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The National Geographic Magazine 



tion failed, however, to enable the con- 

 ference to determine the dispute about 

 the territory between the Mississippi 

 and Perdido Rivers, claimed alike by 

 Spain and France, and afterwards by 

 the United States, and finally released 

 b}^ Spain in the Treaty of 1819, in lan- 

 guage assigning no limits to West Flor- 

 ida. The conference concluded that the 

 boundary line of this territory at the 

 Mississippi River, as claimed by Spain, 

 should be so defined by a legend on the 

 map, and that the boundary line at the 

 Perdido River, as claimed by the United 

 States,- should be similarly indicated. 

 This conclusion was reached with an 

 understanding or admission of the fol- 

 lowing facts touching the territor}' be- 

 tween the two rivers claimed by Spain 

 as a part of West Florida : That the ter- 

 ritory of Louisiana, as described by 

 France and granted to Crozat by Louis 

 XIV, extended on the east to the River 

 Mobile, which, with the port, was ceded 

 specifically by France to England by the 

 Treaty of Paris in 1763, Spain at the 

 same time ceding the Floridas to Great 

 Britain, with St. Augustine and the bay 

 of Pensacola^ — thus, inferentially at least, 

 determining the respective boundaries of 

 Louisiana and West Florida ; that the 

 first occupation of the interior of the ter- 

 ritory between the Rivers Mississippi 

 and Perdido by the Spaniards was dur- 

 ing the war of the American Revolution, 

 when it belonged to Great Britain ; that 

 Great Britain retroceded the Floridas to 

 Spain in 1783, at which time the Louis- 

 iana territory belonged to Spain by the 

 French cession in the preliminaries of 

 peace of 1762 (confirmed in 1763), 

 whereby ' ' all the country known under 

 the name of Louisiana ' ' was transferred ; 

 that Spain in 1 800 retroceded Louisiana 

 to France as it was received from France 

 in 1763 ; that France in 1803 ceded the 

 territory of Louisiana to the United 

 States, as discovered and held by France, 

 ceded to Spain, and retroceded to France ; 

 and, finally, that in 1819 Spain ceded to 



the United States all the territory held or 

 claimed by His Catholic Majesty under 

 the names of East and West Florida. 

 In addition to the grounds of dispute be- 

 tween France and Spain, and the United 

 States and Spain, here shown, there was 

 a conflicting claim concerning the extent 

 of West Florida, born of the contention 

 between French and Spanish discoverers 

 and settlers in the sixteenth and seven- 

 teenth centuries ; and there was also the 

 claim of the French, by right of La 

 Salle' s descent of the Mississippi in 1 68 2 , 

 to ' ' all the country drained b}" that 

 river. ' ' 



With reference to the Louisiana 

 boundary, there remained but one point 

 of difference between the maps under 

 consideration. Article II of the defini- 

 tive Treaty of Peace of 1783 between 

 the United States and Great Britain, 

 after defining the northern boundary 

 to the Lake of the Woods, continues 

 as f ollow^s : " . . . Thence through 

 the said lake to the most northwestern 

 point thereof, and from thence on a due- 

 west course to the River Mississippi." 

 Such a line as that described being ob- 

 viously impossible, the Mississippi River 

 being south not west of the Lake of the 

 Woods, the line drawn by the confer- 

 ence was a line from the most north- 

 western point of that lake to the nearest 

 point on the Mississippi. This line the 

 conference regarded as j ustified b}' rules 

 of international law and practice respect- 

 ing vaguely described boundaries in 

 such topographical circumstances. 



THE OREGON TERRITORY 



The Oregon Territory was the next 

 subject to receive the attention of the 

 conference. There seemed to be noth- 

 ing in the history of that part of our 

 possessions to warrant mention of the 

 claim of Spain rather than that of Great 

 Britain, and the final settlement of the 

 question of sovereignty and boundaries 

 by the Treaty of 1846, fixing the 49th 

 parallel, "by an amicable compromise," 



