USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 40
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 40
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In order " to obtain some specific and authentic information in regard to the inhabitants of the country in the neighborhood of the Columbia," Mr. W. Slacum, a purser in the navy of the United States, was, in 1838, commissioned by Mr. Forsyth, then secretary of state, to proceed to that country, and make the necessary obser- vations and inquiries ; in fulfilment of which commission, Mr. Sla- cum went to the Columbia by sea, and spent six weeks, during the winter of 1836-7, in visiting the various factories and settlements on the great river below its falls and on the Willamet.+
The attention of the American government had been again directed to the north-west coasts of America, by several circum- stances, especially by the recent refusal of the Russian government to allow the vessels of the United States to trade on the unoccupied parts of that coast north of the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes, as mentioned in the preceding chapter. This refusal was based on
* Mr. Parker's Journal of his tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, published at Ithaca, in 1838, would have been more valuable, had the worthy and intelligent author confined himself to accounts of what he himself experienced, and not wan- dered, as he has done, into the regions of history, diplomacy, and cosmogony.
t Mr. Slacum's Report may be found among the documents published by the Senate of the United States, in 1837-8. It contains no information of value, and abounds in errors, many of them on material points.
46
362
PROCEEDINGS OF THE RUSSIANS.
[1838.
the fact that the period of ten years, fixed by the fourth article of the convention of 1824 between the two nations, during which the vessels of both parties might frequent the bays, creeks, harbors, and other interior waters on the north-west coast, had expired : and the Russian government had chosen to consider that article as the only limitation of its right to exclude American vessels from all parts of the division of the coast on which the United States, by the convention, engaged to form no establishments; disregarding entirely the first article of the same agreement, by which all unoc- cupied places on the north-west coast were declared free and open to the citizens or subjects of both nations. The government of the United States immediately protested against this exclusion ; and their plenipotentiaries at St. Petersburg have been instructed to demand its revocation .* To the reasons offered in support of
* See President Van Buren's message to Congress of December 3d, 1838, and the accompanying documents. The letters of Messrs. Wilkins and Dallas, successively plenipotentiaries of the United States at St. Petersburg, relating the particulars of their negotiations with the Russian minister, will be found very interesting, from the luminous views of national rights presented in them. The instructions of Mr. For- syth, the American secretary of state, to Mr. Dallas, dated November 3d, 1837, are also especially worthy of attention. After repeating the cardinal rule as to the con- struction of instruments, - that they should be so construed, if possible, as that every part may stand, -he proceeds to show that the fourth article of the convention of April, 1824, was to be understood as giving "permission to enter interior bays, &c., at the mouth of which there might be establishments, or the shores of which might be in part, but not wholly, occupied by such establishments; thus providing for a case which would otherwise admit of doubt, as it would be questionable whether the bays, &c., described in it, belonged to the first or the second article. In no sense," continues Mr. Forsyth, " can it be understood as implying an acknowledgment, on the part of the United States, of the right of Russia to the possession of the coast above the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes north ; but it should be taken in con- nection with the other articles, which have, in fact, no reference whatever to the question of the right of possession of the unoccupied parts of the coast. In a spirit of compromise, and to prevent future collisions or difficulties, it was agreed that no new establishments should be formed by the respective parties north or south of a certain parallel of latitude, after the conclusion of the agreement ; but the question of the right of possession beyond the existing establishments, as it subsisted previous to, or at the time of, the conclusion of the convention, was left untouched. The United States, in agreeing not to form new establishments north of the latitude of 54 degrees and 40 minutes, made no acknowledgment of the right of Russia to the possession of the territory above that line. If such admission had been made, Russia, by the same construction of the article referred to, must have acknowledged the right of the United States to the territory south of the line. But that Russia did not so understand the article, is conclusively proved by her having entered into a similar agreement in a subsequent treaty (1825) with Great Britain, and having, in fact, acknowledged in that instrument the right of possession of the same territory by Great Britain. The United States can only be considered as acknowledging the right of Russia to acquire, by actual occupation, a just claim to unoccupied lands above the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes north ; and even this is a mere matter
363
1
1838.]
