28 



CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN 



For Tikhmeni- Sitka, or New Archangel 



eff's complete Kadiak aud adjoining islands 



tables, including Island of Ookamok 



natives, see Ap- Katuiai 



pendix, vol. i, Sutkhumokoi 



No. 5. Voskressensky Harbour 



Fort Constantino 



Nikolai, Cook Inlet 



Alexandrovsk, Cook Inlet 



Ross Settlement, California 



Seal Islands 



Nushagak (the only Settlement on the continent north of the 

 Aleutian Islands) , 



Total . 



See also Adams 

 to Rush, July 22, 

 1823 ; 



American State 

 Papers, Foreign 

 Relations, vol. v, 



p. 446; 



and also Confi- 

 dential Memorial 

 inclosed in letter, 

 M i d (1 1 e t o u to 

 Adams, Decem- 

 ber 1 (13), 1823; 

 American State 

 Papers, Foreign 

 Relations, vol. v, 

 p. 449. 



See Appendix, 

 vol. ii. Part II, 

 Nos. 4 and 5. 



For text of Con- 

 vention, see 

 American State 

 Papers, vol. iv, p. 

 4UC. 



UNCERTAINTY OF TERRITORIAl. CLAIMS IX 1818. 



While the subjects of liussia, Si)aiii, Great Britain, and 

 the United States were doubtless making' claims on the 

 l^art of their respective countries from time to time, so 

 uncertain were these claims and the merits of each, that in 

 1818 (2()th October), in the Convention between the United 

 States and Great Britain, it was agreed that any — 



Country that may be claimed by either party ou the north-west 

 coast of America, Avestward of the .Stonj' Mountains, shall, together 

 witli its harbours, bays, and creeks, and the navigation 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 V(;ssels, citi- 

 zens, 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 I'arties may have to any 

 part of tlie said country, nor shall it be takeu to affect the claims of 

 any other Power or State to any part of the said country, the only 

 object of the High Contracting Parties in that respect being to pre- 

 vent disputes and differences amongst themselves. 



Rt'SSIAX TERRITORIAL CLAIM IN 1821. 



Mr. 



American state -''^^- ^^ams, Secretary of State of the United States, in 

 Papers, Foreign a dcspatcli to jNIr. Middlctoii, the United States Minister at 

 Relations, vol. V, g^_ Pctersburoh, (jatcd L'L'nd July, 1823, contended that 



See Appent 

 vol. ii, I'art 

 No. 3. 



^^, ^ ^^^^--^^^^^..^ ,..„^^,^ ..,.._,, ^ , ^, ^ — 



adix, even as late as tiiat year llussian rights in the region under 

 ' consideration " were contined to certain islands north of 

 the oath degree of latitude," and had "no existence on the 

 continent of America." 

 lu the same letter Mr. Adams observed : 



It does not appear that there ever has been a permanent Russian Set- 

 tlement on this continent south of latitude .")i>'\ that of New Archangel, 

 cited by M. Poletica, in latitudt^ .^)7 30 , being ui)on an island. So tar 



as ]irior discorcrji can constitute a foundation of right, the pa)).'r8 

 34 whicii I have referred to prove that it belongs to the ('nited 



States as far as 5iH north, by the* transfer to them of the rights 

 of S])ain. Tliere is, however, ijo part of the globe wiiere the mere i'act 

 of discovery could 1)0 Indd to gi\e W(!aker claims tiiau on the north- 

 west coast. "The great sinuosity," says Hunibolilt, '•formed by the 

 coast between the .55th and (JOth parallels of latitude, embraces dis- 

 coveries made by (jfali, Bering, and 'I'chix ikoti', (iMiatlra, Cook, La 

 Perouse, Malaspina, and Vancouver. No European nation has yet 

 formed an estabttshment upon the immenao extiint of coast from Cape 

 Meudosino to the 59tii degree of latilude. lieyond that limit tJie 

 Russian factories commence, most of which are se;(Ttered and distant 

 from each other like the factories established by the luiropean nations 

 for the last three centuries on the coast of Africa, Most of these little 



