GG RUSSIAN CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO 



soutli of the sixtieth (l(\iiree of latitude. Sucli were the coiiclnsioiis ar- 

 rived at by His liuxierial Majesty on reading your Excellency's conmiuni- 

 cation. 



One point referred to in your letter especially attracted Mis Majesty's 

 attention, namely, where you, dear Sir, asserted that in consequence of 

 England's demands Kussia would be obliged to yield or give up many 

 natives of America who had been converted to cliristianity by us. To 

 lose subjects who had voluntarily come under liis scei)tre, and sons 

 of the Kussian Clmrch, Avoahl certainly be repugnant to our great- 

 hearted Monarch, but from all the inf(U-mation which I have been able 

 to collect it would appear that on the coast below the tifty-liftli degree 

 of latitude, or at any great distance from the sea-coast in the interior, 

 there exists no settlements of the Company or native iidiabitants con- 

 verted to the Greco-liussian faith, and as to any extention of our set- 

 tlements to the northward 1 venture to consider it somewhat improb- 

 able. 



Having acquainted you (as far as I may while respecting the secrecy 

 of diplomatic negotiations) with the pi-esent status of our arrange- 

 ments with England, I turn to another subject of interest to your 

 excellency and all the members of the Comi)any's board of managers, 

 the negotiations with the North American Eepublic, which have been 

 brought to a successful conclusion. 



The convention which was entered into on the 5th of April, 1824, and 

 of which 1 inclose an abstract for your information, consists of an 

 agreement arrived at by mutual consent, and the clauses of which, in my 

 opinion, will be mutually satisfactory and highly beneficial. In article 

 ] II the United States acknowledge the sovereignty of Eussia over the 

 west coast of America from the Polar Sea to latitude 54° 40' north, 

 while we, on our side, promise to establish no settlements below that 

 latitude, with the exception of such as have been already made, espec- 

 ially i\\e Eoss colony in California. By article II the States undertake 

 to forbid their citizens and subjects from landing in any part of the 

 Eussian Colonies without special permission of the local authori- 

 ties. In article I' it is agreed that the Americans will not sell to the 

 savage inhabitants of the territory belonging to Eussia any strong 

 liquors, the cause of all evil among unenlightened peoples, and, what 

 is still more important, they agree to abstain from selling them any 

 firearms. Hereby we have been fortunate enough to abolish, by means 

 of dijilomacy, at one stroke the princii)al cause of all disorders and 

 bloodshed in that distant country, and we have thus laid the founda- 

 tion for the peaceable existence of our Colonies. In article IV we per- 

 mit the American States. to carry on for a period not exceeding ten 

 years trading and fishing in localities situate within our possessions. 

 To this clause, advantageous to them, our cabinet found itself obliged 

 to consent for two very important reasons. First, because the Govern- 

 ment of the Korth American Eepublic, not uiueasonably, demanded an 

 equivalent for the great advantages conceded to us in otlier articles of 

 the convention, especially those of article Y. Second, because the 

 Americans had been for some time engaged in this trade and fishery, 

 which the Company has thus far been unable to prevent them from 

 doing; and because, on the other hand, it was nuich better that they 

 sliould accept as a special and temporary ])ri\'ilege from our hands 

 wliat they might come to look ui)on as a natural right in course of 

 time; since now the Americans acknowledge officially that at the ex- 



' Sic. It was doubtless intended to ^efer to article Y, 



