50 THE UKASE OF 1821. 



Protests direct- dictioH as far south as latitude 55°, called forth no 



ed to claim oi jur- ' 



cmc'ocearantf to P^'^^®^^ from any foreign powers, nor was objec- 

 couthieut!''''^'** ""^tion offered to tlie exclusion of foreign ships from 

 trade with the natives and hunting fur-bearing 

 animals in the waters of Bering Sea and on the 

 Aleutian Islands as a result of that ukase and of 

 the grant of exclusive privileges to the Russian 

 American Company. It was only when the 

 ukase of 1821 soug-htto extend the Russian claim 

 to the American continent south to latitude 51°, 

 and to place the coasts and waters of the ocean in 

 that region under the exclusive control of the Rus- 

 sian American Company, that vigorous protests 

 were made by the Governments of the United 

 States and Great Britain. And the correspond- 

 ence which grew out of those protests^ shows 

 that they were inspu'ed by the claim of jurisdic- 

 tion over large portions of the Pacific Ocean (as 

 distinguished from Bering Sea) and by the con- 

 flicting claims of the three nations to the coast 

 over which Russia sought to extend exclusive 

 authority. The United States and Great Britain 

 had for years before the publication of that ukase 

 been competitors for the trade and the ownership 



' Vol. I, pp. 132-152. Only such portion of the correspondence 

 between Great Britain and Russia is given, as was inclosed in Lord 

 Salisbury's note to Sir Julian Pauncefotc, dated August 2, 1890, 

 Vol. I, p. 242. 



