Baltic, in order to enable every one of them to reach his own Country. With the confiscated Ship and Cargo, he is to act as with a Prize taken in time of War.

LV. After this, the Commander of Kamtschatka shall order a Committee to value the Vessel and her Cargo. This Committee is to be composed of 1 Member appointed by the Commander of Kamtschatka, 1 by the Commander of the Man-of-war, and a third by the Russian American Company.

LVI. These Commissioners are to make up a specified list and valuation, according to the following Rules:

1. All provisions, rigging, iron, powder, and arms, shall be put down at such prices as they cost Government there.

2. All merchandize which might be used in Kamtschatka and the Company's Colonies, and which are carried there at times from Russia, shall be valued at their prices, then existing.

3. All goods which are not imported into these Places from Russia, but are wanted there, shall be valued like goods brought from Russia, being the nearest to them, and in proportion to their wants.

4. All goods not in use at Kamtschatka or the Colonies, shall be sent to Irkutzk, and sold at publick auction by the proper Authorities.

LVII. The said Commissioners shall present their valuation to the Commander of Kamtschatka, for his approbation; who, in case of not finding the same exact, shall return it, with his remarks, and shall appoint other Officers, to inspect such articles, as may appear unfairly valued.

LVIII. If the Commissioners thereafter continue in their opinion, and the Commander of Kamtschatka find it impossible to agree thereto, he shall provisionally consent, and leave the final decision to Government.

LIX. According to this valuation, the Commander of Kamtschatka shall mark, for the use of Government, all those articles which he thinks are wanted; the remainder is left at the disposal of the Officers of the Ship, or of the Russian American Company. The seized Vessel shall be valued by the Court, and the valuation sent immediately to the Minister of the Navy, with a Report, whether such a Vessel is wanted for Government Service or not.

LX. The whole sum of valuation of the confiscated Vessel and Cargo, is to be divided in the following manner :—' :-The expenses necessary to forward the Ship's Crew to one of the Ports in the Baltic, are to be deducted, and the remaining sum divided, (if the Vessel has been taken by the Russian American Company's Officers, and carried to the Port of St. Peter and Paul, by a Ship of said Company, without the interference of a Man-of-war,) into 5 parts; of which, one goes to the Government, and the remaining four-fifths to the American Company. If the Vessel be taken in any of the Company's Settlements

by the Company's Officers, but brought to the Port of St. Peter and Paul, by a Man-of-war; after deducting one-fifth for the Government, two-fifths are to belong to the Crew of the Man-of-war, and the remaining two-fifths to the Russian American Company; and, finally, if such Foreign Vessel be detained by Men-of-war only, without the assistance of the Company's Officers, then, after deducting one-fifth for the Government, the remainder is left to the Officers of the Men-of-war. But if a Vessel be taken by the conjoint forces of a Man-of-war and a Company's Vessel, then the Prize shall be divided between them, in proportion to their strength, regulating the same according to the number of guns.

LXI. The sum coming to the Officers of the Man-of-war shall be divided according to the Rules for dividing Prizes in time of War. In all cases, Officers who had a share in seizing Foreign Vessels, convicted of the intention of infringing the privileges most graciously granted to the Russian American Company, may expect to receive tokens of His Imperial Majesty's approbation; especially when, after deducting the expenses for conveying the Crew, their part in the prize-money should prove but trifling.

LXII. If a Foreign Vessel, detained by a Russian, being under the command of a Russian Officer, should be cast away before reaching the Port of St. Peter and Paul, the following principles shall be observed:

If the Foreign Vessel alone be lost, and the Russian accompanying her arrive at the Port of St. Peter and Paul, then the Court acts according to the foregoing Rules, to determine whether that Vessel was lawfully seized. In this case Government takes upon itself the expenses of conveying to a Port of the Baltic such of the Ship's Crew as were saved. But, if such Vessel should not be proved to have been detained lawfully, then, independent of those expenses, the Ship shall be valued, and such valuation forwarded to Government for the payment of what may be deemed just; at the same time investigations shall be made on the loss of the Vessel; and the Officer that had the Command, (if saved) is to be tried according to the Maritime Rules and Regulations.

