APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 467 



of Soiiora, or New Biscay." (Humboldt's "New Spain," vol. ii, book o, 

 chapter 8, p. 496.) 



Ill M. Poletica's letter of the 28th February, 1822, to me, he says that 

 when the Emi)eror Taiil I granted to the present American Company 

 its first Charter in 171)9, he gave it cxclusire posHc.'i.sio)i of the nortli- 

 west coast of America, which belonged to Russia, from the o.jth degree 

 of north latitnde, to Beliring Strail. 



In his letter of the 2nd April, 1822, he says that the Charter to the 

 Eussian-American Con)))any, in 1799, was merely conceding to them a 

 liart of the sovereignty, or ratlicr certain exelnaire privileges of eommeree. 



This is the most correct view of the subject. The Emi)eror Paul 

 granted to tlie IJussian-Anierican Comi)any certain exclusive privileges 

 of commerce — exclusi\e with reference to other llussian subjects; but 

 Eussia had never before asserted a right of sovereignty over any part 

 of the North American continent; and in 1799 the people of 

 5 the United States had been at least for twelve years in the con- 



stant and uninterrupted enjoyment of a profitable trade with 

 the natives of that very coast, of which the Ukase of the Kniperor 

 Paul could not deprive tliem. 



It was in the same year, 1799, that the llussian SettleJiient at Sitka 

 Avas lirst made, and it was destroyed in 1802 by the natives of the 

 country. There were, it seems, at the time of its destruction, three 

 American seamen who ])eiishe(l w ith the rest, and a new Settlement at 

 the same place was made in 1801. 



In 1808, Count Konianzoff, being then Minister lor Foreign Affairs and 

 of Commerce, addressed to Mr. Harris, Consul of tlie United States at 

 St. Petersburg!!, a letter comi)laining of the traffic carried on by citizens 

 of the United States with the native islanders of tlie north-west coast, 

 instead of trading with the Enssian ])ossessions in Anunica. The 

 Count stated that the Eussiari Comi)any had repiesented this trattic as 

 elandest ine, hy which means the savage islanders^ in exchange for otter- 

 skins, had been furnished with tire-arms and powder, with which they 

 had destroyed a- Eussian fort, with the loss of several lives. He 

 ex])ressly disclaimed, however, any dis^iosition on the part of Eussia to 

 abridge this traflic of the citizens of the United States, but proposed 

 a Convention by which it should be carried on e.relusicclij with the 

 agents of the Eussian American Company at Kodiak, a, small island 

 near the promontory of Alaska, at least 700 miles distant from the 

 other Settlement at Sitka. 



On the 1th January, 1810, M. Daschkolf, Charge d'Aflaires and Con- 

 sul-General from Eussia, renewed this i»ro])osal of a Convention, and 

 requested, as an alternative, that the United States should, by a legis- 

 lative act, prohibit the trade of their citizens with the natives of tlie 

 north-west coast of America, as unlawful and irregular, and thereby 

 induce them to carry on the trade exclusively with the agents of the 

 Eussian-American Comi)any. The answer of the Secretary of State, 

 dated the 5th May, 18U^, declines those proposals for reasons which 

 were then satisfactory to the Eussian Government, or to which, at least, 

 no reply on their j-art was made. Copies of these papers, and of those 

 containing the instructions to the Minister of the United States then 

 at St. Petersburg!), and the relation of his conferences with the Chan- 

 cellor of the Empire, Count Eomanzoff, on this subject, are herewith 

 inclosed. By them it will be seen that tlie Eussian (jovernment at 

 that time ex])licitly declined the assertion of any boundary-line upon 

 the north-west coast, and that the proposal of measures for confining 

 the trade of the citizens of the United States exclusively to the Eus- 



