142 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



contains an article (p. 370) written by a person fully master of tlie sub- 

 ject; and for the view of it taken in England I refer you to tlie fifty- 

 second number of the Quarterly Review, the article upon Lieutenant 

 Kotzebue's voyages. From the article in the North American Review 

 it will be seen that the rights of discovery, of occupancy, and of uncon- 

 tested possession, alleged by Mr. Poletica, are all without foundation 

 in fact. 



It does not appear that there ever has been a permanent Russian 

 settlement on this continent south of latitude 59^, that of Kew Arch- 

 angel, cited by Mr. Poletica, in latitude 57° 30', being upon an island. 

 So far as prior discovery can constitute a foundation of right, the 

 papers which I have referred to prove that it belongs to the United 

 States as far as 50° north, by the transfer to them of the rights of 

 Spain. There is, however, no part of the globe Avhere the mere fact of 

 discovery could be held to give weaker claims than on the northwest 

 coast. "The great sinuosity," says Humboldt, " formed by the coast 

 between the fifty-fifth and sixtieth parallels of latitude embraces discov- 

 eries made by Gali, Behriug and Tchivikofl", Quadra, Cook, La Perouse, 

 Malespier, and Vaucouv^er. Ko European nation has yet formed an 

 establishment upon the immense extent of coast from Cape Mendocino 

 to the fifty-ninth degree of latitude. Beyond that limit the Russian fac- 

 tories commence, most of which are scattered and distant from each 

 other, like the factories established by the European nations for the last 

 three centuries on the coast of Africa. Most of these little Russian 

 colonies communicate with each other only by sea, and the new denom- 

 inations of Russian America, or Russian xoossessions in the new conti- 

 nent, must not lead us to believe that the coast of Behring's Bay, the 

 peninsula of Alaska, or the country of the Ischugatschi have become 

 Hussian 2iroinnces in the same sense given to the word AA'hen speaking 

 of the Spanish provinces of Sonora or New Biscay." (Humboldt's 

 New Spain, Vol. ii, Book 3, chap. 8, p. 49G.) 



In Mr. Poletica's letter of 28th February, 1822, to me, he says that 

 when the Emperor Paul I granted to the present American Company 

 its first charter, in 1799, he gave it the exclusive possession of the north- 

 west coast of America, which belonged to Russia, from the fifty-fifth 

 degree of north latitude to Bering Strait. 



In his letter of 2d of April, 1822, he says that the charter of the Rus- 

 sian American Company, in 1799, was merely conceding to them a part 

 of the sovereignty, or, rather, certain exclusive privileges of commerce. 



This is the most correct view of the subject. The Emperor Paul granted 

 to the Russian American Company certain exclusive privileges of com- 

 merce — exclusive with reference to other Russian subjects; but Russia 

 had never . before asserted a right of sovereignty over any part of the 

 North American continent, and in 1799 the people of the United States 

 had been at least for twelve years in the constant and uninterrupted 

 enjoyment of a profitable trade with the natives of that very coast, of 

 which the ukase of the Emperor Paul could not deprive them. 



It was in this same year, 1799, that the Russian settlement at Sitka 

 was first made, and it was destroyed in 1802 by the natives of the 

 country. There were, it seems, at the time of its destruction, three 

 American seamen who perished Avith the rest, and a new settlement at 

 the same place was made in 1801. 



In 1808 Count Romanzofi', being then Minister of Foreign Afiairs and 

 of Commerce, addressed to Mr. Harris, consul of the United States at 

 St. Petersburg, a letter complaining of the traffic carried on by citizens 

 of the United States with the native islanders of the northwest coast, 



