The Alaska citizen., 1910-08-06

rich fur trade in the northwestern
 extremity of the American continent
 was rapidly passing into the hands of the Russians. The English trad.
 CTS were first to follow 1t up. In 17S5 James Hanna visited the west
 coast of Vancouver Island, In Brit ish Columbia. and in the succeeding
 years made several voyages to the
 coast of what is now Alaska Sim liar trips were made by English and American trading vessels and ships of other nationalities. The pub Iishd logs and track charts of a number of these vessels added to the general knowledge of the northwest coast All of these the Russians re- garded as unlawful intruders, and many petitions were sent to St. Pe- |tersburg protesting against foreign ships engaging in this trade.
 While the merchants and traders
 of various nationalities were strug- gling for commercial supremacy in Alaskan waters, their home govern ments were unmindful of the poll tical side of the controversy. The English, Spanish and French gov crnments showed a desire to wrest some of these new discoveries from
 the Russians. The Spaniards claim,
 ed the coast, because It was a north.
 ern extension of their California | possessions, and also by right of the discoveries of Bodega y Quadra
 The English claim rested on Cook s 1 discoveries.
 | The Spanish claims were strength. ened by the expedition led by Ar.
 teaga, with Quadra as second in | command. which sailed northward from Mexico in 1779, and visited and surveyed Port Bucareli on the west side of Prince of Wales Island
 Later they entered Prince William 1 Sound and, in obedience to their In Istructions. took formal possession 1 of what they believed were newly discovered lands They little real, 1 ized that Cook in the previous year i had gone through the same cere-
 mony in the name of the British
 sovereign almost at the same spot After extending their explorations to the southwest as far as the l southern end of Kenai Peninsula they returned to Mexico
 The French had no part in the 1 discovery or in the explorations of
 the new country; but to gain val. l i'd claim, La Perouse, naval officer was dispatched to the northwest coast in 17S5. In the following year he landed at Lituya Bay, of which he made a detailed examination and
 took formal possession. Then, ig-
 noring his instructions to survey
 the Aleutian Islands, he sailed south
 ward without landing again on the
 Alaskan coast.
 The Spaniard's, apparently satis- fled that Arteaga's explorations es- tablished their territorial claims,
 took no further action for several
 years. The publication of Cook s voyages and the report of the num-
 erous trading vessels that visited the
 northwest coast, however, aroused them again from their lethargy In 1 llS6, two vessels. commanded by Estevan Martinez and Gonzalez Haro, were dispatched northWard to gain further information. While Martinez explored Prince William Sound, Ha- TO. visited the Russian establish ments on Kodiak Island, and ob- tained full knowledge of the Russian occupation. Delarof, the director of the colony, took pains to impress the Spaniard with the wide extent and importance of the Russian set dement's, of which at that time there
 were only six. After visiting Un-
 alaska and going through the ab- surd performance of taking posses
 sion in the name of His Most Cath olic Majesty of an island which con- talned Russian colony and had been under the Muscovite influence
 for upward of a quarter of cen
 tury, the expedition sailed for Mex ico.
 Martinez's report of the Russian
 occupation showed the viceroy of
 Mexico that Spanish claims to the northwest coast must be enforced
 by more decisive action Both yes
 sels were therefore again dispatched
 to take immediate possession of
 Nootka Sound on the west side of
 Vancouver Island which had been
 discovered by Cook and had been
 used as rendezvous by English,
 American and Portuguese traders.
 The Spaniards did not molest the
 American ships, but warned off all
 those flying English colors. This
 high-handed action led to an immed- late protest from the British govern ment, and commissioners were ap-
 pointed by both governments to come to an understanding The first meeting at NoOtka led to a disagree