G.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 439 



that continent, which, likewise, was never done." The same denial is 

 transferred by Macpherson to his Annals of Commerce. 



The only evidence of the appointment of commissaries for the settlement 

 of limits according to the treaty of Utrecht which has been discovered, 

 is contained in a passage in Charlevoix's Histoire de la Nouvelle France, 

 of which the following is a translation : " France took no part in this 

 dispute, [between the British and the Indians of Nova Scotia, in 1722,] 

 in order to avoid giving the slightest pretext for interrupting the good 

 understanding between the two nations, which had been restored with so 

 much difficulty ; even the negotiations between the two courts for the set- 

 tlement of boundaries ceased, although commissaries had been appointed, 

 on both sides, for that object since 1719." 



Papers relative to the American Establishment of Astoria, 

 on the Columbia River.* 



(!•) 



Letter from J. J. Astor, of New York, to the Honorable John Quincy 

 Adams, Secretary of State of the United States.i 



New York, January 4th, 1823. 

 Sir, 



I had the honor to receive your letter of the 24th ultimo. Indis- 

 position has prevented my acknowledging the receipt thereof at an earlier 

 period. 



You request information of arrangements made, at or about 1S14, by 

 the North- West Company and citizens of the United States, by which 

 that company became possessed of a settlement made at the mouth of 

 Columbia River by citizens of the United States. The settlement to 

 which you allude, I presume, is "Astoria," as I know of no other having 

 been made at or near the mouth of that river. Several circumstances are 

 alleged, as having contributed to the arrangement by which the North- 

 West Company became in possession of that settlement, but chiefly to the 

 misuse of the confidence which had been placed in Mr. McDougal, who, 

 at the time the arrangement was made, and at the time my agent, Mr. 

 Wilson P. Hunt, was absent, acted as sub-agent. 



I beg leave briefly to state, that, contemplating to make an establish- 

 ment, at the mouth of Columbia River, which should serve as a place of 

 depot, and give further facilities for conducting a trade across this conti- 

 nent to that river, and from thence, on the range of north-west coast, 

 &c, to Canton, in China, and from thence to the United States, arrange- 

 ments were accordingly made, in 1810, for a party of men to cross the 



* See chap. xiv. of the History. 



t Documents accompanying President Monroe's message to Congress of January 

 27th, 1823. 



