The Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu (Oahu), Hawaii) 1840-1841, 1840-11-21

and factory on 1T, under the British
flag. The British government, upon the
strength of these Misrepresentation, de-
handed the restitution of Nootka, and
of other places in the vicinity, which
Mearcs pretended also to have purchased,
as well as the recognition of the rights
of British objects to navigate the Pacific,
and TO make settlements Oh any part of
the west coast of America, north of the
most northern settlements of the Span
iards. After some negotiations and pre-
partitions on both sides for war, the
Spanish government yielded; and stipula-
tons, conformablc with the demands of
the British, as well as some others, res
pccting the navigation of the Pacific and
South Seas, the right of trade and settle
! ment on their coasts. and the intlcmnitica-
ton to be made to British sub iccts, We're
embodied in convention, Commonly
called the Nootka treaty. signed in Oc-
uobcr, 1890. Other negotiations followed
respecting the extent of territory to be
restored to british subjects and finally,
in 1895, the Spaniards formally delivered
up Nootka to the British Commission.
Both parties Immediately afterwards quit
ted the place, and no attempt has since
been made by any civilized nation to oc-
cupy it. The Spaniards endcavored also,
in the summer of 1892, to establish post
on the south side of the straits of Fuca,
but in few months afterward they alb
andoned it. Since that time, no effort
whatever was made to extend her do
mnion on the Pacific north of the Bay of
San Francisco, in latitude of 80 - de-
grees, the most northern point occupied
by her subjects, before the conclusion of
the convention of 1890.
In 1891, Capt. Robert Gray, the com
mander of an American merchant ship,
discovered the mouth of a river in the
latitude of as degrees and is minutes.
Being then unable to enter the river, he
returned thlther in May, 1892, and sailed
up it the distance of fifteen miles from
the sea. Upon this river Gray bestow.
ed the name of his ship, the Columbia,
which it now bears; although attempts
are made to identify it with supposed
river Oregon, Of which Carver, a native
of Connecticut, pretended, falsely, no
doubt, to have received accounts i'm 766,
from the Indians near the head waters
of the Mississippi. The opening in the
American coast, through which the CO.
lumbia enters the Pacific, is the same
discovered by lleccta in l775, and called
on some Spanish maps as before mention
ed, the Rio de San Rogue. For this river
Mcarcs had searched in vain, although he
examined its very mouth in 1888 and he
declares confidently, in his Journal, pub
lished in 1890, that none such exists.
Vancouver had also, in 1892, during the
interval between Gray's first and second
visits to the mouth of the stream, minute
ly explored that part of the coast; and al
though he met Gray while the latter was on
} his way to make his second attempt, and
received an account of the existence of the
river, he still refused to credit it, and
} recorded in his journal his conviction that
no river of note entered the Pacific from
America, between the doth and 1Sth de-
!, grccs of latitude. Yet the same British
: navigator did not hesitate to record also
: in his journal the assertion, that his lieut.