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 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 99 ritory, purchased as it was under terms which were vague 6 as to its extent, was not thought to comprise anything beyond the "highlands west of the Mississippi." 7 Nevertheless, Lewis and Clark were instructed to push their explorations through to the Pacific Ocean if it should be found possible, with the object of discovering whether or not there existed a practicable water route across the continent, as well as of ascertaining the prospects for trading with the natives, especially in furs. Moreover, it appears that some Congressmen entertained the idea that there might be grounds for a possible claim beyond the Rockies, for, in the report of the House Committee on Commerce and Manufacture relative to the Lewis and Clark expedition, reference is made to the large additional territory which was believed to include all land west of the Mississippi and the mountains and "beyond that chain between the terri- tories claimed by Great Britain on the one side, and by Spain on the other, quite to the South Sea." 8 After the return of the explorers, however, no immediate interest was evinced in any shadow of a claim to the Pacific Northwest as a result of the expedition. Other matters occupied the attention of the Americans in the years following the return of Lewis and Clark, and scarcely a fugitive reference can be found to the region of their activi- 6 By Art. III. of the Treaty of 30 Apr., 1803, France agreed to "cede to the said United States, in the name of we French Republic, forever and in full sov- ereignty, the said territory with all its rights and appurtenances, as fully and in the same manner as they have been acquired by the French Republic in virtue of the above-mentioned treaty." This refers to the secret treaty of San Ildefonso, i Oct., 1800, where "His Catholic Majesty promises and engages on his part, to cede to the French Republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations herein relative to his royal highness the duke of Parma, the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has -in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it; and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other States." Martens, Supplement an Recueil de prin. Traites, III, 467. No formal treaty ratified the cession of Louisiana to Spain by France in 1764. It was not mentioned in the treaty between Great Britain, France and Spain in 1763, at the close of the Seven Years' War, although the delimitation of th French and Englistt boundary is found in these words: "seront irrevocablement fixes par une Ligne tiree au Milieu du Fleuve Mississippi, depuis sa Naissance iusqu'a la Riviere d'Iberville, & de-la par une Ligne tiree au Milieu de cette Riviere, & des Lacs Maurepas & Ponchartrain, jusqura la Mer," "a L'exception de la Ville de la Nouvelle Orleans, & de 1'Isle dans laquelle elle eat situee, qui demeureront a la France." Martens, Recueil des prin. Traites. Ill, 38-9. 7 See Jefferson to J. C. Breckinridge, 12 Aug. 1803, Writings of Jefferson (Ford), Vni, 243; Jefferson to Dickinson, 9 Aug., 1803; Ibid. 261, for statements of Jefferson's views as to the western boundary of Louisiana. 8 Reported by S. L. Mitchell, Annals, 8th Cong, ist Ses. 1124-6.