had been previously kept secret, was submitted to Parliament by a message from the king on the 5th of May. In this message, his majesty states that two vessels, belonging to his subjects, and navigated under the British flag, and two others, of which the description was not then sufficiently ascertained, had been captured at Nootka Sound, by an officer commanding two Spanish ships of war ; the cargoes of the two British vessels had been seized, and their crews had been sent as prisoners to a Span- ish port ; — that, as soon as he had been informed of the capture of one of these vessels, he had ordered a demand to be made for her restitution, and for adequate satisfaction, previous to any other discussion ; from the answer to which demand, it appeared that the 204 THE KING OF ENGLAND's MESSAGE. [1790. vessel and her crew had been Uberated by the viceroy of Mexico, on the supposition, however, that ignorance of the rights of Spain alone induced individuals of other nations to frequent those coasts, for the purposes of trade and settlement ; — but that no satisfaction was made or offered by Spain, and a direct claim was asserted by her government to the exclusive rights of sovereignty, navigation, and commerce, in the territories, coasts, and seas, of that part of the world. In consequence of all which, his majesty had directed his minister at Madrid to make a fresh representation on the subject, and to claim such full and adequate satisfaction as the nature of the case evidently required. Having, moreover, been informed that considerable armaments were in progress in the ports of Spain, he had judged it indispensable to make preparations for acting with vigor and effect in support of the honor of his crown, and the inter- ests of his people ; and he recommended that Parliament should enable him to take such other measures, and to make such aug- mentations of his forces, as might be eventually requisite for this purpose.* The recommendations in this message were received with every mark of concurrence in Parliament and throughout the kingdom ; the supplies were immediately voted, and the preparations for war were continued with unexampled activity. On the day in which the message was sent, a note was addressed to the Spanish ambas- sador at London, containing a reiteration of the demands previously made, and of the declaration that, until those demands should have been satisfied, the question of the rights of Spain would not be dis- cussed. " His majesty," says the note, " will take the most effectual pacific measures to prevent his subjects from trespassing on the just and acknowledged rights of Spain : but he cannot accede to the pretensions of absolute sovereignty, commerce, and navigation, which appeared to be the principal objects of the last note from the Spanish ambassador ; and he considers it his duty to protect his subjects in the enjoyment of the right of fishery in the Pacific Ocean." The British Charge d'affaires at Madrid also presented, in the name of his government, formal demands for the restitution of the other vessel [the Princess Royal] and cargo seized at Nootka, and for reparation of the losses and injuries sustained by the British subjects trading in the North Pacific under the British flag ; asserting, * Tliis message, and all the other official documents relative to the discussion which have been published, will be found in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter 1). 1790.] DEMANDS OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 205 at the same time, as a principle which would be maintained by his government, that " British subjects have an indisputable right to the enjoyment of a free and uninterrupted navigation, commerce, and fish- ery, and to the possession of such establishments as they should form, with the consent of the natives of the country, not previously occu- pied by any of the European nations." To these formal exactions of the British government, the court of Madrid replied, at first indirectly, by a circular letter addressed, on the 4th of June, to all the other courts of Europe. This letter was couched in the most conciliatory language : it contained a recapitu- lation of the circumstances of the dispute, according to the views of Spain ; denying all inteiition, on her part, to commit or defend any act of injustice against Great Britain, or to claim any rights wHich did not rest upon irrefragable titles ; insisting that the cap- ture of the British vessel had been repaired by the conduct of the viceroy of Mexico in immediately restoring her ; and declaring the readiness of his Catholic majesty to satisfy any demands which should prove to be well founded, after an investigati. n of the ques- tion of right between the two crowns. This reply not being con- sidered sufficient by the British ambassador, a Memorial was deliv- ered to him, on the 13th of the same month, by count de Florida Blanca, the Spanish minister of state, not differing essentially in its import from the circular letter ; which, however, served only to render the ambassador still more urgent for a specific answer to the demands of his government. At length, after repeated conferences, the Spanish minister, on the 18th, officially signified that his sove- reign, having, approved the restitution of all the vessels and their car- goes seized at Nootka, was willing to indemnify the owners for their losses, and also to make satisfaction for the insult to the dignity of tlie British crown ; provided, that the extent of the insult and of the satisfaction should be settled, in form and substance, either by one of the kings of Europe, to be selected by his Britannic majesty, or by a negotiation between the two governments, in which no facts were to be admitted as true, except such as were fully established j and that no inference affecting the rights of Spain should be drawn from the act of giving satisfaction. This offer of reparation was accepted by the court of London ; and, on the 24th of July, count de Florida Blanca presented to Mr. Fitzherbert, the British ambassador at Madrid, a Declaration, m the name of his sovereign, to the effect — that he would restore the vessels and indemnify the owners for their losses, so soon as the 206 Pitt's scheme. for humbling spain. [1790. amount should have been ascertained, and would give satisfaction to his Britannic majesty for the injury of which he complained ; it being however, " understood that this declaration is not to pre- clude or prejudice the ulterior discussion of any right, which his [Catholic] majesty may claim, to form an exclusive establishment at the port of Nootka." In return the British ambassador presented a Counter Declaration* purporting that the Spanish Declaration, together with the performance of the engagements therein made, were considered by his Sovereign, " as a full and entire satisfaction for the injury" complained of; with the reservation nevertheless, that this accept- ance was not to " preclude or prejudice in any respect, the right which his [Britannic] majesty may claim, to any establishments which his subjects may have formed, or should be desirous of forming in future, at the said bay of Nootka." The affair had thus far proceeded, nearly in the same course as that respecting the Falkland Islands, twenty years previous ; and the government of Madrid probably supposed that it would have been terminated in the same manner. But Mr. Pitt, then in the fulness of his power in England, had other objects in view. The revolution in France was then advancing with a rapidity terrible to all who desired to maintain the existing state of things in Europe ; and anti-monarchical doctrines and feelings were pervading every part of that continent, and even of the British Islands. Pitt clearly foresaw the storm which afterwards came on, and determined to prepare for it, by arming at home, and by leading or forcing other nations to accede to his plans. He accordingly formed alli- ances with Holland and Sweden : for Spain he had inherited all his father's hatred and contempt; and, considering her long and close connection with France, he resolved to bend and bind her to his views by the strong hand. He had already, in an inconceivably short space of time, assembled a mighty armament, which he in- tended, in the event of a war, to direct against the Spanish posses- sions in America, for the purpose of wresting them from their actual rulers, either by conquest or by internal revolution ; and, having assumed this position, he did not hesitate to require from Spain the surrender of many of the exclusive pretensions with regard to navi- gation, commerce, and territorial sovereignty, upon which her do- minion in the western continent was supposed, with reason, to * The Declaration and Counter Declaration may be found among the documents con- nected with the discussion, in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter D, No. 7. 1790.] KLRTHEK NEGOTIATION AT MADRID. 207 depend. The negotiation on the subject of these demands was continued at Madrid for three months after the acceptance of tlie Spanish Declaration ; during which period couriers were constantly flying between that city and London,. and the whole civilized world was kept in suspense and anxiety as to the result. The British plenipotentiary at Madrid, Mr. Fitzherbert, began by requiring from Spain a distinct admission of the right of his coun- trymen to navigate and fish in any part of the Pacific, and to trade and settle on any of its unoccupied American coasts ; in reply to which, the Spanish minister, Count de Florida Blanca, proposed to admit the rights of fishery, trade, and settlement, with regard to the open sea, and to coasts north of the 51st parallel of latitude, on condition that the British should never penetrate more than twenty leagues into the interior, from those coasts, and to allow the privi- lege of fishing about the southern extremity of the jcontinent, but not of settling there, leaving to Spain the right to destroy any such establishments, "as is practised in the Falkland Islands."* Mr. Fitzherbert rejected this proposition, and insisted that certain lines of boundary should be drawn from the coasts, through the interior of the continents, in the north and in the south, between which British subjects should form no settlements ; the territories beyond those lines, in either direction, being free to both nations, provided that the subjects of either should have access to the settlements thus made by the other party. The line first proposed by the British as the northern boundary, was to extend from the Pacific, along the 31st parallel of latitude, to the Colorado, thence along that river to its source, and thence to the nearest branch of the Missouri ; but another line was afterwards oflleied, running from the Pacific, along the 40th parallel of latitude, eastward to the Missouri. The Spanish government, however, positively refused to assent to these or any other lines of boundary thus arbitrarily chosen ; and all hope of accommodation seemed to be destroyed. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the admission of either of these lines would have materially affected the destinies of the United States, and, indeed, of the whole northern continent. In the mean time, events were occurring in other parts of Europe, which contributed to change the views of the disputing parties, and to incline them to compromise their differences, and even to unite their forces. As soon as the dispute between Great Britain and Spain, and the • Narrative of the negotiations occasioned by the dispute between England and Spain in the year 1790, officially published by the British ministers in 1790. 208 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT. [1790. preparations of those powers for war, became known, King Louis XVI. of France ordered fourteen sail of the line to be equipped for active service, in order to meet contingencies. He was, how- ever, under the necessity of communicating this measure to the National Assembly, then in session, which seized the occasion to deprive the crown of one of its most essential attributes. On the 24th of May, a decree was passed by that body, estabhshing that the right to make war or peace belonged to the nation, and could only be exercised through the concurrence of the legislative and the executive branches of the government ; and that no treaty with an- other power could have effect until it had been ratified by the rep- resentatives of the nation : a committee was at the same time appointed to examine and report upon all the existing treaties of alliance between France and other nations. These proceedings were equival^t to an annulment of the Family Compact between the sovereigns of the house of Bourbon : nevertheless, when the king of Spain found himself pressed by Great Britain to relinquish his exclusive pretensions with regard to America, he formally ap- plied to his cousin of France for aid, agreeably to that compact, in resisting those demands ; declaring, at the same time, that, unless the assistance should be given speedily and effectually, " Spain would be under the necessity of seeking other friends and allies among all the powers of Europe, without excepting any, on whom she could rely in case of need." The letter of the king of Spain was submitted by Louis XVL to the National Assembly, by which it was referred to the committee appointed to examine the existing treaties between France and other nations ; and, in the name of that committee, the celebrated Mirabeau, on the 24th of August, presented a luminous report, in- cluding considerations of the character of the Family Compact and other engagements between France and Spain, and a view of the actual positions of Spain and Great Britain towards each other and towards France. The questions raised by this report were debated, with great display of eloquence and political wis- dom, by Mirabeau, the Abbe Maury, Lameth, Barnave, and other distinguished members of the Assembly ; and it was decreed that France, while taking proper measures to maintain peace, should observe the existing commercial and defensive engagements between her government and that of Spain ; but that a new and national treaty should be immediately negotiated, wherein the relations of the two countries towards each other should be defined and fixed with precision and clearness, agreeably to the views of general 1790.] SECRET NEGOTIATION AT PARIS. 209 peace, and the principles of justice, which were, in future, to prevail in France ; and that, taking into consideration the armaments then in progress throughout Europe, and the dangers to which the commerce and colonies of France might be exposed, the marine force of the kingdom should be increased, without delay, to forty- five sail of the line, and a proportionate number of frigates. Although this decree contained no direct promise of assistance to Spain, yet it showed that the French government penetrated the designs of the British, and considered them inimical to its own interests ; while, at the same time, the report, on which the decree was based, evinced an ardent desire, on the part of the French reformers, to preserve peace. In the mean time, revolutionary principles were making rapid progress throughout Europe. The Dutch, who had engaged to assist the British with a fleet, in case of a war with Spain, found their forces necessary at home ; Swe- den having, much to the dissatisfaction of the court of London, made peace with Russia, the latter power was left at liberty to pros- ecute its schemes for the dismemberment of " England's old ally," Turkey ; and, in the East Indies, Tippoo Saib was beginning that war against the British power which he prosecuted so long and vigorously. Moreover, the expenses of the British armament had already amounted to more than four millions of pounds ; and the financial condition of England was not such as to encourage her government to commence hostilities, which would, most probably, become general. Under these circumstances, the court of St. James was under the necessity of lowering its tone, and of receding from its first demands. The determination of lines of boundary to the Spanish American dominions in the north and in the south was no longer required ; and it was admitted that the navigation and fishery of British subjects in the Pacific Ocean should not be carried on within ten sea leagues of any existing Spanish settle- ment, and that neither party should form settlements on the coasts of South America, south of those actually occupied by Spain. Mr. Pitt, moreover, knowing the intimate relations which still subsisted between the French and Spanish governments, commissioned a gentleman at Paris, upon whom he could rely, to sound Mirabeau, and other leaders of the National Assembly ; and, having reason to believe them sincerely anxious to prevent hostilities, he instructed his agent to propose a secret negotiation, to be carried on through the medium of the French government, for the restoration of a good understanding between Great Britain and Spain. 27 210 * TERMINATION OF THE DISPUTE. [1790. In the letter of instructions from Mr. Pitt to his agent at Paris,* he declares it to be essential that " the French should not appear in the business as mediators, still less as arbitrators," and that no en- couragement should be given to them to propose any other terms than those on which Great Britain had already insisted ; that, "whatever confidential communications may take place with the diplomatic committee of the National Assembly, for the sake of bringing them to promote the views of Great Britain, no ostensible intercourse could be admitted, except through accredited minis- ters ; " and especially that " no assurances be given, directly or indirectly, which go further than that Great Britain means to perse- vere in the neutrality which she has hitherto observed with respect to the internal dissensions of France, and is desirous to cultivate peace and friendly relations with that country." The agent, thus instructed, presented himself to the diplomatic committee of the National Assembly, which at once resolved to do all in its power to strengthen the relations with England, and to prevent a war, if possible ; and, with this view, three of its most influential members, Freteau, Barnave, and Menou, were deputed to conduct the busi- ness on its part. These members conferred with the British agent, and also with M. de Montmorin, the minister of foreign relations of France, who communicated directly with the Spanish government ; and in this manner the controversy was brought to a close, by a convention signed, at the palace of the Escurial, on the 28th of October, by Mr. Fitzherbert, the British ambassador, and count de Florida Blanca on the part of Spain. This convention, commonly called the Nootka treaty, contains eight articles, of which the substance is as follows : — With respect to the circumstances which occasioned the dispute, it was stipulated, by the first and second articles, that the build- ings and tracts of land, on the north-west coasts of America, of which British subjects were dispossessed by a Spanish officer, ^^ about the month of April, 1789," shall be restored; a just repara- tion shall be made for all acts of violence or hostility committed by the subjects of either party against those of the other, " subsequent to the month of April, 1789;" and, in case the subjects of either should have been, " since the same period,^' forcibly dispossessed of their lands, vessels, or other property on the American coasts, or the * The whole letter is given by Bishop Tomline, in his Life of Pitt, chap. xii. The name of the person to whom it is addressed does not appear ; he is simply mentioned as "a gentleman resident at Paris, of considerable diplomatic experience." 1790.] NOOTKA CONVENTION. 211 adjoining seas, they shall be reestablished in the possession thereof, or a just compensation shall be made to them for their losses. For the future, it was agreed, by the third article of the conven- tion, that the subjects of the two parties shall not be disturbed in navigating or fishing in the South Seas, or the Pacific Ocean, or in landing on the coasts thereof, in places not already occupied, for the purposes of settlement or of trade with the natives ; the whole subject, nevertheless, to the restrictions specified in the three following articles, to wit : — that his Britannic majesty shall take the most effectual means to prevent his subjects from making their navigation or fishery in those seas a pretext for illicit trade with the Spanish settlements ; with which view it is agreed that British subjects shall not navigate or fish within ten leagues of any part of the coast already occupied by Spain ; that the subjects of both nations shall have free access and right of trading in the places restored to British subjects by this convention, and in any other parts of the north-west coasts of America, north of the places already occupied by Spain, where the subjects of either party shall have made settlements since the month of April, 1789, or may in future make any ; and that no settlement shall in future be made, by the subjects of either power, on the eastern or the western coasts of South America, or the adjacent islands, south of the parts of the same coasts or islands already occupied by Spain ; though the subjects of both remained at liberty to land on those coasts and islands, and to erect temporary buildings only, for the purposes of their fishery. Finally, it was agreed, by the seventh article, that, in cases of infraction of the convention, the officers of either party shall, with- out committing any act of violence themselves, make an exact report of the affair to their respective governments, which would terminate such differences in an amicable manner. The eighth article relates merely to the time of ratification of the convention.* The convention, together with the declaration and counter declaration preceding it, were submitted to Parliament on the 3d of December, unaccompanied by any other papers relative to the negotiation ; and they became the subjects of animated debates, in which the most distinguished members of both houses took parts. The arrangements were extolled by the ministers and their friends in general terms, as vindicating the dignity of the nation, and * The convention will be found at length among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter K, No. 1. 212 NOOTKA CONVENTION BEFORE PARLIAMENT. [1790. providing reparation for the injuries sustained by its subjects, and as securing to those subjects, in future, the rights of navigation and fishery in the Pacific and Southern Oceans, and of settlement on their unoccupied coasts, and estabhshing the long-discussed ques- tions on those points, on such grounds as must prevent all further dispute. The opposition, on the other hand, contended that the reparation promised by Spain was incomplete and insufficient ; that the arrangements for the prevention of future difficulties were merely culpable concessions to that power, whereby the rights of British subjects were materially abridged, and the Spaniards would be encouraged to commit further acts of violence ; and, finally, that all the advantages which could be expected from the con- vention, even according to the views of the ministers, were far below the amount of the expense at which they had been obtained. It was noticed by Mr. Charles Fox, as a curious and inexplicable incongruity in the treaty, that "about the month of April, 1789," should have been inserted as the date of what was known to have taken place, agreeably to all the evidence produced, in May of the same year ; and that, although, by the first article, the lands and buildings declared to have been taken from British subjects by a Spanish officer, " about the month of April, 1789," were to be restored, yet, by the second article, the lands, buildings, and other property, of which the subjects of either party had been dispos- sessed ''subsequent to the month of April, 1789," were to be restored, or compensation was to be made to the owners for the losses which they might have sustained. Upon this point, it will be seen that, if the word " or," in the concluding part of the second article, were replaced by and, the incongruity would disappear ; but then, also, the first article would become entirely superfluous. It would, however, be idle to suppose that any error could have been committed with regard to matters so essential, or that the want of accordance between the different provisions of the con- vention, noticed by Mr. Fox, should have been the result of accident or carelessness. The ministers, when pressed for explanations on this head, answered, indirectly, that the Spanish government would make the restitutions as agreed in the first article. It may here be observed, that no notice whatsoever of a claim, on the part of British subjects, to lands or buildings on the north- west coast of America, appears either in the king's message to Parliament, communicating the fact of the seizures at Nootka, or 1790.1 NOOTKA CONVENTION BEFORE PARLIAMENT. 213 in the debates in Parliament on that message, or in the official correspondence between the two governments on the subject, so far as published ; and the only evidence of such acquisition of lands or erection of buildings to be found among the documents annexed to the Memorial presented by INIeares to the ministry, is contained in the information of JVilliam Graham, a seaman of the Felice, which was taken in London five days after the date of the Memorial. " The statement of actual and probable losses," for which the memo- rialists prayed to be indemnified, to the amount of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars, is, moreover, confined entirely to losses con- sequent upon the seizure of the vessels and cargoes at Nootka. This silence, with regard to lands and buildings, in all the docu- ments brought from China by Meares, certainly authorizes the suspicion that the idea of advancing a claim on those points may have occurred to that gentleman, or may have been suggested to him after his arrival in England, and even after his first commu- nications with the ministers. With respect to the rights of navigation and fishery in the Pacific and Southern Oceans, and of settlement on their unoccupied coasts, it was insisted by Fox, Grey, the marquis of Lansdowne, and other eminent members of the opposition in Parliament, that nothing had been gained, but, on the contrary, much had been surrendered, by the convention. " Our right, before the convention," said Mr. Fox, — " tvhether admitted or denied by Spain was of no consequence, — was to settle in any part of South or North-West America, not for- tified against us by previous occupancy ; and we were now restrict- ed to settle in certain places only, and under certain conditions. Our rights of fishing extended to the whole ocean ; and now it was limited, and not to be exercised within certain distances of the Spanish settlements. Our right of making settlements was not, as now, a right to build huts, but to plant colonies, if we thought proper. In renouncing all right to make settlements in South America, we had given to Spain what she considered as inestima- ble, and had, in return, been contented with dross." " In every place in which we might settle," said Grey, " access was left for the Spaniards. Where we might form a settlement on one hill, they might erect a fort on another ; and a merchant must run all the risks of a discovery, and all the expenses of an establishment, for a property which was liable to be the subject of continual dispute, and could never be placed upon a permanent footing." 214 REVIEW OF THE NOOTKA CONVENTION. [1790. As to the utility of the convention in preventing disputes in future between the two nations, Mr. Fox was wholly incredulous ; and he predicted that difficulties would soon arise (as they did) from the impossibility of devising and enforcing any measures on the part of Great Britain, which could be considered " effectual,^' in checking illicit trade between British subjects and the Spanish set- tlements in America. " This treaty," says he, in conclusion, " re- minds me of a lawyer's will, drawn by himself, with a note in the margin of a particular clause — ' This ivill afford room for an excel- lent disquisition in the Court of Chancery.'' With equal propriety, and full as much truth, might those who had extolled the latf ii^go- tiation, for the occasion it had given to show the vigor and prompt- itude of the national resources, write in the margin of most of the articles of the convention — ' This rvill afford an admirahle oppor- tunity for a future display of the power and energy of Great Britain.^ " To all these objections the ministers and their friends gave only short, general, and evasive answers. Their great majorities in both houses enabled them to dispense with arguments, and to evade the calls for information or papers relating to the transaction ; and, having triumphantly carried their vote of thanks to the sovereign, they were left at liberty to execute the new engagements, according to their own construction, for which they had certainly provided themselves with ample space. As the convention of October, 1790, was the first diplomatic ar- rangement between the governments of civilized nations with regard to the north-west coast of North America, its conclusion forms an important era in the history of that part of the world. On exam- ining its stipulations, we shall see that they were calculated to produce very few and slight changes in any way, and that those changes were not, upon the whole, disadvantageous to the real interests of Spain. The exclusive navigation of the Pacific and Southern Oceans, and the sovereignty of the vacant territories of America bordering upon them, were claimed by Spain, only with the object of preventing other nations from intercourse with her settlements ; as her government foresaw that such intercourse, par- ticularly with the British, who had for more than two centuries been striving to establish it, would be fatal to the subsistence of Spanish supremacy over those dominions. By the convention, both parties were admitted, equally, to navigate and fish in the above- 1790.] REVIEW OF THE NOOTKA CONVENTION. 215 named seas ; but the Britisli were, at the same time, specially pro- hibited from approaching the territories under the actual authority of Spain, and were thus debarred from the exercise of a privilege advantageous to themselves and most annoying to Spain, which they previously possessed in virtue of their maritime superiority. Both parties were by the convention equally excluded from settling on the vacant coasts of South America, and from exercising that jurisdiction which is essential to political sovereignty, over any spot north of the most northern Spanish settlement on the Pacific : but the British and the Russians were the only nations who would be hkely to occupy any of those territories, and the British would not, probably, concede to the Russians any rights greater than those which they themselves possessed ; and any establishment which either of those powers might form in the north, under circumstances so disadvantageous, would be separated from the settled provinces of Spain by a region of mountains, forests, and deserts, of more than a thousand miles in extent. The convention, in fine, estab- lished new bases for the navigation and fishery of the respective parties, and their trade with the natives on the unoccupied coasts of America ; but it determined nothing regarding the rights of either to the sovereignty of any portion of America, except so far as it may imply an abrogation, or rather a suspension, of all such claims, on both sides, to any of those coasts. It is, however, probable that the convention published, as the result of this negotiation, did not contain all the engagements contracted by Great Britain and Spain towards each other on that occasion. It was generally believed in Europe that a secret treaty of alliance was at the same time signed, by which the two nations were bound, under certain contingencies, to act together against France, with the understanding that the stipulations of the conven- tion published should remain inoperative ; and this supposition is strengthened by the third article of the treaty of alliance between those powers, concluded on the 25th of May, 1793, setting forth that, " Their majesties having perceived just grounds of jealousy and uneasiness for the safety of their respective dominions, and for the maintenance of the general system of Europe, in the measures which have been for some time past adopted by France, they had already agreed to establish hetiveen them an intimate and entire con- cert, upon the means of opposing a sufficient barrier to those dan- gerous views of aggression and aggrandizement," &.c. 216 CHAPTER X. 1790 TO 1792. Vancouver sent by the British Government to explore the Coasts of America, and receive Possession of Lands and Buildings agreeably to the Convention with Spain — Passage of the Washington, under Kendrick, through the Strait of Fuca, in 1789 — Nootka reoccupied by the Spaniards — Voyages of Fidalgo, Quimper, Elisa, Billings, Marchand, and Malaspina — Voyages of the American Fur Tra- ders Gray, Ingraham, and Kendrick — Discovery of the W^ashington Islands by Ingraham. In execution of the first and second articles of the conven- tion of October, 1790, between Spain and Great Britain, com- missioners were appointed on each side, who were to meet at Nootka Sound, and there to determine what lands and buildings were to be restored to the British claimants, or what amount of indemnification was to be made to them by Spain. The British government at first selected Captain Trowbridge as its agent for this purpose ; but the business was afterwards committed to Captain George Vancouver, who was then about to sail on a voyage of ex- ploration to the Pacific. Vancouver was instructed to examine and survey the whole shores of the American continent on the Pacific, from the 35th to the 60th parallels of latitude ; to ascertain particularly the number, situation, and extent of the settlements of civilized nations within these limits ; and especially to acquire information as to the nature and direction of any water-passage, which might serve as a channel for commercial intercourse between that side of America and the territories on the Atlantic side occupied by British subjects. For this last-mentioned object, he was particularly to " examine the sup- posed Strait of Juan de Fuca, said to be situated between the 48th and the 49th degrees of north latitude, and to lead to an opening through which the sloop Washington is reported to have passed in 1789, and to have come out again to the northward of Nootka."* * Introduction to Vancouver's narrative of his voyage. 179].] kendrick's passage through fuca's strait. 217 With these orders, Vancouver sailed from England in January, 1791, in the ship Discovery, accompanied by the brig Chatham, under the command of Lieutenant Robert Broughton. The instruc- tions for his conduct as commissioner were afterwards despatched to him in the store-ship Dtedalus. The account of the passage of the Washington through the Strait of Fuca, mentioned in the instructions to Vancouver, had appeared in the " Observations on the prohahle Existence of a JYorth-Wesi Passage,^' prefixed by Meares to the narrative of his voyages, which had then been recently published at London. Meares there says, " The Washington entered the Straits of John de Fuca, the knowl- edge of which she had received from us ; and, penetrating up them, entered into an extensive sea, where she steered to the northward and eastward, and had communications with the various tribes who inhabit the shores of the numerous islands that are situated at the back of Nootka Sound, and speak, with some little variation, the language of the Nootkan people. The track of this vessel is marked on the map, and is of great moment, as it is now completely ascer- tained that Nootka Sound and the parts adjacent are islands, and comprehended within the great northern archipelago. The sea also which is seen to the east is of great extent, and it is from this sta- tionary point, and the most westerly parts of Hudson's Bay, that we are to form an estimate of the distance between them. The most easterly direction of the Washington's course is to the longitude of 237 degrees east of Greenwich. It is probable, however, that the master of that vessel did not make any astronomical observations, to give a just idea of that station ; but, as we have those made by Cap- tain Cook at Nootka Sound, we may be able to form a conjecture, somewhat approaching the truth, concerning the distance between Nootka and the easternmost station of the Washington in the north- ern archipelago ; and consequently this station may be presumed to be in the longitude, or thereabout, of 237 degrees east of Green- wich." In another place, Meares speaks of the proofs brought by the Washington, " which sailed through a sea extending upwards of eight degrees of latitude," in support of his opinion, that the north- western portion of America was a collection of islands : and in the chart annexed, " the sketch of the track of the American sloop Wash- ington in the autumn of 1789," is represented by those words run- ning in a semi-oval line from the southern entrance of the Strait of Fuca, at Cape Flattery, eastward, to the longitude of 237 degrees, then north-westward, to the 55th parallel of latitude, then west- 28 ^18 kendrick's passage through fuca's strait. [1789. ward, through the passage north of Queen Charlotte's Island, to the Pacific. The sea through which the track extends is represented as unlimited in the east, and communicating, in the west, with the Pacific by channels between islands : no pretension to accuracy is, however, made in this part of the chart, the object being merely to show that the Washington sailed from the southern entrance of the strait eastward to the longitude of 237 degrees, and northward to the latitude of 55 degrees. The name of the person under whose command the passage was said to have been effected is not given ; but, Gray being frequently mentioned by Meares, in his narrative and accompanying papers, as the captain of the Washington, it was naturally supposed that, if that sloop did pass through the strait, she must have done so under the command of Gray ; and when Vancouver, who met Gray near Nootka in 1792, as will be hereafter related, was assured by him that he had entered the opening, but had only advanced fifty miles ivithin it, the entire erroneousness of the account given by Meares w^as regarded as established. However, about the time of Vancouver's departure from England, an angry discussion was carried on through the medium of pam- phlets, between Meares, and Dixon the captain of the ship Queen Charlotte, (one of the vessels sent to the Pacific by the King George's Sound Company of London,) in consequence of the se- vere remarks made by Meares, in his work, on the character of Dixon, and on many parts of his journal, which had been pub- hshed in 1789. Dixon, in his first pamphlet,* particularly attacked and ridiculed the account given by his opponent of the passage of the Washington, and sneeringly summoned him to "inform the public from what authority he had introduced the track of that ves- sel into his chart." To this Meares, in his Answer, f says, " Mr. Neville, a gentleman of the most respectable character, who came home in the Chesterfield, a ship in the service of the East India Company, made that communication to me which I have communi- cated to the public. Mr. Kendrick, who commanded the Wash- ington, arrived at China, with a very valuable cargo of furs, previ- ous to the departure of the Chesterfield ; and Mr. Neville, who was * Remarks on the Voyages of John Meares, in a Letter to that Gentleman, by George Dixon, late Commander of the Queen Charlotte in a Voyage around the World. London, 1790. t An Answer to Mr. George Dixon, «fcc., by John Meares; in which the Remarks of Mr. Dixon are fully considered and refuted. London, 1791. 1789.] kendrick's passage through the strait of fuca. 219 continually with him during that interval, and received the particu- lars of the track from him, was so obliging as to state it to me." Thus it appears that the passage of the Washmgton through the strait, as reported by Meares, took place under Kendrick, after Gray had quitted the command of that sloop. This explanation was published in London subsequent to the departure of Vancouver for the Pacific ; and, the discussion between Meares and Dixon being on matters in which the public could have taken little or no interest, it was doubtless forgotten, and their pamphlets were out of circu- lation, long before the return of the navigator to England. With regard to the truth or falsehood of the account, no infor- mation has been obtained, in addition to that afforded by Meares ; and, although little dependence can be placed on his statements, when unsupported by other evidence, yet they should not be rejected in this case, because — first, he had no interest in ascribing any thing meritorious to citizens of the United States, whom he uniformly mentions with contempt or dislike in his work, and accuses of taking part with the Spaniards against his vessels ; — secondly, the subject was one with which he was perfectly con- versant, and on which he would not probably have been deceived, or have committed any error of judgment ; and, — lastly, the geog- raphy of that part of the American coasts corresponds exactly with the descriptions given by Kendrick of what he had seen, though the inferences drawn from tiiem by Meares are incorrect. Thus the easternmost part of the Strait of Fuca is now known to be in the meridian of 237 J degrees east from Greenwich, and under the parallel of 484 degrees, from the intersection of which lines the coast of the continent runs north-westward, through ten degrees of latitude, penetrated by numerous inlets, and bordered by thousands of islands ; so that a navigator, sailing along this coast, without tracing to their terminations all these channels and inlets, might well have supposed himself in a sea extending far on either side, and filled with islands. Under these circumstances, Kendrick is to be considered as the first person, belonging to a civilized nation, who sailed through the Strait of Fuca, after its discovery by the Greek pilot, in 1592. Vancouver did not reach the north-west coasts of America until March, 1792. In the mean time, the Spaniards had resumed their position at Nootka Sound, and formed another establishment in its vicinity ; and several voyages of discovery had been made by their navigators along those coasts. The Spanish government was, 220 VOYAGE OF FIDALGO. [1790 indeed, then seriously directing its attention to the discovery and occupation of the territories north of its settlements in California, agreeably to the plan devised in 1765, and with the same object of preventing those territories from falling into the possession of other nations ; and, for these purposes, the viceroy of Mexico was directed to employ every means at his disposal. Martinez was, indeed, deprived of his command, immediately on his arrival in San Bias, in December j 1789 : but his vessels, including the Princess Royal, which had been taken from the English in the preceding summer, were sent back to Nootka Sound, under Cap- tain Francisco Elisa, in the spring of 1790 ; and preparations were immediately begun for a permanent establishment on Friendly Cove. As soon as the first arrangements for this purpose were completed, Elisa despatched Lieutenant Salvador Fidalgo, in the schooner San Carlos, to examine the coasts occupied by the Russians, and inquire into the proceedings of that nation in America. Fidalgo accord- ingly sailed for Prince William's Sound, in which, and in Cook's River, he spent nearly three months, engaged in surveying and in visiting the Russian establishments ; his provisions being then exhausted, he took his departure for San Bias, where he arrived on the 14th of November. The geographical information obtained by him was scanty ; and the only news which he brought back, respecting the proceedings of the Russians, was, that they had formed an estabhshment on Prince William's Sound, and that a ship had passed that bay from Kamtchatka, on an exploring expe- dition towards the east.* The Russian ship, thus mentioned by Fidalgo, was one of those which had been begun at Ochotsk in 1785, by order of the empress Catharine, foraf "secret astronomical and geographical expedition, to navigate the Frozen Ocean, and describe its coasts, and to ascertain the situation of the islands in the sea between tlie conti- nents of Asia and America." For this expedition, a number of officers and men of science, from various parts of Europe, were engaged ; and the command was intrusted to Joseph Billings, an Englishman, who had accompanied Cook, in his last expedition, as assistant astronomer : but the preparations proceeded so slowly, in consequence of the want of every thing requisite for the purpose at * Manuscript journal of the voyage of Fidalgo, among the documents obtained from the hydrographical department of Madrid. t Narrative of the Russian expedition under Billings, by Martin Sauer. 1790.] VOYAGES OF BILLINGS AND QUIMPER. 221 Ochotsk, that tlie vessels were not ready for sea until 1789, and then one of them was wrecked immediately after leaving the port. With the other vessel Billings took his departure, on the 2d of May, 1790, and sailed eastward, stopping, in his way, at Unalashka, Kodiak, and Prince William's Sound, as far as Mount St. Elias ; but there his provisions began to fail, and he returned to Petro- pawlowsk, soon after reaching which he abandoned the command of the enterprise. In the following year, the same vessel, witji another, which had been built in Kamtchatka, quitted the Bay of Avatscha, under Captains Hall and Sarytscheff, neither of whom advanced beyond Bering's Strait on the north, or Aliaska on the east, or collected any information of value within those limits. A melancholy picture of the sufferings experienced in these vessels has been presented in the narrative of Martin Sauer, a German, who, in an unlucky moment, agreed to act as secretary to the expe- dition : another account, contradicting that of Sauer in many particulars, has been published by Sarytscheff, who attributes the failure of the enterprise to the incapacity of Billings. In the summer of 1790, an attempt was also made, by the Spaniards, to explore the supposed Strait of Juan de Fuca. For that purpose, Elisa, the commandant of Nootka, detached Lieu- tenant Quimper, in the sloop Princess Royal, who traced the pas- sage in an eastwardly direction, examining both its shores, to the distance of about a hundred miles from its mouth, where it was observed to branch off into a number of smaller passages, towards the south, the east, and the north, some of which were channels between islands, while others appeared to extend far into the interior. Q,uimper was unable, from want of time, to penetrate any of these passages ; and he could do no more than note the positions of their entrances, and of several harbors, all of which are now well known, tiiough they are generally distinguished by names different from those assigned to them by the Spaniards Among these passages and harbors were the Canal de Caamano, afterwards named by Vancouver Admiralty Inlet; the Boca de Flon, or Deception Passage ; the Canal de Guemes, and Canal de Haro, which may still be found under those names in English charts, extending northward from the eastern end of the strait; Port Qiiadra, the Port Discovery of Vancouver, said to be one of the best harbors on the Pacific side of America, with Port Q^uimper, near it on the west ; and Port Nunez Gaona, called Poverty Cove by the American fur traders, situated a few miles east of Cape 222 VOYAGE OF MALASPINA. [1791 Flattery, where the Spaniards attempted, in 1792, to form a settle- ment. Having performed this duty as well as was possible under the circumstances in which he was placed, Quimper returned to Nootka, where he arrived in the beginning of August.* On the 2d of June, 1791, Captain Alexandro Malaspina,f an accomplished Itahan navigator in the service of Spain, who was then engagM in an expedition of survey and discovery in the Pacific, arrived on the coast, near Mount San Jacinto, or Edge- cumb, with his two ships, the Descuhierta, commanded by himself, and the Atrevida, under Captain Bustamente. The principal object of their visit was to determine the question as to the existence of the Strait of Anian, described in the account of Maldonado's pretended voyage, the credibility of which had been, in the pre- ceding year, affirmed, by the French geographer Buache, in a memoir read before the Academy of Sciences of Paris. With this view, they carefully examined the coast between Prince William's Sound and Mount Fairweather, running nearly in the direction of the 60th parallel, under which Maldonado had placed the entrance of his strait into the Pacific, searching the various bays and inlets which there open to the sea, particularly that called by the English Admiralty Bay, situated at the foot of Mount St. Elias. They found, however, — doubtless to their satisfaction, — no passage leading northward or eastward from the Pacific ; and they became convinced that the whole coast thus surveyed was bordered by an unbroken chain of lofty mountains. Want of time prevented them from continuing their examinations farther south ; and they could only, in passing, determine the latitudes and longitudes of a few * The journal of this voyage is among the manuscripts obtained from the hydro- graphical department of Madrid : annexed to it is a memoir on the manners, customs, and language, of the Indians about Nootka Sound, translated from the English of Joseph Ingraham, the mate of the American ship Columbia, who wrote it, at the request of Martinez, in 1789. t The journals of Malaspina's expedition have never been published. A sketch of his voyage along the north-west coasts of America is given in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, in which the highest, and, in some places, the most extravagant, praise is bestowed on the officers engaged in it. Yet — will it be believed.' — the name of Malaspina does 7iot appear there or in any other part of the book. The unfortunate commander, having given some offence to Godoy, better known as the Prince of the Peace, who then ruled Spain without restriction, was, on his return to Europe in 1794, confined in a dungeon at Corunna, and there kept as a prisoner until 1802, when he was liberated, after the peace of Amiens, at the express desire cf Napoleon. The name of one who had thus sinned could not be allowed to appear on the pages of a work published officially, by the Spanish government, for the purpose of vindicating the claims of its navigators. 1791.] VOYAGE OF MARCHAND. 223 points between Mount San Jacinto and Nootka Sound, where they arrived on the 13th of August. The visit made to the north-west coasts of America, in the summer of 1791, by Captain Etienne Marchand, in the French commercial ship SoHde, from Marseilles, is only mentioned on account of the Introduction by Fleurieu to the Journal of her voyage, to which allusion has been often made in the preceding pages. Marchand landed on the shore of the Bay of Guadalupe, or Norfolk Sound, near the 56th degree of latitude, where he remained two weeks, en- gaged in trading with the natives ; after which he sailed along the coasts southward, occasionally landing and making observations, to the entrance of the Strait of Fuca, and thence took his departure for Canton.* In the mean time, nine vessels from England and seven from the United States were engaged in the trade on the north-west coasts of America. Of the movements of the English traders few accounts have been made public : the most active and enterprising among them appears to have been Captain Brown,f of the ship Butter- wortli, from London, to whom Vancouver acknowledges himself indebted for useful information on several occasions. In what man- ner the British navigator treated citizens of the United States, from whom he derived information much more important, will be shown hereafter. * Respecting the places thus visited, very little exact information is to be derived from the Journal of Marchand, though hundreds of its pages are devoted to philosopli- ical speculations (doubtless by the editor) on the origin and capacity of the north- west American Indians, their languages and political and religious institutions, and political and religious institutions in general. The Journal, indeed, seems to have been published merely in order to afford a frame-work for tlie comments and disqui- sitions of the editor, Fleurieu, which, with all their faults, are the only parts of the work of any value. The Introduction to this Journal is a memoir read by Fleurieu before the National Institute at Paris, in 1797, on the subject of the discovery of the north-west coasts of America, in which he presents a history, with reviews of all other accounts, of the several exploring voyages made by people of civilized nations along those coasts, from the period of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards to the year 1790, when Marchand began his voyage. For such a task, Fleurieu was well fitted, by his previous labors, his general science, and his acquaintance with geography and mari- time affairs : his memoir is elegantly written, and his accounts and opinions are, for the most part, clear, fair, and liberal towards individuals and nations. Tliis praise is, however, not to be awarded to every portion of his work. He was extravagant in generalizing, and often careless in the examination of his authorities, in consequence of which he committed numerous errors ; and his devotion to his own country, and his contempt for the Spaniards and their government, led him frequently to make assertions and observations at variance with justice and truth. t Brown was killed by the natives, at Woahoo, one of the Sandwich Islands, in January, 1795. 224 ATTACK ON THE ELEONORA AT MOWEE. [1790. The second trading adventure to the North Pacific made by citi- zens of the United States was that of Captain Metcalf, who sailed from New York in 1788, in the brig Eleonora, for Canton, and there purchased a small schooner, which he named the Fair Amer- ican, and placed under the command of his son, a youth of eighteen. With these vessels he arrived, in November, 1789, at Nootka Sound, where the schooner was seized by the Spanish commandant Marti- nez ; but she was soon liberated, unfortunately, as it proved, for her captain and crew. On their way from the American coast, the vessels were separated. The Eleonora, on the 30th of January, 1790, reached a small bay in Mowee, one of the Sandwich Islands, where she anchored ; and, on the same night, her boat, and a seaman who was sleeping in it, were taken away by the natives. On the fol- lowing day, the islanders began to assemble in the bay in canoes, and on the shores, in great numbers, armed, and showing evidently the intention to take the vessel ; and one of them was seized in the act of endeavoring to strip off a piece of her copper, under the idea, as he confessed, that she would in consequence sink. The natives becoming more daring, Metcalf fired on them with grape, and burnt their village ; and, having thus apparently quieted them, he went farther up the bay, in order to obtain water. Three or four days afterwards, a native came on board, who offered to bring back the boat and the sailor for a certain reward ; his offer was accepted, and, on the following day, he reappeared with the rudder of the boat and some of the bones of the man, who had been sacrificed to the gods of the island, and coolly demanded the promised recom- pense. This demand was granted, with a view to conciliation ; but the opposite effect was produced : for the islanders, supposing that they had intimidated the Americans, again surrounded the ship in their canoes in vast numbers. Metcalf thereupon, either from exas- peration, or from his seeing no other mode of safety, fired all his guns, charged with grape and nails, among them, and killed, as was said, more than one hundred and fifty ; after which he sailed for Owyhee, and anchored in Karakakooa Bay.* * The account of these transactions is taken principally from a letter written by a person on board of the Eleonora, which was published in the newspapers of the United States soon after the occurrences ; and from the manuscript journal of Captain Ingraham, which confirms all the statements of the letter writer. Vancouver (vol. ii. p. 136) represents the affair as disadvantageously to the Americans as possible, accord- ing to his constant practice. Jarvis, in his History of the Sandwich Islands, gives the account as handed down by the natives, holding Metcalf up to view as a monster of cruelty, and the capture of the Fair American as " an awful retribution." 1790.] CAPTURE OP THE FAIR AMERICAN AT OWYHEE. 225 While the Eleonora was lying in this bay, the natives of Owyhee signally avenged the slaughter of their brethren at Movvee. On the 5th of February, the schooner Fair American, which had been separated from the brig, anchored in the Bay of Toyahyah, (now called Kmvaihae,) on the north-west side of Owyhee, about thirty miles north of Karakakooa Bay, where trade was begun with the natives. As these people conducted themselves peaceably, they were allowed to come on board the vessel without restriction ; at length, a chief named Tamaahmoto, or Kamamoko, appeared, with a number of attendants, to present the captain with a feather cap, and while in the act of placing this ornament on young Metcalf 's head, he seized him and threw him overboard, where he was im- mediately killed ; the other seamen, with the exception of one, were in like manner despatched, and the schooner was then drawn on shore and rifled. There is no reason to believe that this was done in consequence of the proceedings of the captain of the Eleonora at Mowee, or, indeed, that those proceedings were known at Owyhee when the schooner was taken ; on the contrary, Tamaahmoto, in 1794, assured Vancouver that he was induced to act as he did, b) the ill-treatment of Metcalf, who had whipped him severely when at Toyahyah, in 1789. A plan was, at the same time, formed by Tianna and Tamaha- maha, the principal chiefs of the island, to take the Eleonora. The boatswain of that brig, named John Young, happened, however, to be on shore, and there met with two English seamen, from whom he received information of the plan ; and they succeeded in pre- vailing on Tamahamaha to allow them to write a letter to Captain Metcalf, urging his immediate departure, on condition that they should enter the service of the native chief. Metcalf took their advice, and sailed away without learning the news of his son's fate. Young also succeeded in saving the life of Isaac Davis, the mate of the Fair American, who had been severely wounded at the time of the capture of that schooner; and these two men remained in the service of Tamahamaha until their deaths.* The ship Columbia returned to Boston from Canton, under the command of Gray, on the 10th of August, 1790, as already men- tioned : but the cargo of Chinese articles brought by her was insuf- ficient to cover the expenses of her voyage ; and her owners were • Davis died in 1808. Tonng was, for many years, governor of Woahoo, and died in 1836, nearly ninety years old : for an anecdote illustrative of his character, see Commodore Porter's Journal of his Cruise in the Pacific, vol. ii. p. 215. 39 226 VOYAGE OF INGRAHAM IN THE HOPE. [1791. SO little satisfied with these results, that some of them sold out their shares to the others, who, determining to persevere in the enter- prise, refitted the Columbia for a new voyage of the same kind. Before her departure, however, the brig Hope, of seventy tons, which had also been equipped for the North Pacific trade, sailed from Boston, under the command of Joseph Ingraham, the former mate of the Columbia ; and these vessels were followed by the Hancock, under Captain Crowel, and the Jefferson, under Captain Roberts, likewise from Boston, and the Margaret, under Captain Magee, from New York. A short notice of Ingraham's voyage will be first presented. The brig Hope quitted Boston on the 16th of September, 1790, and, taking the usual course by the Cape Verd Islands and Brazil, she arrived on the 13th of January, 1791, at the entrance of Berkeley Sound, or Port Soledad, in the Falkland Islands, where she found a Spanish estabUshment on the shore, and a Spanish vessel of war in the harbor.* Ingraham was anxious to visit the establishment, but the commandant was unwilling to allow him to do so, though he furnished him liberally with provisions. Quitting the Falkland Islands, Ingraham doubled Cape Horn, and, on the 19th of April, he discovered six islands previously unknown, in the centre of the Pacific Ocean, between the 8th and the 10th parallels of latitude,! to which he gave the names severally of Washington, Adams, Franklin, Knox, Federal, and Lincoln ; and after some days * Manuscript journal of the Hope's voyage, written by Ingraham. t These islands are situated a little north of the group called the Marquesas de Mendoza, discovered by the Spanish navigator Mendana, in 1595, and about six hundred miles north-east of Otaheite, directly in the course of vessels sailing from Cape Horn to the north-west coast of America, or to China, to which they offer con- venient places for obtaining water and other refreshments. They were not seen by Cook, who visited the Marquesas in 1774 ; nor does any notice of them appear on any chart or account of earlier date than 1791, when they were discovered by Ingra- ham, as above stated. They were afterwards seen successively, on the 2lst of June, 1791, by Marchand, in the French ship Solide, who named them lies de la Rivolu- iion; on the 30th of June, 1792, by Hergest, in the British brig Dffidalus, after whom Vancouver called them Hcrgest's Islands, though he was well aware of their previous discovery by Ingraham; and on the 6th of March, 1793, by Roberts, in the Jefferson, from Boston, who bestowed on them the name of Washington's Islands. The earliest notice of them was published in the form of an extract from Ingraham's Journal, in the Massachusetts Historical Collection, at Boston, in 1793 : the volume of the same work, for 1795, contains Roberts's account of his visit, after which appeared, in suc- cession, the accounts of Hergest in Vancouver's Journal, and of Marchand ; and they have since been visited and described by Krusenstern, Lisiansky, Langsdorf, Porter, Belcher, Wilkes, and other navigators. Porter, during his cruise in the Pacific, in the Essex, in 1813, remained some time at Nooahivah, the largest of the islands. The recent occupation of this group by the French is well known. 1791.] VOYAGE OF INGRAHAM IN THE HOPE. 227 spent in examining them, he took his course for Owyhee, where he arrived on the 20th of May. At Owyhee, the Hope was visited by Tamahamaha, whose power was then rapidly increasing, as well as by his rival Tianna ; and both these chiefs were earnest in their solicitations that Ingraham should go on shore and visit their towns. The American captain, however, feeling some distrust, did not think it prudent to leave his vessel ; and, after obtaining some provisions and water, he sailed to the adjacent Island of Mowee, where he received from two white men, who escaped to the Hope, the news of the capture of the schooner Fair American, and the murder of her crew at Owyhee, in February of the preceding year. He then had reason to congratulate himself at having resisted the invitations of Tamahamaha and Tianna, as he had no doubt that he and his vessel and crew would otherwise have been sacrificed to their hatred or cupidity. At Mowee, on the 26th, the brig was honored by the presence of Titeree, or Kahikili, the king, and Taio, a principal chief; and Ingraham obtained from them the liberation of an American seaman, who had been, for some time, detained as prisoner in the island. On the following day, at Woahoo, the natives surrounded the vessel in their canoes, to the number of many thousands, evidently with the intention of taking her ; and it became necessary to fire several muskets upon them before she could be freed from the danger. On the 1st of June, Ingraham left the Sandwich Islands, and on the 29th of the same month he dropped anchor in a harbor on the south-east side of Queen Charlotte's, or Washington's, Island, to which he gave the name of Magce's Sound, in honor of one of the owners of his vessel. On the coasts of this island, and of the other islands, and the continent adjacent on the north and east, he spent the summer in trading, and collecting information as to the geog- raphy and natural history, and the languages, manners, and customs, of the inhabitants, on all which subjects his journal contains minute and interesting details ; and at the end of the season he took his departure for China, where he arrived on the 1st of De- cember, 1791. At Macao, Ingraham found the French ship Solide, under Captain Marchand, whose visit to the north-west coast of Amer- ica, in the preceding summer, has been already mentioned ; and he received much kindness, which he acknowledges by grateful expres- sions in his journal, from Roblet, the surgeon, and Chanal, the first 228 kendrick's speculations in the pacific. [1791. officer of that vessel. To these gentlemen he also communicated the particulars of his voyage ; and thus they learned, to their great regret, that they had been anticipated, by the American captain, in a discovery which was expected by them to cast considerable eclat on their expedition. Marchand had, in the month of June previous, seen a group of islands in the centre of the Pacific Ocean, of which he believed himself to be the discoverer, as they were not described in any narrative or chart then published ; and, under this impres- sion, he named them lies de la Revolution, and had just sent an account of them to France, which was submitted formally to the National Assembly : on examining the journal of the Hope, however, he could have no doubt that this was the same group which had been found by Ingraham in April ; and the fact is admitted, though with evident reluctance, in the narrative of his voyage.* Captain Kendrick, in the Washington, which had been altered into a brig, also arrived at Macao while the Hope was lying there. He had been engaged, since 1789, in various speculations, one of which was the collection and transportation to China of the odor- iferous wood called sandal, which grows in many of the tropical islands of the Pacific, and is in great demand throughout the Celestial Empire. Vancouver pronounced this scheme chimerical ; but experience has proved that it was founded on just calculations, and the business has been ever since prosecuted with advantage, especially by the Americans. Another of Kendrick's speculations has not hitherto produced any fruit. In the summer of 1791, he purchased from Maquinna, Wicanish, and other chiefs, several large tracts of land near Nootka Sound, for which he obtained deeds duly marked by those person- ages, and witnessed by the officers and men of the Washington. Attempts were made, by the owners of that vessel, to sell these lands at London in 1793, but no purchasers were found ; and applications have since been addressed, by the legal representatives of the owners and of Kendrick, to the government of the United * The editor, Fleurieu, thus ingeniously concludes the discussion as to the first dis- covery of the islands : " Captain Marchand undoubtedly cannot aspire to the honor of priority ; but, like the American captain who preceded him, he has not, on that account, the less pretension to the honor of the discovery ; for he could not know, in the month of June, 1791, while he was navigating the great ocean, that, a month be- fore, another navigator, standing in the same course with himself, had made the same discovery." The king of the French has nevertheless been pleased to bestow a gold medal on one of the surviving owners of the Solide, on the ground of the discovery of those islands by Marchand, as expressly declared in the report of his minister of ma- rine, published in the Moniteur of May 25th, 1843. 1791.] SECOND VOYAGE OF THE COLUMBIA. 229 States, for a confirmation of the title.* That the lands were thus sold by the savage chiefs, there is no reason to doubt ; and Maquinna or Wicanish would as readily have conveyed the whole of America to any one for the consideration of a copper kettle : but the validity of the acquisition will scarcely be recognized by the civilized nation which may hereafter hold the sovereignty of the country about Nootka Sound. Neither Kendrick nor his vessel ever returned to America: he was killed, in 1793, at Karakakooa Bay, in Owyhee, by a ball accidentally fired from a British vessel, while saluting him. At Canton, Ingraham disposed of his furs advantageously, and vested the proceeds in teas, which he sent to Boston by a vessel chartered for the purpose. He then sailed, on the 3d of April, for the north-west coasts of America, and spent the summer in trading in and about Queen Charlotte's Island, v/hich was then the principal resort of the Americans. The Columbia, under her former captain, Gray, left Boston on the 28th of September, 1790, ten days after the departure of the Hope ; f and, without the occurrence of any thing worthy of note on her way, she arrived at Clyoquot, near the entrance of the Strait of Fuca, on the 5th of June, 1791. Thence she proceeded, in a few days, to the eastern side of Queen Charlotte's Island, on which, and on the coasts of the continent and islands in its vicinity, she remained until September, engaged in trading and exploring. During this time, Gray examined many of the inlets and passages between the 54th and the 56th parallels, in one of which — most probably the same afterwards called by Vancouver the Portland * The circular addressed by the owners of the Washington, on this occasion, is a curious document. It is written in four languages, and is couched in terms the most unspecific which could have been selected. The '■'■inhabitants of Europe" are informed that, " in 1787, Captain J. Kendrick, while prosecuting an advantageous voyage with the natives for furs, purchased of them, for the owners, a tract of de- lightful country, comprehending four degrees of latitude, or two hundred and forty miles square;" and that "such as may be inclined to associate, for settling a com- monwealth on their own code of laws, on a spot of the globe nowhere surpassed in delightful and healthy climate, and fertile soil, claimed by no civilized nation, and purchased, under a sacred treaty of peace and commerce, and for a valuable considera- tion, of the friendly natives, may have the best opportunity of trying the result of such an enterprise." Of the situation of this tract of delightful country we learn nothing from the circular, except that it lies in America. The deeds for the lands are de- clared to have been registered in the office of the American consul at IMacao ; and these deeds, or some of them, have been lately published, referring only to the terri- tories about Nootka Sound, which, though including all the dominions of the chiefs conveying them, do not amount to one twenty-fourth part of two hundred and forty miles square. t Log-Vook of the Columbia, from September 28th, 1790, to February 20.1], 1732. 230 THE COLUMBIA WINTERS AT CLYOQ,UOT. [1792. Canal — he penetrated from its entrance, in the latitude of 54 degrees 33 minutes, to the distance of a hundred miles north- eastward, without reaching its termination. This inlet he supposed to be the Rio de Reyes of Admiral Fonte ; a part of it was named by him Massacre Cove, in commemoration of the murder of Cas- well, the second mate, and two seamen of his vessel, by the natives, on its shore, on the 22d of August. Shortly after this melancholy occurrence, the Columbia fell in with the Hope, and the two captains communicated to each other, though apparently with some reserve, the results of their observations. They then separated, Ingraham going to China, as above related, while Gray returned to Clyoquot. At Clyoquot, the crew of the Columbia passed the winter in a fortified habitation, which they erected on the shore of the bay, and called Fort Defiance ; and they were employed in building a small vessel, which was launched, and named the Adventure. Whilst preparing for sea, they were visited by Tatoochseatticus and Wicanish, the principal chiefs of the surrounding country, with a number of followers, between whom and a Sandwich Islander on board the Columbia it soon became evident that some understanding had been established. Gray's suspicions being ex- cited, he questioned the Sandwich Islander, who at length confessed that the Indians had formed a plan for the seizure of the vessels, and the murder of their crews, and had promised to spare his life, and make him a chief, if he would aid them by wetting the priming of all the guns at a particular time. Thus forewarned, the Ameri- cans were on their guard ; and the savages, who surrounded the vessel on the following day, were kept at a distance. In the spring of 1792, the Adventure sailed for Queen Char- lotte's Island, under the command of Haswell, the first mate of the Columbia ; and Gray took his departure in the ship, on a cruise southward along the coasts of the continent, the particulars of which will appear in the next chapter. 231 CHAPTER XI. 1792 TO 1796. Vancouver and Broughton arrive on the American Coasts in 1792, and meet with Gray, who informs them of his Discovery of the Columbia River — The Strait of Fuca surveyed by Vancouver, Galiano, and Valdes — Negotiations between Van- couver and Quadra at Nootka — Vancouver's Injustice to the Americans — Broughton's Examination of the lower Part of the Columbia River — Vancou- ver's Proceedings at the Sandwich Islands — He completes the Survey of the North- West Coasts of America, and returns to England — The Spaniards abandon Nootka — Conclusions with Regard to the Dispute between Great Britain and Spain, and the Convention of 1790. The viceroy of Mexico, count de Revillagigedo, on learning tiie results of the voyages of Fidalgo, Quimper, and Malaspina, along the north-west coasts of America, ordered three other vessels to be prepared, for continuing the exploration of those coasts. In one of them, the corvette Aransasu, Lieutenant Jacinto Caamano was directed to seek, particularly near the 53d degree of latitude, for the mouth of the Rio de Reyes, through which Admiral Fonte was said to have sailed, in 1640, north-eastward, into a lake com- municating with the Atlantic ; while Lieutenants Dionisio Alcala Galiano and Cayetano Valdes were to survey the Strait of Fuca, in the small schooners Sutil and Mexicana. These vessels sailed from San Bias in the spring of 1792, and arrived in May at Nootka Sound, whence they soon after departed on their respective expeditions.* Captain Bodega y Quadra, the superintendent of the marine department of San Bias, was at the same time despatched to Nootka, to take the command of the forces in that quarter, and to treat with Captain Vancouver, who was expected to arrive there in the following summer, with regard to the lands and buildings claimed by British subjects, in virtue of the first and second articles of the convention of 1790. He was instructed, in case it should * The works which have served principally as authorities for the accounts in this chapter are — the journal of Captain George Vancouver, three vols. 4to., published at London in 1797 — the journal of Galiano and Valdeg — and the manuscript journal of the voyage of the American brig Hope, written by her captain, J. Ingraham — with others, to which reference will be made 232 VANCOUVER REACHES THE NORTH-WEST COAST. [1792. be requisite, to abandon Nootka, and withdraw all the Spanish forces and settlers to some convenient point of the coast farther south ; and, in anticipation of such a contingency, a vessel was sent from San Bias, under the command of Fidalgo, to seek for a proper spot, and make preparations on it for a permanent establishment. Vancouver and Broughton reached the American coast in April, 1792, a little south of Cape Mendocino, whence they sailed slowly northward, to the Strait of Fuca, which they were instructed par- ticularly to explore. On their way, they carefully examined the shores, and determined the geographical positions of all the most prominent points, comparing the results of their observations with those obtained by Cook and others who had preceded them. Near the 43d degree of latitude, they sought in vain for the river whicii Martin de Aguilar was said to have seen, entering the Pacific there- abouts, in 1603 ; and they appeared inclined to admit as identical with the Cape Blanco of that navigator, a high, craggy promontory, in the latitude of 42 degrees 52 minutes, to which they, however, did not scruple to assign the name of Cape Orford. Vancouver also observed with attention the Deception Bay of Meares, which was represented on Spanish charts as the mouth of a river. Of this part of his voyage, he presents the following account in his journal, under date of " April 27th. — Noon brought us up with a conspicuous point of land, composed of a cluster of hummocks, moderately high, and projecting into the sea. On the south side of this promontory was the appearance of an inlet, or small river, the land not indicating it to be of any great extent, nor did it seem to be accessible for ves- sels of our burden, as the breakers extended from the above point, two or three miles into the ocean, until they joined those on the beach, nearly four leagues farther south. On reference to Mr. Meares's description of the coast south of this promontory, I was at first inclined to believe it was Cape Shoalwater ; but, on ascer- taining its latitude, I presumed it to be that which he calls Cape Disappointment, and the opening south of it Deception Bay. This cape we found to be in latitude of 46 degrees 19 minutes, longi- tude 236 degrees 6 minutes [east]. The sea had now changed from its natural to river-colored water, the probable consequence of some streams falling into the bay, or into the opening north of it, through the low land. Not considering this opening ivorthy of more attention, I continued our pursuit to the north-west, being desirous to embrace the advantages of the now prevailing breeze and pleasant weather, so favorable to an examination of the coasts." 1792.] VANCOUVER MEETS GRAY NEAR THE STRAIT OF FUCA. 233 Vancouver accordingly sailed onwards, to the entrance of the Strait of Fuca, which he was eager to explore ; having, as he believed, ascertained that " the several large rivers and capacious inlets, that have been described as discharging their contents into the Pacific, between the 40th and the 48th degrees of north lati- tude, were reduced to broolcs insufficient for our vessels to navigate, or to bays inaccessible as harbors for refitting." Again he says, " Considering ourselves now on the point of commencing an exami- nation of an entirely new region, I cannot take leave of the coast already known, without obtruding a short remark on that part of the continent, comprehending a space of nearly two hundred and fifteen leagues, on. which our inquiries had been lately employed, under the most fortunate and favorable circumstances of tvind and iveather. So minutely has this extensive coast been inspected, that the surf has been constantly seen to breah: on its shores from the mast- head ; and it was but in a few small intervals only where our distance precluded its being visible from the deck. Whenever the weather prevented our making free with the shore, or on our haul- ing oflf for the night, the return of fine weather and of daylight uniformly brought us, if not to the identical spot we had departed from, at least within a few miles of it, and never beyond the northern limits of the coast which we had previously seen. An examination so directed, and circumstances happily concurring to permit its being so executed, afforded the most complete opportunity of determining its various turni7igs and windings, as also the position of all its conspicuous points, ascertained by meridional altitudes for the latitude, and observations for the chronometer, which we had the good fortune to make constantly once, and in general twice, every day, the preceding one only excepted. It must be considered a very singular circumstance, that, in so great an extent of sea-coast, we should not until noio have seen the appearance of any opening in its shore which presented any certain prospect of affording a shelter, the whole coast forming one compact and nearly straight barrier against the sea." On the same day, the 29th of April, 1792, Vancouver writes in his journal, " At four o'clock, a sail was discovered to the westward, standing in shore. This was a very great novelty, not having seen any vessel but our consort during the last eight months. She soon hoisted American colors, and fired a gun to leeward. At six we spoke her; she proved to be the ship Columbia, commanded by Captain Robert Gray, belonging to Boston, whence she had been absent nineteen months. Having little doubt of his being the same 30 234 gray's account of his discoveries. [1792. person who had formerly commanded the sloop Washington, I desh-ed he would bring to, and sent Mr. Paget and Mr. Menzies on board, to acquire such information as might be serviceable in our future operations. On the return of the boat, we found our con- jectures had not been ill grounded ; that this was the same gentle- man who had commanded the sloop Washington, at the time, we are informed, she had made a very singular voyage behind Nootka. It was not a little remarkable, that, on our approach to the entrance of this inland sea, we should fall in with the identical person who, it was said, had sailed through it. His relation, however, differed very materially from that published in England. It is not possible to conceive any one to be more astonished thao was Mr. Gray, on his being made acquainted that his authority had been quoted, and the track pointed out that he had been said to have made in tlie sloop Washington ; in contradiction to which, he assured the of- ficers that he had penetrated only fifty miles into the straits in question, in an east-south-east direction ; that he found the passage five leagues wide, and that he understood from the natives that the opening extended a considerable distance to the northward ; that this was all the information he had acquired respecting this inland sea, and that he returned into the ocean by the same way he had entered at. The inlet he supposed to be the same that De Fuca had discovered, which opinion seemed to be universally received by all the modern visitors. He likewise informed them of his having been off the mouth of a river, in the latitude of 46 degrees 10 minutes, where the outset or reflux was so strong as to prevent his entering for nine days. This was probably the opening passed by us on the forenoon of the 27th, and was apparently inaccessible, not from the current, but from the breakers that extended across it. He had also entered another inlet to the northward, in latitude of 54J degrees, in which he had sailed to the latitude of 56 degrees, without discovering its termination. The south point of entrance into De Fuca's Straits he stated to be in 49 degrees 24 minutes ; and he conceived our distance from it to be about eight leagues. The last winter he had spent in Port Cox, or, as the natives call it, Clyoquot, from whence he had sailed but a few days," &c. The part of this account relating to the Strait of Fuca appears to have been received with much satisfaction by Vancouver, as it seemed to assure him that he had not been anticipated in the exploration of that passage ; to Gray's statement of his discoverv of a river emptying into the Pacific, in the latitude of 46 degrees 10 1792.] Graf's account of his discoveries. 235 minutes, he gave little, or rather no credit, being content with his own examination of that part of the coast. On the day after his meeting with the Columbia, he writes, " The river mentioned by Mr. Gray should, from the latitude he assigned to it, have existence in the bay south of Cape Disappointment. This we passed in the forenoon of the 27th ; and, as I then observed, if any inlet or river should be found, it must be a very intricate one, and inaccessible to vessels of our burden, owing to the reefs and broJcen water, which then appeared in its neighborhood. Mr. Gray stated that he had been several days attempting to enter it, which, at length, he was unable to effect, in consequence of a very strong outset. This is a phenomenon difficult to account for, as, in most cases where there are outsets of such strength on a sea-coast, there are corresponding tides setting in. Be that, however, as it may, / xvas thoroughly convinced, as were also most persons of observation on board, that we could not possibly have passed any safe navigable opening, harbor, or place of security for shipping, on this coast, from Cape Mendocino to the promontory of Classet, [Cape Flattery, at the entrance of the Strait of Fuca ;] nor had we any reason to alter our opinions, notwithstanding that theoretical geographers have thought proper to assert in that space the existence of arms of the ocean commu- nicating with a mediterranean sea, and extensive rivers with safe and convenient ports." Having thus recorded his convictions, the British navigator proceeded to survey the Strait of Fuca ; whilst the American fur trader sailed towards the mouth of the river, into which he resolved, if possible, to effect an entrance. After parting with the English ships. Gray sailed along the coast of the continent to the soutii, and, on the 7th of May, he " saw an entrance which had a very good appearance of a harbor," in the latitude of 46 degrees 58 minutes. Passing through this entrance, he found himself in a bay " well sheltered from the sea by long sand-bars and spits," where he remained at anchor three days, engaged in trading with the natives ; and he then resumed his voyage, bestowing on the place thus discovered the name of Bul- fincKs Harbor, in honor of one of the owners of his ship. At daybreak on the 11th, after leaving Bulfinch's Harbor, Gray observed " the entrance of his desired port, bearing east-south-east, distant six leagues ; " and running into it, with all sails set, between the breakers, (which Meares and Vancouver pronounce impassable,) he anchored, at one o'clock, ''in a large river of fresh water," ten 236 WHO DISCOVERED THE COLUMBIA ? [1792. miles above its mouth. At this spot he remained three days, en- gaged in trading and fiUing his casks with water, and then sailed up the river about twelve or fifteen miles along its northern shore ; where, finding that he could proceed no farther, from having " taken the wrong channel," he again came to anchor. During the week which followed, he made several attempts to quit the river, but was constantly baffled, until, at length, on the 20th, he crossed the bar at the mouth, by beating over it with a westerly wind, and regained the Pacific* On leaving the river, Gray gave to it the name of his ship — the Columbia — which it still bears ; though attempts are made to fix upon it that of Oregon, on the strength of the accounts which Carver pretended to have collected, in 1766, among the Indians of the Upper Mississippi, respecting a River Oregon, rising near Lahe Superior, and emptying into the Strait of Anian.-f The extremity of the sand-bank, projecting into the sea on the south side of its en- trance, was called by Gray Point Adams ; and he assigned the name of Cape Hancock to the opposite promontory, on the north side, be- ing ignorant that Meares had already called it Cape Disappointment, in token of the unsuccessful result of his search for the river. The principal circumstances relating to the discovery of this river, the greatest which enters the Pacific from America, have now been fairly presented. It has been shown — that the opening through which its waters are discharged into the ocean was first seen in August, 1776, by the Spanish navigator Heceta,J and was distinguished on Spanish charts, within the thirteen years next following, as the mouth of the River San Roque — that it was examined in July, 1788, by Meares,<§» who quitted it with the con- viction that no river existed there — and that this opinion of Meares was subscribed, without qualification, by Vancouver, after he had minutely examined that coast, " under the most favorable con- ditions of wind and tveather," and notwithstanding the assurances of Gray to the contrary. Had Gray, after parting with the English ships, not returned to the river, and ascended it as he did, there is every reason to believe that it would have long remained unknown ; for the assertions of Vancouver that mo opening, harbor, or place of refuge for vessels, was to be found between Cape Mendocino and the * See the extract from the log-book of the Columbia, containing the account of the entrance of Gray into the river, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter E, No. 2. t See p. 142. t See p. 120. § See p. 177. 1792.] WHO DISCOVERED THE COLUMBIA? 237 Strait of Fuca, and that this part of the coast formed one compact, solid, and nearly straight, hairier against the sea, would have served completely to overthrow the evidence of the American fur trader, and to prevent any further attempts to examine those shores, or even to approach them.* From the mouth of the Columbia River, Gray sailed to the east coast of Queen Charlotte's Island, near which his ship struck on a rock, and was so much injured that she was with difficulty kept afloat until she reached Nootka Sound, where the damage was repaired. The Hope also arrived at Nootka at this time, and Gray communicated the particulars of his recent discoveries to Ingraham, and to the Spanish commandant Quadra, to whom he also gave charts and descriptions of Bulfinch's Harbor, and of the mouth of the Columbia. On this occasion, moreover, the two American captains addressed to Quadra, at his request, a letter f containing a narrative of the transactions at Nootka in 1789, to which particular reference will be hereafter made. Having soon completed their business on the north-west coasts, Gray and Ingra- ham departed severally for Canton, in September, and thence they sailed to the United States. J * It was, nevertheless, insisted, on the part of the British government, in a discus- sion with the United States, in 1826, that the merit of discovering the Columbia belongs to Mearcs ! " that, in 1788, four years before Gray entered the mouth of the Columbia River, Mr. Meares, a lieutenant of the royal navy, who had been sent by the East India Company on a trading expedition to the north-west coast of America, had already minutely explored the coast from the 49th to the 54th degree of north latitude ; had taken formal possession of the Straits of De Fuca in the name of his sovereign ; had purchased land, trafficked and formed treaties with the natives ; and had actually entered the Bay of the Columbia, to the northern headland of which he gave the name of Cape Disappointment, a name which it bears to this day ; " and that " if any claim to these countries, as between Great Britain and the United States, is to be deduced from priority of the discovery, the above exposition of dates and facts suffices to establish that claim in favor of Great Britain, on a basis too firm to be shaken. It must indeed be admitted," continue the Britisli plenipo- tentiaries, " that Mr. Gray, finding himself in the bay formed by the discharge of the waters of the Columbia into the Pacific, was the first to ascertain that this buy formed the outlet of a great river — a discovery which had escaped Lieutenant Mearcs, when, in 1788, four years before^ he entered the same bay." The truth in the last of these assertions atones for the errors in those which precede, and counteracts the impression which the whole was intended to produce. — See the statement presented by Messrs. Huskisson and Addington to Mr. Gallatin, in 1826, among tlie Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter G. t See Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter C. X Ingraham subsequently entered the navy of the United States as a lieutenant, and was one of the officers of the ill-fated brig Pickering, of which nothing was ever heard, after her departure from the Delaware in August, 1800. Gray continued to command trading vessels from Boston until 1809, about which time he died. 238 SURVEY OF ADMIRALTY INLET. [1792. In the mean time, the survey of the Strait of Fuca had been completed. Vancouver and Broughton took their departure on the 1st of May, as already mentioned, from Cape Flattery, the point at the south side of the entrance of the Strait, and thence sailed slowly along the coast eastward, about a hundred miles, to its extremity in that direction, where they entered a harbor called by them Port Discovery, the same which had, in 1790, received from Quimper the name of Port (Quadra. A little beyond this harbor, they found another opening in the coast towards the south, corresponding with that called by Q,uimper Canal de Caamano, through which they entered an extensive arm of the sea, with several branches, stretch- ing in various southerly directions, to the distance of more than a hundred miles from the strait. This great arm, called Admiralty Inlet, with its principal branches, Hood's Canal on the west, Pos- sessio7i Sound on the east, and Pugei's Sound, the southernmost, were carefully surveyed to their respective terminations ; and the navigators, having thus ascertained that no passage through the con- tinent was to be effected by those channels, returned to the strait. Of the beauty and apparent fertility of the country surrounding this arm of the sea, Vancouver speaks in glowing terms. The surface near the shores was generally undulating, presenting a succession of meadows, lawns, and hillocks, many of which were covered with noble forests of oak ; " the soil principally consisted of a rich, black, vegetable mould, lying on a sandy or clayey substratum ; the grass, of excellent quality, grew to the height of three feet, and the ferns, which, in the sandy soils, occupied the clear spots, were nearly twice as high." In the distance, on the east, the south, and the west, the view was bounded by lofty mountains, to the stupen- dous peaks of which Vancouver assigned the names of British admirals and diplomatists. After completing this part of their survey, the English landed on the shore of Possession Sound, and celebrated the birthday of their sovereign, the 4th of June, by taking possession, in his name, and " with the usual formalities, of all that part of New Albion, from the latitude of 39 degrees 20 minutes south, and longitude 236 degrees 26 minutes east, to the entrance of the inlet of the sea, said to be the supposed Strait of Juan de Fuca, as also of all the coasts, islands, &c., within the said strait, and both its shores ; " to which region they gave the appellation of New Georgia. With regard to this ceremony, it may be observed, that, although naval 1792.] VANCOUVER MEETS GALIA.NO AND VALDES. 239 officers are not expected to be minutely acquainted with diplomatic affairs, yet Captain Vancouver, who was sent to the North Pacific as commissioner to execute the convention of October, 1790, should have recollected that, by the stipulations of that convention, evert/ part of the north-ioest coast of America was rendered free and open for trade or settlement to Spanish as well as British suhjects; and that, consequently, no claim of sovereignty, on the part of either of those nations, could he valid. It may seem pedantic, if not unjust, to make this remark with regard to what may have been nothing more than the result of an exuberance of loyal feeling in the officers and crews of the vessels ; but this talcing possession by Vancouver has been since gravely adduced, by the representatives of the British government, in support of its claims to the dominion of the terri- tories above mentioned.* On returning to the Strait of Fuca, the English examined several other passages opening into it, some of which were found to ter- minate in the land, at short distances from their mouths, and others , to be channels between islands. Through one of these latter chan- nels, opening immediately opposite the entrance of Admiralty Inlet, they passed into a long and wide gulf, extending north-westward ; and, after proceeding a few miles within it, they, on the 23d of June, unexpectedly met the Spanish schooners Sutil and Mexicana,f com- manded by Lieutenants Galiano and Valdes, which had left Nootka on the 4th of the month, and had advanced thus far along the northern shore of the strait. The meeting was, doubtless, vexatious to the commanders of both the parties, each being naturally anxious to secure to himself all the merit which might be acquired by deter- mining the character of this famous arm of the sea : they, however, received and treated each other with the utmost civility, mutually exhibiting their charts and journals, and comparing their obser- vations ; and, having agreed to unite their labors, they remained to- gether three weeks. During this time, they surveyed the shores of the great gulf above mentioned, called by the Spaniards Canal del Rosario, and by the English the Gulf of Georgia, which extended * See statement of the British commissioners, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter G. t Vancouver describes these vessels as " each about forty-five tons burden, mount- ing two brass guns, and navigated by twenty-four men ; bearing one lieutenant, with- out a single inferior officer. Their apartments just allowed room for sleeping-places on each side, with a table in the intermediate space, at which four persons could with difficulty sit ; and they were, in all other respects, the most ill-calculated and unfit vessels that could possibly be imagined for such an expedition." 