H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 449 



sarily included, with all other Spanish possessions and claims in that 

 quarter, in the stipulations of the Nootka convention. 



Even if it could be shown, therefore, that the district west of the 

 Rocky Mountains was within the boundaries of Louisiana, that circum- 

 stance would in no way assist the claim of the United States. 



It may, nevertheless, be worth while to expose, in a few words, the 

 futility of the attempt to include that district within those boundaries. 



For this purpose, it is only necessary to refer to the original grant of 

 Louisiana made to De Crozat by Louis XIV., shortly after its discovery 

 by La Salle. That province is therein expressly described as " the 

 country drained by the waters entering, directly or indirectly, into the 

 Mississippi." Now, unless it can be shown that any of the tributaries 

 of the Mississippi cross the Rocky Mountains from west to east, it is 

 difficult to conceive how any part of Louisiana can be found to the west 

 of that ridge. 



There remains to be considered the first ground of claim advanced 

 by the United States to the territory in question, namely, that founded 

 on their own proper right as first discoverers and occupiers of that 

 territory. 



If the discovery of the country in question, or rather the mere en- 

 trance into the mouth of the Columbia by a private American citizen, be, 

 as the United States assert, (although Great Britain is far from admitting 

 the correctness of the assertion,) a valid ground of national and exclusive 

 claim to all the country situated between the 4'2d and 49th parallels of 

 latitude, then must any preceding discovery of the same country, by an 

 individual of any other nation, invest such nation with a more valid, 

 because a prior, claim to that country. 



Now, to set aside, for the present, Drake, Cook, and Vancouver, who all 

 of them either took possession of, or touched at, various points of the coast 

 in question, Great Britain can show that in 1788 — that is, four years 

 before Gray entered the mouth of the Columbia River — Mr. Meares,* 

 a lieutenant of the royal navy, who had been sent by the East India 

 Company on a trading expedition to the north-west coast of America, 

 had already minutely explored that coast, from the 49th degree to the 45th 

 deo-ree north latitude; had taken formal possession of the Straits of De 

 Fuca in the name of his sovereign ; had purchased land, trafficked and 

 formed treaties with the natives ; and had actually entered the bay of the 

 Columbia, to the northern headland of which he gave the name of Cape 

 Disappointment — a name which it bears to this day. 



Dixon, Scott, Duncan, Strange, and other private British traders, had 

 also visited these shores and countries several years before Gray ; but the 

 single example of Meares suffices to quash Gray's claim to prior discovery. 

 To the other navigators above mentioned, therefore, it is unnecessary to 

 refer more particularly. 



It may be worth while, however, to observe, with regard to Meares, 

 that his account of his voyages was published in London in August, 

 1790 ; that is, two years before Gray is even pretended to have entered 

 the Columbia. 



To that account are appended, first, extracts from his log-book ; 

 secondly, maps of the coasts and harbors which he visited, in which every 



• See p. 177. 



57 



