364 AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE BRITISH AND RUSSIANS. [1840. 



The British government immediately demanded satisfaction, from 

 that of Russia, for this infraction of the treaty ; and, after some 

 time spent in negotiation between the two powers, and between 

 the two companies, it was agreed that the part of the continental 

 coast extending from the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, north- 

 ward, to Cape Spenser, near the 58th degree, which was assigned 

 to Russia by the treaty of 1825, should be leased, by the Russian 

 American Company, to the Hudson's Bay Company, for ten years 

 from the 1st of June, 1840, at an annual rent, to be paid in furs. 

 The difficulty was thus ended, to the advantage of all parties ; the 

 British gaining access to a long line of coast, without which the 

 adjoining territories of the interior would have been useless, while 

 the Russians derive a much greater amount from the rent than they 

 could have otherwise drawn from the coast. 



The charter of the Russian American Company was renewed, in 

 1839, for twenty years, without any modifications worthy of note. 

 The company was then in a prosperous condition ; its operations 

 were daily extending, and the value of its stock was constantly 

 increasing. 



The license, granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1821, to 

 trade, in exclusion of all other British subjects, in the countries 

 owned or claimed by Great Britain, north and west of Canada and 

 the United States, expired in 1840 ; but another license, containing 

 some new and important provisions, had been accorded by the 

 government, on the 30th of May, 1838.* Thus the company was 

 bound, under heavy penalties, to enforce the due execution of crim- 

 inal processes, by the officers and other persons legally empowered, 

 in all its territories, and to make and submit to the government 

 such rules and regulations, for the trade with the Indians, as should 

 be effectual to promote their moral and religious improvement, and 

 especially to prevent the sale and distribution of spirituous liquors 

 among them. It is moreover declared, in the grant, that nothing 

 therein contained should authorize the company to claim the right 

 of trade in any part of America, to the prejudice or exclusion of 

 the people of " any foreign states " who may be entitled to trade 

 there, in virtue of conventions between such states and Great 

 Britain ; and the government reserves to itself the right to establish 

 any colony or province within the territories included in the grant, 

 or to annex any portion of those territories to any existing colony 

 or province, and to apply to such colony any form of civil govern- 



* See both the licenses in the Proofs and Illustrations, letter I. 



