90 



the ratification of that treaty to stipulate tliat the right of free hunting 

 and Ashing- granted by the twelfth article of the said treaty shall extend 

 only from 54° 40' to the latitude of Cross Sound." U. 8. Counter 

 Case, 156, 157. 



This report was communicated by the Eussian Minister of Finance 

 to tlie Eussian-Americau Company, in a communication which closed 

 with these words: ''From these documents the board will see that, for 

 the avoidance of all misunderstandings in the execution of the above 

 mentioned convention, and in conformity with the desire of the com- 

 pany, the necessary instructions have already been given to Baron 

 Tuyll, our minister at Washington, to the effect that the northwestern 

 coast of America, along the extent of which, by the provisions of the 

 convention, free trading and fishing are permitted subjects of the North 

 American States, extends from 54° 40' northwards to Yakutat (Bering) 

 Bay." U. S. Counter Case, 155. 



The instructions received by Baron Tuyll from his Government were 

 communicated by him informally to Mr. Adams, the American Secre- 

 tary of State. This appears from the Diary of Mr. Adams, under date 

 of December 5, 1824, at which time the treaty of 1824 had not been 

 approved by the United States Senate. The account which Mr. Adams 

 gives in his Diary of Baron Tuyll's interview with him, is as fol- 

 lows: 



^^6th, Monday. — Baron Tuyll, the Eussian Minister, wrote me a note 

 requesting an immediate interview, in consequence of instructions 

 received yesterday from his court. He came, and after intimating that 

 he was under some embarrassment in executing his instructions, said 

 that the Eussian American Company, upon learning the purport of the 

 northwest coast convention, concluded last June byMr.Middleton, were 

 extremely dissatisfied ("a jete des hauts cris"), and by means of their 

 influence had prevailed upon his Government to send him these in- 

 structions upon two points. One was, that he should deliver, upon 

 the exchange of the ratifications of the convention, an explanatory 

 note, purporting that the Eussian Government did not understand that 

 the convention would give liberty to the citizens of the United States 

 to trade on the coasts of Siberia and the Aleutian Islands. The other 

 was, to propose a modification of the convention by which our vessels 

 should be prohibited from trading on the northwest coast north of 

 latitude 57. With regard to the former of these points he left with 

 me a minute iu writing. 



