USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 36
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 36
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Changes were, about the same time, made in the system of the British trade in the northern parts of America, which led to the most important political and commercial results.
Frequent allusions have been already made to the enmity subsist- ing between the Hudson's Bay and the North-West Companies.
324
DISPUTES OF BRITISH FUR COMPANIES.
[1816.
This feeling was displayed only in words, or in the commission of petty acts of injury or annoyance by each against the other, until 1814, when a regular war broke out between the parties, which was, for some time after, openly carried on. The scene of the hostilities was the territory traversed by the Red River of Hudson's Bay and its branches, in which Lord Selkirk, a Scotch nobleman, had, in 1811, obtained from the Hudson's Bay Company a grant of not less than a hundred thousand square miles, for the establish- ment of agricultural colonies. The validity of this grant was denied by the North-West Company, to which the proposed occu- pation of the territory in question would have been absolutely ruinous, as the routes from Canada to the north-western trading posts ran through it, and from it were obtained nearly all the pro- visions consumed at those posts. The British government, however, appeared to favor and protect Lord Selkirk's project, and a large number of Scotch Highlanders were, without opposition, established on Red River, the country about which received, in 1812, the name of Ossinobia. For two years after the formation of the set- tlement, peace was maintained ; at length, in January, 1814, Miles Macdonnel, the governor of the new province, issued a proclama- tion, in which he set forth the limits of the region claimed by his patron, and prohibited all persons, under pain of seizure and prosecution, from carrying out of it "any provisions, either of flesh, dried meat, grain, or vegetables," during that year. The attempts to enforce this prohibition were resisted by the North-West traders, who appeared so resolute in their determination not to yield, that the colonists became alarmed, and quitted the country, some of them returning to Canada, and others emigrating to the United States. In the following year, Lord Selkirk again sent settlers of various nations to the Red River, between whom and the North- West people hostilities were immediately begun. Posts were taken and destroyed on both sides ; and, on the 19th of June, 1816, a battle was fought, in which the Ossinobians were routed, and seventeen of their number, including their governor, Mr. Semple, were killed. The country was then again abandoned by the settlers .*
These affairs were brought before the British Parliament in June,
# Lord Selkirk's Sketch of the British Fur Trade in North America, published in 1816, and the review of it in the London Quarterly Review for October, 1816 - Narrative of the Occurrences in the Indian Countries of America, published by the North-West Company in 1817, containing all the documents on the subject.
325
1821.] JURISDICTION OF THE CANADA COURTS EXTENDED.
1819 ; and a debate ensued, in the course of which the proceedings of the two rival associations were minutely investigated. The ministry then interposed its mediation, and a compromise was thus at length effected, by which the North-West Company became united with, or rather merged in, the Hudson's Bay Company. At the same time, and in connection with this arrangement, an " act for regulating the fur trade and establishing a criminal and civil jurisdiction in certain parts of North America" was passed in Parliament, containing every provision required to give stability to the Hudson's Bay Company, and efficiency to its operations.
By this act, passed on the 2d of July, 1821, the king was authorized to make grants or give licenses to any body corporate, company, or person, for the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians, in all such parts of North America as may be specified in the grants, not being parts of the territories previously granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, or of any of his majesty's provinces in North America, or any territories belonging to the United States of America : provided, however, that no such grant or license shall be given for a longer period than twenty-one years; that no grant or license for exclusive trade, in the part of America west of the Rocky Mountains, which, by the convention of 1818 with the United States, remained free and open to the subjects or citizens of both nations, shall be used to the prejudice or exclusion of citizens of the United States engaged in such trade ; and that no British sub- ject shall trade in those territories west of the Rocky Mountains without such license or grant. By the same act, also, the courts of judicature of Upper Canada are empowered to take cognizance of all causes, civil or criminal, arising in any of the above-mentioned territories, including those previously granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, and "other parts of America, not within the limits of either of the provinces of Upper or Lower Canada, or of any civil government of the United States ; " and justices of the peace are to be commissioned in those territories, to execute and enforce the laws and the decisions of the courts, to take evidence, and commit offenders and send them for trial to Canada, and even, under cer- tain circumstances, to hold courts themselves, for the trial of crimi- nal offences and misdemeanors not punishable by death, and of civil causes, in which the amount at issue should not exceed two hundred pounds .*
* See the act and the grant here mentioned in the Proofs and Illustrations, at the end of this volume, under the letter I, No. 2.