240 PASSAGE THROUGH THE STRAIT OF FUCA. [1792. north-westward as far as the 50th degree of latitude ; and then, on the 13th of July, the English took leave of their Spanish friends, who, from want of force, were unable to keep up with them. On parting with tlie Spaniards, the English entered a passage, named by them Johnstone's Strait, leading from the north-west ex- tremity of the gulf; and after a long and difficult navigation through it, they, on the 10th of August, emerged into the Pacific at Queen Charlotte's Sound, about one hundred miles north of Nootka. Having been, from the commencement, persuaded that the land on the western side of the strait was an island, they had devoted their attention particularly to the eastern shores, through which a passage might be found to Hudson's Bay or the Arctic Sea ; but their search proved vain, and, after tracing to their terminations in the interior a number of long and intricate inlets, they became convinced that the continent extended uninterruptedly northward, at least to the 51st parallel of latitude. Immediately on entering the Pacific, the Discovery struck on a rock, and scarcely had she been got off ere a similar misfortune befell the Chatham ; both vessels, however, escaped with little injury, and they soon after arrived at Nootka Sound. Galiano and Valdes also passed through the strait by the same route, and reached Nootka in safety on the 4th of September. After the arrival of the Sutil and Mexicana at Nootka, Vancouver and the Spanish commander, Quadra, compared together the notes and charts of the two voyages through the Strait of Fuca ; and it was agreed between them, that the great island which that arm of the sea separated from the American continent should bear the names of them both. It has, in consequence, ever since been dis- tinguished on maps by the long and inconvenient appellation of Island of Quadra and Vancouver, which it will scarcely be allowed to retain, when that part of the world shall be occupied by a civil- ized people. This survey of the Strait of Fuca was conducted in the most complete and effectual manner possible by Vancouver, whose ac- count of it, filling a large portion of his journal, together with his charts, afford unequivocal testimony of the skill and perseverance of the British navigators. Galiano and Valdes seem also to have done as much as could have been expected, considering the smallness of their force and the miserable scale of their equipments. Had they not met the British ships, they would, doubtless, have found their way through the strait ; but they could never have made even a tolerable survey of it, as they must have left a number of passages 1792.] NEGOTIATIONS AT NOOTKA. 241 unexplored ; and the world would, probably, never have received any detailed report of their operations.* Before the arrival of these vessels at Nootka Sound, Captain Caamano returned from his search for the Rio de Reyes of Ad- miral Fonte, in which he had spent two months. During this period, he entered many of the openings in the coasts north and north-east of Queen Charlotte's Island, between the 53d and the 56th parallels of latitude ; some of which were found to be the mouths of bays, or of inlets running far inland, and others to be channels separating islands. He appears to have displayed mucii skill and industry in his examinations, as Vancouver indirectly testifies in his narrative : but he effected no discoveries calculated to throw much liglit on the geography of that part of the coast ; and his labors were productive of advantage only in so far as they served to facilitate the movements of the EnglisJi navigator, to whom his charts and journals were exhibited at Nootka. At Nootka, Vancouver found the store-ship Desdalus, which brought the instructions from the British government for his con- duct as commissioner. She left England in the autumn of 1791, under the command of Lieutenant Hergest ; and, passing around Cape Horn, she, in the latter part of March, 1792, fell in with the * The voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana was the last made by the Spaniards in the North Pacific Ocean, for the purposes of discovery ; and the only one, since that of Vizcaino, of which an authentic account has been given to the world, with the sanction of the Spanish government. The Journal of Galiano and Valdes was pub- lished at Madrid in 1S02, by order of the kmg, with an Introduction, often cited in the preceding pages, including a historical sketch of the exploring voyages of the Spaniards on the coasts of America, north-west of Mexico. This Introduction is the only valuable part of the work ; the meagre and uninteresting details of the Journal having been superseded by the full and luminous descriptions of Vancouver : it was intended — as a defence of the rights of Spain to the north-west portion of America, which were supposed to be endangered since the cession of Louisiana to France — as a vindication of the claims of Spanish navigators to the merit of dis- covering those regions, which the British were endeavoring to monopolize — and as a reply to the charges, insinuations, and sarcasms, against the intelligence, liberality, and good faith, of the Spanish government and nation, brought forward by Fleurieu. It was compiled chiefly from the original journals and other documents, in the archives of the Council of the Indies, relative to the exploration of the North Pacific coasts ; and, in this manner, many curious if not important facts were communi- cated, which might otherwise have remained forever buried. It is, however, to be regretted that the author should have disfigured his work — as he has in every part in which the honor or interests of Spain are concerned — by gross and palpable misstate- ments of circumstances, respecting which he undoubtedly possessed the means of arriving at the truth. It may, perhaps, be considered a sufficient apology for him, that his book was published by the Spanish government, at Madrid, in 1302, as we know not what changes may have been made in it by insertions, suppressions, and alterations, after it left his hands. 31 242 LETTER OF GRAY AND INGRAHAM. [1792. islands in the centre of the Pacific, north of the Marquesas, which had been discovered by Ingraham in April of the preceding year. Sailing thence, she reached Woahoo, one of the Sandwich Islands, where Lieutenant Hergest and Mr. Gooch, the astronomer, were murdered by the natives, on the 11th of May; after which she came to Nootka Sound, under the command of Lieutenant New. Vancouver gave the name of Hergesfs Islands to the group visited by the Daedalus, as above mentioned ; and so they are called in his chart, although, as he says in his journal, he had been informed that they had been previously discovered and landed on by some of the American traders. For his conduct as commissioner, Vancouver was referred by his instructions to the convention of October, 1790, and to a letter brought by the Daedalus from count de Florida Blanca, the Spanish minister of state, addressed to the commandant of the port of San Lorenzo of Nootka, ordering that officer, in conformity with the first article of the convention, to put his Britannic majesty's com- missioner in possession of the buildings and districts, or parcels of land, which were occupied by his subjects in April, 1789, as well in the port of Nootka as in the other, said to be called Port Cox, and to be situated about sixteen leagues farther southward. A copy of this order had been given to Quadra, on his departure from Mexico ; but it does not appear that either of the commissioners was furnished by his government with any evidence to assist him in ascertaining precisely what lands were to be restored, or for what buildings indemnification was to be made by the Spaniards. In order to supply this want of information. Quadra had, imme- diately on arriving at Nootka, made inquiries on the subject of Maquinna and other chiefs of the surrounding tribes ; all of whom, without hesitation, denied that any lands had been purchased, or any houses had been built there, by the English at any time. As the testimony of the savage chiefs could not, however, be of much value alone, he had next addressed his inquiries to Captains Gray and Ingraham, who arrived at Nootka in July, as already stated, and who had witnessed the proceedings at that place in 1789, when the former commanded the Washington, and the latter was first mate of the Columbia ; and they, in answer, sent a letter, dated August 2d, containing a clear and particular statement of all the circumstances connected with the occupation of Nootka, and the seizure of the vessels by Martinez. With regard to the particular points in question, they declare unequivocally that, although they 1792.] ■PROPOSITIONS OF (QUADRA. 243 had been in habits of constant intercourse with Maquinna and his people for nine months, they had never heard of any purchase of lands on that coast by British subjects ; and that the only building seen by them, when they reached the sound in September, 1789, was a rude hut, made by the Indians, which had been destroyed long before the arrival of the Spaniards.* These statements were, in all respects, confirmed by Viana, the Portuguese, who had been the captain of the Iphigenia in 1788 and 1789, and who was then with his vessel at Nootka ; and the Spanish commissioner thereupon considered himself authorized to assume that no lands were to he restored, and no buildings to be replaced or paid for by Spain. A communication to this effect, with copies of the letters of Gray and Ingraham and Viana, was^ accordingly, addressed by Quadra to Vancouver, on the arrival of the latter at Nootka. The Spanish commissioner, however, at the same time offered, with the view of removing all causes of disagreement between the two nations, to surrender to the British the small spot of ground on the shore of Friendly Cove, which had been temporarily occupied by Meares and his people in 1788; to give up, Tor their use, the houses and cul- tivated lands of the Spaniards near that place ; and to retire with ill his forces to Port Nuiiez Gaona, in the Strait of Fuca, (where in establishment had been begun by Fidalgo,) until the two govern- ments should determine further on the matter: with the under- standing, nevertheless, that this cession was not to be considered as iffecting the rights of his Catholic majesty to the dominion of the territory, and that Nootka was to be regarded as the most northern settlement of the Spaniards, to whom the whole coast lying south of it, and the adjacent country, was to be acknowledged to belong exclusively. Vancouver, on the other hand, had thought proper to construe the first article of the convention of 1790 as giving to his country- men possession of the whole territory surrounding NootTca and Clyo- quot ; and he therefore refused to receive what was offered by Quadra, declaring, with regard to the concluding part of the Spaniard's proposition, that he was not authorized to enter into any discussion as to the rights or claims of the respective nations. In this conviction he was supported by the evidence of Robert Duffin, the former mate of the Argonaut, who happened to arrive at Nootka while the negotiation was in progress. This person testified that ** See letter of Gray and Ingraham to Quadra, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter D. 244 duffin's evidence. [1792. he had accompanied Mr. Meares to Nootka in 1788, with his two vessels, which sailed under Portuguese colors and under the name of a Portuguese merchant, for the purpose of avoiding certain heavy duties at Macao, but were, notwithstanding, " entirely British ■property, and wholly navigated by the subjects of his Britannic majesty ; " that he had himself been present when Mr. Meares purchased " from the two chiefs, Maquinna and Callicum, the whole of the land that forms Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound, in his Bri- tannic majesty's name," for some sheets of copper and trifling articles ; that the natives were perfectly satisfied, and, with the chiefs, did homage to Mr. Meares as sovereign ; that the British flag — not the Portuguese — was displayed on shore on that occasion; that Mr. Meares caused a house to be erected on a convenient spot, containing three bed-chambers, with a mess-room for the officers and proper apartments for the men, " surrounded by several out- houses and sheds for the artificers to work in, all of which he left in good repair, under the care of Maquinna and Callicum, until he, or some of his associates, should return ; that he, Duflin, was not at Nootka when Martinez arrived there, but he understood no vestige of the house remained at that ti./ie ; and, on his return thither in July, 1789, he found the Cove occupied by the subjects of his Catholic majesty, and on the spot on which the house had stood were the tents and houses of some of the people of the ship Columbia. Upon the streigth of this testimony, Vancouver pro- nounced the declarations of Messrs. Gray and Ingraham to be en- tirely false ; and he takes pains, in several parts of his work, to animadvert, in severe terms, on what he is pleased to call " the wilful misrepresentations of the Americans, to the prejudice of British subjects." On the points to which Duffin's statement relates, it is unneces- sary to add any thing to what has been already said. The evidence is presented to us by Vancouver, in the form of an abstract, of the correctness of which, as well as of the candor of that officer, we may be enabled to form an estimate, by comparing his abstract of the letter from Gray and Ingraham to Quadra, with the letter itself. It will be thus seen, that the British commander has, most unfairly, garbled the testimony of the American traders, by suppressing or altering every part of it which could tend to place his countrymen, or their cause, in an unfavorable light, or to excuse the conduct of the Spaniards towards them. His bitterness towards the citizens of the United States, on this occasion, may, perhaps, be attributed 1792.] NEGOTIATION SUSPENDED. 245 to the circumstance, that, on his arrival at Nootka, he learned the complete success of Gray in finding a large river, and a secure harbor, on a coast which he had himself explored in vain with the same objects. The correspondence between the two commissioners was con- tinued for some weeks, at the end of which, finding it impossible to effect any definitive arrangement, they agreed to submit the matter, with all the additional evi lence obtained by both parties, to their respective governments, and to await further orders ; Nootka being, in the mean time, considered a Spanish port.* Vancouver, * The preceding sketch of the negotiation between Vancouver and Quadra is derived from the Journals of Vancouver, Gahano and Valdes, and Ingraham. The following summary account of the business, extracted from Ingraham's Journal, was drawn up, at his request, by Mr. Howel, the supercargo of the American brig Mar- garet, who acted as translator for Quadra, and saw the whole of the correspondence. "The indefinite mode of expression adopted by Messrs. Fitzherbert and Florida Blanca did not atfix any boundaries to the cession expected by Great Britain : what the buildings were, or what was the extent of the tract of land to be restored, the plenipotentiaries did not think proper to determine. Don Juan Francisco, having no better guide, collected the best evidence he could procure, and that could enable him to determine what were the lands and buildings of which the British subjects were dispossessed, and which the tenor of the first article of the convention alone authorized him to restore. The result of this investigation, in which he was much aided by your communication, supported by the uniform decl.arations of Maquinna and his tribe, sufficiently evinced that the tract was a small corner of Friendly Cove, and, to use the words of Captain Vancouver, little more than a hundred yards in ex- tent any way ; and the buildings, according to your information, dwindled to one hut. Seiior Quadra, having ascertained the limits usually occupied by Mr. Meares, or his servants, was ever ready to deliver it, in behalf of his Catholic majesty, to any envoy from the British court. Captain Vancouver arrived at Nootka Sound in the latter end of August; and Seiior Quadra wrote to him on the subject of their re- spective orders, and enclosed your letter, together with one from a Captain Viana, a Portuguese, who passed as captain of the Iphigenia, when she was detained by the Spaniards. Don Juan Francisco, in his letter, avowed his readiness to put Captain Vancouver in possession of the tract of land where Mr. Meares's house once stood, which alone could be that ceded to Great Britain by the convention. Seiior Quadra offered, likewise, to leave for his accommodation all the houses, gardens, &c., which had been made at the expense of his Catholic majesty, as he intended leaving the port immediately. In the same letter, he tendered Captain Vancouver offers of every service and assistance which hospitality or benevolence could dictate. Cap- tain Vancouver, in reply, gratefully acknowledged the intended favors, but entirely dissented from the boundaries affixed by Senor Quadra to the tract of land, of which he was to receive the possession and property ; and, in pursuance of his directions, interpreted the first article as a cession of this port, viz., JVootka Sound, in toto, to- gether xcith Clyoquot, or Port Cox. He aisclaimed all retrospective discussion of the rights, pretensions, &c., of the two courts, and also of the actual possessions of British subjects in Nootka Sound, deeming it irrelevant to the business he was authorized to transact, and only to be settled by the respective monarchs. The letters which followed on both sides were merely a reiteration of the foregoing proposals and demands. Seiior Quadra invited to a diecussion of the boundaries, &c., and sup- 246 SURVETT OF BULFINCH's HARBOR. [1792. accordingly, despatched Lieutenant Mudge, by way of China, to England, with communications for his government ; and he then piepared for his own departure towards the south, being resolved to examine the Columbia River and Bulfinch's Harbor, of which he had received from Q,uadra copies of the charts given to that officer by Gray. Vancouver sailed from Nootka, with his three vessels, on the 13th of October, and, on the 18th, he was opposite Bulfinch's Harbor, to examine which he detached Lieutenant Whidbey, in the Daeda- lus, while he himself preceded with the other vessels to the mouth of the Columbia. Into that river Broughton penetrated, in the Chatham, on the 20th : the Discovery was unable to pass the bar at the mouth ; and Vancouver, being persuaded that the stream was inaccessible to large ships, " except in very fine weather, with moderate winds, and a smooth sea," sailed to the Bay of San Francisco, where he had ordered the other officers to join him in case of separation. In December following, the whole squadron was reunited at Monterey, where Whidbey and Broughton pre- sented the reports of their observations. Whidbey's account of Bulfinch's Harbor was less favorable than Gray's ; from both, however, it appears that the place possesses advantages which must render it important, whenever the surround- ing region becomes settled. It affords a safe retreat for small vessels, and there are several spots on its shore where boats may land without difficulty : moreover, it is the only harbor on the coast, between Cape Mendocino and the Strait of Fuca, except the mouth of the Columbia ; and, under such circumstances, labor and inge- nuity will certainly be employed to correct and improve what nature has offered. Upon the strength of this survey, the place has been frequently distinguished on British, and even on American maps, as Whidbey''s Harbor, although Vancouver himself has not pre- tended to withhold from Gray the merit of discovering it. Broughton, as before mentioned, entered the Columbia with the ported his evidence with well-grounded reasoning ; yet Captain Vancouver steadily adhered to the demands he first made, and refused every kind of discussion. The definitive letter from Seiior Quadra was transmitted on the 15th of September; but, it being of the same nature with the preceding ones, Captain Vancouver only re- plied by a repetition of his former avowal, and informing the Spanish commandant that he could receive, on the part of his master, the king of Britain, no other terri- tories than those he had pointed out in his other letters, with which if Senor Quadra did not comply, he must retain them for his Catholic majesty, until the respective courts should determine what fiirther proceedings tiiey might deem necessary." 1792.] BROUGHTOX SURVEYS THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 247 Chatham, on the 20th of October; and he there, to his surprise, found lying at anchor the brig Jenny, from Bristol, which had sailed from Nootka Sound a few days previous. Scaroe^y had the Chat- ham effected an entrance ere she ran aground ; and the channel proved to be so intricate, that Broughton determined to leave her about four miles from the mouth, and to proceed up the stream in his cutter. A short account of his survey will be sufficient, as it would be unnecessary to present an abridgment of the long and minute description given in the journal of Vancouver. The portion of the Columbia near the sea was found by Brough- ton to be about seven miles in width ; its depth varied from two fathoms to eight, and it was crossed in every direction by shoals, which must always render the navigation difficult, even by small vessels. Higher up, the stream became narrower, and, at the distance of twenty-five miles from its mouth, its breadth did not exceed a thousand yards. These circumstances were considered by Broughton and Vancouver as authorizing them to assume that the true entrance of the river was at the last-mentioned point, and that the waters between it and the ocean constituted an inlet or sound* From the extremity of this inlet, the party rowed eighty miles up the river, in a south-west course, to a bend, where, the current being so rapid as to prevent them from advancing without great labor, they abandoned the survey, and returned to their vessel. The angle of land around which the river flowed, and where their progress was arrested, received the appellation of Point Vancouver ; the part of the inlet where the ship Columbia lay at anchor during her visit, was called Grarfs Bay ; and that immediately within Cape Disappointment was named Ba]{er^s Bay, in compliment to the captain of the Jenny. On the 10th of November, the Chatham * " I shall conclude this account of the Columbia River by a few short remarks that Mr. Broughton made in the course of its survey, in his own words. ' The discovery of this river, we were given to understand, is claimed by the Spaniards, Avho called it Entrada de Ccta, after the commander of the vessel who is said to be its first discoverer, but who never entered it; he places it in 46 degrees north latitude. It is the same opening that Mr. Gray stated to us, in the spring, he had been nine days off, the former year, but could not get in, in consequence of the outsetting current; that, in the course of the late summer, he had, however, entered the river, or rather the sound, and had named it after the ship he then commanded. The ex- tent Mr. Gray became acquainted with on that occasion is no farther than what I have called Gray's Bay, not more than fifteen miles from Cape Disappointment, though, according to Mr. Gray's sketch, it measures thirty-six miles. By his calcu- lation, its entrance lies in latitude 46 degrees 10 minutes, longitude 237 degrees 18 minutes, differing materially, in these respects, from our observations.' " — Vancou- ver, vol. ii. p. 74. 248 , UNWORTHY CONDUCT OF VANCOUVER. [1792. quitted the Columbia, in company with the Jenny, and arrived at Port San Francisco before the end of the month. The distinction which Vancouver and Broughton have thus en- deavored to estabhsh between the upper and the lower portions of the Columbia, is entirely destitute of foundation, and at variance with the principles of our whole geographical nomenclature. Inlets and sounds are arms of the sea, running up into the land ; and their waters, being supplied from the sea, are necessarily salt : the waters of the Columbia are, on the contrary, generally fresh and potable within ten miles of the Pacific ; the volume and the overbearing force of the current being sufficient to prevent the farther ingress of the ocean. The question appears, at first, to be of no conse- quence : the following extract from Vancouver's journal will, how- ever, serve to show that the quibble was devised by the British navigators, with the unworthy object of depriving Gray of the merits of his discovery : " Previously to his [Broughton's] depart- ure, he formally took possession of the river, and the country in its vicinity, in his Britannic majesty's name, having every reason to believe that the subjects of no other civilized nation or state had, ever entered this river before. In this opinion he was confirmed by Mr. Gray^s sketch, in which it does not appear that Mr. Gray either saw or ever was within five leagues of its entrance.''^ This unjust view has been adopted by the British government and writers, and also, doubtless from inadvertency, by some distinguished authors in the United States. It may be, indeed, considered fortunate for Gray, that, by communicating the particulars of his discoveries, as he did, to Quadra, he secured an unimpeachable witness in support of his claims ; had he not done so, the world would probably never have learned that a citizen of the United States was the first to enter the greatest river flowing from America into the Pacific, and to find the only safe harbor on the long line of coast between Port San Fran- cisco and the Strait of Fuca. At San Francisco and Monterey, Vancouver surveyed the bays, and examined the Spanish establishments, of which he presents minute and graphic descriptions in his narrative ; and he obtained satisfactory evidence that the presidio of San Francisco, situated near the entrance of the bay, in latitude of 37 degrees 48 minutes, was the northernmost spot, on the Pacific coast of America, occupied by the Spaniards previous to the month of May, 1789, and was, con- sequently, according to the convention of 1790, the northernmost spot on that coast over which Spain could exercise exclusive juris- 1793.] EXECUTION OF MURDERERS AT WOAHOO. 249 diction. At Monterey, the English commander again met and conferred with the Spanish commissioner Quadra ; and it was agreed between them, that Lieutenant Broughton should proceed to Europe, across Mexico, with further communications, for their respective courts, on the subject of the arrangement of the ques- tions at issue. These affairs having been concluded, the Daidalus was sent to New South Wales ; and Vancouver proceeded, with the Discovery and Chatham, the latter under Lieutenant Puget, to the Sandwich Islands, where they arrived in the middle of Feb- ruary, 1793. At Owyhee, the English ships were visited by Tamahamaha, who was, by this time, acknowledged as king of the island by all the other chiefs except Tamaahmoto, the murderer of the crew of the Fair American. Vancouver immediately recognized the authority of Tamahamaha, to which he endeavored, but in vain, to induce Tamaalmioto to submit ; he then sailed to Mowee, where he succeeded in negotiating a peace between Titeree, king of that island, and the sovereign of Owyhee, and thence to Woahoo, where he superintended the trial and execution of three natives, who had been delivered up to him as the murderers of Hergest and Gooch, the officers of the Daedalus. The particulars of these judicial proceedings are detailed with precision by Vancouver, who seems to have been perfectly content with their regularity and correctness ; nevertheless, when Broughton visited the island, in 1796, he was assured, as he says, "that the men who were exe- cuted alongside of the Discovery had not committed the murders, but were unfortunate beings whom the chief selected to satisfy Captain Vancouver." * This appears to be certain from subsequent accounts ; and it seems to be somewhat strange, that Vancouver should not have suspected it to have been the case, at the time of the trial. Having performed these acts of diplomacy and justice in the Sandwich Islands, Vancouver proceeded to the American coasts ; and, after examining the portion near Cape Mendocino, including the place called Port Trinidad by the Spaniards, in 1775, so as to connect his surveys north and south of that portion, he sailed to Nootka, where he arrived on the 20th of May, 1793. The remain- der of the warm season was passed by the British navigators in making a minute and laborious examination of the shores of the " Journal of a Voyage to the Pacific, from 1793 to 1797, by Captain Robert Broughton, p. 42. 32 250 PRETENDED CESSION OF OWYHEE TO GREAT BRITAIN. [1794. continent, and the islands in its vicinity, from the northern entrance of the Strait of Fuca, near the 51st degree of latitude, northward, as* far as the 54th parallel ; tracing to their terminations, as in the preceding year, all the passages which appeared to run eastward, as well as many others, which were found to be channels separating islands from each other or from the main land. Several open- ings still remained unexplored beyond the 54th parallel ; but the weather became so stormy at the end of September, that the survey could no longer be continued with safety or advantage : Vancouver accordingly returned along the western side of Queen Charlotte's Island to Nootka, and thence took his departure for Port San Francisco, which he reached on the 19th of October. From Port San Francisco the British navigators sailed along the shores of California — which Vancouver takes care always to call New Albion — as far south as San Diego, near the 33d degree of latitude, visiting every important point on their way, and observing the coasts with great exactness ; and thence, in the middle of De- cember, they went to Owyhee, where they found that the supremacy of Tamahamaha was admitted, though with some qualifications, by the people and the other chiefs. Here Vancouver succeeded in effecting a reconciliation between the king and Tahowmannoo, his sultana, (since better known as Kaahumanu,) from whom he had been for some time separated on account of her open and repeated infidelities ; and he soon after gave further proof of his talents as negotiator, in a transaction the particulars of which do not appear to have been understood in the same light by both the parties. The navigator states that a strong disposition had been manifested by several chiefs, at the time of his first visit, to place their island under subjection to the British king, but that it had been opposed by other chiefs, on the ground that they should not surrender themselves to a superior foreign power, unless they were assured that they would thus be really protected against distant and neighboring enemies. At the time of his second visit, however, he found the disposition to submit much increased, and, as he says, " Under a conviction of the importance of these islands to Great Britain, in the event of an extension of her commerce over the Pacific Ocean, and in return for the essential services we had derived from the excellent productions of the country, and the ready assistance of its inhabitants, I lost no opportunity for encour- aging their friendly dispositions toward us, notwithstanding the 1794.] PRETENDED CESSION OF OWYHEE TO GREAT BRITAIN- 251 disappointments they had met from the traders, for whose conduct I could invent no apology ; endeavoring to impress them with the idea that, on submitting to the authority and protection of a superior power, they might reasonably expect they would in future be less liable to such abuses." Acting under these views, he conciliated Tamahamaha by building for him a small vessel, on which the guns taken from the schooner Fair American were mounted ; and, having induced all the principal chiefs ta meet him on the shore near his ships, it was determined, at the assembly, that Owyhee should be ceded to his Britannic majesty ; it being, however, clearly understood, thai no interference was to take place in the religion, government, and domestic economy, of the island — "that Tamahamaha, the chiefs, and priests, were to continue, as usual, to officiate, with the same authority as before, in their respective stations, and that no alteration in those particulars was in any degree thought of or intended.^' So soon as this resolution was announced. Lieu- tenant Puget, the commander of the Chatham, landed, displayed the British colors, and took possession of the island in the name of his sovereign ; after which a salute was fired from the vessels, and a copper plate was deposited in a conspicuous place at the royal resi- dence, bearing the following inscription : " On the 25th of February, 1794, Tamahamaha, king of Owyhee, in council with the principal chiefs of the island, assembled on board his Britannic majesty's sloop Discovery, in Karakakooa Bay, and, in presence of George Vancouver, commander of the said sloop. Lieutenant Peter Puget, commander of his said majesty's armed tender the Chatham, and the other officers of the Discovery, after due consideration, unani- mously ceded the said island of Owyhee to his Britannic majesty, and acknowledged themselves to be subjects of Great Britain." That Vancouver assumed more than was warranted, in thus asserting the cession of Owyhee, and the subjection of its chiefs to Great Britain, is clear ; not only from the subsequent declarations of the chiefs, that they only intended to place themselves under the protection of that power, but also from the understanding estab- lished between them and the navigator, that there was to be no interference in their internal concerns. At farthest, the transaction, even if ratified by the British government, can only be viewed as an engagement, on the part of the islanders, not to cede their country to any other nation, and, on the part of Great Britain, to secure them against conquest or oppression by any other. Most probably each of the parties merely desired to obtain for itself as 252 TAMAAHMOTO RECEIVED BY VANCOUVER. [1794. many advantages as could be derived from the transaction, without any intention to observe concomitant obhgations. Tamahamaha expected to receive assistance from Great Britain in conquering the remaining islands of the group ; and Vancouver wished to prevent other nations from resorting to Owyhee. It may be added, that Great Britain has, to this day, been little, if at all, benefited by the Sandwich Islands ; and that Tamahamaha, though he lived and flourished for twenty-five years after the transaction above men- tioned, never received a present, or even a message of any kind, from his brother King George, to whom he, however, occasionally sent a message by a whaling captain, reminding him that Vancou- ver's promise of a ship of war had not yet been fulfilled. No such promise is recorded in the journal of Vancouver ; though it there appears that the islanders had reason to believe that a vessel of war would be sent, for their protection, from Great Britain. Another circumstance connected with this pretended cession of Owyhee to the British deserves particular notice. The consumma- tion was delayed for some time, on account of the absence of Tamaahmoto, or Kamamoko, one of the most powerful chiefs, the same who, in February, 1790, captured the schooner Fair American, and murdered her crew, as already stated. Vancouver had, at first, refused to receive this man, or to have any intercourse with him ; but when it was found to be indispensable for the cession, that Tamaahmoto should give his vote in favor of it, the British commander began " seriously to reflect on all the circumstances that had attended his visits to the islands ; " and he, in the end, became " thoroughly convinced that implacable resentment or un- relenting anger, exhibited in his own practice, would ill accord with the precepts which he had endeavored to inculcate for the regulation of theirs." He therefore " determined, by an act of oblivion in his own mind, to efface all former injuries and offences," which he probably found no difficulty in doing, as the injuries and offences were committed against citizens of the United States ; and he accordingly intimated that he would " no longer regard Tamaah- moto as undeserving forgiveness, and would allow of his paying the compliments as he had so repeatedly requested, provided he would engage, in the most solemn manner, that neither himself nor his people (for he generally moved with a numerous train of attendants) would behave in any manner so as to disturb the subsisting harmony." On receiving this intimation, Tamaahmoto readily came forward ; he was admitted to the table of the British commander, and was 1794.] VANCOUVER COMPLETES THE SURVEY OF THE COAST. 253 one of the seven chiefs who assented to the cession. It is not necessary to show what inference the natives of tlie Sandwich Islands might draw from a comparison between the favor thus shown to the nmrderer of citizens of the United States, and the trial and execution of the persons who were charged with causing the deaths of the officers of the British vessel at Woahoo.* Soon after these transactions, the British navigators took their final leave of the Sandwich Islands, and, returning to the north-west coasts of America, examined every port which they had not previ- ously visited, from the peninsula of Aliaska, eastward and southward, to Queen Charlotte's Island. They began at Cook's River, and, having ascertained that no great stream entered that bay, they changed its name to Cook^s Inlet, which is now most commonly applied to it. They then proceeded to Prince William's Sound, the shores of which were completely surveyed ; and thence along the bases of Mounts St. Elias and Fairweather, to the great opening in the coast, near the 58th degree of latitude, which had been called by Cook Cross Soiind. In Cook's Inlet and Prince William's Sound, they visited all the Russian establishments, of which Van- couver presents full ai.d satisfactory accounts ; and, having succeeded in proving that the place in which Bering anchored on his last expedition could be no other than that called Admiralty Bay, at the foot of Mount St. Elias, on the east, they gave to it the name of Bering^s Bay, and as such it generally appears on English charts : the Russians call it the Bay of Yakutat. Through Cross Sound, Vancouver passed into a labyrinth of channels, some among islands, others running far inland, and termi- nating in the midst of stupendous mountains ; and, having succeeded in threading nearly all these passages, particularly those taking a northern or eastern direction, and thus joined his survey with that of the preceding year, he considered his task accomplished. He had made known the existence of an almost infinite number of islands, between the 54th and the 58th parallels, in the position assigned to the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, in the story of Fonte's voyage : but whilst a part of that story thus seemed to be confirmed, the remainder was supposed to be entirely disproved, as no great river * Tamaahmoto did not, however, scruple to declare, two years afterwards, that he would take the first vessel which might come within his reach ; and so little effect had the executions at Woahoo, that Captain Brown, of the British ship Butterworth, was killed, in January, 1795, by the natives of that island, in an attack which they made on his vessel with the intention to take her. — See Broughton'a account of his voyage in the Pacific, p. 43. 254 STIKINE RIVER. [1794. was found issuing from the continent opposite these islands ; and Vancouver became well satisfied " that the precision with which his survey had been conducted would remove every doubt, and set aside every opinion of a north-west passage, or any water communi- cation navigable for shipping, between the North Pacific and the interior of the American continent, within the limit of his re- searches." The belief thus expressed by the navigator has been completely confirmed. It must, nevertheless, be admitted that, con- sidering the intricacies in the coasts between the 48th and the 58th parallels, many passages, by which vessels could penetrate into the interior of the continent, might have long escaped the notice of the most careful observer; and in evidence of this is the fact, that a river called the Sdlcine,^ three miles wide at its mouth, and a mile wlJe thirty miles higher up, has been, since Vancouver's voyage, found entering the arm of the sea named by him Prince Frederick's Sound, in the latitude of 56 degrees 50 minutes. Vancouver's failure to discover the mouth of the Columbia should have ren- dered him distrustful of the entire accuracy of his observations in such cases. After completing these discoveries, Vancouver took possession of the part of the continent extending north-westward of that around the Strait of Fuca, which he had named New Georgia, as far as the 59th degree of latitude, and of all the adjacent islands, " in the name of his Britannic majesty, his heirs and successors," with the formalities usual on such occasions, including a double allow- ance of grog to the sailors. He also bestowed upon the various territories, straits, bays, &c., names derived almost entirely from the lists of the members of the royal family, the ministry, the Par- liament, the army and the navy of Great Britain ; the importance * Vancouver mentions Stikeen as the name of a country or nation on the conti- nental shore of Prince Frederick's Sound ; and he heard, from the natives farther south, of a place in that sound called by them Uon-nass, which word seemed to mean great channel. The first intimation of the existence of the river was probably com- municated to the world by the captain of the ship Atahualpa, of Boston, from whose journal an extract is published in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society for 1804, p. 242. The captain there says, — " August 25th, 1802. I had some conversation with Cou (a chief of an island near Queen Charlotte's Sound) respecting the natives who inhabit the country back of Stikeen : he had his information from Cokshoo, the Stikeen chief. * » * Cou also informs me that the place called Kass, or Uon-nass (spoken of by Vancouver) by the natives in Chebassa Strait, (Prince Frederick's Sound,) is the mouth of a river of very considerable extent, but unknown, navigable for vessels or large canoes." Near this place, the Atahualpa was attacked, in January, 1805, and her captain, mate, and six se imen, were killed : the others of her crew succeeded in escaping with the vessel. 1794.] NAMES OF PLACES ON THE NORTH-WEST COAST. 255 of the place thus distinguished being generally in proportion to the rank of the individual. Thus we find upon his chart of the north- west archipelago, the large islands or groups of King George the Third, the Prince of Wales, the DuJce of YorTc, and the Admiralty ; with the smaller ones of Pitt, Hawkesbury, Dundas, and Burke ; between which are the DuJce of Clarence's Strait, Prince Frederick's Sound, Chatham Canal, Grenville Canal, and Stephens's Passage : a small group, near the 55th parallel, partially surveyed by Caamano, in 1791, was allowed to retain the name of Revillagigedo Islands, in honor of the enlightened viceroy of Mexico. The capes, bays, and smaller points or channels, are" distributed among the Windhams, Walpoles, and other high families, principally those belonging to the Tory party ; one little point being, however, vouchsafed to Charles James Fox. Without questioning the right of the discov- erer to impose these names, it may be observed, that none of them will, in all probability, ever be used by the inhabitants of the region in which the place so called is situated. The Russians, who occupy the islands and coasts of the main-land north of the 54th parallel, rigorously exclude from their charts, and from use in every way, the appellations assigned to places in their dominions by people of other civilized countries ; and even the British traders, whose posts extend through the parts of the continent distinguished by Vancouver as New Georgia, New Hanover, New Cornwall, and New Norfolk, appear to be entirely ignorant of those names. From the northern coasts, Vancouver, when his labor was ended, went to Nootka, where he found the Spaniards still in possession, under the command of Brigadier Alava ; Quadra having died in the preceding spring, at San Bias. As no information had been received there from Europe respecting the surrender of the territories, the British commander sailed to Monterey, where he learned that the question had been " adjusted by the two courts amicably, and nearly on the terms which he had repeatedly offered to Quadra in Sep- tember, 1792;" and also "that the business was not to be carried into execution by him, as a fresh commission had been issued for the purpose by the court of London." Under these circumstances, he resolved to return immediately to Europe ; and he accordingly quitted Monterey on the 2d of December, 1794. On his way southward, he examined the Californian coast, though not minutely, as far as Cape San Lucas, from which he took his departure for Valparaiso, in Chili. After a short stay at that place, he passed around Cape Horn, and arrived in England in November, 1795 ; 256 END OF THE NOOTKA CONTROVERSY [1796. having completed, in the most effectual manner, the most extensive nautical survey which had ever been made in one expedition.* No account has yet transpired of the negotiation between the courts of London and Madrid, respecting the extent of territory, and the buildings on the north-west coasts of America, which were to be restored to British subjects, after the reference of that question to them by their commissioners. Lieutenant Broughton, who had been despatched to England by Vancouver in 1793, was thence sent by the government on this business to Madrid ; and, on his return to London, he was ordered to proceed to the North Pacific, in the sloop Providence, for the purpose of surveying the coasts of Asia, near Japan, being commissioned, at the same time, to receive possession of the territories at Nootka, in case the restitution should not have been previously made. He accordingly sailed from Eng- land for Nootka, where, in April, 1796, he w^as informed, by letters left in charge of Maquinna,t " that the Spaniards had delivered up the port of Nootka, &c., to Lieutenant Pierce, of the marines, agreeably to the mode of restitution settled between the two courts," * Vancouver's journal and charts were published at London in 1798, before which period the navigator had sunk into the grave. His journal is a simple record of obser- vations and occurrences, written in a plain and intelligible, though homely and un- pretending style ; and it is entirely free from those displays of imagination, in the shape of long political and philosophical disquisitions with which such works are often overloaded. The charts and views of the land are admirably executed, and their accuracy has been since generally confirmed. We are, in fact, indebted to Vancouver and his officers for our knowledge of the outline of the whole western coasts of Amer- ica, from the peninsula of California to the peninsula of Aliaska ; of which all the principal points have been ascertained with the utmost precision, so that succeeding navigators have only had to make corrections in the intermediate spaces. Vancouver himself was certainly a man of great courage, perseverance, and professional skill, possessing also good temper and good feelings, except with regard to citizens of the United States, against whom and their country he cherished the most bitter animosity. While admitting, with frankness, the merits of subjects of other nations, as discoverers or as men, he did not hesitate to adopt unwortliy means to deprive the Americans of the reputation which they had justly earned by their labors in exploring, and to blacken their characters as individuals : for this object, he made use of misrepresentations, misstatements, insinuations, and concealments, whenever occasions presented them- selves ; and that which he would have commended in a Briton, or excused in a Rus- sian or a Spaniard, became criminal in his eyes when committed by a citizen of the hated republic. He, nevertheless, appears to have given satisfaction to all with whom he came personally into communication. Ingraham speaks of him with the utmost respect, and acknowledges his obligations for the uniform kindness of the British navigator. In the Sandwich Islands his memory is universally cherished. He was long expected to return and establish himself there, as a commissioner from his sovereign ; and he probably would have been admitted among the number of their gods, if the ship which he is said to have promised to Tamahamaha had ever Deen sent. t Journal of a Voyage in the Pacific, by Captain Robert Broughton, p. 50. 1795.] DELIVERY OF NOOTKA TO THE BKITISH CLAIMANTS. 257 in March, 1795, after which the place had been entirely evacuated by both parties. Broughton, however, affords no information as to the mode of restitution thus settled and pursued on the occasion of the delivery ; nor is any light thrown on that point by the des- patch of Pearce to the British minister.* Belsham, whose ac- counts of these affairs, though in many respects erroneous, are much more conformable with the evidence than those of any other European historian, writes, in 1808, " It is nevertheless certain, from the most authentic subsequent information, that the Spanish flag flying at Nootka was never struck, and that the territory has been virtually relinquished by Great Britain." No Spanish account has been given to the world ; but we learn from unquestionable author- ity! that, in the preceding year, orders had been sent from Mexico for the abandonment of Nootka by the forces of that nation. * After long and repeated researches on this subject, the author succeeded in discovering the following extract from the despatch of Lieutenant Pearce to his grace the duke of Portland, which was published officially in London, on the 12th of September, 1795. " Tepic, JVew Galicia, 200 viiles to K. W. of the city of Mexico, April 25, 1795. "I have the honor of acquainting your grace, that, in obedience to your instruc- tions, I proceeded from Monterey to Nootka, in company with Brigadier-General Alava, the officer appointed on the part of the court of Spain for finally terminat- ing the negotiations relative to that post; where, having satisfied myself respecting the state of the country at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, preparations were immediately made for dismantling the fort which the Spaniards had erected on an island that guarded the mouth of the harbor, and embarking the ordnance. By the morning of the 26th, all the artillery were embarked, part on board of his Catholic majesty's sloop of war, Active, and part on board of the San Carlos guard-ship. Brigadier- General Alava and myself then met, agreeably to our re- spective instructions, on the place where formerly the British buildings stood, where we signed and e.xchanged the declaration, and counter-declaration, for re- storing those lands to his majesty, as agreed upon between the two courts. After which ceremony, I ordered the British flag to be hoisted, in token of possession, and the general gave directions for the troops to embark." This seems to have been all that was ever officially published on the subject; and from it, no doubt, was derived the account of the transaction given in the Histoire Abr6ge des Traites de Pai.x, by Koch and Schoell, vol. 4, p. 125. t In the librar}' of Congress, at Washington, is an interesting Spanish manu- script, presented by General Tornel, during his residence in the United States as minister from Mexico, entitled " Instruccion reservada del Reyno de Nueva Espafia que el Exmo. SeiSor Virrey Conde de Revillagigedo dio k su Sucesor el Exmo. Se- nor Marques de Branciforte en el Aiio de 1794." — Secret Instructions respecting the Kivcrdom of JVein Spain, given, in 1794, hy the Viceroy, Count de Revillagigedo, to Ids Successor, the Marquis de Branciforte. This work, which abounds in curious details relative to the administration of affairs in Mexico, has been carefully ex- amined with reference to the points in question ; but nothing has been collected from it, except in confirmation of statements elsewhere made. The paragraphs from 703 to 713, inclusive, are devoted to the Marine Department of San Bias, to which, as already mentioned, the care of the Spanish colonies in California was 33 258 TERMS OF THE DELIVERY OF NOOTKA. [1795. Between these accounts, however, there are really no discrepan- cies. The fort at Nootka was dismantled and abandoned by the Spaniards ; and they could have had no further object in maintain- ing it, even supposing its occupation to have been, what it seems not to have been, conformable with the convention. The British commis- sioner hoisted the flag of his nation over the lands given up to his countrymen, and the Spaniards may have left their flag flying over the spot which they had occupied. As to the virtual abandonment of the territory by Great Britain, the supposition is confirmed by facts ; for, after the visit of Broughton to Nootka, in 1796, no British sub- ject, so far as known, touched at that spot for nearly twenty years. With regard to the mode of restitution settled between the courts of London and Madrid, nothing can be learned from Pearce's de- spatch, or from any other known source. Vancouver states it to have been nearly the same which he had offered to Qiiadra, in Sep- tember, 1792. On that occasion, the British commissioner had required the unconditional surrender, to his sovereign, of all the territories of Nootka and Clyoquot ; and the Spaniards, while de- nying that British subjects had been ever dispossessed of any lands at either place, had, nevertheless, agreed to give up those temporarily occupied by Meares, in 1789, provided that Nootka were recognized as the northernmost Spanish possession, and all south of it as be- longing to Spain. These were the questions referred by the com- missioners, in 1792, to their courts. At the time when the reference reached Europe, Spain had just made ample reparation to the Brit- ish claimants, for their losses at Nootka, by the payment of two hundred and ten thousand dollars, besides restoring their vessels ; and the two nations were engaged in concluding a treaty of alliance defensive and offensive against France, which was signed at Aran- juez on the 25th of May, 1793. Under these circumstances, it is more reasonable to suppose the agreement to have been, that the lands at Nootka should be delivered up in form, to save the credit of the British ministry, and that both parties should abandon the north-west coast of America, than that either should have persisted in its original demand at a moment when their cordial union and cooperation was so desirable for both. committed. The count recommends to his successor the maintenance of those colonies, as the best means of preserving Mexico from foreign influences ; advis- ing him, at the same time, however, not to extend the establishments beyond the Strait of Fuca. With regard to Nootka, it is merely stated, in paragraph 713, that orders had been sent to the commandant to abandon the place, agreeably to a royal dictamen 1796.] ABKOGATION OF THE NOOTKA CONVENTION BY AVAR. 259 The alliance between Great Britain and Spain proved so disas- trous to the latter, that she was obliged, in July, 1796, to make peace with France, and, in October following, to declare war against her former ally, Great Britain, which lasted, with the inter- mission of two years of doubtful relations after the treaty of Amiens, until 1809. From the moment of this declaration of war, the Nootka Convention ceased to have effect, agreeably to the uni- versal rule of national law, observed by all civilized states, that all treaties expire on the commencement of war between the parties to them. From that moment all the privileges allowed, and restric- tions imposed, by the convention were terminated, and each nation was left at liberty to pursue its own course with regard to the seas and territories to which that agreement related. Spain might again claim the exclusive navigation of the Pacific and Southern Oceans, and the exclusive sovereignty of the parts of America bordering on them ; and Great Britain might again assert her right to sail in any open sea, and to occupy, and possess in sovereignty, any vacant coasts. Note. — On this question of national law and usage, it will be convenient here to present a few observations. A treaty or convention is a record of engagements between two or more na- tions, to perform, or to abstain from, certain acts, under certain circumstances of time, place and occasion, as specified either directly or implicitly by the terms of the compact ; and as these engagements are supposed to be for the advantage of one or more of the parties, so are they necessarily understood to subsist only during peace between them, unless otherwise especially declared. (Vattel, Book 3, chap. 10, sec. 175.) A nation, when resorting to war, by the same right emploj's every means in its power to distress its enemy, and to benefit itself; without regard to any engagements not specially referring to a state of hostilities, or to any restrictions as to the means employed, except such as it may choose to observe, from respect to the dictates of humanity or the opinion of the world. War between civilized nations commonly ends by consent of the parties, ex- pressed in a treaty of peace. The mere declaration that there shall be peace, however, establishes nothing more than that hostilities between the parties shall cease from that moment: it merely reduces them to inertia ; the restoration of conquests, the evacua- tion of territories invaded, even the release of prisoners,, must be made the subjects of separate express stipulations. In all points for which provision is not thus clearly made, eacli party may legally remain in the e.xact position held by it at the moment of concluding the treaty of peace. (Vattel, Book 4, chap. 2, sec. 19,21.) That such is the practice of nations, every treaty of peace will show ; and none more unequivo- cally, than the two between Great Britain and the United States. The restoration of peace, therefore, does not of itself produce necessarily a revival of engagements existing when the war began. As the peace is supposed to be made ■with the free will of all the parties, so must the revival of former engagements, as well as the contraction of new ones, be regarded as made with the entire consent of each ; and it is difiicult to conceive any class of agreements, the revival of which may not, after a war, be considered by some party as deleterious to its interests. It is consequently clear, that some general understanding should exist ; and that treaties 260 ALL TREATIES ARE ABROGATED BY WAR. [1796. of peace should, in order to answer their end, show unequivocally — what previous compacts are to be restored to force, all others being regarded as null — or which are to be annulled, all others being revived. To leave such points undetermined, would be only to open the way for a speedy rupture of the peace. Of the two alternatives thus presented, the simpler rule is evidently that — which leaves extinct all engagements made previous to the war, except those restored to force by the specific terms of the treaty of peace; and that this rule has been pursued inva- riably by civilized nations, ever since national law was first detined and reduced to piinciples, all the treaties of peace made within the two last centuries prove beyond question. Thus the treaties of Utrecht, in 1713, of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, of Paris, in 17G3, and of Versailles, in 1783, distinctly declare what treaties, esistinp- previous to the war ended by each compact, are to be renewed, either wholly or in part, uncon- ditionally or with exceptions; all others being ipso facto considered null and void. The French revolution so completely changed the face of Europe, that the plenipo- tentiaries at Amiens, in 1802, found nothing in previous treaties which could not be expressed more easily by new stipulations ; and the treaties of Amiens were in their turn considered as nearly obsolete in 1814, when those concluded at Vienna again referred to provisions made at Utrecht a hundred years before. Some eminent writers on national law have however attempted to establish a par- ticular class of treaties, to be called Transitory Compacts, including those for cessions or exchange of territory, settlement of boundaries, and other objects, which are to be regarded as " perpetual in their nature, so that being once carried into effect, they subsist independent of any change in the sovereignty and form of government of the con- tracting parties ; and, although their operation may in some cases be suspended during war, they revive, on the return of peace, without any express stipulation."' (Wheaton's Elements of International Law, Part 3, chap. 2, sec. 7. — See, also. Marten's Precis du Droit des Gens, Book 2, chap. 1, sec. 5.) With due respect to those high authorities, the distinction thus proposed seems to be unnecessary, if not embarrassing ; and to rest on a misapprehension of the nature of a treaty. The class o? transitory compacts would embrace only those, which are supposed to be intended to settle a question definitively by some specified act or acts, and do not acquire this character of perpetuity until they have been thus carried into effect. But a treaty is only a record of engagements ; when the acts have been com- pleted, the question is closed, the engagement is cancelled, and the treaty containing it becomes merely a proof, to which the parties may refer in substantiation of their rights or claims. A territory ceded to a nation, or confirmed to it by the settlement of a bound- ary, under a valid treaty, becomes thenceforth as much its property as any other of its territories ; it may, like any other, be transferred with a valid title to another nation, even during war with the party first ceding it, and is neither more nor less than any other subject to the effects of war and of peace. The same principle applies to all recogni- tions or abdications of rights or powers, which are nothing more than indications of certain acts, to be performed or avoided, for an indefinite period : during war they are of no avail ; if renewed by a treaty of peace, they are binding on the parties, like any other engagements ; though their non-renewal does not necessarily imply a release from the obligation to observe them, as they may, and generally do, relate to what is already ordered by the law of nature, by common sense, or by the common consent of nations. Thus the acknowledgment of the independence of the United States of America by Great Britain, in the treaty of 1783, was necessary, not only because the latter power had always previously refused and opposed it by arms, but also, in order to show what territories and people were embraced in the new republic ; but the rep- etition of this acknowledgment, in the treaty of 1814, after thirty years of intercourse, in every way, between the two powers, would have been no less absurd than tho insertion of an admission by the United States, of the capacity of Great Britain to contract engagements. 261 CHAPTER XII. 1788 TO 1810. Establishment of the North- West Fur Trading Company of Montreal, in 1783 — Expeditions of Mackenzie to the Arctic Sea and to the Pacific Coast — The Trade between the North Pacific Coasts of America and Canton conducted almost ex- clusively by Vessels of the United States from 1796 to 1814 — Establishment of the Russian American Company — Its Settlements and Factories on the American Coasts — Expedition of Krusenstern through the North Pacific — Proposition of the Russian Government to that of the United States, witli Regard to the Trade of the North Pacific. Whilst the navigators of various nations were thus completing the survey of the shores of North- West America, important infor- mation respecting the interior regions of that section of the conti- nent w^as obtained by the agents of an association formed at Montreal, in 1784, for the prosecution of the fur trade in the Indian territories, which were supposed to be beyond the jurisdiction of the Hudson's Bay Company. Before Canada came into the possession of Great Britain, a large, if not the greater, portion of the furs sent from America by the subjects of that power was shipped from New York. After that period, Montreal became the principal seat of the trade; and dis- putes immediately arose between the Hudson's Bay Company, which claimed the whole division of America drained by streams falling into that sea, and the Canadians, who pursued their trade in the southern and western parts of that territory. These disputes, with which the British government did not, from policy, choose to inter- fere, were injurious to the interests of both parties ; and, the Indian countries north of Lake Superior having been, about the same time, almost depopulated by the smallpox, the trade was confined, for some years, to the environs of Hudson's Bay, the lower lakes, end the St. Lawrence, where the animals were less numerous, and their furs inferior in quality. At length, about the year 1775, some enterprising merchants of Montreal penetrated into the countries, far north-west of Lake Superior, drained by the Saskatchawine and Athabasca Rivers, 262 NORTH-WEST COMPANY FOK3IED. [1784. which had long before been frequented by the French ; and their success in trade was such as to induce others to n}ake similar expe- ditions. The Canadians were, however, exposed, on their way, to great difficulties and annoyances from the Hudson's Bay Company, with which they were unable separately to contend ; and they, in consequence, in the year 1784, united their interests, and assumed for their association the title of the North- West Company of Mon- treal. Other associations were afterwards formed, but they were soon either dissolved or united with the North- West Company. The organization of this new company was such as to insure the utmost regularity and devotion to the interests of the concern among all who were engaged in its service. The number of the shares was at first sixteen, but was afterwards increased to twenty, and then to forty. A certain proportion of them was held by the agents, residing in Montreal, who furnished the capital ; the remain- der being distributed among the proprietors, or partners, who super- intended the business in the forts or posts in the interior, and the clerks, who traded directly with the Indians. The clerks were young men (for the most part natives of Scotland) who entered the service of the company for five or seven years ; and, at the end of that time, or even earlier, if they conducted themselves well, they were admitted as proprietors. The inferior servants of the com- pany were guides, interpreters, and voyageurs, — the latter being employed as porters on land and as boatmen on the water, — all of whom were bound to the interests of the body by hopes of advance- ment, in station or in pay, and of pensions in their old age. Before the formation of the North- West Company, the farther- most trading establishment of British subjects was one on the Athabasca or Elk River, about twelve hundred miles north-west of Lake Superior, which had been founded, by Messrs. Frobisher and Pond, in 1778 ; and this continued to be the principal post in that part of the continent for ten years, when it was abandoned, and another, called Fort Chipewyan, was established on the south-west side of the Athabasca Lake, or Lake of the Hills, into which the Elk River discharges its waters. In the mean time, several large parties had been sent, for the purposes of trade and discovery, from Canada towards the west — one of which, consisting of about a hundred men, penetrated to the foot of the great dividing chain then called the Shining Mountains, or Mountains of Bright Stones, and now commonly known as the Rocky Mountains ; * but they were * Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society for 1794, p. 21. 1789.] MACKENZIE REACHES THE ARCTIC SEA. 263 unable to proceed farther, in consequence of the hostile dispositions of the natives. Between 1788 and 1794, two other expeditions were made from Fort Chipewyan by Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, the superintending proprietor at that place, of which a particular account should be here given, as the geographical information obtained in them was highly interesting, and led to important commercial and political results.* The Athabasca Lake is a basin about two hundred miles in length from east to west, and about thirteen in average breadth, sit- uated under the 59th parallel of latitude, midway between the Pacific Ocean and Hudson's Bay. It is supplied by several streams, of which the principal are the Athabasca or Elk River, flowing from the south, and the Unjigah or Peace River, from the Rocky Moun- tains, on the west ; and its waters are discharged through the Slave River, running about two hundred miles north, into the Great Slave Lake, discovered by Hearne in 1771. All these rivers join the Athabasca Lake at its south-west end, near which Fort Chipewyan was then situated. Mackenzie's first expedition was made in 1789, and its principal object was to ascertain the course of the waters from the Great Slave Lake to the sea, which Hearne had left undetermined. For this purpose, he left Fort Chipewyan, with his party, in bark canoes, on the 3d of June, 1789, and, passing down the Slave River into the Great Slave Lake, he discovered a large stream flowing out of the latter basin, at its north-west extremity, to which he gave the name of Mackenzie River ; and this stream he descended about nine hundred miles, in a north-west direction, along the base of a chain of mountains, to its termination in the sea. On his return, he examined the country east of his great river, which had been traversed by Hearne, and arrived at Fort Chipewyan on the 12th of September, after an absence of nearly three months. The mouth of the Mackenzie was supposed by its discoverer to be situated near the 69th degree of latitude, and about 25 degrees of longitude, or five hundred miles, west of the mouth of Hearne's Coppermine River, which is not far from its t^ae position.! Still * Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Lawrence, through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and the Pacific Oceans, in 1789 and 1793, with a pre- liminary Account of the Fur Trade of that Country ; by Sir Alexander Mackenzie. London, 1801. t Its principal mouth is in latitude 69°, longitude 136° west from Greenwich. 264 Mackenzie's journey to the pacific. [1792 farther west must, of course, be situated any passage or sea con necting the Pacific with the part of the ocean into which both those rivers were supposed to empty ; and the existence of any such passage east of Bering's Strait became, in consequence, much less probable. In his second expedition, Mackenzie quitted Fort Chipewyan on the 10th of October, 1792, and ascended the Unjigah or Peace River, from the Athabasca Lake, with much difficulty, to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, where he spent the winter in camp. In June of the following year, he resumed his voyage up the same stream, which he traced, in a south-west direction, through the mountains, to its springs, near the 54th degree of latitude, distant more than nine hundred miles from its mouth. Within half a mile of one of these springs, he embarked on another stream, called by the natives Tacoutchee-Tessee, down which he floated in canoes about two hundred and fifty miles ; then, leaving the river, he proceeded westward about two hundred miles over land, and, on the 22d of July, 1793, he reached the Pacific Ocean, at the mouth of an inlet, in the latitude of 52 degrees 20 minutes, which had, a few weeks previous, been surveyed by Vancouver, and been named the Cascade Canal. Having thus accomplished a passage across the American continent at its widest part, he retraced his steps to Fort Chipewyan, where he arrived on the 24th of August. By this expedition, Mackenzie ascertained beyond all doubt the fact of the extension of the American continent, on the Pacific Ocean, undivided by any water passage, as far north as the latitude of 52 degrees 20 minutes ; which fact was, about the same time, rendered nearly, though not absolutely, certain by the examinations of Vancouver. The River Tacoutchee-Tessee was supposed to be the upper part of the Columbia, until 1812, when it was traced to its mouth, in the Strait of Fuca, near the 49th degree of latitude; and since that time it has been called Fraser^s River. The discoveries of Mackenzie, taken in conjunction with the re- sults of Vancouver's surveys, strengthened the conclusion, at which Cook had arrived, that the American continent extended uninter- ruptedly north-westward to Bering's Strait ; and Mackenzie him- self conceived, though certainly without sufficient grounds, that he had clearly determined in the negative the long-agitated question as to the practicability of a voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, around the northern shores of America. For the advancement of British interests in the North Pacific, he recommended that the 1792.] JOURNEYS OF FIDLER AND TRUDEAU. 265 Hudson's Bay and the North- West Companies, which had been opposed to each other ever since the formation of the latter, should be united ; that the British government should favor the establish- ment of commercial communications across North America, for which the rivers and lakes in the portion claimed by him for that power afforded unrivalled facilities ; and that the East India Com- pany should throw open to their fellow-subjects the direct trade between the north-west coasts of America and China, which was then, he says, " left to the adventurers of the United States, acting without regularity or capital, or the desire of conciliating future confidence, and looking only to the interest of the moment." These recommendations were not thrown away, but were nearly all adopted by those to whom they were addressed ; and the result has been, the extension of British commerce and dominion throughout the whole northern section of America. Whilst Mackenzie was engaged in his journey to the Pacific coast, Mr. Fidler, a clerk in the service of the North-West Company, made an expedition from Fort Buckingham, a trading-post on the Saskatchavvine River, south-westward, to the foot of the Rocky Mountains,* along which he seems to have travelled, through the regions drained by the head-waters of the Missouri. About the same time, several trading voyages were made up the Missouri by the French and Spaniards of St. Louis ; particularly by the mem- bers of a company formed at that place by a Scotchman named Todd, under the special protection of the Spanish government, the object of which was to monopolize the whole trade of the interior and western portions of the continent.! The trade of the citizens of the United States with the Indians in the central portion of the continent was much restricted, for many years after the establishment of the independence of the republic, in consequence of the possession of Louisiana by the Spaniards, and the retention by the British of several important posts south of the great lakes, within the territory acknowledged as * On Arrowsmith's "Map of all the ncic Discoveries in Korth America" published Qt London in 1795, several streams are represented, on the authority of Mr. Fidler, as flowing from the Rocky Mountains on both sides ; but none corresponding with them in course or position have been since found. t The journal of one of these voyages, made by M. Trudeau, in 1794, has been preserved in the archives of the Department of State at Washington ; it is, however, devoted chiefly to the numbers, manners, customs, religion, &c., of the natives on the banks of the Missouri, particularly of the Arickaras, inhabiting the country under the 46th parallel of latitude. 34 '266 AMERICAN COMMERCE IN THE PACIFIC. [1796 1814. belonging to the Union, by the treaty of 1783. At length, by the treaty of November 19, 1794, between Great Britain and the United States, it was agreed that these posts should be given up to the Americans, and that the people of both nations, and the Indians " dwelling on either side of the boundary line, should have liberty freely to pass and repass, by land or inland navigation, into the respective territories of the two parties, on the continent of America, (the country within the limits of the Hudson's Bay only excepted,) and to navigate all the lakes, rivers, and waters thereof, and freely to carry on trade with each other." The surrender of these posts, especially of Detroit and Michilimackinac, was very inconvenient to the North- West Company, whilst the trade of the Americans with the central regions was thereby increased ; and large quantities of furs were annually transported to the Atlantic cities, principally to New York, from which place they were dis- tributed throughout the United States, or shipped for London or Canton. On the North Pacific, the direct trade between the American coasts and China remained, from 1796 to 1814, almost entirely, as Mackenzie said, in the hands of the citizens of the United States : the British merchants were restrained from engaging in it by the opposition of their East India Company ; the Russians were not admitted into Chinese ports ; and few ships of any other nation were seen in that part of the ocean. That these American " adventurers acted without regularity or capital, or the desire of conciliating future confidence, and looking only to the interest of the moment,''^ was also, to a certain extent, true ; though the facts can scarcely be considered discreditable to them, as Mackenzie insinu- ated, even supposing their operations to have been conducted in the manner represented by a British writer, whose hostility to the United States and their citizens was even more violent than that of Vancouver. "These adventurers," says the writer above mentioned,* "set out on the voyage with a few trinkets of very little value. In the Southern Pacific, they pick up some seal-skins, and perhaps a few butts of oil ; at the Gallipagos, they lay in turtle, of which they * Review of "A Voyage around the World, from 1806 to 1812, by Archibald Campbell," in the London Quarterly Review for October, 1816, written in a spirit of the most deadly hatred towards the United States, and filled with assertions most impudently false. 1796 1814.] AMERICAN COMMERCE IN THE PACIFIC. 267 preserve the shells; at Valparaiso, they raise a few dollars in ex- change for European articles ; at Nootka, and other parts of the north-west coasts, they traffic with the natives for furs, which, when winter commences, they carry to the Sandwich Islands, to dry and preserve from vermin ; here they leave their own people to take care of them, and, in the spring, embark, in lieu, the natives of the islands, to assist in navigating to the north-west coast, in search of more skins. The remainder of the cargo is then made up of sandal, which grows abundantly in the woods of Atooi and Owyhee, of tortoise shells, sharks' fins, and pearls of an inferior kind, [meaning, probably, mother-of-pearl shells,] all of which are acceptable in the China market ; and with these and their dollars they purchase cargoes of tea, silks, and nankins, and thus complete their voyage in the course of two or three years." This account appears to be, in most respects, correct, with regard to many of the American vessels engaged in the Pacific trade at the period to wliich it relates; and it serves only to prove the industry, energy, courage, and skill, of those who embarked in such difficult and perilous enterprises, and conducted them so successfully. It would, however, be easy to show, from custom-house returns and other authentic evidence, that the greater number of the vessels sent from the United States to the north-west coasts were fine ships or brigs, laden with valuable cargoes of West India productions, British manufactured articles, and French, Italian, and Spanish wines and spirits ; and that the owners were men of large capital and high reputation in the commercial world, some of whom were able to compete with the British companies, and even occasionally to control their movements. The American traders in the Pacific have also been accused, by British writers, of practising every species of fraud and violence in their dealings with the natives of the coasts of that sea : yet the acts cited in support of these general accusations are only such as have been, and ever will be, committed by people of civilized nations, — and by none more frequently than the British, — when unrestrained by laws, in their intercourse with ignorant, brutal, and treacherous savages, always ready to rob or murder upon the slightest prospect of gain, or in revenge for the slightest affiont. Seldom did an American ship complete a voyage through the Pacific without the loss of some of her men, by the treachery or the ferocity of the natives of the coasts which she visited ; and 268 ' AMERICAN COMMERCE IN THE PACIFIC. [1796 1814. several instances have occurred of the seizure of such vessels, and the massacre of their vt^hole crews, in this manner.* All the islands in the Pacific, and every part of the north-west coasts of America, were visited by the vessels of the United States in the course of these voyages. Their principal places of resort were the Sandwich Islands, where they obtained fresh provisions, and occasionally seamen from among the natives ; and the mouth of the Columbia, Nootka Sound, and Queen Charlotte's Island, in which they traded with the Indians for furs. They occasionally touched at the ports of California, where they were, however, viewed with great distrust by the Spanish authorities ; and they generally made the tour of the Russian settlements, which derived from the Americans, in this way, the greater part of their supplies of European manufactures, ammunition, sugar, wines, and spirits, in exchange for peltries. The furs were, as before, sold in Canton, at prices not high, though sufficient to encourage a moderate importation ; but they seldom formed the whole cargo of the vessels arriving there, the remainder being composed of sandal-wood, and pearl and tor- toise shells. The Sandwich Islands fell in succession under the authority of Tamahamaha, who displayed admirable sagacity in his mode of conducting the government, amid all the dangers and difficulties arising from internal opposition and the constant presence of stran- gers of various nations. Like the present pacha of Egypt, he was not only the political chief, but also the chief merchant of his territories : in his minor commercial operations he was generally * In 1805, the ship Atahualpa, of Rhode Island, was attacked by tne savages in Millbank Sound, and her captain, mate, and six seamen, were killed ; after which the other seamen succeeded in repelling the assailants and saving the vessel. In March, 1803, the ship Boston, of Boston, while lying at Nootka Sound, was attacked by Maqulnna and his followers, who obtained possession of her, and put to death all on board, with the exception of two men, who, after remaining in slavery four years, effected their escape. In the same manner, the ship Tonquin was, in June, 1811, seized by the natives, at the entrance of the Strait of Fuca, and her whole crew murdered in a moment, as will be hereafter more particularly related ; and other instances of a similar nature might be cited. The account of the capture of the Boston, by John R. Jewitt, the armorer of the ship, contains many curious details respecting the country around Nootka Sound, and its inhabitants, as observed by the author during his residence there, from L^03 to 1807. This little work has been frequently reprinted, and, though seldom found in libraries, is much read by boys and seamen in the United States. It presents tlie last notices which have been found on record of Maquinna, for whom Jewitt aopears to have entertained a great admiration. 1799.] RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY ESTABLISHED. 269 successful ; but when he ventured to extend the scale of his specu- lations, by sending vessels laden with sandal-wood to Canton, he was, as he asserted, always cheated by those to whom he committed the management of the business. In Cahfornia, the Franciscan missionaries were proceeding steadily in their course, and the number of their converts was daily increasing. The government appears to have been liberal in the appropriation of funds for their use ; but, in Spanish America, a long time always elapsed between the issue of an order for supplies and their dehvery, and a large proportion of the amount originally ordered was generally subtracted before it reached those for whose use it was designed. Soldiers, whose terms had expired, were also, in some cases, allowed to remain in the country ; and the com- mandants permitted a little contraband trade with the Americans, who introduced manufactured articles in return for hides. In the mean time, the Russians of Northern Asia, though ex- cluded from the ports of China, continued their commerce with that empire, as also with Europe, as formerly, by means of caravans passing over land ; the communications being conducted principally by a company establi.'^hed at Irkutsk, the great mart of that part of the world. The fur trade of the northernmost coasts of the Pacific was monopolized by the association, formed in 1781, under the direction of Schelikof and GoUikof, which was protected by the empress Catharine, and endowed with many important privileges. After the death of Catharine, in 1794, her son and successor, Paul, at first determined to put an end to the association, on account of the alleged cruelty of its agents towards the natives of the American coasts : he was, however, induced to change his resolution ; and, a union having been effected, in 1798, between the two companies above mentioned, a decree was issued, on the 8th of July of the following year, conceding to them, under the title of the Russian American Company, the entire use and control, for twenty years, of all the coasts of America on the Pacific, from the 55th degree of north latitude to Bering's Strait, together with the adjacent islands, including the Kurile and the Aleutian groups, all of which were claimed as having been discovered by Russians. The company was also authorized to explore, and bring under subjection to the imperial crown, any other territories in America not previously attached to the dominions of some civilized nation ; with the express provision that the natives of all these countries should be treated with kindness, and, if possible, be converted to the 270 RUSSIAN ESTABLISHMENTS IN AMERICA. [1806. Greek Catholic faith. These privileges were confirmed and in- creased by the emperor Alexander, whose chief minister of state, Count Romanzoff, was a zealous promoter of all that could tend to advance the power and interests of Russia in the Pacific ; and the company still enjoys the favor of the government, its charter having been renewed by successive decrees in 1821 and 1839. Under these advantageous circumstances, combined with great skill and energy in the management of its affairs, and aided by the constant increase of facilities for communication throughout the empire, the Russian American Company prospered ; and its estab- lishments soon extended over the whole of the Aleutian Archipelago, and thence eastward along the coast and islands of the American continent, to the distance of more than a thousand miles. In 1803, the most eastern of these establishments was on Norfolk Sound, the Port Guadelupe of the Spaniards, near the 56th degree of latitude, at the southern entrance of the passage which separates Mount San Jacinto or Edgecumb from the largest island of King George III.'s Archipelago. This settlement, founded in 1799, was de- stroyed, in 1803, by the natives of the country, with the assistance, as it is said, of some seamen who had deserted from an American vessel ; but another was formed there in 1805, which received tlie name of New Archangel of Sitca^ and has ever since been the capital of Russian America. The other principal establishments of the company were in Unalashka and Kodiak, and on the shores of Cook's Inlet, Prince William's Sound, and Admiralty or Bering's Bay. In 1806, preparations were made for occupying the mouth of the Columbia River ; but the plan was abandoned, although that spot, and the whole region north of it, was then, and for some time after continued to be, represented, on the maps published by the company, as within the limits of its rightful possessions. The population of each of these establishments consisted princi- pally of natives of America, brought by the Russians from other and distant parts of the coast ; between whom and the people of the surrounding country there were no ties of kindred or language, and there could be little community of feelings or interests. The Aleutian Islands and Kodiak furnished the greater number of these forced emigrants, and also a large proportion of the crews of the vessels employed in the service of the company. The Russians were enlisted in Kamtchatka and Siberia, for a term of years : they entered as Promuschleniks, or adventurers, and were employed, according to the will of their superiors, as soldiers, sailors, hunters, 1806.] GOVERNMENT OF RUSSIAN AMERICA. 271 fishermen, or mechanics ; in the best of which situations their lot was more wretched than that of any other class of human beings within the pale of civilization, or, indeed, of any other class of per- sons whatsoever, except the natives of the American coasts, whom they assisted in keeping under subjection. Under such circum- stances, it will be easily believed that " none but vagabonds and adventurers ever entered the company's service as Promuschleniks ; " that " it was their invariable destiny to pass a life of wretchedness in America ; " that " few had the good fortune ever to touch Rus- sian ground again, and very few to attain the object of their wishes by returning to Europe." * The government of Russian America was arranged on a plan even more despotic than that of the other parts of the empire. The general superintendence of the affairs of the company was in the hands of a Directory, residing at St. Petersburg, by which all the regulations and appointments were made, and all questions were decided, with the approval, however, of the imperial depart- ment of commerce. All the territories belonging to the company, and all persons and things in them, were placed under the control of a chief agent. or governor, residing at Kodiak or Sitca, from whose orders there was no appeal, except to the Directory : in like manner, each district or group of settlements was ruled by an inferior agent, accountable directly to the governor-general ; and each factory or settlement was commanded by an overseer, chosen from among the Promuschleniks, who possessed the right to pun- ish, to a certain extent, those within the circle of his authority. The regulations for the government of these territories were, like those of the Spanish Council of the Indies, generally just and humane; but the enforcement of them, as in Spanish America, was intrusted, for some time, to men with whom justice and humanity were subordinate to expediency. The first chief agent was Alex- ander Baranof, who had accompanied Schelikof in his expedition in 1783, and was the superintendent of the settlements at Kodiak and Cook's Inlet when Vancouver visited those places in 1794. He was a shrewd, bold, enterprising, and unfeeling man, of iron frame and nerves, and the coarsest habits and manners. By his inflexible severity and energy, he seems to have maintained absolute and in- dependent sway over all the Russian American coasts for more than twenty years ; showing little respect to the orders of the Directory, * Krusenstern's Account of his Voyage to the North Pacific. 272 GOVERNMENT OF RUSSIAN AMERICA. [1806. and even to those of the emperor, when they were at variance with his own views. He was, however, devoted to the interests of the company, and, its affairs being most profitably managed under his direction, he was allowed to follow his own course, and the com- plaints against him which reached the Directory were unheeded. These complaints were, it is true, not frequent ; for the Directory and the imperial throne at St. Petersburg were almost as completely inaccessible to the subjects and servants of the company residing in America, as they would have been in another planet. Among the in- ferior agents were men of higher and better character than their chief; but they were forced to bend under his authority, and their efforts to introduce improvements were vain, if they in any degree conflicted with his views as to the immediate interests of the company. Of the furs which formed the whole returns from these territories, some were transported in the company's vessels to Petropawlowsk and Ochotsk, whence were brought back the greater part of the supplies of provisions for the use of the establishments ; the re- mainder of the furs being exchanged for arms, ammunition, spirits, wine, tobacco, sugar, and European manufactures, furnished by the trading ships of the United States, of which a large number were then constantly employed in the North Pacific. The presence of these American vessels was by no means agreeable to the Russians, who would willingly have excluded them from that part of the ocean, not only for the purpose of monopolizing the fur trade, but also in order to prevent the natives of the coasts from obtaining arms and ammunition from the Americans, as they frequently did, to the detriment of the authority and interests of the company. This, however, could not have been effected without maintaining a large naval force in the North Pacific ; nor could the settlements have been extended or supported without the supplies furnished by the Americans, unless a direct intercourse were established by sea with Europe, China, or Japan. With the view of inquiring what measures would be most effect- ual for the advancement of the interests of the Russian American Company in these and other respects, it was determined at St. Petersburg, in 1803, that an expedition, scientific and poUtical, should be made through the North Pacific. Two ships, the Na- deshda, commanded by Captain Krusenstern, and the Neva, by Captain Lisiansky, were accordingly despatched from Cronstadt, in August of that year, under the direction of Krusenstern, carry- ing out a large body of officers and men, distinguished in various 1806.] VOYAGE OF KRUSENSTERN. 273 branches of science, together with the chamberlain, Von Resanoff, who was commissioned as ambassador to Japan, and as plenipoten- tiary of the Russian American Directory. The two ships passed together around Cape Horn, touched at the Washington and the Sandwich Islands, and then separated ; the Neva going to the north-west coasts of America,, and the Nadeshda to Petropawlowsk, where she arrived in the middle of July, 1804. From Kamtchatka, Krusenstern proceeded, with the ambassador, to Nangasaki, the capital of Japan, at which place their arrival only served to excite suspicions : they were not allowed to land, except for the purpose of taking exercise in a confined space ; the letter and presents of the Russian emperor were rejected ; and the am- bassador was distinctly informed that no vessels belonging to his nation would, in future, be permitted to enter a Japanese port. After this rebuff", the Nadeshda returned to Kamtchatka, and Kru- senstern passed several months in examining the coasts of Tartary and the adjacent islands between that peninsula and Japan ; these labors being completed, he went to Canton, where she arrived in the end of November, 1805. Lisiansky, in the Neva, had, in the mean time, visited Sitca, Kodiak, and other Russian establishments, on the north-west coasts of America, at wiiich his presence was advantageous to the interests of the company, by controlling the hostile dispositions of the natives ; and having performed all that could be done by him in that quar- ter, he proceeded to Canton, with a cargo of furs, and there rejoined Krusenstern, in December, 1805. The Chinese were found equally as determined as the Japanese, to allow no commerce by sea with the Russians ; and many difliiculties were experienced before the furs brought by the Neva could be landed for sale. This business being at length despatched, the two vessels took their departure, and, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, reached Cronstadt in August, 1806, having carried the Russian flag for the first time across the equator and around the world. In the mean time, also, Von Resanoff", — a singularly ridiculous and incompetent person, — after the failure of his embassy to Japan, had gone, as plenipotentiary of the Russian American Company, to Sitca, where he passed the winter of 1 805-1806, engaged in devis- ing plans for the conduct of the company's affairs, all of which were quietly set aside by the chief agent, Baranof. The propriety of expelling the Americans from the North Pacific was at the same time rendered questionable, by the fact that the garrison and set- 35 274 VOYAGE OF KRUSENSTERN. [1808. tiers at this place would have all perished from famine, had they not fortunately been supplied with provisions by the ship Juno, from Rhode Island. This ship was purchased for the use of the company, and Von Resanoff, embarking in her, sailed along the coast to Cal- ifornia, endeavoring, in his way, but without success, to enter the mouth of the Columbia, where he proposed to form a settlement ; and having spent some time in trifling at San Francisco, he returned to Kamtchatka, on his way from which to Europe he died. Though not one of the commercial or political objects proposed by this expedition was attained, it was, nevertheless, productive of great advantages, not only to the Russians, but to the cause of hu- manity and of science in general ; particularly by the rectification of numerous errors in the charts of the Pacific Ocean, and by the exposure of the abuses in the administration of the Russian Amer- ican Company's dominions, which led to the immediate removal of many of them. No one could have been better quahfied for the direction of such an expedition than Krusenstern, whose narrative is equally honorable to him as a commander, as a man of science, and as a philanthropist. Those who wish to learn at what cost of human life and suffering the furs of the North Pacific coasts are pro- cured, will find ample information on the subject in his pages ; while, at the same time, he presents instances of fortitude, perseverance, and good feeling, on the part of his countrymen, calculated to coun- teract, in a great measure, the unfavorable impressions, with regard to them, which his other details might have produced.