IV PREFACE. 



These territories, unoccupied, partially explored, and re- 

 mote from all civilized countries, nevertheless present much 

 that is interesting in their political history, as well as in 

 their natural conformation and productions ; and events are 

 now in progress which seem calculated, ere long, to attract 

 towards them the views of the governments and people of 

 many powerful nations. 



Every part of this division of America is in fact claimed 

 by some civilized state as its exclusive property, in virtue 

 either of discoveries or settlements made by its citizens or 

 subjects, or of transfer or inheritance from some other state 

 claiming on similar grounds, or of contiguity to its own ac- 

 knowledged territories. On these points, the principles of 

 national law are by no means clearly defined ; nor is it easy 

 to apply such as are most generally admitted, to particular 

 cases ; nor are governments ordinarily found ready to relin- 

 quish claims merely because they prove to be unfounded, 

 agreeably to such principles : and disputes have in conse- 

 quence arisen between different nations asserting the right of 

 possession to the same portion of Western America, which 

 have more than once threatened to disturb the peace of the 

 world. Attempts have been made to settle the questions at 

 issue by negotiation ; and certain lines of boundary have 

 been agreed on by treaties between one and another of the 

 claimant powers : but the arrangements thus made, can 

 scarcely in any instance be considered definitive, as they 

 have not received, and will probably never receive, the as- 

 sent of the other parties interested. 



In the mean time these territories are daily becoming 

 more important from the advancement of the population 

 of adjoining countries towards them, and from the con- 

 stant increase of the trade and navigation of several of the 

 claimant powers in the Pacific, which would render the un- 

 disputed possession of establishments on the coasts of that 

 Ocean most desirable for each. The difficulty of effecting 



amicable partition of the territories thus becomes daily 