326
SEARCH FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE RESUMED.
[1821.
Upon the passage of this act, the union of the two companies was effected, and a grant was made, by the king, to " the governor and company of adventurers trading to Hudson's Bay, and to William Macgillivray, Simon Macgillivray, and Edward Ellice," the persons so named, representing the former proprietors of the North- West Company,* of the exclusive trade, for twenty-one years, in all the countries in which such privileges could be granted agreeably to the act. Persons in the service of the company were, at the same time, commissioned as justices of the peace for those coun- tries ; and the jurisdiction of the courts of Upper Canada was rendered effective as far as the shores of the Pacific, no exception being made, in that respect, by the act, with regard to any of the territories embraced in the grant, " not within the limits of any civil government of the United States."
About this period, also, the search for a north-west passage, or navigable communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, north of America, which had been so long suspended, was resumed by British officers, under the auspices of their government ; and expeditions for that object were made through Baffin's Bay, as well as by land, through the northernmost parts of the American conti- nent. The geographical results of these expeditions were highly interesting, while, at the same time, the skill, courage, and perse- verance, of the British were honorably illustrated by the labors of Ross, Parry, Franklin, and their companions. The west coasts of Baffin's Bay were carefully surveyed, and many passages leading from it towards the west and south-west, were traced to considera- ble distances. The progress of the ships through these passages was, however, in each case, arrested by ice ; and, although many extensive portions of the northern coast of the continent were explored, and the Arctic Sea, in their vicinity, was found free from ice during the short summer, the question respecting the existence of a northern channel of communication between the oceans was left unsolved. These voyages, independently of the value of their scientific results, also proved most advantageous to the commerce of the British throughout the whole of their territories in America, as new routes were opened, and new regions, abounding in furs, were rendered accessible.
The Russians were, in the mean time, constantly increasing their
* In 1824, the North-West Company surrendered its rights and interests to the Hudson's Bay Company, in the name of which alone all the operations were thence- forward conducted.
327
RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS IN CALIFORNIA.
1815.]
trade in the Pacific, and, in addition to their establishments on the northernmost coasts of that ocean, they had taken possession of the country adjoining Port San Francisco, which they seemed deter- mined, as well as able, to retain. With this object, Baranof, the chief agent of the Russian American Company, in 1812, obtained from the Spanish governor of California permission to erect some houses, and to leave a few men on the shore of Bodega Bay, a little north of Port San Francisco, where they were employed in hunting the wild cattle, and drying meat for the supply of Sitka and the other settlements. In the course of two or three years after this permission was granted, the number of persons thus employed became so great, and their dwelling assumed so much the appearance of a fort, that the governor thought proper to remonstrate on the subject ; and, his representations being disre- garded, he formally commanded the Russians to quit the territories of his Catholic majesty. The command was treated with as little respect as the remonstrance ; and, upon its repetition, the Russian agent, Kuskof, coolly denied the right of the Spaniards over the territory, which he asserted to be free and open for occupation by the people of any civilized power. The governor of California was unable to enforce his commands ; and, as no assistance could be afforded to him from Mexico, in which the rebellion was then at its height, the intruders were left in possession of the ground, where they remained until 1840, in defiance alike of Spaniards and of Mexicans.
On the restoration of peace in Europe, in 1814, the Russian American Company resolved to make another effort to establish a direct commercial intercourse, by sea, between its possessions on the North Pacific and the European ports of the empire. With this object, the American ship Hannibal was purchased, and, her name having been changed to Suwarrow, she was despatched from Cron- stadt, under Lieutenant Lazaref, laden with merchandise, for Sitka, whence she returned in the summer of 1815, with a cargo of furs valued at a million of dollars. The adventure proving successful, others of the same kind were made, until the communications be- came regular, as they now are.
