184 CASES OF THE PEARL, LORIOT, AND HARRIET. 



of the ten years' limitation is uniformly invoked satisfies me that it is 

 esteemed a point cVappui in relation to our rights and pretensions on 

 the Northwest Coast, too conclusive to be omitted or argued. My let- 

 ter in answer to the first assumption of that position, dated the 17th of 

 March, 1838, and forwarded to you with dispatch No. 15, has not been 

 noticed. * * *" 



Though Mr. Dallas terminates this dispatch with a request for fur- 

 ther instructions as to " the settled views and purposes of the American 

 Cabinet as regards the North Pacific trade," none appear to have been 

 forthcoming, notwithstanding the whole correspondence was submitted 

 to Congress in 1838. 



No further reference to the Northwest Coast was made by the United 

 States Government until June 2, 1840, when its minister at St. Peters- 

 burg was requested to make inquiries concerning the lease 1 which, in 

 1839, the Russian- American Company had executed to the Hudson Bay 

 Company of the territory between latitude 54° 40' and Mount St. 

 Elias, to which lease no objection ever appears to have been made. 



CASE OF THE HARRIET.' 



The American consul to the Buenos Ayres minister 



Buenos Ayres, 



26th November, 1831. 



(After referring to certain delays on the part of the G-over anient of 

 Buenos Ayres in regard to the seizure of the Harriet, the United States 

 consul continues:) 



This unexpected reply from his excellency the minister can not be 

 viewed by the undersigned in any other light than as a virtual avowal 

 on the part of this Government of the right of Mr. Lewis Vernet to 

 capture and detain American vessels engaged in the fisheries at the 

 Falkland Islands, and the islands and coasts about Cape Horn. It, 

 therefore, only remains to him to deny in toto any such right as hav- 

 ing been, or being now, vested in the Government of Buenos Ayres, or 

 in any person or persons acting under its authority ; and to add his most 

 earnest remonstrance against all measures which may havebeen adopted 

 by said Government, including the decree issued on the 10th of June, 

 1829, asserting a claim to the before-mentioned islands and coasts, and 

 the fisheries appurtenant thereto, or any other actor decree having the 

 same tendency, and also the circular letter of the said Vernet, issued 

 in consequence of the same, as well as against all such measures as 

 may hereafter be adopted by said Government or persons acting under 

 its authority which are calculated in the remotest degree to impose re- 

 straints upon the citizens of the United States engaged in the fisheries 

 in question or to impair their undoubted right to the freest use of 

 them. 



DECREE OF THE REPUBLIC OF BUENOS AYRES. 



Buenos Ayres, 10th June, 1829. 

 When, by the glorious revolution of the 25th of May, 1810, these 

 provinces separated themselves from the dominion of the mother couu- 



1 Appendix to Case of the United States, Vol. I, p. 10. 



2 See British and Foreign State Papers, 1832-'33, Vol. 20, pp.311 to 441. 



