64 



to wliicli. accoidiiiii' to tlie same report, "was granted full privi- 

 leges, for a i^eriod of twenty years, on the coast of Northwestern 

 America, beginning from latitude 55° north and including the 

 chain of islands extending from Kamschatka northward to America 

 and southward to Japan; the exclusive right to all enterprises, whether 

 hunting, trading, or building, and to new discoveries, with strict pro- 

 hibition from profiting by any of these pursuits not only to all parties 

 who might engage in them on their own responsibility, but also to those 

 who formerly had ships and establishments there, except those who 

 have united with the new company." Bancroffs History of Alasla, 

 37.9; Ueport on Euss. Amer. Colonies., MS. vi, 13. 



Undoubtedly it was intended that the Russian-American Company 

 should enjoy these rights and privileges without competition — that is, 

 exclusively, against all, whether Russian subjects or the subjects of 

 other countries. But the rights and privileges so granted were only 

 such as related to business carried on within the territorial dominion 

 or authority of Russia. If the translation of this Ukase, as given in 

 the original Cases of the two governments be the correct one, the exclu- 

 sive right granted to the Russian- American Company for twenty years 

 was only to use and enjoy " in the above extent of country and islands 

 all profits and advantages derived from hunting, trade, industries, 

 and discovery of new lands." If the translation embodied in the Brit- 

 ish Counter Case be the correct one, then the grant was of an " exclusive 

 right to all acquisitions, industries, trade, establishments, and dis- 

 covery of new countries" thronghout the "entire extent of the lands 

 and islands described." Neither translation supports the suggestion 

 that the Emperor of Russia intended to assert sovereign power over 

 any part of Bering Sea outside of territorial waters, and thereby in- 

 terfere with the freedom of navigation in the open waters of that sea, 

 or with any such use of those waters by the citizens or subjects of 

 other countries as was sanctioned by the law of nations. He intended 

 only to assert an exclusive right to control, for the benefit of a par- 

 ticular company taken under his protection, all the profits and ad- 

 vantages to be derived from the business, trading, and industries 

 conducted tcithin territorial waters and on the coasts and islands of 

 Russia. When the Ukase of 1799 was issued, the hunting of fur seals 

 in the open waters of the ocean, beyond territorial jurisdiction, was 

 unknown. 



The only i)art of the Ukase of 1799 that seems to give any support 



