380 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



The riglit of the United States to the Columbia Eiver, and to the 

 interior territory washed by its waters, rests upon its discovery froui 

 the sea and nomination by a citizen of the United States; upon its 

 exploration to the sea by Captains Lewis and Clarke; upon the Settle- 

 ment of Astoria, made under the protection of the United States, and 

 thus restored to them in 1818; and upon this subsequent acquisition of 

 all the rights of Spain, the only European power who, prior to the dis- 

 covery of the river, had any pretensions to territorial rights on the 

 north-west coast of America. 



The waters of the Columbia Eiver extend by the Multnomah to the 

 42nd degree of latitude, where its source approaches within a few miles 

 of those of the Platte and Arkansas, and by Clarke's Eiver to the 50th 

 or 51st degree of latitude; theuce descending southward till its sources 

 almost intersect those of the Missouri. 



To the territory thus watered, and immediately contiguous to the 

 original possessions of the United States, as first bounded by the Mis- 

 sissippi, they consider their right to be now established by all the prin- 

 ciples which have ever been ajiplied to European Settlements upon the 

 American Hemisphere. 



By the Ukase of the Emperor Alexander of the 4th (16th) Septem- 

 ber, 1821, an exclusive territorial right on the north-west coast of 

 America is asserted as belonging to Eussia, and as extending from the 

 northern extremity of the continent to latitude 51°, and the navigation 

 and fishery of all other nations are interdicted by the same Ukase to 

 the extent of 100 Italian miles from the coast. 



When M. Poletica, the late Eussian Minister here, was called upon to 

 set forth the grounds of right conformable to the laws of nations which 

 authorized the issuing of this Decree, he answered in his letters of the 

 28th February and 2nd April, 1822, by alleging first discovery, occu- 

 pancy, and uninterrupted possession. 



It appears, upon examination, that these claims have no foun- 

 57 dation in fact. The right of discovery on this continent claimable 

 by Eussia is reduced to the probability that, in 1741, Captain 

 Tchirikoff saw from the sea the mountain called St. Elias, in about the 

 59th degree of north latitude. The Spanish navigators as early as 1582 

 had discovered as far north as 57° 30'. 



As to occupancy. Captain Cook in 1779 had the express declaration 

 of M. Ismaelofif, the Chief of the Eussian Settlement at Ounalaska, 

 that they knew nothing of the continent in America; and in the ISTootka 

 Sound controversy between Spain and Great Britain it is explicitly 

 stated in the Spanish documents that Eussia had disclaimed all preten- 

 sion to interfere with the Spanish exclusive rights to beyond Prince 

 William's Sound, latitude 61°. No evidence has been exhibited of any 

 Eussian Settlement on this continent south and east of Prince Wil- 

 liam's Sound to this day, with the exception of that in California, made 

 in 1816. 



It never has been admitted by the various European nations which 

 have formed Settlements in this Hemisphere that the occu[)ation of an 

 island gave any claim whatever to territorial possessions on the conti- 

 nent to which it was adjoining. The recognized principle has rather 

 been the reverse, as, by the law of Nature, islands must be rather con- 

 sidered as appendages to continents than continents to islands. 



The only colour of claim alleged by M. Poletica which has an appear- 

 ance of plausibility is that which he asserts as an authentic fact: "that 

 in 1789 the Spanish packet 'St. Charles,' commanded by Captain Haro, 

 found in the latitude 48° and 49° Eussian Settlements to the number 