LXIII. The Commander of Kamtschatka is bound to make a special Report to the Governor-General of Siberia, respecting every circumstance happening to Foreign Vessels, annexing Copies of all Documents, Journals, and Sentences of the Court, and of all Papers relative thereunto.

SIR,

COUNT D. GURIEF, Minister of Finances.

(10.)-The Secretary of State to Mr. Poletica.

Department of State, Washington, 25th February, 1822. I HAVE had the honour of receiving your Note of the 11th instant, inclosing a printed Copy of the Regulations adopted by the Russian

American Company, and sanctioned by His Imperial Majesty, relating to the commerce of Foreigners in the Waters bordering on the Establishments of that Company upon the North-west Coast of America.

I am directed by the President of The United States to inform you, that he has seen with surprise in this Edict the assertion of a Territorial Claim on the part of Russia, extending to the 51st degree of North Latitude on this Continent; and a Regulation interdicting to all Commercial Vessels, other than Russian, upon the penalty of seizure and confiscation, the approach, upon the High Seas, within 100 Italian miles of the shores to which that Claim is made to apply. The relations of The United States with His Imperial Majesty have always been of the most friendly character; and it is the earnest desire of this Government to preserve them in that state. It was expected, before any Act which should define the Boundary between the Territories of The United States and Russia, on this Continent, that the same would have been arranged, by Treaty, between the Parties. To exclude the Vessels of our Citizens from the shore, beyond the ordinary distance to which the Territorial Jurisdiction extends, has excited still greater surprize.

This Ordinance affects so deeply the Rights of The United States and of their Citizens, that I am instructed to inquire, whether you are authorized to give explanations of the grounds of Right, upon principles generally recognized by the Laws and Usages of Nations, which can warrant the Claims and Regulations contained in it.

I avail myself of this occasion, &c.

THE CHEVALIER DE POLETICA,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from Russia.

(11.)-The Chevalier de Poletica to the Secretary of State.-(Translation.) Washington, (16th) 28th February, 1822.

SIR,

I RECEIVED, two days since, the Letter which you did me the honour to address to me on the same day, by order of the President of The United States, in answer to my Note of the 11th current, by which I discharged the Orders of my Government, in communicating to you the new Regulation adopted by the Russian American Company, and sanctioned by His Majesty the Emperor, my August Sovereign, on the 4th (16th) of September, 1821, relative to Foreign Commerce, in the Waters which border upon the Establishments of the said Company, on the North-west Coast of America.

Readily yielding, Sir, to the desire expressed by you in your Letter, of knowing the rights and principles upon which are founded the determinate Limits of the Russian Possessions on the North-west Coast of America, from Behring's Strait to the 51° of North Latitude, I am happy to fulfil this task, by only calling your attention

to the following historical facts, the authenticity of which cannot be contested.

The first Discoveries of the Russians on the North-west Continent of America, go back to the time of the Emperor Peter I. They belong to the attempt, made towards the end of the reign of that great Monarch, to find a Passage from the Icy Sea into the Pacifick Ocean.

In 1728, the celebrated Captain Behring made his first voyage. The recital of his discoveries attracted the attention of the Government, and the Empress Anne entrusted to Captain Behring (1741) a new Expedition in these same Latitudes. She sent with him the Academicians Gmelin, Delile de la Crayere, Muller, Steller, Fisher, Krasilnicoff, Krocheninicoff, and others; and the first Chart of these Countries which is known, was the result of their labours, published in 1758. Besides the Strait, which bears the name of the Chief of this Expedition, he discovered a great part of the Islands which are found between the two Continents: Cape or Mount St. Elias, which still bears this name upon all the Charts, was so called by Captain Behring, who discovered it on the day of the Feast of this Saint; and his second, Captain Tchiricoff, pushed his discoveries as far as the 49th degree of North Latitude.

