380 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



it will begin to have force, viz., from the 1st March with respect to 

 European vessels, and from the 1st July for vessels from this country. 

 Mr. Adams inquired whether I had lieard from your Lordship on this 

 head, and on the supposition that a similar communication had in all 

 probability been made by the Eussian Ambassador in London, appeared 

 desirous of learning the course which His Majesty's Government 

 intended to adopt with reference to it. I could only reply by saying 

 that I had not yet received any intimation from your Lordship on the 

 subject. 



I have, &G. (Signed) Stratford Canning. 



No. 10. 



Hudson's Bay Company to the Marquis of Londonderry. — (Received 



March .) 



Hudson's Bat House, London, March 27, 1822. 



My Lord: It has fallen under the observation of the Governor and 

 Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company that the Kussian Govern- 

 ment have made a claim to the north-west coast of America, from 

 Behring's Straits to the 51st degree of north latitude; and in an 

 Imperial Ukase have prohibited foreign vessels from approaching the 

 coast within 100 miles, under penalty of confiscation. Likewise that 

 the American Government are claiming a very considerable extent of 

 country bordering on the Pacific Ocean ; and that a Bill is in progress 

 in the House of Eepresentatives for settling the Columbia and forming 

 it into a State of the Union. 



In the Eeport presented to the House on which this Bill is founded, 

 the Committee state that the title of the United States to the sov- 

 ereignty of the territory from the 41st degree to the completion of the 

 53rd degree of north latitude is unquestionable; but that, in the opinion 

 of the Committee, the American Government have a good claim as far 

 as 60° north latitude. 



I need not remind your Lordship that a large portion of that country 

 was discovered by British navigators, and taken possession of on behalf 

 of Great Britain; uor of the affair of Nootka Sound, in 1781), in conse- 

 queiute of aggressions committed upon British subjects on that coast; 

 but it may be necessary to state to your Lordship that the Americans 

 had no trade with the natives until long after the British Establish- 

 ments had been formed in the country to the westward of the Eocky 

 Mountains. 



In the year 1792 Sir Alexander McKenzie, then a partner in the late 

 North-West Company, explored from the interior the country west of 

 the Eocky Mountains, and was the first who ])enetrated to the Pacific 

 Ocean. In the preceding year Captain Vancouver had surveyed the 

 Columbia Eiver from the mouth to the Falls, 200 miles from the sea. 



For above twenty years the Britisli fur traders have had Settlements, 

 and the Company have an Establishment of 200 men on the Columbia 

 Eiver at this period, and large and valuable Establishments to the 



northward. 

 16 It was not till the year ISOO tliat the Americans explored this 



country, when an expedition was fitted out under Captains Lewis 

 and Clarke, who proceeded to the head of the Mississourie, theuce 



