Early Relations bchvccu the United States and China. 37 



the "O'Cain" returned, again obtained Indians from the Rus- 

 sians, and left for the Cahfornia coast. *^ In 1810 and 181 1 at 

 least four vessels were there on the same mission*'' under Russian 

 contract. 



The relations between the Americans and Russians on the 

 Northwest Coast were not confined to the California sealing 

 voyages. In 1807 the Russians chartered an American vessel, 

 the "Eclipse," to carry supplies from China to their settlements 

 in Kamchatka and the Northwest Coast, a step made necessary 

 by the Chinese rule which forbade the Czar's ships to come to 

 Canton. •'^ Part of the extensive plan of Astor was to supply 

 the American settlements of the Czar with goods in exchange for 

 furs.**^ More important, however, were the diplomatic troubles 

 which arose. 



In 1808 Count Romanzoff, Russian Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs and of Commerce, complained to the American charge 

 d'affaires that American ships on the Northwest Coast, instead 

 of trading with the Russian settlements, were carrying on a 

 clandestine barter in fire arms with the natives to the danger 

 of his majesty's subjects. Beyond a formal acknowledgment 

 the Americans seem to have paid no attention to the note*' and 

 the matter was dropped for a time. In January, 1810, Daschkoff, 

 the Russian charge in Washington, took up the question again and 

 proposed that the United States should order its citizens to con- 

 fine their trade to the Russian factories and prohibit their carry- 

 ing on any barter with the natives. The American Government, 



" Ibid. D'Wolf calls it "Okain" and Patterson calls it "Ocain," but 

 there is no reasonable doubt of its identity. 



"Bancroft, Hist, of Calif., 2:93. He cites Albatross, Log Book of 

 Voyage to N. W. Coast in 1809- 1812, kept by William Gale, as authority. 

 Some of the vessels were under the Winships. 



*^ Archibald Campbell, A Voyage Round the World from 1806 to 1812. 

 New York, 1817. The ship mentioned in Erasmus Doolittle, Sketches 

 by a Traveller, Boston, 1830, in about 1809 or 1810 traded provisions to 

 the Russians for skins. 



■"Am. Fur Trade, Hunt's Merc. Mag., 3:197-8. It is interesting to 

 note that much the same thing was done for several years after 1815 

 for the British Northwest Fur Company by J. and T. H. Perkins of 

 Boston to evade the monopoly of the East India Company. Reports of 

 Committees, No. 43, 2 Sess., 24 Cong. 



*" American State Papers, Foreign Relations, Washington, 1858. 5:455. 