After the departure of this vessel from Sitka, Baranof sent about a hundred Russians and Aleutians, under the direction of Dr. Schaeffer, a German, who had been the surgeon of the Suwarrow, with the intention, apparently, of taking possession of one of the Sandwich Islands. These men landed first at Owyhee, whence
328
RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS IN CALIFORNIA.
[1819.
they passed successively to Woahoo and Atooi; and in the latter island they remained a year, committing many irregularities, with- out, however, effecting, in any way, the supposed objects of their expedition, until they were at length forced to submit to the author- ities of Tamahamaha, and to quit the islands .*
Expeditions were also made by the Russians to Bering's Strait, and the seas beyond it, for the purpose of determining the question as to the separation of Asia and America, which, though long before supposed to have been ascertained, was again rendered doubtful by some circumstances of recent occurrence. With this object, Cap- tain Otto von Kotzebue sailed from Cronstadt in the ship Ruric, which had been fitted out at the expense of the ex-chancellor Romanzof, and, in the summer of 1816, penetrated through the strait into the Arctic Sea; but, although he surveyed the coasts of both continents on that sea more minutely than any navigator who had preceded him, he was unable to advance so far in any direction as Cook had gone in 1778. In 1820, two other vessels were sent to that part of the ocean, with the same objects; but no detailed account of their voyage has been made public. In the mean time, however, the doubts as to the separation of the two continents were completely removed, by Captains Wrangel and Anjou, who sur- veyed the eastern parts of the Siberian coast with great care, in defiance of the most dreadful difficulties and dangers.t
Nor did the Russians neglect to improve the administration of their affairs on the North Pacific coasts. In 1817, Captain Golow- nin was despatched from Europe, in the sloop of war Kamtchatka, with a commission from the emperor to inquire into the state of the Russian dominions in America ; and, upon the report brought back by him, it was resolved that a radical change should be made in the management of those possessions. Accordingly, upon the renewal of the charter of the company on the 8th of July, 1819, regulations were put in execution, by which the governor and other chief officers of Russian America became directly responsible for their
* For further particulars on this subject, the reader-if he should consider the matter worth investigating - may consult Kotzebue's narrative of his voyage to the Pacific, in 1815-16, and Jarves's History of the Sandwich Islands.
t Sce the agreeable and instructive narrative, by Kotzebue, of his voyage in search of a north-east passage. Wrangel's account of his expedition, which has been re- cently published, is a most interesting work, not only from the multitude of new facts in geography, and in many of the physical sciences, which it communicates, but also from the admiration which it inspires for the courage, good temper, and good feeling, of the adventurous narrator. Wrangel has since been, for many years, the governor- general of Russian America, and is now an admiral in the service of his country.
329
OCCURRENCES AT THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
1819.]
conduct, and the condition of all classes of the population of those countries was materially benefited. The death of Baranof ren- dered the introduction of these reforms less difficult; and the superintendence of the colonies has ever since been committed to honorable and enlightened inen, generally officers in the Russian navy, under whose direction the abuses formerly prevailing to so frightful an extent, have been gradually removed or abated .*
About the same time, an event occurred, of great importance in the history of a country which is, no doubt, destined materially to influence the political condition of the north-western coasts and regions of America. Tamahamaha, king of all the Sandwich Islands, died in May, 1819, at the age of sixty-three, and was succeeded in power by his son, or reputed son, Riho Riho, or Tamahamaha II.+ Of the merits and demerits of Tamahamaha, it would be out of place here to speak at length. He was a chief of note at the time of the discovery of the islands by Cook, when his character had been already formed, and the seeds of much that was evil had been sown, and had taken firm root in his mind. No sooner, however, was he brought into contact with civilized men, than he began to learn, and, what was more difficult, to unlearn. His first objects were of a nature purely selfish. He sought power to gratify his ambition and his thirst for pleasure, but he used it, when obtained, for nobler ends ; and of all the sovereigns of the earth, his contemporaries, no one certainly attempted or effected as much, in proportion to his means, for the advancement of his people, as this barbarian chief of a little ocean island.
