Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/300

 282 T. C. ELLIOTT Francis is one of the most convenient, extensive, and safe in the world, wholly without defence, and in the neighborhood of a feeble, diffused, and disaffected population. Under all these circumstances, may we not infer views to the early pos- session of this harbor, and ultimately to the sovereignty of entire California? Surely the growth of a race on these shores, scarcely emerged from the savage state, guided by a chief who seeks not to emancipate, but to inthral, is an event to be deprecated an event, the mere apprehension of which ought to excite the jealousies of the United States, so far at least as to induce the cautionary measure of preserving a station which may serve as a barrier to northern aggrandize- ment. I have not been able to gather other information respecting the settlement at Atooi than that of an assurance of its exist- ence a fact corroborated by the visit of the two ships to those islands in their route hither. The Russians are not yet such enterprising navigators as to augment sea risks by extending a voyage several thousand miles without an object. Such was the case in this instance, unless connected with the settlement, as they had sailed from Lima abundantly supplied, a few weeks prior to my first visit to that city, in April last. These islands yield the sandal wood, so much esteemed in China, and have been resorted to by our vessels, for years past, not only in search of this valuable article, but of the neces- sary stock of fresh provisions to supply the crew during their cruise on the Northwest coast. How far this intercourse may be affected, hereafter, by this encroachment, is also a subject for the consideration of the President. I have taken the liberty to enclose a note (marked E) of the authorities, Spanish as well as English, that have fallen under my view, illustrating the discovery of the Columbia by Mr. Gray, in 1791. Its subsequent occupation in 1811, by which the sovereignty of the United States was completed, to the exclusion of any European claimant, is a fact of which the surrender of the sole establishment on the river is conclusive evidence. I have the honor to be, &c., J. B. PREVOST.