APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 393 



Since that time the trade has declined, the sea-otter having become scarce in con- 

 sequence of the impolitic system pursued by the Russians, as well as by the natives, 

 who destroy iudiscriminately the old and the young of this animal, which will prob- 

 ably in a few years be as rarely met with on the coast of America as it is now on that 

 of Karatchatka and among the Aleutian Islands, where they abounded when tirst 

 discovered by the Russians. There are at the present time absent from the United 

 States fourteen vessels engaged in this trade, combined with that to the Sandwich 

 Islands, which for several years past has been carried on to a considerable extent in 

 sandal wood. These vessels are from 200 to 400 toTis burthens, and carry from twenty- 

 five to thirty men each, and they are usually about three years in completing a voy- 

 age. After exchanging with the natives of the coast for furs such part of their 

 cargoes as is adapted to the wants or suited to the fancy of these people, the ships 

 return to the Sandwich Islands, where a cargo of sandal wood is prepared, with Avhich, 

 and their furs, they proceed to Canton, and return to the United States with cargoes 

 of teas, &c. The value at Canton of the furs, sandal wood, and other articles carried 

 thither the last season, by American vessels engaged in the trade, was little short of 

 half-a-milliou of dollars. When it is considered that a comparatively small capital 

 is originally embarked, that a great part of the value arises from the employment of 

 so much tonnage, and so many men, for the long time necessary to perform a voyage; 

 and that Government finally derives a revenue from that portion of the proceeds 

 which is brought home in teas, equal, at least, to the amount invested at Canton, we 

 believe this trade will be thought too valuable to be quietly relinquished. 



We have not met with any account of Tchiricoff^'s voyage from which the slightest 

 inference can be drawn that he saw the American coast in the parallel of 49°, but, 

 on the contrary, all the accounts which we have seen concur in fixing the southern 

 limits of his continental researches north of 55". The earliest account we can find is 

 in a Memoir of Philippe Buache, read to the French Academy in 1752, and published 

 at Paris in 1753. This Memoir is accompanied by a Chart, prepared by M. de Lisle, 

 formerly First Professor of Astronomy in the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburgh, 

 and brother to Delile de la Crayere, one of the Academicians who accompanied 

 Tchiricoff. On this Chart is marked the route of that navigator from Kamtchatka 

 to America and of his return. It appears from this that tliey discovered the coast 

 of America on the 15th July, 1741, about the latitude of 55" 30', and sent a boat, 

 with the pilot Demeutiew and ten men with orders to land. This boat not return- 

 ing after several days a second was sent with four men, who shared the fate of the 

 first, and nothing was heard of them till 1822, when they were fortunately discovered 

 byM.de Poletica in the latitudeof 48° and 49°. After waiting in vain for the return 

 of his boats, Tchiricoff loft the coast of America, and on his return discovered laud in 

 latitude 51°. This could be no other than the southernmost of the Aleutian Islands ; 

 and the circumstance of the natives coming off to him in skin canoes confirms the 

 supposition, as no canoes of that description have ever been found on the American 

 coast in that parallel. The authenticity of this account of Tchiricoff's voyage can 

 hardly be questioned. It was published a few years only after his return, and it is 

 stated that M. de Lisle had received the manuscripts of his brother, Avho died at 

 Kamtchatka shortly after the termination of the voyage. Miiller, who was in the 

 expedition on board Behring's shij), gives nearly the same account as the above of 

 Tchiricolf's voyage, placing his land fall in latitude of 56°. Cox, Burney, and all 

 writers on this subject whom we have met with, have adopted these accounts. 



M. Fleurieu, the most intelligent writer on this subject of the last century, in his 

 " Historical Introduction " to the voyage of Marchand, published in 1801, speaking 

 of the Russian navigators alluded to by M. de Poletica, says, "The principle 

 28 object of all these voyages was the examination of that long archipelago, 

 known under the collective name of the Aleutian or Fox Islands, which the 

 Russian Charts divide into several archipelagoes under difterent names; of all that 

 part of the coast which extends east and west under the parallel of 60°, and com- 

 prehends a great number of islands situated to the south of the mainland, some of 

 which were visited and others only perceived, by Behring; lastly, of the peninsula 

 of Alaska, and of the lands situated to the north of this peninsula as far as the 70th 

 degree. It is on these Aleutian Islands, and on upwards of 300 leagues of the coast, 

 which extends beyond thepolar circle, that the indefatigable Russians have formed these 

 numerous Settlements," &c. From all these facts we feel fully warranted in the 

 conclusion that no Russian navigator, excepting Tchiricoft", had seen the coast east- 

 ward of Behring's Bay previous to the Spanish voyages of Perez in 1774 ; Heceta, 

 Ayala, and Quadra in 1775; and that of Cook in 1778; or even so late as 1788, when 

 it was first visited by vessels from the United States. Thus much for the Russian 

 "title of first discovery;" that of "first occupation" comes next. 



We have no doubt that Russian fur-hunters formed Establishments at an early 

 period on the Aleutian Islands and neighbouring coast of the continent; but we are 

 equally certain that it can be clearly demonstrated that no Settlement was made 

 eastward of Behring's Bay till the one at Norfolk Sound in 1799. The statements of 



