have had the honor of having with you on the subject of the Country situated on the North West Coast of America and to the West of the Rocky Mountains I have now the honor of requesting your attention to the following circumstances, which it may be of importance to consider in any negotiation for settling the Boundaries with the United States to the West of the Rocky Mountains.
I need not remind you that Captn. Cook in 1778 explored the Coast from Cape Gregory in Lat. 43½ to Lat. 70° and that Spain by the Convention[1] 28th October, 1790, abandoned all particular claim beyond what she at that time held in actual settlement and that consequently the United States cannot have any claim under their purchase of Lousiana from Spain.
In 1778[2] Captains Gray and Kendrick (in command of the Columbia and Washington) were fitted out at Boston for a trading voyage on that Coast and are supposed to have been the first Americans who engaged in that Trade but they did not enter the River Columbia,[3] and it is well known that British Subjects[4] have been carrying on a trade on that Coast previous to the voyages of Captains Gray and Kendrick. The River Columbia was not explored until 1792 when Lt. Broughton entered it in the Chatham and anchored at Red Patch,[5] about 12 miles inland from Cape Disappointment, he then proceeded with the Cutter and Launch up the River as far as Vancouver's Point. Vancouver in Vol. 2, page 66, says "previously to his (Mr. Broughton's) departure however he formally
- ↑ 1. Article V of the Nootka Sound Convention of October 28th, 1790, reads as follows:—"It is agreed that as well in the places which are to be restored to British subjects by virtue of the first article as in all other parts of the Northwest Coast of North America or of the islands adjacent situated to the north of the parts of said coast already occupied by Spain, wherever the subjects to either of the two powers shall have made settlements since the month of April, 1789, or shall hereafter make any, the subjects of the other shall have free access and shall carry on their commerce without disturbance or molestation."
Any right, title or interest of Spain to the Northwest Coast of North America was conveyed to the United States through the Florida Purchase of 1818; not through the Louisiana Purchase. - ↑ The Columbia and Lady Washington sailed from Boston on September 30, 1787, and arrived at Nootka in September, 1788.
- ↑ Governor Pelly in this paragraph merely reiterates the argument of Captain George Vancouver and Lieutenant Broughton that the mouth of the Columbia river was thirty-five miles from the ocean (between Cathlamet Point and Skamokawa) and that Captain Gray entered merely the bay or estuary into which the river flows.
- ↑ Captain James Hanna in 1785 and 1786. Captains Lowrie and Guise in 1786. Captain Barkley in 1787. Captains Portlock and Dixon, 1786-7. Captain Meares, 1786-7. Captains Colwitt and Duncan, 1787, and others.
- ↑ Red Patch is presumably the treeless knob on Scarborough Head (Fort Columbia of the present day) where the bushes turn brown in color in the autumn; plainly visible from the entrance to the river. This point is twelve miles from the ocean but Lieutenant Broughton's anchorage was just below Frankfort, opposite Astoria, more than fifteen miles from the ocean.
