Page:How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon.djvu/25

 vessel in Astor's enterprise, thus placing the seal of nationality upon it. True the town was captured and the effects confiscated in 1812 by the British 21 squadron of the Pacific, commanded by Captain Hillyar, but the fact of actual settlement by Americans at Astoria, even for a short time, had its value in the later argument. In the treaty of Ghent with England in 1814, Astoria, with all its rights, was ordered to be restored to its original owners, but even this was not consummated until 1846.

America's fifth claim was in her treaty with Spain in 1818, when Spain relinquished any and all claims to the territory in dispute to the United States.

The sixth and last claim was from Mexico, by a treaty in 1828, by which the United States acquired all interest Mexico claimed, formerly in common with Spain, but now under her own government.

Such is a brief statement, but I trust a sufficient one, for an intelligent understanding of the questions of ownership.

It will be seen that the United States was vested in all the rights held over Oregon by every other power except one, that of Great Britain. Her claim rested, as we have seen, in the fact that "Captain Gray only discovered the mouth of the river," but did not survey it to the extent that the English Captain Vancouver