CLAIMS TO TnE NORTHWEST COAST. 33 



The claims of Spain to tliis region were trans- 

 ferred to the United States Ijy the treaty of 18 1 9.^ 



It thus appears from the foreg'oing' historical This compcti- 

 ■'■•'■ ■ o o ^jp,j (.(^.itaiu to re- 



review that, while the claim of Russia to thes^ii* '^ intema- 



tioual cuuHict. 



territory embracing the Aleutian Islands, the 

 peninsula of Alaska, and the coasts and islands of 

 Bering Sea was undisputed, the shores and the 

 adjacent islands of the American continent south 

 of latitude 60° as far as California were during the 

 latter part of the eighteenth and the first quarter 

 of the present century the subject of conflicting 

 claims on the part of Russia, Great Britain, Spain, 

 and the United States. This condition of affairs in- 

 dicated that an international conflict was likely to 

 come sooner or later, and it was foreshadowed 

 in an article printed in the London Quarterly 

 Review of 1814, in which it was said: "How 

 long the continent of America will afford a sup- 

 ply of furs and peltry to the contending traders 

 of England, Russia, and the United States, we 

 pretend not to determine, but we believe they 

 have each of them lately experienced some difli- 

 culty in supplying the usual demand for those 

 of the most valuable description. An increasing 

 scarcity can not fail to produce a collision of in- 

 terests and disputes, which at one time or other 

 will probably terminate in a war."^ 



1 Vol. I, p. 34. 



^Loudou Quarterly Review, Vol. XI, p. 292. 



2716^^5 



