^48 



APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



pletc vindication of the claims of linssia, we prefer giving it entire, and 

 shall follow it with some comments on the "historical facts" it contains^ 

 and the inferences which are drawn from them, and add some facts 

 within our own knowledge which may have a bearing on the subject. 



THE CHEVALXER DK POLETICA TO THE SECUETAUY OF STATE. 



[Translation.] 



Washington, February 28, 1822. 



feiR: 1 received two days since the letter whicli you did me the honour to address 

 to nie on the same day, by order of the President of the United States, in answer to my 

 note of the lltli current, by which 1 discharged the orders of my Government in com- 

 municating to you the new Regulation adopted by the Russian-American Company, 

 and sanctioned by His Majesty the Emperor, my august Sovereign, on the 4lh (ICth) 

 September, 1821, relative to foreign commerce in the waters whicli border upon the 

 establishments of the said Company, on the north-west coast of America. 



Readily yielding, sir, to the desire expressed by you in your letter of knowing the 

 rights and principles upon which are founded the determinate limits of the Russian 

 possessions on the north-west coast of America, from Behring Strait to the 51st 

 degree of north latitude, 1 am happy to fulfil this task by only calling your attention 

 to the following historical facts, the authenticity of which cannot bo contested. 



The tir.st discoveries of the Russians on the north-west continent of America go 

 back to the time of the Emperor Peter I. They belong to the attempt, made towards 

 the end of the reign of this great Monarch, to find a passage from the Icy Sea into 

 the Pacific Ocean. 



In 1728 the celebrated Captain Behring made his first voyage. The recital of his 

 discoveries attracted the attention of the Government, and the Empress Anne 

 entrusted to Captain Behring (1741) a new expedition in these same latitudes. She 

 sent with him the Academicians Gmelin, Delile de la Crayore, Mliller, Steller, Fisher, 

 KrasiUiicoff, KriTJcheninicoff, and others, and the first chart of those countries which 

 is known was the result of their labours, published in 1758. Besides the strait which 

 bears the name of the chief of this expedition, he discovered a great part of the 

 islands whicli are found between the two continents; Cape or Mount St. Elias, 

 which still bears this name upon all the charts, was so called by Captain Behring, 

 who discovered it on the day of the feast of tliis saint; and his second, Captain 

 Tchiricoft", })usl)ed his discoveries as far as the 49th degree of north latitude. 



The first private expeditions undertaken upon the north-west coast of America 

 go back as far as the year 1743. 



Ii;i 1703 the Russian establishments had already extended as far as the Island of 

 Kodiak (or Kichtak). In 1778 Cook f<mnd them at Ounalaska, and some Russian 

 inscriptions at Kodiak. Vancouver saw the Russian establishments in the Bay of 

 kinai. In fine, Captains Mirs, Portlock, La Peyrouse unanimously attest the exist- 

 ence of Russian establishments in these latitudes. 



If the Imperial Government had, at the time, published the discoveries made by 

 the Russian navigators after Behring and Tchiricott" (viz., Chlodilotf, Screbreanieott', 

 Krassilnicoff, Paycoft', Poushcaretf, Lazareff, Medvvedeft', Solowieff", Levvasheff, Kren- 

 itsin, and others), no one could refuse to Russia the right of first discovery, nor could 

 even any one deny her that of first occupation. 



Moreover, when D. Jos6 Martinez was sent, in 1789, by the Coitrt of Madrid, to 

 form an establishment in Vanc^ouver's Island, and to remove foreigners from thence 

 under the pretext that all that coast belonged to Spain, he gave not the least disturb- 

 ance to the Russian Colonies and navigators; yet the Spanish Government was not 

 ignorant of tlieir existence, for this very Martinez had visited them the year before. 

 The Report which Captain Malesj)inamade of the results of his voyage proves thai; 

 the Spaniards very well knew of the Russian Colonies, and in this very Report it 

 is seen that tlie Court of Madrid acknowledged that its possessions upon the coast 

 of the Pacific Ocean ought not to extend to the north of Cape Blanc, taken from the 

 point of Trinity, situated under 42° 50' of north latitude. 



When, in 17131), the Emperor Paul I, granted to the present American Company 

 29 its first Charter, ho gave it the exclusive possession of the north-west coast of 

 America which belonged to Russia, from the 55th degree of north latitude to> 

 Behring Strait. He pc^rmitted them to extend their discoveries to the south, and 

 there to form establislmients, provided they ditl not encroach upon the territory 

 occupied by other Powers. 



Tiiis Act, when made public, excited no claim on the part of other Cabinets, not 

 even on that of Madrid, which confirms that it did not extend its pretensions to the 

 (iOtli degree. 



When the Government of the United States treated with Spain for the cession of a 

 part of the north-west coast, it was able to acquire by the Treaty of Washington the 



