CORRESPONDENCE OF 1822-1825. 147 



in 1789 tlie Spanish packet St. Charles, commanded by Captain Haro, 

 found in the latitude 48° and 49°, Eussian settlements to the number of 

 eight, consisting- in the whole of twenty families and 462 iudividuals." 

 But, more than twenty years since, Heurieu had shown, in his intro- 

 duction to the voyage ot Marchand, that in this statement there was a 

 mistake of at least ten degrees of latitude, and that instead of 48° and 

 49°, it should read 58° and 59°. This is probably not the only mistake 

 in the account. It rests altogether upon the credit of two private let- 

 ters — one written from San Bias, and the other from the City of Mexico, 

 to Spain — there communicated to a French consul in one of the Spanish 

 ports, and by him to the French minister of marine. They were writ- 

 ten in October, 1788, and August, 1789. We have seen that in 1700 

 Eussia explicitly disclaimed interfering with the exclusive rights of 

 Spain to beyond Prince William Sound in latitude 61°; and Van- 

 couver, in 1794, was informed by the Eussians on tlte spot that their 

 most eastern settlement there was on Hinchinbrook Island, at Port 

 Etches, which had been established in the course of the preceding summer, 

 and that the adjacent continent was a sterile and tminhabited country. 



Until the ISTootka Sound contest Great Britain had never advanced 

 any claim to territory upon the northwest coast of America by right 

 of occupation. Under the treaty of 1763 her territorial rights were 

 bounded by the Mississippi. 



On the 22d of July, 1793, McKenzie reached the shores of the Pacific 

 by land from Canada in latitude 52° 21' north, longitude 128° 2' west 

 of Greenwich. 



It is stated in the 52d number of the Quarterly Eeview, in the article 

 upon Kotzebue's voyage, " that the whole country from latitude 5(j° 30' 

 to the boundary of the United States in latitude 48°, or thereabouts, is 

 now and has long been m the actual possession of the British North- 

 west Company;" that this company have a post on the borders of a 

 river in latitude 54° 30' north, longitude 125° west, and that in lati- 

 tude 55° 15' north, longitude 129° 44' west, "by this time (March, 1822) 

 the United Company of the Northwest and Hudsous Bay have, in all 

 probability, forTned an establishment." 



It is not imaginable that, in the present condition of the world, 

 any European nation should entertain the project of settling a colony 

 on the northwest coast of America. That the United States should 

 form establishments there, with views of absolute territorial right and 

 inland communication, is not only to be expected, but is pointed out by 

 the finger of nature, and has been for many years a subject of serious 

 deliberation in Congress. A plan has, for several sessions, been before 

 them for establishing a Territorial government on the borders of the 

 Columbia Eiver. It will undoubtedly be resumed at their next session, 

 and even if then again postponed, there can not be a doubt that, in the 

 course of a few years, it must be carried into effect. 



As yet, however, the only useful purpose to which the Northwest 

 Coast of America has been or can be made srbservient to the settle- 

 ments of civilized men are the fisheries on its adjoining seas and trade 

 Avith the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. These have hitherto 

 been enjoyed in common by the people of the United States and by 

 the British and Eussian nations. The Spanish, Portuguese, and 

 French nations have also participated in them hitherto, without other 

 annoyance than that which resulted from the exclusive territorial claims 

 of Spain, so long as they were insisted on by her. 



The United States and Great Britain have both protested against 

 the Eussian imperial ukase of September 4 (16), 1821. At the proposal 