PROCEEDINGS OF TIIE RUSSIANS.
this demand, the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Count Nessel- rode, did not attempt to offer any reply, contenting himself simply with declaring that his sovereign was not inclined to renew the fourth article, as it afforded the Americans the opportunity of fur- nishing the natives on the coasts with spirituous liquors and fire-arms ; though no case was adduced in support of that assertion. Thus the matter rests ; the American traders being excluded from visiting any of the coasts of the Pacific north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, on the ground that those coasts are acknowledged by the United States to belong to Russia, whilst the latter power, by its treaty with Great Britain in 1825, directly denies any rights, on the part of the United States, to the coasts south of that parallel.
The Russian government also refused the same privilege to British vessels after 1835, and moreover opposed by force the exercise of another privilege claimed by the British under the treaty of 1825, namely, that of navigating the rivers flowing from the interior of the continent to the Pacific across the line of boundary therein established. In 1834, the Hudson's Bay Company fitted out an expedition for the purpose of establishing a trading post on the large river Stikine, which enters the channel named by Vancouver Prince Frederick's Sound, between the main land and one of the islands of the north-west archipelago claimed by Russia, in the latitude of 56 degrees 50 minutes. Baron Wrangel, the Russian governor- general, having, however, been informed of the project, erected a block-house and stationed a sloop of war at the mouth of the Stikine; and, on the appearance of the vessel bringing the men and materials for the contemplated establishment, the British were warned not to attempt to pass into the river, and were forced to return to the south. All appeals to the treaty were ineffectual, and the Hudson's Bay Company was obliged to desist from the prose- cution of the plan, after having, as asserted on its part, spent more than twenty thousand pounds in fitting out the expedition.
of inference, as the convention of 1824 contains nothing more than a negation of the right of the United States to occupy new points within that limit. Admitting that this inference was in contemplation of the parties to the convention, it cannot follow that the United States ever intended to abandon the just right, acknowledged by the first article to belong to them, under the law of nations ; that is, to frequent any part of the unoccupied coast of North America, for the purpose of fishing or trading with the natives. All that the convention admits is, an inference of the right of Russia to acquire possession by settlement north of 54 degrees and 40 minutes north; and, until that possession is taken, the first article of the convention acknowledges the right of the United States to fish and trade, as prior to its negotiation."
364
PROCEEDINGS OF THE RUSSIANS.
[1839.
The British government immediately demanded satisfaction from that of Russia for this infraction of the treaty; and, after some time spent in negotiation between the two powers, as well as between the Hudson's Bay Company and the Russian American Company, it was agreed, in 1839, that the British trading association should enjoy, for ten years, from the 1st of June, 1840, the exclusive use of the continent assigned to Russia by the treaty of 1825, extending from the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes northward to Cape Spenser, near the 58th degree, in consideration of the annual payment of two thousand seal skins to the Russian Company .* The difficulty was thus ended, to the advantage of both parties : the British having access to a long line of coast, without which the adjoining interior territories would have been useless ; while the Russians receive, as rent, a much greater amount in value than they could possibly have drawn from that coast by any other means.
The charter of the Russian American Company was renewed for twenty years, in 1839; at which time the company possessed thirty-six establishments in its territories in America, and twelve vessels, some of them large, employed in the transportation of furs and merchandise. The revenue from these establishments is undoubtedly large, as the company is constantly extending its operations, and its stock maintains a high value. There is, more- over, every reason to believe that the regulations of this body are as humane, and are enforced with as much strictness, as the peculiar circumstances under which its servants are placed will admit ; and that, if the amount of labor required from those servants is not diminished, their comforts are much increased. Great care appears to be bestowed on the moral and religious ed- ucation of the natives, particularly of those of the Aleutian Islands and Kodiak, who are more intelligent than the people of the coasts farther north or east. Moreover, a race of half breeds, there called Creoles, children of native women by Russian fathers, is growing up, to whose instruction in the language, religion, and customs, of Russia, the company particularly directs its efforts .*
In California, few events worthy of note occurred during the whole period of fifty years, from the first establishment of Spanish
* Wrangel's Statistical and Ethnographical Account of the Russian Possessions in America, above mentioned, at page 329. The accounts of Wrangel on these points are particular, and they are confirmed by those of other persons who have recently visited the Russian settlements.