Upon the death of Tamahamaha, great changes were effected in the affairs of the Sandwich Islands. The old king had resolutely maintained the religion of his forefathers, though he suppressed many of its horrible ceremonies and observances. Riho Riho, how- ever, soon after his accession, abolished that religion, and embraced the faith of the white men who came to his islands in great ships from distant countries. His principal chiefs, Boki and Krymakoo, (or Kalaimaku,) had been previously, in August, 1819, baptized and received into the bosom of the Roman Catholic church by the
* Statische und ethnographische Nachrichten, über die Russischen Besitzungen an der Nordwestküste von Amerika - Statistical and ethnographical Notices concerning the Russian Possessions on the North-West Coasts of America -by Admiral von Wrangel, late governor-general of those countries, published at St. Petersburg, in 1839.
t These names are now generally written Liho Liho and Kamehamaha.
42
330
OCCURRENCES AT THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
[1819.
chaplain of the French corvette L'Uranie; and, early in 1820, a vessel reached the islands from Boston, bringing a number of Prot- estant missionaries, who have ever since been established there, and have, until recently at least, exercised a powerful and generally beneficial influence over all the affairs of the kingdom .*
* For minute accounts of all these changes, and the different views of their effects, see Account of a Residence in the Sandwich Islands from 1822 to 1825, by C. S. Stewart, one of the missionaries -Polynesian Researches, by W. Ellis - The London Quarterly Review for March, 1827 - The narratives of voyages in the Pacific, by Beechey, Lord Byron, and Belcher - The History of the Sandwich Islands, by Jarves - The History of American Missions, &c.
331
CHAPTER XVI.
1820 TO 1828.
Bill reported by a Committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, for the Occupation of the Columbia River- Ukase of the Emperor of Russia, with Regard to the North Pacific Coasts-Negotiations between the Governments of Great Britain, Russia, and the United States-Conventions between the United States and Russia, and between Great Britain and Russia - Further Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain relative to the North-West Coasts - Indefinite Extension of the Arrangement for the joint Occupancy of the Territories west of the Rocky Mountains, by the British and the Americans.
BEFORE 1820, little, if any thing, relative to the countries west of the Rocky Mountains had been said in the Congress of the United States ; and those countries had excited very little interest among the citizens of the federal republic in general.
In December of that year, however, immediately after the ratifica- tion of the Florida treaty by Spain, a resolution was passed by the House of Representatives in Congress, on the motion of Mr. Floyd, of Virginia -" that an inquiry should be made, as to the situation of the settlements on the Pacific Ocean, and as to the expediency of occupying the Columbia River." The committee to which this resolution was referred, presented, in January following, a long report, containing a sketch of the history of colonization in Amer- ica, with an account of the fur trade in the northern and north- western sections of the continent, and a description of the country claimed by the United States ; from all which are drawn the con- clusions, - that the whole territory of America bordering upon the Pacific, from the 41st degree of latitude to the 53d, if not to the 60th, belongs of right to the United States, in virtue of the purchase of Louisiana from France, in 1803, of the acquisition of the titles of Spain by the Florida treaty, and of the discoveries and settlements of American citizens ; - that the trade of this territory in furs and other articles, and the fisheries on its coasts, might be rendered highly productive ; and - that these advantages might be secured to citizens of the United States exclusively, by establishing " small trading guards" on the most north-castern point of the Missouri,
332
RUSSIAN UKASE.
