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LAST PHASE OF OREGON BOUNDARY 223

who was to blame and am obliged to conclude that Harney through Pickett disturbed the status established by Marcy in 1855. Both sides were pledged to refrain from acts involving the implication of sole sovereignty pending the result of the work of an international commission. Pickett's proclamation on San Juan was an assertion of sole sovereignty. As the land- ing was directed more against the Hudson's Bay Company and the British authorities than against hostile Indians it amounted to seizure by force. In the upshot Harney's policy was in effect repudiated by the government. Douglas, on his side, seemed disposed to fall back on instructions earlier than 1855 and, on the theory of sole British sovereignty, to put all to the test of arms. He issued orders that really meant war. Had not naval officers refrained from executing his orders hostilities must have occurred. The worst was averted by Admiral Baynes, who took the situation out of Douglas' hands. I pointed out that the British claim to San Juan rested on a verbal ambiguity in the Treaty of 1846, that the commissioners disagreed hopelessly on the interpretation of the doubtful passage, and that arbitration was eventually agreed upon by the two governments. Strong evidence has been produced that the plain intention of the treaty was to run the boundary through Haro Straits, thus leaving the islands on the American side of the boundary, and that it was understood in this sense by the various officers of the American government concerned. The final award made by the German Emperor in 1871 in favor of the United States would therefore seem to be a just one.

But did it really matter whether San Juan was American or British ? It mattered to the individuals who wished to take land on the generous American terms. Under the settlement the private interests of the Hudson's Bay Company were, of course, protected, but the Company could no longer retard nor control land cultivation. The crown rights of the Company on Vancouver Island expired in 1859, but, while it then be- came easier to get land, the British policy was not so generous