386 



APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Vancouver saw the Russian Establish- 

 ment in the Bay of Kinai. 



In fine Captain Meares, Portlock, La 

 Peyrouse, unanimously attest the exist- 

 ence of Russian Eatablishmenta in these 

 latitudes. 



5. If the Imperial Government had at 

 the time published the discoveries made 

 by the Russian navigators after Behring 

 and Tchirikoii", viz., Chodiloflf, Serebriani- 

 coff, Krassiluicoff, Paycolf, Poushcarolf, 

 Lazeriff, Medwedeft", Solvnieflf, Lewash- 

 eff, Krimstin, and others, no one could 

 refuse to Russia the right of first discov- 

 ery, nor cohld even any one deny her of 



first occu]»ation. 

 21 6. That Don Jose Martinez in 



1789 did not remove tlie Russian 

 colonists from Nootka, and that the Span- 

 iards acknowledged, by the Report of 

 Captain Malespina, that they had no 

 right bevond Cape Blanc in latitude 

 42° 50'. 



7. That in 1799 the Emperor Paul 1 

 granted to the present American Fur 

 Company its first Charter; he gave it 

 the exclusive possession of the north- 

 west coast of America, which belonged 

 to Russia from the 55° north latitude to 

 Behring's Straits. 



He ])ermitted them to extend their dis- 

 coveries to the south, and there to form 

 Establishmeuts, provided they did not 

 encroach upon the territory occupied by 

 other Powers. 



This act when made public excited no 

 claim on the part of other Cabinets, not 

 even on the part of Madrid, which con- 

 firms that it did not extend its preten- 

 sions to the 60th degree. 



When by the Treaty of Washington 

 the American Government acquired all 

 the right of territory which belonged to 

 Spain beyond 42'^, no northern boundary 

 was named, because Spain could not define 

 her right. 



8. The 51° being only the mean point 

 between the Russian Establishments of 

 Iv'ew Arcliangel in 57^ and tlic American 

 Colony which is found at tlio mouth of 

 the Coliunbia in 46°. 



Vancouver was visited by Russians in 

 Prince William's Sound, which is in 

 uj) wards of 60°. 



Meares and Portlock saw Russians in 

 Cook's Inlet. Captain Meares com- 

 manded the " Nootka " and Captain Port- 

 lock the "King George." . . . ships 

 engaged in the fur trade between Canton 

 and the north-west coast from 1780 to 1790, 

 "but it cannot be found where Peyrouse 

 attests their existence, though in the 

 234th page of the 2nd vol. of the Paris 

 edition of his voyiigcs, published 1798, 

 there is the following sentence: "J'ai 

 trouvd parmi leurs bijoux des morfeaux 

 d'auibre jaune on de scmin, mais j'ignore 

 si c'est line production de leur pays, ou 

 ei comme le fer, ils Font re^u de I'ancien 

 continent par leur communication indi- 

 recte avec les Russes." 



On a reference to Coxe's Russian dis- 

 coveries, it is evident that the whcde of 

 these expeditions were confined to the 

 Fox and Aleutian Islands, and from the 

 order in wliich the names are placed it 

 would appear that M. de Poletica took 

 his information from this work. 



Neither Cook or Vancouver mention 

 these settlers. So little did the Court of 

 Madrid know of settlers at Nootka that 

 in its State Paper to Mr. Fitzherbert it 

 mentions that they were informed that 

 Russia intended forming Establisliments. 

 (See Annual Register 1790, pp. 287 to 

 305.) 



The Court of Madrid had in the year 

 1790 claimed to latitude 61°, and quotes 

 in a letter from the Spanish to the French 

 Minister the 16th .June, 1890, an admis- 

 sion of Russia to tiie claim of Sjiain to 

 the 61° north latitude, though perhaps a 

 little equivocal. 



See J. Q. Adnms' letter in answer to 

 3Uth March, 1822. 



It is not at all defined that the mouth 

 of the Columbia belongs to America. By 

 a Convention with the United States, 

 .January 1819, the country to the west- 

 ward of tlie K'ocky Mountains is left 

 common to botli nations for ten years. 



