264 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



39 No. 5. 



Extracts FROM the "Historical Review of the Formation of the Russian- 

 American COAIPANY, and their PROCEEDINGS UP TO THE PRESENT TjJIE" (iN 



Russian), ijy P. Tikhmenieff, St. Petersburgh, 1861, Part I, Chapter VIII, 

 Pages 257-261. 



[Tranalation.] 



The boundaries of the Eussian possessions on tlie north-west coast of 

 America, defined in the Charter renewed to the Company by the Emperor 

 in 1821, were somewhat altered in consequence of disputes which arose 

 with the United States of America and with England. In the Con- 

 ventions concluded by Russia with the United States' Government on 

 the 5th (17th) April, 1824, and with England on the 16th (28th) Febru- 

 ary, 1825, it was stipulated that the boundary of the Russian dominions 

 on the south should extend from the southern limit of Prince of Wales' 

 Island (54° 40' north latitude), and between 131° and 133° west longi- 

 tude from Greenwich to the north along the Portland Channel to that 

 point of land which touches the 5Gth parallel of latitude. By the 

 former of these Conventions the citizens of the United States were 

 given the right, for a period of ten years, to fish in the waters of the 

 Colony, and to trade with the inhabitants of the coast. 



This latter i^rovision provoked from the Company a complaint that 

 the privileges granted to them by the Emperor had been infringed in 

 a manner which threatened the prosperity of the Colony, and even the 

 very existence of the Company. 



In a letter addressed to the Foreign Office, Admiral Mordvinofi", a 

 shareholder of the Company, spohe very strongly in defence of the 

 rights of the Company, and called attention to the fact that certain 

 parts of the Convention were not at all clear, and might give rise to 

 many disputes. The Foreign Office replied that our Government had 

 two very good reasons for granting to the citizens of the United States 

 the right to trade and fish in the waters of the Colony for a period 

 not exceeding ten years, namely, first, because the Government of the 

 United States asked, not without reason, for something in return for 

 the great advantages conceded tollussiaby the other parts of the Con- 

 vention, in particular by Article V; and, in the second place, because, 

 as the Company had not hitherto been able to prevent the Americans 

 from continuing the trading and fisliing in the waters of the Colony, 

 which they had carried on for many years, it would be much better 

 that the Company sliould give their formal consent to such trading and 

 fishing than that they should see their prohibition disregarded, and 

 trade and fishing continue as before, as if by a natural and indefeasible 

 right. Besides, a great advantage Avould be gained by the formal 

 grant of this privilege for a certain period, because, in return, the 

 United States' Government would be ready to admit formally that, at 

 the end of the stipulated period, the Company would have a perfect 

 right to jn'ohibit trading and fishing by Americans in tiie waters of 

 the Colony, and punish those who disregarded the prohibition. 



As the Convention had not yet been ratified, the Emperor, on the 

 representation of the Com])any that they would be injured by that part 

 of the (Convention to which we have referred, ordered inquiry to be 

 made into the matter by a Special Commission. In the Protocol of the 

 Commission, which was apjn'oved by the Emperor, it wasde(;]ared, inter 

 alia, that the provision of the Convention granting to the citizens of the 

 United States the right to fish in the waters of the Colony, and to trado 



