COUNTRY ON COLUMBIA. 1 —BOOK 1. 
9F 
cross the Rocky mountains, to any advantage, might be worthy 
of experiment. A shortening of the distance, by more than a 
thousand leagues, will certainly make it an object, to lessen the 
the expense and difficulty of transporting goods across the moun¬ 
tains, and down the Missouri. It is Worthy of consideration, that 
articles usually imported from the East Indies are not of great 
bulk, or weight, that a small compass will include goods of great 
value. Hence this transportation will be attended with much 
less difficulty. 
There can be little doubt but that the United States have the 
best claim to the country watered by the Columbia, at least of 
the greater part. If not as a part of Louisiana, yet by the right 
of discovery, universally acknowledged by European nations, 
with respect to this continent. We have besides exercised vari¬ 
ous acts of ownership over it, and the colony at present forming, 
is under the protection and license of our government. 
