266 APPENDIX TO CASE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



The Coinpauy addressed an energetic representation to the Foreign 

 Oflice, calling" npon the Government to prevent the Americans from 

 fishing in the waters of the Colony in contravention of the Convention. 

 The Foreign Office replied : * " The claim to a mare elausum, if we wished 

 to advance snch a claim in respect to the northern part of the Pacific 

 Ocean, could not be theoretically justified. Under Article I of the 

 Convention of 3 824 between Russia and the United States, which is 

 still in force, American citizens have a right to fish in all ])arts of the 

 Pacific Ocean. But under Article IV of the same Convention, the ten 

 years' period mentioned in that Article having expired, we have power 

 to forbid American vessels to visit inland seas, gulfs, harbours, and 

 bays for the purposes of fishing and trading' with the natives. That is 

 the limit of our rights, and Ave have no power to prevent American 

 shi])S from talcing whales in the open sea." 



Of course this decision, which made it impossible for the Company to 

 restrain in any way the licence of the whalers, gave the latter an excuse 

 for continuing to act exactly as they chose within the limitsof theColony. 

 From 1843 to 1850 there were constant complaints by the Comi)any of 

 the increasing boldness of the whalers. They were not content with 

 landing on the Aleutian and Kurile Islands, cutting wood wherever 

 they chose, boiling blubber on the shore, and thereby inflicting real 

 damage on the fur industry (especially in the case of the otter, for the 

 least smoke is sufficient to drive it from the coast); they went still 

 further in their arbitrary i)roceedings. On more than one occasion they 

 destroyed huts belonging to the natives or to the Company, and on 

 leceiving notice of the Pegulations and Circulars in force ])rohibiting 

 whaling off the shores of the Colony, they replied with threats or con- 

 temptuous language. The whalers asserted that the sea in all latitudes 

 and longitudes was the common property of all; besides, they said, they 

 had a right to exercise their industry under their national flag. Traflic 

 iu furs was openly carried on between the natives and the American 

 captains, and when the Colonial authorities made some whalers leave 

 Novoarkhangelsk on that account, they quietly continued the traffic in 

 the P)ay of Sitka, and disregarded all protests. The following case also 

 deserves to be noticed: In 1847 one of the whalers came to Behring 

 Island, and on the captain being told that he must not traffic in seal- 

 skins t on a neighbouring small island, he ordered the overseer of the 

 island to be turned off' his ship, and immediately went on shore with his 

 men, with the evident intention of disregarding the prohibition. 



It was ordy when active steps were taken to resist them that the 

 whalers left, but before going they cut down a plantation which had 

 been grown with great trouble, the island being without other trees 

 or shrubs. Few of the districts of the Colony esca.ped the visits of the 

 whalers, which were everywhere accompanied by acts of violence on 

 their i^art. 



Whenever complaints of such acts reached the Company, they took all 

 the steps in their power to protect the country under their administra- 

 tion; but all tlieir efforts led to no satisfactory result. In 1843, 

 41 almost immediately after the first i)rotest of the Com])any, the 

 Colonial authorities were alai ined at the large number of whalers 

 engaged round the shores of Kadiak, as the Company's fur trade 

 was certain to suffer from their presence. M. Etolin accordingly 



*Ijetter from the D(>]);irtineiit of Miuiuf.ictiires and Internal Trade, December 14, 

 1812, No. 5191. Dielo Arkli. Kom. 1812 goda, No. 14, str. 7. 



tTlie Russian word is "sivutsb," for which the equivalent given in the dictionary 

 is "otary," "soa-lion." 



