Russia's title to parts of the American coast. 13 



lislied ill 1801, says: "The priucipal object of all these voyages was the 

 examiuation of that long archipelago, known under the collective name 

 of the Aleutian or Fox Islands, which the Russian charts divide into 

 several archipelagoes under different names ; of all the part of the coast 

 which extends east and west under the parallel of CO^' and compre- 

 hends a great number of islands situated to the south of the mainland, 

 some of which were visited, and others oidy perceived by Beering; 

 lastly, of the Peninsula of Alaska, and of the other islands situated to the 

 north of this peninsula as far as the seventieth degree. It is on tliese 

 Aleutian Islands, and on upwards of three hundred leagues of the coast, 

 whieh extend beyond the Folar Circle, that the indefatigable Russians 

 have formed those numerous settlements, those factories that support 

 the fur trade, from which the Empire of Russia derives such great ad- 

 vantages in its commercial concerns and exchanges with the Empire 

 of China."! 



Sir George Simpson, the governor in chief of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany's territories in iSTorth America, says in his " Narrative of a journey 

 round the world during the years 1811 and 1812" i^ "Injustice, how- 

 ever, to Russia, I have no hesitation in saying that under the recog- 

 nized principles of colonization she is fully entitled to all that she holds 

 in America." The writer goes on to describe the discoveiies as far as 

 Kadiak, and states : ". . . no other nation having previously penetrated, 

 or even pretended to have penetrated, farther north than the ijarallelof 

 53°." And he continues: "But the Russian discoveries were distm- 

 guished by this ftivorable peculiarity, that they were in a great measure 

 achieved independently of themore southerly discoveries of Spain, being 

 the result of rumors of a neighboring continent which in the beginning 

 of the century the Russian conquerors had found to be rife in Kam- 

 chatka. Moreover, in the case of the Russians, discovery and pos- 

 session had advanced hand in hand. The settlement of Kadiak was 

 made four years before Mears erected his solitary shed in ]!!?'ootka 

 Sound, and Sitka was established fully ten or twelve years earlier than 

 Astoria. According to this plain summary of undeniable facts Russia 

 had a better claim, at least down to the parallel of 50°, than any other 

 power could possibly acquire." 



In a confidential memorandum submitted by Mr. Middletou, United 

 States Minister, to the Russian authorities during the heat of the sub- 

 sequent controversy between the United States and Russia, it is said : 



"About this time, but a little later, in 1697, the Russians penetrated, 

 by Siberia, as far as Kamchatka, and from thence embarking at the 

 ports of Oldiotsk and Avatcha, between the years 1710 and 1741, they 

 pushed their discoveries in the northern latitudes of the Great Ocean. 

 From these discoveries Russia derives her rights to that long chain of 

 islands intervening between the western and the eastern continents, 

 and even to a very considerable portion of the continent of America — 

 rights which have never been contested." 



******* 



" It is, then, demonstrated that Russia, in the year 1790, was far from 

 forming any territorial claim for herself ui>on the continent of North 

 America on this side of the sixty-first degree of north latitude." ^ 



■' Mai-chand's Voyage, translated by C. P. Claret Flcurieu, Loudou, 1801, vol. I, 

 introduction, p. xxxv, 

 -Ibid., vol. I, p. 270. 

 ^American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. v, p. 450. 



