H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 463 



that of the United States, is the act of restoration itself, which contains 

 no exception, reservation, or protest, whatever. 



It has thus been established, that the Columbia River was first discov- 

 ered by the United States ; that that first discovery was attended by a com- 

 plete exploration of the river, from its most easterly source to the north, 

 before any such exploration had been made by any other nation ; by a 

 simultaneous actual occupation and possession, and by subsequent estab- 

 lishments and settlements made within a reasonable time, and which have 

 been interrupted only by the casualties of war. 



This, it is contended, gives, according to the acknowledged law and 

 usages of nations, a right to the whole country drained by that river and 

 by its tributary streams, which could have been opposed only by the con- 

 flicting claim derived from the possession of Louisiana. Both, united and 

 strengthened by the other Spanish and American discoveries along the 

 coast, (and, without reference to the cession of the pretensions of Spain, 

 derived from other considerations,) establish, it is firmly believed, a 

 stronger title to the country above described, and along the coast as far 

 north, at least, as the 49th parallel of latitude, than has ever, at any for- 

 mer time, been asserted by any nation to vacant territory. 



Before the subject is dismissed, it may be proper to observe, that the 

 United States had no motive, in the year 1790, to protest against the 

 Nootka convention, since their exclusive right to the territory on the 

 Pacific originated in Gray's discovery, which took place only in 1792. 

 The acquisition of Louisiana, and their last treaty with Spain, are still 

 posterior. 



On the formality called " taking possession," though no actual pos- 

 session of the country is taken, and on the validity of sales of land and 

 surrender of sovereignty by Indians, who are for the first time brought 

 into contact with civilized men ; who have no notion of what they mean 

 by either sovereignty or property in land ; who do not even know what 

 cultivation is ; with whom it is difficult to communicate, even upon visible 

 objects ; the American plenipotentiary thinks that he may abstain from 

 making any remarks. 



Whilst supporting their claim by arguments, which they think conclu- 

 sive, the United States have not been inattentive to the counter claims of 

 Great Britain. 



They, indeed, deny that the trading posts of the North-West Company 

 give any title to the territory claimed by America, not only because no 

 such post was established within the limits claimed when the first Ameri- 

 can settlement was made, but because the title of the United States is con- 

 sidered as having been complete, before any of those traders had appeared 

 on the waters of the Columbia. It is also believed, that mere factories, 

 established solely for the purpose of trafficking with the natives, and with- 

 out any view to cultivation and permanent settlement, cannot, of them- 

 selves, and unsupported by any other consideration, give any better title to 

 dominion and absolute sovereignty, than similar establishments made in a 

 civilized country. 



But the United States have paid due regard to the discoveries by 

 which the British navigators have so eminently distinguished themselves, 

 to those, perhaps not less remarkable, made by land from the upper 

 lakes of the Pacific, and to the contiguity of the possessions of Great 



