but he was not so well assured that the Hudson's Bay Company was equally reasonable. On August 4, 1848, Mr. Bancroft wrote that the Hudson's Bay Company had been trying to get a grant of Vancouver's Island. When he inquired from curiosity about it, Lord Palmerston replied that it was an affair that belonged exclusively to the colonial office; and he then told Mr. Bancroft what the latter had not previously learned, that a proposition had been made at Washington for marking the place where the forty-ninth parallel touched the sea, and for ascertaining the divisional line in the channel by noting the bearings of certain objects. Mr. Bancroft observed that on the mainland a few simple astronomical observations were all that were requisite; that the waters of the Canal de Haro did not require to be divided, since the navigation was free to both parties, though of course the islands east of the center of the channel belonged to the United States. Lord Palmerston said he had no good chart of the Oregon waters, and asked Mr. Bancroft to let him see the traced copy of Wilkes's chart. Mr. Bancroft sent it to him; and on the 3d of November 1848, having obtained copies of further surveys from the Navy Department of the United States, he communicated them also to Lord Palmerston, with a note in which there is the following sentence: "The surveys extend to the line of 49°, and by combining two of the charts your Lordship will readily trace the whole course of the channel of Haro, through the middle of which our boundary line passes." Lord Palmerston acknowledged the receipt of the charts on the 7th of November, and observed that the information contained in them would no doubt be of great service to the commissioners who were to be appointed under the treaty, "by assisting them in determining where the line of boundary described in the first article of that treaty ought to run."1

Marking Boundary.

The proposal to mark the boundary to which British Proposal for Lord Palmerston referred was submitted by Mr. Crampton, British minister at Washing ton, to Mr. Buchanan on the 13th of January 1848. In the letter in which the proposal was made, Mr. Crampton said that, in regard to the water boundary, "a preliminary ques tion arises which turns upon the interpretation of the treaty rather than upon the result of local observation and survey." The treaty referred to the channel which separated the

1 S. Ex. Doc. 29, 40 Cong. 2 sess. 84-85.

continent from Vancouver's Island. Generally speaking, the word channel, when employed in treaties, meant a deep and navigable channel. In the present case it was, said Mr. Crampton, believed that only one channel, namely, that which was laid down by Vancouver in his chart, had in that part of the gulf been surveyed and used, and it seemed natural to suppose that the negotiators of the Oregon convention, in employing the word "channel," had that particular channel in view. If this construction should be mutually adopted, no preliminary difficulty would exist, and it was to be wished that such an arrangement might be agreed upon, since otherwise much. time might be wasted in surveying the various intricate channels between Vancouver's Island and the mainland, and some difficulty might arise in deciding which of them ought to be adopted for the boundary. The main channel marked in Vancouver's chart was, indeed, said Mr. Crampton, somewhat nearer to the continent than to Vancouver's Island, and its adoption would leave on the British side of the line rather more of the small islets with which that part of the gulf was studded than would remain on the American side. But these islands, he said, were of little or no value, and the only large and valuable island belonging to the group, namely, Whidby's, would of course belong to the United States. Accompanying this letter of Mr. Crampton was a draft of instructions. this draft it was proposed that, as that part of the channel of the Gulf of Georgia which lies nearly midway between the forty-eighth and forty-ninth parallels of north latitude appeared by Vancouver's chart to be obstructed by numerous islands, which seemed to be separated from each other by small and intricate channels as yet unexplored, it should mutually be agreed that the line of boundary should be drawn along the middle of the wide channel to the east of those islands, which was laid down by Vancouver and marked as the channel which was explored and used by the officers under his command.'

Disputes as to Jurisdiction.

In

The negotiations were productive of no result, and for a period of almost ten years after the conclusion of the treaty no effective steps were taken by the contracting parties toward ascer taining the boundary. Meanwhile, settlers were entering and occupying the territory, and, besides the danger of collisions, the need

1S. Ex. Doc. 29, 40 Cong. 2 sess. 40-43.

daily increased for the establishment of some recognized authority. At its first session, in 1854, the legislative assembly of Washington Territory assumed to incorporate San Juan Island in one of the counties of the Territory. In a letter of July 4, 1855, Mr. Marcy, who had become Secretary of State, instructed Governor Stevens that the officers of the Territory should abstain from all acts on the disputed grounds which were calculated to provoke conflicts, so far as it could be done without implying the concession of an exclusive right in Great Britain, and on the 17th of July Mr. Marcy sent a copy of this letter to Mr. Crampton.

Commissioners

for

On the 11th of August 1856 the President Running the Line approved an act by which provision was made for the appointment of a commissioner and a chief astronomer and surveyor to cooperate with similar officers to be appointed by the British Government in running a line." Under this act Archibald Campbell was appointed commissioner and Lieut. John G. Parke chief astronomer and surveyor. On the part of Great Britain, Capt. James C. Prevost, R. N., was appointed commissioner and Capt. Henry Richards, R. N., second commissioner, whose duties, however, were those of chief astronomer and surveyor. Mr. Campbell and Lieutenant Parke were appointed to their respective positions on February 14, 1857. They left New York with their party on April 20, and, proceeding by way of the Isthmus of Panama, reached Victoria on the 22d of June. Captain Prevost had arrived at Esquimault on the 12th of the same month. Captain Richards did not arrive till the following autumn. The commissioners each had a secretary, who, on the part of the United States, was William J. Warren, and, on the part of Great Britain, William A. G. Young.

sioners.

The commissioners held their first meeting Meeting and Instruc- on the 27th of June 1857 and exhibited their tions of Commis- instructions and powers. Mr. Campbell's instructions empowered him to determine and mark the entire boundary line under the treaty of 1846. The British commissioner's instructions were limited to the determination of the water boundary. It subsequently transpired that the British commissioner had other instructions besides those which he exhibited to Mr. Campbell on the 27th of June, but he did not think that they enlarged his powers.

1S. Ex. Doc. 29, 40 Cong. 2 sess. 207.

211 Stats. at L. 42.