* In 1808, soon after the return of Krusenstern's ships to Europe, diplomaitic relations were established between Russia and the United States ; and in the following year, a representation was addressed by the court of St. Petersburg to the government of the Union, on the subject of the illicit trade of American citizens with the natives of the North Pacific coasts, by means of which those savages were supplied with arms and ammunition, to the prejudice of the authority and interests of the emperor and his people in that portion * Accounts of" this expedition have been published by Krusenstern, by Lisiansky, and by Langsdorf, the surgeon of the Nadeshda, all of which have been translated into English and other European languages. Krusenstern was, soon after his return to Russia, raised to the rank of admiral. Ho etill lives at St. Petersburg, honored by his government, and esteemed by all who know him. His communications frequently appear in the reports of the proceedings of various scientific societies in Europe ; they are chiefly respecting the hydrography of the Pacific Ocean, to which subject his labors have been long and assiduously devoted, with results important and beneficial to the whole world. 1810.] PROPOSITIONS OF RUSSIA TO THE UNITED STATES. 275 of his dominions. A desire was at the same time expressed, that some act should be passed by Congress, or some convention be concluded between the two nations, which might have the effect of preventing the continuance of such irregularities. No disposition being shown by the American government to adopt any of those measures. Count Romanzoff, the minister of foreign affairs at St. Petersburg, proposed to Mr. John Quincy Adams, the plenipoten- tiary of the United States at that court, an arrangement, by which the vessels of the Union should supply the Russian settlements on the Pacific with provisions and manufactures, and should transport the furs of the company to Canton, under the restriction of their abstaining from all intercourse with the natives of the north-west coasts of America. Mr. Adams, in his answer, showed several reasons for which his government could not, with propriety, accede to this proposition ; and he moreover desired to know tvithin xohat limits it was expected that the restriction should he observed. This question was, doubtless, embarrassing to the Russian minister, who, however, after some time, replied, that the Russian American Com- pany claimed the whole coast of America on the Pacific and the adjacent islands, from Bering's Strait, southivard to and beyond the mouth of the Columbia River ; whereupon the correspondence was immediately terminated. There was, certainly, no disposition, on the part of the United States, to encourage their citizens in the trade which formed the subject of the complaints of the Russians, or to offend that power by refusing to cooperate in suppressing such a trade. But the American government properly considered that no means existed for enforcing the restrictions, with justice and regularity, even on the coasts which might be admitted to belong to Russia ; while, at the same time, the right of that nation to the possession of the coasts so far south as the Columbia, could not be recognized, for reasons which will be made apparent in the ensuing chapter. 276 CHAPTER XIII. 1803 TO 1806. Cession of Louisiana by France to the United States — Inquiries as to the true Extent of Louisiana — Erroneous Supposition that its Limits towards the North had been fixed by Commissaries agreeably to the Treaty of Utrecht — President Jefferson sends Lewis and Clarke to examine the Missouri and Columbia — Account of their Expedition from the Mississippi to the Pacific. The discovery, or rediscovery, of the Columbia River, by Gray, remained almost entirely unknown, until it was communicated to the world by the publication of the narrative of Vancouver's expedition, in 1798 ; at which time, and for several years afterwards, no one imagined that any thing connected with that river would ever be- come particularly interesting to the people or government of the United States of America. The territories of the United States were, at that time, all in- cluded between the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Mississippi River on the west. In the north were the British provinces ; in the south lay Florida, belonging to Spain ; and beyond the Mississippi, the Spaniards also claimed the vast region called Louisiana, stretch- ing from the Gulf of Mexico northward and north-westward to an undefined extent. Thus all communication between the States of the Federal Union and the Pacific was completely cut off, by the in- terposition of countries possessed by foreign and unfriendly nations. The position of the United States, and of their government and people, with regard to the north-western portion of the continent, was, however, entirely changed after the 30th of April, 1803, when Louisiana, which had been ceded by Spain to France in 1 800, came into their possession, by purchase from the latter power. From that moment, the route across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pa- cific lay open to the Americans ; and nothing could be anticipated capable of arresting their progress in the occupation of the whole territory included between those seas. Before relating the measures taken by the government of the United States in consequence of the acquisition of Louisiana, it will 1803.] NORTHERN AND WESTERN LIMITS OF LOUISIANA. 277 be convenient to present some observations respecting the northern and western limits of the territory thus acquired. It has been ah'eady shown * that, in tlie month of November, 1762, France ceded to Spain "all the country known under the name of Louisiana, as also New Orleans and the island in which that city is situated," without any other description of limits what- soever ; and that, at the same time, Great Britain acquired, by the Treaty of Paris, all the territories previously possessed by France and Spain, on the American continent, east of " a line drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi, from its source to the river Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river, and the lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain, to the sea," which line was irrevocably fixed as " the confines between the do- minions of his Britannic majesty and those of his most Christian majesty in that part of the world." The eastern boundary of the Louisiana, which France had to surrender to Spain, and did so sur- render in 1769, was thus clearly determined. In the west and south-west, no agreement as to limits had ever been made between those powers ; and none was required on this occasion, as the ter- ritories ceded to Spain joined, in those directions, other territories already in her possession. Had such a settlement of limits, how- ever, been then required, France might have justly claimed, at least, all the territories on that side embraced in her charter to Crozat, extending westward to the sources of all the streams emptying into the Mississippi, upon the ground of long and exclusive explorations and occupation during peace and alliance with Spain, without any public protest having been made, by that power, against the claim thus publicly advanced and maintained. With regard to the northern boundary, nothing had ever been determined by agreement between those nations, except that Great Britain, by the tenth article of her treaty of Utrecht with France, secured to herself, " to be possessed in full right forever, the bay and straits of Hudson, together with all lands, seas, sea-coasts, rivers, and places, situate in the said bay and straits, which belong there- unto, no tracts of land or sea being excepted which are, at present, possessed by the subjects of France." On the side of France, the charter to Crozat, by which the extent of Louisiana was first de- fined and asserted, was in all respects as valid as the charter to the Hudson's Bay Company ; and the rights of that power to the terri- tories described in the former grant, west of the Mississippi and New " See page 102. 278 NORTHERN AND WESTERN LIMITS OF LOUISIANA. [1803. Orleans, were as fully confirmed by the seventh article of the treaty of Paris, as those of Great Britain to the Hudson's Bay territories had been by the treaty of Utrecht. Assuming this to have been the view and intention of the parties to the treaty of Paris, — and no other supposition seems to be admissible, — the line of separation between Louisiana and the British possessions would have then passed along the highlands dividing the head-waters of the Missis- sippi and its western tributaries, on the south, from those of the streams pouring into Hudson's Bay on the north, so far as the re- spective territories extended. Whilst Louisiana remained in the possession of Spain, no further determination or question was made as to its boundaries. On the 1st of October, 1800, a treaty was concluded between the French republic and the king of Spain, by which the former party engaged to enlarge the dominions of the duke of Parma, a prince of the royal family of Spain, by adding to them some other territories in Italy ; and his Catholic majesty, by the third article, " engaged, on his part, to retrocede to the French republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the above-mentioned conditions and stipulations relative to the duke of Parma, the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent which it now has in the hands of Spain, and which it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be, according to the treaties subsequently made between Spain and other states.'' * The conditions relative to the duke of Parma having been fulfilled, agreeably to a treaty of March 21, 1801, Spain bound herself to perform her part, by delivering Louisiana to the French republic ; and an order to that effect was ac- cordingly issued by King Charles IV., at Barcelona, on the 15th of October, 1802. The First Consul, Bonaparte, however, find- ing it impolitic to attempt to take possession, concluded a treaty with the United States of America, on the 30th of April, 1803, wherein, after reciting the third article of the treaty of 1800, the territory thus retroceded to France was ''ceded to the United States, in the name of the French republic, forever, arid in full sovereignty, with all its rights and appurtenances, as fully, and in the same man- ner, as they have been acquired by the French republic, in virtue of the above-mentioned treaty with his Catholic majesty.'"' * The treaty of October 1st, 1800, was never made public until 1820, when it appeared, for the first time, in the French and Spanish languages, in the Memoir published at Madrid by the Chevalier de Onis, formerly minister plenipotentiary of Spain in the United States, in defence of his conduct, in concluding the treaty by which Florida became the property of the American Union. 1803.] LOUISIANA CEDED TO THE UNITED STATES. 279 At the time when the treaty for the cession of Louisiana to the United States was concluded, the Spaniards still remained in pos- session of the country ; the order from the court of Madrid for the delivery to France, was not executed until the 30th of November, 1804, twenty days after which the surrender to the American com- missioners took place in due form at New Orleans. The Spanish government had already protested against the transfer of Louisiana to the United States, as being contrary to engagements previously made by France, of which, however, no proof was adduced ; and some disposition was at first manifested on the part of the Spanish authorities at New Orleans, and in the provinces of Mexico adjacent, to dispute the entrance of the Americans. This opposition was, how- ever, abandoned, and a negotiation was commenced at Madrid, in 1804, between the governments of the United States and Spain, for the adjustment of the lines which were to separate their re- spective territories. In this negotiation, the United States claimed the whole of the territory ceded by France to Spain in 1762, with the exception of the portion east of the Mississippi, which had been surrendered to Great Britain in 1763 ; and this territory was considered by them as including the whole coast on the Mexican Gulf, from the Perdido River as the western limit of Florida, west and south to the River Bravo del Norte as the north-east boundary of Mexico, with all the intermediate rivers and all the countries drained by them, not pre- viously possessed by the United States. The Spanish government, on its side, contended — that France had never rightfully possessed any part of America west of the Mississippi, the whole of which had belonged to Spain ever since its discovery — that the French establishments in that territory were all intrusive, and had only been tolerated by Spain, for the sake of presenving peace ; and — • that the Louisiana ceded to Spain by France in 1762, and retro- ceded to France in 1800, and transferred by the latter power to the United States in 1803, could not, in justice, be considered as com- prising more than New Orleans, with the tract in its vicinity east of the Mississippi, and the country immediately bordering on the west bank of that river. The parties were thus completely at variance on fundamental principles ; and, neither being disposed to yield, the negotiation, after having been carried on for some months, was broken off, and it was not renewed until 1817. Meanwhile, how- ever, the United States remained in possession of nearly all the 280 NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF LOUISIANA. [1804. territories drained by the Mississippi ; the Sabine River being, by tacit consent, regarded as the dividing line between Louisiana and the Mexican provinces. A negotiation was at the same time in progress, between the government of the United States and that of Great Britain, re- specting the northern boundary of Louisiana, for which the Amer- icans claimed a line running along the 49th parallel of latitude, upon the grounds that this parallel had been adopted and dejinitive- hj settled, hy commissaries appointed, agreeably to the tenth article of the treaty concluded at Utrecht, in 1713, as the dividing line between the French possessions of Western Canada and Louisiana on the south, and the British territories of Hudson'' s Bay on the north ; and that, this treaty having been specially confirmed in the treaty of 1763, by which Canada and the part of Louisiana east of the Mississippi and Iberville were ceded to Great Britain, the remainder of Louisiana continued, as before, bounded on the north by the 49th parallel. This conclusion would be undeniable, if the premises on which it is founded were correct. The tenth article of the treaty of Utrecht does certainly stipulate that commissaries should be ap- pointed by the governments of Great Britain and France respec- tively, to determine the line of separation between their possessions in the northern part of America above specified ; and there is reason to believe that persons were commissioned for that object : but there is no evidence which can be admitted as establishing the fact that a line running along the 49th parallel of latitude, or any other line, was ever adopted, or even proposed, by those commissaries, or by their governments, as the limit of any part of the French possessions on the north, and of the British Hudson's Bay territories on the south. It is true that, on some maps of Northern America, published in the middle of the last century, a line dra^vn along the A9th parallel does appear as a part of the boundary between the French posses- sions and the Hudson's Bay territories, as settled according to the .reaty of Utrecht : but, on other maps, which are deservedly held m higher estimation, a different line, following the course of the highlands encircling Hudson's Bay, is presented as the limit of the Hudson's Bay territory, agreeably to the same treaty ; and, in other maps again, enjoying equal, if not greater, consideration, as having been published under the immediate direction of the British gov- 1807.] NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF LOUISIANA. 281 ernment, no line separating the dominions of that power from those of France on the South is to be seen. Nor is any evidence whatsoever, of such a transaction, to be found in the numerous polit- ical, historical, and biographical works, in which it could not have failed to be noticed if it had taken place ; nor have any traces of it been discovered in the archives of France or of England, by those who have examined them with care in order to elucidate the history of that period.* But had the 49th parallel been positively adopted, as the line of separation between the French and English possessions, that line could not have been considered as extending west of the Rocky Mountains : for the Hudson's Bay territories were expressly defined by the charter of 1670, and the Utrecht treaty, to be those drained by streams falling into Hudson's Bay ; and the charter of Louis XIV. to Crozat, with the decree annexing the Illinois to Louisiana, the only acts by which western limits of the French pos- sessions in that quarter are indicated, as clearly restrict them to the portion of the continent traversed by rivers flowing into the Mexi- can Gulf. Neither of the parties pretended at that time to claim any spot on the Pacific side of the great dividing chain. During the negotiation above mentioned, between the British and American governments, no attempt was made by the former to con- trovert the assertions of Mr. Monroe, as to this supposed establish- ment of boundaries under the Utrecht treaty ; nor indeed has it ever been publicly noticed by the British government in any way at any time. In the fifth of the additional and explanatory articles pro- posed to be annexed to the treaty signed by the plenipotentiaries on that occasion, it was agreed that " a line drawn due north or south (as the case may require) from the most north-western point of the Lake of the Woods, until it shall intersect the 49th parallel of north latitude, and from the point of such intersection, due west, along and with the said parallel, shall be the dividing line between his majesty's territories and those of the United States, to the westward of the said lake, as far as their said respective territories extend in that quarter ; and that the said line shall, to that extent, form the southern boundary of his majesty's said territories, and the northern boundary of the said territories of the United States : Provided, That nothing in the present article shall be con- strued to extend to the norih-west coast of America, or to the terri- tories belonging to or claimed by either party on the continent of * See page 436, where the question is minutely examined. 36 282 NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF LOUISIANA. [1807. America to the westward of the Stony Mountains." * This article was approved by both governments ; though President Jefferson wislied that the proviso respecting the north-west coast should be omitted, as it "could have little other effect than as an offensive in- timation to Spain that the claims of the United Slates extend to the Pacific Ocean. However reasonable such claims may be, compared with those of others, it is impolitic, especially at the present moment, to strengthen Spanish jealousies of the United States, which it is probably an object with Great Britain to excite, by the clause in question." The treaty thus amended was not submitted by the President to the Senate of the United States for its confirmation ; and the question of boundaries was not again discussed between the two nations until 1814. The belief that the 49th parallel of lati- tude had been fixed, agreeably to the treaty of Utrecht, as the northern limit of Louisiana and Western Canada, was nevertheless universally entertained in the United States ; and it remained en- tirely unquestioned, until 1840, when the error was first exposed,f though not until it had formed the basis of important conventions. It will be proper here to notice another assertion, which has been made by some English and French writers — namely, that the Cana- da surrendered by France to England by the treaty of 1763, extended westward to the Pacific. The grounds on which the claim of France to the regions on the latter ocean rested, before that treaty, have * President Jefferson's Message to Congress of March 22d, 1808. t The first public denial of the accuracy of the assertion, respecting this supposed determination of limits, was made by the author of the present work in a " Summary of Facts respecting the North-west Coast ot America,'' published in the Washington Globe of January 15, 1840. Tlie proofs were first given at length in his " Memoir on the North-west Coast of America," (page 216) published by orderof the Senate of the United States in the following month, and were afterwards repeated and strengthened in this history. That the supposed settlement of boundaries was always asserted, by the government of the United States, previous to tliis denial, is abundantly proved by the records of negotiations, messages of Presidents, reports to Congress, and speeches in and out of Congress, on the subject of Oregon, from 1805 to 1840. Since that period, many attempts have been made to revive the belief, that the boundary in question was really established by commissaries appointed under the Utrecht treaty ; and a vast mass of old maps and pamphlets, mostly anonymous or misnamed, newspapers, speeches, messages, petitions of traders, and letters containing recollections of opinions expressed by individuals at dinner tables, was gravely pro- duced on the floor of the Senate of the United States, in the Spring of 184G, as evi- dence of the transaction ; the conclusion from the whole being — that, inasmuch as the assertion had been printed in sfime books, and engraved in some maps, and written in some President's messages, and communicated in some lecent diplomatic notes, and spoken in some Congress speeches, it must necessarily be true. 1807.] NORTHERN AND WESTERN BOUNDARY OF LOUISIANA. 283 been already exposed ; in order to show the absurdity of the other assertion, it will be merely necessary to recall to mind two facts : — first, that by the treaty above mentioned, the middle of the Missis- sippi from the 31st degree of latitude to its source, was made incvo- cably the line of separation between the dominions of France and those of Great Britain in that part of the continent; consequently, Canada could not afterwards have included any spot west of that river ; secondly, that the treaty of Utrecht guarantied to Great Britain, the territories drained by streams falling into Hudson's Bay, which territories extend westward to the Rocky Mountains, and southward to and beyond the source of the Mississippi ; so that Canada could not have comprehended any spot north of that source. The only question respecting boundaries which could have arisen between Great Britain and France after the treaty of 1763, would have been as to the upper part of the valley of the Red River of Lake Winnepeg; which, though its waters fall into Hudson's Bay, yet lies west of the Mississippi. With regard to the boundaries of Canada, the only questions to be discussed would have been be- tween the British government and its own colonies, which claimed nearly the whole territory obtained from France under the treaty. Thus although the northern and western boundaries of the Lou- isiana, ceded to the United States in 1803, had never been positive- ly fixed by direct agreement between the nations interested, yet the charters to the Hudson's Bay Company, and to Crozat, and the trea- ties of Utrecht and Paris, taken together, afford ample means for deter- mining what those boundaries should have been, agreeably to justice, at the time of the cession of the country to Spain, and of course also at the time of its transfer to the United States. They must have been represented by a line, drawn from the northernmost sources of the Mississippi westward, along the ridge separating the waters of that river from those flowing to Hudson's Bay, as far as the great chain of the Rocky Mountains, and thence southward along that chain so as to include the sources of the Arkansas and Red Rivers, excluding from Louisiana, and also, of course, from the Hudson's Bay possessions, all territories west of the great dividing chain. Even before the transfer of Louisiana to the United States was completed, the prompt and sagacious Jefferson was preparing to have it examined by American agents. In January, 1803, he addressed a confidential message to Congress, recommending that means should be taken for the purpose without delay ; and, §^4 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE TO THE WEST. [ISOS. his suggestions having been approved, he commissioned Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clarke to explore the River Mis- souri and its principal branches to their sources, and then to seek and trace to its termination in the Pacific, some stream, " whether the Columbia, the Oregon, the Colorado, or any other, which might offer the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent, for the purposes of commerce." Other persons were, at the same time, appointed to examine the Upper Mississippi, and the principal streams falling into that great river from the west, below the Missouri, in order that exact information might, as soon as possible, be procured, with regard to the channels of communi- cation throughout the newly-acquired territories. A few days after Lewis had received his instructions as com- mander of the party which was to cross the continent, the news of the conclusion of the treaty for the cession of Louisiana reached the United States ; and he immediately set off for the west, with the expectation of advancing some distance up the Missouri before the winter. He was, however, unable to pass the Mississippi in that year, in consequence of the delay in the surrender of the country, which was not terminated until the latter part of Decem- ber ; and it was not until the middle of May, 1804. that he could begin the ascent of the Missouri. His party consisted of forty-four men, who were embarked in three boats ; their progress against the current of the mighty river was necessarily slow, yet, before the end of October, they arrived in the country of the Mandan Lidians, where they remained until the following April, encamped at a place near the 48th degree of latitude, sixteen hundred miles from the Mississippi. On the 7th of April, 1805, Lewis and Clarke left their encamp- ment in the Mandan country, with thirty men, the others having been sent back to St. Louis ; and, after a voyage of three weeks up the Missouri, they reached the junction of that river with the other principal branch, scarcely inferior in magnitude, called by the old French traders the Roche jaune, or Yellowstone River. Thence continuing their progress westward on the main stream, their navi- gation was, on the 13th of June, arrested by the Great Falls of the Missouri, a series of cataracts extending about ten miles in length, in the principal of which the whole river rushes over a precipice of rock eighty-seven feet in height. Above the falls, the party again embarked in canoes hollowed out from the trunks of the largest cotton-wood trees, growing near the river ; and, advancing south- 1805.] PASSAGE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 285 ward, they, on the 19th of July, passed through the Gates of the Bocky Mountains, where the Missouri, emerging from that chain, runs, for six miles, in a narrow channel, between perpendicular parapets of black rock, rising twelve hundred feet above its surface. Beyond this place, the river is formed by the confluence of several streams, the largest of which, named by Lewis the Jefferson, was ascended to its sources, near the 44th degree of latitude, where the navigation of the Missouri ends, at the distance of about three thousand miles from its entrance into the Mississippi. Whilst the canoes were ascending the Jefferson River, Captains Lewis and Clarke, with some of their men, proceeded through the mountains, and soon found streams flowing towards the west, one of which was traced in that direction, by Clarke, for seventy miles ; they also met several parties of Indians belonging to a nation called Shosfionee, from whose accounts they were convinced that those streams were the head-waters of the Columbia. Having re- ceived this satisfactory information, the commanders rejoined their men at the head of the Jefferson ; and preparations were commenced for pursuing the journey by land. For this purpose, the canoes and a portion of the goods were concealed in caches, or covered pits, and a number of horses, with some guides, being procured from the Shoshonees, the whole body of the Americans, on the 30th of August, entered on the passage through the Rocky Mountains. Up to this period, the difficulties of the journey had been com- paratively light, and the privations few. But, during the three weeks which the Americans spent in passing the Rocky Mountains, they underwent, as Clarke says, " every suffering which hunger, cold, and fatigue, could impose." The mountains were high, and the passes through them rugged, and, in many places, covered with snow ; and their food consisted of berries, dried fish, and the meat of dogs or horses, of all which the supplies were scanty and preca- rious. They crossed many streams, some of them large, which emptied into the Columbia ; but their guides gave them no encour- agement to embark on any, until they reached one called the Kooskooskee, in the latitude of 43 degrees 34 minutes, about four hundred miles, by their route, from the head of navigation of the Missouri. At this place, they constructed five canoes, and, leaving their horses in charge of a tribe of Indians of the Chopunnish nation, they, on the 7th of October, began the descent of the Kooskooskee. Three days afterwards, they entered the principal southern branch 286 DESCENT OF THE COLUMBIA. [1805. of the Columbia, to which they gave the name of Lewis ; and, in seven days more, they reached the point of its confluence with the larger northern branch, regarded as the Columbia. They were then fairly launched on the Great River of the West, and passing down it, through many dangerous rapids, they, on the 31st, arrived at the Falls of the Columbia, where it rushes through the lofty chain of mountains nearest the Pacific. Some of their canoes descended these falls in safety ; the others and the goods were carried around by land, and replaced in the water at the foot of the cataract. At a short distance below, the tides of the Pacific were observed ; and, on the 15th of November, the whole party landed on Cape Disap- pointment, at the mouth of the Columbia, about six hundred miles from the place at which they had embarked on its waters, and more than four thousand, by their route, from the mouth of the Missouri. The winter, or rather the rainy season, having commenced when the party reached the mouth of the Columbia, it became necessary for them to remain there until the following spring. They accord- ingly prepared a habitation on the north side of the river, eleven miles in a straight line from Cape Disappointment, from which they were, however, soon driven by the floods ; they then found a suit- able spot on the south side, a little higher up, where they formea their dwelling, called by them Fort Clatsop, and remained until the middle of March, 1806. During this period, the cold was by no means severe, less so, indeed, than on the Atlantic shore of the continent ten degrees farther south ; but the rains were incessant and violent, and the river being at the same time generally too much agitated by the winds and the waves from the ocean for the Americans to venture on it in their canoes, they were often unable to obtain provisions, either by hunting or fishing. The Clatsop Indians who occupy the south side of the Columbia, at its mouth, and the Chinnooks, on the opposite shore, conducted themselves peaceably ; but their prices for every thing which they oflered for sale were so high, that no trade could be carried on with them. The party were, in consequence of the rains, seldom able to quit their encampment ; and the only excursion of any length made by them during the winter, was as far as the promontory overhanging the Pacific, thirty miles south of the Columbia, which they called darkens Point of View, near the Cape Lookout of Meares. On the 23d of March, 1806, the Americans commenced the ascent of the Columbia in canoes, on their return to the United States. Proceeding slowly up the river, they carefully examined 1806.] RETURN OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 287 its shores, and discovered a large stream, called by the natives the Cowelitz, flowing into it from the north, at the distance of sixty miles from the ocean. Thirty miles higher up, they found another and much larger stream, joining the Columbia on the south side, the Indian name of which was supposed to be Multonomah ; it is now, however, universally known as the Willamet, and on its banks are situated the most flourishing settlements as yet formed- by citi- zens of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains. In the middle of April, the exploring party reached the foot of the great rapids, below the Falls of the Columbia, where they aban- doned their canoes, and began their journey by land, on horses purchased from the Indians. In this way, they traversed the gap or defile in the mountains through which the river pours its floods, and then, pursuing their course over the elevated plains east of that ridge, they arrived, on the 8th of May, at the point on the Koos- kooskee River, where they had left their horses, and first embarked on the waters of the Columbia, in the preceding year. From this place, they continued on horseback due eastward, through the Rocky Mountains, to the Clarke River, which flows for some dis- tance in a northerly direction from its sources, before turning southward to join the other branches of the Columbia ; and there it was agreed that the chiefs of the expedition should separate, to meet again at the confluence of the Yellowstone with the Missouri. The separation took place on the 3d of July, near the point at which the Clarke River is crossed by the 47th parallel of latitude, due west of the Falls of the Missouri. Captain Lewis and his party proceeded some distance northward, down the Clarke, and then, quitting it, crossed the Rocky Mountains to the head-waters of Maria River, which empties into the Missouri just below the falls. There they met a band of Indians belonging to the numerous and daring race called the Black-foot, who infest the plains at the base of the mountains, and are ever at war with all other tribes ; these savages attempted to seize the rifles of the Americans, and Lewis was obliged to kill one of them before they desisted. The party then hastened to the Missouri, which they reached at the falls, and thence floated down to the mouth of the Yellowstone. Meanwhile, the others, under Clarke, rode southward up the valley of the Clarke River, to its sources ; and, after exploring several passes in the mountains between that point and the head- waters of the Yellowstone, they embarked in canoes on the latter 288 IMPORTANCE OF THE DISCOVERIES. [1806. stream, and descended it to the Missouri, where they joined Lewis and his men on the 12th of August. From the point of confluence of the two rivers, the whole body moved down the Missouri ; and, on the 23d of September, 1806, they arrived in safety at St. Louis, having travelled, in the course of their expedition, more than nine thousand miles. The preceding sketch of the long and difficult expedition of Lewis and Clarke will serve to show the general course of their routes between the Mississippi and the Pacific. As to the priority and extent of their geographical discoveries, a few words will suffice. The Missouri had been ascended, by the French and Spanish traders, to the mouth of the Yellowstone, long before Lewis and Clarke embarked on it ; but ample proofs are afforded, by the maps drawn prior to their expedition, that no information even approximating to correctness had been obtained respecting the river and the countries in its vicinity. With regard to the territory between the great Falls of the Missouri and those of the Columbia, and the branches of either river joining it above its falls, we have no accounts whatsoever earlier than those derived from the journals of the American exploring party. The Tacoutchee-Tessee, navi- gated by Mackenzie m 1793, and supposed by him to be a branch of the Columbia, was afterwards discovered to be a different stream, now called Fraser^s River, emptying into the Strait of Fuca ; and no evidence has been adduced of the passage of any white person through the country between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, north of California, from the time of Mackenzie's journey to that of the expedition of Lewis and Clarke.* Politically, the expedition was an announcement to the world of the intention of the American government to occupy and settle the coujitries explored, to which certainly no other nation except Spain could advance so strong a claim on the grounds of discovery or of contiguity ; and the government and people of the United States thus virtually incurred the obligation to prosecute and carry into * The journal of the expedition of Lewis and Clarke was not published until 1814, when it appeared nearly in the same state in which it came from the hands of Lewis, shortly before the melancholy termination of his existence. It affords abundant proofs of the powers of observation possessed by those who were engaged in the enterprise ; and the mass of facts, geographically, commercially, and politically important, which it contains, causes it still to be regarded as the principal source of information respect- ing the geography, the natural history, and the aboriginal iniiabitants, of the portions of America traversed by the Missouri and the Columbia. 1806.] pike's expedition. 289 fulfilment the great ends for which the labors of Lewis and Clarke were the first preparatory measures. During the absence of Lewis and Clarke, other persons were engaged, under the orders of the government of the United States, in exploring different parts of the interior of Louisiana. Lieutenant Pike ascended the Mississippi to its head-waters, near the 48th degree of latitude, where he obtained much useful information respecting the course of that stream, and the numbers, characters, and dispositions, of the Indians in its vicinity, as well as concerning the trade and estabhshments of the North- West Company in that quarter. Having completed this expedition. Pike, in 1806, under- took another, in the course of which he travelled south-westward from the mouth of the Missouri, to the upper waters of the Arkan- sas, the Red River, and the Rio Bravo del Norte : on the latter river, he and his party were made prisoners by the Spaniards of Santa Fe, who carried them southward as far as the city of Chi- huahua, and thence, through Texas, to the United States. The Red and Washita Rivers were at the same time explored, to a con- siderable distance from the Mississippi, by Messrs. Dunbar, Hunter, and Sibley, whose journals, as well as those of Pike, subsequently published, contain many interesting descriptions of those parts of America. Thus, within three or four years after Louisiana came into the possession of the United States, it ceased to be an unknown region, and the principal features of the territory drained by the Columbia were displayed. 37 290 CHAPTER XIV. 1806 TO 1815. First Establishments of the North- West Company in the Countries north of the Columbia — Pacific Fur Company formed at New York — Plan of its Founder — First Expedition from New York in the Tonquin — Foundation of Astoria near the Mouth of the Columbia River — Destruction of the Tonquin by the Savages — March of the Party under Hunt and Crooks across the Continent — Arrival of the Beaver in the Columbia — War between the United States and Great Britain fatal to the Enterprise — Establishments of the Pacific Company sold to the North- West Company — Astoria taken by the British — Dissolution of the Pacific Company. The expeditions of Lewis and Clarke, and Pike, did not fail to attract the attention, and to excite the jealousy, of the British government and trading companies. Pike had restrained the incur- sions of the North- West Company's people into the territories of the Upper Mississippi, and had lessened their influence over the Indians inhabiting those regions. From the moment when Lewis and Clarke appeared on the Missouri, their movements were watched by the agents of the British Association ; and, so soon as it was ascertained that they were ordered to explore the Colum- bia, preparations were made to anticipate the Americans in the settlement of that portion of the continent, for which the expedition of those officers was evidently intended to open the way. A party of the North- West Company's men was accordingly despatched, in 1805, under the direction of Mr. Laroque, to establish posts and occupy territories on the Columbia ; but this party proceeded no farther than the Mandan villages on the Missouri. In the following year, 1806, another party was despatched from Fort Chipewyan, under Mr. Simon Fraser, who crossed the Rocky Mountains near the passage of the Peace River, and formed a trading establishment on a small lake, now called Fraser's Lake, situated in the 54th degree of latitude. This was the first settlement or post of any kind made by British subjects west of the Rocky Mountains. Other posts were subsequently formed in the same country, which, in 1808, received from the traders the name of New Caledonia ; but it does 1806.] FIRST BRITISH POSTS IN NEW CALEDONIA. 291 not appear, from any evidence as yet adduced, that any part of the waters of the Columbia, or of the country through which they flow, was seen by persons in the service of the North- West Company until 1811.* In the mean time, several establishments had been formed by citizens of the United States on the Columbia and its branches. Before the transfer of Louisiana to the United States, the trade of the Missouri and the adjacent countries inhabited by the Indians, had been granted by the Spanish government to Manuel Lisa, a merchant of St. Louis, who continued to conduct it almost exclu- sively until 1806. After the return of Lewis and Clarke, other individuals engaged in the business, the competition between whom occasioned many and serious disputes ; until at length, in 1808, an association, called the Missouri Fur Company, was formed among * Many interesting details respecting the proceedings of tlie North-West Com- pany, and the geography of the parts of America in which its establishments are situated, may be found in the journal of D. W. Harmon, a native of Vermont, who was a partner in that company, and the superintendent of all its affairs beyond the Rocky Mountains for several years. This journal was published at Andover, in Massachusetts, in 1819, but is now nearly out of print: a review of it, containing many curious extracts, may be seen in the London Quarterly Review for Janu- ary, 1822. With regard to the dates of the earliest establishments of the North- West Company beyond the Rocky Mountains, the following extracts from Harmon's journal may be considered as decisive evidence : — '■'■Saturday, November 2Ath, 1804. — Some people have just arrived from Montagne la Basse, with a letter from Mr. Chaboillez, who informs me that two captains, Clarke and Lewis, with one hundred and eighty soldiers, have arrived at the Mandan village, on the Missouri River, which place is situated about three days' distance from the residence of Mr. Chaboillez. They have invited Mr. Chaboillez to visit them. It is said that, on their arrival, they hoisted the American flag, and informed the natives that their object was not to trade, but merely to explore the country, and that, as soon as the navigation shall open, they design to continue their route across the Rocky Mountains, and thence descend to the Pacific Ocean. " Wednesday, April lO^A, 1805. — While at Montagne la Basse, Mr. Chaboillez in- duced me to consent to undertake a long and arduous tour of discovery. I am to leave that place about the beginning of June, accompanied by six or seven Canadians, and two or three Indians. The first place at which we shall stop will be the Mandan village, on the Missouri River ; thence we shall steer our course towards the Rocky Mountains, accompanied by a number of the Mandan Indians, who proceed in that direction, every spring, to meet and trade with another tribe of Indians, who reside on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. [This journey I never undertook : a Mr. La Roque attempted to make this tour, but went no farther than the Mandan village.] " At page 281, Harmon says, " The part of the country west of the Rocky Moun- tains, with which I am acquainted, has, ever since the North- West Company first made an establishment there, which was in J 806, gone by the name of JVew Cale- donia" &c. And in many places he speaks of Mr. Simon Fraser as having led the first company of traders beyond the Rocky Mountains, in 1806. 292 FIRST TRADING POSTS ON THE COLUMBIA. [1810. the principal traders in that part of America, by which posts were estabhshed on the Upper Mississippi, the Missouri, and even beyond the Rocky Mountains. The trading post founded by Mr. Henry, one of the agents of the Missouri Company, on a branch of the Lewis River, the great southern arm of the Columbia, appears to have been the earliest estabhshment of any kind made by people of a civihzed nation in the territory drained by the latter stream ; the enmity of the savages in its vicinity, and the difficulty of obtaining provisions, however, obliged Mr. Henry to abandon it in 1810. In that year, an attempt was made by Captain Smith, the com- mander of the ship Albatross, from Boston, to found a post for trade with the Indians at a place called Oak Point, on the south bank of the Columbia, about forty miles from its mouth. For this purpose a house was built and a garden was laid out and planted there ; but the site was badly chosen in all respects, and the scheme was aban- doned before the close of the year. In the same year, 1810, an association was formed at New York, for the prosecution of the fur trade in the central and north-western parts of the continent, in connection with the China trade, of which a particular account will be presented, as the transactions attend ing the enterprise led to important political results. This association was called the Pacific Fur Company.* At its head was John Jacob Astor, a German merchant of New York, who had been for many years extensively engaged in the commerce of the Pacific and China, and also in the trade with the Indian coun- tries in the centre of the American continent, and, by his prudence and skill, had thus accumulated an immense fortune, ere he passed the meridian of life. He devised the scheme ; he advanced the capital requisite for carrying it into execution, and he directed all * The following account of the proceedings of the Pacific Fur Company is derived chiefly from — Adventures on the Columbia River, &c., by Ross Cox. London, 1831. • — Relation d'un Voyage a la Cote Nord-Ouest, de I'Amerique Septentrionale, dans les Annees 1810-14, par Gabriel Franchere. Montreal, 1820. [Franchere went out with the first party in the Tonquin ; Cox went out in the Beaver, and they both returned to Canada by way of the lakes.] — Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains, by Washington Irving, Philadelphia, 1836; the latter author gives the most complete account of the circumstances, particularly of the adventures of the parties under Hunt, Crooks, and Stuart, derived from their state- ments and the papers in the possession of Mr. Astor, to which he had access. In addi- tion to these authorities, several letters and papers, addressed by Mr. Astor to the execu- tive of the United States, have been examined, and some communications have been personally received from that gentleman. One of his letters, containing a summary of the circumstances connected with his enterprise, will be found among the Proofa and Illustrations, at the end of this volume, under the letter G 1810.] astor's plans for monopolizing the china trade. 293 the operations. His first objects were to concentrate in the hands of the company the fur trade of every part of the unsettled territo- ries of America claimed by the United States, and also the supply of the Russian establishments on the North Pacific, which was to be conducted agreeably to arrangements made with the Russian Amer- ican Company, similar to those proposed by the government of St. Petersburg to the cabinet at Washington, as already mentioned ; and by the attainment of these first objects, he expected to be able to con- trol, if not exclusively to possess, the whole commerce between the ports of China and those of America, and of a large portion of Europe. For these purposes, posts were to be estabhshed on the Missouri, the Columbia, and the coasts of the Pacific contiguous 'o the latter river, at which places the furs were to be collected by trade with the Indians, or by hunters in the employ of the company. The posts were to be supplied with the merchandise required, either by way of the Missouri, or by ships despatched from the ports of the United States to the North Pacific ; and the furs collected were to be carried either down the Missouri to the Atlantic ports of the Union, or westward to the establishments of the company on the Pacific. The merchandise sent to the Pacific would be discharged, in the first instance, at a principal factory, to be founded at some point most convenient for distributing the articles among the interior posts, and for receiving the furs from those places ; and the vessels would then take in cargoes of furs, which they would transport to Canton. Vessels would also be sent, either directly from the United States, or from the principal factory on the Pacific, to the Russian American establishments, with provisions and other articles, for which furs were to be received in payment ; and from Canton these vessels would bring to Europe or America teas, silks, and other Chinese goods, procured in exchange for their furs. It is scarcely necessary to ad \, that all these movements were to be conducted with order and regularity, and at stated periods, so as to prevent loss of time and labor, or injury to the various articles transported. The number of shares in the company was to be one hundred ; of these half were retained by Mr. Astor, who was to advance the funds necessary for the first operations, and to manage the con- cerns at New York ; the remaining shares being divided among the other partners, who were to conduct the business in the western territories, on the Pacific, and at Canton. The association, if prosperous, was to continue twenty years, after which it might be prolonged ; but it might be abandoned by any of the partners, or 294 PACIFIC FUR company's operations. [1810. dissolved, within the first five years, Mr. Astor bearing all the losses incurred during that period. This was certainly an extensive and complicated scheme ; but it appeared, at the time when it was devised, to be perfectly practicable. The territories in which the new establishments were to be formed, had never been occupied : there could be no doubt that the Russians would gladly agree to the proposed arrangements for the trade with their factories ; the demand for furs at Canton was regular, and suf- ficiently great to insure the superiority, in that market, to those who could control the supply ; and the Americans would possess, in China and on the Pacific, a decided advantage over the British, whose flag was then rarely seen in the Pacific, in consequence of the monopoly enjoyed by the East India Company. Moreover, there was then no prospect of a material change in the political positions of the principal nations of the world. The only party from which the Pacific Company could apprehend any immediate and serious difficulties, was the North-West Company of Montreal. The resources of that body were in every respect inferior to Mr. Astor's ; but, in order to prevent rivalry, he communi- cated his intentions confidentially to its directors, and offered them an interest to the extent of one third in his enterprise : they, how- ever, rejected his proposal, and took measures, as will be shown hereafter, to forestall him. Was Mr. Astor — a citizen of the United States — justifiable in thus offering to an association of British sub- jects, noted for its enmity to his adopted country, a share of the ad- vantages to be obtained under the flag of the United States, from ter- ritories exclusively belonging to the United States, or of which the exclusive possession by the United States was evidently essential to the welfare and advancement of the republic ? Having matured his scheme, Mr. Astor engaged as partners, clerks, and voyageurs, a number of Scotchmen and Canadians, who had been in the service of the North-West Company, and afterwards a number rather greater, of other persons, principally natives of the United States. The partners first admitted were Alexander Mackay, who had accompanied Mackenzie in his expedition to the Pacific in 1793, Duncan Macdougal, and Donald Mackenzie, all Scotchmen, formerly belonging to the North-West Company : these persons signed the constitution or articles of agreement of the Pacific Com- pany, with Mr. Astor, on the 23d of June, 1810; having, however, previously communicated the whole plan of the enterprise to Mr. Jackson, the minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain in the United 1810.] PARTNERS IN THE PACIFIC COMPANY. 295 States, who quieted all their scruples as to engaging in it, by assur- ing them that, " in case of a war between the two nations, they would he respected as British subjects and merchants." The partners sub- sequently admitted were David and Robert Stuart, and Ramsay Crooks, Scotchmen, who had also been in the service of the North- West Company, and Wilson Price Hunt, John Clarke, and Robert Maclellan, citizens of the United States. The majority of the clerks were Americans ; among the others were Ross Cox, an Englishman, and Gabriel Franchere, a Canadian, each of whom has written an interesting history of tiie enterprise. The voyageurs were nearly all from Canada. Mr. Hunt, a native of New Jersey, was chosen as chief agent of the company, to superintend all its concerns on the western side of America for five years. Thus it will be seen that, although the chief direction of the con- cerns of the Pacific Fur Company, in New York and on the western side of the continent, were at first intrusted to American citizens, yet the majority not only of the inferior servants, but also of the partners, were British subjects, nearly all of whom had been in the service of a rival British association. The preparations for commencing the enterprise having been completed, four of the partners, Messrs. Mackay, Macdougal, David Stuart, and Robert Stuart, with eleven clerks, thirteen Canadian voyageurs, and five mechanics, all British subjects, took their departure from New York for the mouth of the Columbia River, in September, 1810, in the ship Tonquin, commanded by Jonathan Thome. In January following, the second detachment, conducted by Mr. Hunt, the chief agent, and Messrs. Maclellan, Mackenzie, and Crooks, set out for the same point, by way of the Missouri River ; and in October, 1811, the ship Beaver, under Captain Sowles, car- ried out from New York, to the North Pacific, Mr. Clarke, with six clerks and a number of other persons. Mr. Astor had already, in 1809, despatched the ship Enterprise, under Captain Ebbets, an intelligent and experienced seaman and trader, to make observations at various places on the north-west coasts of America, and particularly at the Russian settlements, and to prepare the way for the new establishments. He, also, in 1811, sent an agent to St. Petersburg, by whose means he concluded an arrangement with the Russian American Company, to the effect that his association should have the exclusive privileges, of supplying the Russian establishments on the North Pacific with merchandise, receiving furs in payment, and of transporting to Canton such 296 THE ASTORIA ENTERPRISE BEGUN. [1811. Other furs as the Russians might choose to ship for that port, on their own account, provided that the Americans should visit no other parts of the coast north of a certain latitude. The Tonquin passed around Cape Horn, and in February, 1811, arrived at Owyhee, where Macdougal, who was to superintend the affairs of the company on the Pacific and its coasts until the arrival of Hunt, endeavored to conclude a treaty of amity and commerce with King Tamahamaha : but that aged chief, whom experience had rendered distrustful, refused to bind himself by any contract with the white men ; and he would only promise to furnish the vessels of the company with provisions on the same terms with other vessels — namely, on payment of the value in Spanish dollars. Having obtained the necessary supplies in this way, and taken on board a dozen of the islanders, who were permitted by their sovereign to engage in the service of the Pacific Company, Captain Thome sailed for the mouth of the Columbia, where he effected an entrance on the 24th of March, with great danger and difficulty, after losing three of his men, who attempted to reach the shore in a boat. The passengers immediately disembarked on the shore of Baker's Bay, on the north side of the Columbia, just within Cape Disappoint- ment, where sheds were built for their temporary accommodation. A few days afterwards, the partners set off in search of a place proper for the establishment of a factory ; and they soon selected for that ob- ject a spot on the south bank of the river, distant about ten miles from the ocean, which had received from Broughton, in 1792, the name of Point George. To this place the Tonquin was removed ; and, her goods and materials being landed, preparations were commenced for the erection of a fort and other houses, and for building a small vessel, of which the frame had been brought out from New York. In the course of two months, these works were so far advanced, that the assistance of the ship's crew was no longer needed ; and Captain Thorne accordingly sailed on the 5th of June for the northern coasts, carrying with him Mr. Mackay who was to conduct the trade, and to make arrangements with the Russians, Mr. Lewis one of the clerks, and an Indian who spoke English, to serve as interpreter. During the ensuing summer, much progress was made in the buildings for the factory, which, in honor of the head of the com- pany, was named Astoria. A large piece of ground was cleared and laid out as a garden, in which various vegetables were planted ; the small vessel was finished and launched ; trade was carried on with the neighboring Indians, and also with others from the higher 1811.] DAVID THOMPSON VISITS ASTORIA. 297 parts of the river, who gave skins, fish, and game, in exchange for manufactured articles ; and every thing, in fine, seemed to promise success to the enterprise. While the Astorians were thus engaged, they v\'ere unexpectedly visited, on the 15th of July, by a party of the North- West Company's men, under the direction of Mr. David Thompson, the surveyor or astronomer of that body. These men had been despatched from Canada in the preceding year, with the object of forestalling the Americans in the occupation of the mouth of the Columbia, which they hoped to effect before the end of that season : but they were so long delayed in seeking a passage through the Rocky Mountains, that they were obliged to winter in that ridge, near the northernmost sources of the Columbia, under the 52d parallel of latitude ; whence they hastened down the river in the spring of 1811, building huts and erecting flags at various places, by way of taking possession of the country. They were received at the fort not as rivals, but as friends ; and were treated with the utmost respect and hospitality, during their stay, by their old companion, the superintendent, Macdougal, who, moreover, furnished them with provisions, and even with goods, for trading on their departure up the river. Mr. Thompson and his followers in this expedition were, from all the accounts as yet made public, the first white persons who navigated the northern branch of the Columbia, or traversed any part of the country drained by it. The British commissioners, in the negotiation with the American plenipotentiary at London, in 1826, nevertheless, attempted to place Mr. Thompson's expedition on an equality, not only as to extent of discovery, but also as to date, with that of Lewis and Clarke ; and to represent tiie establishments which he is said to have founded on his way down the Columbia as prior to those formed by the Pacific Company. In their statement of the claims of Great Britain to territories west of the Rocky Moun- tains, they say* — "The United States further pretend that their claim to the country in question is strengthened and confirmed by the discovery of the sources of the Columbia, and by the exploration of its course to the sea by Lewis and Clarke, in 1805-6. In reply to this allegation, Great Britain afiirms, and can distinctly prove, that, if not before, at least in the same and subsequent years, her North- West Trading Company had, by means of their agent, Mr. Thompson, already established their posts among the Flat-head and * See the British statement, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter H. 38 298 MARCH OF HUNT, MaCLELLAN, AND CROOKS. [1812 Kootanie tribes, on the head-waters or main branch of the Columbia, and were gradually extending them down the principal stream of that river ; thus giving to Great Britain in this particular, as in the discovery of the mouth of the river, a title of parity at least, if not of priority of discovery, as opposed to the United States. It was from these posts that, having heard of the American establishment forming in 1811 at the mouth of the river, Mr. Thompson hastened thither, descending the river to ascertain the nature of that estab- lishment." The expression " if not before, at least in the same and following years," used here, is rather indefinite. In order to show how it should be understood conformably with truth, it will be proper to repeat — that Lewis and Clarke descended the Columbia and reached its mouth before the middle of November, 1805 — that the North- West Company made their first estabhshment beyond the Rocky Mountains, at some distance north of any part of the Co- lumbia, in 1806 — that American establishments were formed on the Columbia in 1809, 1810, and 1811 — and, finally, that Thompson did not arrive among the Kootanie and Flat-head tribes until the spring of 1811, after the foundation of Astoria. Mr. Thompson and his people were accompanied, on their return, by a party from the factory, under Mr. David Stuart, who established a post at the confluence of a stream, called the Okinagan, with the north branch of the Columbia, about six hundred miles above the mouth of the latter river, and remained there during the winter. The situation of those left at Astoria was, in the mean time, very un- pleasant, and their spirits were depressed by various circumstances. Their supplies of provisions were scanty and uncertain, and nothing was heard, for some months, of the party who were to come over land from the United States ; the Tonquin, which was expected to return to the river in September, did not appear, and rumors were brought by the Indians of the destruction of a ship, and the massacre of her crew, by the natives near the Strait of Fuca. Nothing, however, occurred at the factory, worthy of note, until the 18th of January, 1812, when a portion of the detachment sent across the continent arrived there in the most wretched condition. This detachment, consisting of about sixty men, under the chief agent. Hunt, and the partners. Crooks, Mackenzie, and Maclellan, ascended the Missouri River in boats, from its mouth to the country of the Arickara Indians, distant about fourteen hundred miles higher ; during which voyage they were constantly annoyed by their rivals of the Missouri Company ; and, there quitting the river, they took a 1812.] MARCH OF HUNT AND HIS PARTY TO THE COLUMBIA. 299 westward course to the Rocky Mountains, which they crossed in September, 1811, near the head of the Yellowstone River. On the western side of the ridge, they found a large stream, probably the main branch of the Lewis, on which they embarked in canoes, with the expectation of thus floating down to the Falls of the Colum- bia ; but ere they had proceeded far in this way, they encountered so many dangers and obstructions, from falls and rapids, that they were forced to abandon the stream and resume their march. It would be needless here to attempt to describe the many evils from hunger, thirst, cold, and fatigue, which these men underwent during their wanderings through that dreary wilderness of snow-clad moun- tains, in the winter of 1811-12: suffice it to say, that, after several of their number had perished from one or more of these causes, the others reached Astoria in separate parties, in the first months of 1812, having spent more than a year in coming from St. Louis. At the factory they found shelter, warmth, and rest ; but they had little food, until the fish began to enter the river, when they obtained abundant supplies of pilchardg, of the most delicious flavor. On the 5th of May, 1812, the ship Beaver,* commanded by Cap- tain Sowles, arrived in the Columbia, from New York, bringing the third detachment of persons in the service of the Pacific Com- pany, under the direction of Mr. Clarke, and twenty-six natives of * Ross Cox, who arrived at Astoria in the Beaver, in May, 1812, gives the follow- ing account of the establishment as it then appeared: — " The spot selected for the fort [Astoria] was a handsome eminence, called Point George, which commanded an extensive view of the majestic Columbia in front, bounded by the bold and thickly-wooded northern shore. On the right, about three miles distant, a long, high, and rocky peninsula, covered with timber, called Tongue Point, extended a considerable distance into the river from the southern side, with which it was connected by a narrow neck of land ; while, on the extreme left, Cape Disappointment, with the bar and its terrific chain of breakers, were distinctly visible. The buildings consisted of apartments for the proprietors and clerks, with a capacious dining-hall for both ; extensive warehouses for the trading goods and furs, a provision store, a trading shop, smith's forge, carpenter's shop, &c. ; tiie whole surrounded by stockades, forming a square, and reaching about fifteen feet above the ground. A gallery ran around the stockades, in which loopholes were pierced, sufficiently large for musketry ; two strong bastions, built of logs, commanded the four sides of the square ; each bastion had two stories, in which a number of chosen men slept every night ; a six pounder was placed in the lower story of each, and they were both well provided with small arms. Immediately in front of the fort was a gentle declivity, sloping down to the river's side, which had been turned into an excellent kitchen garden ; and, a few hundred rods to the left, a tolerable wharf had been run out, by which bateaux and boats were enabled, at low water, to land their cargoes with- out sustaining any damage. An impenetrable forest of gigantic pines rose in the rear, and the ground was covered with a thick underwood of brier and whortleberry, •ntermingled with fern and honeysuckle." 300 DESTRUCTION OF THE TON^UIN BY SAVAGES. [1812. the Sandwich Islands, who were engaged as seamen or laborers. The Beaver, moreover, brought from Owyhee a letter which had been left there by Captain Ebbets, of the ship Enterprise, contain- ing positive information of the destruction of the Tonquin and her crew by the savages on the coast near the Strait of Fuca ; the particulars of this melancholy affair were not, however, learned until August of the following year, when they were communicated at Astoria by the Indian who had 'gone in the Tonquin as inter- preter, and was the only survivor of those on board the ill-fated ship. According to this interpreter's account, the Tonquin, after quit- ting the river, sailed northward along the coast of the continent, and anchored, in the middle of June, 1811, opposite a village on the Bay of Clyoquot, near the entrance of the Strait of Fuca. She was there immediately surrounded by crowds of Indians in canoes, who continued for some days to trade in the most peaceable manner, so as to disarm Captain Thorne and Mr. M*^Kay of all suspicions. At length, either in consequence of an affront given to a chief by the captain, or with the view of plundering the vessel, the natives embraced an opportunity when the men were dispersed on or below the decks, in the performance of their duties, and in a moment put to death every one of the crew and passengers, except the inter- preter, who leaped into a canoe, and was saved by some women, and the clerk, Mr. Lewis, who retreated, with a few sailors, to the cabin. The survivors of the crew, by the employment of their fire-arms, succeeded in driving the savages from the ship ; and, in the night, four of them quitted her in a boat, leaving on board Mr. Lewis and some others, who were severely wounded. On the following day, the natives again crowded around and on board the Tonquin ; and while they were engaged in rifling her, she was blown up, most probably by the wounded men left below deck. The seamen who had endeavored to escape in the boat were soon retaken, and put to death in the most^cruel manner, by the Indians ; the interpreter was preserved, and remained in slavery two years, at the end of which time he was suffered to depart. The loss of this ship was a severe blow to the Pacific Company ; but the partners at Astoria were consoled by the reflections, that their chief could bear pecuniary damages to a far greater extent without injury to his credit, and that, if their enterprise should prove successful, ample indemnification would soon be obtained. It was therefore determined that Mr. Hunt should embark in the Beaver, to superintend the trade along the northern coasts, and visit the 1813.] WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND G. BRITAIN. 301 Russian establishments, as Mr. Mackay would have done, but for the destruction of the Tonquin ; and he accordi'ngly took his de- parture in that ship in August, 1812, leaving the superintendence of the affairs at the factory, as before, in the hands of Mr. Mac- dougal. A party was at the same time despatched to the upper country, by which another trading post was established on the SpoJcan, a stream joining the northern branch of the Columbia, about six hundred and fifty miles from the ocean ; and accounts of all the transactions, to that period, were transmitted to the United States, under the care of Messrs. Crooks, Maclellan, and Robert Stuart, who recrossed the continent, and reached New York in the spring of 1813, after encountering difficulties and dangers greater, in many respects, than those undergone in their journey to the Pacific. The trade with the Indians of the Lower Missouri was, in the mean time, going on prosperously ; provisions were abundant at Astoria, and a large quantity of furs was collected there, in expecta- tion of the arrival of the Beaver, which was to take them to Canton in the ensuing spring. The hopes of the partners were thus revived, and they had daily additional grounds for anticipating success in their undertaking, when, in January, 1813, tiiey learned that the United States had declared war against Great Britain in June previous. This news spread an instantaneous gloom over the minds of all, which was increased by information received from a trading vessel, that the Beaver was lying at Canton, blockaded by a British ship of war : and soon afterwards, Messrs. Mactavish and Laroque, partners in the North- West Company, arrived near Astoria, with sixteen men, bringing accounts of the success of the British arms on the northern frontiers of the United States, and of the blockade of all the Atlantic coasts of the latter country by British squadrons. Notwithstanding these circumstances, Laroque and Mactavish were received and treated by Macdougal and Mackenzie, the only partners of the Pacific Company then at Astoria, with the same attention and hospitality which had been shown to Thompson in the preceding year ; and were supplied with provisions and goods for trading, as if they had been friends and allies, instead of com- mercial rivals and political enemies. A series of private conferences were then held between the chief persons of the two parties, at the conclusion of which, Macdougal and Mackenzie announced their determination that the company should be dissolved on the 1st of July, and sent messengers to communicate the fact to the other 302 hunt's negotiations with baranof. [1813. partners, Stuart and Clarke, at the Okinagan and Spokan posts. The latter gentleman, on receiving this news, hastened to the factory, and there strongly opposed the determination to abandon the enterprise ; and it was at length agreed among them, that the establishments should be maintained a few months longer, at the end of which time, the company should be dissolved, unless assist- ance were received from the United States. Three of the clerks, including Ross Cox, however, immediately quitted the concern, and, entering the service of the North- West Company, took their departure for the upper country with Laroque and Mactavish, in July. From the United States no assistance came. The ship Lark was despatched from New York, in March, 1813, with men and goods for the Columbia ; but she was wrecked in October following, near one of the Sandwich Islands, on which the captain, Northrup, and crew succeeded in effecting a landing. The American government also determined, in consequence of the representations of Mr. Astor, to send the frigate Adams to the North Pacific, for the protection of the infant establishment ; but, just as that ship was about to sail from New York, it became necessary to transfer her crew to Lake Ontario, and the blockade of the coasts of the United States by the British rendered all further efforts to convey succors to Astoria unavailing. In the mean time, Mr. Hunt, the chief agent, who had sailed from the Columbia in the Beaver, in August, 1812, as already men- tioned, visited the principal Russian estabhshments on the north- west coasts of America, and the adjacent islands, and collected a large quantity of furs, besides concluding arrangements highly advantageous to the Pacific Company, with Governor Baranof,* at Sitka. It was then agreed between Mr. Hunt and Captain Sowles, that the Beaver should proceed, by way of the Sandwich Islands, to Canton, instead of returning to the Columbia, as had been previous- ly determined ; and this was done, though Hunt went no farther in her than to Woahoo, one of the Sandwich group, where he remained several months, waiting for some vessel to carry him to Astoria. At length, in June, 1813, the ship Albatross, of Boston, arrived at * An amusing account of the negotiations between Hunt and Baranof is given in Mr. Irving's Astoria. The chief agent of the Pacific Company appears to have been in as much danger from the " potations pottle deep" of raw rum and burning punch, which accompanied each of his interviews with the governor of Russian America, as from hunger, thirst, savages, or storms, during his whole expedition. 1813.] ASTORIA SOLD TO THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY. 303 Woahoo, from China, bringing information of the war between the United States and Great Britain, and also that the Beaver was blockaded by a British ship at Canton ; on learning which, Mr. Hunt chartered the Albatross, and proceeded in her to the Colum- bia, where he arrived on the 4th of August. Mr. Hunt was astounded on learning the resolution adopted by the other partners at Astoria during his absence, which he endeav- ored to induce them to change ; but, finding them determined, he reluctantly acceded to it himself, and, after a few days, he re- embarked in the Albatross, for the Sandwich Islands, in search of some vessel to convey the property of the Pacific Company to a place of safety. At the Sandwich Islands no vessel could be found ; and Hunt accordingly continued in the Albatross until she arrived at Nooahevah, (one of the Washington Islands, discovered by Ingral^m, in 1791,) where he learned from Commodore David Porter, who was lying there in the American frigate Essex, that a large British squadron, under Commodore Hillyar, was on its way to tha Columbia. This news caused Hunt to hasten back to the Sandwich Islands, which he reached in December, soon after the wreck of the Lark ; and, having there chartered a small brig, called the Pedler, he sailed in her to Astoria, where he arrived in February, 1814. The fate of the Pacific -Company, and its establishments in North- West America, had, however, been decided some time before the Pedler reached Astoria. Soon after the departure of Hunt, Mr. Mactavish and his followers of the North-West Company again appeared at Astoria, where they expected to meet a ship called the Isaac Todd, which had sailed from London in March, laden with goods, and under convoy of a British squadron, charged " to take and destroy every thing Amer- ican on the north-west coasts They were received as before, and allowed to pitch their camp unmolested near the factory ; and private conferences were held between Mactavish and Macdougal, the results of which were, after some days, communicated to the other partners, and then to the clerks of the Pacific Company. These results were set forth in an agreement, signed on the 16th of October, 1813, between Messrs. Mactavish and Alexander Stuart, on the one part, and Messrs. Macdougal, Mackenzie, and Clarke, on the other ; by which all the " establishments, furs, and stock in hand," of the Pacific Company, in the country of the 304 ASTORIA TAKEN BY THE BRITISH. [1813. Columbia, were sold to the North- West Company, for about fifty- eight thousand dollars. Whilst the business of valuing the furs and goods at Astoria, and of transferring them to their new owners, was in progress, the British sloop of war Raccoon appeared at the mouth of the river, under the command of Captain Black, who had been despatched from the South Pacific, by Commodore Hillyar, for the purpose of taking the American forts and establishments on the Columbia, and had hast- ened thither in expectation of securing some glory, and a rich share of prize-money, by the conquest. On approaching the factory, however, the captain soon saw that he should gain no laurels ; and, after it had been formally surrendered to him by Mr. Macdougal, he learnt, to his infinite dissatisfaction, that its contents had become the property of British subjects. He could, therefore, only haul down the flag of the United States, and hoist that of Great^Britain in its stead, over the establishment,* the name of which was, with due solemnity, changed to Fort George ; and, having given vent to his indignation against the partners of both companies, wly)m he loudly accused of collusion to defraud himself and his officers and crew of the reward due for their exertions, he sailed back to the South Pacific. The brig Pedler arrived in the Columbia, as before said, on the 28th of February, 1814, and Mr. Hunt found Macdougal super- intending the factory, not, however, as chief agent of the Pacific Company, but as a partner of the North-West Company, into which he had been admitted. Hunt had, therefore, merely to close the concerns of the American association in that quarter, and to receive the bills on Montreal, given in payment for its effects ; after which he reembarked in the Pedler, with two of the clerks, and proceeded, by way of Canton and the Cape of Good Hope, to New York. Of the other persons who had been attached to the Pacific Fur Company's establishments, some were murdered by the Indians on Lewis River, in the summer of 1813; some, including Mr. Franchere, the author of the narrative of the expeditions, re- turned over land to the United States, or to Canada ; and some remained on the Columbia, in the service of the North-West Com- pany. The long-expected ship Isaac Todd reached Fort George on the 17th of April, thirteen months after her departure from Eng- * See the account of the capture of Astoria, extracted from Cox, in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter G, No. 3. 1814.] TERMINATION OF THE ASTORIA ENTERPRISE. 305 land, bringing a large stock of supplies ; by the aid of which the partners of the North- West Company were enabled to extend their operations, and to establish themselves more firmly in the country. Such was the termination of the Astoria enterprise ; for no attempt has been since made by any of the persons who were en- gaged in it to form establishments on the western side of America. It was wisely planned : the resources for conducting it were ample ; and its failure was occasioned by circumstances, the principal of which could not have been reasonably anticipated at the time of its commencement. That ships might be lost at sea, or that parties might be destroyed by savages, or perish from cold or hunger, — casualties such as these were expected, and provisions were made for the con- tingencies. But, in 1810, when the Beaver sailed from New York, no one believed that, before the end of two years, the United States would be at war with the greatest maritime power in the world. By that war the whole plan was traversed. Communications by sea between the United States and the Pacific coasts became diffi- cult and uncertain, whilst those by land were of little advantage, and were always liable to interruption by the enemy ; and there was, in fact, no object in collecting furs on the Columbia, when those articles could not be transported to China. The Pacific Company, nevertheless, might, and probably would, have withstood all these difficulties, if the directing partners on the Columbia had been Americans, instead of being, as the greater part of them were, men unconnected ivith the United States by birth, or citizenship, or previous residence, or family ties. Mr. Astor de- clares that he would have preferred the loss of the establishments and property by a fair capture, to the sale of them in a manner which he considered disgraceful ; yet, although the conduct of Macdougal and Mackenzie, in that sale, and subsequently, was such as to authorize suspicions with regard to their motives, they could not have been expected to engage in hostilities against their compatriots and former friends. Being thus restrained from defend- ing the honor of the Pacific Company by force, they may have con- sidered themselves bound to take care of its interests, by the only means in their power, as they did in the sale. American citizens would have resisted the North-West Company, and would doubt- less have maintained their supremacy, in the country of the Co- lumbia, for some time, possibly until peace had been made between Great Britain and the United States. 39 306 CHAPTER XV. 1814 TO 1820. Restitution of Astoria to the United States by Great Britain, agreeably to the Treaty of Ghent — Alleged Reservation of Rights on the Part of Great Britain — First Negotiation between the Governments of Great Britain and the United States, respecting the Territories west of the Rocky Mountains, and Convention for the joint Occupancy of those Territories — Florida Treaty between Spain and the United States, by which the Latter acquires the Title of Spain to the North- West Coasts — Colonel Long's exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains — Disputes between the British North- West and Hudson's Bay Companies — Union of those Bodies — Act of Parliament extending the Jurisdiction of the Canada Courts to the Pacific Countries — Russian Establishments on the North Pacific — Expeditions in Search of Northern Passages between the Atlantic and the Pacific — Death of Tamahamaha, and Introduction of Christianity into the Sandwich Islands. The capture of Astoria by the British, and the transfer of the Pacific Company's establishments on the Columbia to the North- West Company, were not known to the plenipotentiaries of the United States at Ghent, on the 24th of December, 1814, when they signed the treaty of peace between their country and Great Britain, That treaty contains no allusion whatsoever to the north- west coasts of America, or to any portion of the continent west of the Lake of the Woods. The plenipotentiaries of the United States had been instructed by their government to consent to no claim on the part of Great Britain to territory in thai quarter sotith of the 49th parallel of latitude, for reasons which have been already stated ; and, after some discussion, they proposed to the British an article similar in effect to the fifth article of the convention signed, but not definitively concluded, in 1807, according to which,* a line drawn along that parallel should separate the territories of the powers so far as they extended west of the Lake of the Woods, provided, however, that nothing in the article should be construed as applying to any country west of the Rocky Mountains. The British plenipotentiaries were willing to accept this article, if it were also accompanied by a provision that their subjects should have access to the Mississippi River, through the territories of the United * For the reasons and the convention here mentioned, see chap. xiii. 1815.] THE UNITED STATES CLAIM ASTORIA. 307 States, and the right of navigating it to the sea ; but the Americans refused positively to agree to such a stipulation, and the question of boundaries west of the Lake of the Woods was left unsettled by the treaty. It was nevertheless agreed, in the first article of the treaty of Ghent, that " all territory, places, and possessions, whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, or which may be taken after the signing of this treaty, excepting only the islands hereinafter mentioned, [in the Bay of Fundy,] shall be restored ivithout delay ; " and, in virtue of this article, Mr. Monroe, the secretary of state of the United States, on the 18th of July, 1815, announced to Mr. Baker, the charge d'affaires of Great Britain at Washington, that the president intended immediately to reoccupy the post at the mouth of the Columbia. This determination seems to have been taken partly at the instance of Mr. Astor, who was anxious, if pos- sible, to recommence operations on his former plan in North- West America ; but no measures were adopted for the purpose until September, 1817, when Captain J. Biddle, commanding the sloop of war Ontario, and Mr. J. B. Prevost, were jointly commissioned to proceed in that ship to the mouth of the Columbia, and there " to assert the claim of the United States to the sovereignty of the adjacent country, in a friendly and peaceable manner, and without the employment of force." * A few days after the departure of Messrs. Biddle and Prevost for the Pacific, on this mission, Mr. Bagot, the British plenipotentiary at Washington, addressed to Mr. J. Q,. Adams, the American secretary of state, some inquiries respecting the destination of the Ontario, and the objects of her voyage ; and, having been informed on those points, he remonstrated against the intended occupation of the post at the mouth of the Columbia, on the grounds " that the place had not been captured during the late war, but that the Americans had retired from it, under an agreement with the North- West Company, which had purchased their effects, and had ever since retained peaceable possession of the coast ; " and that " the territory itself was early taken possession of in his majesty^ s name, and had been since considered as forming part of his majesty's dominions ; " under which circumstances, no claim for the restitution of the post could be founded on the first article of the treaty of Ghent. At what precise time this possession was taken, or on * See President Monroe's message to Congress of April 15th, 1822, and the accom- panying documents. 308 G. BRITAIN DENIES THE CLAIM OF THE 'u. STATES. [1818. what grounds the territory was considered as part of the British dominions, the minister did not attempt to show. Mr. Bagot at the same time communicated the circumstances to his government, and they became the subjects of discussion between Lord Castlereagh, the British secretary for foreign affairs, and Mr. Rush, the American plenipotentiary at London. Lord Castlereagh proposed that the question respecting the claim to the post on the Columbia should be referred to commissioners, as many other dis- puted points had been, agreeably to the treaty of Ghent ; to which Mr. Rush objected, for the simple reasons — that the spot was in the possession of the Americans before the war; that it fell, by bel- ligerent capture, into the hands of the British during the war ; and that, " under a treaty which stipulated the mutual restitution of all places reduced by the arms of either party, the right of the United States to immediate and full repossession could not be impugned." The British secretary, upon this, admitted the right of the Ameri- cans to be reinstated, and to be the party in possession, while treating on the title ; though he regretted that the government of the United States should have employed means to obtain restitution which might lead to difficulties. Mr. Rush had no apprehensions of that kind ; and it was finally agreed that the post should be restored to the Americans, and that the question of the title to the territory should be discussed in the negotiation as to limits and other matters, which was soon to be commenced. Lord Bathurst, the British secretary for the colonies, accordingly sent to the agents of the North-West Company at the mouth of the Columbia a despatch, directing them to afford due facilities for the reoccupation of the post at that point by the Americans ; and an order to the same effect was also sent from the Admiralty to the commander of the British naval forces in the Pacific. The Ontario passed around Cape Horn into the Pacific, and arrived, in February, 1818, at Valparaiso, where it was agreed between the commissioners that Captain Biddle should proceed to the Columbia, and receive possession of Astoria for the United States, Mr. Prevost remaining in Chili for the purpose of transact- ing some business with the government of that country, which had also been intrusted to him. Captain Biddle accordingly sailed to the Columbia, and, on the 9th of August, he took temporary pos- session of the country on that river, in the name of the United States, after which he returned to the South Pacific. In the mean time, Commodore Bowles, the commander of the 1818.] ASTORIA RESTORED TO THE UNITED STATES. 309 British naval forces in the South Sea, received at Rio de Janeiro the order from the Admiralty for the surrender of the post on the Columbia to the Americans. This order he transmitted to Captain Sheriff, the senior officer of the ships in the Pacific, who, meeting Mr. Prevost at Valparaiso, informed him of the contents of the order, and offered iiim a passage to the Columbia, for the purpose of completing the business, as it certainly could not have been done by Captain Biddle. This offer was accepted by the American commissioner, who proceeded, in the British frigate Blossom, to the Columbia, and entered that river in the beginning of October ; and Mr. Keith, the superintending partner of the North- West Company at Fort George, or Astoria, having also received the order, from the colonial department at London, for the surrender of the place, the affair was soon despatched.* On the 6th of the month. Captain Hickey and Mr. Keith, as joint commissioners on the part of Great Britain, presented to Mr. Prevost a paper declaring that, in obe- dience to the commands of the prince regent, as signified in Lord Bathurst's despatch of the 27th of January previous, and in con- formity to the first article of the treaty of Ghent, they restored to the government of the United States, through its agent, Mr. Prevost, the settlement of Fort George, on the Columbia River ; and Mr. Prevost, in return, gave another paper, setting forth the fact of his acceptance of the settlement for his government, agreeably to the * President Monroe's message to Congress of April 17th, 1822, accompanied by Mr. Provost's letter, dated Monterey, November 11th, 181S. The two papers above mentioned are of so much importance, that they are here given at length. The act of delivery presented by the British commissioners is as follows : — " In obedience to the commands of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, signi- fied in a despatch from the right honorable the Earl Bathurst, addressed to the part- ners or agents of the North-West Company, bearing date the 27th of January, 1818, and in obedience to a subsequent order, dated the 26th of July, from W. H. Sheriff, Esq., captain of his Majesty's ship Andromache, we, the undersigned, do, in conform- ity to the first article of the treaty of Ghent, restore to the Government of the United States, through its agent, J. B. Prevost, Esq., the settlement of Fort George, on the Columbia River. Given under our hands, in triplicate, at Fort George, (Columbia River,) this 6th day of October, 1818. " F. HicKEY, Captain of his Majesty's ship Blossom. "J. Keith, of the North-West Company." The act of acceptance, on the part of the American commissioner, is in these words : — " I do hereby acknowledge to have this day received, in behalf of the Government of the United States, the possession of the settlement designated above, in conformity to the first article of the treaty of Ghent. Given under my hand, in triplicate, at Fort George, (Columbia River,) this 6th of October, 1818. "J. B. Prevost, Agent for the United States." 310 PRETENDED RESERVATION OF THE BRITISH. [1818. above-mentioned treaty. The British flag was then formally low- ered, and that of the United States, having been hoisted in its stead over the fort, was saluted by the Blossom. The documents above cited — the only ones which passed between the commissioners on this occasion — are sufficient to show that no reservation or exceytion was made on the part of Great Britain, and that the restoration of Astoria to the United States was complete and unconditional. Nevertheless, in a negotiation between the governments of those nations, in 1826, relative to the territories of the Columbia, it was maintained by the plenipoten- tiaries of Great Britain,* that the restoration of Astoria could not have been legally required by the United States, in virtue of the treaty of Ghent, because the place was not a national possession, nor a military post, and was not taken during war ; but " in order that not even the shadow of a reflection might be cast upon the good faith of the British government, the latter determined to give the most liberal extension to the terms of the treaty of Ghent; and in 1818, the purchase which the British Company had made in 1813 was restored to the United States ; particular care being, however, taken, on this occasion, to prevent any misapprehension as to the extent of the concession made by Great Britain." In support of this last assertion, two documents are produced, as having been addressed, in 1818, by the British ministers to their own agents, and which, though never before published, or communicated in any way to the United States, were considered by the plenipotentiaries, in 1826, as putting the " case of the restoration of Fort Astoria in too clear a light to require further observation." One of these documents is presented as an extract from Lord Castlereagh's despatch to Mr. Bagot, dated February 4th, 1818, in which his lordship says, "You will observe, that whilst this government is not disposed to contest with the American government the point of possession, as it stood in the Columbia River, at the moment of the rupture, they are not •prepared to admit the validity of the title of the government of the United States to this settlement. In signifying, therefore, to Mr. Adams the full acquiescence of your government in the reoccupa- tion of the limited position which the United States held in that river at the breaking out of the war, you ivill, at the same time, assert, in suitable terms, the claim of Great Britain to that territory, upon which the American settlement must be considered an encroach- * Statement presented by the British plenipotentiaries to Mr. Gallatin, among the Proofs and Illustrations, letter H. See hereafter, chap. xvi. 1818.] PRETENDED RESERVATION OF BRITISH RIGHTS. 