considered it theirs. It only remained to make America see reason. Spain's claim had been practically settled.
On July 4th, 1814, William Pitt sent some notes to Lord Castlereagh[1] which he called: "Observations on a pamphlet entitled, 'A Compressed View of the Points to Be Discussed in Treating with the United States of America,' with supplementary remarks." In these notes Pitt suggests the desirability of a treaty with Russia, giving her all north of 58°, (the entrance to Cross Sound), and perhaps Cross Sound to the Frozen Sea, or a line cast to Mackenzie River from its mouth, Slave Lake, Slave Lake to Athabasca Lake, and due west to Cross Sound. In this way, he thought, Russia's territory would be convenient to her Asiatic possessions, and the most advantageous part of the Coast would be secured to Great Britain from 58 to the Columbia at 46 degrees.
It has usually been thought that the restoration of Astoria gave the impetus to the Columbia as a line of demarkation, even by a very recent writer.[2] But it is clear that Pitt, if he regarded Great Britain as having full claim to the Californian line, did not intend to exclude the Americans entirely from the Pacific coast line.
Pitt's plan covered the following points For protection and the advancement of commerce, and especially the fur trade, he thought there should be a line of internal communication across the continent. That there was one, he seemed not to know. The British fur traders did not always notify their government of exploration made by them. At Nootka Sound, Pitt would plant a colony of "useful and industrious British subjects," with a governor, supplying them from the Sandwich Islands, China, and New South Wales. These colonists were to form a Provincial Corporation, with a small naval force to check piracy. Clergymen were to be sent there for the settlers and missionaries for the Indians. He refers to Vancouver's recommendations in Book 4, Chap. 9. The advantages would be British commerce, the propagation of
