152 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



No. 43.] St. Petersburg, 17tli FchrKary, 1st March, 1835. 



(Eeceived May 3.) 



Sir : I have the honor to acquaint you that a convention was signed 

 yesterday between the Enssiau and British plenipotentiaries rehitive 

 to navigation, fisheries, and commerce in the Great Ocean, and to ter- 

 ritorial demarcation npon the Northwest Coast of America. In a con- 

 versation held this day with Mr. Stratford Canning I have learned 

 that this treaty is modeled in a great degree npon that which was 

 signed by me in the month of Ax^ril last, and that its provisions areas 

 follows, to wit: 



The freedom of navigation and fishery throughout the Great Ocean 

 and upon all its Coasts; the privilege of landing at all unoccupied 

 points; that of trading with the natives; and the special privileges of 

 reciprocal trade and navigation secured for ten years upon the north- 

 west Coast of America, together with the mutual restrictions prohibit- 

 ing the trading in firearms or spirituous liquors, are all stipulated in 

 the British as in the American Treaty; and some new i^rovisions are 

 made for the privilege of refitting vessels in the respective Ports, and 

 no higher duties are to be imposed than upon National Vessels. 



The third article of this convention establishes the line of demarka- 

 tion between the possessions of the two powers ujion the Continent and 

 Islands, as follows: It begins at the southernmost point of Prince of 

 Wales's Island (about 51° 40'), leaving the whole of that island to Eus- 

 sia. It follows the strait called Portland Passage up to the fifty- sixth 

 degree; then turns eastward upon that latitude until it touches the 

 higliest ridge of the chain of mountains lying contiguous to. and nearly 

 parallel with the coast; it follows that ridge Vi\> to the sixtieth degree, 

 and then takes the direction of that degree of latitude until its inter- 

 section with the one hundred and forty- first degree of longitude west 

 of Greenwich; thence it follows that meridian north to the Icy Sea. 

 But in case the ridge of the Mountain lying parallel with the Coast shall 

 be more than 10 marine leagues from the Shores of the Continent, then 

 the distance of 10 marine leagues from the Shore is to be considered as 

 the boundary of the Eussian possessions upon the Continent. 



I beg leave here to repeat an opinion I ventured to exx)ress in my 

 dispatch No. 38, respecting the policy of establishing a Post upon the 

 Continent somewhere within the Straits of Fuca. The most valuable 

 part of the furs procured upon the northwest Coast is obtained in the 

 interior Seas running around the cluster of Islands bordering the Coast. 

 I should consider such a post as more important in many points of 

 view than one upon Columbia Eiver, and as likely to have a most de- 

 cisive infiuence in securing an advantageous settlement of limits with 

 England, who will be anxious, now that her northern limit is estab- 

 lished, to settle her southern boundary upon that Coast. 



I have the honor to be, sir, very faithfully, your obedient servant, 



Henry Middleton. 



The Secretary of State. 



Note. — For Mr. Middleton's full report of the negotiation of the 

 treaty of 1824, and for further correspondence relative to the ukase of 

 1821 and the treaties of 1S24 and 1825, see American State Papers, 

 Foreign Eelations, vol. V, pp. 457-402. 