311 ment ; " the plenipotentiaries add that " this instruction was exe- cuted verbally by the person to whom it was addressed." The other document purports to be a copy of the despatch from Lord Bathurst to the partners of the North- West Company, mentioned in the Act of Delivery, presented by Messrs. Keith and Hickey, direct- ing them to restore the post on the Columbia, " in pursuance of the first article of the treaty of Ghent," in which the words " without, however, admitting the right of that government to the possession in question^^ appear in a parenthesis.* Now, as the treaty of Ghent provides for the restoration of " all territory, places, and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war," except those specially named on the Atlantic coast, it is needless to inquire whether Astoria was a military post or not. As to its being a national possession, the question is sufficiently answered by the mere statement of the facts. The es- tablishment was founded by a company of American citizens formed under a charter from an American authority, legally empowered to grant it, in a territory which either belonged to the United States or to Spain, or was free and open to the whole world. The United States had acquired rights, by discovery and occupation, which no other power than Spain could contest ; for the Nootka Convention, under which Great Britain might have advanced any claim in the country, had expired in 1796, and it is not pretended that this agreement was renewed until August, 1814.| That the establish- ment thus formed was a national possession, agreeably to the prin- ciples maintained by the British government, there can be no doubt ; the fact being conclusively proved by the conduct of that power with respect to the pretended settlement at Nootka in 1790. Tiiat this possession was taken by the British during war, is also equally clear, A party of British traders came to the fort, or factory, and informed its holders that a naval force was on its way from England, with orders to take and destroy every thing American in that quarter : these traders, at the same time, offered to purchase the property of the American company ; to which the agents of the latter party agreed, in consideration of the probability that it would otherwise be lost to them, either by capture or by their own destruction of it. The property of the American citizens thus passed into the hands of the British subjects by a mercantile operation : yet the latter could not thereby acquire, nor the former cede, in any way, the na- * See copy of this order, as first produced by the British plenipotentiaries, in 1827, in their statement, at page 453 of the present volume. ♦ Upon these points see hereafter, pages 318 to 320 312 PRETENDED RESERVATION OF BRITISH RIGHTS. [1818. tional rights of the United States, whatsoever they may have been, to the territory ; nor was any such idea entertained there at the time of the transaction. The arrangement between the chiefs of the two companies was kept secret, and the American flag remained flying over the fort, until its surrender to the British naval command- er, who took possession of it in the name of His Britannic Majesty, and hoisted the ensign of his nation in the place of that of the United States. Then, and not till then, did the rights of the Amer- ican republic cease ; from that moment, and only from that moment, did they remain dormant, until their revival by the treaty of Ghent. Under what other tide than that of conquest did Great Britain hold possession during the intermediate period ? The two documents, which the British plenipotentiaries consider as putting " the case of the restoration of Astoria in too clear a light to require further observation," are wholly inadmissible as evi- dence in " the case," being simply despatches from British ministers to their own agents, intended exclusively for the instruction of the latter, and with which the United States have no more concern than with the private opinions of those ministers. The attempt to rep- resent such communications as reservations of right on the part of Great Britain to the very territory which she was then in the act of restoring to the United States, expressedly in pursuance of a treaty, is alike at variance with the common sense and the common morals of the day ; and no arguments are required to show that, if such reservations were allowable, all engagements between nations would be nugatory, and all faith at an end. The statement respecting the assertion of the British claim to Astoria, verbally made by Mr. Bagot to Mr. Adams, is incomplete ; for, as Mr. Gallatin justly ob- served in answer, " it is not stated how the communication was re- ceived, nor whether the American government consented to accept the restitution with the reservation, as expressed in the despatch to the envoy ;" * and it is, moreover, by no means consonant with the usages of diplomatic intercourse at the present day, to treat verbally on questions so important as those of territorial sovereignty, or to * Upon the subject of this verbal communication, the following may be found in Mr. Adams's despatch to Mr. Rush, of July 22d, 1823: — "Previous to the restora- tion of the settlement at the mouth of the Columbia River, in 1818, and again upon the first introduction in Congress of the plan for constituting a territorial govern- ment there, some disposition w^as manifested, by Sir Charles Bagot and Mr. [Strat- ford] Canning, to dispute the right of the United States to that establishment, and some vague intimation was given of the British claims on the north-west coast. The restoration of the place, and the convention of 1818, were considered as a final disposal of Mr. Bagot's objections, and Mr. Canning declined committing to paper those wliich he had intimated in conversation." 1818.] BRITISH VIEWS OF NATIONAL FAITH. 313 consider as sufficient, protests and exceptions made in that manner, and brought forward long after, without acknowledgment of any kind on the part of those to whom they are said to have been ad- dressed. The only communication received by the American gov- ernment, on the occasion of the restitution of Astoria, is explicit : " We, the nndersigned, do, in conformity to the first article of the treaty of Ghent, restore to the government of the United States the settlement of Fort George, on the Columbia River ; " and this direct and unqualified recognition of the right of the United States cannot be affected by subsequent communications to or from any persons. It may also be remarked, that although the British government, in 1826, pronounced as sufficient a reservation contained in a secret despatch from one of its own ministers to one of its own agents, and withheld from the other party interested in the matter, yet, in 1834, the same government pronounced the reservation contained in the Declaration publicly presented by the Spanish ambassador at Lon- don, in 1771, on the conclusion of the dispute respecting the Falk- land Islands, " not to possess any substantial weight," * inasmuch as it had not been noticed in the Acceptance presented by the British government in return. The circumstances connected with the last- mentioned transaction have been already so fully exposed, that it is unnecessary to repeat them here. Immediately after the conclusion of the surrender of Astoria, Mr. Keith presented to Mr. Prevost a note containing inquiries — whether or not the government of the United States would insist upon the abandonment of the post by the North- West Company,f before the final decision of the question as to the right of sove- reignty over the country ; and whether, in the event of such a * Letter from Viscount Palmerston to Senor Moreno, envoy of Buenos Ayrea at London, dated January 8th, 1834. See the note in p. Ill, containing a sketch of the circumstances of the dispute respecting tlie Falkland Islands. t The buildings, and, indeed, the whole establishment at Astoria, had been consid- erably increased, since it came into the hands of the North-West Company. Accord ing to the plan and description of the place sent by Mr. Prevost to Washington, the factory consisted, in 1818, of a stockade made of pine logs, twelve feet in length above the ground, enclosing a parallelogram of one hundred and fifty by two hundred and fifty feet, extending in its greatest length from north-west to south-east, and defended by bastions or towers at two opposite angles. Within this enclosure were all the buildings of the establishment, such as dwelling-houses, magazines, store- houses, mechanics' shops, &,c. The artillery were two heavy eightecn-pounders, six six-pounders, four four-pound carronades, two six-pound cohorns, and sevea swivels, all mounted. The number of persons attaclied to the place, besides a few women and children, was sixty-five, of whom twenty-three were whites, twenty-six Sandwich Islanders, (or Kanakis, as they are generally called in the Pacific,) and the remainder persons of mixed blood, from Canada. 40 314 NEGOTIATION AT LONDON. [1818. decision being in favor of the United States, their government would be disposed to indemnify the North-West Company for any improvements vi^hich they might, in the mean time, have made there. On these points, Mr. Prevost, having no instructions, could only reply, as he did, to the effect — that his government would, doubtless, if it should determine to keep up the settlement, satisfy any claims of the North- West Company which might be conformable with justice and the usages of civilized nations. After a few days more spent on the Columbia, the Blossom quitted the river with Mr. Prevost, whom she carried to Peru, the post remaining in the hands of the British traders, who haVe ever since continued to occupy it. Whilst these measures for the restitution of Astoria were in progress, a negotiation was carried on, at London, between the plenipotentiaries of the American and British governments, for the definitive arrangement of many questions which were left unsettled by the treaty of Ghent, including those relating to the boundaries of the territories of the two nations west of the Lake of the Woods.* Messrs. Rush and Gallatin, the plenipotentiaries of the United States, proposed — that the dividing hue between those territories should be drawn from the north-western extremity of that lake, north or south, as the case might require, to the 49th parallel of latitude, and thence along that parallel west to the Pacific Ocean. The British commissioners, Messrs. Goulburn and Robin- son, after a discussion in which they endeavored to secure to British subjects the right of access to the Mississippi, and of navigating that river, agreed to admit the line proposed as far west as the Rocky Mountains ; and an article to that effect was accordingly inserted in the projet of a convention. The claims of the respective nations to territories west of the Rocky Mountains were then considered. Messrs. Rush and Galla- tin " did not assert that the United States had a perfect right to that country, but insisted that their claim was at least good against Great Britain ; " and they cited, in support of that claim, the facts of the discovery of the Columbia River, of the first exploration from its sources to its mouth, and of the formation of the first establishments in the country through which it flows, by American citizens, Messrs. Goulburn and Robinson, on the other hand, affirmed " that former voyages, and principally that of Captain Cook, gave to Great Britain the rights derived from discovery ; and they alluded to * President Monroe's message to Congress, with the accompanying documents, sent December 29th, 1818. 1818.] CONVENTION OF UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN. 315 purchases from the natives south of the Columbia, which they alleged to have been made prior to the American revolution. They did not make any formal proposition for a boundary, but intimated that the river itself was the most convenient which could be adopted ; and that they would not agree to any which did not give them the harbor at the mouth of that river, in common with the United States." It is needless here to repeat the proofs that Cook saw no part of the west coast of America south of Mount San Jacinto, near the 57th degree of latitude, which had not been already explored by the Spaniards ; with regard to the purchases from the natives south of the Columbia, alleged to have been made by British subjects prior to the revolution, history is entirely silent. The de- termination expressed on the part of the British government not to assent to any arrangement which did not give to Great Britain the mouth of the Columbia, was at least unequivocal, and was sufficient to show that all arguments on the American side would be unavailing. It was, accordingly, at length agreed that all territories and their waters, claimed by either power, west of the Rocky Mountains, should be free and open to the vessels, citizens, and subjects, of both for the space of ten years ; provided, however, that no claim of either, or of any other nation, to any part of those territories, should be prejudiced by the arrangement. This convention having been completed, it was signed by the plenipotentiaries on the 20th of October, 1818, and was soon after ratified by the governments of both nations.* The compromise contained in its third article, with regard to the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, was, perhaps, the most wise, as well as the most equitable, measure which could have been adopted at that time ; considering that neither party pretended to possess a perfect title to the sovereignty of any of those territories, and that there was no prospect of the speedy conclusion of any arrangement with regard to them, between either party and the other claimants, Spain and Russia. The agreement could not certainly, at the time, have been considered unfavorable to the United States ; for, although the North- West Company held the whole trade of the Columbia country, yet the important post at the mouth of that river was restored to the Americans without reservation, and there was every reason for supposing that it would be immediately re- * See the third article of the convention of October, 1818, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this History, under the letter K, No. 2. 316 FLORIDA TREATY BETWEEN U. STATES AND SPAIN. [I8l8. occupied by its founders : and it seemed, moreover, evident that the citizens of the United States would enjoy many and great advantages over all other people in the country in question, in con- sequence of their superior facilities of access to it, especially since the introduction of steam vessels on the Mississippi and its branches. In the same year, a negotiation was carried on at Washington, between the governments of the United States and Spain, in which the question of boundaries on the north-west side of America was likewise discussed. The Spanish minister, Don Luis de Onis, began by declaring that " the right and dominion of the crown of Spain to the north-west coast of America as high as the Californias, is certain and indisputable ; the Spaniards having explored it as far as the 47th degree, in the expedition under Juan de Fuca, in 1592, and in that under Admiral Fonte, to the 55th degree, in 1640. The dominion of Spain in these vast regions being thus established, and her rights of discovery, conquest, and possession, being never dis- puted, she could scarcely possess a property founded on more re- spectable principles, whether of the law of nations, of public law, or of any others which serve as a basis to such acquisitions as compose all the independent kingdoms and states of the earth." Upon these positive assertions, the American plenipotentiary, Mr. J. Q,. Adams, secretary of state, did not consider himself required to offer any comment ; and the origin, extent, and value, of the claims of Spain to the north-western portion of America remained unquestioned during the discussion. The negotiation was broken off in the early part of the year, soon after its commencement ; it was, however, renewed, and was terminated on the 22d of February, 1819, by a treaty commonly called the Florida treaty, in which the southern boundaries of the United States were definitively fixed, Spain ceded Florida to the American republic, which relinquished all claims to territories west of the River Sabine, and south of the upper parts of the Red and the Arkansas Rivers ; and it was agreed that a line drawn on the meridian from the source of the Arkansas northward to the 42d parallel of latitude, and thence along that parallel westward to the Pacific, should form the northern boundary of the Spanish possessions, and the southern boundary of those of the United States, in that quarter, — " His Catholic majesty ceding to the United States all his rights, claims, and pretensions, to any territories north of the said line." The provisions of this treaty, particularly those relating to limits, appear to have been as nearly just as any which could have been 1819.] FLORIDA TREATY BETWEEN THE U. S. \ND SPAIN. 317 framed under existing circumstances ; and as an almost necessary consequence, they were not received with general satisfaction by either nation. The Americans insisted that the Rio del Norte should have been made the boundary of their republic in the south-west, so as to secure to it the possession of the vast and fertile region of Texas, which they claimed as originally forming part of Louisiana ; whilst the Spaniards protested that their interests in the new world had been sacrificed by the surrender of Florida to the power most dangerous to them in that quarter. The Spanish government, which was then in the hands of the Cortes, withheld its ratification of the treaty for nearly two years ; and within a year after that ratification had been given, the authority of Spain was extin- guished in every portion of America contiguous to the new line of boundary.* With regard to the extent of the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, and the validity of the title to it thus acquired by the United States, it will be convenient here to introduce some ob- servations. * See the third article of the treaty of 1819, defining the boundary, as settled, in the Proofs ajid Illustrations, under the Letter K, No. 6. The correspondence which passed during the negotiation may be found accompanying President Monroe's mes- sage to Congress of February 2'2d, 1819. Great skill and knowledge of the subject are displayed by each of the plenipotentiaries in this correspondence ; the Chevalier de Onis occasionally employing that finesse which was considered as the principal weapon of the diplomatist of the last centuries, while Mr. Adams, in addition to his superior acquaintance with history and national law, impresses upon the reader his profound conviction of the justice of his cause. The Spanish plenipotentiary, on returning to his country, found it necessary to vindicate his conduct in this negotiation, by a Memoir, published at Madrid in 1820, in which he shows tliat he was by no means convinced of the right of Spain to the territory west of the Sabine River; and he claims especial commendation from his government for this part of the treaty of 1819, "which," he says, "is improperly styled a treaty of cession, whereas it is in reality one of exchange, or permutation, of a small province for another of double the extent, more rich and fertile. 1 will agree," he adds, " that the third article might, with greater clearness, have been ex- pressed thus : ' In exchange, the United States cede to his Catholic majesty the province of Texas,' &c. ; but as I had been for three years maintaining, in the lengthened cor- respondence herein inserted, that this province belonged to the king, it would have been a contradiction to express, in the treaty, that the United States cede it to his majesty." The Chevalier de Onis, however, insinuates, in his Memoir, that one object of his long correspondence on this subject was to gain time. In fact, during the summer of 1818, while the correspondence was partially suspended, (with the same object of gaining time, no doubt,) the Spanish government formally applied to that ol Great Britain for aid, or mediation, in the affair; to which Lord Castlereagh immediately returned a decided negative, at the same time advising the Spanish government to cede Florida to the United States, and to make any other arrangement which might be deemed proper, tcUhout delay. 318 BRITISH VIEWS OF THE DURATION OF TREATIES. [1819. It will be necessary, in the first place, to inquire what effect the Nootka convention, concluded in 1790 between Great Britain and Spain, could have on this title. That the Nootka convention expired on the commencement of war between Great Britain and Spain, in October, 1796, has been already shown to be conformable with the principles of reason and justice, with the opinions of the most distinguished writers on na- tional law, and with the universal practice of nations for ages ; * and that Great Britain supports this view in its fullest extent is abundantly proved by reference to the negotiations between her government and that of the United States, in 1815, with regard to the Newfoundland fisheries.f The British minister on that occa- sion declared, that his nation " knew no exception to the rule that all treaties are put an end to by a subsequent war between the same parties,^' though he admitted that treaties might contain " acknowl- edgments of title in the nature of perpetual obligations^ This, how- ever, is by no means the case with the Nootka convention, which is, in every respect, a series of " temporary concessions " on both sides. To navigate and fish in the open sea, and to trade and settle on coasts unoccupied by a civilized nation, are general rights claimed * See NOTE on this subject, page 259. t The interesting and able discussions, on this subject, between Mr. J. Q. Adams, the American plenipotentiary at London, and Lord Bathurst, the British secretary for the colonies, having charge of the department of foreign affairs, may be found among the documents annexed to President Monroe's message to Congress of De- cember 29, 1819. Mr. Adams, on that occasion, insisted that his countrymen should continue, not only to fish on the Banks of Newfoundland, but also to land on the British Ameri- can coasts for the same purpose, as they had done before the war of 1812, by the treaty of 1783, although that treaty had not been renewed by the treaty of Ghent, at the termination of the war — upon the ground that the treaty of 1783, by which Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States, was "of a peculiar nature, and bore, in that nature, a character of permanency, not subject, like many of the ordinary contracts between independent nations, to abrogation by a subsequent war between the same parties." To this Lord Bathurst answered, that, " if tlie United States derived from the treaty of 1783 privileges from which other independent nations, not admitted by treaty, were excluded, the duration of those privileges must depend on the duration of the instrument by which they were granted ; and if the war abrogated the treaty, it determined the privileges. It has been urged, indeed," continues his lordship, "on the part of the United States, that the treaty of 1783 was of a peculiar nature, and that, because it con- tained a recognition of American independence, it could not be abrogated by a subsequent war between the parties. To a position of this novel nature Great Britain cannot accede. She knows of no exception to the rule, that all treaties are put an end to by a svbscquent tear between the same parties : she cannot, therefore, consent to give to her diplomatic relations with one state a different degree of per- manency from that on which her connection with all other states depends. Nor 1819.] NOOTKA CONVENTION ABROGATED IN 1796. 319 by all civilized nations on the grounds of obvious justice and reason ; yet reason and justice in many cases also obviously indi- cate modifications in the exercise of these rights, some of which are conceded by common consent, while others are made the subjects of treaties. Spain, before 1790, had always resisted the exercise of these rights with regard to the parts of America, bordering on the Pacific and Southern Oceans, of which her pretensions to the ex- clusive occupation had been indirectly admitted, or suffered, by various maritime powers, as shown by all their treaties with her, since and including those of Utrecht, in language sufficiently dis- tinct to warrant her government in maintaining those pretensions.* By the Nootka treaty, she merely engaged to desist from the exer- cise of all the privileges thus conceded to her, by long usage and repeated treaties, so far as concerned British subjects, with the con- dition that they should in return be restrained from the exercise of certain other privileges, claimed for them by their government, under the general law of nations. Both parties were equally en- titled, by that general law, to settle on the unoccupied southernmost coasts of America ; yet both were, by the convention, equally ex- cluded from making any settlements there. The northwest coasts of can she consider any one state at liberty to assign to a treaty, made with her, such a peculiarity of character as shall make it, as to duration, an exception to all other treaties, in order to found on a peculiarity, thus assumed, an irrevocable title to all indulgences which have all the features of temporary concessions." The British minister proceeded to show, that the independence of a state is that which cannot be correctly said to be granted by a treaty, but to be acknowledged by one, "and that, by whatever mode acknowledged, the acknowledgment is, in its own nature, irrevocable. A power of modifying it would be destructive of the thing itself; and therefore, all such power is necessarily renounced when the acknowledgment is made. The war could not put an end to it, for the reason justly assigned by the American minister, because a nation could not forfeit its sovereignty by the act of exercising it," &c. Lord Bathurst further observed, that " it is by no means un- usual for treaties, containing acknowledgments of title in the nature of perpetual QJbligations, to contain, likewise, grants of privileges liable to revocation ; " and, referring to the treaty of 1783, he showed, that the right of the Americans to fish on the banks of Newfoundland (that is to say, in the open sea) was there distinctly acknowledged, while the liberty to use the British coasts for the same purpose was conceded to them ; and that, although the right subsisted in virtue of the inde- pendence of the United States, the liberty expired on the declaration of war in 1812, and could not again be enjoyed, without the express consent of Great Britain. The position thus assumed by the British government was maintained through- out the negotiation ; at the end of which, by the convention of October 20, 1818, the liberty to take and cure fish on certain parts of the British American coasts, so long as they should remain unsettled, was secured to the citizens of the United States, in common with British subjects, /orc»er; that is to say, until the com- mencement of another war between the two nations. * See page 96. 320 NOOTKA CONVENTION NEVER RENEWED. [1819. the northern continent were, in hke manner, equally open to both ; yet it was agreed that neither party should have the right to ap- propriate to itself any spot on those coasts not actually occupied by its subjects, or to exclude the subjects of the other from any spot so occupied. All ideas of sovereignty or domain, in any of these territories, are expressly repelled and provided against by the re- peated words, as well as by the whole spirit, of the convention ; the territories taken from the subjects of the respective sovereigns are to be restored to the said subjects, not to their sovereigns or na- tions ; the privileges to be enjoyed, and the restrictions to be ob- served, apply only to the subjects ; and their sovereigns or nations could do no more, under the convention, than see that those privi- leges were enjoyed and those restrictions were maintained. The recognition of such restrictions and privileges is utterly incom- patible with permanence of right; depending, as they do, entirely upon the concurrence of both parties. When that concurrence ceased, as it did on the breaking out of war in 1796, the recogni- tion perished with it, and could not be revived without the express renewal of the concurrence. The war between Great Britain and Spain, begun in October, 1796, was terminated, by the general piece of Amiens, on the 27th of March, 1802: it was, however, renewed before the end of the following year, and continued to the 14th of January, 1809, when a treaty of peace and alliance was concluded between Great Britain and the Supreme Junta of Spain, under which they remained, acting in conjunction against France, until the general peace in 1814. No engagement for the renewal of international compacts existing before 1796 was, however, made before the 28th of August, 1814, when, in the first of the three additional articles to the treaty of Madrid of the 20th of July previous, " It is agreed that, pending the negotiation of a new treaty of commerce, Great Britain shall he admitted to trade ivith Spain upon the same condi- tions as those lohich existed previously to 1796 ; all the treaties of commerce, which at that period subsisted between the tivo nations, being hereby ratified and confirmed." Thus the Nootka convention could not have been in force at any time between October, 1796, and August, 1814; nor since that period, unless it were renewed by the additional article above quoted. That the first part of this article related only to trade between the European dominions of Great Britain and Spain is certain, because no trade had ever been allowed, by treaty or otherwise, between either kingdom, or its colo- 1819.] RIGHTS OF SPAIN IN NORTH-WEST AMERICA. 321 nies, and the colonies of the other, except in the single case of the asiento, concluded in 171.3, and abrogated in 1740, agreeably to which the British South Sea Company supplied the Spanish colo- nies with negro slaves during that period ; and because, moreover, by an article in the treaty of Madrid, to which the above-quoted article is additional, " In the event of the commerce of the Spanish American colonies being opened to foreign nations, his Catholic majes- ty promises that Great Britain shall be admitted to trade with those possessions, as the most favored nation."* The second part of the additional article is evidently intended merely in confirmation of the first, which would otherwise have wanted the requisite degree of precision ; and the object of the whole was, as clearly, to restore " the trade between the two 7iations " upon " the same conditions as those lohich existed previously to 1796 " excluding all reference to stipulations directed, like those of the Nootka convention, solely and expressly to prevent all trade between them. It has been abundantly proved, in preceding chapters of this his- tory, that, neither before the conclusion of the Nootka convention, nor during its subsistence, did Great Britain or her subjects acquire a right, by occupation or ownership of tlie soil in any way, to a single spot on the north-west side of America ; whilst Spain had created for herself a valid right of sovereignty, at Nootka, by her establishment formed there before the convention, and maintained until the spring of 1795. As Spain did, however, at the latter period, admit the right of British subjects to occupy lands at Nootka, by the act of the delivery of those lands agreeably to the convention, that right will not now be questioned. The surrender, however, applied merely to those lands and to no others ; it was made in favor of British subjects, and could not have involved the transfer or acknowledgment of any right of domain or sovereignty to their nation. The lands thus delivered were never occupied, and, on the abrogation of this convention, by war, in 1796, not a single subject of either nation was to be found in any part of America, bordering on the Pacific, north of the bay of San Fran- cisco. When the convention ended, therefore, neither Spain nor Great Britain possessed any sovereignty there, agreeably to the general law of nations ; and whatsoever may have been the claims of Spain, founded on discoveries and settlements anterior to the * This has been distinctly declared, by the British government, in the discussions with Spain relative to the duties on sugar from the Spanish colonies. See cor- respondence between Lord Aberdeen and the Duke of Sotomayor, and the debates in parliament on the subject, in August, 1845. 41 322 RIGHTS OF THE U. S. UNDER THE FLORIDA TREATY. [1819. convention, they had undoubtedly been considerably lessened by her entire neglect of those regions, and her quiet submission to the occupation of various parts by other nations, during the whole period between her abandonment of Nootka, and the cession of her claims to the United States, by the Florida treaty. The Russians had held long and undisputed possession of the coasts north of the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes, and had even occupied a posi- tion near the Bay of San Francisco. The British had formed es- tablishments which gave to them rights in the country drained by Eraser's River ; and the Americans had, in like manner, acquired rights, by exploration and settlement, in the regions of the Colum- bia. The rights of these powers to the territories thus held by them respectively, Spain, and no other power than Spain, could legally contest ; and it was in consideration of this imperfection of their claims, as well as to prevent disputes between themselves, that the British and the Americans admitted each other to equality in the use of all the regions claimed by both, for a limited period, by the convention of October, 1818. Thus it is demonstrated, that the Nootka convention did not sub- sist at the time when the Florida treaty was concluded ; and that if it had then continued in force, it could only have served to pre- vent both the parties to it, and no other parties, from acquiring sover- eignty in North-west America. It might have invalidated the rights of Great Britain in the Fraser's River country ; but it could not have affected those of the United States to the Columbia regions, which were founded on discovery and occupation, under the general law of nations. Though it may be doubted that any other nation could, in justice, have claimed the sovereignty of any territory north of the Bay of San Francisco, on the ground of occupation, without the assent of Spain, at the time when the Florida treaty was concluded, it is certain that the latter power could not, agreeably to any principle or general rules of national law, have claimed the exclu- sive possession of any spot in that territory, or have entered into engagements respecting its trade, navigation, or settlement, with a nation other than the one so claiming it by occupation. Thus, whilst the title to the countries north of the 42d parallel, derived by the United States from Spain, in 1819, was undoubtedly imperfect, yet that title, in addition to those previously possessed by the United States, in virtue of their discoveries and settlements, made under the general law of nations, constituted together a right 1820.] long's expedition to the rocky mountains. 323 in their favor stronger than could be alleged by any other pow- er. This right could not be legally contested by Great Britain, either on the ground of the Nootka convention or of the law of nations. It was an exclusive right to occupy, within a reasonable time, the countries drained by the Columbia River, and those im- mediately attached to them, not already occupied by another civilized nation ; and the fulfilment of that condition would perfect the sovereignty of the United States in those countries. Soon after the signature of the Florida treaty, an expedition for the purpose of examining the country drained by the Missouri and its branches was organized by Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary of State of the United States, who had been, for some time previous, assidu- ously endeavoring to regulate the intercourse with the Indians, and to extend the military posts of the Union through those regions.* The expedition was conducted by Major Stephen Long, who, accompanied by a large number of officers and men of science, ascended the River Platte to the source of its southern branch, in 1820, and thence returned, by way of the Arkansas, to the Missis- sippi, f Much information was obtained, through this expedition, respecting the geography, natural history, and aboriginal inhabitants, of those regions ; and a fact, most important in a political point of view, was then first established — namely, that the whole division of North America, drained by the Missouri and the Arkansas, and their tributaries, between the meridian of the mouth of the Platte and the Rocky Mountains, is almost entirely unfit for cultivation, and therefore uninhabitable by a people depending upon agricul- ture for their subsistence. Changes were, about the same time, made in the system of the British trade in the northern parts of America, which led to the most important political and commercial results. Frequent allusions have been already made to the enmity subsist- ing between the Hudson's Bay and the North-West Companies. * See Mr. Calhoun's report on this subject to the House of Representatives, dated December 5th, 1818, in which he reviews the system of intercourse with the In- dians, then pursued, and recommends, as the only means of protecting them against the cupidity of the traders, and of securing the United States against the delete- rious influence exercised over those people by the British trading companies, that the wliole trade in the regions beyond the organized states and territories of the Union should be vested, for twenty years, in a company, subject to such regulations as might be prescribed by law. This document merits attention, from the accu- racy of the details and the force of the reasoning; and we may now regret that the plan proposed by Mr. Calhoun was not carried into effect. t Narrative of the expedition, by Dr. James, in 2 vols. 8vo., with an atlas. 324 DISPUTES OF BRITISH FUR COMPANIES. [1816 This feeling was displayed only in words, or in the commission of petty acts of injury or annoyance by each against the other, until 1814, when a regular war broke out between the parties, which was, for some time after, openly carried on. The scene of the hostilities was the territory traversed by the Red River of Hudson's Bay and its branches, in which Lord Selkirk, a Scotch nobleman^ had, in 1811, obtained from the Hudson's Bay Company a grant of not less than a hundred thousand square miles, for the establish- ment of agricultural colonies. The validity of this grant was denied by the North- West Company, to which the proposed occu- pation of the territory in question would have been absolutely ruinous, as the routes from Canada to the north-western trading posts ran through it, and from it were obtained nearly all the pro- visions consumed at those posts. The British government, however, appeared to favor and protect Lord Selkirk's project, and a large number of Scotch Highlanders were, without opposition, established on Red River, the country about which received, in 1812, the name of Ossinohia. For two years after the formation of the set- tlement, peace was maintained; at length, in January, 1814, Miles Macdonnel, the governor of the new province, issued a proclama- tion, in which he set forth the limits of the region claimed by his patron, and prohibited all persons, under pain of seizure and prosecution, from carrying out of it " any provisions, either of flesh, dried meat, grain, or vegetables," during that year. The attempts to enforce this prohibition were resisted by the North- West traders, who appeared so resolute in their determination not to yield, that the colonists became alarmed, and quitted the country, some of them returning to Canada, and others emigrating to the United States. In the following year. Lord Selkirk again sent settlers of various nations to the Red River, between whom and the North- West people hostilities were immediately begun. Posts were taken and destroyed on both sides; and, on the 19th of June, 1816, a battle was fought, in which the Ossinobians were routed, and seventeen of their number, including their governor, Mr. Semple, were killed. The country was then again abandoned by the settlers.* These affairs were brought before the British Parliament in June, * Lord Selkirk's Sketch of the British Fur Trade in North America, published in 1816, and the review of it in the London Quarterly Review for October, 1816 — Narrative of the Occurrences in the Indian Countries of America, published by the North- West Company in 1817, containing all the documents on the subject. 1821.] JURISDICTION OF THE CANADA COURTS EXTENDED. 325 1819 ; and a debate ensued, in the course of which the proceedings of the two rival associations were minutely investigated. The ministry then interposed its mediation, and a compromise was thus at length effected, by which tlie North-West Company became united with, or rather merged in, the Hudson's Bay Company. At the same time, and in connection with this arrangement, an " act for regulating the fur trade and establishing a criminal and civil jurisdiction in certain parts of North America " was passed in Parliament, containing every provision required to give stability to the Hudson's Bay Company, and efficiency to its operations. By this act, passed on the 2d of July, 1821, the king was authorized to make grants or give licenses to any body corporate, company, or person, for the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians, in all such parts of North America as may be specified in the grants, not being parts of the territories previously granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, or of any of his majesty's provinces in North America, or any territories belonging to the United States of America : provided, however, that no such grant or license shall be given for a longer period than twenty-one years ; that no grant or license for exclusive trade, in the part of America west of the Rocky Mountains, which, by the convention of 1818 with the United States, remained free and open to the subjects or citizens of both nations, shall be used to the prejudice or exclusion of citizens of the United States engaged in such trade ; and that no British sub- ject shall trade in those territories west of the Rocky Mountains without such license or grant. By the same act, also, the courts of judicature of Upper Canada are empowered to take cognizance of all causes, civil or criminal, arising in any of the above-mentioned territories, including those previously granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, and ^^ other parts of America, not within the limits of either of the provinces of Upper or Lower Canada, or of any civil government of the United States ; " and justices of the peace are to be commissioned in those territories, to execute and enforce the laws and the decisions of the courts, to take evidence, and commit offenders and send them for trial to Canada, and even, under cer- tain circumstances, to hold courts themselves, for the trial of crimi- nal oflfences and misdemeanors not punishable by death, and of civil causes, in which the amount at issue should not exceed two hundred pounds.* * See the act and the grant here mentioned in the Proofs and Illustrations, at the end of this volume, under the letter I, No. 2. 326 SEARCH FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE RESUMED. [1821 Upon the passage of this act, the union of the two companies was effected, and a grant was made, by the king, to " the governor and company of adventurers trading to Hudson's Bay, and to William Macgillivray, Simon Macgillivray, and Edward Ellice," the persons so named, representing the former proprietors of the North- West Company,* of the exclusive trade, for twenty-one years, in all the countries in which such privileges could be granted agreeably to the act. Persons in the service of the company were, at the same time, commissioned as justices of the peace for those coun- tries ; and the jurisdiction of the courts of Upper Canada was rendered effective as far as the shores of the Pacific, no exception being made, in that respect, by the act, with regard to any of the territories embraced in the grant, ^'not within the limits of any civil government of the United States." About this period, also, the search for a north-west passage, or navigable communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, north of America, which had been so long suspended, was resumed by British officers, under the auspices of their government ; and expeditions for that object were made through Baffin's Bay, as well as by land, through the northernmost parts of the American conti- nent. The geographical results of these expeditions were highly interesting, while, at the same time, the skill, courage, and perse- verance, of the British were honorably illustrated by the labors of Ross, Parry, Franklin, and their companions. The west coasts of Baffin's Bay were carefully surveyed, and many passages leading from it towards the west and south-west, were traced to considera- ble distances. The progress of the ships through these passages was, however, in each case, arrested by ice ; and, although many extensive portions of the northern coast of the continent were explored, and the Arctic Sea, in their vicinity, was found free from ice during the short summer, the question respecting the existence of a northern channel of communication between the oceans was left unsolved. These voyages, independently of the value of their scientific results, also proved most advantageous to the commerce of the British throughout the whole of their territories in America, as new routes were opened, and new regions, abounding in furs, were rendered accessible. The Russians were, in the mean time, constantly increasing their * In 1824, the North-West Company surrendered its rights and interests to the Hudson's Bay Company, in the name of which alone all the operations were thence- forward conducted. 1815.] RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS IN CALIFORNIA. 327 trade in the Pacific, and, in addition to their estabUshments on the northernmost coasts of that ocean, they had taken possession of the country adjoining Port San Francisco, which they seemed deter- mined, as well as able, to retain. With this object, Baranof, the chief agent of the Russian American Company, in 1812, obtained from the Spanish governor of California permission to erect some houses, and to leave a few men on the shore of Bodega Bay, a little north of Port San Francisco, where they were employed in hunting the wild cattle, and drying meat for the supply of Sitka and the other settlements. In the course of two or three years after this permission was granted, the number of persons thus employed became so great, and their dwelling assumed so much the appearance of a fort, that the governor thought proper to remonstrate on the subject ; and, his representations being disre- garded, he formally commanded the Russians to quit the territories of his Catholic majesty. The command was treated with as little respect as the remonstrance ; and, upon its repetition, the Russian agent, Kuskof, coolly denied the right of the Spaniards over the territory, which he asserted to be free and open for occupation by the people of any civilized power. The governor of California was unable to enforce his commands ; and, as no assistance could be afforded to him from Mexico, in which the rebellion was then at its height, the intruder^ were left in possession of the ground, where they remained until 1840, in defiance alike of Spaniards and of Mexicans. On the restoration of peace in Europe, in 1814, the Russian American Company resolved to make another effort to establish a direct commercial intercourse, by sea, between its possessions on the North Pacific and the European ports of the empire. With this object, the American ship Hannibal was purchased, and, her name having been changed to Suwarrow, she was despatched from Cron- stadt, under Lieutenant Lazaref, laden with merchandise, for Sitka, whence she returned in the summer of 1815, with a cargo of furs valued at a million of dollars. The adventure proving successful, others of the same kind were made, until the communications be- came regular, as they now are. After the departure of this vessel from Sitka, Baranof sent about a hundred Russians and Aleutians, under the direction of Dr. Schaeffer, a German, who had been the surgeon of the Suwarrow, with the intention, apparently, of taking possession of one of the Sandwich Islands. These men landed first at Owyhee, whence 328 RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS IN CALIFORNIA. [1819 they passed successively to Woahoo and Atooi ; and in the latter island they remained a year, committing many irregularities, with- out, however, effecting, in any way, the supposed objects of their expedition, until they were at length forced to submit to the author- ities of Tamahamaha, and to quit the islands.* Expeditions were also made by the Russians to Bering's Strait, and the seas beyond it, for the purpose of determining the question as to the separation of Asia and America, which, though long before supposed to have been ascertained, was again rendered doubtful by some circumstances of recent occurrence. With this object, Cap- tain Otto von Kotzebue sailed from Cronstadt in the ship Ruric, which had been fitted out at the expense of the ex-chancellor Romanzof, and, in the summer of 1816, penetrated through the strait into the Arctic Sea ; but, although he surveyed the coasts of both continents on that sea more minutely than any navigator who had preceded him, he was unable to advance so far in any direction as Cook had gone in 1778. In 1820, two other vessels were sent to that part of the ocean, with the same objects ; but no detailed account of their voyage has been made public. In the mean time, however, the doubts as to the separation of the two continents were completely removed, by Captains Wrangel and Anjou, who sur- veyed the eastern parts of the Siberian coast with great care, in defiance of the most dreadful difficulties^ and dangers.f Nor did the Russians neglect to improve the administration of their aflfairs on the North Pacific coasts. In 1817, Captain Golow- nin was despatched from Europe, in the sloop of war Kamtchatka, with a commission from the emperor to inquire into the state of the Russian dominions in America ; and, upon the report brought back by him, it was resolved that a radical change should be made in the management of those possessions. Accordingly, upon the renewal of the charter of the company on the 8th of July, 1819, regulations were put in execution, by which the governor and other chief officers of Russian America became directly responsible for their * For further particulars on this subject, the reader — if he should consider the matter worth investigating — may consult Kotzebue's narrative of his voyage to the Pacific, in 1815-16, and Jarves's History of the Sandvpich Islands. t See the agreeable and instructive narrative, by Kotzebue, of his voyage in search of a north-east passage. Wrangel's account of his e.xpedition, which has been re- cently published, is a most interesting work, not only from the multitude of new facts in geography, and in many of the pliysical sciences, which it communicates, but also from the admiration which it inspires for the courage, good temper, and good feeling, of the adventurous narrator. Wrangel has since been, for many years, the governor general of Russian America, and is now an admiral in the service of his country. 1819.] OCCURRENCES AT THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 329 conduct, and the condition of all classes of the population of those countries was materially benefited. The death of Baranof ren- dered the introduction of these reforms less difficult ; and the superintendence of the colonies has ever since been committed to honorable and enlightened men, generally officers in the Russian navy, under whose direction the abuses formerly prevailing to so frightful an extent, have been gradually removed or abated.* About the same time, an event occurred, of great importance in the history of a country which is, no doubt, destined materially to influence the political condition of the north-western coasts and regions of America. Tamahamaha, king of all the Sandwich Islands, died in May, 1819, at the age of sixty-three, and was succeeded in power by his son, or reputed son, Riho Riho, or Tamahamaha Il.f Of the merits and demerits of Tamahamaha, it would be out of place here to speak at length. He was a chief of note at the time of the discovery of the islands by Cook, when his character had been already formed, and the seeds of much that was evil had been sown, and had taken firm root m his mind. No sooner, however, was he brought into contact with civilized men, than he began to learn, and, what was more difficult, to unlearn. His first objects were of a nature purely selfish. He sought power to gratify his ambition and his thirst for pleasure, but he used it, when obtained, for nobler ends ; and of all the sovereigns of the earth, his contemporaries, no one certainly attempted or effected as much, in proportion to his means, for the advancement of his people, as this barbarian chief of a little ocean island. Upon the death of Tamahamaha, great changes were eflfected in the aflairs of the Sandwich Islands. The old king had resolutely maintained the religion of his forefathers, though he suppressed many of its horrible ceremonies and observances. Riho Riho, how- ever, soon after his accession, abolished that religion, and embraced the faith of the white men who came to his islands in great ships from distant countries. His principal chiefs, Boki and Krymakoo, (or Kalaimaku,) had been previously, in August, 1819, baptized and received into the bosom of the Roman Catholic church by the * Statische und ethnographische Nachrichten, aber die Russischen Besitzungen an der Nordwestkuste von Amerika — Statistical and ethnographical Notices concerning the Russian Possessions on the North-West Coasts of America — by Admiral von Wrangel, late governor-general of those countries, published at St. Petersburg, in 1839. t These names are now generally written Liho Liho and Kamehamaha. 42 330 CHRISTIANITY IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. [1819 chaplain of the French corvette L'Uranie, during her voyage around the w^orld under Captain Freycinet; and, early in 1820, a vessel reached the islands from Boston, bringing a number of missionaries of the Presbyterian or Congregationalist sects, who have been estabhshed there ever since, and have exercised, as will be hereafter shown, a powerful and generally beneficial influence over the people and their rulers.* * The American missionaries, immediately on entering the Sandwich Islands, began the study of the language through which their instructions were to be con- veyed. This language they found to be the same throughout the group ; but, as considerable differences existed in its pronunciation in different islands, they selected the most pure, or the most generally used, of the dialects, in which they formed a vocabulary, employing English letters to represent the sounds, but wisely confining each letter to the expression of a fixed sound. The History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which may be considered as official authority on all matters connected with the missions in the Sandwich Islands, contains, at p. 112, the following clear and concise view of the system of orthography thus adopted : — " The Hawaian [Owyheean] alphabet contains twelve letters only. It has five vowels — a, sounded as a m father ; e, as a in hate; i, as ee in feet ; o, as o in pole , and M, as oo in boot ; and seven consonants — h, k, I, m, n, p, and w, sounded as in English. The long English sound of i is represented by ai, as in Lahaina, where the second syllable is accented, and pronounced like the English word high. The second syllable, 7oai, of Hawaii.^ the name of the largest of the islands, is pronounced like the first syllable of the English name Wyman ; and, giving the letters the usual English sounds, it might be spelled Ha-icy-ee. The first syllable should be pro- nounced very slightly, and a strong accent placed on the second. The sound of ow (in coto) is represented by au ; as, Maid, pronounced Motc-ee. The natives do not distinguish the sounds of k and t from each other, but call the same island sometimes Kaui, and Taui, without perceiving the difference. In the same way, d, I, and r, are confounded, and the same place is called indifferently Hido, Hilo, or Hiro. The same occurs in respect to w and v. In fact, these interchangeable consonants are very slightly and indistinctly uttered, so that a foreigner is at a loss to know which the speaker intends to use." Agreeably to this system, the missionaries have published a translation of the Bible, and many other books, in the language of the Sandwich Islands. It is, how- ever, mucli to be regretted that they and their friends, from whom nearly all the in- formation is now received respecting that part of the world, should think proper to apply their orthography exclusively, not only to the names of places and per- sons wliich have recently gained notoriety, but likewise to those with which every one has become familiar through the journals of Cook and Vancouver. Names are, indeed, not written uniformly in the journals here mentioned ; but the differences are in general slight, far less than between any one of the old names and that assigned to the same object in the new system : and the best informed men, who have not studied that system thoroughly, will scarcely be able to discover that the Hmcaii of the missionaries is Oinyhee; that Keilakakua is the Karakakooa rendered sacred as the scene of Cook's death ; and that Kaumalii and Kamehameha are no others than their old acquaintances, Tamoren and Tarnahamaha, under new titles. What would be thought of an English history of Germany, in which places and persons appeared only under their German names — in which Vienna should be written Wien; Moravia, Maehren; Bohemia, Boehmen ; Francis, Franz; Charles, Karl; &c. .' 331 CHAPTER XVI. 1820 TO 1828. Bill reported by a Committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, for the Occupation of the Columbia River — Ukase of the Emperor of Russia, with Regard to the North Pacific Coasts — Negotiations between the Governments of Great Britain, Russia, and the United States — Conventions between the United States and Russia, and between Great Britain and Russia — Further Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain relative to the North- West Coasts — Indefinite Extension of the Arrangement for the joint Occupancy of the Territories west of the Rocky Mountains, by the British and the Americans. Before 1820, little, if any thing, relative to the countries west of the Rocky Mountains had been said in the Congress r f the United States ; and those countries had excited very little interest among the citizens of the federal republic in general. In December of that year, however, immediately after the ratifica- tion of the Florida treaty by Spain, a resolution was passed by the House of Representatives in Congress, on the motion of Mr. Floyd, of Virginia — " that an inquiry should be made, as to the situation of the settlements on the Pacific Ocean, and as to the expediency of occupying the Columbia River." The committee to which this resolution was referred, presented, in January following, a long report, containing a sketch of the history of colonization in Amer- ica, with an account of the fur trade in the northern and north- western sections of the continent, and a description of the country claimed by the United States ; from all which are drawn the con- clusions, — that the whole territory of America bordering upon the Pacific, from the 41st degree of latitude to the 53d, if not to the 60th, belongs of right to the United States, in virtue of the purchase of Louisiana from France, in 1803, of the acquisition of the titles of Spain by the Florida treaty, and of the discoveries and settlements of American citizens ; — that the trade of this territory in furs and other articles, and the fisheries on its coasts, might be rendered highly productive ; and — that these advantages might be secured to citizens of the United States exclusively, by establishing " small trading guards" on the most north-eastern point of the Missouri, 339 RUSSIAN UKASE. [1822. and at the mouth of the Columbia, and by favoring emigration to the country west of the Rocky Mountains, not only from the United States, but also from China. To this report the com- mittee appended " a bill for the occupation of the Columbia, and the regulation of the trade with the Indians in the territories of the United States." Without making any remarks upon the char- acter of this report, it may be observed, that the terms of the bill are direcdy at variance with the provisions of the third article of the convention of October, 1818, between the United States and Great Britain ; as the Columbia could not possibly be free and open to the vessels, citizens, and subjects, of both nations, if it were occupied by either. The bill was suffered to lie on the table of the House during the remainder of the session : in the ensuing year, it was again brought before Congress, and an estimate was obtained, from the navy commissioners, of the expense of trarisporting cannon, ammu- nition, and stores, by sea, to the mouth of the Columbia ; but no further notice was taken of the subject until the winter of 1823. Measures had, in the mean time, been adopted by the Russian government, with regard to the north-west coasts of America, which strongly excited the attention of both the other powers claiming dominion in that quarter. Soon after the renewal of the charter of the Russian American Company, a ukase, or imperial decree, was issued at St. Petersburg, by which the whole west coast of America, north of the 51st par- allel, and the whole east coast of Asia, north of the latitude of 45 degrees 50 minutes, with all the adjacent and intervening islands, were declared to belong exclusively to Russia ; and foreigners were prohibited, under heavy penalties, from approaching within a hundred miles of any of those coasts, except in cases of extreme necessity.* This decree was officially communicated to the government of the United States in February, 1822, by the Chevalier de Poletica, Russian minister at Washington, between whom and Mr. J. Q Adams, the American secretary of state, a correspondence imme- diately took place on the subject. Mr. Adams, in his first note, simply made known the surprise of the president at the assertion of a claim, on the part of Russia, to so large a portion of the west * The ukase, dated September 4th, 1821, and the correspondence between the Russian and American governments with regard to it, may be found at length among the documents accompanying President Monroe's message to Congress, of April 17th, 1822. 1822.] DISCUSSION OF THE RUSSIAN CLAIMS. 333 coasts of America, and at the promulgation, by that power, of rules of restriction so deeply affecting the rights of the United States and their citizens ; and he desired to know whether the minister was authorized to give explanations of the grounds of the right claimed, upon principles generally recognized by the laws and usages of nations. To this M. Poletica replied by a long letter, containing a sketch — generally erroneous — of the discoveries of his countrymen on the north-west coasts of America, which extended, according to his idea, southward as far as the 49th parallel of latitude. He de- fended the assumption of the 51st parallel as the southern limit of the possessions of his sovereign, upon the ground that this line was midway between the mouth of the Columbia, where the citizens of the United States had made an establishment, and the Russian settlement of Sitka ; and he finally maintained that his government would be justifiable in exercising the rights of sovereignty over the whole of the Pacijlc north of the said parallel, inasmuch as that sec- tion of the sea was bounded on both sides by Russian territories, and was thus, in fact, a close sea. The secretary of state, m return, asserted that, " from the period of the existence of the United States as an independent nation, their vessels had freely navigated those seas ; and the right to navigate them was a part of that inde- pendence, as also the right of their citizens to trade, even in arms and munitions of war, with the aboriginal natives of the north- west coast of America, who were not under the territorial jurisdic- tion of other nations." He denied in toto the claim of the Russians to any part of America south of the 55th degree of latitude, on the ground that this parallel was declared, in the charter * of the Russian American Company, to be the southern limit of the dis- * The first article of the charter or privilege granted by the emperor Paul to the Russian American Company, on the 8th of July, 1799, is as follows : — " In virtue of the discovery, by Russian navigators, of a part of the coast of America in the north-east, beginning from the 55th degree of latitude, and of chains of islands extending from Kamtcliatka, northward towards America, and soutliward towards Japan, Russia has acquired the right of possessing those lands; and iho said company is authorized to enjoy all the advantages of industry, and all the establishments, upon the said coast of America, in the north-east, from the 55th degree of latitude to Bering's Strait, and beyond it, as also upon the Aleutian and Kurile Islands, and the others, situated in the eastern Arctic Ocean." By the second article, — "The company may make new discoveries, not only north, but also south, of the eaid 55th parallel of latitude, and may occupy and bring under the dominion of Rus- sia all territories thus discovered, observing the rule, that such territories should not have been previously occupied and placed under subjection by another nation." 334 EXTRAVAGANT PRETENSIONS OF RUSSIA. [1822. coveries of the Russians in 1799 ; since which period they had made no discoveries or estabUshments south of the said hne, on the coast now claimed by them. With regard to the suggestion that the Russian government might justly exercise sovereignty over the Pacific Ocean as a close sea, because it claims territories both on the Asiatic and the American shores, Mr. Adams merely observed, that the distance between those shores, on the parallel of 51 degrees north, is four thousand miles ; and he concluded by expressing the persuasion of the president that the citizens of the United States would remain unmolested in the prosecution of their lawful com- merce, and that no effect would be given to a prohibition manifestly incompatible with their rights. The Russian minister plenipotentiary, a few days after the receipt of Mr. Adams's last communication, sent another note, supporting the rights of his sovereign, in which he advanced "the authentic fact, that, in 1789, the Spanish packet St. Charles, commanded by Captain Haro, found, in the latitude of forty-eight and forty-nine degrees, Russian establishments, to the number of eight, consisting, in the whole, of twenty families, and four hundred and sixty-two individuals, who were the descendants of the companions of Cap- tain Tchirikof, supposed until then to have perished." Respecting this '^ authentic fact," it has been shown, in the account* already given of the Spanish voyage to which the Chevalier Poletica refers, that Martinez and Haro did find eight Russian establishments on the North Pacific coast of America in 1788, but that they were all situated in the latitudes oi fifty-eight and fifty-nine degrees, and that the persons inhabiting them had all been, a short time previous, transported thither, from Kamtchatka and the Aleutian Islands, by Schelikof, the founder of the Russian American Company. The minister doubtless derived his information from the introduction to the journal of Marchand's voyage ; but he neglected to read the note appended to that account, in which the error is explained. The prohibitory regulation of the Russian emperor, and the correspondence relating to it, were immediately submitted to the Congress of the United States ; and, in the ensuing year, a nego- tiation was commenced at St. Petersburg, the object of which was to settle amicably and definitively the limits of the territories on the north-west side of America, claimed by the two nations re- spectively, and the terms upon which their navigation and trade in the North Pacific were in future to be conducted. A negotiation, • See p. 186. 1823.] DECLARATION OF PRESIDENT MONROE. 335 for similar purposes, was, at the same time, in progress at St. Peters- burg, between the governments of Russia and Great Britain ; the latter power having formally protested against the claims and princi- ples advanced in the ukase of 1821, immediately on its appearance, and subsequently, during the session of the congress of European sovereigns at Verona.* Under these circumstances, a desire was felt, on the part of the government of the United States, that a joint convention should be concluded between the three nations having claims to territories on the north-west side of America; and the envoys of the republic at London and St. Petersburg were severally instructed to propose a stipulation to the effect that no settlement should, during the next ten years, be made, in those territories, by Russians south of the latitude of 55 degrees, by citizens of the United States north of the latitude of 51 degrees, or by British subjects south of the 51st or north of the 55th parallels. This proposition for a joint convention was not accepted by either of the governments to which it was addressed ; the principal ground of the refusal by each being the declaration made by Presi- dent Monroe in his message to Congress, at the commencement of the session of 1823, that — in the discussions and arrangements then going on with respect to the north-west coasts — " the occasion had been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition ivhich they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for colonization by any European power. ''^ f Against this declaration, * Debate in Parliament on the inquiry made by Sir James Mackintosh on this Bubject, May 21, 1823. t The message of December 2d, 1823, containing this declaration, also announced the resolution of the United States to view "as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition " towards themselves any attempt, on the part of a European power, to oppress or control the destiny of any of the independent states of America. This noble resolution was taken upon the assurance that the United States would, if ne- cessary, be sustained in enforcing it by Great Britain, without whose cooperation it would have been ineffective, certainly as to the prevention of the attempts. The circumstances which induced the American government thus, at the same time, openly to offer a blow at the only nation on whose assistance it could depend, in case the anticipated attempts should be made by the despotic powers of Europe, have not been disclosed. That it is the true policy of the United States, by all lawful means, to resist the extension of European dominion in America, and to confine its limits, and abridge its duration, wherever it may actually exist, is a proposition which no arguments are required to demonstrate, either to American citizens or to European sovereigns; but this proclamation, by the government of the United States, of its intention to pursue those ends, could have no other effect than to delay the attainment of them, as it has evidently done. 336 RECOMMENDATIONS OF GENERAL JESUP. [1823. which — however just and pohtic might have been the principle announced — was unquestionably imprudent, or at least premature, the British and the Russian governments severally protested ; and as there were many other points on which it was not probable that the three powers could agree, it was determined that the negotia- tions should be continued, as they had been commenced, separately at London and at St. Petersburg. Another publication, equally impolitic on the part of the Ameri- can government, soon after contributed to render more difficult the settlement of the question of boundaries on the Pacific between the United States and Great Britain. A select committee, appointed by the House of Representatives of the United States, in December, 1823, with instructions to inquire into the expediency of occupying the mouth of the Columbia, requested General Thomas S. Jesup, the quartermaster-general of the army, to communicate his opinions respecting the propriety of the measure proposed, as well as its practicability and the best method of executing it; in answer to which that officer sent, on the 16th of February, 1824, a letter containing an exposition of his views of the true policy of the United States with regard to the north-west coasts and territories of America, and of the means by which they might be carried into effect. Leaving aside the question as to the rights of the United States, he considered the possession and military command of the Columbia and of the Upper Missouri necessary for the protection, not only of the fur trade, but also of the whole western frontier of the republic, which is every where in contact with numerous, powerful, and warlike tribes of savages : and, for this purpose, he recommended the immediate despatch of two hundred men across the continent to the mouth of the Columbia, while two merchant vessels should transport thither the cannon, ammunition, materials, and stores, requisite for the first establish- ment ; after which, four or five intermediate posts should be formed at points between Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, (the most western spot then occupied by American troops,) and the Pacific. By such means, says the letter, " present protection would be afforded to our traders, and, on the expiration of the privilege granted to British subjects to trade on the waters of the Columbia, we should be enabled to remove them from our territory, and to secure the whole trade to our own citizens." The report of the committee, with the letter from General Jesup annexed, was ordered to lie on the table of the House, and nothing 1824.] NEGOTIATION AT LONDON. 337 more was done on the subject during that session ; the papers, however, were both published, and they immediately attracted the attention of the British ministry. In a conference held at London, in July following, between the American envoy, Mr. Rush, and the British commissioners, Messrs. Huskisson and Stratford Canning, the latter gentlemen commented upon the observations of General Jesup, particularly upon those respecting the removal of British traders from the territories of the Columbia, which, they said, " were calculated to put Great Britain especially upon her guard, appear- ing, as they did, at a moment when a friendly negotiation was pending between the two powers for the adjustment of their relative and conflicting claims to that entire district of country." It is moreover certain, from the accounts of Mr. Rush, as well as from those given subsequently by Mr. Gallatin, that the publication of General Jesup's letter, and the declaration in President Monroe's message against the establishment of European colonies in America, rendered the British government much less disposed to any con- cession, with regard to the north-west territories, than it would otherwise have been ; and there is reason to believe, from many circumstances, that they tended materially to produce a union of views, approaching to a league, between that power and Russia, which has proved very disadvantageous to the interests of the United States on the North Pacific coasts. The negotiation respecting the north-west coasts of America, commenced at London in April, 1824, was not long continued; the parties being so entirely at variance with regard to facts as well as principles, that the impossibility of eflfecting any new arrange- ment soon became evident. Mr. Rush,* the American plenipoten- tiary, began by claiming for the United States the exclusive pos- session and sovereignty of the whole country west of the Rocky Mountains, from the 42d degree of latitude, at ieast as far north as the 51st, between which parallels all the waters of the Columbia were then supposed to be included. In support of this claim, he cited, as in 1818, the facts — of the first discovery of the Columbia by Gray — of the first exploration of that river from its sources to the sea by Lewis and Clarke — of the first settlement on its banks by the Pacific Fur Company, " a settlement which was reduced by the arms of the British during the late war, but was formally sur- • Letter from Mr. Rush to the secretary of state, of August 12th, 1824, among the documents accompanying President Adams's message to Congress of January Slst, 1826. 43 338 CLAIMS OF THE U. STATES AND OF GREAT BRITAIN. [1824. rendered up to the United States at the return of peace," and — of the transfer by Spain to the United States of all her titles to those territories, founded upon the well-known discoveries of her navi- gators ; and he insisted, agreeably to express instructions from his government, " that no part of the American continent was thence- forth to be open to colonization from Europe." In explanation and defence of this declaration, Mr. Rush "referred to the principles settled by the Nootka Sound convention of 1790, and remarked, that Spain had now lost all her exclusive colonial rights, recognized under that convention : first, by the fact of the independence of the South American states and of Mexico ; and next, by her express renunciation of all her rights, of whatever kind, above the 42d degree of north latitude, to the United States. Those new states would themselves now possess the rights incident to their condition of political independence ; and the claims of the United States above the 42d parallel a.s high up as 60 degrees — claims as well in their own right as by succession to the title of Spain — would henceforth necessarily preclude other nations from forming colonial establishments upon any part of the American continents." Messrs. Huskisson and Canning, in reply, denied that the circumstance of a merchant vessel of the United States having penetrated the north-west coast of America at the Columbia River, could give to the United States a claim along that coast, both north and south of the river, over territories which, they insisted, had been previously discovered by Great Britain herself, in expe- ditions fitted out under the authority and with the resources of the nation. They declared that British subjects had formed settle- ments upon the Columbia, or upon rivers flowing into it west of the Rocky Mountains, coe al with, if not prior to, the settlement made by American citizens at its mouth ; and that the surrender of that settlement after the late war was in fulfilment of the treaty of Ghent, and did not affect the question of right in any way. They treated as false or doubtful the accounts of many of the Spanish voyages in the Pacific : alleging, as more authentic, the narrative of Drake's expedition, from which it appeared that he had, in 1579, explored the west coast of America to the 48th parallel of latitude, five or six degrees farther north than the Spaniards them- selves pretended to have advanced before that period : and they refused to admit that any title could be derived from the mere fact of Spanish navigators having first seen the coast at particular spots, even when this was capable of being fully substantiated. Finally, 1824.] PBOPOSITIONS FOR PARTITION. 339 they assured Mr. Rush that their government would never assent to the claim set forth by him respecting the territory watered by the Columbia River and its tributaries, which, besides being essentially objectionable in its general bearings, had also the etTect of inter- fering directly with the actual rights of Great Britain, derived from use, occupancy, and settlement ; asserting, at the same time, that " they considered the unoccupied parts of America just as much open as heretofore to colonization by Great Britain, as well as by other European powers, agreeably to the convention of 1790, between the British and Spanish governments, and that the United States would have no right to take umbrage at the establishment of new colonies from Europe, in any such parts of the American continent." * After much discussion on these points, Mr. Rush presented a proposal from his government, that any country west of the Rocky Mountains, which might be claimed by the United States, or by Great Britain, should be free and open to the citizens or subjects of both nations for ten years from the date of the agreement : Provided, that, during this period, no settlements were to be made by British subjects north of the 55th or south of the 51st degrees of latitude, nor by American citizens north of the latter parallel. To this proposal, which Mr. Rush afterwards varied by substituting the 49th parallel of latitude for the 51st, Messrs. Huskisson and Canning replied by a counter proposal, to the effect, that the boundary between the territories of the two nations, beyond the Rocky Mountains, should pass from those mountains westward along the 49th parallel of latitude, to the north-easternmost branch of the Columbia River, called Macgillivray's River on the maps, and thence down the middle of the stream, to the Pacific ; the British possessing the country north and west of such line, and the United States that which lay south and east of it : Provided, that the subjects or citizens of both nations should be equally at liberty, during the space of ten years from the date of the agreement, to pass by land or by water through all the territories on both sides of the boundary, and to retain and use their establishments already formed in any part of them. The British plenipotentiaries at the same time declared that this their proposal was one from which * Protocol of the twelfth conference between the plenipotentiaries, held June 26th, 1824, among the documents annexed to President Adams's message to Congress of January 31st, 1826. 340 PROPOSITIONS FOR PARTITION. [1824. Great Britain would certainly not depart ; and, as all prospect of compromise was thus destroyed, the negotiation ended. In this discussion between the United States and Great Britain, upon the subject of their respective claims to the sovereignty of the countries west of the Rocky Mountains, the grounds of those claims were first made to assume a form somewhat definite ; and this may be considered as principally due to the labor and pene- tration of Mr. Rush, who seems to have been the first to inquire carefully into the facts of the case. The introduction by him of the Nootka convention, as an element in the controversy, was according to express instructions from his government.*' It appears to have been wholly unnecessary, and was certainly impolitic. No allusion had been made to that arrangement in any of the previous discus- sions with regard to the north-west coasts, and it was doubtless considered extinct ; but when it was thus brought forward by the American government in connection with the declaration against European colonization, as a settlement of general principles with regard to those coasts, an argument was afibrded in favor of the subsistence of the convention, of which the British government did not fail to take advantage, as will be hereafter shown. * " The principles settled by the Nootka Sound convention of 28th October, 1790, were — " ' 1st. That the rights of fishing in the South Seas ; of trading with the natives of the north-west coast of America; and of making settlements on the coast itself, for the purposes of that trade, north of the actual settlements of Spain, were common to all the European nations, and, of course, to the United States. " '2d. That, so far as the actual settlements of Spain had extended, she possessed the exclusive rights territorial, and of navigation and fishery ; extending to the dis- tance of ten miles from the coast so actually occupied. " ' 3d. That, on the coasts of South America, and the adjacent islands south of the parts already occupied by Spain, no settlement should thereafter be made either by British or Spanish subjects ; but, on both sides, should be retained the liberty of land- ing and of erecting temporary buildings for the purposes of the fishery. These rights were, also, of course, enjoyed by the people of the United States. " ' The exclusive rights of Spain to any part of the American continents have ceased. That portion of the convention, therefore, which recognizes the exclusive colonial rights of Spain on these continents, though confirmed, as between Great Britain and Spain, by the first additional article to the treaty of the 5th of July, 1814, has been extinguished by the fact of the independence of the South American nations and of Mexico. Those independent nations will possess the rights incident to that condition, and their territories will, of course, be subject to no exclusive right of nav- igation in their vicinity, or of access to them, by any foreign nation. '" A necessary consequence of this stale of things will be, that the American con- tinents, henceforth, will no longer be subject to colonization. Occupied by civilized, independent nations, they will be accessible to Europeans, and each other, on that 1824.] CONVENTION BETWEEN THE U. STATES AND RUSSIA. 341 In the mean time, the negotiation between the United States and Russia was terminated by a convention, signed at St. Petersburg, on the 5th of April, 1824, containing five articles: by the first of which, it is agreed that the respective citizens or subjects of the two nations shall not be disturbed or restrained in navigating or in fishing in any part of the Pacific Ocean, or in the power of resort- ing to the coasts upon points which may not already have been occupied, for the purpose of trading with the natives ; saving, always, the restrictions and conditions determined by the following articles, to wit: by the second article, the citizens of the United States shall not resort to any point on the north-west coasts of America, where there is a Russian establishment, without the permission of the governor or commandant of the place, and vice versa : by the third article, neither the United States nor their citizens shall, in future, form any establishment on those coasts, or the adjacent islands, north of the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes, and the Russians shall make none south of that latitude. " It is, nevertheless, understood," says the fourth article, " that during a term of ten years, counting from the signature of the present con- vention, the ships of both powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects respectively, may reciprocally frequent, without any hinderance whatever, the interior seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks, upon the coast mentioned in the preceding article, for the purpose footing alone; and the Pacific Ocean, in every part of it, will remain open to the navigation of all nations, in like manner with the Atlantic.'" — Instructions of the Hon. J. Q. Adams, secretary of state of the United States, to Mr. Rush, dated July 22d, 1823, among the documents accompanying President Adams's message to Con- gress of January 31st, 1826. With regard to the portion of these instructions here extracted, the reader is re- ferred to the convention of 1790 itself, and to the remarks on it in pp. 213, 258, and 318, of this History, from which it will be seen that the convention, in all its stipula- tions, was simply an international agreement between Spain and Great Britain, bind- ing them and their subjects only until its expiration, which took place, in consequence of the war, in 17H6, and applying in no respect, either as to advantages or restrictions, to any other nation whatsoever ; and that, consequently, other nations had the same right to occupy the vacant coasts of America, and to navigate and fish in the adjacent seas, within ten leagues, (the distance defined by the convention,) and even within ten miles, of the parts occupied by Spain, after, as before, the signature of that agree- ment; and Spain had as much right, after, as before, that event, to prohibit them from so doing. If the Nootka convention were, as asserted by the secretary of state, a definitive settlement of general principles of national law respecting navigation and fishery in the seas, and trade and settlement on the coasts, here mentioned, it would be difficult to resist the pretensions of the British plenipotentiaries with regard to the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, as set forth in the statement (Proofs and Illustrations, letter H) presented by them to Mr. Gallatin in 1826. 342 TREATY BETWEEN RUSSIA AND GREAT BRITAIN. [1825. of fishing and trading with the natives of the country : " it being, however, stipulated by the remaining fifth article, that spirituous liquors, fire-arms, other arms, powder, and munitions of war, are always excepted from this same commerce permitted by the fourth article, and that, in case of contravention of this part of the agree- ment, the nation whose citizens or subjects may have committed the delinquency, shall alone have the right to punish them.* This convention does not appear to offer any grounds for dispute as to the construction of its stipulations, but is, on the contrary, clear and equally favorable to both nations. The rights of both parties to navigate every part of the Pacific, and to trade with the natives of any places on the coasts of that sea, not already occupied, are first distinctly acknowledged ; after which it is agreed, in order to pre- vent future difficulties, that each should submit to certain limitations as to navigation, trade, and settlement, on the north-west coasts of America, either perpetually or during a fixed period. Neither party claimed, directly or by inference, the immediate sovereignty of any spot on the American coasts not occupied by its citizens or sub- jects, or acknowledged the right of the other to the possession of any spot not so occupied ; the definitive regulation of limits being deferred until the establishments and other interests of the two nations in that quarter of the world should have acquired such a development as to render more precise stipulations necessary. The Russian government, however, construed this convention as giving to itself the absolute sovereignty of all the west coasts of America north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, while deny- ing any such right on the part of the United States to the coasts extending southward from that line. In February, 1825, a treaty was concluded between Russia and Great Britain, relative to North- West America, containing provisions similar to those of the con- vention between Russia and the United States, expressed in nearly the same words, but also containing many other provisions, some of which are directly at variance with the evident sense of the last- mentioned agreement. Thus it is established, by the treaty, that " the line of demarkation bettveen the possessions of the high contract- ing parties upon the coast of the continent, and the islands of America to the north-west,'' shall be drawn from the southernmost point of Prince of Wales's Island, in latitude of 54 degrees 40 * This convention will be found at length among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the concluding part of this volume, under the letter K, No. 4. 1825.] TREATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND RUSSIA. 343 minutes eastward, to the great inlet in the continent, called Port- land Channel, and along the middle of that inlet, to the 56th degree of latitude, whence it shall follow the summit of the moun- tains bordering the coast, within ten leagues, north-westward, to Mount St. Elias, and thence north, in the course of the 141st meridian west from Greenwich, to the Frozen Ocean ; " which line," says the treaty, " shall form the limit hetiveen the Russian and the British possessions in the continent of America to the north- west ; " it being also agreed that the British should forever have the right to navigate any streams flowing into the Pacific from the interior, across the line of demarkation.* That this treaty virtually annulled the convention, of the pre- ceding year, between Russia and the United States, is evident ; for the convention rested entirely upon the assumption that the United States possessed the same right to the part of the American coast south of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, which Russia pos- sessed to the part north of that parallel : and the treaty distinctly ac- knowledged the former or southern division of the coast to be the property of Great Britain. It does not, however, appear that any representation on the subject was addressed by the American gov- ernment to that of Russia ; and the vessels of the United States continued to frequent all the unoccupied parts of the north-west coast, and to trade with the natives uninterruptedly, until 1834, when, as will be hereafter shown, they were formally prohibited, by the Russian authorities, from visiting any place on that coast north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, on the ground that their right to do so had expired, agreeably to the convention of 1824. In December, 1824, President Monroe, in his last annual mes- sage to Congress, recommended the establishment of a military post at the mouth of the Columbia, or at some other point within the acknowledged limits of the United States, in order to afford pro- tection to their commerce and fisheries in the Pacific, to conciliate the Indians of the north-west, and to promote the intercourse be- * See Proofs and Illustrations, at the end of this volume, under the letter K, No. 5. Some curious particulars relative to the negotiation which led to this treaty may be found in the Political Life of the Hon. Geol-ge Canning, by A. G. Stapleton, chap, xiv. Mr. Canning, it seems, was anxious for the conclusion of a joint convention between Great Britain, the United States, and Russia, as regards the freedom of navigation of the Pacific, until the appearance of the declaration in the message of President Monroe above mentioned, after which he determined only to treat with each of the other parties separately. 344 MOVEMENTS IN CONGRESS. [1824. tween those territories and the settled portions of the republic ; to effect which object, he advised that appropriations should be made for the despatch of a frigate, with engineers, to explore the mouth of the Columbia and the adjacent shores. The same measures were, in the following year, also recommended by Presi- dent Adams, among the various plans for the advantage of the United States and of the world in general, to which he requested the attention of Congress, in his message, at the commencement of the session. In compliance with this recommendation, a com- mittee was appointed by the House of Representatives, the chairman of which, Mr. Baylies, of Massachusetts, presented two reports,* containing numerous details with respect to — the history of discove- ry and trade in North-West America, — the geography, soil, climate, productions, and inhabitants, of the portion claimed by the United States, — the number and value of the furs procured there, — the expenses of surveying the coasts and of forming military establish- ments for its occupation, and many other matters relating to that part of the world ; in consideration whereof, the committee intro- duced a bill for the immediate execution of the measures proposed by the president. This bill was laid on the table of the House, and the subject was not again agitated in Congress until 1828. Meanwhile, the period of ten years, during which the countries claimed by the United States or by Great Britain, west of the Rocky Mountains, were, agreeably to the convention of 1818, to remain free and open to the citizens or subjects of both nations, was draw- ing to a close ; and a strong desire was manifested, on the part of the American government, that some definitive arrangement with regard to those countries should be concluded between the two powers, before the expiration of the term. The British secretary for foreign affairs also signified that his government was prepared to enter into a new discussion of the question at issue ; and a nego- tiation with these objects was accordingly commenced between Mr. Gallatin, the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London, and Messrs. Addington and Huskisson, commissioners on the part of Great Britain. Before relating the particulars of this negotiation, it should be observed that the relative positions of the two parties, as to the occupancy and actual possession of the countries in question, had been materially changed since the conclusion of the former conven- * Dated severally January 16th, and May 15th, 1826. 1826.] BRITISH IN Q,UIET POSSESSION OF THE COLUMBIA. 