APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 275 



A FRENCH ASPIRATION ON THIS COAST. 



So little was the Russian title recognized for some time, that when 

 the unfortunate expedition of La Perouse, with the frigates "Boussole" 

 and "Astrolabe," stopped on this coast in 1787, he did not hesitate to 

 consider the friendly liarbour, in latitude 58° 36', where he was moored, 

 as open to permanent occui)ation. Describing tliis harbour, which ho 

 named "Portdes Francais," as sheltered behind a breakwater of rocks, 

 with a calm sea, and with a mouth sufficiently large, he says that Nature 

 seemed to have created at this extremity of the world a port like that 

 of Toulon, but vaster in plan and accommodation; and then, considering 

 that it'had never been discovered before, that it was situated 33 leagues 

 north-west of liemedios, the limit of Spanish navigation, about 281: 

 leagnes from Nootka, and 100 leagues from Prince William Sound, the 

 mariner records his judgment that " if the French Government had any 

 project of a factory on this coast, no nation could have the slightest 

 right to oppose it." — (La Perouse, "Voyage," Tom. 2, p. 1-47.) 



Til us quietly was Eussia dislodged. The frigates sailed further on 

 their voyage, and never returned to France. Their fate was unknown, 

 until, after fruitless search and the lapse of a generation, their ship- 

 wrecked hulls were accidentally iound on a desert island of the South- 

 ern Pacific. The unfinished journal of La Perouse recording his visit 

 to this coast had been sent overland by way of Kamtchatka and 

 Siberia to France, where it was published by a Decree of the National 

 Assembly, thus making known his sup[)()sed discovery and his aspira- 

 tion. 



EARLY SPANISH CLAIM. 



Spain also has been a claimant. In 1775 Bodega, a Spanish naviga- 

 tor, seeking new o]>portunities to plant the Si)anisli flag, reached the 

 l)arallel of 58° on this coast, not far from Sitka, but this supposed dis- 

 covery was not followed by any immediate assertion of dominion. The 

 universal aspiration of Spain had embraced this whole region even at 

 an early day, and shortly after the return of Bodega another enterprise 

 was equii)ped to verify the larger claim, being nothing less than the 

 original title as discoverer of the straits between America and Asia, 

 and of the conterminous continent under the name of Anian. This 

 curious episode is not out of place in this brief history. It has two 

 branches: one concerning early maps on which straits are represented 

 between America and Asia under the name of Anian; the other con- 

 cerning a pretended attempt by a Spanish navigator at an early day to 

 find these straits. 



There can be no doubt that early maps exist with north-western 

 straits marked "Anian." There are two in the Congressional Library 

 in atlases of the years 1717 and 1680; but these are of a date 

 47 comparatively modern. Engel, in his " Memoires Geograph- 

 iques," mentions several earlier, which he believes to be genuine. 

 There is one purporting to be by Zaltieri, and bearing date 1506, an 

 authentic pen and ink copy of which is now before me from the col- 

 lection of our own Coast Survey. On this very interesting map, which 

 is without latitude or longitude, the western coast of the continent is 

 delineated with straits separating it from Asia not unlike the Behriug 

 Straits in outline and with the name in Italian " Stretto di Anian." 

 Southward the coast has a certain conformity with what is now known 

 to exist. Below the straits is an indentation corresponding to Bristol 

 Bayj then a peninsula somewhat broader than that of Alaskaj then 