365
CALIFORNIA SUBJECT TO MEXICO.
1822.]
colonies and garrisons on the west coasts of that country, to the termination of the revolutionary struggle between Spain and Mex- ico. Before the disturbances in Mexico began, the missions were, to a certain extent, fostered by the Spanish government ; and sup- plies of money and goods were sent to them, with regularity, from Acapulco and San Blas : but, after the revolution broke out, these remittances were reduced, and all the establishments, civil, military, and religious, fell into decay. The missionaries lost much of their influence over the Indians ; and the defences of the country became so ineffective, that Monterey, in despite of its forts and castle, was, in 1819, taken and sacked by a Buenos Ayrean privateer, under the command of a Frenchman.
On the termination of the revolutionary struggle, and the estab- lishment of independence in Mexico, the soldiers and priests in California, for the most part, submitted, though with reluctance, to the authority of the new republic ; and the remainder of the pop- ulation followed their example, probably without inquiring into the circumstances. The country was then divided politically into two territories, of which the peninsula formed one, called Lower California ; the other, called Upper California, embracing the whole of the continental portion. By the constitution of 1824, each of these territories became entitled to send one member to the National Congress ; and, by subsequent decrees of the general government, all the adult Indians, who could be considered as civilized or capable of reasoning, (gente de razon,) were freed from submission to their former pastors, had lands assigned to them, and were declared citizens of the republic. These seeming boons were, however, accompanied by the withdrawal of nearly all the allow- ances previously made for the support of the establishments, and by the imposition of taxes and duties on all imports, including those from Mexico. The authority of the missionaries thus dwindled away ; and those who had been long in the country, either returned to Mexico or Spain, or escaped to other lands. The cultivation of the mission farms was abandoned ; the Indians, freed from restraint, relapsed into barbarism, or sunk into the lowest state of indolence and vice ; and the missions were finally placed by the government in the hands of administrators, under whom they appear to be fast falling to ruin.
Whilst the number of civilized Indians in California was by these measures diminished, the white population was at the same time somewhat increased. Immediately after, and indeed before, the
366
CALIFORNIA SUBJECT TO MEXICO.
[1828.
overthrow of the Spanish authority in that country, its ports became the resort of foreigners, especially of the whalers and traders of the United States, who offered coarse manufactured articles and groceries in exchange for provisions, and for the hides and tallow of the wild cattle abounding in the country. This trade was at first carried on in the same irregular manner as the fur trade with the Indians on the coasts farther north ; as it increased, however, it became more systematized, and mercantile houses were estab- lished in the principal ports. The majority of the merchants were foreigners, English, French, or Americans : in their train came shop and tavern-keepers, and artisans, from various countries; and to these were added deserting seamen and stragglers from the Missouri and the Columbia.
This state of things was by no means satisfactory to the Mexican government ; and orders were given to the commandant-general of Upper California to enforce the laws prohibiting foreigners from entering or residing in the Mexican territories without special per- mission from the authorities. Agreeably to these orders, a number of American citizens were, in 1828, seized at San Diego, and kept in confinement until 1830, when an insurrection broke out, headed by a General Solis, which they were instrumental in subduing; and, in consideration of their services, they were allowed to quit the country. The trading expeditions of Ashley and Smith, of which accounts have been already presented, at the same time gave great uneasiness to the Mexican government, and were made the subjects of formal complaints to that of the United States.