345 tion between them. The union of the rival British companies, and the extension of the jurisdiction of the courts of Upper Canada over the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, had aheady proved most advantageous to the Hudson's Bay Company, which had at the same time received the privilege of trading in that territory, to the exclusion of all other British subjects. Great efforts were made, and vast expenses were incurred, by this company, in its efforts to found settlements on the Columbia River, and to acquire influence over the natives of the surrounding country ; and so successful had been those efforts, that the citizens of the United States were obliged, not only to renounce all ideas of renewing their estab- lishments in that part of America, but even to withdraw their vessels from its coasts. Indeed, for more than ten years after the capture of Astoria by the British, scarcely a single American citizen was to be seen in those countries. Trading expeditions were sub- sequently made from Missouri to the head-waters of the Platte and the Colorado, within the limits of California, and one or two hundred hunters and trappers, from the United States, were gen- erally roving through that region ; but the Americans had no settlements of any kind, and their government exercised no juris- diction whatsoever west of the Rocky Mountains. Under such favorable circumstances, the Hudson's Bay Company could not fail to prosper. Its resources were no longer wasted in disputes with rivals ; its operations were conducted with despatch and certainty ; its posts were extended, and its means of communi- cation increased, under the assurance that the honor of the British government and nation was thereby more strongly interested in its behalf. The agents of the company were seen in every part of the continent, north and north-west of the United States and Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hunting, trapping, and trading with the aborigines ; its boats were met on every stream and lake, conveying British goods into the interior, or furs to the great deposi- tories on each ocean, for shipment to England in British vessels ; and the utmost order and regularity were maintained throughout by the supremacy of British laws. Of the trading posts, many were fortified, and could be defended by their inmates — men inured to hardships and dangers — against all attacks which might be appre- hended ; and the whole vast expanse of territory above described, including the regions drained by the Columbia, was, in fact, occu- pied by British forces, and governed by British laws, though there 44 346 NEGOTIATION AT LONDON. [1826. was not a single British soldier — technically speaking — within its limits. Considering this state of things, and also the characters of the two nations engaged in the controversy and of their governments, it may readily be supposed that many and great obstacles would exist in the way of a definitive and amicable arrangement of the questions at issue, between the Americans ever solicitous with respect to territory which they have any reason to regard as their own, and the British with whom the acquisition and security of commercial advantages always form a paramount object of policy. To the difficulties occasioned by the conflict of such material interests, in this particular case, were added those arising from the pride of the parties, and their mutual jealousy, which seems ever to render them adverse to any settlement of a disputed point, even though it should be manifestly advantageous to them both. In the first conference,* the British commissioners declared that their government was still ready to abide by the proposition made to Mr. Rush, in 1824, for a line of separation between the territories of the two nations, drawn from the Rocky Mountains, along the 49th parallel of latitude to the north-easternmost branch of the Columbia, and thence down that river to the sea ; giving to Great Britain all the territories north, and to the United States all south, of that line. Mr. Gallatin, in reply, agreeably to instructions from his government, repeated the offer made by himself and Mr. Rush, in 1818, for the adoption of the 49th parallel as the line of separa- tion from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, with the additional provisions, — that, if the said line should cross any of the branches of the Columbia at points from which they are navigable by boats to the main stream, the navigation of such branches, and of the main stream, should be perpetually free and common to the people of both nations — that the citizens or subjects of neither party should thenceforward make any settlements in the territories of the other; but that all settlements already formed by the people of 3ither nation within the limits of the other, might be occupied and used by them for ten years, and no longer, during which all the remaining provisions of the existing convention should continue in force. The British refused to accede to this or any other plan of partition which should deprive them of the northern bank of the * President Adams's message to Congress of December 28th, 1827, and the ac- companying documents. 1826.] NEGOTIATION SUSPENDED. 347 Columbia, and the right of navigating that river to and from the sea : though they expressed their wilUngness to yield to the United States, in addition to what they first offered, a detached territory, " comprised within a line to be drawn from Cape Flattery, along the southern shore of De Fuca's Inlet, to Point Wilson, at the north- western extremity of Admiralty Inlet ; from thence along the western shore of that inlet, across the entrance of Hood's Inlet, to the point of land forming the north-eastern extreiiiity of the said inlet ; from thence along the eastern shore of that inlet, to the southern extremity of the same ; from thence direct to the southern point of Gray's Harbor ; from thence along the shore of the Pacific to Cape Flattery ; " and also to stipulate that no works should at any time be erected by either party at the mouth or on the banks of the Columbia, calculated to impede the free navigation o( that river. The Americans, however, being equally determined not to give up their title to any part of the country south of the 49th parallel, all expectation of effecting a definitive disposition of the claims was abandoned. The plenipotentiaries then directed their attention to the sub- ject of a renewal of the arrangement for the use and occupancy of the territories in question by the people of both nations. With this view, the British proposed that the existing arrangement should be renewed according to the terms of the third article of the convention of October 20th, 1818, for fifteen years from the date of the expiration of that convention ; with the addi- tional provisions, however, that, during those fifteen years, neither power should assume or exercise any right of exclusive sovereignty or dominion over any part of the territory ; and that no settlement then made, or which might thereafter be made, by either nation in those countries, should ever be adduced in support of any claim to such sovereignty or dominion. This proposition was re- ceived by Mr. Gallatin for reference to his government, although he saw at once that the additional provisions were inadmissible ; and the negotiation was, in consequence, suspended for some months. During this first period of the negotiation, the claims and pre- tensions of the two nations respecting the countries in question, were developed and discussed more fully than on any previous occasion, not only in the conferences between the plenipotentiaries, but also in written statements,* formally presented on each side. As nearly • The Statement of the British plenipotentiaries, and the Counter-statement of Mr. Gallatin, will be found entire among the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter H 348 CLAIMS or the united states. [1826. every point touched by either of the parties has been already ex- amined minutely in the foregoing pages, it only remains now to recapitulate them, and to add some remarks, which could not have been conveniently introduced at an earlier period. Mr. Gallatin claimed for the United States the possession of the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, between the 42d and the 49th parallels of latitude, on the grounds of — The acquisition by the United States of the titles of France through the Louisiana treaty, and the titles of Spain through the Florida treaty ; The discovery of the mouth of the Columbia, the first explora- tion of the countries through which that river flows, and the estab- lishment of the first posts and settlements in those countries by American citizens ; The virtual recognition of the title of the United States, by the British government, in the restitution, agreeably to the first article of the treaty of Ghent, of the post near the mouth of the Columbia, which had been taken during the war ; And, lastly, upon the ground of contiguity, which should give the United States a stronger right to those territories than could be advanced by any other power — a doctrine always maintained by Great Britain, from the period of her earliest attempts at coloniza- tion in America, as clearly proved by her charters, in which the whole breadth of the continent, between certain parallels of lati- tude, was granted to colonies established only at points on the borders of the Atlantic* Messrs. Huskisson and Addington, on the other hand, declared that Great Britain claims no exclusive sovereignty over any portion of the territory on the Pacific between the 42d and the 49th paral- lels of latitude ; her present claim, not in respect to any part, but to the whole, being hmited to a right of joint occupancy, in com- mon with other states, leaving the right of exclusive dominion in abeyance. They then proceeded to examine the grounds of the claims of the United States, none of which they admitted to be * "If," says Mr. Gallatin, "some trading factories on the shores of Hudson's Bay have been considered by Great Britain as giving an exclusive right of occupancy as far as the Rocky Mountains; if the infant settlements on the more southern Atlantic shores justified a claim thence to the South Seas, and which was actually enforced to the Mississippi, — that of the millions already within reach of those seas cannot con- sistently be rejected." This argument, it may be added, has been since constantly increasing in force. 1826.] CLAIMS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 349 valid, except that acquired from Spain, through the Florida treaty, in 1819 ; and the right thus acquired they pronounced to be nothing more than the right secured to Spain, in common with Great Brit- ain, by the ]\ootka convention, in 1790, to trade and settle in any part of those countries, and to navigate their wafers. Dismissing the claims of Spain, on the grounds of discovery, prior to 1790, as futile and visionary, and inferior to those of Great Britain on the same grounds, they maintained that all arguments and pretensions of either of those powers, whether resting on discovery or on any other consideration, were definitively set at rest by the Nootka convention, after the signature of which, the title was no longer to be traced in vague discoveries, several of them admitted to be apocryphal, but in the text and stipulations of that convention itself ; and that, as the Nootka convention applied to all parts of the north-west coast of America not occupied, in 1790, by either of the parties, it of course included any portion of Louisiana which might then have extended, on the Pacific, north of the northern- most Spanish settlement, and which could not, therefore, be claimed by the United States, in virtue of the treaty for the cession of Lou- isiana to that republic, in 1803. Having assumed this ground, it was scarcely necessary for the British plenipotentiaries to go further into the examination of the titles of the United States ; and they probably acted on this suppo- sition, as it is otherwise impossible to account for the gross mis- statements with regard to the discoveries of the Americans, the extravagant and unfounded assumptions, and the illogical deduc- tions, in the document presented by them to Mr. Gallatin, on the part of their government. Thus, with regard to the discovery of the mouth of the Columbia, they insisted that " Mr. Meares, a lieu- tenant in the royal navy, who had been sent by the East India Company on a trading expedition to the north-west coasts of America," really effected that discovery four years before Gray is even pretended to have entered the river ; * though they indeed admitted that " Mr. Gray, finding himself in the bay formed by the discharge of the waters of the Columbia into the Pacific, was the first to ascertain that this bay formed the outlet of a great river, a discovery which had escaped Lieutenant Meares " when he entered the same bay ; but that, even supposing the priority of Gray's dis- covery to be proved, it was of no consequence in the case, as the • See p. 177. 350 CLAIMS OF GREAT BRITAIN. [1826. country in which it was made " falls within the provisions of the convention of 1790." They refused to allow that the claims of the United States are strengthened by the exploration of the country through which the Columbia flows, as performed in 1805-6 by Lewis and Clarke, " because, if not before, at least in the same and subsequent years," the agents of the North-West Company had established posts on the northern branch of the river, and were extending them down to its mouth, when they heard of the forma- tion of the American post at that place in 1811.* That the restora- tion of Astoria, in 1818, conveyed a virtual acknowledgment by Great Britain of the title of the United States to the country in which that post is situated, was also denied, on the ground that letters protesting against such title were, at the time of the restora- tion, addressed, by members of the British ministry, to British agents in the United States and on the Columbia.f It is needless to add any thing to what has been already said on these points, in order to prove the entire groundlessness of the assertions contained in the British statement with regard to them. The charters granted by the sovereigns of Great Britain and France, conveying to individuals or companies large tracts of terri- tory in America, were represented, by the British plenipotentiaries, as being nothing " more, in fact, than a cession to the grantee or grantees of whatever rights the grantor might suppose himself to possess, to the exclusion of other subjects of the same nation, — binding and restraining those only who were within the jurisdic- tion of the grantor, and of no force or validity against the subjects of other states, until recognized by treaty, and thereby becoming a part of international law." The erroneousness of these views is obvious, and was easily demonstrated by Mr. Gallatin, who showed, by reference to the history of British colonization and dominion in America, that the royal grantors of territories in that continent did consider their charters as binding on all, whether their own subjects or not, and with regard to countries first discovered and settled by people of other nations, whenever they were found to be within the limits thus indicated. These facts were cited, not in vindication of the justice of those grants, but merely to prove in what light they had been regarded by Great Britain : and, if the principle thus assumed by that power, and maintained from 1580 to 1782, as relating to Atlantic colonies, were correct, she could not " See p. 297. t See p. 310. 1826.] DETERMINATIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 351 deny its application to the United States, now the owners of Lou- isiana.* The British plenipotentiaries were, however, clear and explicit as to the intentions of their government, which were declared, at the conclusion of their statement, in terms of moderation and forbear- ance truly edifying. Great Britain, they assert, claims, at present, nothing more than the rights of trade, navigation, and settlement, in the part of the world under consideration, agreeably to the pro- visions of the Nootka convention, the basis of the law of nations with regard to those territories and waters, under the protection of which many important British interests have grown up ; and she admits that the United States have the same rights, but none other, although they have been exercised only in one instance, and not at all since 1813. In the territory between the 42d and the 49th parallels of latitude, are many British posts and settlements, for the trade and supply of which, the free navigation of the Columbia, to and from the sea, is indispensable; the United States possess not a single post or settlement of any kind in that whole region. Great Britain, nevertheless, for the sake of peace and good under- standing, agrees to submit to a definitive partition of that territory, giving to the United States the whole division south of the Co- lumbia, and a large tract containing an excellent harbor, north of that river ; and, the United States having declined to accede to this proposition, it only remains for Great Britain to maintain and up- * " This construction does not appear either to have been that intended at the time by the grantors, or to have governed the subsequent conduct of Great Britain. By excepting from the grants, as was generally the case, such lands as were already oc- cupied by the subjects of other civilized nations, it was clearly implied that no other exception was contemplated, and that the grants were intended to include all unoccu- pied lands within their respective boundaries, to the exclusion of all other persons or nations whatsoever. In point of fact, the whole country drained by the several rivers emptying into the Atlantic Ocean, the mouths of which were within those charters, has, from Hudson's Bay to Florida, and, it is believed, without exception, been occu- pied and held by virtue of those charters. Not only has this principle been fully confirmed, but it has been notoriously enforced much beyond the sources of the rivers on which the settlements were formed. The priority of the French settlements on the rivers flowing westwardly from the Alleghany Mountains into the Mississippi was altogether disregarded ; and the rights of the Atlantic colonies to extend beyond those mountains, as growing out of the contiguity of territory, and as asserted in the earliest charters, was effectually and successfully enforced." The American minister might also have cited the charters granted to the Virginia Company by King James I., in 1609 and 1611, in virtue of which, the Dutch settle- ments on the Hudson River, in a country first discovered, explored, and occupied, under the flag of the United Provinces, were, in 1664, — forty years after the disso- lution of the company, — during peace between the two nations, seized by British forces, as being included in the territories conceded to that company. 352 BRITISH PROPOSITIONS REJECTED. [1827. hold the qualified rights which she now possesses over the whole of the territory in question. " To the interests which British industry and enterprise have created Great Britain owes protection. That protection will be given, both as regards settlement and freedom of trade and navigation, with every attention not to infringe the coordinate rights of the United States ; it being the earnest desire of the British government, so long as the joint occupancy con- tinues, to regulate its own obligations by the same rule which governs the obligations of any other occupying party." Thus, in 1826, the British government based its claims, with regard to the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, entirely on the Nootka convention of 1790, and the acts of occupation by its subjects under that agreement ; the abrogation of which, by the war between the parties, in 1796, — ten years before a single spot in those territo- ries had been occupied by a British subject, — has been already so fully demonstrated;* that any further observations would be super- fluous. The proposition of the British plenipotentiaries, with regard to the renewal of the existing arrangement for ten years, was rejected by the president of the United States,f on the grounds — that, so far as it would tend to prevent the Americans from exercising exclusive sovereignty at the mouth of the Columbia River, it would be con- trary to their rights, as acknowledged by the treaty of Ghent, and by the restitution of the place agreeably to that treaty ; — that the proposed additional provisions do not define, but leave open to disputation, the acts which might be deemed an exercise of exclu- sive sovereignty; — and that, from the nature of the institutions of the United States, their rights in the territory in question must be protected, and their citizens must be secured in their lawful pursuits, by some species of government, different from that which it has been, or may be, the pleasure of Great Britain to establish there. Mr. Gallatin, on the 24th of May, 1827, communicated to the British commissioners the fact of the rejection of their proposition, and the reasons for it, declaring, at the same time, formally, in obedience to special instructions, that his government did not hold itself hound hereafter in consequence of any proposal which it had made for a line of separation between the territories of the two nations heyond the Rocky Mountains ; but would consider itself at liberty to contend for the full extent of the claims of the United States, * See the examinations of this question, at pp. 213, 257, and 318. * Letter of February 24th, 1827, from the Hon. Henry Clay to Mr. Gallatin. 1827.] NEGOTIATION AT LONDON RESUMED. 353 The British plenipotentiaries, having entered on the protocol of the conferences a declaration with regard to the previous claims and propositions of their government, similar to that made on the part of the United States by Mr. Gallatin, then intimated their readiness to agree to a simple renewal of the terms of the existing arrangement, for ten years from the date of the expiration of the convention of 1818; provided, however, that, in so doing, they should append to the new convention, in some way, a declara- tion of what they considered to be its true intent, namely, — that both parties were restricted, during its continuance in force, from exercising, or assuming to themselves the light to exercise, any exclvr sive sovereignty or jurisdiction over the territories mentioned in the agreement. The objections to this arrangement were nearly as strong as to that which had already been proposed and refused ; Mr. Gallatin, however, desired to know what species of acts the British would consider as an exercise of exclusive sovereignty or jurisdiction. In reply, he was informed that Great Britain would not complain of the extension, over the regions west of the Rocky Mountains, of the jurisdiction of any territory, having for its eastern boundary a line within the acknowledged boundaries of the United States ; provided — that no custom-house should be erected, nor any duties or charges on tonnage, merchandise, or commerce, be raised, by either party, in the country west of the Rocky Mountains — that the citizens or subjects of the two powers residing in or resorting to those countries, should be amenable only to the juris- diction of their own nation respectively — and that no military post should be established by either party in those countries ; or, at least, no such post as would command the navigation of the Columbia or any of its branches. To the first of these conditions, Mr. Gallatin saw no strong reason to object. With regard to the second, he considered it indispensable that the respective jurisdiction of the courts of justice should be determined by positive compact, as it would scarcely be possible otherwise to prevent collisions ; and upon the third condition, he believed it would be very difficult to arrive at a correct under- standing, as the British government would not admit the posts of the Hi" (son's Bay Company to be military establishments. On all these points, the two governments might afterwards negotiate ; but the American minister refused to assent to any declaration or explanation whatsoever respecting the terms under which the terri- tories in question were to remain open to the people of the two 45 354 RENEWAL OF THE CONVENTION OF 1818. [1827. countries ; and the British were equally resolved not to agree to a renewal of the engagement for a fixed period of time, without such a declaration. Finally, on the 6th of August, 1827, a convention was signed by the plenipotentiaries, to the effect, that the provisions of the third article of the convention of October 20th, 1818, — rendering all the territories claimed by Great Britain or hy the United States, west of the Rocky Mountains, free and open to the citizens or subjects of both nations for ten years, — should be further extended for an indefinite period ; either party being, however, at liberty to annul and abrogate the agreement, on giving a year's notice of its intention to the other.* This convention was submitted to the Senate of the United States in the following winter, and, having been approved by that body, it was immediately ratified. In relating the circumstances connected with the adoption of the convention of October, 1818, the opinion was expressed, that it was perhaps the most wise, as well as most just, arrangement which could then have been made ; and this renewal of the arrangement for an indefinite period, leaving each of the parties at liberty to abrogate it, after a reasonable notice to the other, appears to merit the same commendation. No unworthy concession was made, no loss of dignity or right was sustained, on either side ; and to break the amicable and mutually profitable relations, then subsisting between the two countries, on a question of mere title to the pos- session of territories from which neither could derive any immediate benefit of consequence, would have been impolitic and unrighteous. The advantages of the convention were, in 1827, as in 1818, nearly equal to both nations ; but the difference was, on the whole, in favor of the United States. The British might, indeed, derive more profit from the fur trade as carried on by their organized Hudson's Bay Company, than the Americans could expect to obtain by the individual efforts of their citizens ; but the value of that trade is much less than is generally supposed : no settlements could be formed in the territory beyond the Rocky Mountains, by which it could acquire a population, while the arrangement subsisted ; and the facilities for occupying the territory at a future period, when its occupation by the United States should become expedient, would undoubtedly have increased in a far greater ratio on their part than on that of Great Britain. For the difficulties which must arise * Proofs and Illustrations, letter I, No. 6. 1829.] PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS. 355 whenever the convention is abrogated, even agreeably to the man- ner therein stipulated, it became, of course, the duty of each government to provide in time. In the session of Congress following that in which the new con- vention with Great Britain had been approved, the subject of the occupation of the mouth of the Columbia River was again discussed ; and, after a long series of debates, in which the most eminent mem- bers of the House of Representatives took part, a bill was reported, whereby the president was authorized to cause the territory west of the Rocky Mountains to be explored, and forts and garrisons to be established in any proper places, between the parallels of 42 degrees and 54 degrees 40 minutes ; and also to extend the juris- diction of the United States over those countries, as regards citizens of the Union. The adoption of these measures was urged, on the ground that it was the duty of the government to make good, by occupation, the right of the United States, which was pronounced unquestionable, lest, by neglect, the country should fall irrevocably into the possession of another power, which had unjustly contested that right: and, as inducements to pursue this course, pictures most flattering were presented of the soil, climate, and productions, of the regions watered by the Columbia, and of the various advantages which would be secured to the citizens of the Union engaged in the trade of the Pacific Ocean, by the settlement of those coasts. The bill was opposed, as infringing the convention recently concluded with Great Britain ; in addition to which, it was contended, that, were all opposition on the part of that or other powers removed, and the right of the United States established and universally recognized, the occupation of the countries in question in the manner proposed, would be useless, from their extreme barrenness, from the dangers to navigation presented by their coasts, and from the difficulty of communicating with them either by sea or by land ; and such occupation might be injurious, as citizens of the United States would be thus induced to settle in those countries, and their government would find itself bound to protect and maintain them, at great expense, without a commensurate advancement of the pub- lic good. In the course of tiie debates, several amendments were proposed to the bill, but it was finally rejected on the 9th of January, 1829 ; and, for many years afterwards, very little atten- tion was bestowed, by any branch of the government of the United States, to matters connected with the territories west of the Rocky Mountains. 356 CHAPTER XVII, 1823 TO 1844 Few Citizens of the United States in the Countries west of the Rocky Mountains between 1813 and 1823 — Trading Expeditions of Ashley, Sublelte, Smith, Pilcher, Patlie, Bonneville, and Wyeth — Missionaries from the United States form Estab- lishments on the Columbia— First Printing Press set up in Oregon — Opposi- tion of the Hudson's Bay Company to the Americans; how exerted — Contro- versy between the United States and Russia — Dispute between the Hudson's Bay and the Russian American Companies; how terminated — California ; Cap- ture of Monterey by Commodore Jones — The Sandwich Islands; Proceedings of the Missionaries"; Expulsion of the Catholic Priests, and their Reinstatement by a French Force — The Sandwich Islands temporarily occupied by the British. It has already been said, that, during the ten years immediately following the dissolution of the Pacific Fur Company, and the seizure of its establishments on the Columbia by the British, few, if any, citizens of the United States entered the countries west of the Rocky Mountains ; although, within that period, the facilities for communication between those countries and the settled portions of the American Union had been increased by the introduction of steam vessels on the Mississippi and its tributary rivers. Nearly all the trade of the regions of the Upper Mississippi and the Missouri was then carried on by the old North American Fur Company, at the head of which Mr. Astor still remained ; and by anotiier association, called the Columbia Fur Company, formed in 1822, composed principally of persons who had been in the service of the North-West Company, and were dissatisfied with their new masters. The Columbia Company established several posts on the upper waters of the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Yellowstone, which were, however, transferred to the North American Company, on the junction of the two bodies in 1826. The Americans had also begun to trade with the northernmost provinces of Mexico, before the overthrow of the Spanish authority in that country ; after which event, large caravans passed regularly, in each summer, between St. Louis and Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, on the head- waters of the River Bravo del Norte. 1826.] TRADING EXPEDITIONS OF ASHLEY. 357 The first attempt to reestablish commercial communications between the United States and the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, was made by W. H. Ashley, of St. Louis, who had been, for some time previous, engaged in the fur trade of the Missouri and Yellowstone countries. He quitted the state of Missouri in the spring of 1823, at the head of a large party of men, with horses carrying merchandise and baggage, and proceeded up the Platte River, to the sources of its northern branch, called the Sweet Water, which had not been previously explored. These sources were found to be situated in a remarkable valley, or cleft, in the Rocky Moun- tains, in the latitude of 42 degrees 20 minutes ; and immediately beyond them were discovered those of another stream, flowing south-westward, called by the Indians Sidskadee, and by the Americans Green River, which proved to be one of the head- waters of the Colorado of California. In the country about these streams, which had not then been frequented by the British traders, Mr. Ashley passed the summer, with his men, employed in trap- ping, and in bartering goods for skins with the natives ; and, before the end of the year, he brought back to St. Louis a large and valu- able stock of furs. In 1824, Mr. Ashley made another expedition up the Platte, and through the cleft in the mountains, which has since been gen- erally called the Southern Pass ; and then, advancing farther west, he reached a great collection of salt water called the Utah Lake, (probably the Lake Timpanogos, or Lake Tegayo, of the old Spanish maps,) which lies imbosomed among lofty mountains, between the 40th and the 42d parallels of latitude. Near this lake, on the south-east, he found another and smaller one, to which he gave his own name ; and there he built a fort, or trading post, in which he left about a hundred men, when he returned to Missouri in the autumn. Two years afterwards, a six-pound cannon was drawn from Mis- souri to this fort, a distance of more than twelve hundred miles ; and, in 1828, many wagons, heavily laden, performed the same journey. During the three years between 1824 and 1827, the men left by Mr. Ashley in the country beyond the Rocky Mountains collected and sent to St. Louis furs to the value of more than one hundred and eighty thousand dollars ; this enterprising man then retired from the trade, and sold all his interests and establishments to the Rocky Mountain Company, at the head of which were Messrs. Smith, Jackson, and Sublette, persons not less energetic and determined. 358 TRADING EXPEDITION OF PILCHER. [1828. These traders carried on for many years an extensive and profit- able business, in the course of which they traversed every part of the country about tlie southern branch of the Columbia, and nearly the whole of continental California. Unfortunately, how- ever, they made no astronomical observations, and, being unac- quainted with any branch of physical science, very little information has been derived through their means. Smith, after twice crossing the continent to the Pacific, was murdered, in the summer of 1829, by the Indians north-west of the Utah Lake. These active proceedings of the Missouri fur traders roused the spirit of the North American Company, which also extended its operations beyond the Rocky Mountains, though no establishments were formed by its agents in those countries ; and many expeditions were made, in the same direction, by independent parties, of whose adventures, narratives, more or less exact and interesting, have been published. In 1827, Mr. Pilcher went from Council BluflTs, on the Missouri, with forty-five men, and more than a hundred horses ; and, having crossed the great dividing chain of mountains by the South- ern Pass, he spent the winter on the Colorado. In the following year, he proceeded to the Lewis P».iver, and thence, northwardly, along the foot of the Rocky Mountains, on their western side, to the Flathead Lake, near the 47th degree of latitude, which he describes as a beautiful sheet of water, formed by the expansion of the Clarke River, in a rich and extensive valley, surrounded by high mountains. There he remained until the spring of 1829, when he descended the Clarke to Fort Colville, an estabhshment then recently formed by the Hudson's Bay Company, on the northern branch of the Columbia, at its falls ; and thence he returned to the United States, through the long and circuitous route of the Upper Columbia, the Athabasca, the Assinaboin, Red River, and the Upper Missouri. The countries thus traversed by Mr. Pilcher have all become comparatively well known from the accounts of subsequent travellers ; but very little information had been given to the world respecting them before the publication of his concise narrative.* The account of the rambles of J. O. Pattie, a Missouri fur trader, through New Mexico, Chihuahua, Sonora, and California, published in 1832, throws some light on the geography of parts of those countries of which little can as yet be learned from any other source. During his peregrinations, Pattie several times crossed the great dividing chain of mountains between New Mexico on the * Published with President Jackson's message to Congress, January 23d, 1829. 1834.] PLANS OF WYETH FOR THE OREGON TRABE. 359 east, and Sonora and California on the west, and descended and ascended the Colorado, and its principal tributaries, which he de- scribes as being navigable by boats for considerable distances. He also made trips across Sonora to the Californian Gulf, and across California to the Pacific, as well as through the Mexican provinces on the coasts of that ocean, where he suffered imprisonment and many other hardships from the tyranny of the authorities. In 1832, Captain Bonneville, of the army of the United States, while on furlough, led a band of more than a hundred men, with twenty wagons, and many horses and mules, carrying merchandise from Missouri to the countries of the Colorado and the Columbia, in which he passed more than two years, engaged in hunting, trap- ping, and trading.* About the same time. Captain Wyeth, of Massachusetts, en- deavored to establish a regular system of commercial intercourse between the states of the Union and the countries of the Columbia, to which latter the general name of OREGON then began to be universally applied in the United States. His plan, like that devised by Mr. Astor in 181 0, was to send manufactured goods to the Pacific countries, and from thence to transport to the United States, and even to China, not only furs, but also the salmon which abound in the rivers of North-Western America. With these objects, he made two expeditions over land to the Columbia, in the latter of which he founded a trading post, called Fort Hall, on the south side of the Snake or Lewis branch of that river, at the entrance of the Portneuf, about a hundred miles north of the Utah Lake ; and he then established another post, principally for fishing purposes, on Wappatoo Island, near the confluence of the Willamet River with the Columbia, a hundred miles above the mouth of the latter. This scheme, however, failed entirely. The Hudson's Bay Com- pany's agents immediately took the alarm, and founded a counter establishment, called Fort Boise, at the entrance of the Boise or RcacFs River into the Lewis, some distance below Fort Hall, where they offered goods to the Indians at prices much lower than those which the Americans could afford to take ; and Wyeth, being thus driven out of the market, was forced to compromise with his op- ponents, by selling his fort to them, and engaging to desist from the * The narrative of this expedition, written from the notes of Captain Bonneville, by Washington Irving, in the vein, half serious, half jocose, of Fray Agapida's Chronicle, contains some curious, though generally overcharged, pictures of life among the hunters, trappers, traders, Indians, and grisly bears, of the Rocky Moun- tains ; but it adds very little to our knowledge of the geography of those regions. 360 AMERICAN TRADERS IN CALIFORNIA. [1834. fur trade. Meanwhile, a brig, which he had despatched from Boston, with a cargo of goods, arrived at Wappatoo Island, where she, after some further arrangements with the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, took in a cargo of salted salmon, for the United States. She reached Boston in safety ; but the results of her voyage were not such as to encourage perseverance in the enterprise, which was thereupon abandoned.* The American traders, being excluded by these and other means from the Columbia countries, confined themselves almost entirely to the regions about the head-waters of the Colorado and the Utah Lake, where they formed one or two small establishments ; though they sometimes extended their rambles westward to the Sacramento, the Bay of San Francisco, and Monterey, where they were viewed with dislike and mistrust by the Mexican authorities. The number of citizens of the United States thus employed in the country west of the Rocky Mountains seldom, if ever, exceeded two hundred : during the greater part of the year, they roved through the wilds, in search of furs, which they carried, in the summer, to certain places of rendezvous on the Colorado, or on the Lewis, and there disposed of them to the traders from Missouri ; the whole business being conducted by barter, and without the use of money, though each article bore a nominal value, expressed in dollars and cents, very different from that assigned to it in the states of the Union.f About the time of Wyeth's expeditions also took place the ear- liest emigrations from the United States to the territories of the Columbia, for the purpose of settlement, and without any special commercial objects. The first of these colonies was founded, in 1834, in the valley of * Captain Wyeth's expeditions, though unprofitable to himself, have been rendered advantageous to the world at large ; for his short memoir on the regions wliich he visited, printed with the report of the committee of the House of Representatives on the Oregon territory, in February, 1839, affords more exact and useful information, as to their general geography, climate, soil, and agricultural and commercial capabilities, than any other work yet published. Wyeth's movements are also related incidentally in the account of Bonneville's adventures, and in the interesting Narrative of a Jour- ney across tiie Rocky Mountains, «&c., by J. K. Townsend, a naturalist of Philadelphia, published in 1839. t Thus, among the prices current at the rendezvous on Green River, in the summer of 1B38, we find v/hisky at three dollars per pint, gunpowder at six dollars per pint, tobacco at five dollars per pound, dogs (for food) at fifteen dollars each, &c. Twenty dollars were frequently expended in rum and sugar, for a night's carouse, by two or three traders, after the conclusion of a bargain. Under such circumslancos, it may be supposed that the price of beaver and muskrat skins was proportionally raised ; and that a package, purchased for a hundred dollars on Green River, may havo been afterwards sold with profit at St. Louis for twenty. 1836.] AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS IN OREGON. 361 the Willamet River, in which a few retired servants of the Hud- son's Bay Company had aheady estabhshed themselves, by per- mission of that body, and were employed principally in lierding cattle. The Americans, who settled there, were mostly Methodists, under the direction of ministers of their sect ; and colonies of Presbyterians or Congregational ists were afterwards planted in the Walla- Walla and Spokan countries. In all these places, schools for the education of the natives were opened, and, in 1839, a printing press was set up at Walla- Walla, on which were struck off the first sheets ever printed on the Pacific side of America north of Mexico. The Jesuits of St, Louis then engaged in the labor of converting the Indians, in which they appear, from their own accounts, to have met with extraordinary success ; but, according to the customs of that order, they did not attempt to form any settlements.* The attention of the government of the United States had been, in the mean time, directed to the north-west coasts, es- pecially by the recent refusal of the Russians to allow Amer- ican vessels to trade on the unoccupied parts north of the lat- itude of 54 degrees 40 minutes. This refusal was based on * The first body of American emigrants went by sea, under the direction of Messrs. Lee and Shepherd, Methodist ministers, who had already visited those countries ; and several other parties of persons of the same sect have since estab- lished themselves in the Willamet valley, and near the falls of the great river. The pioneer of the other Protestant sects was Mr. Samuel Parker, whose journal of his tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, though highly interesting and instructive, would have been much more so, had he confined himself to the results of his own experience, and not wandered into the regions of history, diplomacy, and cosmog- ony, in all of which he is evidenlly a stranger. Upon the recommendations of Mr. Parker, Messrs. Spaulding. Gray, and Whitman, were sent out by the Board of Mis- sions, in 1836 ; and they were followed, in 1838, by Messrs. Walker, Eels, and Smith, all of whom, with their wives, have been since assiduously engaged in their benevo- lent pursuits among the Indians, chiefly those of the middle regions of Oregon. See the History of the American Board of Commissioners, publishetl at Boston. Some accounts of the state of these settlements in 1837 may be found in the report of Mr. W. Slacum, who was commissioned by the Amer/can government to visit the Columbia countries in thiit year: this paper, however, which was published by order of the Senate of tlie United States in 1838, is so vague and inexact in its details, that it is, in most cases, calculated rather to confuse and mislead than to direct. The Jesuits De Sinet, Mengarini, Point, and others, have, since 1840, made several missionary tours through the Columbia countries, in the course of which they baptized some thousands of Indians; they also erected a ciiuich at a place near the Kullerspelm Lake, on Clarke's River, where the Blessed Virgin appeared in person to a little Indian boy, "whose youth, piety, and sincerity," say the good fatiiers, "joined to the nature of the fact which he related, forbade us to doubt the truth of his statement." — De Smet's Letters, published at Philadelphia, in lij43, p. 192. 46 362 PROCEEDINGS OF THE RUSSIANS. [1838. the fact that the period of ten years, fixed by the fourth article of the convention of 1824 between the two nations, during which the vessels of both parties might frequent the bays, creeks, harbors, and other interior waters on the north-west coast, had expired : and the Russian government had chosen to consider that article as the only limitation of its right to exclude American vessels from all parts of the division of the coast on which the United States, by the convention, engaged to form no establishments ; disregarding entirely the first article of the same agreement, by which all unoc- cupied places on the north-west coast were declared free and open to the citizens or subjects of both nations. The government of the United States immediately protested against this exclusion ; and their plenipotentiaries at St. Petersburg have been instructed to demand its revocation.* To the reasons offered in support of * See President Van Buren's message to Congress of December 3d, 1838, and the accompanying documents. The letters of Messrs. Wilkins and Dallas, successively plenipotentiaries of the United States at St. Petersburg, relating the particulars of their negotiations with the Russian minister, will be found very interesting, from the luminous views of national rights presented in them. The instructions of Mr. For- syth, the American secretary of state, to Mr. Dallas, dated November 3d, 1837, are also especially worthy of attention. After repeating the cardinal rule as to the con- struction of instruments, — that they should be so construed, if possible, as that every part may stand, — he proceeds to show that the fourth article of the convention of April, 1824, was to be understood as giving "permission to enter interior bays, &c., at the mouth of which there might be establishments, or the shores of which might be in part, but not wholly, occupied by such establishments ; thus providing for a case which would otherwise admit of doubt, as it would be questionable whether the bays, &c., described in it, belonged to the^Vsi or the second article. In no sense," continues Mr. Forsyth, " can it be understood as implying an acknowledgment, on the part of the United States, of the right of Russia to the possession of the coast above the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes north ; but it should be taken in con- nection with the other articles, which have, in fact, no reference whatever to the question of the right of possession of the unoccupied parts of the coast. In a spirit of compromise, and to prevent future collisions or difficulties, it was agreed that no new establishments should be formed by the respective parties north or south of a certain parallel of latitude, after the conclusion of the agreement; but the question of the right of possession beyond the existing establishments, as it subsisted previous to, or at the time of, the conclusion of the convention, was left untouched. The United States, in agreeing not to form new establishments north of the latitude of 54 degrees and 40 minutes, made no acknowledgment of the right of Russia to the possession of the territory above that line. If such admission had been made, Russia, by the same construction of the article referred to, must have acknowledged the right of the United States to the territory south of the line. But that Russia did not so understand the article, is conclusively proved by her having entered into a similar agreement in a subsequent treaty (1825) with Great Britain, and having, in fact, acknowledged in that instrument the right of possession of the same territory by Great Britain. The United States can only be considered as acknowledging the right of Russia to acquire, by actual occupation, a just claim to unoccupied lands above the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes north ; and even this is a mere matter 1833.] PKOCEEDliNGS OF THE RUSSIANS. 363 this demand, the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Count Nessel- rode, did not attempt to offer any reply, contenting himself simply with declaring that his sovereign was not inclined to renew the fourth article, as it afforded the Americans the opportunity of fur- nishing the natives on the coasts with spirituous liquors and fire-arms ; though no case was adduced in support of that assertion. Thus the matter rests ; the American traders being excluded from visiting any of the coasts of the Pacific north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, on the ground that those coasts are acknowledged by the United States to belong to Russia, whilst the latter power, by its treaty with Great Britain in 1825, directly denies any rights, on the part of the United States, to the coasts south of that parallel. The Russian government also refused the same privilege to British vessels after 1835, and moreover opposed by force the exercise of another privilege claimed by the British under the treaty of 1825, namely, that of navigating the rivers flowing from the interior of the continent to the Pacific across the line of boundary therein established. In 1834, the Hudson's Bay Company fitted out an expedition for the purpose of establishing a trading post on the large river Stikine, which enters the channel named by Vancouver Prince Frederick' s Sound, between the main land and one of the islands of the north-west archipelago claimed by Russia, in the latitude of 56 degrees 50 minutes. Baron Wrangel, the Russian governor- general, having, however, been informed of the project, erected a block-house and stationed a sloop of war at the mouth of the Stikine ; and, on the appearance of the vessel bringing the men and materials for the contemplated establishment, the British were warned not to attempt to pass into the river, and were forced to return to the south. All appeals to the treaty were ineffectual, and the Hudson's Bay Company was obliged to desist from the prose- cution of the plan, after having, as asserted on its part, spent more than twenty thousand pounds in fitting out the expedition. of inference, as the convention of 1S24 contains nothing more than a negation of the right of the United States to occupy new points within that limit. Admitting that this inference was in contemplation of the parties to the convention, it cannot follow that the United States ever intended to abandon the just right, acknowledged by the first article to belong to them, under the law of nations ; that is, to frequent any part of the unoccupied coast of North America, for the purpose of fishing or trading with the natives. All that the convention admits is, an inference of the right of Russia to acquire possession by settlement north of 54 degrees and 40 minutes north; and, until that possession is taken, the first article of the convention acknowledges the right of the United States to fish and trade, as prior to its negotiation." 364 AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE BRITISH AND RUSSIANS. [1840. The British government immediately demanded satisfaction, from that of Russia, for this infraction of the treaty ; and, after some time spent in negotiation between the two powers, and between the two companies, it was agreed that the part of the continental coast extending from the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, north- ward, to Cape Spenser, near the 58th degree, which was assigned to Russia by the treaty of 1825, should be leased, by the Russian American Company, to the Hudson's Bay Company, for ten years from the 1st of June, 1840, at an annual rent, to be paid in furs. The difficulty was thus ended, to the advantage of all parties ; the British gaining access to a long line of coast, without which the adjoining territories of the interior would have been useless, while the Russians derive a much greater amount from the rent than they could have otherwise drawn from the coast. The charter of the Russian American Company was renewed, in 1839, for twenty years, without any modifications worthy of note. The company was then in a prosperous condition ; its operations were daily extending, and the value of its stock was constantly increasing. The license, granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1821, to trade, in exclusion of all other British subjects, in the countries owned or claimed by Great Britain, north and west of Canada and the United States, expired in 1840; but another license, containing some new and important provisions, had been accorded by the government, on the 30th of May, 1838.* Thus the company was bound, under heavy penalties, to enforce the due execution of crim- inal processes, by- the officers and other persons legally empowered, in all its territories, and to make and submit to the government such rules and regulations, for the trade with the Indians, as should be effectual to promote their moral and religious improvement, and especially to prevent the sale and distribution of spirituous liquors among them. It is moreover declared, in the grant, that nothing therein contained should authorize the company to claim the right of trade in any part of America, to the prejudice or exclusion of the people of "any foreign states" who may be entitled to trade there, in virtue of conventions between such states and Great Britain ; and the government reserves to itself the right to establish any colony or province within the territories included in the grant, or to annex any portion of those territories to any existing colony or province, and to apply to such colony any form of civil govern- * See both the licenses in the Proofs and Illustrations, letter I. 1822.] CALIFORNIA SUBJECT TO MEXICO. 365 ment, independent of the Hudson's Bay Company, which might be deemed proper. Whether this last provision was introduced with some special and immediate object, or with a view to future contin- gencies, no means have as yet been afforded for determining. The British government, however, insisted strongly on retaining the above-mentioned privileges ; and it is most probable that the Columbia countries were in view at the time, as the remainder of the territory included in the grant, and not possessed by the company in virtue of the charter of 1669, is of little value in any way. In California, few events worthy of note occurred during the whole period of fifty years, from the first establishment of Spanish colonies and garrisons on the west coasts of that country, to the termination of the revolutionary struggle between Spain and Mex- ico, Before the commencement of the disturbances, the missions were, to a certain extent, fostered by the Spanish government, and supplies of money and goods were sent to them, with regularity, from Acapulco and San Bias ; but, after the revolution broke out, these remittances were reduced, the missionaries lost their influence over the natives, and the establishments fell into decay. Upon the overthrow of the Spanish power, in 1822, California was divided politically into two territories, of which the peninsula formed one, called Lotver California ; the other, or Upper California, embracing the whole of the continental portion. By the constitution of 1824, each of these territories became entitled to send one member to the National Congress ; and, by subsequent decrees, all the adult Indians, who could be considered as civilized or capable of reasoning, (gente de razon.) were freed from submission to their former pastors, had lands assigned to them, and were declared citizens of the republic. These seeming boons were, however, accompanied by the with- drawal of nearly all the allowances previously made for the estab- lishments, and by the imposition of taxes and duties on all imports, including those from Mexico. The authority of the missionaries thus dwindled away, and those who had been long in the country either returned to Mexico or Spain, or escaped to other lands : the cultivation of the mission farms was abandoned, and the Indians, freed from restraint, relapsed into barbarism, or sunk into the lowest state of indolence and vice. Whilst the number of civilized Indians in California was by these measures diminished, the white population was at the same time somewhat increased. Immediately after, and indeed before, the 366 CALIFORNIA SUBJECT TO MEXICO. [1828* overthrow of the Spanish authority in that country, its ports became the resort of foreigners, especially of the whalers and traders of the United States, who offered coarse manufactured articles and groceries in exchange for provisions, and for the hides and tallow of the wild cattle abounding in the country. This trade was at first carried on in the same irregular manner as the fur trade with the Indians on the coasts farther north ; as it increased, however, it became more systematized, and mercantile houses were estab- hshed in the principal ports. The majority of the merchants were foreigners, English, French, or Americans : in their train came shop and tavern-keepers, and artisans, from various countries ; and to these were added deserting seamen and stragglers from the Missouri and the Columbia. This state of things was by no means satisfactory to the Mexican government ; and orders were given to the commandant-general of Upper California to enforce the laws prohibiting foreigners from entering or residing in the Mexican territories without special per- mission from the authorities. Agreeably to these orders, a number of American citizens were, in 1828, seized at San Diego, and kept in confinement until 1830, when an insurrection broke out, headed by a General Solis, which they were instrumental in subduing; and, in consideration of their services, they were allowed to quit the country. The trading expeditions of Ashley and Smith, of which accounts have been aheady presented, at the same time gave great uneasiness to the Mexican government, and were made the subjects of formal complaints to that of the United States. These circumstances, with others of the same nature then occur- ring in Texas, served to delay the conclusion of treaties of limits, and of amity, commerce, and navigation, between the United States and Mexico ; which were, however, at length signed and ratified, so as to become effective in 1832, By the treaty of limits, the line of boundary from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific, which was settled between the United States and Spain in 1819, was adopted as separating the territories of the United States on the north from those of Mexico on the south ; and the latter power accordingly claims as its own the whole territory west of the great dividing chain of mountains, as far north as the 42d parallel of latitude. The Mexican government likewise endeavored to prevent the evils anticipated from the presence of so many foreigners in Cali- fornia, by founding new colonies of its own citizens in that country. Criminals were to be transported thither ; but although many were 1837.] REVOLUTION IN CALIFORNIA. 367 thus sentenced, few, if any, ever reached the place of their desti- nation. A number of persons, of various trades and professions, were also sent out from Mexico in 1834, to be located on the lands of the missions in California ; but, ere they reached those places, the administration by which the scheme was devised, had been overthrown, and the new authorities, entertaining different views, ordered the settlers to be driven hack to their native land. These new authorities — that is to say, General Santa Anna and his partisans — determined to remodel the constitution, under which Mexico had been governed, as a federal republic, since 1824. What other form was to have been introduced in its stead, is not known ; for, in the spring of 1836, at the moment when the change was about to be made, Santa Anna was defeated and taken prisoner by the Texans at San Jacinto. Those who succeeded to the helm being, however, no less averse to the federal system, it was abolished in the latter part of the same year, and a constitution was adopted, by which the powers of government were placed almost entirely in the hands of the general congress and executive, all state rights being destroyed. This central system was opposed in many parts of the republic, and nowhere more strenuously than in California, where the people rose in a body, expelled the Mexican officers, and declared that their country should remain independent until the federal constitution were restored. The general government, on receiving the news of these proceedings, issued strong proclamations against the insurgents, and ordered an expedition to be prepared for the purpose of reestablishing its authority in the revolted territory ; but General Urrea, to whom the execution of this order was committed, soon after declared in favor of the fed- eralists, and the Californians were allowed to govern themselves as they chose for some months, at the end of which, in July, 1837, their patriotic enthusiasm subsided, and they voluntarily swore alle- giance to the new constitution. Since that time, the quiet course of things in California, was, during several years, disturbed by only one occurrence worthy of being mentioned ; namely, the capture and temporary occupation of Monterey by the naval forces of the United States, under Commo- dore T. A. C. Jones, of which the following brief account will suffice. This officer, while cruising on the South American coast of the Pa- cific, received information which led him to believe that Mexico had, agreeably to a menace shortly before uttered by her government^ declared war against the United States ; and, being determined 363 CAPTURE OF MONTEREY BY THE AMERICANS. [184!2. to strike a blow at the supposed enemy, he sailed, with his frigate, the United States, and the sloop of war Cyane, to Monterey, where he arrived on the 19th of October, 1842. Having disposed his vessels in front of the little town, he sent an officer ashore, to demand the surrender " of the castle, posts, and military places, with all troops, arms, and munitions of war of every class," in default of which, the sacrifice of human life and the horrors of war would be the immediate consequence. The commandant of the place, astounded by such a demand, made in a time of profound peace, summoned his officers to a council, in which it was decided that no defence could be made : he therefore sub- mitted without delay, and the flag of the United States replaced that of Mexico over all the public edifices ; the fortifications were garri- soned by American soldiers, and the commodore issued a proclama- tion to the Californians, inviting them to submit to the government of the federal republic, which would protect and insure to them the undisturbed exercise of their religion, and all other privileges of freemen. Scarcely, however, was this proclamation sent forth, ere the commodore received advices which convinced him that he had been in error, and that the peace between his country and Mexico remained unbroken ; he had, therefore, only to restore the place to its former possessors, and to retire with all his forces to his ships, which was done on the 2 1st of the month, twenty-four hours after the surrender. Thus ended an affair, the effects of which have been unfortunately to increase the irritation already existing in Mexico against the United States, and to render less easy the adjustment of the differences between the two nations. The armed force in Cali- fornia was soon after considerably augmented ; but it is evident that all the efforts of Mexico would be unavailing to retain those distant possessions, in the event of a war with a powerful maritime state. In the Sandwich Islands, a complete change has taken place since the death of Tamahamaha. His son and successor, Riho Riho, died, in 1824, in London, whither he had gone, with his queen, to visit his brother sovereign of Great Britain ; and he was himself succeeded by Kauikeaouli, another reputed son of the great Tamahamaha, who ascended the throne, under the name of Kame- hamaha III. These changes were all advantageous to the mission- aries from the United States, many of whom were domiciliated in the islands ; particularly after the conversion of Krymakoo, or Billy Pitt, the old prime minister, and of Kaahumanu, the widow of the great Tamahamaha, who, after passing half a century in the con- 1834.] MISSIONARIES IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 369 stant practice of the most beastly sensuality, embraced Christianity in her old age, and became a zealous and efficient protector of its professors.* Boki, the brother of Krymakoo, a powerful chief, who had accompanied Riho Riho to England, and, on his return, endeavored to obtain the sovereignty of the islands, proved very refractory and annoying to the missionaries, alternately cooperating with them, or setting them at defiance, according to the dic- tates of his ambition. f After the death of Riho Riho, Kaahumanu, first, and then Kinau one of the widows of the late king, conducted the government as regents, until 1S34, when the young sovereign threw off all restraints, and, taking the reins into his own hands, determined to enjoy life like other legitimate princes. Feasting and dancing in the old style were again seen in the palace ; drinking siiops were opened, distilleries were set up, and other ancient immoralities reappeared, under the immediate patronage of the court. But the church had become a part of the state. The chiefs were all nomi- nally Christians ; the missionaries exerted themselves to stem the torrent, and they succeeded. The king was obliged to yield ; the shops and distilleries were successively closed, and order and decency resumed their reign. The ill success of this attempt, on the part of the king, to free himself from the trammels imposed by the missionaries, of course increased their power ; which they exerted with energy, and gen- * Krymakoo died in 1825, and Kaahumanu in 1832 ; the exemplary manner in which they took leave of the pomps and vanities of life is minutely described in the History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, pp. 175 and 230. t Boki, having been disappointed in his hopes of attaining the sovereignty of his country, sailed, in 1829, with a number of followers, in two vessels, in search of some new islands, covered with sandal-wood, which were said to have been dis- covered in the south-west. One of the vessels returned to Woahoo ; of the other, in which Boki commanded in person, nothing has been since heard, except some rumors that she was blown up. The London Quarterly Review for March, 1827, contains a letter purporting to have been written by Boki, at Woahoo, to a friend in London, expressing consider- able dissatisfaction with the conduct of the American missionaries, which has given those worthy persons much uneasiness, and has caused them to expend much more of virtuous indignation and serious argument, in refuting the charges, than it deserved. The letter is an exquisite morceau of orthography and style, and should find a place in the Comic Almanac. See the History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, p. 176, and Mr. C. S. Stewart's narrative of his residence in the Sandwich Islands, p. 342. The latter work will amply repay the reader for the time which he may devote to it; not only from the informa- tion aiforded respecting the islands, but also as exhibiting, in the most interesting manner, the workings of a pure and enthusiastic mind. 47 370 CATHOLIC PRIESTS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. [1838. erally with discretion, for the benefit of the community. They employed every means to keep the chiefs in what they considered the right path, and to concihate the young. Schools were opened wherever scholars could be found ; and the Bible, in the language of the islands, was placed in the hands of all who could read it. Laws restraining drunkenness and other vices were proposed to the government and adopted: in 1838, the importation of spirituous liquors was prohibited ; and, in 1840, a written constitution, also the work of the missionaries, exhibiting much wisdom and knowl- edge of the world on their part, was subscribed by the king and his principal nobles. In these endeavors to raise a barbarous people to civilization, and to place their country among Christian states, the American missionaries were constantly opposed and thwarted by their own fellow-citizens and the subjects of other nations, who resorted to the islands for the purposes of trade, or of refreshment, after long and dangerous voyages. The precepts of a religion enjoining self- denial in all things could not find favor among such persons ; to whom its apostles became objects of hatred, as the destroyers of all their pleasures. Bickerings took place between the two par- ties : the missionaries were assaulted with sticks, and stones, and knives, all which they fearlessly confronted, rather than yield a foot of the ground already occupied ; and the young king was daily subjected to complaints from sea captains and consuls on the one side, and to remonstrances from his spiritual advisers on the other. That the latter carried their restrictions too far, con- sidering the circumstances, there is reason to believe ; for, though no defence can be made for the practices which they reprobated, yet many of them can never be prevented by means compatible with the enjoyment of civil liberty ; and it may be neither prudent nor just to set a mark on all who are guilty of them. The American missionaries had to encounter greater difficulties from a different source. Other laborers entered the vineyard. In 1827, two Roman Catholic priests, Messrs. Short, an Irishman, and Bachelot, a Frenchman, arrived in the islands, and engaged in the conversion of the natives to their form of Christianity. They were, of course, regarded with unfriendly eyes by the Protestants, and particularly by the pious regent Kaahumanu, to whose faction they were opposed ; and, through her influence, they were at length, in 1831, expelled from the islands, on the grounds that they were idolaters, and worshipped the bones of dead men. A 1839.] REINSTATEMENT OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 371 chapel and school were, nevertheless, soon after opened at Hono- lulu, by another Catholic priest, named Walsh; and, in 1838, Kaa- humanu being dead, Messrs. Bachelot and Short ventured to return to the islands, from California, where they had passed the greater part of the time, since their expulsion. They were again ordered by the government to take their departure ; and, on their refusal, were forcibly put on board the vessel which brought them, and thus sent away, notwithstanding the protests made by the consuls of the United States and Great Britain, on the part of the owners of the vessel, and by the commanders of a British and a French ship of war, which arrived at the time in the islands. That the Protestant missionaries were the instigators of this proceeding, has been asserted, though it is denied by their friends ; that they might, if they chose, have prevented it, there can, however, be as little doubt, as that they should have done so, if it were in their power. For this act, which, besides being entirely at variance with the constant principle of Protestantism, and the spirit of toleration now so happily pervading the world, indicated extreme ignorance, and culpable disregard of consequences, on the part of those who directed it, a severe retribution was soon after exacted. On the 9th of July, 1839, the French frigate Artemise arrived at Hono- lulu, and her captain, Laplace, immediately demanded reparation for the insult offered to his country and its national religion ; with which object, he required that the Roman Catholic worship should be declared free throughout the islands, and its professors should enjoy all the privileges heretofore granted to Protestants ; that the government should give a piece of ground for the erection of a Catholic church ; that all Catholics imprisoned on account of their religion should be liberated ; and, finally, that, as a security for the performance of these engagements, twenty thousand dollars should be placed, and should remain, in his hands. With these demands the king immediately complied ; and, had the French commander contented himself with what he had thus effected, his conduct would have been blameless in the eyes of all unprejudiced men. But he also required and obtained, that the brandy and wines of his country, the introduction of which, as of all other spirituous liquors, was most properly prohibited by law, should be admitted into the islands on paying a duty of not more than five per cent, on their value — an act, considering the relative degrees of civilization of the two parties, far more repre- hensible than that for which he had just before obtained atonement 372 MISSION OF HAALILEO AND RICHARDS. [1842. Captain Laplace also thought proper to declare in a circular, that, in case he should attack Honolulu, the American missionaries would not enjoy the protection promised by him to the people of civilized nations ; fortunately, however, he had no occasion to carry this threat into execution, as it might have produced a most serious breach of good understanding between his govern- ment and that of the United States. Difficulties about the same time arose between the government of the Sandwich Islands and the British consul ; in consequence of which, the king determined to despatch an agent to the United States, Great Britain, and France, in order to obtain, if possible, a distinct recognition of the independence of his dominions by those nations, and to make some definite arrangement for the prevention of difficulties in future. With these objects, Timoteo Haahleo, a young native who had been educated in the school of the missionaries, and had filled several important offices, was selected as the agent ; and he was to be accompanied by Mr. W. Richards, one of the American missionaries, who, having distin- guished himself, during a long residence in the islands, by his zeal in behalf of the people and their government, had, with the assent of his brethren, entered regularly into the king's service. They arrived in Washington in the winter of 1842, and, upon their application. President Tyler addressed a message to Con- gress,* in which, after briefly recapitulating the advantages derived by the United States from the Sandwich Islands, as a place of trade and refreshment for vessels in the Pacific, and alluding to the desire manifested by their government to improve the moral and social condition of the people, he declared that any attempt by another power to take possession of the islands, colonize them, and subvert the native government, could not but create dissatis- faction on the part of the United States ; and, should such attempt be made, the American government would be justified in remon- strating decidedly against it. An American commissioner was accordingly despatched to the Sandwich Islands, charged to inquire and report as to the propriety of establishing diplomatic relations with their government ; and Messrs. Haalileo and Richards, after some time spent in the United States, proceeded to Great Brit- ain and France, where their presence proved ultimately useful in bringing about the peaceful solution of the difficulties which had occasioned their mission. " Message of December 21st, 1842. 1843.] SANDWICH ISLANDS OCCUPIED BY THE BRITISH. 373 In the mean time, Lord George Paulet, a captain in the British navy, arrived at Woahoo, in February, 1843, in the ship Carysfort, and demanded from the king explanations with regard to the conduct of his government towards the consul and subjects of her Britannic majesty. Not receiving a satisfactory answer within the period prescribed, this officer threatened, in the event of longer delay, to make an attack upon Honolulu ; whereupon the king, find- ing himself unable to comply with the demands, or to resist them, surrendered all the islands under his dominion to Great Britain, until the matter could be arranged between the government of that country and the agents whom he had already sent thither. The British commander accordingly took possession, appointed commis- sioners to conduct the administration, and issued various regulations for the government of the islands, until further orders could be received from England. The news of these events created much excitement in the United States ; and a protest against the occupation of the Sand- wich Islands by Great Britain was immediately addressed by the American government to the court of London. On the 25th of June, however, the British minister at Washington declared officially, that the acts of Lord George Paulet were entirely un- authorized by her majesty; conformably with which, King Kameha- maha was, on the 31st of July, reinstated in all his powers and dig- nities by Admiral Thomas, the commander-in-chief of the British naval forces in the Pacific. Finally, on the 28th of November, a declaration was signed at London, on the parts of the queen of England and the king of the French, whereby their majesties "en- gaged reciprocally to consider the Sandwich Islands as an inde- pendent state, and never to take possession, either directly, or un- der the title of protectorate, or under any other form, of any part of the territory of which they are composed." These acts of the British and the French, with regard to the Sandwich Islands, arose, doubtless, rather from political jealousy, on the parts of those nations, than from the simple desire to protect their subjects in trade or religion. The French have shown their anxiety to obtain a permanent footing on the Pacific, by their at- tempts to form a colony in New Zealand, by their military occupa- tion of the Washington or North Marquesas Islands and their forci- ble seizure of Otaheite, and by various other circumstances ; whilst the British have evinced their determination to counteract those efforts by others equally unequivocal. To cither of these nations the 374 BRITISH OCCUPY THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. [1834. Sandwich Islands would prove a most valuable acquisition, as it would afford the means of controlling the trade and fishery of the North Pacific, and of exercising a powerful influence over the destinies of the north-west coasts of America and California. The United States, claiming the north-west coasts, and conducting nearly the whole of the fishery and trade of the North Pacific, are deeply interested in all that may affect the independence of these islands ; and, having neither the power nor the will to establish their own authority over them at present, it is the policy and duty of their government to oppose, at almost any hazard, the attempts of other nations to acquire dominion or influence in this important archipelago. It will be proper here also to notice, as connected with the history and probable destinies of North-West America, the fact of the oc- cupation of the Falkland Islands by Great Britain, in 1833. After the overthrow of the Spanish supremacy in America, these islands were claimed by the government of Buenos Ayres, as having formed part of the territory under the direction of the viceroy of La Plata ; and attempts were made by that government to exercise dominion over them, which produced, in 1831, a collision between its authorities and the naval forces of the United States. In the month of January, 1833, the British took possession of the whole group, which they have ever since occupied ; and, a repre- sentation on the subject having been addressed to that government, by the diplomatic agent of Buenos Ayres at London, Lord Pal- merston, the British secretary for foreign affairs, in reply, main- tained* the exclusive right of his nation to the islands, on the ground of first discovery and occupation — thus entirely disre- garding the sixth article of the Nootka convention of 1790, according to which, no settlement could be made, either by Great Britain or by Spain, on any part of the coasts of South America or the islands adjacent, " situated to the south of those parts of the same coasts, and of the islands adjacent, which are already occupied by Spain," although his government had, in 1827 supported the subsistence of that convention with respect to the north-west coasts of North America. In 1841, the Sandwich Islands, and the coasts of Oregon and California, were visited by the exploring ships of the United States, under the command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, who * Letter from Lord Palinerston to Seiior Moreno, dated January 8th, 1834. See Memoir, historical, political, and descriptive, on the Falkland Islands, by Robert Greenhow, published in the New York Merchants' Magazine for February, 1842. 1842.] EXPLORING VOYAGE OF WILKES. 375 had been specially directed to survey and examine those countries, as carefully as circumstances would permit. Lieutenant Wilkes, in the sloop of war Vincennes, arrived off the mouth of the Columbia, on the 27th of April ; but, finding it hazardous to attempt the entrance, he sailed to the Strait of Fuca, and anchored in Puget's Sound, near Nasqually, a post belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, from which he despatched several surveying parties into the interior. One of these parties crossed the great westernmost range of mountains to the Columbia ; and, having visited the British trading posts of Okinagan, Colville, and Walla- Walla, returned to Nasqually. Another party proceeded southward to the Cowelitz, and down that river to the main trunk of the Columbia, which was examined upwards as far as Walla- Walla, and downwards to the ocean. In the mean time, other parties were engaged in surveying the coasts and harbors on the Pacific, the Strait of Fuca, and Admiralty Inlet, and particularly in exploring the valleys of the Willamet River, emptying into the Columbia, and of the Sacra- mento, falling into the Bay of San Francisco, which are perhaps the most valuable portions of Oregon and California. The perform- ance of these important duties was accompanied by an unfortunate occurrence. The sloop of war Peacock, one of the exploring vessels, commanded by Lieut. William L. Hudson, struck on the bar at the mouth of the Columbia, while attempting to enter that river, on the I8th of July, and was lost ; her crew, however, in consequence of the perfect discipline maintained on board, were all landed in safety, with her instruments and papers, on Cape Dis- appointment, where they were received, and treated with the utmost hospitality, by the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company, residing in the vicinity.* * The exploring squadron, consisting of the sloops of war Vincennes and Pea- cock, store-ship Relief, brig Porpoise, and schooners Sea-Gull and Flyinnr-Fish, sailed from the Chesapeake on the 19th of August, 1838, and passed around Cape Horn, wliere several months were employed in exploring, and, unfortunately, the Sea-Gull was lost, with all on board. Lieutenant Wilkes then crossed the Pacific to Australia, south of which, he, in Januaj-y, 1640, discovered a line of rocky, ice-bound coast, extending nearly under the Antarctic circle, from the 92d to the 165th degrees of longitude east from London; that is, about 1800 miles. Thence he proceeded northward, surveying many groups of islands and intricate channels hitherto im- perfectly known, to the coast of Oregon, where he spent the summer of 1841, as above stated ; and, having completed his work, he returned, with his vessels, through the India seas, and around the Cape of Good Hope, to the United States, where he arrived in June, 1842. The southernmost point attained was in the Pacific, south- south-west of Cape Horn, in latitude of 70 degrees 14 minutes, that is, farther south than any navigator, except Cook and Weddcll had previously penetrated ; it was reached on the 24th of March, 1839, by Lieut. W. M. Walker, commanding the Flying-Fish. 376 CHAPTER XVIII. 1842 TO 1846. Excitement in the United States respecting Oregon — Bill in the Senate for the im- mediate Occupation of Oregon — That Bill inconsistent with the Convention of 1827, between the United States and Great Britain — Renewal of Negotiations be- tween the United States and Great Britain — Emigration from the United States to Oregon — State of the Hudson's Bay Company's Possessions — Conclusion. During the latter years of the period to which the preceding chapter relates, the government and people of the United States were becoming seriously interested in the subject of the claims of the republic to countries west of the Rocky Mountains, which had so long remained undetermined. The population of the Union had, in fact, been so much increased, that large numbers of per- sons were to be found in every part, whose spirit of enterprise and adventure could not be restrained within the limits of the states and organized territories ; and, as the adjoining central division of the continent offered no inducements to settlers, those who did not choose to fix their habitations in Texas, began to direct their views towards the valleys of the Columbia, where they ex- pected to obtain rich lands without cost, and security under the flag of the stars and stripes. The period had, in fact, arrived, when the countries west of the Rocky Mountains were to receive a civilized population from the United States. This feeling began to manifest itself, about the year 1837, by the formation of societies for emigration to Oregon, in various parts of the Union, and especially in those which had themselves been most recently settled, and were most thinly peopled. From these associations, and from American citizens already established in Oregon, petitions were presented to Congress, as well as resolu- tions from the legislatures of states,* urging the general government either to settle the questions of right as to the country west of the Rocky Mountains, by definitive arrangement with the other claimant, * Nearly all these petitions and resolutions came from Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Michigan. 1840.] EXCITEMENT IN THE U. STATES RESPECTING OREGON. 377 or to take immediate civil and military possession of that country ; and bills, having for their object the accomphshment of one or both of these ends, were annually introduced into the Senate or the House of Representatives of the Union. The members of the executive branch of the government, particularly Messrs. Forsyth and Poinsett, the able and energetic secretaries of state and of war, were likewise assiduously engaged in collecting information respecting the nature and grounds of the claims of the United States, and the most effective means of enforcing them, in order that the government might, when necessary, act with vigor and certainty, and be justi- fied before the world. The information thus obtained was, from time to time, published, by order of Congress, for the instruction of the people on points so important ; * but no bill relating to Ore- gon was passed by either house before 1843, nor was any decisive measure on the subject adopted by the American government. The British government was, meanwhile, not unmindful of its interests in the territories west of the Rocky Mountains. Its views and intentions were not proclaimed to the world annually, in par- liamentary speeches or executive reports : but the Admiralty caused the lower part of the Columbia River, the Bay of San Francisco, and the adjacent coasts of the Pacific, to be carefully surveyed, in 1839, by Captain Belcher ;f and the Colonial Office, and Board of Trade, were in constant communication with the governor and di- * Among these documents, the principal are the following, viz. : Report to the Senate, with Maps, and a Bill for the Occupation of Oregon ; presented by Mr. Linn, June 6th, 1838 — Reports of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, of the House of Representatives, respecting the Territory of Oregon, with a Map, presented Jan. 4th and Feb. 16th, 1839, by Mr. Gushing, accompanied by a bill to provide for the pro- tection of the citizens of the United States residing in that territory, or trading on the Columbia River, and various documents in proof — Memoir, Historical and Polit- ical, on the North- West Coast of North America, and the adjacent Countries, with a Map and a Geographical View of those Countries, by Robert Greenhow, Translator and Librarian to the Department of State; presented Feb. 10th, 1640, by Mr. Linn (see Preface to this History) — Report of the Hon. J. R. Poinsett, Secretary of War, in relation to the establishment of.a line of Military Posts from the Missouri River to the Columbia, 1840 — Report of the Military Committee of the House of Representa- tives, on the Subject of the Occupation and Defence of the Columbia Countries; presented by Mr. Pendleton, May 2oth, 1842. t Narrative of a Voyage round the World, performed in her Majesty's Ship Sul- phur, during the Years 1836—1842, by Captain Sir Edward Belcher, R. N. This large and expensive work, though very amusing to the general reader, abounds in misstatements and inconsistencies, and contains scarcely a single fact or observation of importance with regard to the different places visited. The results of the scientific investigations, especially the geographical positions of many important points, which were determined, doubtless, with the utmost accuracy during the voyage, are omitted. 48 378 TREATY BETWEEN THE U. STATES AND G. BRITAIN. [1842. rectors of the Hudson's Bay Company, who possessed more accurate information, on all subjects connected with North-West America, than could be procured from any other source. The British gov- ernment and the Hudson's Bay Company have, indeed, always acted in concert ; and, except in a few cases, the measures thus devised could be carried into immediate execution without previous reference to parliament. Beyond the precincts of the colonial office, and of the Hudson's Bay house, no one in England seems to have taken the slightest interest in any thing connected with the regions west of the Rocky Mountains. In the spring of 1842, Lord Ashburton arrived at Washington, as minister extraordinary from Great Britain, with instructions and powers to settle certain questions of difference between the two nations ; and it was, at first, generally supposed, in the United States, and, indeed, in Great Britain, that the establishment of boundaries on the Pacific side of America would be one of the objects of his mission. A treaty was, however, concluded, in August of that year, between him and Mr. Webster, the secretary of state of the United States, in which all the undetermined parts of the line separating the territories of the two powers, on the Atlantic side of America, were defined and settled ; but no allu- sion was made to any portion of the continent west of the Rocky Mountains. Lord Ashburton had, indeed, been " furnished with specific and detailed instructions relative to the treatment of this point of difference between the two governments ; " * and the ques- tion was discussed by the plenipotentiaries, as declared in the following passage of President Tyler's message to Congress at the opening of the session, on the 7th of December, 1842: " In advance of the acquisition of individual rights to these lands, [west of the Rocky Mountains,] sound policy dictates that every effort should be resorted to, by the two governments, to set- tle their respective claims. It became evident, at an early hour of the late negotiations, that any attempt, for the time being, satis- factorily to determine those rights, would lead to a protracted discussion, which might embrace in its failure other more pressing matters ; and the executive did not regard it as proper to waive all the advantages of an honorable adjustment of other difficulties, of great magnitude and importance, because this, not so immediately pressing, stood in the way. Although the difficulties referred to may not, for several years to come, involve the peace of the two " Letter f'roisi Lord Aberdeen to Mr. Fox, October 18, 1842. 1842.] BILL IN THE U. S. SENATE FOR OCCUPYING OREGON. 379 countries, yet I shall not delay to urge on Great Britain the impor- tance of its early settlement." The treaty was ratified and defini- tively confirmed by both governments ; the exclusion of the Oregon question from it, however, increased the excitement respecting that country in the United States, and an excitement on the same subject was soon after created in Great Britain. The part of the president's message above quoted was referred to the committees on foreign affairs in both houses of Congress ; and, a few days afterwards, Mr. Linn, one of the senators from Missouri, who had always displayed the strongest interest with re- gard to the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, and had assiduously endeavored to effect their incorporation into the republic, brought a bill into the Senate for the occupation and settlement of the territory of Oregon, and for extending the laws of the United States over it. This bill proposed that the presi- dent cause to be erected, at suitable places and distances, a line of forts, not exceeding five in number, from points on the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers, to the best pass for entering the valley of the Columbia, and also at or near the mouth of that river ; that six hundred and forty acres of land be granted to every white male inhabitant of Oregon, of the age of eighteen years and upwards, who shall cultivate and use them for five years, or to his heirs at law, in case of his decease, with an addition of one hundred and sixty acres for his wife, and the same for each of his children under the age of eighteen years ; that the jurisdiction of the courts of Iowa be extended over the countries stretching from that territory, and from the states of Missouri and Arkansas, to the Rocky Moun- tains, and over all countries west of those mountains, between the 42d and the 49th parallels ; and that justices of the peace be appointed for those countries, as now provided by law for Iowa, who shall have power to arrest and commit for trial all offenders against the laws of the United States ; provided that any subject of Great Britain, who may have been so arrested for crimes or misdemeanors committed in the countries west of the Rocky Mountains, while they remain free and open to the people of both nations, shall be delivered up to the nearest or most conve- nient British authorities, to be tried according to British laws. This bill, it will be seen, contained nearly the same provisions as that which had been discussed in the House of Representatives in the session of 1828-29,* with the addition of the promise of grants • See p. 355. 380 DEBATE IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. [1842. of land to the settlers, after a certain period of occupancy. The debates upon it were continued for several days, during which it was defended and opposed by the most eminent men of both political parties ; the senators from the Western States of the Union being generally in favor of it, and those from the Atlantic portions of the republic against it. The bill was defended, generally, on the grounds that its adop- tion would be the exercise, by the United States, of rights which were unquestionable, and had been long unjustly withheld from them by Great Britain ; and that, taking this for granted, it afforded the best means, in all respects, of making good those rights, and securing to the republic the ultimate possession of the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, which must otherwise fall, or rather remain irretrievably, in the hands of another power. The United States, it was contended, had been deprived of the privileges of the joint occupancy, secured to them in the convention of 1827, by the encroachments of the Hudson's Bay Company, which, under the direct protection of the British government, had taken actual pos- session of the whole territory beyond the Rocky Mountains, and had within a few years founded farming establishments, on a large scale, from which provisions were exported, in considerable quan- tities, to the Russian settlements and the Sandwich Islands. Great Britain was there employing the same policy and mechanism, of a great trading company, by means of which she had made her way to the dominion of India. She already practically occupied all that she ever claimed south and north of the Columbia ; and her agents had directly avowed that she would not give up the establishments which she had encouraged her subjects to form there. The felling of forests, the construction of regular habitations, the fencing in of fields, the regular improvement of tlie soil, the fitting up of mills and workshops, and, added to all these, the erection of forts to protect them, as had been done by the British, in Oregon, meant something more than was provided by the existing convention, and were intended to constitute a lasting, and, of course, exclusive occu- pation of the places thus appropriated. The bill does not pretend to define the territory of the United States, or to dispossess Great Britain of what she now holds, but merely to do what she has herself done. She has extended the jurisdiction of her courts over Oregon ; the United States must do the same ; and if a conflict of jurisdictions ensue, the question of definitive possession will only be determined the sooner. Meanwhile, provision should be made for 1843.] DEBATE IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. 