392 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



America, reserving tliem all if the result of the negotiation should not 

 be satisfactory to both parties. 



This note will then put this matter in a train of negotiation, which 

 is what was wished. 



I have, &c. (Signed) Wellington. 



No. 17. 



Mr. 8. Canning to Earl Bathurst. — {Received .) 



[Separate. — Extract.] 



Washington, November 31, 1822. 

 Being directed by my instructions to transmit to His Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment whatever information I may happen to obtain respecting the 

 proposed occupation of the territory adjacent to the Columbia Eiver, I 

 have endeavoured not to lose sight of this subject, the rather as an 

 effort will probably be made in the course of the approaching Session 

 to bring it under the immediate deliberation of Congress. The corre- 

 siDondence which, some montlis ago, took place between M. Poletica, 

 the late Russian Minister at Washington, and Mr. Adams, relative to 

 another portion of the north-west coast of America, has contributed to 

 turn the attention of the public towards the same quarter. On the 

 questions involved in this correspondence an interesting article has 

 lately appeared in the " North American Review," a work of merit pub- 

 lished periodically at Boston. The argument, bottomed on facts, which 

 the reviewer maintains in opposition to the territorial pretensions of 

 Russia, would seem, as far as the title of that Power is concerned, to be 

 of a very conclusive description. As the article is rather long, 1 have 

 made extracts of the material parts for your Lordship's more convenient 

 perusal. They will be found in the Inclosure (A). 



[Inclosure in No. 17.] 

 A.] Extract from the "North American Review.** 



The third voyage of Cook having made us acquainted with countriea of which 

 little was before known, several enterprising individuals, allured by the prospect of 

 a profitable traffic with the natives, engaged in voyages to the north-west coast aa 

 early as 1784. The citizens of the United States, then just recovering from the 

 entire prostration of their commerce by the revolutionary war, and possessing more 

 enterprise than capital, were not slow in perceiving the benefits likely to result from 

 the participation in a branch of trade where industry and perseverance could be sub- 

 stituted for capital. 



In 1787, two vessels were fitted out in the port of Boston, the "Columbia," of 300 

 tons, and the "Washington," of 100 tons burthen; the former commanded 

 27 by Mr. John Kendrick, the latter by Mr. Robert Grey, since known as the first 

 navigator who entered the River Columbia. Other vessels followed shortly 

 after, and those intrusted with the management of these voyages soon acquired the 

 necessary local knowlege to insure a successful competition with the traders of other 

 nations (mostly English) who had preceded them. The habits and ordinary pursuits 

 of the New Englanders qualified them in a peculiar manner for carrying on this trade, 

 and the embarrassed state of Europe, combined with other circumstances, gave them, 

 in the course of a few years, almost a monopoly of the most lucrative part of it. 



In 1801, whicli was, perliai)s, the most fiourishing period of the trade, there were 

 sixteen s]ii])s on the north-west coast, fifteen of which were Americans and one Eng- 

 lish. Upwards of 18,000 sea-otter skins, besides other furs, were collected for the 

 Gliina market in that year by tha American vessels aloue. 