These circumstances, with others of the same nature then occur- ring in Texas, served to delay the conclusion of treaties of limits, and of amity, commerce, and navigation, between the United States and Mexico; which were, however, at length signed and ratified, so as to become effective in 1832. By the treaty of limits, the line of boundary from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific, which was settled between the United States and Spain in 1819, was adopted as separating the territories of the United States on the north from those of Mexico on the south; and the latter power accordingly claims as its own the whole territory west of the great dividing chain of mountains, as far north as the 42d parallel of latitude.
The Mexican government likewise endeavored to prevent the evils anticipated from the presence of so many foreigners in Cali- fornia, by founding new colonies of its own citizens in that country. Criminals were to be transported thither ; but although many were
367
. REVOLUTION IN CALIFORNIA.
1837.]
thus sentenced, few, if any, ever reached the place of their desti- nation. A number of persons, of various trades and professions, were also sent out from Mexico in 1834, to be located on the lands of the missions in California ; but, ere they reached those places, the administration by which the scheme was devised, had been overthrown, and the new authorities, entertaining different views, ordered the settlers to be driven back to their native land.
These new authorities - that is to say, General Santa Anna and his partisans - determined to remodel the constitution, under which Mexico had been governed, as a federal republic, since 1824. What other form was to have been introduced in its stead, is not known ; for, in the spring of 1836, at the moment when the change was about to be made, Santa Anna was defeated and taken prisoner by the Texans at San Jacinto. Those who succeeded to the helm being, however, no less averse to the federal system, it was abolished in the latter part of the same year, and a constitution was adopted, by which the powers of government were placed almost entirely in the hands of the general congress and executive, all state rights being destroyed. This central system was opposed in many parts of the republic, and nowhere more strenuously than in California, where the people rose in a body, expelled the Mexican officers, and declared that their country should remain independent until the federal constitution were restored. The general government, on receiving the news of these proceedings, issued strong proclamations against the insurgents, and ordered an expedition to be prepared for the purpose of reestablishing its authority in the revolted territory ; but General Urrea, to whom the execution of this order was committed, soon after declared in favor of the fed- eralists, and the Californians were allowed to govern themselves as they chose for some months, at the end of which, in July, 1837, their patriotic enthusiasm subsided, and they voluntarily swore alle- giance to the new constitution.
Since that time, the quiet course of things in California has, so far as known, been disturbed by only one occurrence worthy of being mentioned ; namely, the capture and temporary occupation of Monterey by the naval forces of the United States, under Commo- dore T. A. C. Jones, of which the following brief account will suffice. This officer, while cruising on the South American coast of the Pa- cific, received information which led him to believe that Mexico had, agreeably to a menace shortly before uttered by her government, declared war against the United States; and, being determined
368
CAPTURE OF MONTEREY BY THE AMERICANS.
[1842.
to strike a blow at the supposed enemy, he sailed, with his frigate, the United States, and the sloop of war Cyane, to Monterey, where he arrived on the 19th of October, 1842. Having disposed his vessels in front of the little town, he sent an officer ashore, to demand the surrender "of the castle, posts, and military places, with all troops, arms, and munitions of war of every class," in default of which, the sacrifice of human life and the horrors of war would be the immediate consequence. The commandant of the place, astounded by such a demand, made in a time of profound peace, summoned his officers to a council, in which it was decided that no defence could be made: he therefore sub- mitted without delay, and the flag of the United States replaced that of Mexico over all the public edifices ; the fortifications were garri- soned by American soldiers, and the commodore issued a proclama- tion to the Californians, inviting them to submit to the government of the federal republic, which would protect and insure to them the undisturbed exercise of their religion, and all other privileges of freemen. Scarcely, however, was this proclamation sent forth, ere the commodore received advices which convinced him that he had been in error, and that the peace between his country and Mexico remained unbroken ; he had, therefore, only to restore the place to its former possessors, and to retire with all his forces to his ships, which was done on the 21st of the month, twenty-four hours after the surrender. Thus ended an affair, the effects of which have been unfortunately to increase the irritation already existing in Mexico against the United States, and to render less easy the adjustment of the differences between the two nations. The armed force in Cali- fornia has since been considerably augmented ; but it is evident that all the efforts of Mexico would be unavailing to retain those distant possessions, in the event of a war with a powerful maritime state.
