67 



"Sec. 3. An exception to tliis rule is to be made in favor of vessels 

 carried tliitlier by heavy gales or real want of provisions and unable 

 to make any otber shore but such as belongs to Russia. In those cases 

 they are obliged to produce convincing proofs of actual reason for such 

 exception. Ships of friendly governments merely on discoveries are 

 likewise exempt from the foregoing rule. In this case, however, they 

 must previously be provided with passports from the Russian minister 

 of the i^avy. 



•'Sec. 4. Foreign merchant ships which, for reasons stated in the fore- 

 going rule, touch at any of the above-mentioned coasts are obliged to 

 endeavor to choose a place where the Russians are settled, and to act 

 as hereunder stated. 



"Sec. 14. It is likewise interdicted to foreign ships to carry on any 

 tratKic or barter with the natives of the islands and of the northwest 

 coast of America in the whole extent above mentioned. A ship con- 

 victed of any trade shall be confiscated. 



"Sec. 25. In case a ship of the Russian Imperial ISTavy, or one be- 

 longing to the Russian- American Company, meet a foreign vessel on the 

 above-stated coasts, in harbors or roads within the before-mentioned 

 limits, and the commander find grounds by the present regulation 

 that the ship be liable to seizure he is to act as follows: 



" Sec. 26, The commander of a Russian vessel suspecting a foreign to 

 be liable to confiscation, must inquire and search the same, and, finding 

 her guilty, take possession of her. Should the foreign vessel resist he 

 should employ persuasion, then threats, and at last force, endeavoring, 

 however, at all events, to do this with as much reserve as possible. If 

 the foreign vessel employ force against force, then he shall consider the 

 same as an evident enemy, and force her to surrender according to the 

 naval laws." U. S. Case, Vol. I, p. J6. 



In Mr. Blaine's letter of June 30, 1890, to Sir Julian Pauncefote, 

 there is a translation of sections 1 and 2 of this Ukase that differs 

 somewhat (though not, in my opinion, materially) from the translation 

 of the same sections given inthe Cases of the two Governments. The 

 translation followed by Mr. Blaine is as follows: 



"Sec. 1. The transaction of commerce and the pursuit of whaling and 

 fishing, or any other industry on the islands, in the harbors and inlets, 

 and, in general, all along the northwestern coast of America from 

 Bering Strait to the fifty-first parallel of northern latitude, and like- 

 wise on the Aleutian Islands and along the eastern coast of Siberia, 



