274 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



doubt existed with regard to Kussian discoveries it was removed by 

 the autlientic Rei)ort of this navigator, who shed such a flood of light 

 upon tlie geograpiiy of this region. 



Such from the beginning is the title of Eussia, dating at least from 

 1741. The coast of British Columbia, next below, was discovered by 

 Vancouver in 1790, and that of Oregon, still further down, by Gray, 

 who, sailing from Boston in 1789, entered the Columbia Biver 

 46 in 1790, so that the title of Russia is the earliest ou the north- 

 western coast. I have not stopped to quote volume and page, 

 but I beg to be understood as following a])proved authorities, and I 

 refer especially to the liussian work of Miiiler, already cited, ou the 

 "Voyages from Asia to America;" the volume of Coxe on "Eussian 

 Discoveries," with its supjdement on the "Comparative View of Eus- 

 sian Discoveries;" the volume of Sir John Barrow, on "Arctic Voy- 

 ages;" Barney's " Eussian and Norih-eastern Voyages;" and the third 

 voyage of Captain Cook, unhappily interiupted by his tragical death 

 from the natives of the Sandwich Islands, but not until after his exi)lo- 

 ration of this coast. 



There were at least four other Eussian expeditions by which this title 

 was conflrmed, if it needed any confirmation. The first was ordered 

 by the Empress Catharine in 1785. It was under the command of Com- 

 modore Billings, an Englishman in the service of Eussia, and was nar- 

 rated from the original papers by Martin Saner, Secretary of the expe- 

 dition. In the instructions from the Admiralty at St. Petersburgh the 

 Commodore was directed to take possession of " such coasts and islands 

 as he shall first discover, whether inhabited or not, that cannot be dis- 

 puted, and are not yet subject to any Euroi:)ean Power, with consent of 

 the inhabitants, if any," and this ^vas to be accomplished by setting uj) 

 "posts marked with the Arms of Eussia, with letters indicating the 

 time of sovereignty, a short account of the people, their voluntary sub- 

 mission to the Ifussian sovereignty, and that this was done under the 

 glorious reign of the great Catharine II." (Billings' "ITorthern Eussia," 

 Appendix.) 



The next was in 1803, in the interest of the Eussian- American Com- 

 pany. There were two ships, one under the com inand of Captain Lisian- 

 sky, and the other of Captain Krusenstern, of the Eussian navy. It 

 was the first voyage round the world by the Eussian Government, and 

 lasted three years. During its progress these ships visited separately 

 the north-west coast of America, and especially Sitka and the Island 

 of Kodiak. 



Still anotiier enterprise organized by the celebrated Minister Count 

 Eomanzoff, at his expense, left Eussia in 1815, under the command of 

 Lieutenant Kotzebue, an officer of the Eussian navy, and son of the 

 German dramatist whose assassination darkened the return of the son 

 from his long voyage. It is enough for the present to say of this expe- 

 dition that it has left its honourable traces on the coast even as far as 

 the Frozen Ocean. 



There remains the enterprise of Liitke,at the time Captain, and after- 

 wards Admiral, in the l\ussian navy, which was a voyage round the 

 world, embracing es])eciallytheEussian possessions, commenced in 182G, 

 and described in French with instriu-.tive fulness. With him sailed tho 

 German naturalist Kittlitz, who has done so much to illustrate the nat- 

 ural history of this region. 