381 the rights of American citizens to the lands which they might oc- cupy. The grants proposed in the bill are only prospective. Citizens of the Union are invited to settle in Oregon, and, after they have resided there five years, certain portions of land are to be allotted to them : within that time the questions of right to the territory will have been determined, and if those who have acted on the faith of the invitation do not then receive the advantages promised, their government will, of course, be bound to indemnify them. The opponents of the bill differed in their views of the whole, and of each separate provision ; but they agreed in regarding the proposed granting of lands in Oregon to American citizens as an infraction of the Convention of 1827 with Great Britain, agreeably to which neither government could legally do any thing calculated to divest the people of the other party of the enjoyment of the common freedom of the countries in question ; and with many this formed the sole ground of their objection. Some were unfavorable to any action upon the subject of Oregon at the time, as being cal- culated to defeat the very object in view, by hastening a conclusion before the United States were in a condition to render it favorable to them ; while others regarded the country beyond the Rocky Mountains as of no value, in comparison with the difficulties and expenses which would be occasioned by the attempt to occupy it at any period. If the bill should become a law, the United States must be prepared to maintain and execute all its provisions ; and Great Britain, though, like the United States, direcdy interested in the continuance of peace, would, if she viewed the measures in question as an infringement of the convention, stand upon that point, when she might not stand upon the value of the territory. By some senators, the right of the republic to the whole region west of the Rocky Mountains, as far north as the 49th parallel of latitude, was made to rest chiefly, if not entirely, on the acquisition of Louisiana, of which that region was declared to form part, and the supposed settlement of limits by commissaries, under the treaty of Utrecht ; others presented the Spanish claims, transferred to the United States by the Florida treaty, as the strongest grounds of the right ; and others, again, depended principally on the discoveries and settlements of American citizens. The territory was described by some as pos"sessing every quality of soil and climate which should render its possession desirable ; while others regarded it as a desert, utterly without value in any way, and which no American citizen should be condemned to occupy except as a punishment. 382 DEBATES IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. [1843. The observations of Mr. Calhoun on the subject attracted par- ticular attention throughout the United States, and in Europe. He believed the possession of the Columbia countries to be important to the United States in many respects, and was ready to maintain and exercise all the rights possessed by the republic, conformably with the existing convention of 1827. He was disposed to extend the jurisdiction of the government over them, and to go as far in every way as Great Britain had gone : but he could find nothing, in the proceedings of that power, of equal force or extent with the grant of lands promised by this bill ; between which and immediate grants he could see no distinction as to their force in binding the United States to assume possession of the territory. He could not but anticipate a rupture of the peace with Great Britain, if the bill should pass with this provision ; and he conceived that the occu- pation of Oregon should not be thus attempted, prematurely, at the risk of a war with the most powerful nation on earth. " If Great Britain should resist our attempt, it would be unsuccessful, and the territory be lost. There is only one means by which it can be pre- served to us ; but that fortunately is the most powerful of all. Time is acting for us ; and if we shall have the wisdom to trust to its operation, it will assert and maintain our right, with resistless force, without costing a cent of money or a drop of blood. There is often, in the affairs of government, more efficiency and wisdom in non- action than in action ; all that we want, to effect our object in this case, is a ' wise and masterly inactivity J Our population is rolling towards the shores of the Pacific, with an impetus greater than we can realize. It will soon reach the Rocky Mountains, and be ready to pour into the Oregon territory, which will thus come into our possession without resistance or struggle ; or, if there should be resistance, it would be feeble and ineffectual." To the objections thus made to his bill, Mr. Linn replied at length, dwelling on the great importance of the Oregon countries ; — on the vast extent of lands, on the Columbia and its tributary streams, which were said to exceed in productiveness any in the states of the Union ; and on the number and excellence of the harbors on those coasts, the use of which was imperatively required by the American whaling vessels employed in the adjacent ocean ; — on the facility with which travel and transportation might be effected, across the continent, by means of ordinary roads at pres- ent and by railroads hereafter : and he produced a number of letters, reports, and other documents, from various sources, con- firming all these statements. Finally, he appealed to the honor 1843.] CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CONVENTION OF 1827. 383 and generosity of the nation, for its protection to the American citizens already estabUshed in Oregon, who had gone thither in confidence that such aid would be extended to them, and were groaning under the oppressions of tiie Hudson's Bay Company.* Previous to the final vote, Mr. Archer endeavored to have the clause respecting the grants of lands struck out ; but his motion did not prevail, and on the 3d of February, 1843, the bill was passed by the Senate, twenty-four being for and twenty-two against it. It was immediately sent to the House of Representa- tives, in which a report against its passage was made by Mr, Adams, the chairman of the committee on foreign affairs ; the session, however, expired without any debate on the subject in that House. In order to determine whether the bill for the occupation of Oregon, passed by the Senate of the United States, in 1843, could, if it had become a law, have been carried into fulfilment without a breach of public faith, until after the abrogation of the existing convention with Great Britain, in the manner therein stipulated, it will be necessary first to analyze that convention, and to reduce the various permissions, requirements and prohibitions, involved in it, to their simplest expressions. The two nations, on agreeing, as by that convention, to leave the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, with its waters, free and open to the citizens and subjects of both, of course agreed that neither should exercise any exclusive dominion, or do any thing calculated to hinder the people of the other from enjoying the promised advantages in any part of that territory. Each nation, of course, reserved to itself the right to provide for the maintenance of peace and the admin- istration of justice among its own citizens, and to appoint agents for that purpose : it was, indeed, the duty of each, as a civilized power, to do so without delay ; and it was morally imperative upon them to enter into a supplementary compact for the exercise of concurrent jurisdiction, in cases aflfecting the persons or interests of subjects or citizens of both, unless provision to that effect should have already been made in some other way. Finally, as the country was inhabited by tribes of savages, the citizens and subjects of each of the civilized nations residing therein might * This was destined to be the last effort of Mr. Linn for the advancement of the cause to which he had so long devoted his powerful energies. He expired on the 3d of October, 1843, at his residence in St. Genevieve, Missouri, without warning, and piabably witliout a struggle. 384 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CONVENTION OF 1827. [1843. take precautions for their defence against attacks from those savages, by mihtary organization among themselves, and by the erection of the fortifications necessary for that special purpose ; and it. here again became the duty of the contracting parties to settle by compact the manner in which their governments might jointly or separately aid their people in such defence. As the advantages offered to the citizens or subjects of the two nations are not defined, the terms of the convention relating to them are to be understood in their most extensive favorable sense ; including the privileges, not only of fishing, hunting, and trading with the natives, but also of clearing and cultivating the ground, and using or disposing of the products of such labor in any peaceful way, and of making any buildings, dams, dikes, canals, bridges, roads, &c., which the private citizens or subjects of the parties might make in their own countries ; under no other restric- tions or limitations than those contained in the clause of the con- vention providing for the freedom and openness of the territory and waters, or those which might be imposed by the respective governments. This appears to be the amount of the permissions, requirements, and prohibitions, of the convention ; and, had the two governments done all that is here demanded, no difficulties could have been reasonably apprehended — so long, at least, as the territory in ques- tion remains thinly peopled. These things, however, have not all been done ; not only has no supplementary compact been made between the two nations, but the government of the United States has neglected to secure the protection of their laws to their citi- zens, who have thus, doubtless, in part, been prevented from drawing advantages from the convention equal to those long since enjoyed by British subjects, under the security of the prompt and efficient measures of their government. If this view of the existing convention between the United States and Great Britain, relative to the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, be correct, and embrace all its permissions and prohibitions, neither of tiie parties could be justified, during the subsistence of the agreement, in ordering the erection of forts at the mouth of the Columbia, where they certainly are not required for protection against any third power, and in promising to secure large tracts of land in that territory, by patent, to its citizens or subjects. Had the bill passed by the Senate in 1843 become a law, the convention would from that moment have been virtually 1843.] DEBATE IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT ON OREGON. 385 and violently rescinded ; and any attempt to enforce the measures would undoubtedly have been resisted by Great Britain. The abrogation of the convention, in the manner therein provided, or in some other way, by common consent of the parties, should precede all attempts, by either, to occupy any spot in the territory permanently ; and whenever the government of either nation considers the time to be near, in which such occupation, by its own citizens or subjects, will be indispensable, it should endeavor to settle, by negotiation with the other power, some mode of effecting that object, before giving notice of its intention to abrogate the agreement ; for such a notice can only be regarded as the an- nouncement of the determination of the party giving it to take forcible possession of the territory at the end of the term. The reports of the debates in the American Senate on the bill for the occupation of Oregon, reached England while the treaty, recently concluded at Washington, was under consideration in Parliament ; and they did not fail to elicit some observations in the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston, the late secretary for foreign affairs, and then leader of the opposition, pronounced that, if the bill should pass, and be acted on, it would be equiva- lent to a declaration of war, as it would be the invasion and seizure of a territory in dispute, by virtue of a decree made by one of the parties in its own favor. Mr. Macaulay, who had been the secretary of war under the previous administration, con- ceived that the fact of the passage of such a bill by the Senate, a body comprising among its members a large portion of the men of the greatest weight and most distinguished ability in the United States, showed a highly-excited condition of the public mind in that country. Mr. Blewitt quoted the words of one of the senators in the debate, as being a most violent attack on England : and he regarded the mode in which the matter had been dealt with in the Senate as an insult to his nation. Sir Robert Peel, the premier, in answer, simply stated, that communications of a friendly nature, on the subject of Oregon, were then going on between the two governments, a proposition having been addressed to the United States, for considering the best means of effecting a conciliatory adjustment of the questions respecting those territories ; and that, if the bill introduced into the American Senate had passed both Houses of Congress, it would not have received the sanction of the executive, which had given assur- ances of its anxiety to settle those questions by negotiation. 49 386 EMIGKATION FROM THE U. STATES TO OREGON. [1843. This last declaration from Sir Robert Peel was confirmed by the president of the United States, in his message sent to Congress on the 5th of December following; and, in February, 1844, the Hon- orable Richard Pakenham arrived in Washington, as minister pleni- potentiary from Great Britain, with full instructions to treat for a definitive arrangement of the disputed points relative to the coun- tries west of the Rocky Mountains.* In the mean time, the excitement in the United States with re- gard to the immediate occupation of Oregon, as well as the difficul- ties of effecting an amicable arrangement of the questions with Great Britain respecting that country, had increased and become more general. In each year since 1838, small parties of emigrants had set out from Missouri for the Columbia ; but they had suffered so much on their way, from hunger, thirst, fatigue, and a dread of Indians, that few had reached the place of their destination, and those who returned to the United States gave accounts of their expeditions by no means calculated to induce others to follow them. On exam- ining these accounts, however, it appeared that in all cases the par- ties had been insufficient in numbers, or were not provided with the requisite supplies, or were guided and commanded by incompetent persons ; besides which, nothing like an assurance of protection, after they should have made their settlements, was afforded by their gov- ernment. On the faith of the promise of such protection, held out by the passage through the Senate of the bill for the immediate occupation of Oregon, a thousand persons, men, women, and chil- dren, assembled at Westport, near the Missouri River, on the fron- tier of the state of Missouri, from which they began their march to Oregon, with a large number of wagons, horses, and cattle, in June, 1843.f They pursued the route along the banks of the Platte, and its northern branch, which had been carefully surveyed in the preceding year by Lieutenant Fremont, of the United States army,f to the South Pass, in the Rocky Mountains ; thence through the valleys of the Green and Bear Rivers to the Hudson's Bay Compa- ny's post, called Fort Hall, on the Lewis ; and thence, in separate parties, to the Willamet valley, where they arrived in October. Their journey, of more than two thousand miles, was, of course, laborious and fatiguing ; they were subjected to many difficulties and priva- tions, and seven of their party died on the way, from sickness * Sir Robert Peel's speech in the House of Commons, February 5th, 1844. t See the interesting report and map of Lieutenant Fremont, published by order of the Senate, in the spring of 1843, 1844.] AMERICAN EMIGRATION TO OREGON. 387 or accident. Their numbers and their discipline, however, enabled them to set at defiance, the Sioux and the Blackfeet, those Tartars of the American Steppes, who could only gaze at a distance, no doubt with wonder, at the crowd of pale-faces, leaving the sunny valleys of the Mississippi for the rugged wilds of the Columbia. The difficulties of the journey proved to be, on the whole, much less than had been anticipated, even by the most sanguine partisans of the immediate occupation of Oregon ; and the success of the expedition, induced a still larger number to follow in ] 844, before the end of which year, the number of American citizens in that region exceeded three thousand. They established themselves, for the most part, in the valley of the Willamet, and other valleys south of the Columbia, where they soon laid out counties, founded towns, and formed a provisional government, on a republican basis, with its legislative, executive, and judicial branches properly de- fined, adopting the laws of the territory of Iowa, as the basis of their jurisprudence. The first meeting of the legislature took place at Oregon city, near the falls of the Willamet, on the 24th of May, 1844; and several laws were passed, one of which, pro- hibiting the manufacture or introduction of spirituous liquors, was instantly enforced, by the destruction of a distillery. Acts were also passed, for the imposition of taxes, and for the assignment of six hundred and forty acres of land, to each person who should make improvements of a permanent character thereon, and continue to occupy them. Of the Americans who emigrated to Oregon, many afterwards proceeded to California, whither large numbers also went direct from the United States, either overland, or by sea around Cape Horn. The greater part of those who devote themselves to agri- culture, settled in the valley of the Sacramento, north of the Bay of San Francisco, where an extensive tract, called New Helvetia, is held by a Swiss, named Sutter, under a grant from the Mexican government; the others distributed themselves through the towns on the coast, in which they form the majority of the commercial population. The revolutions which frequently convulse Mexico are necessarily felt in California, where their principal efl^ect is to paralyze exertion among the native inhabitants, and to encourage the foreigners, especially the Americans, who see in each struggle, an additional assurance that the country will, ere long, be annexed to the United States. Each new party, on arriving at power in 388 AMERICANS IN CALIFORNIA. [1844. Mexico, generally issues a decree for the expulsion of the Americans from California ; which decrees the governor of the department is obliged to content himself with proclaiming, as it would be mad- ness in him to attempt to enforce them, whilst he is obliged to depend almost entirely upon the obnoxious strangers, for defence against the neighboring Indians. In the political disturbances which annually occur between the Mexican authorities and the partisans of independence, the Americans seldom engage, and when they do, it is usually on the side of the government ; though their rifles are occasionally seen gleaming from the ranks of both parties. To record the particulars of these insurrections, would be to present a tedious detail of squabbles, without object or result — of marches without encounter — of bombastic orders and proclama- tions — and of conventions, which neither party meant to observe, or believed that the other would observe, for a single hour after their conclusion. In the mean time, the Hudson's Bay Company had been doing all in its power to extend and confirm its position, in the countries west of the Rocky Mountains, from which, its governors felicitated themselves with the idea that they had expelled the Americans en- tirely ; and as the fur trade, hitherto the great object of that asso- ciation, was declining, from the diminution in the value of the furs, as well as in the number of animals producing them, other modes had been adopted for the employment of capital in those regions. Establishments were formed for taking and curing the salmon which abound in the rivers, for cutting and sawing timber, for raising cattle and sheep, and for the cultivation of grain ; and persons were introduced from Canada, and from Europe, to be employed in these various ways. Capital thus invested could, however, yield but slender returns, and no other means for its application, are offered in the countries of the Columbia, or farther north. These countries, indeed, embrace several tracts of land, of moderate extent, which may aflTord to the industrious cultivator not only subsistence, but also the enjoyment of those foreign luxuries, which are now considered among the necessaries of life : but they contain no precious metals, so far as known ; nor do they produce any of the valuable articles of commerce, such as tea, coffee, sugar, cotton, rice, and opium ; nor are they, like India, inhabited by a numerous population, who may be easily forced to labor, for the benefit of a few. It was moreover evident that none of the above-mentioned ad- 1844.] Hudson's bay company's system in Oregon. 389 vantages could be derived, in full extent, so long as the sovereignty of the territory remained in abeyance, and no one could acquire the proprietorship of any portion of the soil. The object of the com- pany was, therefore, to place a large number of British subjects in Oregon, within the shortest time, and of course to exclude from it as much as possible all people of the United States ; so that when the period for terminating the convention with the latter power should arrive, Great Britain might be able to present the strongest title to the possession of the whole, on the ground of actual occu- pation, by the Hudson's Bay Company. To these ends, the efforts of that company had been for some time directed. The immigra- tion of British subjects was encouraged ; the Americans were by all means excluded ; and the Indians were brought as much as possible into friendship with, and subjection to, the company, while they were taught to regard the people of the United States as enemies. In its treatment of ^e aborigines of these countries, the Hud- son's Bay Company admiVably combined and reconciled humanity with policy. In the first place its agents were all strictly prohibited from furnishing them with ardent spirits ; and there is reason to believe that the prohibition has been carefully enforced. Schools for the instruction of tiieir children, and hospitals for their sick, were established at all the principal trading posts ; each of which, moreover, offered the means of employment, and support to Indians disposed to work, in the intervals between the hunting seasons. Missionaries of various sects were encouraged to endeavor to con- vert these people to Christianity, and to induce them to adopt the usages of civilized life, so far as might be consistent with the nature of the labors in which they are engaged ; care being at the same time taken to instil into their minds due respect for the company, and for the sovereign of Great Britain : and attempts were made, at great expense, though with little success, to collect them into vil- lages, on tracts where the soil and climate are favorable to agricul- ture. Particular care was also extended to the education of the half-breed children, the offspring of the marriage or the concubinage of the traders with the Indian women, who were retained and bred as much as possible among the white people, and were taken into the service of the company, whenever they were found capable. There being few white women in those territories, it is evident that these half-breeds must, in time, form a large, if not an important, 390 Hudson's bay company's treatment of Indians. [1844. portion of the inhabitants ; and there is nothing to prevent their being adopted and recognized as British subjects. The conduct of the Hudson's Bay Company, in these respects, is worthy of commendation ; and may be contrasted most favorably with that pursued at the present day, by civihzed people, towards the aborigines of all other new countries. It is, however, to be ob- served, that of the whole territory in the possession of or used by that body, only a few isolated portions, of no great extent, are capa- ble of being rendered productive by agriculture ; the remainder yielding nothing of value, but furs, which can be obtained in greater quantities, and at less cost, by the Indians, than in any other way. There was, consequently, no object in expelling or destroying the natives, who occupied no land required for other purposes, and could never be dangerous from their numbers ; whilst, on the con- trary, there was a direct and evident motive of interest, to preserve and conciliate them, for which objects the course pursued by the company was best adapted. By the system above described, the natural shyness and distrust of the savages have been in a great measure removed ; the ties which bound together various tribes, and even the members of those tribes, have been loosened ; and extensive combinations, for any purpose, have become impossible. The dependence of the Indians upon the company was, at the same time, rendered entire and absolute ; for, having abandoned the use of all their former arms, hunting and fishing implements, and clothes, they could no longer subsist, without the guns, ammuni- tion, fish-hooks, blankets, and other similar articles, which they received from the British traders, and from them only. The posi- tion of the Hudson's Bay Company toward these people, was thus wholly different from that of the Americans towards the Indians, who inhabited the fertile regions east of the Mississippi ; or of the British settlers in Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa, to- wards the natives of those countries ; or, it may be added, of the East India Company, towards the Chinese : the first-mentioned body, being as much interested in preventing the use of ardent spirits among the aborigines of its territories, as the East India Com- pany could be in encouraging the consumption of opium in the Celestial Empire. The course pursued by the Hudson's Bay Company, with regard to American citizens in the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, was equally unexceptionable, and equally politic. The missionaries 1844.] Hudson's bay company's treatment of Americans. 391 and emigrants from the United States, or from whatever country they might come, were received at the estabhshments of the company with the utmost kindness, and were aided in the prosecution of their respective objects, so far and so long as those objects were not commercial ; but no sooner did any person, unconnected with the company, attempt to hunt, or trap, or trade with the Indians, than all the force of the body was turned against him. There is no evidence or reason to believe, that violent measures were ever em- ployed, either directly or indirectly, for this purpose ; nor would such means have been needed, whilst the company enjoys advan- tages over all competitors, such as are afforded by its wealth, its organization, and the skill and knowledge of the country, and of the natives, possessed by its agents. Wherever an American post has been established, or an American party has been engaged in trading on the Columbia, an agent of the Hudson's Bay Company soon appeared in the same quarter, with a large amount of specie or of merchandise, which were given to the Indians for furs, on terms much lower than those offered by the Americans ; and the latter, thus finding their labors vain, were soon obliged to retire from the field. In the same manner, the company succeeded in preventing American vessels from obtaining cargoes on the coasts ; though mariners of all nations, when driven thither by shipwreck or other misfortunes, uniformly received shelter and protection, at its forts and factories. In these proceedings with regard to American citizens, the Hud- son's Bay Company did no more than they were entitled to do. If the Americans neglected, or were unable, to avail themselves of the benefits secured to both nations by the convention, the fault or the misfortune was their own, and they had no right to complain. The hospitable treatment extended to them by the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company was doubtless approved by the directors of that body ; and all who know Messrs. Macloughlin and Douglas, the principal managers of the affairs of that body on the Colum- bia, unite in testifying that the humanity and generosity of those gentlemen have been always carried as far as their duties would per- mit. That this conduct does not, however, meet witli universal ap- probation among the servants of the company in that quarter, suffi- cient evidence may be cited to prove.* There are, it appears, two * History of the Oregon Territory, and British North American Fur Trade, by John Dunn, late of the Hudson's Bay Company, eight years a Resident in the Coun- try. London: 1844. Chap. XII. 392 Hudson's bay company's treatment of Americans. [1844. parties among the British in Oregon, the patriots and the liberals ; who, while they agree in holding all Americans in utter detestation, as knaves and ruffians, yet differ as to the propriety of the course pursued with regard to them by the company. The patriots main- tain that the kindness shown to the people of the United States was thrown away, and would be badly requited ; that it was merely nur- turing a race of men, who would soon rise from their meek and humble position, as the grateful acknowledgers of favor, to the bold attitude of questioners of the authority of Great Britain, and of her rights, even to Fort Vancouver itself; that " if any attempts were made for the conversion of the natives to Christianity, and to their adoption of more humanized institutions, (which they limited to British institutions,^ a solid and permanent foundation should be laid ; and for that purpose, if missionaries were to be introduced, they should come within the direct control of the dominant power, that is, the British power, and should be the countrymen of those who actually occupied Oregon," &c. The liberals, while admitting all that was said on the other side, of the character of the Americans, nevertheless charitably opined, that those people should not be ex- cluded, as they possessed some claims, " feeble, but yet existing," to the country, and until " these were quashed or confirmed, it would be unjust and impolitic" to prevent them from all possession; that their missionaries, though bad, were better than none ; and that " good would grow out of evil in the end, for the Americans, by their intercourse with the British, would become more humanized, tolerant and honest." Under such circumstance, it may be supposed that the thousands of citizens of the United States who entered Oregon in 1843, and the two succeeding years, were regarded with no very friendly feel- ings by the British. The emigrants, however, confined themselves chiefly to the countries south of the Columbia, where very few of their rivals were settled, and no collision took place between the parties for some time. Dr. Macloughlin, the chief officer of the Hudson's Bay Company, in the Columbia territories, indeed, claimed possession of the whole site of Oregon city, the capital of the new republic, on the pretext of first occupation ; and an attempt was made, in 1845, by some Americans, to erect a house in token of pos- session, on the north side of the Columbia, near Fort Vancouver, which led to some discussions : but no difficulty was anticipated from either claim. 1844.] PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS. 393 The increase of American citizens in Oregon was noticed by President Tyler, in his message at the commencement of the session of Congress, in December, 1843, in which he repeated the assurance that every proper means would be used to bring the negotiation re- cently renewed with Great Britain to a speedy termination ; and he strongly recommended the immediate establishment of military posts at places on the line of route to the Columbia. In the course of the session, each House of Congress received various memorials, peti- tions, and resolutions, from State legislatures, all urging the govern- ment to adopt measures for the immediate establishment of the right of the United States to the countries beyond the Rocky Mountains ; and several bills having in view the same object were introduced and debated, though none of them were passed by either branch of the federal legislature. Of these bills, some were nearly identical with that which had been passed by the Senate in the preceding session ; the others were to the effect, that notice should be immedi- ately given to the British government of the intention of the United States to terminate the convention of 1827, in the time and manner therein provided. The debates were continued in both houses, for some time, embracing not only all the questions connected with the claim of the United States to Oregon, but also incidentally, that re- specting the north-eastern boundary of the Republic, which had been already settled by the treaty of Washington. The abrogation of the convention was defended, as a legitimate and unexceptionable means of opening Oregon to American citizens, from which they were now wholly excluded ; and as offering to those desirous of emigrating thither, some guarantee of future protection by their government. It was opposed chiefly on the ground that a negotiation respecting the rights of the two claimant powers, was about to be opened, agreeably to an invitation from the American government. In the course of the same session of Congress, a treaty which had been concluded between the President of the United States and the Government of Texas, on the 12th of April, 1844, for the annexa- tion of the latter Republic to the former, was rejected by the Senate of the Union. This rejection, effected by the votes of the States, caused great excitement throughout the Union, especially in tiie southern portions, to which the annexation of Texas was supposed to be most favorable ; and the feeling became stronger and more general, when the exertions made by the governments of Great Britain and France to prevent that measure became known. 50 394 BALTIMORE CONVENTION. [1844. Whilst this treaty was under consideration in the Senate, a con- vention of delegates of the democratic party from nearly all the States of the Federal Union, was assembled in Baltimore, with the object of selecting from the candidates for the presidency and vice- presidency of the republic, those whom the party should be recom- mended to support in the ensuing election. On the meeting of this body it soon became evident, that none of the persons whose names had hitherto been most prominent, could receive the number of votes required to constitute an approval ; and that there was, moreover, great danger of a serious division of the party, upon the question of the annexation of Texas to the Union, to which the delegates from the northern States were in general opposed, while those from the South were determined advocates of the measure. Under these circumstances, it was agreed, by compromise, to connect the support of the occupation of Oregon with that of the annexation of Texas, in the manifesto of the views of the democratic party which was to be •issued ; and then all the candidates first proposed being laid aside, Mr. James K. Polk, of Tennessee, and Mr. George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, were recommended respectively for the offices of president and vice-president. Accordingly, in the report and reso- lutions in which those gentlemen were presented to the people, by the convention on the 30th of May, 1844, it was also declared, that " Our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable ; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power ; and that the re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas, at the earliest practicable period, are great American measures which this convention recommends to the cordial support of the democracy of the Union." In the election which took place in October and November fol- lowing, Messrs. Polk and Dallas received the required majority of all the votes of the electors; and the leaders of the democratic party, in consequence, considered and represented this as a direct declara- tion by the people of their concurrence with all the resolutions of the Baltimore Convention, including, of course, that for the re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas. At the commencement of the session of Congress in December, 1844, President Tyler stated in his message, that a negotiation had been formally begun, and was pending, between the secretary of state and her Britannic majesty's minister plenipotentiary, relative to the rights of the respective nations to Oregon. The report of the secre- 1844.] PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS. 395 tary of war, accompanying this message, contained a recommenda- tion, for the estabhshment of a territorial government over the region traversed by the river Platte, between the States of Missouri and Arkansas on the east, and the Rocky Mountains on the west, and for the formation of mihtary posts on the hne of route from those States to Oregon and Cahfornia. Agreeably to this recommenda- tion, bills were introduced into the House of Representatives for es- tablishing such a government over the country above described, which was to be called the Nebraska Territory, and for extending the jurisdiction of its courts over Oregon ; but they were not made the subject of debate during the session. A bill for the immediate occupation of Oregon under a territorial government, and for abro- gating the Convention of 1827, in the manner provided by that agreement, was however passed in the House of Representatives, but it was not discussed in the Senate. With regard to the measures last mentioned nothing will be here said, in addition to what has already been observed, except that the propositions for establishing a terri- torial government over the Nebraska country, and for extending the benefit of its laws to Oregon, appear to have combined every legis- lative provision required by existing circumstances, to maintain the rights of the United States, and to ensure protection to their citizens beyond the Rocky Mountains. On the 19th of February, 1845, the President informed Congress, by a message, that considerable pro- gress had been made in the negotiation with Great Britain, which had been carried on in a very amicable spirit, and there was reason to hope that it might be speedily terminated ; but nothing farther was communicated on the subject during that session. On the night of the 3d of March, 1845, during the last hours of the Congress, the annexation of Texas to the United States was de- termined by the passage of a joint resolution of the two Houses,* * The first section of this bill declares that "the territory properly included within and rightfully belonging to the Republic of Texas, may be erected into a new State, to be called the State of Texas, with a republican form of government, to be adopted by the people of said republic by deputies in convention assembled, with the consent of the existing government, in order that the same may be ad- mitted as one of the States of this Union." Another section provides, that " new States, of convenient size, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the Federal Constitution. And such States as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of 3G degrees 30 minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, as the people of each State asking admission may desire." 396 ANNEXATION OF TEXAS TO THE UNITED STATES. [1845. which the President immediately approved ; and the legislatm-e and people of Texas, having accepted the terms proffered, that country became, in the course of the year, a State of the Federal Republic. The governments of Great Britain and France took no measures to protest against the act ; though their organs and supporters expressed great dissatisfaction with it, and M. Guizot, the French Minister of Foreign Relations, openly spoke of the necessity of effecting a " balance of power " in America, similar to that existing in Europe. The negotiation mentioned by President Tyler in his mes- sages, as pending between the United States and Great Britain, for the settlement of the Oregon question, was opened, at Wash- ington, after some preliminary correspondence, in February, 1844 ; but it was immediately interrupted by the melancholy death of Mr. A. P. Upshur, the Secretary of State of the United States, from the bursting of a cannon on board the steam frigate Prince- ton, on the 28th of that month. It was renewed in August fol- lowing, between Mr. J. C. Calhoun, the successor of Mr. Upshur, and Mr. Pakenham, Minister Plenipotentiary of Great Britain at Washington, when the latter again presented the proposi- tion made by the Commissioners of his government to Mr. Galla- tin in December,* 1826 — for a partition of the territory, by a line drawn from the Rocky Mountains along the forty-ninth parallel ot latitude west, to McGillivray's river, and thence down that stream and the Columbia to the ocean ; all south and east of which line, as well as a detached territory in the angle formed by the Pacific and the Strait of Fuca, between Hood's Canal and Gray's (Bulfinch's) harbour, were to belong to the United States, and the remainder to Great Britain, the navigation of the Columbia being free to both par- ties. This proposition was rejected by the American government, and again rejected when it had been amended by the additional offer to render free to the United States any ports which their government might desire, either on the mainland, or the great island adjacent, south of the forty-ninth parallel ; after which, on the 2d of Septem- ber, Mr. Calhoun presented another statement of the claims of his nation to the whole territory drained by the Columbia river, without, however, making any distinct proposition for a boundary. Farther correspondence took place between the plenipotentiaries, in which each endeavored to establish the correctness of his views by refer- ence to history, to treaties, and to the general law of nations. Mr. * See this proposition at pages 340 and 347. 1845.] NEGOTIATION AT WASHINGTON. 397 Pakenham then communicated the correspondence to his govern- ment, by whose instructions he, on the 15th of January, 1845, propos- ed, as the most fair and honorable mode of setthng the question, that it should be submitted to an arbitrator : but this was decHned by the President, under the hope that a more speedy and satisfactory adjustment might be attained by negotiation ; and there the busi- ness terminated for the time. The particulars of this negotiation was not made public until the end of the year ; but the Oregon question had, in the mean time, become a subject of great interest, not only in America, but also in Europe. In the United States, the advocates of the occupation of Oregon were disappointed and indignant that no measure had been taken for that object, contemporary with the passage of the resolution for the annexation of Texas. In England, soon after the meeting of Parliament, in February, 1845, Sir Robert Peel was asked for information as to the state of the negotiation with the United States, which was decidedly refused by that minister ; and within the en- suing two months, circumstances occurred which contributed to in- crease the anxiety of the friends of peace in both countries. The new President, Mr. Polk, in his inaugural address to the people on the 4th of March, 1845, declared that it would be his duty to maintain the title of the United States to the territory beyond the Rocky Mountains, which title he pronounced, in the words of the resolution of the Baltimore Convention, to be " clear and unquestionable," though he at the same time engaged sa- credly to respect all obligations imposed by treaty stipulations.* * "Nor will it become in a less degree my duty to assert and maintain, by all constitutional means, the right of the United States to that portion of our territory which lies beyond the Rocky Mountains. Our title to the country of the Oregon is ' clear and unquestionable,' and already are our people preparing to perfect that title by occupying it with their wives and children. But eighty years ago, our pop- ulation was confined on the west by the Alleghanies. Within that period — within the lifetime, I might say, of some of my hearers — our people, increasing to many millions, have filled the eastern valley of the Mississippi ; adventurously ascended the Missouri to its head springs; and are already engaged in establishing the blessings of self-government in valleys, of which the rivers flow to the Pacific. The world beholds the peaceful triumphs of the industry of our emigrants. To us be- longs the duty of protecting them adequately wherever they may be upon our soil. The jurisdiction of our laws, and the benefits of our republican institutions, should be extended over them .in the distant regions which they have selected for their homes. The increasing facilities of intercourse will easily bring the States, of which the formation in that part of our territory cannot be long delayed, within the sphere of our federative Union. In the mean time, every obligation imposed by treaty or conventional stipulations should be sacredly respected." — Message of President Polk, of March 4, 1845. 398 DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT ON OREGON. [1845. In this development of the President's views there was nothing to attract particular attention in the United States, as the language was the same in purport, which had been frequently used by his predecessors, and no one doubted his disposition to pursue the course thus indicated. It would probably also have passed unno- ticed in England, had not the opposition in Parliament regarded it as a good basis for an attack on the ministry. Lord Clarendon in- troduced the subject in the House of Peers, on the 4th of April, and in a speech, which proved conclusively his entire ignorance of the facts and points of the dispute, he pronounced the President's declaration as evincing a studied neglect of that courtesy and def- erential language, usually observed by governments while treating on international aflairs, and hoped that the ministers would not shrink from vindicating the honor of the nation. In the Commons, Lord John Russell, who had prepared himself more fully for the oc- casion, entered minutely into the merits of the case, of which he presented a view as partial as such views may be expected to be ; adroitly dwelling on the weak points in the claims advanced at any time by the Americans, and avoiding those in the title of Great Britain, with all the dexterity of a practised advocate. Lord Pal- merston seized the opportunity to arraign the ministry for their set- tlement of boundaries with the United States, by the treaty of Washington ; and to express his apprehensions, that another Ash- burton capitulation was about to be concluded with regard to the Columbia territories. To these attacks, Lord Aberdeen, the Sec- retary for Foreign Affairs, replied with indifference ; but Mr. Peel announced, in unequivocal language, the determination of the gov- ernment to maintain the rights of Great Britain in Oregon, which he also considered to be " clear and unquestionable^' This debate in Parliament served as a tocsin throughout Great Britain and America ; and thousands of persons, in both countries, who had never before thought of Oregon, began to inquire about its position and advantages, and the claims of the two nations to its pos- session, or, as is more common in such cases, to express decided opinions on those points, without examining them. In America, the " clear and unquestionable " rights of the Republic were declared to cover all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, between the parallels of 42 degrees, and 54 degrees 40» minutes ; whilst in England, the offer of the portion south of the 49th degree, and east of the Columbia, to the United States, was regarded as a magnanimous concession. 1845.] NEGOTIATION AT WASHINGTON CONTINUED. 399 In the midst of this excitement, on both sides, the negotiation respecting Oregon was resumed at Washington, in July, 1845, be- tween Mr. Pakenham and Mr. James Buchanan, who had suc- ceeded Mr. Calhoun, as Secretary of State, on the 4th of March. The American Plenipotentiary proposed — that the Oregon ter- ritory shall be divided between the two nations, by a line passing along the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean ; leaving free to Great Britain any ports which her govern- ment may desire, in the part of the Island of Quadra and Van- couver, south of that parallel : nothing being said respecting the navigation of the Columbia, the freedom of which had been in- cluded in the offer of the same kind, made by Mr. Gallatin, in 1826. This proposition was immediately rejected by Mr. Paken- ham, without submitting it to his government ; and the offer was then withdrawn by Mr. Buchanan, who declared, in his letter of August 30 — that the President had been actuated, in presenting it, by respect for the conduct of his predecessors, and by a sincere and anxious desire to promote peace and harmony between the two nations ; though he was satisfied, from the most careful and ample examination of the subject, " that the Spanish American title, now held by the United States, embracing the whole territory between the parallels of 42 degrees and 54 degrees 40 minutes, is the best title in existence to this entire region, and that the claim of Great Britain to any portion of it has no sufficient foundation." Upon this the negotiation was again suspended. The correspondence and protocols of conferences in the negotia- tions, were communicated by President Polk to Congress, with his message of December 2, 1845, wherein he presented a sketch of what had been done ; and he recommended that notice should be im- mediately given to Great Britain, of the intention of the United States to abrogate the Convention of 1827, at the expiration of a year, as also that other measures should be adopted for maintaining their right to the whole of Oregon, which was shown by unequivocal reference to the correspondence, to mean the whole of the continent and islands west of the Rocky Mountains, between the parallels of 42 degrees, and 54 degrees 40 minutes. He moreover, in answer to M. Guizot's proposition for the establishment of a " balance of power," in America, repeated the declaration, made by President Monroe, in 1823, that the American continents were no longer to be subject to colonization by European nations ;* qualifying it, how- * See page 335. 400 FARTHER NEGOTIATIONS AT WASHINGTON. [1845. ever, by a limitation to tlie northern continent. Upon these recommendations, bills were introduced in each House of Congress, authorizing the President to abrogate the Convention of 1827, in the manner provided by it, and for the extension of the jurisdic- tion of the United States over Oregon ; the discussions on which continued almost exclusively for several months. Whilst these bills were under consideration, another correspond- ence on the subject of Oregon was in progress between the Secre- tary of State of the United States and the British minister at Wash- ington. On the 27th of December, Mr. Pakenham, by order of his government, renewed the proposition — to submit the whole question of an equitable division of the Oregon Territory, to the arbitration of some friendly sovereign or state, as being the most prudent, if not the only feasible, means, of restoring a good understanding be- tween the two nations. Mr. Buchanan, in his answer, remarked, — that the proposition for an equitable division of the territory as- sumed the title of Great Britain to some portion of that territory to be valid : and that to admit the proposition, would be to acknowl- edge this validity, and to preclude the United States from claiming the whole before the arbitrator ; which being entirely inconsistent with the solemn declaration by the President, of the title of the United Slates to the whole, he could not consent to this mode of adjustment of the difference. On the 16th of January, 1846, Mr. Pakenham, after declaring that his nation had also formally an- nounced, and still maintained, that it had rights in Oregon, incom- patible with the exclusive claim of the United States, desired to know — whether the American government would be inclined to refer the question of the title of either power to the whole territory to arbitration, by a sovereign or by a mixed commission, with the condition, that, if the arbitrator should consider neither entitled to the whole, he might assign to each, such portion as might be re- quired by a just appreciation of the respective claims. In his reply, Mr. Buchanan repeated the conviction of the President, with regard to the title of the United States to the whole of Oregon ; under which conviction, believing also as he did, that the territorial rights of the Republic were not a proper subject for arbitration, he could not consent to jeopard their interests, by referring them to such a tribunal, howsoever it might be composed. 1846.] DIMINUTION 01' THE EXCITEMENT. 401 This correspondence was laid before Congress and published in February, 1846, together with extracts of despatches from Mr. McLane, the American Minister at London, detailing his conversa- tions with Lord Aberdeen, particularly on the subject of the large armaments then in progress in Great Britain ; in which his Lordship had declared, that those preparations were made without reference to the existing dispute between his nation and the United States, though in the event of hostilities, they might prove important to Great Britain. Sir Robert Peel, moreover, expressed his regret, on the floor of Parliament, at the rejection by Mr. Pakenham of the proposition on the part of the United States, for the adoption of the forty-ninth parallel as the line of boundary west of the Rocky Moun- tains : and measures were, about the same time, brought forward in Great Britain, for the removal of the duties on the importation of corn into that country ; while the American administration and a large portion of the people, were equally anxious for the reduction of the taxes on the entrance of foreign manufactures into the Union. All these circumstances, especially the last mentioned, which seemed to promise great reciprocal advantages to both nations, con- tributed to lessen the excitement on the subject of Oregon, and to render them equally disposed to a compromise on that question ; es- pecially as it happened that the parties in each country most ardent in favor of the proposed changes in their respective commercial systems, were also the advocates of extreme measures with regard to the territories in dispute. In the mean time the debates continued in Congress, upon the question of the abrogation of the Convention of 1827 ; and hun- dreds of speeches were made in the House of Representa- tives, and hundreds of columns of newspapers and pages of pamph- lets were printed as reports of speeches thus delivered, or which would have been delivered, had an opportunity been ofllered. At length, on the 9th of February, a Resolution was passed by that House, " that the President cause notice to be given to the Govern- ment of Great Britain that the Convention " of 1827 " be annulled and abrogated twelve months after giving said notice," * provided, that this should not " interfere with the right and discretion of the proper authorities, to renew or pursue negotiations for an amicable settlement of the controversy respecting Oregon." The debate was then begun in the Senate on this and other forms * The vote on this Resolution in the House of Representatives was — ayes 163, nays 54. The whole number of members of the House is 223. 402 DEBATES IN CONGRESS ON ABROGATION OF THE CONVENTION. of resolution submitted to it, and was there conducted for some time, in general with great ability, knowledge of the subject, and modera- tion of views and expressions. It soon became evident, that nearly all of the members were in favor of giving the notice required for the legal abrogation of the Convention ; but considerable difference of opinion prevailed among them as to the terms of the Resolution, and the measures by which it should be accompanied. Those who con- sidered the title of the United States to the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains, between the parallel of 42 degrees and 54 de- grees 40 minutes, as unquestionable, were anxious that the abrogation should be the act of the legislative and executive branches of the government combined, which the President should be required to execute ; and that preparations should be at the same time made, for enforcing the claim of the United States to this whole territory, at the end of the period designated by the notice. Those, on the other hand, who conceived the rights of the United States to be less clearly established, and were willing to assent to a compromise in the partition of the territory in question, preferred that the abrogation should be left entirely to the discretion of the President ; and that he should at the same time be urged, to endeavor by all peaceful means, compatible with the honor of the nation, to effect an amicable settlement of the controversy. The advocates of the latter course prevailed : the propositions for increasing the military and naval forces of the Union were rejected ; and finally, on the 16th of April, a Resolution was passed, " that the President be authorized at his discretion " to give the notice to the British government required for the abrogation of the Convention : the preamble declaring the ob- ject and motive of this measure to be " that the respective claims of the United States and Great Britain should be definitively settled, and that the said territory may no longer than need be, remain sub- ject to the evil consequences of the divided allegiance of its Ameri- can and British population, and of the confusion and conflict of na- tional jurisdictions," and " that the attention of the governments of both countries may be more earnestly and immediately directed to renewed efforts for the amicable settlement of all their differences and disputes in respect to the said territory." To the change thus made in the terms of the resolution, the House of Representatives refused at first to assent ; a committee of confer- ence was then appointed by each house, and a form was agreed upon, differing only in a few points of little importance, from that proposed by the Senate, which was adopted by both bodies on the 23d of the I 1846.] TREATY OF LIMITS CONCLUDED. 403 month.* It was immediately approved by the President, who, agree- ably to the authorization, caused Mr. McLane to be instructed to give the notice as provided by the Convention of 1827, to the Bri- tish government ; and the notice was accordingly given on the 22d of May. In the mean time, communications had been frequent between Mr. McLane and Lord Aberdeen ; and as soon as the news of the passage of the Joint Resolution, in language so conciliating, reached London, instructions were sent to Mr, Pake.nham, to propose to the American government, a form of a Treaty for the definitive settle- ment of the whole controversy. Upon this proposition, the Presi- dent requested the advice of the Senate, which was given on the 13th of June, to the eftect that the terms offered should be accept- ed ; and accordingly, on the 15th, the Treaty proposed by Great Britain was signed by Messrs. Buchanan and Pakenham ; it was con- * Joint resolution concerning the Oregon Territory, approved April 27 ". Whereas by the convention concluded the 20th day of October, 1S18, between the United States of America and the king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for the period of ten years, and afterwards indefinitely extended and con- tinued in force by another Convention of the same parties, concluded the 6th day of August, in the year of our Lord, 1S27, it was agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the Northwest Coast of America, westward of the Stony or Rocky Mountains, now commonly called the Oregon Territory, should, together with its Harbors, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two powers ; but without prejudice to any claim which either of the parties might have to any part of said country ; and with this further provision in the second article of the said Convention of the 6th of August, 1827, that either party might abrogate and annul said Convention on giving the notice of twelve months to the other contracting party : And whereas it has now become desirable that the respective claims of the United States and Great Britain, should be definitely settled, and that said territory may no longer than need be remain subject to the evil consequence of the divided alle- giance of its American and British population, and of the confusion and conflict of national jurisdictions, dangerous to the cherished peace and good understanding of the two countries : With a view, therefore, that steps be taken for the abrogation of the said Convention of the 6th of August, 1827, in the mode prescribed in its second article, and that the attention of the governments of both countries may be the more earnestly directed to the adoption of all proper measures for a speedy and amicable adjustment of the differences and disputes in regard to the said territory : Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of Amer- ica in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby authorized, at his discretion, to give to the government of Great Britain the notice required by the second article of the said Convention of the sixth of August eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, for the abrogation of the same. 104 OBSERVATIONS ON THE TREATY. [1846. firmed by the Senate of the United States on the 18th,* ratified by the President immediately afterwards, and by the Queen of Great Britain on the 17th of July. By the first article of this Treaty ,f the boundary between the territories of the two nations is continued from the point where it previously terminated, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, in the 49th degree of latitude, due west, along that parallel, to the middle of the channel, between Vancouver's Island and the continent, and thence southerly through the middle of that channel and of Fuca's Strait, to the Pacific Ocean. By the second article, the navigation of the great north branch of the Columbia, and of its main trunk, below the junction of the two great branches, with the use of the or- dinary portages along that line, is to be free and open to the Hud- son's Bay Company, and to all British subjects trading with the same, who with their goods and produce, shall be treated on the same footing with citizens of the United States ; provided, however, that the government of the latter party shall not be prevented from making any regulations respecting the navigation of these streams, not inconsistent with this Convention. The third article secures respect for the possessory rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of all British subjects who may already occupy land or property, in the future appropriations of the territory south of the boundary thus es- tablished : the fourth article providing particularly for the confirma- tion to the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, of all farms, lands and other property whatever on the north side of the Columbia ; with the stipulation, that in case the situation of such farms and lands should be considered by the United States of public and political im- portance, and their government should desire to possess them, the property should be transferred to it, at a proper valuation, to be agreed on between the parties. The fifth article is for the imme- diate ratification of the Treaty. With regard to these stipulations, the boundary established ap- pears to be on the whole, a fair compromise between the pretensions of the two powers. A more equitable partition would perhaps have been made by a line drawn from the eastern extremity of the Strait of Fuca, northeastward, along the ridge separating the territories of the Columbia from those of Fraser's River, to the Rocky Moun- tains, and thence southward, along that chain, to the extremity * The vote in the Senate was, in favor of the Convention 41, against 14 ; absent one. t The Treaty will be found at length among the Proofs and Illustrations, at page 482 of this volume. 1846.] OBSERVATIONS ON THE TREATY. 405 of the line previously determined in the 49th degree of latitude ; and the Americans may be dissatisfied that any portion of the Columbia regions, and the right to navigate any of the waters of that river, should have been allowed to the Hudson's Bay Company, or any other British subjects. There is, however, little reason to apprehend inconvenience in any way from this part of the arrangement: for the territory traversed by the Colum- bia north of the 49th parallel, is a rugged and frozen tract, of no value except for the few furs which may be drawn from it ; and the British can never have interests in it sufficient to induce them often to undertake the tedious and laborious navigation of the streams, which they are authorized to use for the purpose. The re- servations with regard to the farms and lands of British subjects, in the territory assigned to the United States, were intended of course to secure indemnification to the Hudson's Bay Company, to which, in a certain degree, it may be entitled ; though objections might rea- sonably be alleged to the provision in favor of the Puget's Sound Company, which was merely a creation of the Directors of the other body, as an expedient to meet this very contingency of the surrender of the territory to the United States, by a nominal occupation of all the best spots north of the Columbia. These, and all the other ob- jections to the arrangement, however, sink into insignificance when compared with the advantages secured by it, of extinguishing the only serious cause of dispute between the two most important na- tions of the civilized world, without any loss of honor on the part of either : and the Treaty of June 15, 1846, may, in this respect, be considered as one of the most memorable acts of the present day. The territory thus secured to the United States, indeed presents but a comparatively small surface, adapted for cultivation ; but on the other hand, it offers great facilities for fishing and grazing, and a ready market will always be afforded, for its fine timber, in the Sandwich Islands, and on the coasts of Mexico, and of Central and South America, which are nearly all destitute of that indispensable article ; while its harbors, in the Strait of Fuca and Admiralty Inlet, occupied by the energetic people who will soon surround them, may send forth shipping sufficient for the carrying trade of the whole Pacific. The idea of supplying the eastern United States with Chinese goods, carried over land from the ports of Oregon, however, could only be entertained by those utterly unacquainted with the circumstances of the case. The voyage between these ports and Canton, is nearly two thirds as long as that between Can- ton and New York, or New Orleans — and much more perilous ; 406 CONCLUSION. [1846. and the cost of transporting the goods over a few hundred miles of land, by any mode of conveyance, would certainly exceed the whole freight from China to any part of America. The northern boundary of the United States has thus been defini- tively determined, in its whole length, from the Atlantic to the Pa- cific, through fifty-eight degrees of longitude, equivalent to nearly three thousand miles on a great circle of the earth, and to much more, following the sinuosities of the line. Their southern limits, on the other hand, have been, at the same time, unsettled, by the war with Mexico, consequent upon the annexation of Texas ; but the results of the battles of the 8th and 9th of May on the Rio Bravo, must have convinced the most incredulous that the determi- nation of this question rests entirely at the discretion of the United States, notwithstanding any plans of the French or any other Eu- ropean government, for the establishment of a balance of power in the New World. Every thing seems at present to indicate that California and New Mexico will soon be incorporated in the Fede- ral Republic ; and that the line of separation between the territories of the parties, will extend northwestward from the mouth of the Rio Bravo to the Californian Gulf. The first part of the august conception of Coleridge, with regard to " the possible destiny of the United States of America," has now been realized ; and the probabihty of the fulfilment of the remain- der has been greatly increased. The territory of the Republic now unquestionably " stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific," and ere the end of the present century, it will be inhabited by " a hun- dred millions of freemen, living under the laws of Alfred, and speak- ing the language of Shakspeare and Milton," with such variations and improvements, as the difference of circumstances may render necessary. Whether these and the other adjoining regions, which may, within that period, be in like manner occupied by the Ameri- cans, will remain under one general government, is a question not to be discussed at present. Their inhabitants, however, will be of the Anglo-Saxon race, which has so triumphantly established its claim of preeminence in industry, perseverance, courage, love of order, and capacity for the development of all the advantages offered by nature to man ; and experience fully authorizes, if not obliges us to expect, that any changes which may be made in their political system, will tend to the promotion of their general prosperity and happiness. END . PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS A. Original Account of the Voyage of the Greek Pilot Juan DE FucA along the North-West Coasts of America, in 1592. A Note made hy me, Michael Lock the elder, touching the Strait of Sea commonly called Fretum Anian, in the South Sea, through the North- West Passage of Meta Incognita.* When I was at Venice, in April, 1596, haply arrived there an old man, about sixty years of age, called, commonly, Juan dc Fuca, but named properly Apostolos Valerianus, of nation a Greek, born in Cepha- lonia, of profession a mariner, and an ancient pilot of ships. This man, being come lately out of Spain, arrived first at Leghorn, and went thence to Florence, where he found one John Douglas, an Englishman, a famous mariner, ready coming for Venice, to be pilot of a Venetian ship for England, in whose company they came both together to Venice. And John Douglas being acquainted with me before, he gave me knowledge of this Greek pilot, and brought him to my speech ; and, in long talks and conference between us, in presence of John Douglas, this Greek pilot declared, in the Italian and Spanish languages, thus much in effect as followeth : — First, he said that he had been in the West Indies of Spain forty years, and had sailed to and from many places thereof, in the service of the Spaniards. Also, he said that he was in the Spanish ship which, in returning from the Islands Philippinas, towards Nova Spania, was robbed and taken at the Cape California by Captain. Candish, Englishman, whereby he lost sixty thousand ducats of his own goods. Also, he said that he was pilot of three small ships which the viceroy of Mexico sent from Mexico, armed with one hundred men, under a cap- tain, Spaniards, to discover the Straits of Anian, along the coast of the South Sea, and to fortify in that strait, to resist the passage and proceed- ings of the English nation, which were feared to pass through those • Extracted from the Pilgrims of Samuel Purchas, vol. iii. p. 849. The orthogra- phy of the English is modernized. The letters inserted are, however, given in their original lingua Franca. See p. 87 of the History. 408 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [A. Straits into the South Sea ; and that, by reason of a mutiny which hap- pened among the soldiers for the misconduct of their captain, that voyage was overthrown, and the ship returned from California to Nova Spania, without any thing done in that voyage ; and that, after their return, the captain was at Mexico punished by justice. Also, he said that, shortly after the said voyage was so ill ended, the said viceroy of Mexico sent him out again, in 1592, with a small caravel and a pinnace, armed with mariners only, to follow the said voyage for the discovery of the Straits of Anian, and the passage thereof into the sea, which they call the North Sea, which is our north-west sea ; and that he followed his course, in that voyage, west and north-west in the South Sea, all along the coast of Nova Spania, and California, and the Indies, now called North America, (all which voyage he signified to me in a great map, and a sea card of mine own, which I laid before him,) until he came to the latitude of 47 degrees ; and that, there finding that the land trended north and north-east, with a broad inlet of sea, between 47 and 48 degrees of latitude, he entered thereinto, sailing therein more than twenty days, and found that land trending still sometime north-west, and north-east, and north, and also east and south-eastward, and very much broader sea than was at the said entrance, and that he passed by divers islands in that sail- ing ; and that, at the entrance of this said strait, there is, on the north- west coast thereof, a great headland or island, with an exceeding high pinnacle, or spired rock, like a pillar, thereupon. Also, he said that he went on land in divers places, and that he saw some people on land clad in beasts' skins ; and that the land is very fruit- ful, and rich of gold, silver, pearls, and other things, like Nova Spania. And also, he said that he being entered thus far into the said strait, and being come into the North Sea already, and finding the sea wide enough every where, and to be about thirty or forty leagues wide m the mouth of the straits where he entered, he thought he had now well dis- charged his office ; and that, not being armed to resist the force of the savage people that might happen, he therefore set sail, and returned home- wards again towards Nova Spania, where he arrived at Acapulco, anno 1592, hoping to be rewarded by the viceroy for this service done in the said voyage. Also, he said that, after coming to Mexico, he was greatly welcomed by the viceroy, and had promises of great reward ; but that, having sued there two years, and obtained nothing to his content, the viceroy told him that he should be rewarded in Spain, of the king himself, very greatly, and willed him, therefore, to go to Spain, which voyage he did perform. Also, he said that, when he was come into Spain, he was welcomed there at the king's court ; but, after long suit there, also, he could not get any reward there to his content; and therefore, at length, he stole away out of Spain, and came into Italy, to go home again and live among his own kindred and countrymen, he being very old. Also, he said that he thought the cause of his ill reward had of the Spaniards, to be for that they did understand very well that the English nation had now given over all their voyages for discovery of the north- west passage ; wherefore they need not fear them any more to come that way into the South Sea, and therefore they needed not his service therein any more. Also, he said that, understanding the noble mind of the queen of I A»] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 409 England, and of her wars against the Spaniards, and hoping that her majesty would do him justice for his goods lost by Captain Candish, he would be content to go into England, and serve her majesty in that voyage for the discovery perfectly of tlie north-west passage into the South Sea, if she would furnish him with only one ship of forty tons' burden, and a pinnace, and that he would perform it in thirty days' time, from one end to the other of the strait; and he willed me so to write to England. And, upon conference had twice with the said Greek pilot, I did write thereof, accordingly, to England, unto the right honorable the old Lord Treasurer Cecil, and to Sir Walter Raleigh, and to Master Richard Hak- luyt, that famous cosmographer, certifying them hereof And I prayed them to disburse one hundred pounds, to bring the said Greek pilot into England with myself, for that my own purse would not stretch so wide at that time. And I had answer that this action was well liked and greatly desired in England ; but the money was not ready, and therefore this action died at that time, though the said Greek pilot, perchance, liveth still in his own country, in Ccphalonia, towards which place he went within a fortnight after this conference had at Venice. And, in the mean time, while I followed my own business in Venice, being in a lawsuit against the Company of Merchants of Turkey, to re- cover my pension due for being their consul at Aleppo, which they held from me wrongfully, and when I was in readiness to return to England, I thought I should be able of my own purse to take with me the said Greek pilot ; and therefore I wrote unto him from Venice a letter, dated July, 1596, which is copied here under : — * " Al Mag"- Sig°'- Capitan Juan de Fuca, Piloto de India, amigo mio char™- en Zefalonia. " MUY HONRADO SeNNOR, " Siendo yo para buelverme en Inglatierra dentre de pocas mezes, y accuerdandome de lo trattado entre my y V. M. en Venesia sobre el viagio de las Indias, me ha parescido bien de scrivir esta carta a V. M. para que se tengais animo de andar con migo, puedais escribirme presto en que maniera quereis consertaros. Y puedais embiarmi vuestra carta con esta nao Inglrs, que sta al Zante (sino hallais otra coiuntura meior) con el sobrescritto que diga en casa del Sennor Eleazar Hyc- man, mercader Ingles, al tragetto de San Tomas en Venisia. Y Dios guarde la persona de V. M. Fecha en Venesia al primer dia de Julio, 1596 annos. u a • H V M ° • •> •( Michael Lock, Ingles." " To the Magnificent Captain Juan de Fuca, Pilot of the Indies, my most dear friend in Cephalonia. Most Honored Sir, Being about to return to England in a few months, and recollecting what passed between you and myself, at Venice, respecting the voyage to the Indies, I have thought proper to write you this letter, so tiiat, if°you have a mind to go with me, you can write me word directly how you wish to arrange. You may send me your letter by this English vessel, which is at Zante, (if you should find no better op- portunity,) directed to the care of Mr. Eleazer Hyckman, an English merchant, St Thomas Street, Venice. God preserve you, sir. Your friend, Michael Lock, of England. Venice, July 1st, 1596. 50 4ld PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [A. And I sent the said letter from Venice to Zante in the ship Cherubin ; and, shortly after, I sent a copy thereof in the ship Minion, and also a third copy thereof by Manea Orlando, patron de nave Venetian. And unto my said letters he wrote me answer to Venice by one letter, which came not to my hands, and also by another letter, which came to my hands, which is copied here under : — ♦ •• Al 111"""- Sig"- Michael Lock, Ingles, in casa del Sig"- Lasaro, merca- der Ingles, al tragetto de San Tomas en Venesia. "MuY Illustre Sig""-, " La carta de V. M. recevi a 20 dias del mese di Settembre, por loqual veo loche V. M. me manda. lo tengho animo de complir loche tengo promettido a V. M. y no solo yo, mas tengo vinte hombres para lievar con migo, porche son hombres vaglientes; y assi estoi esperando por otra carta che avise a V. M. parache me embiais los dinieros che tengo escritto a V. M. Porche bien save V. M. como io vine pover, porque me glievo Captain Candis mas de sessenta rriille ducados, como V. M. bien save; embiandome lo dicho, ire a servir a V. M. con todos mis com- pagneros. I no spero otra cosa mas de la voluntad e carta de V. M. con tanto nostro Sig"- Dios guarda la illustre persona de V. M. muchos annos. De Ceffalonia a 24 de Settembre del 1596. " Araigo y servitor de V. M., " Juan Fuca." And the said letter came into my hands in Venice, the 16th day of November, 1596; but my lawsuit with the Company of Turkey was not ended, by reason of Sir John Spenser's suit, made in England, at the queen's court, to the contrary, seeking only to have his money discharged which I had attached in Venice for my said pension, and thereby my own purse was not yet ready for the Greek pilot. And, nevertheless, hoping that my said suit would have shortly a good end, I wrote another letter to this Greek pilot from Venice, dated the 20th of November, 1596, which came not to his hands, and also another letter, dated the 24th of January, 1596, which came to his hands. And thereof he wrote me answer, dated the 28th of May, 1597, which I received the 1st of August, 1597, by Thomas Norden, an English merchant, yet living in London, wherein he promised still to go with me unto England, to perform the said voyage for discovery of the north-west passage into the South Sea, if I would send him money for his charges, according to his " To the Illustrious Michael Lock, Englishman, at the house of Mr. Lazaro, English merchant, in St. Thomas Street, Venice. Most Illustrious Sir, Your letter was received by me on the 20th of September, by which I am informed of what you communicate. I have a mind to comply with my promise to you, and have not only myself, but twenty men, brave men, too, whom I can carry with me ; so I am waiting for an answer to another letter which I wrote you, about the money which I asked you to send me. For you know well, sir, how I be- came poor in consequence of Captain Candish's having taken from me more than sixty thousand ducats, as you well know. If you will send me what 1 asked, I will go with you, as well as all my companions. I ask no more from your kindness, as shown by your letter. God preserve you, most illustrious sir, for many years. Your friend and servant, Juan Foca. Cephalonia, September 24th, 1596. ^J PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 411 former writing, without which money he said he could not go, for that as he was undone utterly when he was in the ship Santa Anna, which came from China, and was robbed at California. And yet again, afterward, I wrote him another letter from Venice, whereunto he wrote me answer by a letter written in his Greek language, dated the 20th of October, 1598, the which I have still by me, wherein he promiseth still to go with me into England, and perform the said voyage of discovery of the north-west passage into the South Sea by the said straits, which he calleth the Strait of Nova Spania, which he saith is but thirty days' voyage in the straits, if I will send him the money formerly written for his charges; the which money I could not yet send him, for that I had not yet recovered my pen- sion owing me by the Company of Turkey aforesaid; and so, of long time, I stayed any further proceeding with him in this matter. And yet, lastly, when I myself was at Zante, in the month of June, 1602, minding to pass from thence for England by sea, for that I had then recovered a little money from the Company of Turkey, by an order of the lords of the Privy Council of England, I wrote another letter to this Greek pilot, to Cephalonia, and required him to come to me to Zante, and go with me into England, but I had no answer thereof from him ; for that, as I heard afterward at Zante, he was then dead, or very likely to die of great sickness. Whereupon, I returned myself, by sea, from Zante to Venice, and from thence I went, by land, through France, into England, where I arrived at Christmas, anno 1602, safely, I thank God, after my absence from thence ten years' time, with great troubles had for the Com- pany of Turkey's business, which hath cost me a great sum of money, for the which I am not yet satisfied of them. B. Furs and the Fur Trade. Fur, strictly speaking, is the soft, fine hair which forms the natural clothing of certain animals, particularly of those inhabiting cold countries. In commerce, however, the word is understood to mean the skin of the animal, with the hair attached, either before or after, but generally after, it has been rendered soft and pliable, by a peculiar process, called dress- ing. The undressed skins are commonly caWed peltry : but ^Mr and peltry are employed as synonymous terms ; and the word fur, in com- merce, is generally to be understood as peltry. The skins of seals, bears, wolves, lions, leopards, buffaloes, &c., are also placed under the denomi- nation of furs, in commerce. Skins must have formed the first clothing of man in cold countries; and, at the present day, they constitute the whole or the greater part of the dress of many millions of individuals. For this purpose, the skin, with or without the fur, is employed as cloth would be ; or the fur alone is converted by art into the peculiar substance called felt, of which hats are made. 412 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [B. Furs differ in value, according to the fineness, the length, the thick- ness, and the color, of their hair. The most precious is that of the ermine, a species of weasel; it is thick, soft, fine, and of dazzling white- ness, except the tip of the tail, which is of a glossy black color, and is used to form spots on the skin. Of great value, also, are the skins of the marten, the sable, the fiery fox, the silver fox, and the black fox; after which come those of the sea otter, the beaver, the seal, and — though far inferior to the others — of the muskrat, the raccoon, the fox, the weasel, &c. Of these, the ermine is, as before said, the most precious ; the muskrat is that of which the greatest quantity is collected; while the aggregate value of the beaver skins annually consumed among civilized nations is greater than that of all the other furs together. The finer furs are principally used in Russia, Turkey, and China, — in the latter country especially, where they form important portions of the dress of every rich, noble, or ostentatious person. In Europe, and in the United States, furs are also much worn in the shape of caps, muffs, and trimmings. The greatest consumption of the inferior furs is in the man- ufacture of hats, which is of comparatively modern date, and, as well as the use of those articles, is confined almost entirely to Europe and America. The furs mostly used for this purpose are those of the beaver, the otter, the nutria, (an animal resembling the beaver, found in Patago- nia,) and the muskrat; but the greater number of hats are composed chiefly of wool, with or without a slight covering of fur. Nearly all the furs now brought into commerce are procured from the countries north of the 40th parallel of north latitude, through the agency of the British Hudson's Bay Company, or of the Russian American Company, or by various private associations and individuals in the United States. Of those obtained in the Russian dominions, some are carried over land to China, others also over land to Europe, and the remainder by sea to Europe. Those found in the territories of the United States are nearly all carried to New York, from which portions are sent to London or to Canton. The furs collected in the parts of America possessed or claimed by Great Britain, are mostly shipped for London, either at Mont- real, or at York Factory on Hudson's Bay, or at Fort Vancouver, at the head of navigation of the Columbia River. The southern hemisphere supplies scarcely any furs, except those of the nutria, of which consid- erable quantities are brought from Buenos Ayres to New York or to London. London is undoubtedly the most extensive mart for furs in the world, and New York is probably the second; of the others, the princi- pal are Leipsic, Nijney-Novogorod on the VYolga, Kiakta on the boun- dary line between Russia and China, and Canton. Of the value of the furs thus annually brought into trade, it is impossible to form an exact estimate. According to a rough calculation, the amount received by the first collectors, for the skins in their undressed state, is about three mil- lions of dollars; but they afterwards pass through many hands, so that the price is much enhanced before they reach the actual consumer. The fur trade has been, hitherto, very profitable to those engaged in it; but it is now, from a variety of causes, declining every where. The in- crease in the number of persons employed in the pursuit, and the spread of civilized population over the countries from which the furs are chiefly procured, are rapidly diminishing the number of the animals; so that, in many countries in which they formerly abounded, not one can be obtained C.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 413 at the present day. This diminution in the amount of the article offered has not, however, increased the price ; as other articles, composed of silk, wool, or cotton, are substituted for furs, with advantage, both as to com- fort and cheapness. For particulars with regard to the manner in which the fur trade of the northern parts of America is conducted, see the accounts of the Russian American Company's establishments and system, in the Geographical Sketch, and in chap. xii. of the History, and the view of the Hudson's Bay Company's proceedings, in chap, xviii. Respecting the furs them- selves, minute information may be derived from an article on the subject by Mr. Aiken, in the Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, published at London in 1830, as also from a similar article, by Professor Silliman, in the American Jour- nal of Science and Art for T^pril, 1834, and from the article on furs in McCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce. c. Correspondence between the Spanish Commandant and Com- missioner AT Nootka Sound and the Masters of the American trading Vessels Columbia and Hope, respecting THE Occurrences at that Place in the Summer of 1789.* Translation of the Letter from the Spanish Commandant to Captains Robert Gray and Joseph Ingraham. Nootka, August 2d, 1792. In order to satisfy the court of England, as is just, for the injury, dam- ages, and usurpation, which it conceives itself to have sustained at this port, in the year 1789, I have to request of you, gentlemen, the favor to inform me, with that sincerity which distinguishes you, and which is conformable with truth and honor, for what reason Don Esteban Jose Martinez seized the vessels of Colnett, [called] the Iphigenia and the North-West America? What establishment or l)uilding had Mr. Meares on the arrival of the Spaniards'? What territories are those which he says that he purchased from Maquinna, Yuquiniarri, or other chief of these tribes ? With what objects were the crew of the North-West America transferred to the Columbia, and ninety-six skins placed on board that ship? Finally, what was the whole amount of skins carried by you to China, and to whom did they belong ? Your most obedient and assured servant, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra. * Tlie letter of Gray and Ingraham is copied from Inffraham's Journal of his voyage in the Hope, preserved, in manuscript, in the library of the Department of State at Washington. The translation of Quadra's letter is made from the oriojinal in Spanish, which is attached by a wafer to the journal. A synopsis of the letter of Gray and Ingraham, which is, in every respect, incorrect, may be found in Vancou- ver's Journal, vol. i. p. 389. See p. 242 of this History. 414 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [C. Answer of Captains Gray and Ingraham to Don Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra* NooTKA Sound, August Zd, 1792. Sir, Your esteemed favor was handed to us yesterday, requesting from us information relative to the transactions betvi^een the English and Span- iards in this sound, in the year 1789, which we will do with great pleasure, and impartially, as you request. * On the 5th of May, 1789, when Don Estevan Jose Martinez arrived in Friendly Cove, he found riding at anchor there the Iphigenia only ; the ship Columbia being at Mahwhinna, five miles up the sound. The sloop Washington and North-West America (schooner) were on a cruise. This information is necessary in order to regulate the sequel of the present. After the usual ceremonies of meeting were over, Don Martinez requested the papers of each vessel, and demanded why they were at anchor in Nootka Sound, alleging it belonged to his Catholic majesty. Captain Viana, who passed as commander of the Iphigenia, answered, they had put in, being in distress, having but little provisions, and in great want of every necessary, such as cables, anchors, rigging, sails, &c. ; that they were in daily expectation of the arrival of Captain Meares from Macao, to supply them, when they should depart. Captain Meares was expected to return in the same vessel he sailed in from hence in the year 1788, which was under the Portuguese colors, and had a Portuguese captain on board : this vessel, with the Iphigenia, were said to belong to one Cravalia, or Cavallo, a merchant of Macao, in whose name the Iphigenia's papers were made out. Seeing the Iphigenia was in such want, Don Martinez gave them a temporary assistance, by supplying them with such articles as they were most in want, till the vessel before mentioned should arrive. At this time there was not the least suspicion of any misunderstanding or disturbance among us, as Don Martinez was apparently satisfied with the answers each vessel had given to his request. However, on the 10th of May, the San Carlos, Captain Arrow, [Haro,] arrived. The same day the American officers came to Uquot, or Friendly Cove, to welcome them in; and the next morning, the 11th of May, Don Martinez captured the Iphigenia, and his reason, as we under- stand, was, that, in their Portuguese instructions, they had orders to cap- ture any English, Spanish, or Russian, subjects they met on the north- west coast of America. This, at the time, seemed improbable, as she was a vessel of small force ; and it was afterwards found to have been a mistake, owing to their want of a perfect knowledge of the Portuguese language. However, after the vessel was taken, the officers and seamen were divided, some on board the Princesa, and some on board the San Carlos, where they were treated with all imaginable kindness, and every attention paid them. * Reference is frequently made to this letter in the 8th and 11th chapters of the preceding History. A synopsis of its contents may be found in the 10th chapter of Vancouver's account of his expedition, on comparing which with the letter, it will be seen that the evidence of the American captains is garbled and distorted in the most unworthy manner in the synopsis, not only by suppressions, but even by direct falsifications. To show this fully, it would be necessary to insert the whole of Van- couver's synopsis; the assertion, however, is sufficiently proved by the few notes which follow. C.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 415 * On the 24th of May, the above-mentioned mistake being discovered, the Iphigenia was returned again, and the Portuguese flag hoisted on board her : the same day, Captain Douglas, with the Portuguese captain and seamen, repaired on board. The Iphigenia, while in possession of the Spaniards, from being a wreck was put in complete order for sea, being calked, rigging and sails repaired, anchors and cables sent from the Princesa, &.c. On the 26th, Don Martinez supplied them with every kind of provisions they were in need of, for which Captain Douglas gave him bills on Cravalia, the before-mentioned merchant of Macao. On the 31st, the Iphigenia sailed, and was saluted by the Spanish fort; and the com- modore accompanied them out of the harbor, giving every assistance with boats, &c. When Captain Douglas took his leave of the commodore, he declared he should ever entertain a sense of Don Martinez's kindness, deeming his conduct relative to the vessel no more than his duty as a king's officer. Upon the whole, we both believe the Iphigenia's being detained was of infinite service to those who were concerned in her. This must be plain to every one who will consider the situation of the vessel when the Princesa arrived, and the advantages reaped from the supplies and assistance of the Spaniards. The detention, if it may be called so, could be no detriment; for, had nothing taken place, she must have remained two months longer at least, having, as has already been mentioned, put into port, being in distress. Of course they could not have sailed till supplies arrived, which was not till July, as will appear in the sequel : whereas, being early fitted, as above mentioned, she sailed on the coast northward of Nootka Sound, and, there being no other vessel there, they collected upwards of seven hundred sea otter skins ; which has been often represented to us by Captain Douglas and his officers, after our arrival in China. This may suffice for the transactions relative to the Iphigenia. Before Captain Douglas sailed, he gave Don Estevan Marti- nez a letter to Mr. Funter, master of the schooner North-West America, telling him, from Captain Meares's not arriving at the appointed time, there was great reason to fear the vessel he sailed from Nootka in had never reached China, (she being in bad condition when she sailed from this place;) therefore, as he, Mr. Funter, must, on his arrival, be destitute of every necessary, he was at liberty to conduct as he thought most condu- cive to the interests of his employers. We shall make mention of this vessel again hereafter. Interim, we observe your wish to be acquainted what house or estab- lishment Mr. Meares had at the time the Spaniards arrived here. We answer in a word. None. On the arrival of the Columbia, in the year 178S, there was a house, or rather a hut, consisting of rough posts, cov- ered with boards, made by the Indians ; but this Captain Douglas pulled to pieces, prior to his sailing for the Sandwich Islands, the same year. The boards he took on board the Iphigenia, and the roof he gave to Captain Kendrick, which was cut up and used as firewood on board the Columbia; so that, on the arrival of Don Estevan J. Martinez, there was * Of the whole of this paragraph, all that is said by Vancouver is, " The vessel and cargo were liberated, and Martinez supplied the Iphigenia's wants from the Princesa, enabling her, by so doing, to prosecute her voyage without waiting for the return of Mr. Meares." The extremity of distress to which the Iphigenia was re- duced on her arrival at Nootka, the seven hundred sea otter skins, and the other ad- vantages derived by her owners from the supplies furnished by the Spanish command- ant, are carefully kept out of sight. 