32 CLAIMS TO THE NORTHWEST COAST. 



Americau com- The partial navigation of the Cohniibia River 



petitiuu. 



by the American navigator, Captain Gray, in 

 1792, the expedition of Lewis and Clarke across the 

 Rocky Mountains in the years 1803 to 1805,^ and 

 the establishment of the Pacific Fur Company on 

 the Pacific coast in the early years of the present 

 century, gave to the United States a permanent 

 lodgment on the Northwest Coast and constituted 

 the basis of an active competition on the part of 

 that nation for the sovereignty and trade of a 

 considerable part of the shores and waters of the 

 Pacific.^ The troubles which early in this cen- 

 tury arose between the United States and Great 

 Britain as to ownership of these coasts were left 

 undetermined by the treaty of Ghent, follo^\ ing 

 the war of 1812; and in 1818, being still unable 

 to adjust the respective claims, the two powers 

 agreed that all territory in dispute claimed by 

 either of them between the Rocky Mountains and 

 the Pacific Ocean should, with its harbors, bays, 

 and rivers be open and free for ten years to the 

 vessels and citizens of both nations,'^ and not until 

 1846 were their respective territorial rights on the 

 Northwest Coast permanently settled by treat}'. 



'Greenhow's Memoir, p. 126 et seq., p. 149. 

 *Groeuliow"s Memoir, pp. 152-158. 



3 Treaty of 1818 betwccu tlie Uuited States aud Great Britain, 

 Vol. I, p.' 34. 