In the Sandwich Islands, a complete change has taken place since the death of Tamahamaha. His son and successor, Riho Riho, died, in 1824, in London, whither he had gone, with his queen, to visit his brother sovereign of Great Britain ; and he was himself succeeded by Kauikeaouli, another reputed son of the great Tamahamaha, who now fills the throne, under the name of Kame- hamaha III. These changes were all advantageous to the mission- aries from the United States, many of whom were domiciliated in the islands ; particularly after the conversion of Krymakoo, or Billy Pitt, the old prime minister, and of Kaahumanu, the widow of the great Tamahamaha, who, after passing half a century in the con-
369
LANGUAGE OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
1837.]
stant practice of the most beastly sensuality, embraced Christianity in her old age, and became an efficient protector of its professors. Kaahumanu acted as regent during the minority of the king, which did not expire until 1834 ; this young man, immediately on taking the reins of government into his own hands, determined to enjoy life like other princes ; " he avoided the society of the more influential chiefs, and associated with young and unprincipled men. Break- ing over the laws to which he had formerly given his assent, he bought ardent spirits, and drank with his companions, though seldom to intoxication. He enticed others into the same practices, and is said even to have inflicted punishment on those who would not comply. He revived the hualaha, or national dance, and it was understood that he intended to revive other practices, which had been common in the days of heathenism."* The example of the sovereign, was imitated by his subjects ; grog-shops were opened, distilleries were set up, and other immoralities reappeared. But the church had now been too strongly united to the state for these things to continue : the chiefs were nearly all, nominally at least, Christians ; and the king was, in the end, obliged to submit. He afterwards proved quite tractable, and though he sometimes complains, he has never again attempted to assert his freedom from religious restraint.
The missionaries, persevering in the task which they had under- taken, employed every means to gain ascendency over the young, and to train them in the ways of religion and strict morality. With this object, they made themselves well acquainted with the language of the islands ; and, finding that all its sounds might be expressed by fourteen letters of the Roman alphabet,t they thus reduced its
* History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, p. 241. t The letters are, a, e, i, o, u, vowels, each having, in all cases, one and the same sound, namely, that given to it in the Italian language ; and b, h, k, l, m, n, p, t, and w, consonants, having each the simple sound assigned to it in English. The same language was found, by the missionaries, in use in all parts of the group ; but it was pronounced differently in different islands, and nearly all the names of people and places, which had been made known by Cook, Vancouver, and other navigators, were written according to the sounds of an impure dialect. The orthography of all these names was, in consequence, changed to suit the new system, not only in the books, published for the use of the islanders in their own language, but likewise in all the publieations in English, issuing from the missionary press. However advan- tageous this may be for the natives, and for those who study their language, its good effects, on the whole, may be doubted ; it supposes every person to be ac- quainted with the new system, without a knowledge of which, no one can compare or connect the information afforded by Cook and Vancouver, with that obtained from the modern works. As an exemplification of the serious embarrassment thus
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370
OPPOSITION TO THE MISSIONARIES.
[1838.
words to writing, and translated into it the Bible and several other works, which were all successively printed, at Honolulu, in Woahoo, the seat of the government. They, at the same time, exerted them- selves to amend the customs of the people, and to reform the vices of their government ; gradually procuring the adoption of written laws, and, finally, in 1840, of a written constitution, all which measures evinced much wisdom and knowledge of the world, as well as justice and morality, on the part of the framers.
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