416 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [C. no vestige of any house remaining. As to the land Mr. Meares said he purchased of Maquinna or any other chief, we cannot say further than we never heard of any ; although we remained among these people nine months, and could converse with them perfectly well. Besides this, we have asked Maquinna and other chiefs, since our late arrival, if Captain Meares ever purchased any land in Nootka Sound ; they answered. No ; that Captain Kendrick was the only man to whom they had ever sold any and. On the 8th of June, the schooner North-West America arrived, and the next day the Spaniards took possession of her. Don E. J. Martinez had an account taken of the property on board, particularly of the skins, which he said should be given to the officers and seamen, that they might be sure of their wages. On the 16th of June, the sloop Princess Royal arrived from Macao, commanded by Thomas Hudson ; this vessel brought accounts of the safe arrival of Captain Meares, and that Captain Colnett was coming on the coast, commodore of the English trading vessels from Macao for the ensuing season, in a snow named the Argonaut. Mr. Hudson likewise brought accounts of the failure of Juan Cravalia & Co., merchants of Macao, before mentioned. What right the commodore had to detain the North-West America before, it is not for us to say ; but he always said it was an agreement* between Captain Douglas and himself; but, after the arrival of this vessel with the above news, he held her as security for the bills of exchange drawn on said Cravalia & Co. in favor of his Catholic majesty : this we have heard him say. On the 2d of July, the Princess Royal sailed out of the port, having, to our knowledge, been treated by the commodore and his officers with every possible attention, which Captain Hudson himself seemed conscious of and grateful for. Prior to this vessel's sailing, the commodore gave to Mr. Funter all the skins he brought in in the North-West America, which were shipped on board the sloop Princess Royal by Mr. Funter, for his own account. In the evening of the 2d, a sail was descried from the Spanish fort. We were among the first that went out to meet them. It proved to be the Argonaut, Captain Colnett, before mentioned. The transactions of this vessel were such, that we can give the sense of them in a few words, that may answer eve^y purpose of the particulars, many of which are not im- mediately to the point, or tending to what we suppose you wish to know. It seems Captain Meares, with some other Englishmen at Macao, had concluded to erect a fort and settle a colony in Nootka Sound ; from what authority we cannot say. However, on the arrival of the Argonaut, we heard Captain Colnett inform the Spanish commodore he had come for that purpose, and to hoist the British flag, take formal possession, &c. : * The account of the seizure of the North-West America in the letter is thus presented by Vancouver : — " The North-West America is stated by these gentlemen to have arrived on the 8th of June, and tliat, on the following day, the Spaniards took possession of her. Ten days afterwards came the Princess Royal, commanded by Mr. Hudson, from Macao, who brought the news of the failure of the merchant at Macao, to whom the Iphigenia and other vessels belonged ; that Martinez assigned this as a reason for his capturing the North-West America, (although she was seized before the arrival of the Princess Royal ;) that he had detained her as an indemnification for the bills of exchange drawn on her owner in favor of his Catholic majesty." The parenthesis is here inserted obviously with the intention of creating the im- pression that Gray and Ingraham had committed a falsehood or inconsistency in their evidence ; although this idea is specially contradicted in the letter. c] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 417 to which the commodore answered, he had taken possession already in the name of his Catholic majesty ; on which Captain Colnett asked if he would be prevented from building a house in the port. The commodore, mistaking his meaning, answered him, he was at liberty to erect a tent, get wood and water, &,c., after which he was at liberty to depart when he pleased; but Captain Colnett said that was not what he wanted, but to build a block house, erect a fort, and settle a colony, for the crown of Great Britain. Don Estevan Jose Martinez answered, No; that, in doing that, he should violate the orders of his king, run a risk of losing his commission, and not only that, but it would be relinquishing the Span- iards' claim to the coast: besides, Don Martinez observed, the vessels did not belong to the king, nor was he intrusted with powers to transact such public business. On which Captain Colnett answered, he was a king's officer ; but Don Estevan replied, his being in the navy was of no conse- quence in the business. *In conversing on the subject, after the arrival of the vessel in port, it seems Captain Colnett insulted the commodore by threatening him, and drew his sword in the Princesa's cabin ; on which Don Martinez ordered the vessel to be seized. We did not see him draw his sword, but were informed of the circumstance by those whose veracity we had no reason to doubt. After seizing the Argonaut, the sloop Prin cess Royal arrived a second time ; and, as she belonged to the same com- pany, the commodore took possession of her also. With respect to the treatment of the prisoners, although we have not perused Mr. Meares's publication, we presume none of them will be backward in confessing that Don E. J. Martinez always treated them very kindly, and all his officers, consistent with the character of gentlemen. Having acquainted you with the principal part of the business, agree- able to request, one thing remains to answer, which is, of the captain, officers, and seamen, of the North-West America. You ask if we car- ried them to China. We did, and with them one hundred sea otter skins, the value of which, we judge, independent of freight, was four thousand eight hundred and seventy-five dollars; these were delivered to Mr, Meares, and were, we suppose, his property. We sincerely hope, sir, when things are represented with truth, it will rescue our friend Don Estevan J. Martinez from censure ; at least, that he may not be deemed an impostor and a pirate, which many, from only hearing one part of the story, supposed he was. As to the treatment of the Americans by Don Estevan, we have ever testified it in terms due to such hospitality, and are happy again to have it in our power to do what we deem justice to his conduct. While speaking of others of your nation, we can never be un- mindful of you. Your kind reception and treatment of us has made an impression that will not be easily erased ; and we hope you will bear in mind how very sincerely we are, sir, your most humble servants, Robert Gray, Joseph Ingraham. * Vancouver here writes, — using the first person, as if copying the words of the American captains, — " In conversation afterwards on this subject, as we were in- formed, (say these gentlemen,) — for we were not present during this transaction, — some dispute arose in the Princesa's cabin; on which Don Martinez ordered the Ar- gonaut to be seized. Soon after this the Princess Royal returned," &c.; the rumor that " Colnett insulted the commodore by threatening him, and drew his sword in the Princesa's cabin," being omitted. 53 418 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [D. D. Ofpiciai. Documents relative to the Dispute between Great Britain and Spain in 1790.* Message from the King of Great Britain to Parliament, May 5th, 1790. George R. His majesty has received information that two vessels, belonging to his majesty's subjects, and navigated under the British flag, and two otherj, of which the description is not hitherto sufficiently ascertained, have been captured at Nootka Sound, on the north-western coast of America, by an officer commanding two Spanish ships of war ; that the cargoes of the British vessels have been seized, and that their officers and crews have been sent as prisoners to a Spanish port. The capture of one of these vessels had before been notified by the ambassador of his Catholic majesty, by order of his court, who, at the same time, desired that measures might be taken for pireventing his majes- ty's subjects from frequenting those coasts, which were alleged to have been previously occupied and frequented by the subjects of Spain. Com- plaints were also made of the fisheries carried on by his majesty's subjects in the seas adjoining to the Spanish continent, as being contrary to the rights of the crown of Spain. In consequence of this communication, a demand was immediately made, by his majesty's order, for adequate satis- faction, and for the restitution of the vessel, previous to any other dis- cussion. By the answer from the court of Spain, it appears that this vessel and her crew had been set at liberty by the viceroy of Mexico ; but this is represented to have been done by him on the supposition that nothing but the ignorance of the rights of Spain encouraged the individuals of other nations to come to those coasts for the purpose of making establishments, or carrying on trade, and in conformity to his previous instructions, re- quiring him to show all possible regard to the British nation. No satisfaction is made or offered, and a direct claim is asserted by the court of Spain to the exclusive rights of sovereignty, navigation, and commerce, in the territories, coasts, and seas, in that part of the world. His majesty has now directed his minister at Madrid to make a fresh representation on this subject, and to claim such full and adequate satis- faction as the nature of the case evidently requires. And, under these circumstances, his majesty, having also received information that consid- erable armaments are carrying on in the ports of Spain, has judged it indispensably necessary to give orders for making such preparations as may put it in his majesty's power to act with vigor and effect in support of the honor of his crown and the interests of his people. And his * The following papers, with the exception of the last, are taken from the London Annual Register for 1790. The translations of the Spanish notes are evidently made MTJth little care. See chap. ix. of this History. D.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 419 majesty recommends it to his faithful Commons, on whose zeal and public spirit he has the most perfect reliance, to enable him to take such meas- ures, and to make such augmentation of his forces, as may be eventually necessary for this purpose. It is his majesty's earnest wish that the justice of his majesty's demands may insure, from the wisdom and equity of his Catholic majesty, the sat- isfaction which is so unquestionably due, and that this affair may be termi- nated in such a manner as to prevent any grounds of misunderstanding in future, and to continue and confirm that harmony and friendship which has so happily subsisted between the two courts, and which his majesty will always endeavor to maintain and improve, by all such means as are consistent with the dignity of his majesty's crown and the essential interests of his subjects. G. R. (2.) Declaration of the King of Spain to all the other Courts of Europe. Aranjuez, June 4th, 1790. The king, being apprized of the particulars laid before his ministers, on the 16th of May, by Mr. Merry, his Britannic majesty's minister, relative to the unexpected dispute between this court and Great Britain, as to the vessels captured in Port St. Lawrence, or Nootka Sound, on the coast of California, in the South Sea, has commanded the undersigned, his majesty's first secretary of state, to answer to the said minister of England, that he had the honor to make known personally, and in writing, to the said minister, upon the ISth of the same month, that his majesty at no time pretended to any rights in any ports, seas, or places, other than what belongs to his crown by the most solemn treaties, recognized by all nations, and more particularly with Great Britain, by a right founded on particular treaties, the uniform consent of both nations, and by an imme- morial, regular, and established possession; that his majesty is ready to enter upon every examination and discussion most likely to terminate the dispute in an amicable way, and is willing to enter into immediate con- ference with the new ambassador, and, if justice requires it, will certainly disapprove of the conduct, and punish his subjects, if they have gone beyond their powers. This offer and satisfaction will, it is hoped, serve as an example to the court of London to do as much on its part. As the two courts of London and Madrid have not yet received proper and authenticated accounts and proofs of all that has really passed in these distant latitudes, a contradiction in the development of facts has by this means been occasioned. Even at this moment, the papers and min- utes made up by the viceroy of New Spain on this matter are not arrived. Posterior letters, indeed, say that the English vessel, the Argonaut, had not been seized and confiscated till legally condemned, and that the small vessel, called the Princess Royal, which had afterwards arrived, was not seized or confiscated, but that, on the contrary, full restitution was made by the viceroy, and an obligation only taken from the captain to pay the price of the vessel, if she was declared a lawful prize; and on the precise same terms he had liberated a Portuguese vessel belonging to Macao, and two American vessels. - These particulars will be more explicitly proved and elucidated on the arrival of the necessary papers. 420 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [j). The first time that our ambassador made a public notification of this matter to the ministry at London, on the 10th of February last, many of the circumstances that are now certain were then doubtful. The rights and immemorial possession of Spain to that coast and ports, as well as several other titles proper to be taken into view in a pacific negotiation, were not quite certain ; and, if the court of London had made an ami- cable return to tiie complaints made by his majesty relative to those mer- chants whom Spain regards as usurpers and the violators of treaties, and had showed any desire to terminate the affair by an amicable accommo- dation, a great deal of unnecessary expense might have been saved. The high and menacing tone and manner in which the answer of the British minister was couched, at a time when no certain information of the par- ticulars had arrived, made the Spanish cabinet entertain some suspicions that it was made not so much for the purpose of the dispute in question, as a pretext to break entirely with our court ; for which reason it was thought necessary to take some precautions relative to the subject. On a late occasion, a complaint was made to the court of Russia, as to some similar points relative to the navigation of the South Sea. A candid answer being returned by that court, the affair was terminated without the least disagreement. Indeed, it may be asserted with truth, that the manner, much more than the substance, has produced the dis- putes that have taken place on this head with Great Britain. Nevertheless, the king does deny — what the enemies to peace have industriously circulated — that Spain extends pretensions and rights of sovereignty over the whole of the South Sea as far as China. When the words are made use of, " In the name of the king, his sovereignty, navi- gation, and exclusive commerce to the continent and islands of the South Sea," it is the manner in which Spain, in speaking of the Indies, has always used these words; that is to say, to the continent, islands, and seas, which belong to his majesty, so far as discoveries have been made and secured to him by treaties and immemorial possession, and uniformly acquiesced in, notwithstanding some infringements by individuals, who have been punished upon knowledge of their offences : and the king sets up no pretensions to any possessions, the right to which he cannot prove by irrefragable titles. Although Spain may not have establishments or colonies planted upon the coasts or in the ports in dispute, it does not follow that such coast or port does not belong to her. If this rule were to be followed, one nation might establish colonies on the coasts of another nation, in America, Asia, Africa, and Europe, by which means there would be no fixed boundaries — a circumstance evidently absurd. But, whatever may be the issue of the question of right, upon a ma- ture consideration of^ the claims of both parties, the result of the question of fact is, tliat the capture of the English vessels is repaired by the resti- tution that has been made, and the conduct of the viceroy : for, as to the qualification of such restitution, and whether the prize was lawful or not, ♦hat respects the question of right yet to be investigated ; that is to say, i'' it has been agreeably to, or in contradiction to, the treaties relative to the rights and possessions of Spain. Lastly, the king will readily enter into any plan by which future disputes on this subject may be obviated, that no reproach may be upon him as having refused any means of recon- ciliation, and tor the establishment of a solid and permanent peace, not D.^ PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 421 only between Spain and Great Britain, but also between all nations; for the accomplishment of which object, his majesty has made the greatest efforts in all the courts of Europe, which he certainly would not have done if he had any design to involve England and the other European powers in a calamitous and destructive war. El Conde de Florida Blanca. (3.) Memorial of the Court of Spain, presented hy Count de Florida Blanca, the Spanish 3Iinister of State, to 3Ir. Fitzherhcrt, the British Ambas- sador at Madrid. Madrid, June \2lh, 1790. By every treaty upon record betwixt Spain and the other nations of Europe, for upwards of two centuries, an exclusive right of property, navigation, and commerce, to the Spanish West Indies, has been uniformly secured to Spain, England having always stood forth in a particular man- ner in support of such right. By article 8th of the treaty of Utrecht, (a treaty in which all the European nations may be said to have taken a part,) Spain and England profess to establish it as a fundamental principle of agreement, that the navigation and commerce of the West Indies, under the dominion of Spain, shall remain in the precise situation in which they stood in the reign of his Catholic majesty Charles II., and that that rule shall be invi- olably adhered to, and be incapable of infringement. After this maxim, the two powers stipulated that Spain sliould never grant liberty or permission to any nation to trade to, or introduce their merchandises into, the Spanish American dominions, nor to sell, cede, or give up, to any other nation its lands, dominions, or territories, or any part thereof On the contrary, and in order that its territories should be preserved whole and entire, England offers to aid and assist the Spaniards in reestablishing the limits of their American dominions, and placing them in the exact situation they stood in at the time of his said Catholic majesty Charles II., il', by accident, it shall be discovered that they have undergone any alteration to the prejudice of Spain, in whatever manner or pretext such alteration may have been brouglit about. The vast extent of the Spanish territories, navigation, and dominion, on the continent of America, isles and seas contiguous to the South Sea, are clearly laid down, and authenticated by a variety of documents, laws, and formal acts of possession, in the reign of King Charles II. It is also clearly ascertained, that, notwithstanding the repeated attempts made by adventurers and pirates on the Spanish coasts of the South Sea and adja- cent islands, Spain has still preserved her possessions entire, and opposed with success those usurpations, by constantly sending her ships and vessels to take possession of such settlements. By these measures and reiterated acts of possession, Spain has preserved her dominion, which she has ex- tended to the borders of the Russian establishments, in that part of the world. The viceroys of Peru and New Spain having been informed that these seas h.id been, for some years past, more frequented than formerly, 422 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [D. that smuggling had increased, that several usurpations prejudicial to Spain and the general tranquillity had been suffered to be made, they gave orders that the western coasts of Spanish America, and islands and seas adjacent, should be more frequently navigated and explored. They were also informed that several Russian vessels were upon the point of making commercial establishments upon that coast. At the time that Spain demonstrated to Russia the inconveniences attendant upon such encroachments, she entered upon the negotiation with Russia, upon the supposition that the Russian navigators of the Pacific Ocean had no orders to make establishments within the limits of Spanish America, of which the Spaniards were the first possessors, (limits situated within rince William's Strait,) purposely to avoid all dissensions, and in order to maintain the harmony and amity which Spain wished to preserve. The court of Russia replied, it had already given orders that its sub- jects should make no settlements in places belonging to other powers, and that, if those orders had been violated, and any had been made in Spanish America, they desired the king would put a stop to them in a friendly manner. To this pacific language on the part of Russia, Spain observed that she could not be answerable for what her officers might do at that distance, whose general orders and instructions were, not to permit any settlements to be made by other nations on the continent of Spanish America. Though trespasses had been made by the English on some of the islands of those coasts, which had given rise to similar complaints having been made to the court of London, Spain did not know that the English had endeavored to make any settlements on the northern part of the Southern Ocean, till the commanding officer of a Spanish ship, in the usual tour of the coasts of California, found two American vessels in St. Laurence, or Nootka Harbor, where he was going for provisions and stores. These vessels he permitted to proceed on their voyage, it appearing, fiom their papers, that they were driven there by distress, and only came in to refit. He also found there the Iphigenia, from Macao, under Portuguese colors, which had a passport from the governor; and, though he came manifestly with a view to trade there, yet the Spanish admiral, when he saw his instructions, gave him leave to depart, upon his signing an en- gagement to pay the value of the vessel, should the government of Mexico declnre it a lawful prize. With this vessel there came a second, which the admiral detained, and, a few days after, a third, named the Argonaut, from the above- mentioned place. The captain of this latter was an Englishman. He came not only to trade, but brought every thing with him proper to form a settlement there, and to fortify it. This, notwithstanding the remon- strances of the Spanish admiral, he persevered in, and was detained, to- gether with his vessel. After him came a fourth English vessel, named the Princess Royal, and evidently for the same purposes. She, likewise, was detained, and sent to Port St. Bias, where the pilot of the Argonaut made away witli himself. The viceroy, on being informed of these particulars, gave orders that the captain and the vessels should be released, and that they should have leave to refit, without declaring them a lawful prize; and this he did, on p.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 423 account of llie ignorance of the proprietors, and the friendship which subsisted between the two courts of London and Madrid. He also gave them leave to return to Macao with their cargo, after capitulating with them in the same manner as with the Portuguese cap- tain, and leaving the affair to be finally determined by the Count de Revillagigedo, his successor, who also gave them their liberty. As soon as the court of Madrid had received an account of the detention of the first English vessel at Nootka Sound, and before that of the second arrived, it ordered its ambassador at London to make a report thereof to the English minister, which he did on the 10th of February last, and to require that the parties who had planned these expeditions should be punished, in order to deter others from making settlements on territories occupied and frequented by the Spaniards for a number of years. In the ambassador's memorial, mention was only made of the Spanish admiral that commanded the present armament, having visited NootJca Sound in 1774, though that harbor had been frequently visited, both before and since, with the usual forms of taking possession. These forms were repeated more particularly in the years 1755 and 1779, all along the coasts as far as Prince William's Sound ; and it was these acts that gave occasion to the memorial made by the court of Russia, as has been already noticed. The Spanish ambassador at London did not represent in this memo- rial at that time, that the right of Spain to these coasts was conformable to ancient boundaries, which had been guarantied by England at the treaty of Utrecht, in the reign of Charles II., deeming it to be unneces- sary ; as orders had been given, and vessels had actually been seized on those coasts, so far back as 169*2. The answer that the English ministry gave, on the 26th of February, was, that they had not as yet been informed of the facts stated by the ambassador, and that the act of violence, mentioned in his memorial, necessarily suspended any discussion of the claims therein, till an adequate atonement had been made for a proceeding so injurious to Great Britain. In addition to this haughty language of the British minister, he fur- ther added, that the ship must in the first place be restored ; and that, with respect to any future stipulations, it would be necessary to wait for a more full detail of ail the circumstances of this affair. The harsh and laconic style in which this answer was given, made the court of Madrid suspect that the king of Great Britain's ministers were forming other plans; and they were the more induced to think so, as there were reports that they were going to fit out two fleets, one for the Mediterranean and the other for the Baltic. This, of course, obliged Spain to increase the small squadron she was getting ready to exercise her marine. The court of Spain then ordered her ambassador at London to pre sent a memorial to the British ministry, setting forth that, though the crown of Spain had an indubitable right to the continent, islands, harbors, and coasts, of that part of the world, founded on treaties and immemorial possession, yet, as the viceroy of Mexico had released the vessels that were detained, the king looked upon the affair as concluded, without entering into any disputes or discussions on the undoubted rights of Spain ; and, desiring to give a proof of his friendship for Great Britain, he should rest satisfied if she orderrd that her subjects, in future, respected those rights 424 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [D As if Spain, in this answer, had laid claim to the empire of that ocean, though she only spoke of what belonged to her by treaties, and as if it had been so grievous an offence to terminate this affair by restitution of the only vessel which was then known to have been taken, it excited such clamor and agitation in the Parliament of England, that the most vigorous preparations for war have been commenced; and those powers disinclined to peace charge Spain with designs contrary to her known principles of honor and probity, as well as to the tranquillity of Europe, which the Spanish monarch and his ministers have always had in view. While England was employed in making the greatest armaments and preparations, that court made answer to the Spanish ambassador, (upon the 5th of May,) that the acts of violence committed against the British flag " rendered it necessary for the sovereign to charge his minister at Madrid to renew the remonstrances, (being the answer of England already mentioned,) and to require that satisfaction which his majesty thought he had an indisputable right to demand." To this was added a declaration not to enter formally into the matter until a satisfactory answer was obtained; "and at the same time the memorial of Spain should not include in it the question of right; " which formed a most essential part of the discussion. The British administration offer, in the same answer, to take the most effectual and pacific measures, that the English subjects shall not act " against the just and acknowledged rights of Spain, but that they cannot at present accede to the pretensions of absolute sovereignty, com- merce, and navigation, which appeared to be the principal object of the memorials of the ambassador; and that the king of England considers it as a duty incumbent upon him to protect his subjects in the enjoyment of the right of continuing their fishery in the Pacific Ocean." If this pretension is found to trespass upon the ancient boundaries laid down in the reign of King Charles II., and guarantied by England in the treaty of Utrecht, as Spain believes, it appears that that court will have good reason for disputing and opposing this claim ; and it is to be hoped that the equity of the British administration will suspend and restrict it accordingly. In consequence of the foregoing answer, the charge d'affaires from the court of London at Madrid insisted, in a memorial of the 16th of May, on restitution of the vessel detained at Nootka, and the property therein contained ; on an indemnification for the losses sustained, and on a repa- ration proportioned to the injury done to the English subjects trading under the British flag, and that they have an indisputable right to the enjoyment of a free and uninterrupted navigation, commerce, and fishery; and to the possession of such establishments as they should form with the consent of the natives of the country, not previously occupied by any of the European nations. An explicit and prompt answer was desired upon this head, in such ferms as might tend to calm the anxieties, and to maintain the friendship, subsisting between the two courts. The charge d'affaires having observed that a suspension of the Spanish armaments would contribute to tranquillity, upon the terms to be communicated by the British administration, an answer was made by the Spanish administration, that the king was sincerely inclined to disarm upon the principles of reciprocity, and proportioned to the circumstances D.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 425 of the two courts; adding that the court of Spain was actuated by the most pacific intentions, and a desire to give every satisfaction and indem- nification, if justice was not on their side, provided England did as much if slie was found to be in the wrong. This answer must convince all the courts of Europe that the conduct of the king and his administration is consonant to the invariable principles of justice, truth, and peace. El Conde de Florida Blanca. (4.) Letter from Count de Fernan Nunez, the Spanish Ambassador at Paris, to M. de Montmorin, the Secretary of the Foreign Department of France. Paris, June 16th, 1790. Sir, I have the honor to address you, with this, a faithful extract of all the transactions which have hitherto passed between my court and that of London, on the subject of the detention of two English vessels, which were seized in the Bay of St. Lawrence, or Nootka, situated in the 50th degree to the north of California, and which were afterwards taken to the port of St. Bias. You will observe by this relation, 1. That, by the treaties, demarkations, takings of possession, and the most decided acts of sovereignty exercised by the Spaniards in these stations, from the reign of Charles IL, and authorized by that monarch in 1692, the original voucners for which shall be brought forward in the course of the negotiation, all the coast to the north of the Western Amer- ica, on the side of the South Sea, as far as beyond what is called Prince William's Sound, which is in the 61st degree, is acknowledged to belong exclusively to Spain. 2. That the court of Russia, having been informed of this extent of our boundary, assured the king, my master, without the least delay, of the purity of its intentions in this respect, and added, " That it was extremely sorry that the repeated orders issued to prevent the subjects of Russia from violating, in the smallest degree, the territory belonging to another power, should have been disobeyed." 3. That the state of the possessions and exclusive 'commerce on the sea-coast of the Southern Ocean, as it existed in the time of Charles IL, had been acknowledged and defined anew by all the nations of Europe, and more particularly by England, in the eighth article of the treaty of Utrecht. 4. That, notwithstanding the just title he has to a preservation of his ancient rights, the king, my master, has approved of the conduct of the viceroy of Mexico, who, in consequence of his general orders and instruc- tions for the preservation of peace with every power, took upon himself to release the vessels seized in the port of Nootka, upon a supposition that the conduct of their captains was a consequence of their total ignorance with respect to the legitimacy of the rights of Spain on those coasts. It is in consequence of the desire of his Catholic majesty to pre- serve peace to himself, and to establish the general tranquillity of Europe, 54 426 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [D. that he has taken the steps you will observe in the said extract, and that he has commenced an amicable and direct negotiation with England, which he will finish with Mr. Fitzherbert, the new ambassador sent from that court to the court of Madrid. We are in hopes that the con- sequences of this negotiation will be favorable ; but, at the same time, we must employ all the necessary means to make it so. An immediate and exact accomplishment of the treaty signed at Paris, the loth of August, 1761, under the title of the Family Compact, becomes an indispensable preliminary to a successful negotiation. It is in conse- quence of the ab.re, in company with the Cherub, proceeded in search of Commo- dore Porter, who, in the American frigate Essex, was clearing the South Sea of English whalers, and inflicting other injuries of a serious nature on our commerce ; he shortly after met the Essex at Valparaiso, and, after a severe contest, captured her. At the same time, he ordered Captain Black, in the Raccoon, to proceed direct to the Columbia, for the purpose of destroying the Ameri- can establishments at Astoria. The Raccoon arrived at the Columbia on the 1st of December, 1813. The surprise and disappointment of Captain Black and his o^icers were extreme, on learning the arrangement that had taken place between the two companies, by which the establishment had become British property. They had calculated on obtaining a splendid prize by the capture of Astoria, the strength and importance of which had been much magnified; and the contracting parties were therefore fortunate in having closed their bargain previous to the arrival of the Raccoon. On looking at the wooden fortifications. Captain Black ex- claimed, "Is this the fort about which I have heard so much? D — n me btit 1 'd batter it down in two hours with a four-pounder ." Captain Black, however, took possession of Astoria in the name of his Britannic majesty. G.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 445 and rebaptized it by the name of " Fort George." He also insisted on having an inventory taken of the valuable stock of furs, and all other property purchased from the American company, with a view to the adop- tion of ulterior proceedings in England for the recovery of the value from the North- West Company ; but he subsequently relinquished this idea, and we heard no more about his claims. The Indians at the mouth of the Columbia knew well that Great Britain and America were distinct nations, and that they were then at war, but were ignorant of the arrangement made between Messrs. McDou- gal and McTavish, the former of whom still continued as nominal chief at the fort. On the arrival of the Raccoon, which they quickly discovered to be one of *^King George's Jighting ships,"" they repaired, armed, to the fort, and requested an audience of Mr. McDougal. He was somewhat surprised at their numbers and warlike appearance, and demanded the object of such an unusual visit. Comcomly, the principal chief of the Chinooks, (whose daughter McDougal had married,) there- upon addressed him in a long speech, in the course of which he said that King George had sent a ship full of warriors, and loaded with nothing but big guns, to take the Americans and make them all slaves, and that, as they (the Americans) were the first white men who settled in their country, and treated the Indians like good relations, they had resolved to defend them from King George's warriors, and were now ready to conceal themselves in the woods close to the wharf, from whence they would be able, with their guns and arrows, to shoot all the men that should attempt to land from the English boats, while the people in the fort could fire at them with their big guns and rifles. This proposition was uttered with an earnestness of manner that admitted no doubt of its sincerity. Two armed boats from the Raccoon were approaching; and, had the people in the fort felt disposed to accede to the wishes of the Indians, every man in them would have been destroyed by an invisible enemy. Mr. McDou- gal thanked them for their friendly offer, but added, that, notwithstanding the nations were at war, the people in the boats would not injure him or any of his people, and therefore requested them to throw by their war shirts and arms, and receive the strangers as their friends. They at first seemed astonished at this answer; but, on assuring them, in the most positive manner, that he was under no apprehensions, they consented to give up their weapons for a few days. They afterwards declared they were sorry for having complied with Mr. McDougal's wishes ; for when they observed Captain Black, surrounded by his officers and marines, break the bottle of Port on the flag-staff, and hoist the British ensign, after changing the name of the fort, they remarked that, however we might wish to conceal the fact, the Americans were undoubtedly made slaves; and they were not convinced of their mistake until the sloop of war had departed without taking any prisoners. 446 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H- H. DOCUMENTS RELATIVE TO THE NEGOTIATION IN 1826-7. * British Statement annexed to the Protocol of the sixth Conference, hy Messrs. Huskisson and Addington, Plenipotentiaries on the Part of Great Britain. The government of Great Britain, in proposing to renew, for a further term of years, the third article of the convention of 1818, respecting the territory on the north-west coast of America, west of the Rocky Moun- tains, regrets that it has been found impossible, in the present negotiation, to agree upon a line of boundary which should separate those parts of that territory, which might henceforward be occupied or settled by the subjects of Great Britain, from the parts which would remain open to occupancy and settlement by the United States. To establish such a boundary must be the ultimate object of both countries. With this object in contemplation, and from a persuasion that a part of the difficulties which have hitherto prevented its attainment is to be attributed to a misconception, on the part of the United States, of the claims and views of Great Britain in regard to the territory in ques- tion, the British plenipotentiaries deem it advisable to bring under the notice of the American plenipotentiary a full and explicit expositiori of those claims and views. As preliminary to this discussion, it is highly desirable to mark dis- tinctly the broad difference between the nature of the rights claimed by Great Britain and those asserted by the United States, in respect to the territory in question. Over a large portion of that territory, namely, from the 42d degree to the 49th degree of north latitude, the United States claim full and ex- clusive sovereignty. Great Britain claims no exclusive sovereignty over any portio7i of that territory. Her present claim, not in respect to any part, but to the whole, is limited to a right of joint occupancy, in common with other states, leaving the right of exclusive dominion in abeyance In other words, the pretensions of the United States tend to the ejec- tion of all other nations, and, among the rest, of Great Britain, from all right of settlement in the district claimed by the United States. The pretensions of Great Britain, on the contrary, tend to the mere maintenance of her own rights, in resistance to the exclusive character of the pretensions of the United States. Having thus stated the nature of the respective claims of the two parties, the British plenipotentiaries will now examine the grounds on which those claims are founded. * These two documents, which were published with President Adams's Message to Congress of December ISth, 1827, are here inserted in full, because reference is fre- quently made to them in the History, particularly to the British paper, the numerous misstatements in which are exposed and refuted. See page 347, and other pages, as specified in the notes. H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 447 The claims of the United States are urged upon three grounds : 1st. As resulting from their own proper right. 2dly. As resulting from a right derived to them from Spain; that power having, by the treaty of Florida, concluded with the United States in 1819, ceded to the latter all their rights and claims on the western coast of America north of the 42d degree. 3dly. As resulting from a right derived to them from France, to whom the United States succeeded, by treaty, in possession of the province of Louisiana. The first right, or right proper, of the United States, is founded on the alleged discovery of the Columbia River by Mr. Gray, of Boston, who, in 1792, entered that river, and explored it to some distance from its mouth. To this are added the first exploration, by Lewis and Clarke, of a main branch of the same river, from its source downwards, and also the alleged priority of settlement, by citizens of the United States, of the country in the vicinity of the same river. The second right, or right derived from Spain, is founded on the alleged prior discovery of the region in dispute by Spanish navigators, of whom the chief were, 1st, Cabrillo, who, in 1543, visited that coast as far as 44 degrees north latitude; 2d, De Fuca, who, as it is affirmed, in 1598, entered the straits known by his name, in latitude 49 degrees; 3d, Gualle, who, in 15S2, is said to have pushed his researches as high as 57 degrees north latitude ; 4tli, Perez, and others, who, between the years 1774 and 1792, visited Nootka Sound and the adjacent coasts. Tlie third right, derived from the cession of Louisiana to the United States, is founded on the assumption that that province, its boundaries never having been exactly defined longitudinally, may fairly be as- serted to extend westward across the Rocky Mountains, to the shore of the Pacific. Before the merits of these respective claims are considered, it is necessary to observe that one only out of the three can be valid. They are, in fact, claims obviously incompatible the one with the other. If, for example, the title of Spain by first discovery, or the title of France as the original possessor of Louisiana, be valid, then must one or the other of those kingdoms have been the lawful possessor of that territory, at the moment when the United States claim to have discovered it. If, on the other hand, the Americans were the first discoverers, there is necessarily an end of the Spanish claim; and if priority of discovery constitutes the title, that of France falls equally to the ground. Upon the question, how far prior discovery constitutes a legal claim to sovereignty, the law of nations is somewhat vague and undefined. It is, however, admitted by the most approved writers that mere accidental discovery, unattended by exploration — by formally taking possession in the name of the discoverer's sovereign — by occupation and settlement, more or less permanent — by purchase of the territory — or receiving the sovereignty from the natives — constitutes the lowest degree of title, and that it is only in proportion as first discovery is followed by any or all of these acts, that such title is strengthened and confirmed. The rights conferred by discovery, therefore, must be discussed on their own merits. But before the British plenipotentiaries proceed to compare the relative 448 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. claims of Great Britain and the United States, in this respect, it will be advisable to dispose of the two other grounds of right, put forward by the United States. The second ground of claim, advanced by the United States, is the cession made by Spain to the United States, by the treaty of Florida, in 1819. If the conflicting claims of Great Britain and Spain, in respect to all that part of the coast of North America, had not been finally adjusted by the convention of Nootka, in the year 1790, and if all the arguments and pretensions, whether resting on priority of discovery, or derived from any other consideration, had not been definitively set at rest by the signature of that convention, nothing would be more easy than to demonstrate that the claims of Great Britain to that country, as opposed to those of Spain, were so far from visionary, or arbitrarily assumed, that they established more than a parity of title to the possession of the country in question, either as against Spain, or any other nation. Whatever that title may have been, however, either on the part of Great Britain or on the part of Spain, prior to the convention of 1790, it was from thenceforward no longer to be traced in vague narratives of discoveries, several of them admitted to be apocryphal, but in the text and stipulations of that convention itself. By that convention it was agreed that all parts of the north-western coast of America, not already occupied at that time by either of the con- tracting parties, should thenceforward be equally open to the subjects of both, for all purposes of commerce and settlement; the sovereignty remaining in abeyance. In this stipulation, as it has been already stated, all tracts of country claimed by Spain and Great Britain, or accruing to either, in whatever manner, were included. The rights of Spain on that coast were, by the treaty of Florida, in 1819, conveyed by Spain to the United States. With those rights the United States necessarily succeeded to the limitations by which they were defined, and the obligations under which they were to be exercised. From those obligations and limitations, as contracted towards Great Britain, Great Britain cannot be expected gratuitously to release those countries, merely because the rights of the party originally bound have been transferred to a third power. The third ground of claim of the United States rests on the right supposed to be derived from the cession to them of Louisiana by France. In arguing this branch of the question, it will not be necessary to examine in detail the very dubious point of the assumed extent of that province, since, by the treaty between France and Spain of 1763, the whole of that territory, defined or undefined, real or ideal, was ceded by France to Spain, and, consequently, belonged to Spain, not only in 1790, when the convention of Nootka was signed between Great Britain and Spain, but also subsequently, in 1792, the period of Gray's discovery of the mouth of the Columbia. If, then, Louisiana embraced the country west of the Rocky Mountains, to the south of the 49th parallel of latitude, it must have embraced the Columbia itself, which that parallel intersects; and, consequently, Gray's discovery must have been made in a country avowedly already appropriated to Spain, and, if so appropriated, neces- H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 449 sarily included, with all other Spanish possessions and claims in that quarter, in the stipulations of the Nootka convention. Even if it could be shown, therefore, that the district west of the Rocky Mountains was within the boundaries of Louisiana, that circum- stance would in no way assist the claim of the United States. It may, nevertheless, be worth while to expose, in a few words, the futility of the attempt to include that district within those boundaries. For this purpose, it is only necessary to refer to the original grant of Louisiana made to De Crozat by Louis XIV., shortly after its discovery by La Salle. That province is therein expressly described as " the country drained by the waters entering, directly or indirectly, into the Mississippi." Now, unless it can be shown that any of the tributaries of the Mississippi cross the Rocky Mountains from west to east, it is difficult to conceive how any part of Louisiana can be found to the west of that ridge. There remains to be considered the first ground of claim advanced by the United States to the territory in question, namely, that founded on their own proper right as first discoverers and occupiers of that territory. If the discovery of the country in question, or rather the mere en- trance into the mouth of the Columbia by a private American citizen, be, as the United States assert, (although Great Britain is far from admitting the correctness of the assertion,) a valid ground of national and exclusive claim to all the country situated between the 42d and 49th parallels of latitude, then must any preceding discovery of the same country, by an individual of any other nation, invest such nation with a more valid, because a prior, claim to that country. Now, to set aside, for the present, Drake, Cook, and Vancouver, who all of them either took possession of, or touched at, various points of the coast in question. Great Britain can show that in 1T88 — that is, four years before Gray entered the mouth of the Columbia River — Mr. Meares,* a lieutenant of the royal navy, who had been sent by the East India Company on a trading expedition to the north-west coast of America, had already minutely explored that coast, from the 49th degree to the 45th degree north latitude; had taken formal possession of the Straits of De Fuca, in the name of h!s sovereign ; had purchased land, trafficked and formed treaties with the natives; and had actually entered the bay of the Columbia, to the northern headland of which he gave the name of Cajpe Disappointment — a name which it bears to this day. Dixon, Scott, Duncan, Strange, and other private British traders, had also visited these shores and countries several years before Gray ; but the single example of Meares suffices to quash Gray's claim to prior discovery. To the other navigators above mentioned, therefore, it is unnecessary to refer more particularly. It may be worth while, however, to observe, with regard to Meares, that his account of his voyages was published in London in August, 1790; that is, two years before Gray is even pretended to have entered the Columbia. To that account are appended, first, extracts from his log-book ; secondly, maps of the coasts and harbors which he visited, in which every • See p. 177. 57 450 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. part of the coast in question, including the hay of the Columbia, {into which the log expressly states that 3Ieares entered,) is minutely laid down, its delineation tallying, in almost every particular, with Vancouver's sub- sequent survey, and with the description found in all the best maps of that part of the world, adopted at this moment ; thirdly, the account in question actually contains an engraving, dated in August, 1790, of the entrance of De Fuca's Straits, executed after a design taken 171 June, 1788, by Meares himself. With these physical evidences of authenticity, it is as needless to contend for, as it is impossible to controvert, the truth of Meares's statement. It was only on the 17^/t of September, 1788, that the Washington, commanded by Mr. Gray, first made her appearance at Nootka. If, therefore, any claim to these countries, as between Great Britain and the United States, is to be deduced from priority of the discovery, the above exposition of dates and facts suffices to establish that claim in favor of Great Britain, on a basis too firm to be shaken. It must, indeed, be admitted that Mr. Gray, finding himself in the bay formed by the discharge of the waters of the Columbia into the Pacific, was the first to ascertain that this bay formed the outlet of a great river — a discovery which had escaped Lieutenant Meares, when, in 1788, four years before, he entered the same bay. But can it be seriously urged that this single step in the progress of discovery not only wholly supersedes the prior discoveries, both of the bay and the coast, by Lieutenant Meares, but equally absorbs the subse- quent exploration of the river by Captain Vancouver, for near a hundred miles above the point to which Mr. Gray's ship had proceeded, the formal taking possession of it by that British navigator,* in the name of his sovereign, and also all the other discoveries, explorations, and temporary possession and occupation of the ports and harbors on the coast, as well of the Pacific as within the Straits of De Fuca, up to the 49th parallel of latitude ? This pretension, however, extraordinary as it is, does not embrace the whole of the claim which the United States build upon the limited discovery of Mr. Gray, namely, that the bay of which Cape Disappoint- ment is the northernmost headland, is, in fact, the embouchure of a river. That mere ascertainment, it is asserted, confers on the United States a title, in exclusive sovereignty, to the whole extent of country drained by such river, and by all its tributary streams. In support of this very extraordinary pretension, the United States allege the precedent of grants and charters accorded in former times to companies and individuals, by various European sovereigns, over several parts of the American continent. Amongst other instances are adduced the charters granted by Elizabeth, James I., Charles II., and George II., to sundry British subjects and associations, as also the grant made by Louis XIV. to De Crozat over the tract of country watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries. But can such charters be considered an acknowledged part of the law of nations 1 Were they any thing more, in fact, than a cession to the grantee or grantees of whatever rights the grantor might suppose * See p. 248. H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 451 himself to possess, to the exclusion of other subjects of the same sov- ereign? — charters binding and restraining those only who were within the jurisdiction of the grantor, and of no force or validity against the subjects of other states, until recognized by treaty, and thereby becom- ing a part of international law.* Had the United States thought proper to issue, in 179i), by virtue of their national authority, a charter granting to Mr. Gray the whole extent of country watered, directly or indirectly, by the River Columbia, such a charter would, no doubt, have been valid in Mr. Gray's favor, as against all other citizens of the United States. But can it be supposed that it would have been acquiesced in by either of the powers, Great Britain and Spain, which, in that same year, were preparing to contest by arms the possession of the very country which would have been the subject of such a grant ? If the right of sovereignty over the territory in question accrues to the United States by Mr. Gray's discovery, how happens it that they never protested against the violence done to that right by the two powers, who, by the convention of 1790, regidated their respective rights in and over a district so belonging, as it is now asserted, to the United States? This claim of the United States to the territory drained by the Co- lumbia and its tributary streams, on the ground of one of their citizens having been the first to discover the entrance of that river, has been here so far entered into, not because it is considered to be necessarily entitled to notice, since the whole country watered by the Columbia falls within the provisions of the convention of 1790, but because the doctrine above alluded to has been put forward so broadly, and with such confidence, by the United States, that Great Britain considered it equally due to herself and to other powers to enter her protest against it. The United States further pretend that their claim to the country in question is strengthened and confirmed by the discovery of the sources of the Columbia, and by the exploration of its course to the sea by Lewis and Clarke, in 1805-0. In reply to this allegation. Great Britain affirms, and can distinctly prove, that, if not before, at least in the same and subsequent years, her North- Western Trading Company had, by means of their agent, Mr. Thomson, already established their posts among the Flat-head and Koo- tanie tribes, on the head-waters of the northern or main branch of the Columbia, and were gradually extending them down the principal stream of that river; thus giving to Great Britain, in this particular, again, as in the discovery of the mouth of the river, a title to parity at least, if not priority, of discovery, as opposed to the United States. It was from those posts, that, having heard of the American establishment forming in 1811, at the mouth of the river, Mr. Thomson hastened thither, descending the river, to ascertain the nature of that establishment.! Some stress having been laid by the United States on the restitution to them of Fort George by the British, after the termination of the last war, which restitution they represent as conveying a virtual acknowledg- ment by Great Britain of the title of the United States to the country in which that post was situated, — it is desirable to state, somewhat in detail, the circumstances attending that restitution. • See p. 350. t See p. 291, 297. 452 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. In the year 1815, a demand for the restoration of Fort George was first made to Great Britain, by the American government, on the plea that the first article of the treaty of Ghent stipulated the restitution to the United States of all posts and places whatsoever, taken from them by the British during the war, in which description Fort George (Astoria) was included. For some time the British government demurred to comply with the demand of the United States, because they entertained doubts how far it could be sustained by the construction of the treaty. In the first place, the trading post called Fort Astoria (or Fort George) was not a national possession ; in the second place, it was not a military post ; and, thirdly, it was never captured from the Americans by the British. It was, in fact, conveyed in regular commercial transfer, and ac- companied by a bill of sale, for a sum of money, to the British company, who purchased it, by the American company, who sold it of their own free will. It is true that a British sloop of war had, about that time, been sent to take possession of that post, but she arrived subsequently to the trans- action above mentioned, between the two companies, and found the British company already in legal occupation of their self-acquired property. In consequence, however, of that ship having been sent out with hostile views, although those views were not carried into effect, and in order that not even the shadow of a reflection might be cast upon the good faith of the British government, the latter determined to give the most liberal extension to the terms of the treaty of Ghent, and, in 1818, the purchase which the British company had made in 1813 was restored to the United States.* Particular care, however, was taken, on this occasion, to prevent any misapprehension as to the extent of the concession made by Great Britain. Viscount Castlereagh, in directing the British minister at Washington to intimate the intention of the British government to Mr. Adams, then secretary of state, uses these expressions, in a despatch dated 4th of February, 1818 : — " You will observe, that, whilst this government is not disposed to contest with the American government the point of possession as it stood in the Columbia River at the moment of the rupture, they are not prepared to admit the validity of the title of the government of the United States to this settlement. "In signifying, therefore, to Mr. Adams the full acquiescence of your government in the reoccupation of the limited position which the United States held in that river at the breaking out of the war, you ivill at the same time assert, in suitable terms, the claim of Great Britain to that terri- tory, upon which the American settlement must be considered as an encroachment." This instruction was executed verbally by the person to whom it was addressed. The following is a transcript of the act by which the fort was delivered up, by the British, into the hands of Mr. Prevost, the Amer- ican agent: — • See p. 309. H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 453 " In obedience to the command of H. R. H. the prince regent, signified in a despatch from the right honorable the Earl Bathurst, addressed to the partners or agents of the North- West Company, bearing date the 27th of January, 1818, and in obedience to a subsequent order, dated the 26th July, from W. H. Sheriff, Esq., captain of H. M. ship Andromache, We, the undersigned, do, in conformity to the first article of the treaty of Ghent, restore to the government of the United States, through its agent, J. P. Prevost, Esq., the settlement of Fort George, on the Columbia River. " Given under our hands, in triplicate, at Fort George, (Columbia River,) this 6th day of October, 1818. " F. HicKEY, Captain H. M. ship Blossom. " J. Keith, of the N. W. Co." The following is the despatch from Earl Bathurst to the partners of the North-West Company, referred to in the above act of cession : — " Downing Street, 27t/i Januanj, 1818. " Intelligence having been received that the United States sloop of war Ontario has been sent by the American government to establish a settlement on the Columbia River, which was held by that state, on the breaking out of the last war, I am to acquaint you, that it is the prince regent's pleasure (without, however, admitting the right of that government to the possession in question) that, in pursuance of the first article of the treaty of Ghent, due facility should be given to the reoccu- pation of the said settlement by the officers of the United States; and I am to desire that you would contribute as much as lies in your power to the execution of his royal highness's commands. " I have, &c. &c., " Bathurst. " To the Partners or Agents of the North-West Company, residing on the Columbia River." The above documents put the case of the restoration of Fort Astoria in too clear a light to require further observation. The case, then, of Great Britain, in respect to the country west of the Rocky Mountains, is shortly this: — Admitting that the United States have acquired all the rights which Spain possessed, up to the treaty of Florida, either in virtue of discovery, or, as is pretended, in right of Louisiana, Great Britain maintains that the nature and extent of those rights, as well as of the rights of Great Britain, are fixed and defined by the convention of Nootka ; that these rights are equal for both parties; and that, in succeeding to the rights of Spain, under that convention, the United States must also have succeeded to the obligations which it imposed. Admitting, further, the discovery of Mr. Gray, to the extent already stated, Great Britain, taking the whole line of the coast in question, with its straits, harbors, and bays, has stronger claims, on the ground of prior discovery, attended with acts of occupancy and settlement, than the United States. Whether, therefore, the United States rest their claims upon the title 454 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. TH, of Spain, or upon that of prior discovery, or upon both, Great Britain is entitled to place her claims at least upon a parity with those of the United States. It is a fact, admitted by the United States, that, with the exception of the Columbia River, there is no river which opens far into the interior, on the whole western coast of the Pacific Ocean. In the interior of the territory in question, the subjects of Great Britain have had, for many years, numerous settlements and trading posts — several of these posts on the tributary streams of the Columbia, several upon the Columbia itself, some to the northward, and others to the southward, of that river ; and they navigate the Columbia as the sole channel for the conveyance of their produce to the British stations nearest the sea, and for the shipment of it from thence to Great Britain. It is also by the Columbia and its tributary streams that these posts and settlements receive their annual supplies from Great Britain. In the whole of the territory in question, the citizens of the United States have not a single settlement or trading post. They do not use that river, either for the purpose of transmitting or receiving any produce of their own, to or from other parts of the world. In this state of the relative rights of the two countries, and of the relative exercise of those rights, the United States claim the exclusive possession of both banks of the Columbia, and, consequently, that of the river itself; offering, it is true, to concede to British subjects a conditional participation in that navigation, but subject, in any case, to the exclusive jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United States. Great Britain, on her part, offers to make the river the boundary; each country retaining the bank of the river contiguous to its own ter- ritories, and the navigation of it remaining forever free, and upon a foot- ing of perfect equality to both nations. To carry into effect this proposal, on our part. Great Britain would have to give up posts and settlements south of the Columbia. On the part of the United States, there could be no reciprocal withdrawing from actual occupation, as there is not, and never has been, a single American citizen settled north of the Columbia. The United States decline to accede to this proposal, even when Great Britain has added to it the further offer of a most excellent harbor, and an extensive tract of country on the Straits of De Fuca — a sacrifice tendered in the spirit of accommodation, and for the sake of a final adjustment of all differences, but which, having been made in this spirit, is not to be considered as in any degree recognizing a claim on the part of the United States, or as at all impairing the existing right of Great Britain over the post and territory in question. Such being tiie result of the recent negotiation, it only remains for Great Britain to maintain and uphold the qualified rights which she now possesses over the whole of the territory in question. These rights are recorded and defined in the convention of Nootka.* They embrace the ritrht to navigate the waters of those countries, the right to settle in and over any part of them, and the right freely to trade with the inhabitants and occupiers of the same. These rights have been peaceably exercised ever since the date of * See considerations on the Nootka convention, at p. 213. H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 455 that convention ; that is, for a period of near forty years. Under that convention, valuable British interests have grown up in those countries. It is fully admitted that the United States possess the same rights, although they have been exercised by them only in a single instance, and have not, since the year 1813, been exercised at all. But beyond these rights they possess none. To the interests and establishments which British industry and enter- prise have created, Great Britain owes protection. That protection will be given, both as regards settlement and freedom of trade and navigation, with every attention not to infringe the coordinate rights of the United States; it being the earnest desire of the British government, so long as the joint occupancy continues, to regulate its own obligations by the same rule which governs the obligations of any other occupying party. Fully sensible, at the same time, of the desirableness of a more definite settlement, as between Great Britain and the United States, the British government will be ready, at any time, to terminate the present state of joint occupancy by an agreement of delimitation; but such arrangement only can be admitted as shall not derogate from the rights of Great Britain, as acknowledged by treaty, nor prejudice the advantages which British subjects, under the same sanction, now enjoy in that part of the world. (2.) American Counter-Statement annexed to the Protocol of the seventh Con- ference, hy 3Ir. Gallatin, the P Icnipotcntiary of the United States. The American plenipotentiary has read with attention the exposition of the claims and views of Great Britain in regard to the territory west of the Rocky or Stony Mountains, annexed by the British plenipotentia- ries to the protocol of the last conference, and assures them that it will receive from his government all the consideration to which it is so justly entitled. He will not make any observations on that part of the exposition, which, as explanatory of the views of the British government in reference to a continued joint occupancy, he can only refer to his government. The remarks he will now offer are necessarily limited to the respective claims of the two countries, and to the proposals for a definitive engagement which have been made by each party. Great Britain claims no exclusive sovereignty over any portion of the territory in question. Her claim extends to the whole, but is limited to a right of joint occupancy in common with other states, leaving the right of exclusive dominion in abnjance. She insists that hers and Spain's conflicting claims were finally adjusted by the convention of Nootka, in 1790 ; that all the argumnits and pretensions, whether resting upon prior- ity of discovery, or derived from any other consideration, were definitively set at rest by that convention ; that, from its date, it was only in its text and stipulations that the title, either on her part or on that of Spain, was to be traced ; and that it was agreed by that convention, that all the parts of the north-west coast of America, not previously occupied by either 456 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. party, should thenceforward be equally open to the subjects of both, for all purposes of commerce and settlement, the sovereignty remaining in abeyance. It is then declared, that, in reference either to the rights derived to the United States from Spain, by virtue of the treaty of 1819, or to that supposed to be derived from the acquisition of Louisiana, which province did, in the year 1790, belong to Spain, the United States have, with these rights, necessarily succeeded to the limitations by which they were defined, and the obligations under which they were to be exercised, in conformity to the stipulations of the Nootka convention; whence it is generally in- ferred, that, whilst it is fully admitted that the United States possess the same rights as Great Britain over the country in question, namely, to navigate its waters, to settle in any part of it, and freely to trade with the inhabitants and occupiers of the same, beyond these rights, the United States possessed none, and that they cannot, therefore, claim exclusive sovereignty over any part of the said territory. It will, in the first place, be observed, that, admitting that convention to be still in force, and of whatever construction it may be susceptible, this compact between Spain and Great Britain could only bind the parties to it, and can affect the claim of the United States so far only as it is de- rived from Spain. If, therefore, they have a claim in right of their own discoveries, explorations, and settlements, as this cannot be impaired by the Nootka convention, it becomes indispensably necessary, in order to defeat such claim, to show a better prior title on the part of Great Britain, derived from some other consideration than the stipulations of that con- vention. But, on examining that instrument, it will be found to be ap- parently merely of a commercial nature, and in no shape to affect the question of distinct jurisdiction and exclusive sovereignty. It was agreed, by that convention, " that the respective subjects of the two parties should not be disturbed or molested, either in navigating or carrying on their fisheries in the Pacific Ocean or in the South Seas, or in landing on the coast of those seas, in places not already occupied, for the purpose of carrying on their commerce with the natives of the coun- try, or of making settlements there." And further, " that in all places , wherever the subjects of either shall have made settlements since the month of April, 1789, or shall hereafter make any, the subjects of the other shall have free access, and shall carry on their trade without any disturbance or molestation." It is difficult to believe, on reading those provisions, and recollecting in what cause the convention originated, that any other settlements could have been contemplated than such as were connected with the commerce to be carried on with the natives. Indeed, it is as being only of a com- mercial nature, that the Nootka convention may be positively asserted to be now in force ; the commercial treaties between Great Britain and Spain having, subsequent to the war which had intervened, been alone renewed by the treaty of July, 1814. Admitting, however, that the word " settlement" was meant in its most unlimited sense, it is evident that the stipulations had not for object to settle the territorial claims of the parties, and had no connection with an ultimate partition of the country, for the purpose of permanent coloni- zation. Those stipulations permitted promiscuous and intermixed settlements H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 457 every where, and over the whole face of the country, to the subjects of both parties, and even dechired every such settlement, made by either party, in a degree common to the other. Such a state of things is clearly incompatible with distinct jurisdiction and sovereignty. The convention, therefore, could have had no such object in view as to fix the relations of the contracting powers in that respect. On that subject it established or changed nothing, but left the parties where it found them, and in posses- sion of all such rights, whether derived from discovery, or from any other consideration, as belonged to each, to be urged by each, whenever the question of permanent and separate possession and sovereignty came to be discussed between them. It is, indeed, expressly admitted that the convention provided for com- merce and settlements, leaving the sovereignty in abeyance. And Great Britain, at tliis time, claims only a right of joint occupancy, in common with other nations, leaving the right oi exclusive dominion in abeyance. It is not perceived how it can, at the same time, be asserted that the argu- ments and pretensions of both parties were definitively set at rest by the convention, and that it is only in its text and stipulations that the title on either side is now to be traced. Commerce and settlements might, indeed, be made by either party, during the joint occupancy, without regard to their respective pretension or title, from whatever consideration derived. But since the sovereignty, since the right of exclusive dominion, has been left in abeyance, that right over any part of the countrv, to whichever party belonging, has not been extinguished, but only suspended, and must revive to its full extent when- ever that joint occupancy may cease. Whenever, therefore, a final line of demarkation becomes the subject of discussion, the United States have a right, notwithstanding, and in conformity to the Nootka convention, to appeal, in support of their claims, not only to their own discoveries, but to all the rights derived from the acquisition of Louisiana, and from their treaty of 1819 with Spain, in the same manner as if that convention had never been made. The question to be examined is, whether those claims are supported by the laws and usages of nations. It may be admitted, as an abstract principle, that, in the origin of soci- ety, first occupancy and cultivation were the foundation of the rights of private property and of national sovereignty. But that principle, on which principally, if not exclusively, it wouLd seem that the British government wishes to rely, could be permitted, in either case, to viperate alone, and without restriction, so long only as the extent of vacant territory was such, in proportion to population, that there was ample room for every individual, and for every distinct community or nation, without danger of collision with others. As, in every society, it had soon become necessary to make laws, regulating the manner in which its members should be permitted to occupy and to acquire vacant land within its acknowledged boundaries, so, also, nations found it indispensable for the preservation of peace, and for the exercise of distinct jurisdiction, to adopt, particu- larly after the discovery of America, some general rules, which should determine the important previous question, " Who had a right to occupy ?" The two rules generally, perhaps universally, recognized and conse- crated by the usage of nations, have flowed from the nature of the subject. By virtue of the first, prior discovery gave a right to occupy, provided 58 458 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. that occupancy took place within a reasonable time, and was ultimately followed by permanent settlements, and by the cultivation of the soil. In conformity with the second, the right derived from prior discovery and settlement was not confined to the spot so discovered or first settled. The extent of territory which would attach to such first discovery or set- tlement might not, in every case, be precisely determined. But that the first discovery, and subsequent settlement, within a reasonable time, of the mouth of a river, particularly if none of its branches liad been ex- plored prior to such discovery, gave the right of occupancy, and, ulti- mately, of sovereignty, to the whole country drained by such river and its several branches, has been generally admitted. And, in a question be- tween the United States and Great Britain, her acts have, with propriety, been appealed to, as showing that the principles on which they rely accord with her own. It is, however, now contended that the British charters, extending, in most cases, from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Seas, must be consid- ered as cessions of the sovereign to certain grantees, to the exclusion only of his other subjects, and as of no validity against the subjects of other states. This construction does not appear either to have been that in- tended at the time by the grantors, nor to have governed the subsequent conduct of Great Britain. By excepting from the grants, as was generally the case, such lands as were already occupied by the subjects of other civilized nations, it was clearly implied that no other exception was contemplated, and that the grants were intended to include all the unoccupied lands within their re- spective boundaries, to the exclusion of all other persons or nations what- soever. In point of fact, the whole country drained by the several rivers emptying into the Atlantic Ocean, the mouths of which were within those charters, has, from Hudson's Bay to Florida, and, it is believed, without exception, been occupied and held by virtue of those charters. Not only has this principle been fully confirmed, but it has been notoriously en- forced, much beyond the sources of the rivers on which the settlements were formed. The priority of the French settlements on the rivers flow- ing westwardly from the Alleghany Mountains into the Mississippi, was altogether disregarded ; and the rights of the Atlantic colonies to extend beyond those mountains, as growing out, of the contiguity of territory, and as asserted in the earliest charters, was effectually and successfully enforced. It is true, that the two general rules which have been mentioned might often conflict with each other. Thus, in the instance just alluded to, the discovery of the main branch of the Mississippi, including the mouth of that river, and the occupation of the intervening province of Louisiana by another nation, gave rise, at last, to a compromise of those conflicting claims, and induced Great Britain to restrain hers within narrower limits than those originally designated. But it is the peculiar character of the claim of the United States, that it is founded on both principles, which, in this case, unite both in its sup- port, and convert it into an incontestable right. It is in vain that, in order to avert that conclusion, an attempt is made to consider the several grounds on which that right is urored, as incompatible one with the other, as if the United States were obliged to select only one, and to abandon the others. In different hands, the several claims would conflict one with H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 459 the Other. Now, united in the same power, they support each other. The possessors of Louisiana might have contended, on the ground of con- tiguity, for the adjacent territory on the Pacific Ocean, with the dis- coveries of the coast and of its main rivers. Tiie several discoveries of the Spanish and American navigators might separately have been consid- ered as so many steps in the progress of discovery, and giving only imperfect claims to each party. All those various claims, from whatever consideration derived, are now brought united against the pretensions of any other nation. 1st. The actual possession and populous settlements of the valley of the Mississippi, including Louisiana, and now under one sovereignty, con- stitute a strong claim to the westwardly extension of that province over the contiguous vacant territory, and to the occupation and sovereignty of the country as far as the Pacific Ocean. If some trading factories on the shores of Hudson's Bay have been considered, by Great Britain, as giving an exclusive right of occupancy as far as the Rocky Mountains ; if the infant settlements on the more southern Atlantic shores justified a claim thence to the South Seas, and which was actually enforced to the Missis- sippi, that of the millions already within reach of those seas cannot con- sistently be resisted. For it will not be denied that the extent of contiguous territory, to which an actual settlement gives a prior right, must depend, in a considerable degree, on the magnitude and population of that settlement, and on the facility with which the vacant adjacent land may, within a short time, be occupied, settled, and cultivated, by such population, as compared with the probability of its being thus occupied and settled from any other quarter. It has been objected that, in the grant of Louisiana toCrozat, by Louis XIV., that province is described as " the country drained by the wa- ters emptying, directly or indirectly, into the Mississippi, excluding thereby, by implication, the country drained by the waters emptying into the Pacific. Crozat's grant was not for the whole of the province of Louisiana, as it was afterwards extended by France herself, and as it is now held by the United States. It was bounded, in that grant of 1712, by Carolina to the east, by New Mexico to the west, and on the north by the Illinois, which were then part of Canada. The most northerly branches of the Missis- sippi embraced in the grant were the Ohio, at that time called Wabash by the French, and the Missouri, the true course of which was not known at that time, and the sources of which were not supposed to ex- tend north of the 4'2d parallel of latitude. No territory on the west of the Mississippi was intended to be included in the grant north of that par- allel ; and as New Mexico, which bounded it on the west, was understood to extend even farther north, it was impossible that any territory should have been included west of the sources of the rivers emptying into the Mississippi. All the territory north of the 42d parallel of latitude, claimed by France, was included at that time, not in Louisiana, but in the government of New France, as Canada was then called. And by referring to the most authen- tic French maps, it will be seen that New France was made to extend over the territory drained, or supposed to be drained, by rivers entering into the South Seas. The claim to a westwardly extension to those seas, was thus early asserted as part, not of Louisiana, but of New France. 460 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. The king had reserved to himself, in Crozat's grant, the right of enlarging the government of Louisiana. This was done by an ordonnance dated in the year 1717, which annexed the Illinois to it; and, from that time, the province extended as far as the most northern limit of the French posses- sions in North America, and thereby west of Canada or New France. The settlement of that northern limit still further strengthens the claim of the United States to the territory west of the Rocky Moun- tains. The limits between the northerly possessions of Great Britain, in North America, and those of France, in the same quarter, namely, Can- ada and Louisiana, were determined by commissioners appointed in pur- suance of the treaty of Utrecht. From the coast of Labrador to a certain point north of Lake Superior, those limits were fixed according to certain metes and bounds, and from that point the line of demarkation was agreed to extend indefinitely due west, along the 49th parallel of north latitude. It was in conformity with that arrangement that the United States did claim that parallel as the northern boundary of Louisiana. It has been, accordingly, thus settled, as far as the Stony Mountains, by the convention of 1818, between the United States and Great Britain; and no adequate reason can be given why the same boundary should not be continued as far as the claims of the United States do extend ; that is to say, as far as the Pacific Ocean. This argument is not weakened by the fact, that the British settlements west of the Stony Mountains are solely due to the extension of those previously formed on the waters emptying into Hudson's Bay : and it is from respect to a demarkation, considered as binding on the parties, that the United States had consented to confine their claim to the 49th parallel of latitude, namely, to a territory of the same breadth as Louisiana east of the Stony Mountains, although, as founded on prior discoveries, that claim would have extended much farther north. 