The first private Expeditions undertaken upon the North-west Coast of America, go back as far as the Year 1743.

In 1763, the Russian Establishments had already extended as far as the Island of Kodiak (or Kichtak). In 1778, Cook found them at Ounalashka, and some Russian inscriptions at Kodiak. Vancouver saw the Russian Establishment in the Bay of Kinai. In fine, Captains Mirs, Portlock, La Perouse, unanimously attest the existence of Russian Establishments in these Latitudes.

If the Imperial Government had, at the time, published the Discoveries made by the Russian Navigators after Behring and Tchiricoff, (viz. Chlodiloff, Screbreanicoff, Krassilnicoff, Paycoff, Poushcareff, Lazareff, Medwedeff, Solowieff, Lewasheff, Krenitsin, and others,) no one could refuse to Russia the right of first discovery, nor could even any one deny her that of first occupation.

Moreover, when Don José Martinez was sent, in 1789, by the Court of Madrid, to form an Establishment in Vancouver's Island, and to remove Foreigners from thence, under the pretext that all that Coast belonged to Spain, he gave not the least disturbance to the Russian Colonies and Navigators; yet the Spanish Government was not ignorant of their existence, for this very Martinez had visited them the Year before. The Report which Captain Malespina made of the results of his voyage, proves, that the Spaniards very well knew of the Russian Colonies; and in this very Report it is seen, that the Court of Madrid acknowledged that its Possessions upon the Coast of the Pacifick Ocean ought not to extend to the North of Cape Blanc,

taken from the Point of Trinity, situated under 42° 50' of North Latitude.

When, in 1799, the Emperor Paul I. granted to the present American Company its first Charter, He gave it the exclusive possession of the North-west Coast of America, which belonged to Russia, from the 55th degree of North Latitude to Behring's Strait. He permitted them to extend their discoveries to the South, and there to form Establishments, provided they did not encroach upon the Territory occupied by other Powers.

This Act, when made public, excited no claim on the part of other Cabinets, not even on that of Madrid, which confirms that it did not extend its pretensions to the 60th degree.

When the Government of The United States treated with Spain for the cession of a part of the North-west Coast, it was able to acquire by the Treaty of Washington, the right to all that belonged to the Spaniards, North of the 42d degree of Latitude; but this Treaty says nothing positive concerning the Northern Boundary of this Ces`sion; because, in fact, Spain well knew that she could not say, that the Coast as far as the 60th degree belonged to her.

From this faithful exposition of known facts, it is easy, Sir, as appears to me, to draw the conclusion, that the rights of Russia to the extent of the North-west Coast, specified in the Regulation of the Russian American Company, rest upon the three bases required by the general Law of Nations and immemorial usage among Nations ;that is, upon the title of first discovery; upon the title of first occupation; and, in the last place, upon that which results from a peaceable and uncontested possession of more than half a century; an epoch, consequently, several years anterior to that when The United States took their place among Independent Nations.

It is moreover evident, that, if the right of the possession of a certain extent of the North-west Coast of America, claimed by The United States, only devolves upon them in virtue of the Treaty of Washington, of the 22d of February, 1819, and I believe it would be difficult to make good any other title, this Treaty could not confer upon the American Government any right of claim against the Limits assigned to the Russian Possessions upon the same Coast, because Spain herself had never pretended to a similar right.

The Imperial Government, in assigning for Limits to the Russian Possessions on the North-west Coast of America, on the one side Behring's Strait, and, on the other, the 51st degree of North Latitude, has only made a moderate use of an incontestible right; since the Russian Navigators, who were the first to explore that part of the American Continent, in 1741, pushed their discovery as far as the 49th degree of North Latitude. The 51st degree, therefore, is no more than