276 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



comes the elbow of the coast; then lower down three islands, not 

 unlike Sitka, Queen Charlotte, and Vancouver; and then, further south, 

 is the peninsula of I.ower California. Sometimes the story of Aniau 

 is explained by the voyage of the Portuguese navigator Caspar de Cor- 

 tereal in 1500-1505, when, on reaching Hudson Bay in quest of a pas- 

 sage round America, he imagined that he had found it, and proceeded to 

 name his discovery " in honour of two brothers who a(com])anied liim." 

 Very soon maps began to record the Straits of Anian; but tliis does 

 not explain the substantial conformity of the early delineation with 

 the reality, which seems truly remarkable. 



The otlier branch of inquiry is more easily disposed of. This turns 

 on a Spanish document entitled "Eelation of the Discovery of the Strait 

 of Anian, made by me, Caj)tain Lorenzo Ferren Maldonado," purporting 

 to be written at the time, although it did not see the liglit till 1781, 

 when it was published in Spain, and shortly afterward became the sub- 

 ject of a memoir before the French Academy. If this early account of 

 a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific were authentic the 

 whole question would be settled, but recent geographers indignantly 

 discarded it as a barefaced imposture. Clearly Sj^ain once regarded 

 it otherwise; for her Government in 1789 sent out an expedition "to 

 discover the strait by which Maldonado was supposed to have passed 

 in 1588 from the coast of Labrador to tlie Great Ocean." Tlie expedition 

 was not successful, and nothing more has been heard of any claim from 

 this pretended discovery. The story of Maldonado has taken its place 

 in the same category with that of Munchausen. 



REASONS FOR THIS CESSION BY RUSSIA. 



Turning from this question of title, which time and testimony have 

 already settled, I meet the inquiry. Why dors Russia part with posses- 

 sions thus associated v/ith the reign of her greatest Emperor and filling 

 an important chapter of geographical history? On this head I have no 

 information which is not open to others. But I do not forget that the 

 first Napoleon in parting with Louisiana was controlled by three several 

 considerations: first, he needed the purchase-money for his Treasury; 

 secondly, he was unwilling to leave this distant unguarded territory a 

 prey to Great Britain in the event of hostilities which seemed at hand; 

 and thirdly, he was glad, according to his own remarkable language, "to 

 establish for ever the power of the United States and give to England a 

 maritime rival destined to humble her pride." Such is the record of 

 history. Perhaps a similar record may be made hereafter with regard 

 to the present cession. It is sometimes imagined that Russia, with all 

 her great Empire, is financially poor, so that these few millions may not 

 be unimportant to her. It is by foreign loans that her railroads have 

 been built and her wars have been aided. All, too, must see that in 

 those "coming events," which now more than ever "cast their shadows 

 before," it will be for her advantage not to hold outlying possessions from 

 which thus far she has obtained no income commensurate with the pos- 

 sible exi)euse for their protection. Perhaps, like a wrestler, she now 

 strips for the contest, which I trust sincerely may be averted. Besides, 

 I cannot <loubt that her enlightened Emi)eror, who has given pledges 

 to civilization by an unsurpassed act of emancipation, would join the 

 first Napoleon in a. desire to enhance the maritime power of the United 

 States. 



These general considerations are reinforced when we call to mind the 

 little influence which Russia has thus far been able to exercise in this 