2dly. The United States have an undoubted right to claim, by virtue both of the Spanish discoveries and of their own. Setting aside all those which are not supported by authentic evidence, some of the most impor- tant were made by Spanish navigators prior to Cook's voyage. In 1774, Perez, in the Spanish corvette Santiago, discovered Nootka Sound, in latitude 49° 30', and sailed to the 55th degree, discovering Lougara Island and Perez (now called Dixon's) Entrance, north of Queen Char- lotte Island. In 1775, duadra, in the Spanish schooner Felicidad, of which Maurelle was pilot, discovered various ports between the 5oth and 58th degrees, and explored the coast from 42° to 54°, landing at several places, imposing names to some, and not being, at any time, hardly more than ten leagues from the shore. In other Spanish voyages of a subsequent date, those of Arteaga and Quadra in 1779, and of Martinez and Haro in 1786, various other parts of the north-west coast were explored, as far north as the 60th degree of north latitude. The Straits of Fuca were discovered, or again found, in 1787, by Cap- tain Barclay, of the Imperial Fiagle, a vessel fitted out at Ostend. The entrance was, in 1788, again visited by the English Captains Meares and Duncan. In the same year, Captain Gray, of the American sloop Wash- ington, (who arrived at Nootka in September, coming from the south, where he had landed,) penetrated fifty miles up the straits. They were H-l PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 461 explored in 1791, by the Spanish Captains Quimpa and Eliza, beyond the 50th degree of latitude. Their complete survey, and the discovery of the northern outlet, in 1792, are due principally to Captain Vancouver, who sailed through them in company with the Spanish vessels Sutil and Mexicana. The discovery, which belongs exclusively to the United States, and in their own right, is that of the River Columbia. The continuity of the coast from the 4-2d to the 48th degree of latitude, had been ascertained by the voyage of Quadra, in 1775, and confirmed by that of Captain Cook in 1778. The object of discovery thenceforth, was that of a large river, which should open a communication with the interior of the country. This had escaped Quadra, who had sailed in sight of the entrance afterwards discovered. Meares failed likewise in his attempt, in the year 1788, to make the discovery. Captain Vancouver was not more fortunate. After having also sailed along the coast, from south to north, to the 48th degree, he recorded in his journal of the 29th April, 1792, which he had too much probity afterwards to alter, his opin- ion that there was no large river south of 48°, but only small creeks. On the ensuing day he met at sea with Captain Gray, then commanding the American ship " Columbia," who informed him of the existence of the river, at the mouth of which he (Gray) had been for several days without being able to enter it. Captain Vancouver proceeded to Fuca's Straits, and Captain Gray returned to the south, where he completed his discovery, liaving, on the 11th May, entered the river which bears the name of his ship, and as- cended it upwards of twenty miles. He then, having also discovered Gray's Harbor, went to Nootka Sound, where he again met with Captain Vancouver, to whom he communicated his discoveries, and gave him a rough chart of the river. With this inforniation, one of Captain Vancou- ver's officers was sent to take a survey of Gray's Harbor, and another that of the Columbia River, which he ascended about eight miles higher up than Gray. Yet, in order to found a claim derived from a share in the discovery, that of Captain Gray is called only a step in the progress of discovery ; and it is attempted to divide its merit between him, Meares, and Captain Vancouver's officer. It must again be repeated, that the sole object of discovery was " the river," and, coming from sea, the mouth of the river. Meares only followed Quadra's track. Had he suggested or suspected the ex- istence of a river, when he was near its entrance, it would have been a step in the progress of discovery. So far from it, that, in his map, he has laid the presumed mouth of the great river of the west, of the tradi- tional Oregon, of the real Columbia, in the Straits of Fuca. The very names which he imposed, Cape Disappointment and Deception Bay, attest his failure. Captain Vancouver, having completed his survey of that part of the coast, with a conviction that no Inrge river emptied there into the ocean, would not have explored it again, had he not received the information from Captain Gray of his discoveries. And, in fact, in his second visit to that quarter, he surveyed, or caused to be surveyed, only the harbor and the river which had been indicated to him. The lieutenant sent to the Co- 462 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H- lumbia, and who never would have gone there had it not been for Captain Gray's information, performed, no doubt, with fidelity, the mechanical duty of taking the soundings one hundred miles up its course. In that consists his sole merit : in the discovery he had not the slightest share. The important services rendered to navigation and to science, by that offi- cer and by Captain Vancouver, are fully acknowledged ; and their well- earned reputation cannot be increased by ascribing to them what exclu- sively belongs to another. Louisiana having been acquired by the United States in 1803, an expedition was immediately ordered by government to examine its west- ern districts. In the course of this, Captains Lewis and Clarke ascended the Missouri to its source, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and ex- plored the course of the Columbia, from its most eastern sources to its mouth, where they arrived on the 6th of November, 180.5. There they erected the works called Fort Clatsop, and wintered in 1805-1806. And thus was the discovery of the river commenced and completed by the United States, before, as it is firmly believed, any settlement had been made on it, or any of its branches been explored, by any other nation. This is corroborated by the statement of the British plenipotentiaries. After having given, as the date of Lewis and Clarke's exploration, not the year 1805, but the years 180-5-1806, they assert that, if not before, at least in the same and subsequent years, Mr. Thomson had already estab- lished a post on the head-waters of the northern or main branch of the Columbia. Had that post been established in 1805, before Lewis and Clarke's exploration, another and more distinct mode of expression would have been adopted. But it cannot be seriously contended that, if Mr. Thomson had, in that year, reached one of the sources of the Colum- bia, north of the 50th degree of latitude, this, compared with the complete American exploration, would give to Great Britain " a title to parity, at least, if not priority of discovery, as opposed to the United States." In the year 1810, Mr. Astor, a citizen of the United States, fitted out two expeditions for the mouth of the Columbia ; one by sea, and the other by land, from the Missouri. In March, 181 1 , the establishment of Astoria was accordingly commenced near the mouth of the river, before any Brit- ish settlement had been made south of the 49th parallel of latitude. From that principal post, several other settlements were formed ; one of them, contrary to the opinion entertained by the British plenipotentiaries, at the mouth of the Wanahata, several hundred miles up, and on the right bank of the Columbia. These establishments fell into the hands of the British during the war ; and that of Astoria has since been formally restored, in conformity with the treaty of Ghent. On the circumstances of that restitution, it is sufficient to observe, that, with the various despatches from and to the officers of the British government, the United States have no concern ; that it is not stated how the verbal communications of the British minister at Washington were received, nor whether the American government consented to accept the restitution, with the reservation, as expressed in the despatches to that minister from his government ; and that the only written document affecting the restoration, known to be in possession of H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 463 that of the United States, is the act of restoration itself, which contains no exception, reservation, or protest, whatever. It has thus been established, that the Columbia River was first discov- ered by the United States ; that that first discovery was attended by a com- plete exploration of the river, from its most easterly source to the north, before any such exploration had been made by any other nation ; by a simultaneous actual occupation and possession, and by subsequent estab- lishments and settlements made within a reasonable time, and which have been interrupted only by the casualties of war. This, it is contended, gives, according to the acknowledged law and usages of nations, a right to the whole country drained by that river and by its tributary streams, which could have been opposed only by the con- flicting claim derived from the possession of Louisiana. Both, united and strengthened by -the other Spanish and American discoveries along the coast, (and, without reference to the cession of the pretensions of Spain, derived from other considerations,) establish, it is firmly believed, a stronger title to the country above described, and along the coast as far north, at least, as the 49th parallel of latitude, than has ever, at any for- mer time, been asserted by any nation to vacant territory. Before the subject is dismissed, it may be proper to observe, that the United States had no motive, in the year 1790, to protest against the Nootka convention, since their exclusive right to the territory on the Pacific originated in Gray's discovery, which took place only in 1792. The acquisition of Louisiana, and their last treaty with Spain, are still posterior. On the formality called " taking possession," though no actual pos- session of the country is taken, and on the validity of sales of land and surrender of sovereignty by Indians, who are for the first time brought into contact with civilized men ; who have no notion of what they mean by either sovereignty or property in land ; who do not even know what cultivation is ; with whom it is difficult to communicate, even upon visible objects ; the American plenipotentiary thinks that he may abstain from making any remarks. Whilst supporting their claim by arguments, which they think conclu- sive, the United States have not been inattentive to the counter claims of Great Britain. They, indeed, deny that the trading posts of the North-West Company give any title to the territory claimed by America, not only because no such post was established within the limits claimed when the first Ameri- can settlement was made, but because the title of the United States is con- sidered as having been complete, before any of those traders had appeared on the waters of the Columbia. It is also believed, that mere factories, established solely for the purpose of trafficking with the natives, and with- out any view to cultivation and permanent settlement, cannot, of them- selves, and unsupported by any other consideration, give any better title to dominion and absolute sovereignty, than similar establishments made in a civilized country. But the United States have paid due regard to the discoveries by which the British navigators have so eminently distinguished themselves, to those, perhaps not less remarkable, made by land from the upper lakes of the Pacific, and to the contiguity of the possessions of Great 464 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. Britain, on the waters of Hudson's Bay, to the territory bordering on that ocean. Above all, they have been earnestly desirous to preserve and cherish, not only the peaceful, but the friendly relations, which happily subsist between the two countries. And, with that object in view, their offer of a permanent line of demarkation has been made, under a perfect conviction that it was attended with the sacrifice of a portion of what they might justly claim. Viewed as a matter of mutual convenience, and with equal desire, on both sides, to avert, by a definitive line of delimitation, any possible cause of collision in that quarter, every consideration connected with the sub- ject may be allowed its due weight. If the present state of occupancy is urged, on the part of Great Britain, the probability of the manner in which the territory west of the Rocky Mountains must be settled, belongs also essentially to the subject. Under whatever nominal sovereignty that country may be placed, and whatever its ultimate destinies may be, it is nearly reduced to a certainty, that it will be almost exclusively peopled by the surplus population of the United States. The distance from Great Britain, and the expense in- cident to emigration, forbid the expectation of any being practicable, from that quarter, but on a comparatively small scale. Allowing the rate of increase to be the same in the United States, and in the North Ameri- can British possessions, the difference in the actual population of both is such, that the progressive rate which would, within forty years, add three millions to these, would, within the same time, give a positive increase of more than twenty millions to the United States. And if circumstances, arising from localities and habits, have given superior facilities to British subjects, of extending their commerce with the natives, and to that expan- sion which has the appearance, and the appearance only, of occupancy, — the slower but sure progress and extension of an agricultural population, will be regulated by distance, by natural obstacles, and by its own amount. The primitive right of acquiring property and sovereignty, by occupancy alone, admitting it to be unlimited in theory, cannot extend beyond the capacity of occupying and cultivating the soil. It may also be observed, that, in reality, there were but three na- tions which had both the right and the power to colonize the territory in question — Great Britain, the United States, and Spain, or now the new American states. These are now excluded, in consequence of the treaty of 1819. The United States, who have purchased their right for a valuable consideration, stand now in their place, and, on that ground, in the view entertained of the subject by the British government, are, on a final partition of tiie country, fairly entitled to two shares. Under all the circumstances of the case, as stated on both sides, the United States offer a line, which leaves to Great Britain by far the best portion of the fur trade, — the only object, at this time, of the pursuits of her subjects in that quarter, — and a much greater than her proportionate share of the country, with a view to its permanent settlement, if the rela- tive geographical situation, and means of colonizing, of both parties are taken into consideration. From the 42d degree of north latitude to the Observatory Inlet, in about 55° 30', there is a front on the Pacific of almost fourteen degrees of latitude, which the 49th parallel divides into two nearly equal parts. The mouth of the Columbia River, if I'] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 465 accepted as a boundary, would leave less than one third to the United States. The offer of the free navigation of that river, when the whole territory, drained by all its tributary streams, including the northernmost branches, might have been justly claimed, would have also given to Great Britain, in time of peace, all the commercial advantages which it can afford to the Americans. In the case of a war, (which God forbid,) whatever might be the result on shore, the line proposed by Great Britain, even with the addition of the detached and defenceless territory she offered, would leave the sea border at her mercy, and the United States without a single port; whilst the boundary proposed by them might, during that period, deprive Great Britain only of the use of the port at the mouth of the Columbia, and would leave her in the secure possession of numerous seaports, perhaps less convenient, but still affording ample means of communication with the interior. That line, indeed, with such slight reciprocal modifications as the topography of the country may indicate, would establish the most natural and mutually-defensible boundary that can be found, and, for that reason, the least liable to collision, and the best calculated to perpetuate peace and harmony between the two powers. I. Documents relating to the Hudson's Bay Company. This company was incorporated by a charter from King Charles II. of England, issued on the 2nd of May, 1670; a few extracts from which will be sufficient to show the powers of the company and the extent of its territories under that grant. His Majesty^ s Royal Charter to the Governor and Company of Hud- son's Bay. " Charles the Second, by the grace of God, king of England, &c., to all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting : Whereas our dearly beloved cousin, Prince Rupert [and seventeen others, whose names and titles follow] have, at their own great cost and charges, undertaken an ex- pedition for Hudson's Bay, in the north-west parts of America, for the dis- covery of a new passage into the South Sea, and for the finding of some trade for furs, minerals, and other considerable commodities ; and by such their undertaking have already made such discoveries as do encourage them to proceed farther in performance of their said design, by means whereof there may probably arise great advantage to us and our kingdoms ; and 59 466 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [I. whereas the said undertakers, for their further encouragement in the said design, have humbly besought us to incorporate them, and to grant unto them and their successors the whole trade and commerce of all those seas, straits and bays, rivers, lakes, creeks and sounds, in whatsoever lati- tude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the straits commonly called Hudson's Straits, together with all the lands, countries, and terri- tories, upon the coasts and confines of the seas, straits, bays, lakes, rivers, creeks, and sounds, aforesaid, which are not now actually possessed by any of our subjects, or by the subjects of any other Christian prince or state ; — " Now, know ye, that we, being desirous to promote all endeavors that may tend to the public good of our people, and to encourage the said undertaking, have, of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, given, granted, ratified, and confirmed, and by these presents, for us and our successors, do give, grant, ratify, and confirm, unto our said cousin, Prince Rupert, &c., that they and such others as shall be ad- mitted into the said society, as is hereafter expressed, shall be one body corporate and politic, in deed and in name, by the name of The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay, * * * and at all times hereafter, shall be personable, and capable in law, to have, purchase, receive, possess, enjoy, and retain lands, rents, privileges, liberties, jurisdiction, franchises, and hereditaments, of what kind, nature, or quality soever they be, to them and their successors." By succeeding sections of the charter, provisions are made — for the election of a governor, a deputy governor, and a committee of seven members, who are to have the direction of all voyages, sales, and other business of the company — for the election of new members — and for holding, at particular periods, a general court of the company. The first company and their successors are made lords proprietors of the territories above mentioned, holding the lands " in free and common socage, and not incapite, or by knights' service;" and they are em- powered to make all laws and regulations for the government of their possessions, which may " be reasonable, and not contrary or repugnant, but as near as may be agreeable, to the laws, statutes, and customs," of England. The whole trade, fishery, navigation, minerals, &/C., of the countries, is granted to the company exclusively ; all others of the king's subjects being forbidden to " visit, haunt, frequent, trade, traffic, or adventure," therein, under heavy penalties; and the company is more- over empowered " to send ships, and to build fortifications, for the de- fence of its possessions, as well as to make war or peace with all nations or people, not Christian, inhabiting those territories, which are declared to be thenceforth "reckoned and reputed as one of his majesty's plan- tations or colonies, in America, called Rupert's Land." Thus it will be seen, that the Hudson's Bay Company possessed by its charter almost sovereign powers over the vast portion of America drained by streams entering Hudson's Bay. With regard to the other countries in British America, north and west of Canada, not included in the Hud- son's Bay Company's possessions, and which were termed, generally, the Indian countries, an act was passed on the 11th of August, 1803, in the 43d year of the reign of King George HI., entitled. I.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 467 (2.) " An Act for extending the Jurisdiction of the Courts of Justice in the Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada to the Trial and Punishment of Persons guilty of Crimes and Offences within certain Parts of North America., adjoining to the said Provinces." By this act, offences committed within the Indian territories were to be tried in the same manner as if committed within the provinces of Lower and Upper Canada ; the governor of Lower Canada may em- power persons to act as justices of the peace for the Indian territories, for committing offenders until they are conveyed to Canada for trial, &c. This act remained in force until July 2d, 1821 when was passed, (3.) *' An Act for regulating the Fur Trade, and establishing a Criminal and Civil Jurisdiction, within certain Parts of North America* " Whereas the competition in the fur trade between the Governor ana Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay, and cer- tain associations of persons trading under the name of ' The North- West Company of Montreal,' has been found, for some years past, to be pro- ductive of great inconvenience and loss, not only to the said company and associations, but to the said trade in general, and also of great injury to the native Indians, and of other persons, subjects of his majesty : And whereas the animosities and feuds arising from such competition have also, for some years past, kept the interior of America, to the northward and westward of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and of the territories of the United States of America, in a state of continued disturb- ance : And whereas many breaches of the peace, and violence, extending to the loss of lives, and considerable destruction of property have continu- ally occurred therein : And whereas, for remedy of such evils, it is expe- dient and necessary that some more effectual regulations should be estab- lished for the apprehending, securing, and bringing to justice, all persons committing such offences, and that his majesty should be empowered to regulate the said trade : And whereas doubts have been entertained, whether the provisions of an act passed in the forty-third year of the reign of his late majesty, King George the Third, intituled 'An Act for extend- ing the jurisdiction of the courts of justice in the provinces of Lotver and Upper Canada to the trial and punishment of persons guilty of crimes and offences within certain parts of North America, adjoining to the said prov- inces,' extended to the territories granted by charter to the said governor and company ; and it is expedient that such doubts should be removed, and that the said act should be further extended : Be it therefore enacted, by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That, from and • See p. 325. 468 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [L after the passing of this act, it shall be lawful for his majesty, his heirs or successors, to make grants or give his royal license, under the hand and seal of one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state, to any body cor- porate or company, or person or persons, of or for the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians in all such parts of North America as shall be specified in any such grants or licenses respectively, not being part of the lands or territories heretofore granted to the said Governor and Com- pany of Adventurers of England trading to Hudson's Bay, and not being part of any of his majesty's provinces in North America, or of any lands or territories belonging to the United States of America ; and all such grants and licenses shall be good, valid, and effectual, for the purpose of securing to all such bodies corporate, or companies, or persons, the sole and exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians in all such parts of North America, (except as hereinafter excepted,) as shall be specified in such grants or licenses, any thing contained in any act or acts of Parlia- ment, or any law, to the contrary notwithstanding. " II. Provided always, and be it further enacted. That no such grant or license, made or given by his majesty, his heirs or successors, of any such exclusive privileges of trading with the Indians in such parts of North America as aforesaid, shall be made or given for any longer period than twenty-one years ; and no rent shall be required or demanded for or in respect of any such grant or license, or any privileges given thereby under the provisions of this act, for the first period of twenty-one years ; and from and after the expiration of such first period of twenty-one years, it shall be lawful for his majesty, his heirs or successors, to reserve such rents in any future grants or licenses to be made to the same or any other parties, as shall be deemed just and reasonable, with security for the pay- ment thereof; and such rents shall be deemed part of the land revenues of his majesty, his heirs and successors, and be applied and accounted for as the other land revenues of his majesty, his heirs or successors, shall, at the time of payment of any such rent being made, be applied and ac- counted for. " III. And be it further enacted, That, from and after the passing of this act, the Governor and Company of Adventurers trading to Hudson's Bay, and every body corporate, and company, and person, to whom every such grant or license shall be made or given, as aforesaid, shall respec- tively keep accurate registers of all persons in their employ in any parts of North America, and shall, once in each year, return to his majesty's sec- retaries of state accurate duplicates of such registers, and shall also enter into such security as shall be required by his majesty for the due execu- tion of all processes, criminal and civil, as well within the territories included in any such grant, as within those granted by charter to the Governor and Company of Adventurers trading to Hudson's Bay, and for the producing or delivering into safe custody, for purpose of trial, of all persons in their employ or acting under their authority, who shall be charged with any criminal offence, and also for the due and faithful observance of all such rules, regulations, and stipulations, as shall be con- tained in any such grant or license, either for diminishing or preventing the sale or distribution of spirituous liquors to the Indians, or for pro- moting their moral and religious improvement, or for any other object which his majesty may deem necessary for the remedy or prevention of the other evils which have hitherto been found to exist. i,] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 469 " IV. And whereas, by a convention entered into between his majesty and the United States of America, it was stipulated and agreed that any country on the north-west coast oi America to the westward of the Stony Mountains, should be free and open to the citizens and subjects of the two powers, for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of that convention ; Be it therefore enacted. That nothing in this act con- tained shall be deemed or construed to authorize any body corporate, company, or person, to whom his majesty may have, under the provisions of this act, made a grant or given a license of exclusive trade with the Indians in such parts oi North America as aforesaid, to claim or exercise any such exclusive trade within the limits specified in the said article, to the prejudice or exclusion of any citizens of the said United States of America, who may be engaged in the said trade : Provided always, that no British subject shall trade with the Indians within such limits without such grant or license as is by this act required. " V. And be it declared and enacted, That the said act, passed in the forty-third year of the reign of his late majesty, intituled An Act for ex- tending the jurisdiction of the courts of justice in the provinces of Lower a/tr/ Upper Canada, to the trial and punishment of persons guilty of crimes and offences within certain parts of North America adjoining to the said provinces, and all the clauses and provisoes therein contained, shall be deemed and construed, and it is and are hereby respectively declared, to extend to and over, and to be in full force in and through, all the territo- ries heretofore granted to the Company of Adventurers oi England trading to Hudson's Bay ; any thing in any act or acts of Parliament, or this act, or in any grant or charter to the company, to the contrary notwithstanding. " VI. And be it further enacted, That, from and after the passing of this act, the courts of judicature now existing, or which may be hereafter established in the province of Upprr Canada, shall have tlie same civil jurisdiction, power, and authority, as well in the cognizance of suits as in the issuing process, mesne and final, and in all other respects whatsoever, within the said Indian territories, and other parts oi America not within the limits of either of the provinces oi Lotvcr or Upper Canada, or of any civil government of the Unitid States, as the said courts have or are invested with within the limits of the said provinces of Lower or Upper Canada respectively ; and that all and every contract, agreement, debt, liability, and demand whatsoever, made, entered into, incurred, or arising within the said Indian territories and other parts oi America, and all and every wrong and injury to the person, or to property, real ox personal, com- mitted or done within the same, shall be, and be deemed to be, of the same nature, and be cognizable by the same courts, magistrates, or justices of the peace, and be tried in the same manner, and subject to the same conse- quences, in all respects, as if the same had been made, entered into, incurred, arisen, committed, or done, within the said province of Upper Canada ; any thing in any act or acts of Parliament, or grant, or charter, to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided always, that all such suits and actions relating to lands, or to any claims in respect oi land, not being within the province of Upper Canada, shall be decided according to the laws of that part of the United Kingdom called England, and .shall not be subject to or affected by any local acts, statutes, or laws, of the legislature of Upper Canada. " VII. And be it further enacted, That all ])rocess, writs, orders, judg- ments, decrees, and acts whatsoever, to be issued, made, delivered, given, and done, by or under the authority of the said courts, or either of them, 470 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [l. shall have tne same force, authority, and effect, within the said Indian territory and other parts of America as aforesaid, as the same now have within the said province of Upper Canada. " VIII. And be it further enacted. That it shall be lawful for the gov- ernor, or lieutenant-governor, or person administering the government for the time being, of Lmocr Canada, by commission" under his hand and seal, to authorize all persons who shall be appointed justices of the peace under the provisions of this act, within the said Indian territories, or other parts oi America as aforesaid, or any other person who shall be specially named in any such commission, to act as a commissioner within the same, for the purpose of executing, enforcing, and carrying into effect, all such process, writs, orders, judgments, decrees, and acts, which shall be issued, made, delivered, given, or done, by the said courts of judicature, and which may require to be enforced and executed within the said Indian territo- ries, or such other parts oi North America as aforesaid; and in case any person or persons whatsoever, residing or being within the said Indian territories, or such other parts of America as aforesaid, shall refuse to obey or perform any such process, writ, order, judgment, decree, or act, of the said courts, or shall resist or oppose the execution thereof, it shall and may be lawful for the said justices of the peace or commissioners, and they, or any of them, are, and is, hereby required, on the same being proved before him, by the oath or affidavit of one credible witness, to commit the said person or persons so offending as aforesaid to custody, in order to his or their being conveyed to Upper Canada ; and that it shall be lawful for any such justice of the peace or commissioner, or any person or persons acting under his authority, to convey, or cause to be conveyed, such person or persons so offending as aforesaid to Upper Can- ada, in pursuance of such process, writ, order, decree, judgment, or act ; and such person and persons shall be committed to jail by the said court, on his, her, or their being so brought into the said province of Upper Canada, by which such process, writ, order, decree, judgment, or act, was issued, made, delivered, given, or done, until a final judgment or decree shall have been pronounced in such suit, and shall have been duly per- formed, and all costs paid, in case such person or persons shall be a party or parties in such suit, or until the trial of such suit shall have been con- cluded, in case such person or persons shall be a witness or witnesses therein : Provided always, that, if any person or persons, so apprehended as aforesaid, shall enter into a bond recognizance to any such justice of the peace or commissioner, with two sufficient sureties, to the satisfaction of such justice of the peace or commissioner, or the said courts, conditioned to obey and perform such process, writ, order, judgment, decree, or act, as aforesaid, then and in such case it shall and may be lawful for the said justice of the peace or commissioner, or the said courts, to discharge such person or persons out of custody. " IX. And be it further enacted, That, in case such person or persons shall not perform and fulfil the condition or conditions of such recogni- zance, then and in such case it shall and may be lawful for any such justice or commissioner, and he is hereby required, to assign such recog- nizance to the plaintiff or plaintiffs, in any suit in which such process, writ, order, decree, judgment, or act, shall have been issued, made, deliv- ered, given, or done, who may maintain an action in the said courts in his own name against the said sureties, and recover against such sureties the full amount of such loss or damage as such plaintiff shall prove to have L] proofs and illustrations. 471 been sustained by him, by reason of the original cause of action in respect of which such process, writ, order, decree, judgment, or act, of the said courts were issued, made, delivered, given, or done, as aforesaid, notwith- standing any thing contained in any charter granted to the said Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading to Hudson's Bay. " X. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for his majesty, if he shall deem it convenient so to do, to issue a commission or com- missions to any person or persons to be and act as justices of the peace within such parts oi America as aforesaid, as well within any territories heretofore granted to the Com})any of Adventurers o^ England trading to Hudson's Bay, as within the Indian territories of such other parts of America as aforesaid ; and it shall be lawful for the court in the province of Upper Canada, in any case in which it shall appear expedient to have any evidence taken by commission, or any facts or issue, or any cause or suit, ascertained, to issue a commission to any three or more of such jus- tices to take such evidence, and return the same, or try such issue, and for that purpose to hold courts, and to issue subpoenas or other processes to compel attendance of plaintiffs, defendants, jurors, witnesses, and all other persons requisite and essential to the execution of the several pur- poses for which such commission or commissions had issued, and with the like power and authority as are vested in the courts of the said province of Upper Canada; and any order, verdict, judgment, or decree, that shall be made, found, declared, or published, by or before any court or courts held under and by virtue of such commission or commissions, shall be considered to be of as full effect, and enforced in like manner, as if the same had been made, found, declared, or published, within the juris- diction of the court of the said province ; and at the time of issuing such commission or commissions shall be declared the place or places where such commission is to be opened, and the courts and proceedings there- under held ; and it shall be at the same time provided how and by what means the expenses of such commission, and the execution thereof, shall be raised and provided for. " XI. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for his majesty, notwitlistanding any thing contained in this act, or in any charter granted to the said Governor and Company of Adventurers o( England trading to Hudson's Bay, from time to time, by any commission under the great seal, to authorize and empower any such persons so appointed justices of the peace as aforesaid, to sit and hold courts of record for the trial of criminal offences and misdemeanors, and also of civil causes; and it shall be lawful for his majesty to order, direct, and authorize, the appointment of proper ofBcers to act in aid of such courts and justices within the juris- diction assigned to such courts and justices, in any such commission ; any thing in this act, or in any charter of the Governor and Company of Merchant Adventurers o( England trading to Hudson's Bay, to the con- trary notwithstanding. " XII. Provided always, and be it further enacted. That such courts shall be constituted, as to the number of justices to preside therein, and as to such places within the said territories of the said company, or any Indian territories, or other parts of North America as aforesaid, and the times and manner of holding the same, as his majesty shall from time to time order and direct ; but shall not try any offender upon any charge or indictment for any felony made the subject of capital punishment, or 472 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [l. for any offence, or passing sentence affecting the life of any offender, or adjudge or cause any offender to suffer capital punishment or transporta- tion, or take cognizance of or try any civil action or suit, in which the cause of such suit or action shall exceed in value the amount or sum of two hundred pounds; and in every case of any offence subjecting the per- son committing the same to capital punishment or transportation, the court or any judge of any such court, or any justice or justices of the peace, before whom any such offender shall be brought, shall commit such offender to safe custody, and cause such offender to be sent in such custody for trial in the court of the province of Upper Canada. " XIII. And be it further enacted. That all judgments given in any civil suit shall be subject to appeal to his majesty in council, in like manner as in other cases in his majesty's province of Upper Canada, and also in any case in which the right or title to any land shall be in question. " XIV. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act contained shall be taken or construed to affect any right, privilege, authority, or jurisdiction, which the Governor and Company of Adventurers trading to Hudson's Bay are by law entitled to claim and exercise under their charter ; but that all such rights, privileges, authorities, and jurisdictions, shall remain in as full force, virtue, and effect, as if this act had never been made; anything in this act to the contrary notwithstandhjg." Shortly before the passage of this act, the Hudson's Bay Company was united with the North-West Company, or rather the latter was merged in the former; and on the 21st of December, 1821, the king made a (4.) " Grant of the exclusive Trade with the Indians of North America to the Hudson's Bay Company," of which the following are the terms : — " And whereas the said Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay, and certain associations of persons trading under the name of the North-West Company of Montreal, have respectively extended the fur trade over many parts of North America, which had not been before explored: And whereas the competition in the said trade has been found, for some years past, to be productive of great inconvenience and loss, not only to the said company and associations, but to the said trade in general, and also of great injury to the native Indians, and of other persons our subjects : And whereas the said Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay, and William Mc- Gillivray, of Montreal, in the province of Lower Canada, Esquire, Simon McGillivray, of Suffolk Lane, in the city of London, merchant, and Edward Ellice, of Spring Gardens, in the county of Middlesex, Esquire, have represented to us, that they have entered into an agreement on the 26th day of March last, for putting an end to the said competition, and carry- I.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 473 ing on the said trade for twenty-one years, commencing with the outfit of 1821, and ending with tiie returns of 1841, to be carried on in the name of the said Governor and Company exclusively : And whereas the said Governor and Company, and W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. Ellice, have humbly besought us to make a grant, and give our royal license to them jointly, of and for the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians in North America, under the restrictions and upon the terms and conditions specified in the said recited act : — "Now, know ye, that we, being desirous of encouraging the said trade, and remedying the evils which have arisen from the competition which has heretofore existed therein, do grant and give our royal license, under the hand and seal of one of our principal secretaries of state, to the said Governor and Company, and W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. El- lice, for the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians, in all such parts of North America, to the northward and westward of the lands and territories belonging to the United Slates of America, as shall not form part of any of our provinces in North America, or of any lands or terri- tories belonging to the said United States of America, or to any European government, state, or power ; and we do by these presents give, grant, and secure, to the said Governor and Company, and W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. Ellice, jointly, the sole and exclusive privilege, for the full period of twenty-one years from the date of this our gran*, of trading with the Indians in all such parts of North America as aforesaid, (except as thereinafter excepted :) And we do hereby declare that no rent shall be required or demanded for or in respect of this our grant and license, or any privileges given thereby, for the said period of twenty-one years, but that the said Governor and Company, and W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. Ellice, shall, during the period of this our grant and license, keep accurate registers of all persons in their employ, in any parts of North America, and shall once in each year return to our secretary of state accurate duplicates of all such registers, and shall also enter into and give security to us, our heirs and successors, in the penal sum of five thousand pounds, for insuring, as far as in them may lie, the due execu- tion of all the criminal processes, and of any civil process, in any suit, where the matter in dispute shall exceed two hundred pounds, by the officers and persons legally empowered to execute such processes, within all the territories included in this our grant, and for the producing and delivering into safe custody, for purposes of trial, any persons in their employ or acting under their authority, within the said territories, who may be charged with any criminal offence. " And we do hereby require that the said Governor and Company, and W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. Ellice, shall, as soon as the same can be conveniently done, make and submit, for our consideration and approval, such rules and regulations for the management and carrying on the said fur trade with the Indians, and the conduct of the persons employed by them therein, as may appear to us to be effectual, for gradu- ally diminishing or ultimately preventing the sale and distribution of spirituous liquors to the Indians, and for promoting their moral and religious improvement. — And we do hereby declare that nothing in this our grant contained shall be deemed or construed to authorize the said Governor and Company, or W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. Ellice, or any person in their employ, to claim or exercise any trade with 60 474 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. fl. the Indians on the north-west coast of America, to the westward of the Stony Mountains, to the prejudice or exclusion of any citizen of the United States of America, who may be engaged in the said trade : Pro- vided always, that no British subjects other than and except the said Governor and Company, and the said W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. Ellice, and the persons authorized to carry on exclusive trade by them on grant, shall trade with the Indians within such limits, during the period of this our grant." Under this license, the parties to whom it was granted continued their operations until 1824, when the claims of the North-West Company were extinguished by mutual consent; the Hudson's Bay Company then became the sole possessor of the privileges conceded, which were enjoyed by that body until the expiration of the grant. Previous to that period, 1838, a new grant was made to the company, entitled, (5.) " Crpwn Grant to the Hudson's Bay Company of the exclusive Trade with the Indians in certain Parts of North America, for a Term of twenty-one Years, and upon Surrender of a former Grant," which, after recapitulating the terms of the first grant, continues thus : " And whereas the said Governor and Company have acquired to themselves all the rights and interests of the said W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. Ellice, under the said recited grant, and the said Governor and Company have humbly besought us to accept a surrender of the said grant, and in consideration thereof to make a grant to them, and give to them our royal license and authority of and for the like exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians in North America, for the like period, and upon similar terms and conditions to those specified and referred to in the said recited grant : Now, know ye, that, in consideration of the surrender made to us of the said recited grant, and being desirous of encouraging the said trade, and of preventing as much as possible a recurrence of the evils mentioned or referred to in the said recited grant, as also in consideration of the yearly rent hereinafter reserved to us, we do hereby grant and give our license, under the hand and seal of one of our principal secretaries of state, to the said Governor and Company, and their successors, for the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians in all such parts of North America, to the northward and to the westward of the lands and territories belonging to the United States of America, as shall not form part of any of our provinces in North America, or of any lands or territories belonging to the said United States of America, or to any European government, state, or power, but subject, nevertheless, as hereinafter mentioned : And we do, by these presents, give, grant, and secure, to the said Governor and Company, and their successors, the sole and exclusive privilege, for the full period of twenty-one years from the date of this our grant, of trading with the Indians in all such parts of North America as aforesaid, (except as hereinafter mentioned : ) And we Xj| PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 475 do hereby declare that no rent shall be required or demanded for or in respect of this our grant and license, or any privileges given thereby for the first four years of the said term of twenty-one years ; and we do hereby reserve to ourselves, our heirs and successors, for the remainder of the said term of twenty-one years, the yearly rent or sum of five shillings, to be paid by the said Governor and Company, or their successors, on the 1st day of June, in every year, into our exchequer, on the account of us, our heirs and successors : And we do hereby declare that the said Governor and Company, and their successors, shall, during the period of this our grant and license, keep accurate registers of all persons in their employ in any parts of North America, and shall, once in each year, return to our secretary of state accurate duplicates of such registers ; and shall also enter into and give security to us, our heirs and successors, in the penal sum of five thousand pounds, for insuring, as far as in them may lie, or as they can by their authority over the servants and persons in their employ, the due execution of all criminal and civil processes by the officers and persons legally empowered to execute such processes within all the terri- tories included in this our grant, and for the producing or delivering into custody, for the purposes of trial, all persons in their employ or acting under their authority, within the said territories, who shall be charged with any criminal offence : And we do also hereby require that the said Gov- ernor and Company, and their successors, shall, as soon as the same can conveniently be done, make and submit for our consideration and approval, such rules and regulations for the management and carrying on the said fur trade with the Indians, and the conduct of the persons employed by them therein, as may appear to us to be effectual for diminishing or pre- venting the sale or distribution of spirituous liquors to the Indians, and for promoting their moral and religious improvement : But we do hereby declare that nothing in this our grant contained shall be deemed or con- strued to authorize the said Governor and Company, or their successors, or any persons in their employ, to claim or exercise any trade with the Indians on the north-west coast of America, to the westward of the Stony Mountains, to the prejudice or exclusion of any of the subjects of any foreign states, who, under or by force of any convention for the time being, between us and such foreign states respectively, may be entitled to, and shall be engaged in, the said trade: Provided, nevertheless, and we do hereby declare our pleasure to be, that nothing herein contained shall extend or be construed to prevent the establishment by us, our heirs, or successors, within the territories aforesaid, or any of them, of any colony or colonies, province or provinces, or for annexing any part of the afore- said territories to any existing colony or colonies to us in right of our imperial crown belonging, or for constituting any such form of civil government, as to us may seem meet, within any such colony or col- onies, or provinces : " And we do hereby reserve to us, our heirs and successors, full power and authority to revoke these presents, or any part thereof, in so far as the same may embrace or extend to any of the territories aforesaid, which may hereafter be comprised within any colony or colonies, province or provinces, as aforesaid : " It being, nevertheless, hereby declared that no British subjects, other than and except the said Governor and Company, and their successors, and the persons authorized to carry on exclusive trade by them, shall 476 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [K. trade with the Indians during the period of this our grant, within the limits aforesaid, or within that part thereof which shall not be com- prised within any such colony or province as aforesaid." K. Treaties and Conventions relative to the North-West Territories of North America. (!•) Convention between Cheat Britain and Spain, {commonly called the Nootka Treaty,) signed at the Escurial, October 'USth, 1790. Article 1. The buildings and tracts of land situated on the north- west coast of the continent of North America, or on the islands adjacent to that continent, of which the subjects of his Britannic majesty were dis- possessed about the month of April, 1789, by a Spanish officer, shall be restored to the said British subjects. Art. 2. A just reparation shall be made, according to the nature of the case, for all acts of violence or hostility which may have been com- mitted subsequent to the month of April, 1789, by the subjects of either of the contractit)g parties against the subjects of the other; and, in case any of the said respective subjects shall, since the same period, have been forcibly dispossessed of their lands, buildings, vessels, merchandise, and other property, whatever, on the said continent, or on the seas and islands adjacent, they shall be reestablished in the possession thereof, or a just com- pensation shall be made to them for the losses which they have sustained. Art. 3. In order to strengthen the bonds of friendship, and to pre- serve in future a perfect harmony and good understanding, between the two contracting parties, it is agreed that their respective subjects shall not be disturbed or molested, either in navigating, or carrying on their fish- eries, in the Pacific Ocean or in the South Seas, or in landing on the coasts of those seas in places not already occupied, for the purpose of carrying on their commerce with the natives of the country, or of making settlements there ; the whole subject, nevertheless, to the restrictions specified in the three following articles. Art. 4. His Britannic majesty engages to take the most effectual measures to prevent the navigation and the fishery of his subjects in the Pacific Ocean or in the South Seas from being made a pretext for illicit trade with the Spanish settlements; and, with this view, it is moreover expressly stipulated that British subjects shall not navigate, or carry on their fishery, in the said seas, within the space of ten sea leagues from any part of the coasts already occupied by Spain. Art. 5. As well in the places which are to be restored to the British subjects, by virtue of the first article, as in all other parts of the north- K.] PROOIS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 477 western coasts of North America, or of the islands adjacent, situate to the north of the parts of the said coast already occupied by Spain, wherever the subjects of either of the two powers shall have made settlements since the month of April, 17S9, or shall hereafter make any, the subjects of the other shall have free access, and shall carry on their trade without any disturbance or molestation. Art. 6. With respect to the eastern and western coasts of South America, and to the islands adjacent, no settlement shall be formed here- after by the respective subjects in such part of those coasts as are situated to the south of those parts of the same coasts, and of the islands adjacent, which are already occupied by Spain : provided, that the said respective subjects shall retain the liberty of landing on the coasts and islands so situated for the purpose of their fishery, and of erecting thereon huts and other temporary buildings serving only for those purposes. Art. 7. In all cases of complaint or infraction of the articles of the present convention, the officers of either party, without permitting them- selves to commit any violence or act of force, shall be bound to make an exact report of the affair and of its circumstances to their respective courts, who will terminate such differences in an amicable manner. (2.) Convention between the United States of America and Great Britain, signed at London, October 20th, 1818. Article 2. It is agreed that a line drawn from thfe most north-western point of the Lake of the Woods, along the 49th parallel of north latitude, or, if the said point shall not be in the 49th parallel of north latitude, then that a line dra.vn from the said point due north or south, as the case may be, until the said line shall intersect the said parallel of north latitude, and from the point of such intersection due west along and with the said parallel, shall be the line of demarkation between the territories of the United States and those of his Britannic majesty ; and that the said line shall form the northern boundary of the said territories of the United States, and the southern boundary of the territories of his Britannic majesty, from the Lake of the Woods to the Stony Mountains. Art. 3. It is agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the north-west coast of America, westward of the Stony Moun- tains, shall, together with its harbors, bays, and creeks, and the naviga- tion of all rivers within the same, be free and open for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects, of the two powers ; it being well understood that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of the said country, nor shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other power or state to any part of the said country ; the only object of the high contract'ng parties, in that respect, being to prevent disputes and differences among themselves. 478 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. ^L (3.) Treaty of Amity, Settlement., and Limits, between the United States and Spain, [commonly called the Florida Treaty,) signed at Washing- ton, February 22d, 1819. Article 3. The boundary line between the two countries west of the Mississippi shall begin on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the River Sabine, in the sea, continuing north, along the western bank of that river, to the 32d degree of latitude; thence, by aline due north, to the degree of latitude where it strikes the Rio Roxo of Natchitoches, or Red River; then, following the course of the Rio Roxo westward, to the degree of longitude 100 west from London and 23 from Washington ; then crossing the said Red River, and running thence, by a line due north, to the River Arkansas ; thence following the course of the southern bank of the Arkansas, to its source in latitude 42 north ; and thence, by that parallel of latitude, to the South Sea; the whole being as laid down in Melish's map of the United States, published at Philadelphia, improved to the 1st of January, 1818. But, if the source of the Arkansas River shall be found to fall north or south of latitude 42, then the line shall run from the said source due south or north, as the case may be, till it meets the said par- allel of latitude 42, and thence, along the said parallel, to the South Sea; all the islands in the Sabine, and the said Red and Arkansas Rivers, throughout the course thus described, to belong to the United States ; but the use of the waters and the navigation of the Sabine to the sea, and of the said Rivers Roxo and Arkansas, throughout the extent of the said boundary, on their respective banks, shall be common to the respective inhabitants of both nations. The two high contracting parties agree to cede and renounce all their rights, claims, and pretensions, to the territories described by the said line ; that is to say, the United States hereby cede to his Catholic majesty, and renounce forever, all their rights, claims, and pretensions, to the terri- tories lying west and south of the above-described line; and, in like man ner, his Catholic majesty cedes to the said United States all his rights, claims, and pretensions, to any territories east and north of the said line; and for himself, his heirs, and successors, renounces all claim to the said territories forever. (4.) Convention between the United States and Russia, signed at St. Peters- burg, on the -fj of April, 1824. Article 1. It is agreed that, in any part of the great ocean, commonly called the Pacific Ocean, or South Sea, the respective citizens or subjects of the high contracting powers shall be neither disturbed nor restrained, either in navigation or in fishing, or in the power of resorting to the coasts, upon points which may not already have been occupied, for the purpose of trading with the natives ; saving always the restrictions and conditions determined by the following articles. K] proofs and illustrations. 479 Art. 2. With the view of preventing the rights of navigation and of fishing, exercised upon the great ocean by the citizens and subjects of the high contracting powers, from becoming the pretext for an illicit trade, it is agreed that the citizens of the United States shall not resort to any point where there is a Russian establishment, without the permission of the governor or commander ; and that, reciprocally, the subjects of Russia shall not resort, without permission, to any establishment of the United States upon the north-west coast. Art. 3. It is, moreover, agreed that hereafter there shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States, or under the authority of the said States, any establishment upon the north-west coast of America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of 54 degrees and 40 minutes of north latitude ; and that, in the same manner, there shall be none formed by Russian subjects, or under the authority of Russia, south of the same parallel. Art. 4. It is, nevertheless, understood that, during a term of ten years, counting from the signature of the present convention, the ships of both powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects, respectively, may reciprocally frequent, without any hinderance whatever, the interior seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks, upon the coast mentioned in the pre- ceding article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with the natives of the country. Art. 5. All spirituous liquors, fire-arms, other arms, powder, and munitions of war of every kind, are always excepted from this same com- merce permitted by the preceding article; and the two powers engage, reciprocally, neither to sell, nor suffer them to be sold, to the natives, by their respective citizens and subjects, nor by any person who may be under their authority. It is likewise stipulated, that this restriction shall never afford a pretext, nor be advanced, in any case, to authorize either search or detention of the vessels, seizure of the merchandise, or, in fine, any measures of constraint whatever, towards the merchants or the crews who may carry on this commerce ; the high contracting powers recipro- cally reserving to themselves to determine upon the penalties to be incurred, and to inflict the punishments in case of the contravention of this article by their respective citizens or subjects. (5.) Convention between Great Britain and Russia, signed at St. Peters- burg, February ^|, 1825. Article 1. It is agreed that the respective subjects of the high con- tracting parties shall not be troubled or molested in any part of the ocean commonly called the Pacific Ocean, either in navigating the same, in fishing therein, or in landing at such parts of the coast as shall not have been already occupied, in order to trade with the natives, under the restrictions and conditions specified in the following articles. Art. 2. In order to prevent the right of navigating and fishing, exer- cised upon the ocean by the subjects of the high contracting parties, from becoming the pretext for an illicit commerce, it is agreed that the subjects 480 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [K of his Britannic majesty shall not land at any place where there may be a Russian establishment, without the permission of the governor or com- mandant; and, on the other hand, that Russian subjects shall not land, without permission, at any British establishment on the north-west coast. Art. 3. The line of demarkation between the possessions of the high contracting parties, upon the coast of the continent, and the islands of America to the north-west, shall be drawn in the manner following : Com- mencing from the southernmost point of the island called Prince of Wales's Island, which point lies in the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes north latitude, and between the 131st and the 133d degree of west longitude, (meridian of Greenwich,) the said line shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Channel, as far as the point of the continent where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude. From this last-men- tioned point, the line of demarkation shall follow the summit of the moun- tains situated parallel to the coast, as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude, (of the same meridian.) And, finally, from the said point of intersection, the said meridian line of the 141st degree, in its prolongation as far as the Frozen Ocean, shall form the limit between the Russian and British possessions on the continent of America to the north-west. Art. 4. With reference to the line of demarkation laid down in the preceding article, it is understood — 1st. That the island called Prince of Wales's Island shall belong wholly to Russia. 2d. That whenever the summit of the mountains which extend in a direction parallel to the coast, from the 56th degree of north latitude to the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude, shall prove to be at the distance of more than ten marine leagues from the ocean, the limit between the British possessions and the line of coast which is to belong to Russia, as above mentioned, shall be formed by a line parallel to the windings of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom. Art. 5. It is, moreover, agreed that no establishment shall be formed by eithet of the two parties within the limits assigned by the two preced- ing articles to the possessions of the other ; consequently, British subjects shall not form any establishment either upon the coast, or upon the border of the continent comprised within the limits of the Russian possessions, as designated in the two preceding articles ; and, in like manner, no estab- lishment shall be formed by Russian subjects beyond the said limits. Art. 6. It is understood that the subjects of his Britannic majesty, from whatever quarter they may arrive, whether from the ocean or from the interior of the continent, shall forever enjoy the right of navigating freely, and without any hinderance whatever, all the rivers and streams which, in their course towards the Pacific Ocean, may cross the line of demarkation upon the line of coast described in article 3 of the present convention. Art. 7. It is also understood that, for the space of ten years from the sio-nature of the present convention, the vessels of the two powers, or those belonging to their respective subjects, shall mutually be at liberty to frequent, without any hinderance whatever, all the inland seas, the gulfs, havens, and creeks, on the coast, mentioned in article 3, for the purposes of fishing and of trading with the natives. K.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 481 Art. 8. The port of Sitka, or Novo Archangelsk, shall be open to the commerce and vessels of British subjects for the space of ten years from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of the present convention. In the event of an extension of this term of ten years being granted to any other power, the like extension shall be granted also to Great Britain. Art. 9. The above-mentioned liberty of commerce shall not apply to the trade in spirituous liquors, in fire-arms, or other arms, gunpowder, or other warlike stores ; the high contracting parties reciprocally engaging not to permit the above-mentioned articles to be sold or delivered, in any manner whatever, to the natives of the country. Art. 10. Every British or Russian vessel navigating the Pacific Ocean, which may be compelled by storms or by accident to take shelter in the ports of the respective parties, shall be at liberty to refit therein, to provide itself with all necessary stores, and to put to sea again, without paying any other than port and lighthouse dues, which shall be the same as those paid by national vessels. In case, however, the master of such vessel should be under the necessity of disposing of a part of his merchan- dise in order to defray his expenses, he shall conform himself to the regu- lations and tariffs of the place where he may have landed. Art. 11. In every case of complaint on account of an infraction of the articles of the present convention, the civil and military authorities of the high contracting parties, without previously acting, or taking any forcible measure, shall make an exact and circumstantial report of the matter to their respective courts, who engage to settle the same in a friendly manner, and according to the principles of justice. (6.) Convention between the United Slates and Great Britain, signed at London, Atigust 6th, 1827. Article 1. All the provisions of the third article of the convention concluded between the United States of America and his majesty the king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on the 20th of October, 1818, shall be, and they are hereby, further indefinitely extended and continued in force, in the same manner as if all the provisions of the said article were herein specifically recited. Art. 2. It shall be competent, however, to either of the contracting parties, in case either should think fit, at any time after the 20th of Octo- ber, 1828, on giving due notice of twelve months to the other contracting party, to annul and abrogate this convention; and it shall, in such case, be accordingly entirely annulled and abrogated, after the expiration of the said term of notice. Art. 3. Nothing contained in this convention, or in the third article of the convention of the 20th October, 1818, hereby continued in force, shall be construed to impair, or in any manner affect, the claims which either of the contracting parties may have to any part of the country west- ward of the Stony or Rocky Mountains- 61 482 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [K. U-) Treaty betioeen the United States of America and Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, concluded at Washington on the Ibth of June, 1846. Art. 1. From the point on the 49th parallel of North latitude, where the boundary laid down in existing treaties and conventions between Great Britain and the United States terminates, the line of boundary be- tween the territories of her Britannic Majesty and those of the United States shall be continued Westward along the 49th parallel of North lati- tude to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island, and thence Southerly through the middle of the said channel, and of Fuca Straits, to the Pacific Ocean : Provided, however, that the navigation of the said channel and straits, South of the 49th pa- rallel of North latitude, remain free and open to both parties. Art. 2. From the point at which the 49th parallel of North latitude shall be found to intersect the great Northern branch of the Columbia river, the navigation of the said branch shall be free and open to the Hud- son's Bay Company, and to all British subjects trading with the same, to the point where the said branch meets the main stream of the Columbia, and thence down the said main stream to the ocean, with free access into and through the said river or rivers ; it being understood that all the usual portages along the line thus described, shall in like manner be free and open. In navigating the said river or rivers, British subjects, with their goods and produce, shall be treated on the same footing as citizens of the United States ; it being, however, always understood that nothing in this article shall be construed as preventing or intended to prevent, the Gov- ernment of the United States from making any regulations respecting the navigation of the said river or rivers, not inconsistent with the present treaty. Art. 3. In the future appropriations of the territory south of the 49th parallel of north latitude, as provided in the first article of this treaty, the possessory rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of all British subjects who may be already in the occupation of land or other property, lawfully acquired within the said territory shall be respected. Art. 4. The farms, lands, and other property of every description, be- longing to the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, on the north side of the Columbia river, shall be confirmed to the said Company. In case, however, the situation of those farms and lands should be considered by the United States to be of public and political importance, and the United States government should signify a desire to obtain possession of the whole or of any part thereof, the property so required shall be transferred to the said government at a proper valuation, to be agreed upon between the parties. Art. 5. The present Treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by her Britannic Majesty ; and the ratifications shall be exchanged at London at the expiration of six months from the date hereof, or sooner if possible. GENERAL INDEX. GENEEAL INDEX. Adams, John Q.., United States minister at St. Petersburg, correspondence with the Russian government respecting American traders on the north-west coast, 275. Sec- retary of state of the United States ; nego- tiations with Spain on the southern and western limits of the United States, 316. Correspondence with the Russian minister at Washington on the ukase of 1821, 332. Instructions to Mr. Rush, United States muiister at London, on claims of the United States, in 1823, 340. President of the United States ; message recommending the adoption of measures respecting Oregon, 344. Aguilar, Martin de, voyage and supposed discovery of a great river on the north-west coast, 91. Alarcon, Hernando, voyage up the Californian Gulf and the Colorado River, 58. Aleutian Islands described, 39. Discovered, 135. Aliaslia described, 36. Discovered, 132. America. This name first given to Brazil in 1508. Never used by Spanish government and historians until recently, 46. Anian, Strait of, said to have been discovered by Cortereal, probably the same now called Hudson's Strait, 45. Voyages in search of it, 76. See Urdaneta, Ladrillero, Mal- donado, Fonte, Vizcaino. Archer, VVilliam S., Iiis speech in the Senate of the United States on the bill for the occupation of Oregon, 388. Arteaga, Ignacio, voyage, 125. Ashley, William H., conducts trading ex- peditions fro'n St. Louis to the Rocky Mountain regions, 357. Asiento de Negros, or treaty by which the British monopolized the slave trade of Spanish America, 99, 321. Astoria established, 296. Described, 299 — 313. Ceded to North-VVest Company, 303. Taken by British, 304. Restored to the United States, 309. Burnt, 313. See Pacific Fur Company. Atlantis, Island, placed by Bacon on the north-west coast, 94. B Baranof, Alexander, governor of Russian America, his character, 271. Founds SitUa, 270. His mode of conducting negotiations, 302. Seizes part of California. "327. At- 62 tempts to seize one of the Sandwich Islands, 328. Becerra, Diego, voyage from Mexico by order of Cortes, 52. Benyowsky, Augustus, a Polish exile in Kamtchatka, performs the first voyage from that country to Canton, 138. Bering, Alexander, first voyage from Kam- tchatka to the Arctic Sea, 129. Second voyage, 129. Third and last voyage, 130. Reaches the American continent, 131. Shipwreck and death, 133. Bering's Strait discovered, 129. Described, 4. Berkeley, Captain, rediscovers the Strait of Fuca ; murder of part of his crew off Destruction Island, 171. Billings, Joseph, engaged by the empress of Russia 40 explore the North Pacific, 162. His voyage produces no valuable results, 221. Bodega y Quadra, Juan Francisco de, first voyage, under Heceta, from Mexico, along the north-west coast, 117. Importance of his discoveries, 123. Second voyage, under Arteaga, 125. {See Maurelle.) Commis- sioner to treat with Vancouver at Nootka, 231. (.See Nootka Convention.) Letter to Captains Gray and Ingraham, 242, 443. Death, 255. Brobdignag, placed by Swift on the north- west coast, near Columbia River, 94. Broughton, VVilliam, sent by Vancouver to survey the lower part of the Colun bia River, 247. Unfairness to the Americans, 248. Sent to England, 249. Commands an ex- ploring expedition in the North Pacific, 256. Finds Nootka Sound deserted, 257. Buchanan, James, secretary of state of the United States, negotiations with Mr. Pak- enham, minister of Great Britain at Wash- ington, 399, 400. Concludes treaty, settling the boundaries west of the Rocky Moun- tains, 402. Bulfinch's Harbor described, 22. Discovered by Captain Gray, of Boston. 235. Examined by Vancouver's lieutenant, Whidbey, 246. Caamano, Jacinto, voyage in the North-West Archipelago, 241. Calicza-Vaca, Alvaro Nunez, journey from Fhirida to the Californian (iulf, 35. Cabot, John, and Sebastian, voyages, 45. Cabrillo, Juan Rodriguez, exploring voyage from Mexico, and death, 62. Calhoun, John C, his speech in the Senate 486 GENERAL INDEX. of the United States on the bill for the occupation of Oregon, 383. Secretary of State of the United States negotiation with Mr. Pakenham, Minister of Great Britain. 396. California, origin of the name unknown, 55. California, Peninsula of, described, 13. Dis- covered ; fruitless attempts of the Spaniards to settle, 88, 95. Jesuits engage to civilize the inhabitants, 96. Their partial success, 97. Their History of California, 98. Ex- pulsion of the Jesuits, 106. California, Continental, or New, described, 15. Discovered, 56. Settled by the Span- iards, 109. Claimed by Mexico, 317. At- tempted insurrections in, 367. California, Gulf of, or Vermillion Sea, or Sea of Cortes, described, 12. Discovered, 52. Examined by Ulloa, 56, and by Alarcon, 53. Canada, pretension that it extended to the Pacific, exposed, 159, 277. Carver, Jonathan, travels in the central regions of North America, 141. Pretended discovery of a river called Oregon, flowing into the Pacific, 142, His accounts chiefly derived from old French travellers, 144. Cavendish, Thomas, voyage around the world ; takes and burns a Spanish ship near the coast of California, 76. Cermenon, Sebastian, wrecked on the coast of California, 66. Cibola, a country or city north-west of Mexico, discovered by Friar Marcos de Niza, 59. Supposed position, 62. Expedi- tion of Vazquez de Coronado to conquer it, 61. Clarke. See Lewis and Clarke. Clarke River discovered, 287. Described, 23. Colnett, James, engaged by Meares to com- mand the Argonaut, 189. Made prisoner by the Spaniards at Nootka, and sent to Mexico, 195. Liberated by order of the viceroy of Mexico, 200. Colorado River described, 20. First discov- ered by Alarcon, 58. Columbia, American trading ship, fitted out at Boston, 179. Sails under Kendrick to the North Pacific, 180. Puts into Juan Fernandez in distress, 181. Reaches Nootka Sound, 181. Sails for Canton and the United States, under Captain Gray, 200. Second voyage under Gray, 229. Winters at Clyoquot, 230. Discovery of the Columbia River, 235. ^e Gray and Vancouver. Columbia River, (called, also, Oregon,) de- scribed, 21. Mouth seen by the Spanish commander Heceta, 120, 430. Meares seeks for it in vain, and denies its existence, 177; yet the British plenipotentiaries claim the discovery for Meares, 178, 440. Mouth seen by the American Captain Gray, ISl. Gray first enters the river, 236. Lower part explored by the British Lieutenant Broughton, 247, who unfairly pretends to have discovered it, 248. Head-waters dis- covered by Lewis and Clarke, who trace the river thence to the sea, 285. Congress of the United States; Resolution for abrogating the Convention with Great Britain, 402. Convention of 1790, between Great Britain and Spain, see Nootka Convention. Of 1818, between Great Britain and the United States, concluded, 315, 477. Renewed in 1827 for an indefinite period, 354. Reflec- tions on, 389. Of 1824, between the United States and Russia, concluded, 341, 478. Virtually abrogated by Russia, 342. Cook, James, undertakes a voyage of discov- ery in the North Pacific; his instructions, 147. Discovers the Sandwich Islands, 150. Reaches Nootka Sound, 151. Passes through Bering's Straits, 156. Killed at the Sandwich Islands, 157. Importance of his discoveries, 158. Knew no particulars of the recent Spanish voyages, 149 ; though he knew that such voyages had been made, 152. Coronado, Francisco Vazquez, expedition from Mexico, to conquer the rich countries supposed to lie farther north-west, 59. Cortereal, Gaspar, discovers Labrador; Strait of Anian said to have been found by him, leading from the Atlantic north-west to the Pacific, 45. Cortes, Hernando, conquers Mexico, and proposes to explore the coasts of that country, 48. Expeditions made by his order on the Pacific, 51. Leads an expedi- tion into California, 53. Superseded in the government of Mexico, to which country be returns, 54. Claims the right to make conquests in America; returns to Spain, and dies, 58. D Dixon, George, voyage in the North Pacific, 169. Dispute with Meares, 218. Douglas, VVilliam, master of the Iphigenia ; voyage under Meares to the North Pacific, 172. Taken prisoner by the Spaniards at Nootka, 191. Released, 192. Drake, Francis, voyage around the world, 70. Arrives in the North Pacific, and lands on the American coast, 71. Receives from the natives the crown of the country, which he calls New Albion, and returns to England, 72. Review of accounts of his voyage in the North Pacific, 73. Deception practised by his biographer Barrow, 75. Part of the coast probably seen by him-, 75. Duffin, Robert, mate of Meares's vessel, enters the Strait of Fuca, 176. Testimony re- specting events at Nootka, 244. Falkland Islands, dispute between Great Britain and Spain respecting them. 111. Lord Palmerston's letter to the minister of Buenos Ayres on the subject of their occupation by Great Britain, 111 — 313, 374. Fidalgo, Salvador, voyage of, 220. Fleurieu, Clairet de, his Introduction to the Journal of Marchand's voyage, 223. Ad- mits the discovery of the Washington or North Marquesas Islands by Iugraham,228- Florida, the name applied originally by the GENERAL INDEX. 487 Spaniards to the whole eastern side of America, north of the Mexican Gulf, 53. Expeditions through it under Narvaez, 55, and Soto, 63. Ceded to the United States, 31C. Fontc, Admiral, supposed voyage, in the North Pacific, by a person so named, 8.3. Forsyth, John, secretary of stale of the United States, instructions respecting the meaning of the convention with Russia, 302. Endeavors to procure information respecting the north-west coast, 376. Fox, Charles J., his speech in Parliament on the Nootka convention, 212. Fremont, John C, captain in the army of the United States exploring expedition to Oregon and California, 3SG. Fuca, Juan de, voyage in the North Pacific, and supposed discovery of a new passage leading to the Atlantic, 85,407. Fuca, Strait of, described, 22. Discovered by Juan de Fuca, 85. Search for it by Heceta, 119. By Cook, 150. Found by Berkeley, 171. Rediscovery claimed by Meares, 175. Entered by Gray, 199, 234. Kendrick passes through it, 200, 217. Surveyed by Vancouver, and Galiano, and Valdes, 238. Furs and fur trade, general account, 411. See Russian American Company, Hud- son's Bay Company, and North-VVest Company. G Gallatin, Albert, minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London ; negotiations at London, 314, 344. Counter statement respecting the claims of the United States, presented by him to British commissioners, 347, 455. Gali, Francisco, his voyage, 66. Galiano and Valdes, their voyage through the Strait of Fuca, 240. Journal published by the Spanish government ; Introduction to that Journal reviewed, 241. Gray, Robert, first voyage to the North Pacific, in command of the trading sloop Washuigton, from Boston, 180. Sees an opening supposed to be the mouth of the Columbia River, 181. First examines the east coast of Washington's or Queen Charlotte's Island, 199. Enters the Strait of Fuca, 200. Returns to Boston in the ship Columbia, 200. Second voyage to the North Pacific, in the Columbia, 226, 229. Meets Vancouver near the entrance of the Strait of Fuca, and makes known his discovery of the month of a great river, 233. Discovers Bulfinch's Harbor, 235. Enters the great river, which he names the Columbia, 236. Makes known his dis- covery to the Spanish commandant at Nootka, 237. Letter of Gray and Ingraliam to the Spanish commandant, respecting the occurrences at Nootka in 1789, 242, 413. Returns to the United States, 237. Great Britain obtains Canada, Florida, and East Louisiana, by the treaty of PariSj 103. H Harmon, D. W., important evidence afforded by him respecting the first trading posts established by the British west of the Rocky Mountains, 291. Hawaii. See Owyhee. Hearne, Samuel, discoveries in the territory west of Hudson's Bay, 145. Reaches the Arctic Sea, at the mouth of Coppermine River, 146. Heceta, Bruno, voyage along the north- west coast of America, in 1775, 117. Dis- covers a river, called by him jRio de San Roque, now known as the Columbia, 120. Howel's account of the negotiation at Nootka, between Vancouver and Quadra, 245. Hudson, Henry, discovers Hudson's Bay, 94. Hudson's Bay Company establirhed by charter, 98. Eftorls to discover a north- west passage, 141. Disputes with the North-VVest Company, 260, 324. Union of these two companies, 326. Receives a grant of exclusive trade in the Indian terri- tories, 326. General view of its system and establishments, 397. Papers relating to it, 465. Hudson's Strait, probably the same called by the Portuguese the Strait of Anian, 45. Hunt, Wilson P., chief agent of the Pacific Fur Company, 295. His negotiations with Governor Baranof at Sitka, 302. Ingraham, Joseph, mate of the ship Columbia, in her first voyage from Boston to the north-west coast, 180. Returns to the Pacific as master of the brig Hope, and discovers the Washington or North Mar- quesas Islands, 226. At the Sandwich Islands, 227. At Queen Charlotte's Island, 227. At Macao, where he meets Marchand, and communicates his discovery of the Washington Islands, the priority of which is admitted by Marchand and Fleurieu, 228. At Nootka, where he writes a letter, signed by himself and Gray, respecting the pro- ceedings at that place in 1789,242. Copy of that letter, 414. Unfair synopsis of it by Vancouver, 244. His journal, 231. His death, 237. Jesuits undertake the reduction of California, 96. Their system and establishments, 97. Their History of California, 98. Expelled from the Spanish dominions, 106. Results of their labors in California, 107. Jesup, Thomas S., quartermaster-general of the United States ; report on the best means of occupying Oregon, 336. Effect of that report on ihe'negotiations in Europe, 337. Jewitt, J. R., his captivity among the Indians at Nootka, 268. 488 GENERAL INDEX. Kamtchatka described, 37. Conquered by the Cossacks, 128. Its position on the Pacific ascertained, 129. Kendrick, John, commands the first trading expedition from the United States to the JNorth Pacific, 179. Arrives at Nootka, 181. Sails in the sloop Washington through the Strait of Fuca,200,217. The first who engaged in tlie transportation of sandal- wood from the Sandwich Islands to Canton, 228. His purchases of lands from the Indians at Nootka ; accidentally killed, 229. Kodiak Island, 35. Settlement on it by the Russians, 161. Krenitzin and Levaschef, voyage of, 137. Krusenslern, A. J. von, commands a Rus- sian exploring expedition to the Pacific, 272. His great merit as a navigator; his journal of the expedition ; efficient in the reform of abuses in Russian America, 274. Ladrillero, Juan, an old Spanish pilot, who pretended to have made a northern voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 78. Ledyard, John, corporal of marines in Cook's expedition, 149. Escapes from a British ship, off the coast of Connecticut, 1 62. En- deavors to obtain means to engage in the fur trade; attempts to go by land from Paris to Kamtchatka; arrested at Irkutsk, and forced to return; attempts to discover the source of the Nile, and dies at Cairo, 163. Lewis, Meriwether, and John Clarke, com- missioned by President Jefferson to explore Missouri and Columbia countries, 284. Voyage up the Missouri to its sources; passage through the Rocky Mountains, 285. Descend the Columbia to the Pacific ; winter at the mouth of the Co- lumbia, 236. Return to the United Stales, 287. General results of their expedition; their Journal written by Lewis; melan- choly death of Lewis, 2S8. Lewis, or Snake, or Saliaptin River, principal southern branch of the Columbia, dis- covered by Lewis and Clarke, 287. De- scribed, 24. Linn, Lewis F., his bill and speeches in the Senate of the United States on the occupa- tion of Oregon, 379, 382. Louisiana, settled by the French; granted by Louis XIV. to Crozat, 100; and after- wards to Law, 102. Ceded by France to Spain, 102. Retroceded by Spain to France, and sold by France to the United Stales, 278. Its extent at different times, 107, 277, 232. Comprehended no territory west of the Rocky Mountains, 282. Northern boundary not determined by commissaries agreeably to the treaty of Utrecht, as generally sup- posed, 281, 436. M MacDougal, Duncan, partner in the Pacific Company, 294. Sells the establishments to the North-West Company, 303. See Astoria. MacKenzie, Alexander, explores the north- western parts of America ; reaches the Arctic Sea, 263. Reaches the Pacific, 264. MacKenzie River discovered by MacKenzie, 263. Magellan, Fernando, sails from the Atlantic through Magellan's Strait into the Pacific, and across the latter ocean to India, 46. Malaspina, Alexandro, explores the coasts near Mount St. Elias, in search of a passage supposed to communicate with the Atlantic ; arrested and imprisoned on his return to Spain ; his name not mentioned in the account of his voyage officially pul)lished at Madrid, 222. Maldonado, Lorenzo Ferrer de, account of his pretended voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 78. Maldonado, Pedro Nunez de, makes the first voyage along the west coast of Mexico, by order of Cortes, 49. Maquinna, chief of Nootka, 167. Grants land to Meares for his temporary use, 174. Denies that the British had bought lands or erected buildings at Nootka, 242. Takes the ship Boston, of Boston, and murders nearly all her crew, 268. Marchand, Elienne, commands the ship Solide, from Marseilles, in her voyage around the world, 223. Sees the islands which had been previously discovered by Ingraham, of which he sent an acconnt to France, claiming the discovery. Ingra- ham's claim admitted by Fleurieu, the editor of Marchand's Journal ; Journal of Marchand's voyage, edited by Fleurieu ; general character of the work, 223. See Fleurieu. Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan friar, pretends to have discovered a rich and populous country, called Cibola, north-west of Mexico, 59. Martinez, Estevan, pilot to Perez, in the Santiago ; pretends to have rediscovered the Strait of Fuca, 116. Commands in a voyage of observation to the coasts occu- pied by the Russians, 185. Ordered by the viceroy of Mexico to occupy Nootka Sound, 187. Arrives at Nootka, 191. Seizes the Iphigenia, but afterwards re- leases her, 192. Seizes the North-West America, 194. Seizes the Argonaut, and imprisons her captain, 195. Seizes the Princess Royal, 198. Reflections on these acts, 197. Returns to Mexico, 198. Maurelle, Antonio, pilot, under Bodega, in his voyages along the north-west coasts, 117 — 125. His Journal of the first of these voyages, translated and printed at London, 117. Importance of this work, 123. His Journal of the other voyage, 125. Meares, John, his first voyage to the north- west coast, 166. His second voyage, under the Portuguese flag, with the Felice and Iphigenia, 172. Instructed to take any GENERAL INDEX. 489 vessels -which may attempt to molest him, but not instructed to form any establishment or purchase lands, 173. Reasons for his sailing under the Portuguese flag, 17-1. Arrives in the Felice at Nootka, wliere he obtains from Maqninna the use of a piece of ground, afterwards claimed by him as purchased, 174. Receives from Berkeley an account of the rediscovery of the Strait of Fuca, by the latter, 171. Yet claims the merit of the rediscovery himself, 175. Seeks in vain for the great River San Koque, (the Columbia,) as laid down on Spanish charts, 176. Declares that no such river exists, 177. Yet the British govern- ment claims the discovery of the Columbia for him, 178, 440. His account of the arrival of the sloop Washington at Nootka, 181. Returns to China, ISO. Sent to Lon- don, to complain of the seizure of the vessels at Nootka, by the Spaniards, 202. His memorial to the British government, 203. Its numerous falsehoods and inconsistencies, 172, 175, 178, 193,211. Mendocino, Cape, 19. Discovered, 63. Mendoza, Antonio de, sent as viceroy to supersede Cortes in the government of Mexico, 54. Attempts to discover new countries in America, 55. Blendoza, Diego Hurtado, commands the ships sent by Cortes to explore the Pacific coasts of America, 51. Metcalf, voyage of, fires on the natives at Mowee, 224. Young Metcalf and his crew- murdered by the natives of Owyhee, 225. Missionaries, American, in the Sandwich Islands, 370. Moncachtabe, an Indian, his account of a great river, flowing from the central parts of North America to the Pacific, 145. Monroe, James, secretary of state of the United States, declares to the British minister the intention of his government to secure the possession of the mouth of the Columbia, agreeably to the treaty of Ghent, 307. President of the United States ; his message, declaring the American con- tinents not subject to colonization by European nations, 335. Monterey discovered by Cabrillo, and so named by Vizcaino, 90. Colony established there by the Spaniards, 109. Taken by a Buenos Ayrean privateer, 365. Taken by an American squadron, under Captain Jones, 367. N Navarrete, Martin F. de, chief of the Hydro- graphical Department at Madrid ; his labors with regard to the history of early voyages of discovery in America, 82. Nootka Sound, described, 29. Discovered by the Spaniards under Perez, and called Port San liOrenzo, 113. Cook enters it with his ships, and calls it King George's Sound, 153. The principal rendezvous of the fur trader for some time, 167. Pro- ceedings of Meares at Nootka, 174. The Spaniards determine to occupy it, 187. Proceedings of the Spaniards under Mar- tinez, 191. Claims of the British to the possession of the country examined, 242, 256. The Spaniards abandon it, 257. Capture of the ship Boston by the natives, and murder of her crew, 268. Nootka treaty, or convention of 1790, between Great Britain and Spain, 477. Discussions which led to it, 202 — 209. (See Meares.) Reviewof its stipulations, 213, 319. Expired in 1796, 259, 318. Not to be regarded as a definitive settlement of principles, 340. Its continual subsistence asserted by Great Britain, 349. North- West Fur Trading Company of Montreal founded; its system, 262. First posts established by it west of the Rocky Mountains, 291. Purchases the establish- ments of the Pacific Company, 304. Dis- putes with the Hudson's Bay Company 323. Union of the two companies, 325. O Oregon City at the Falls of the Willamet, 33. Oregon, river, so called by Carver, supposed to flow from the central parts of North America to the Pacific, 142. (See Carver, and Columbia river.) Oregon territory, the name applied to the country drained by the Columbia, 359. Description of Oregon, 2 1 . Treaty between the United States and Great Britain settling its northern boundary, 402, 432. Ossinobia, name given by Lord Selkirk to the country purchased by him on the Red River, 324. Owyhee, or Hawaii, the largest of the Sand- wich Islands, discovered by Cook, 157. Pretended cession to Great Britain, 251. Pakenham, the Right Honorable Richard, minister of Great Britain at Washington, 386 ; negotiation with Mr. Buchanan, sec- retary of state of the United States, 399, 400. Concludes Oregon treaty, 402. Parliament, act of the British, respecting the Hudson's Bay territories, and Oregon, 325, 457. Pearce, Lieutenant of British marines, his letter respecting the surrender of Nootka, 257. Perez, Juan, voyage from Mexico along the north-west coast to the 54th degree of lati- tude, 114. Discovers Nootka Sound, called by him Port San Lorenzo, 116, 153. Perouse, Francois G. de la, voyage along a part of the north-w-est coast, 163. Philippine Islands conquered by the Span- iards, 65. Poletica, Chevalier de, Russian minister in the United States ; correspondence -nn'th the American government respecting the ukase of 1821, 332. Promuschleniks, general name for the Rus- sians employed in the service of the Russian American Trading Company, 270. 490 GENERAL INDEX. Gl Quadra and Vancouver's Island, 29, 240. Q.uadra. See Bodega. Queen Charlotte's or Washington's Island, discovered by Perez, 115. Not seen by Cook, 153, 170. Seen by La Perouse, 164 ; and by Dixon, who gave it its present name, 164. Its west coast first explored by Gray, who names it Washington's Island, 199. Described, 29. R Red river Settlements, made by Lord Selkirkj 324. Rocky Mountains described, 5. First called the Shining Mountains, or Mountains of Bright Stones, 143, 262. Rush, Richard, minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London ; discussion with Lord Castlereagh respecting the restoration of Astoria, 30S. His first negotiation respecting the claims of the United States, 314. Concludes a conven- tion on the subject in 1818, 315. His second negotiation on the subject, 336. Talent and industry displayed by him, 340. Russia, government proposes an arrangement with the United States respecting the trade of American vessels in the North Pacific, 275. Forbids foreign vessels from trading in the North Pacific, 332. {See Ukase.) Convention with the United States, 342. Treaty with Great Britain, 343. Convention with the United States virtually abrogated by that treaty, 343. Refuses to renew the fourth article of the convention with the United States, 362. Russian American Company established by charter, 269. Its territories, 34. Its system, 270. Abuses in the administration of its possessions, 271. Many abuses removed, 274. Renewal of its charter ; great im- provement in its system, 364. Leases a part of its territories to the Hudson's Bay Company, 364. Russians conquer Northern Asia, 127. Their discoveries in the North Pacific, 131, et scq. Sacramento river, 18. San Diego, 17. Discovered by Vizcaino, 90. The first Spanish colony on the west coast of California planted there, 109. San Francisco Bay, 17. The northernmost spot on the west coast of America occupied by the Spaniards previous to May, 1789, 248. San Lucas, Cape, the southern extremity of California, 15. Discovered by Ulloa, 56. San Roque river, so called by the Spaniards, the same now called the Columbia, dis- covered, 120, 430. {Sec Heceta.) Sandwich Islands described, 37. Discovered by Cook, 157. Frequented by the Fur Traders, 168. Capture of the schooner Fair American by the natives, 225. Pre- tended cession of Owyhee to Great Britain by Tamahamaha, 25 1 . Tamahamaha sover- eign of the whole group, 268. Death of Tamahamaha, 329. Christianity introduced into the islands, 330. Proceedings of the American missionaries ; language of the islands, 330. Expulsion of the Catholic missionaries, and their reinstatement, 371. The British occupy the islands temporarily, 373. Diminution of the native population, 374. See Cook, Tamahamaha, Metcalf, Vancouver, Ingraham. Santa Barbara Islands, 17. Discovered by Cabrillo, 62. Schelikof, Gregory, establishes Russian colo- nies on the coasts and islands of America, 161. The founder of the Russian American Company, 269. Sitka, or New Archangel, capital of Russian America, 35. Founded by Baranof, 270. Snake river. See Lewis river. South Pass in the Rocky Mountains, 6. Dis- covered by Ashley, 357. Sutil and Mexicana, voyage of, 239, 241. See Galiano and Yaldes. Tamahamaha, a chief of note in Owyhee, 168. King of Owyhee, 249. Pretended cession of the sovereignty of his island to the British, 251. Acquires the dominion over all the islands, 268. His acuteness in trade, 269, 296. His death and character, 329. Tchirikof, Alexei, voyages of, 129, 130, 133. Texas annexed to the United States, 396. See Bering. Treaties, all, abrogated by war between the parties, 259. This principle maintained by Great Britain, 318. Treaty of partition between Spain and Portu- gal in 1494, 44. Of Saragossa, between the same powers, in 1529,47. The American treaty between Spain and England, in 1670, 99. 102. Treaty of Utrecht, between Great Britain and France, in 1713, 99, 140. No line of boundary between the possessions of those powers settled bv that treaty, 140, 281, 436. Family Compact, in 1762, be- tween France and Spain, 102 ; dissolved, 207. Treaty of Paris, in 1763, 'between England, France, Spain, and Portugal, 102", 278. Nootka treaty, of 1790, between Great Britain and Spaing 209,258, 318, 476. Treaty of 1800, by which Spain ceded Louisiana to France, 276, 279. Treaty of 1803, by which France ceded Louisiana to the United States, 276, 279. Treaty of Ghent, in 1814, between the United States and Great Britain, 30G. Florida treaty between the United States and Spain, in 1819, 316, 478. Treaty between Great Britain and Russia, in 1825, 342, 479. Treaty between the United States and Great Britain, settling boundaries east of the Lake of the Woods, 377. Oregon treaty between the United States and Great Bri- tain, settling boundaries west of the Rocky Mountains, 402, 482. See Conventions. GENERAL INDEX. 491 Tyler, John, president of the United States ; message respecting the Sandwich Islands, 372. Messages respecting Oregon, 378. U Ukase of the Russian government, prohibiting vessels of other nations from frequenting the North Pacific coasts, 322. Corres- pondence respecting it, between the secre- tary of state of the United States and the Russian plenipotentiary, at Washington, 333. Protest of the British government against it, 335. Ulloa, Francisco, voyage through the Gulf of California and along the west coast, 56. Ulloa, Antonio, secret information afforded by him to the Spanish government, respect- ing the state of the Spanish provinces in South America, in 1740, 105. Unalashka Island, 36. Visited by Cook, 156, who there first meets with Russians, 155, United States, first voyages of their citizens to the Pacific and to China, 179. First voyages to the north-west coast of America, 180. Obtain possession of Louisiana, 276. War with Great Britain, 301. Ended by treaty of Ghent, 306. Their citizens alone can occupy Oregon, 403. Urdaneta, Andres de, discovers the mode of crossing the Pacific from west to east, 65. Supposed to have discovered a northern passage between the Atlantic and Pacific, 77. Utah Salt Lake, 20. Vancouver, George, sails from England on an exploring voyage to the Pacific, and as commissioner on the part of Great Britain to receive the lands and buildings to be restored by Spain, agreeably to the Nootka convention, 217. Reaches the north-west coast of America, 232. Declares that no river or harbor of consequence is to be found be- tween the 40th and the 48th degree of lati- tude, 233. Meets Gray, and receives from him an account of the discovery of a great river,232, which he disbelieves, 233. Enters the Strait of Fuca ; explores Admiralty Inlet, and takes possession of the whole surround- ing territory, 233. Remarks on this act ; meets Galiano and Valdcs, and continues the survey of the strait, 239. Passes through the strait, and arrives at Nootka, 240. Claims the discovery of the Wash- ington or North Marquesas Islands for Hergest, though he knew them to have been first seen by the Americans, 242. Negotiations Ewith the Spanish commis- sioner Q,uadra, 242. Claims the whole territory around Nootka for Great Briiam, 243. His unfair synopsis of the letter of Gray and Ingraham, 244, 417. Receives accounts and charts of Gray's discoveries from Quadra ; sends Broughton to examine Columbia River, 247. Unworthy attempt to take to himself the merit of discovering the Columbia, 248. At the Sandwich Islands, executes persons falsely charged with the murder of his officers, 249. Ex- amines a large portion of the north-west coasts, and returns to the Sandwich Islands, 250. Pretended cession of Owyhee to him for his sovereign, 251. Circumstances con- nected with that aflliir, 252. Returns to the north-west coast, of which he completes the survey, 254. Names given by him to places, 255. Returns to England; his death ; great value of his journal ; his hatred of Americans, and constant injustice towards them, 256. Vizcaino, Sebastian, exploring voyage along the north-west coast, 91. Desires to found colonics on those coasts, but dies before his plans could be executed, 92. W Washington's Island, so called by Gray, who first explored its east coast, 199. See Queen Charlotte's Island. Washington or North Marquesas Islands, discovered by Ingraham, 226. Discovery claimed by Marchand, who, however, admits the priority^ of Ingraham's claim, 228. Discovery claimed by Vancouver for Hergest, 242. Occupied by the French, 374. Medal granted by the King of France to the crew of Marchand's ship for dis- covcriuff the island, 228. Webster, Daniel, secretary of state of the United States, concludes a treaty with Lord Ashburton, settling the boundaries east of the Lake of the Woods, 378. Whidbcy surveys Bulfinch's Harbor, 246. Wiccanish, king of Nittinat, Ki". Wilkes, Charles, his voyage of exploration in the Pacific, 375. Willamet, river and valley, 26. First settle- ments of citizens of the United States there, 361. Wrangel, Admiral Von, Governor of Russian America, prevents the British from occupy- ing the mouth of the Stikine river, 363. His work on Russian America, 329. His explanation of the north coast of Asia, 328. VVyeth, Nathaniel, endeavors to establish trading posts on the Columbia, 359. Great value of his accounts of Oregon, 360.