THE NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARY -LINE. 211 



It was farther provided by the same treaty that 

 the country claimed by either Party westward of the 

 Stony Mountains, with its harbors, bays, and creeks, 

 and the navigation of all rivers within the same, 

 should be free and open for the term of ten years to 

 the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two Powers: 

 it being understood that this agreement should be 

 without prejudice to any exclusive* claim of either, or 

 to the claim of any other Power. 



This treaty, which regulated the occupation of Or 

 egon for so many years, although apparently equal on 

 its face, was very unequal, as we shall see, in fact, by 

 reason of the whole country being immediately over 

 run and almost exclusively occupied by the Hudson s 

 Bay Company. 



But the pretensions of the United States received 

 notable reinforcement through the Treaty between 



Mr. Madison had previously said, as if not perfectly certain 

 .of the fact : 



&quot; There is reason to believe that the boundary between Lou 

 isiana and the British territories north of it was actually fixed 

 by Commissioners appointed under the Treaty of Utrecht, and 

 that the boundary was to run from the Lake of the Woods 

 westwardly on latitude 49.&quot; American State Papers, Foreign 

 Affairs, vol. iii., p. 90. 



The point was settled, however, by inquiries made by Mr. 

 Monroe at London. He says : 



&quot;Commissaries were accordingly appointed who executed 

 the stipulations of the treaty in establishing the boundaries of 

 Canada and Louisiana by a line beginning on the Atlantic at 

 a cape or promontory in 58 30 north latitude; thence south- 

 \\-estwardly to the Lake Mistosin ; thence farther southwest to 

 the latitude 49 north, and along that line indefinitely.&quot; 

 American State Papers, Foreign Affairs^ Q\. iii., p. 97. 



