PART I. 



INTROD.UCTION. 



Before proceeding' to discuss in detail the disputed points 

 raised by the United States Case, it is deemed necessary to 

 refer to the translations of the various Eussian documents 

 used and cited in the Case presented on the part of the 

 United States. These consist for the most part of docu- 

 ments belonging to the Ofticial Eecords or Ar(;hives of the 

 Kussian-American Company, which were handed over to 

 the United States by Russia under the Treaty of 1807, by 

 Anrtne of the llnd Article of that Treaty. The original 

 docnnients are deposited in the Archives of the Department 

 of State at Washington, and have not heretofore been made 

 public. 



The translations are set out at pp. 49 to 90, vol. i, of the 

 United States Api)endix, and are quoted at pp. 41, 42, 43, 

 44, 45, 40, 47, 48, 49, 54, 55, 00, 61, 02, 63, 04, 65, 00, 67, 08, 

 69, 103, and 104 of the Case. 



Facsimiles of the originals are given at the end of voh i 

 of the Appendix to the United States Case. 



Upon the fiirst i)erusal of the extracts included in the 

 United States Case, certain passages were observed which 

 at once gave rise to the impression that the papers must 

 have been faultily translated. The facsimiles supiilied in 

 the Appendix were conseqnently examined by a com]ietent 

 Enssisui s<;holar in the confidential employment of Her 

 Majesty's Government, and a large number of errors and 

 interpolations were discovered of a most important kind. 

 S"ome few of these were apparently purposeless, but the 

 great majority were of such a nature that they could only 

 be accounted for on the sui)position that some person had 

 deliberately falsified the translations in a sense favourable 

 to the contentions of the United States. The matter 

 seemed of so much importance that steps were taken to 

 obtain an independent translation by another hand, 

 5 which was completed in October, and entirely con- 



firmed the previous impression. 



The United States Government independently came to 

 the knowledge of the fact at the beginning of Novem- 

 ber, and their Agent has given the explanation of it in a 

 communication addressed to the Arbitrators and to the 

 British Agent on the 19th of that month. The United 

 States Agent at the same time gave notice of the with- 

 drawal of a certain number of the documents, and fur- 

 nished revised translations of the others. Her Majesty's 



