THE NOirnnVESTERN BOUNDARY -LINE. 211 



It was further pi'ovided^by tlio same treaty that 

 the country chiimed 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 beincr understood that this aii^reement 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 Wv"' shall see, in fact, by 

 reason of the Avhole country being inuuediately 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 



j\[r. Madison had previously said, as if not perfectly certain 

 of the iact : o 



" Tlicrc is reason to believe that the boundary between Lou- 

 isiana and ll'.e l>ritish territories north of it was actually fixed 

 by Connnissioners apjjointed under the Treaty of Utrecht, and 

 that the boundary was to run from the Lake of the ^yoods 

 Avcstwardly on latitude 49°." — American IState Topers, Forci^/n 

 Ajf'airs, vol. iii., p. 00. 



The point was settled, however, by inquiries made by ^h'. 

 i^Ionrou at r^onddu. lie says: 



"Conunissaries were accordingly apjtointed who executed 

 the stipulations of the treaty in establishing the boundaries of 

 Canada and Louisiana by a line beginning on the Atlantic at 

 ft capo or ])roniontory in 58° 30' north lafiiiide; thence south- 

 M-estwardly to the Lake ^listosin ; thence fartiier southwest to 

 the latitude 40° north, and along that line indefinitely." — 

 American tSlatc I\tj>cr«, I'orci[fn Aj/'aim^wl iii., p. 07. 



