104 



to tbe citizens of G-reat Britain and America entire freedom of navi- 

 gation and rights of fishing throughout the whole of Bering Sea, out- 

 side of territorial waters. 



In Tickmenief 's "Historical Eeview of the formation of the Kussian 

 American Company and their proceedings to thepresent time", published 

 at St. Petersburg in 1863 {Part I, pp. 130-139), it is said: "In 181L> 

 Etolin, governor of the colony, informed the company that in the course 

 of his tour of inspection he had come across several American ships. 

 Although circumstances had prevented his communicating with them 

 at the time, he had reason to believe that they were whalers. In cor- 

 roboration of this he stated that for some time he had been receiving 

 reports from various parts of the colony of the appearance of American 

 whalers in the neighborhood of the harbors and shores of the colony. 

 Amongst these reports the most noteworthy was that of Captain Kad- 

 nikofif, the commander of the company's ship IS'asliednik Alexander, who 

 stated that, on a voyage from Sitka to Okhotsk, he had hailed a whaler 

 flying the American flag. The master informed him that he had come 

 from the Sandwich Islands in company with thirty other ships to whale 

 on both sides of the western extremity of the peninsula of Alaska and 

 the eastern islands of the Aleutian group belonging to that peninsula, 

 and that as many as 200 whalers were coming from the United States 

 the same year. Captain Kadnikoff also ascertained from the master 

 that in 1811 he had whaled in the same waters in company with fifty 

 other shijis, and that his ship secured thirteen whales, from which 

 1,000 barrels of oil were obtained." British Case, Vol. 1, Apj)- 40. 



In reply to an application by the Russian American Company to i^re- 

 vent the Americans from fishing in the waters of the colony, the Eus- 

 sian foreign office, in 1812, said: "The claim to a mare clausu»i, if we 

 wi.shed to advance such a claim in respect to the northern part of the 

 Pacific Ocean, could not be theoretically justified. Under Article I of 

 the convention of 1824 between Russia and the United States, Avhich is 

 still in force, American citizens have a right to fish in all parts of the 

 Pacific Ocean. But under Article IV of the same convention, the ten 

 years' period mentioned in that article having expired, we have power 

 to forbid American vessels to visit inland seas, gulfs, harbors, and 

 bays, for the purposes of fishing and trading with the natives. That is 

 the limit of our rights, and we have no power to prevent American 

 ships from taking whales in the open sea.''^ Letter from the Department 

 of Manufactures and Internal Trade, December 14, 1813, No. 5191, Dielo. 

 Arlch. Kom., 1842, goda, Mo. 14, str. 7. British Case, Vol. 1, A]^p. 40. 



