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good Bostonlan, " Hancock, ,'ssand the low point
! on the south, /" Addms."-


This evidence, which is indisputabIe, answers
our purposes So far as discovery affects our claim
| 1t establishes its justness beyond doubt. The
next question rsfers ~ seitlement,~er occupancy
to which might be add8d,our Intention to occupy.
for soffe time must necessarily intervene between
discovery and settlement. 1t was long after Eng
land discovered the Atlantic shores that settle
rnent was made by her subjects upon them so
that nothing can be gained to her, nor lost to the
United States, from the fact that some eight or ten
fyears elapsed before an actual settlement was
fmade on the Columbia.


The Spanish made settlement and built tho fort
of San Miguel on an island in Nootka Sound in
1893. Not long after, an English ship, belonging
to a trading corporation which had been formed
in intimation of the East India and Hudson Bay
companies, called "King Georges Sound Compa.
N.Y." arrived in the harbor, for the purpose Of mo-
noposing all the trade on that coast. The COM
nder, Colnet, was called to account by Marti.
nez-the same man who had been there in l774
and taken possession in the name of the King of
Spain-now commander of the fort, by what au.
thority he undertook to invade their rights. Col.
net insisted that the country belonged to England
by virtue of Cooks discovery. Martinez renlied
that he had himself discovered the Su,pd fonr
wears before Cook visited it. The ketives well
recoected the fact, and personally knew Marti.
nez. Colnet was arrested and sent to San Bias.
From this affair difficulty arose which led Eng.
land in her haughtiness, to othreaten immediate war
with Spain, acting upon the same policy she has
since pursed so successfully with China and Aft.
ghanistan. A treaty, however, was concluded,
in which Spain granted to England the right to ma
vigate, fish, and trade in articles not contraba band.
with the Spanish settlements, not on the North
west coast exclusively, but in America. 1t was
under this limsy pretension that England once
cirirei the right 10 the Oregon.


About the same time Don Salvador Fidalgo
formed settlement on the main land, the first
ever made on that coast, in lat. 4S deg. 20 min,
on the strait of Juan de Fuca. Very minute sur.
veys of all this coast, its rivers bays and sounds,
were made by Spanish navi gators in the years
I79l-2, by Maaspina, and Galiano and Valdes.
who often met aud held intercourse with yancou-
yer, the explorer. upon whom England principally
POUNDS her claim. 1t should not be forgotten that
Vancouver confessed, in his own narration, that
Capt. Gray had preceded him in the Columbia RI
yer, and in the strait of Juan de Fuca and that
in exploring the former, he made use of q chart
by MIR. Gray, who had commanded the American
ship Columbia.''


Thus it appears that the discovery of GRAY in
our own name, and those Of Cabrillo, Cali, Juan
de Fuca, Aeuar, Martinez, Heceta, Ayala and





of Martinez and Fidalgo, enttle the United States
to exercise her authority over Oregon. The dis
covery Of Gray alone, gives us, according to the
rules heretofore observed by civilized nations the
right to all the lands drained by the Columbia,
which carries into the neighborhood of 81 degrees
Nearly the Same line would be a:tai ned on the
principle of the right Of extension by contiguitv
for, measuring from the mouth of the Columbia
10 the nearest settlement, at that tme on the north
The medium would not fall far from the same de.
gree of latitude.


Let US turn our attention to the Valley of the
Mississippi, and examine our claims ADVANCING
from the east. This will bring US to an inquiry
into the rights of France, when we purchased the
Louisiana territory for, by that purchase, all her
rights TO that province become ours.


BY the treaty of Utrecht, il is apparent that
The boundary between the French possessions in
The valley OF the Mississippi and the British on
Hudsons Bay, was tho forty ninth degree of lati.
tude, the same which is now acknowledged to tho
Rocky Mountains.


By the treaty concluded al Paris. February 10.
1868, between England, France and Spain. France
her possessions on the St. Lawrence
River, and England fixed the boundary of her CO.
lones irrevocably, at the middle Of the Mississipp
and lberville Rivers, and the Lakes Maurepas and
Pontchartran, and so to the GuIr of Mexico west
o1 thls inc, sne Would make no claim, but reIin.
'uish all right and title, if any she ever had. Il,
hay not be improper to state in this place. that
England, as we'll as France, and Spain, had before
thi, claimed from the Atlantic backindeGnitelv
as n the charters Of Virginia, Massachusetts. md
Conocticut, which extended west to the ..Sou,k1 |
Sea- England, by the Treaty above referred to
relinpished to France all her Claims west Of the
mddlsof the Mississippi. already stated. AT this
time, tie line between France and England. on the
north, vas the forty-ninth degree of latitude. Rv
the Treay cf Peace, concluded at Paris, Septem.
Der Sd, 1888, England relinquished to the United
States, al claims TO the government, proprietary
ana terrioial rights Of the same, and every par,
S, snoreof." BY the purchase of Louisiana, the u
n.ates cameinto possession of all the claims to
france, whidl extended to latitude - d groes
south OF whic', England did not claim. Een:c it
- c'ear' That to pretensions of Ensano to the
possessions souh of that parallel, arc groundless
Gnu arrogant, asd that the claim of tho United
0's.eS IS well AMI immutably founded.


ooon aiter the cssion of Louisiana, our Govorn-
.lei .he az the Recommendation of Mr.. Jefferson,
~ l,en resident sentout Lewis and Clark, to ex-
ocean' winch duty they most faithfully performed,
an account OF which ias been published and ex-
tenslyely read. They reached the Pacific at the
mouth OF the Columbia, November 18th, 1885,
0oon after their return measures were adopt.