[1822.
and at the mouth of the Columbia, and by favoring emigration to the country west of the Rocky Mountains, not only from the United States, but also from China. To this report the com- mittee appended "a bill for the occupation of the Columbia, and the regulation of the trade with the Indians in the territories of the United States." Without making any remarks upon the char- acter of this report, it may be observed, that the terms of the bill are directly at variance with the provisions of the third article of the convention of October, 1818, between the United States and Great Britain ; as the Columbia could not possibly be free and open to the vessels, citizens, and subjects, of both nations, if it were occupied by either. The bill was suffered to lie on the table of the House during the remainder of the session: in the ensuing year, it was again brought before Congress, and an estimate was obtained, from the navy commissioners, of the expense of transporting cannon, ammu- nition, and stores, by sea, to the mouth of the Columbia; but no further notice was taken of the subject until the winter of 1823.
Measures had, in the mean time, been adopted by the Russian government, with regard to the north-west coasts of America, which strongly excited the attention of both the other powers claiming dominion in that quarter.
Soon after the renewal of the charter of the Russian American Company, a ukase, or imperial decree, was issued at St. Petersburg, by which the whole west coast of America, north of the 51st par- allel, and the whole east coast of Asia, north of the latitude of 45 degrees 50 minutes, with all the adjacent and intervening islands, were declared to belong exclusively to Russia ; and foreigners were prohibited, under heavy penalties, from approaching within a hundred miles of any of those coasts, except in cases of extreme necessity .*
This decree was officially communicated to the government of the United States in February, 1822, by the Chevalier de Poletica, Russian minister at Washington, between whom and Mr. J. Q Adams, the American secretary of state, a correspondence imme- diately took place on the subject. Mr. Adams, in his first note, simply made known the surprise of the president at the assertion of a claim, on the part of Russia, to so large a portion of the west
* The ukase, dated September 4th, 1821, and the correspondence between the Russian and American governments with regard to it, may be found at length among the documents accompanying President Monroe's message to Congress, of April 17th, 1822.
333
DISCUSSION OF THE RUSSIAN CLAIMS.
1822.]
coasts of America, and at the promulgation, by that power, of rules of restriction so deeply affecting the rights of the United States and their citizens ; and he desired to know whether the minister was authorized to give explanations of the grounds of the right claimed, upon principles generally recognized by the laws and usages of nations.
To this M. Poletica replied by a long letter, containing a sketch - generally erroneous- of the discoveries of his countrymen on the north-west coasts of America, which extended, according to his idea, southward as far as the 49th parallel of latitude. He de- fended the assumption of the 51st parallel as the southern limit of the possessions of his sovereign, upon the ground that this line was midway between the mouth of the Columbia, where the citizens of the United States had made an establishment, and the Russian settlement of Sitka ; and he finally maintained that his government would be justifiable in exercising the rights of sovereignty over the whole of the Pacific north of the said parallel, inasmuch as that sec- tion of the sea was bounded on both sides by Russian territories, and was thus, in fact, a close sea. The secretary of state, in return, asserted that, " from the period of the existence of the United States as an independent nation, their vessels had freely navigated those seas; and the right to navigate them was a part of that inde- pendence, as also the right of their citizens to trade, even in arms and munitions of war, with the aboriginal natives of the north- west coast of America, who were not under the territorial jurisdic- tion of other nations." He denied in toto the claim of the Russians to any part of America south of the 55th degree of latitude, on the ground that this parallel was declared, in the charter * of the Russian American Company, to be the southern limit of the dis-
* The first article of the charter or privilege granted by the emperor Paul to the Russian American Company, on the 8th of July, 1799, is as follows : -
" In virtue of the discovery, by Russian navigators, of a part of the coast of America in the north-east, beginning from the 55th degree of latitude, and of chains of islands extending from Kamtchatka, northward towards America, and southward towards Japan, Russia has acquired the right of possessing those lands; and the said company is authorized to enjoy all the advantages of industry, and all the establishments, upon the said coast of America, in the north-east, from the 55th degree of latitude to Bering's Strait, and beyond it, as also upon the Aleutian and Kurile Islands, and the others, situated in the eastern Arctic Ocean."
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