APPENDIX TO THE REPLY. No. 51. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MR. BANCROFT, MR. BUCHANAN, AND LORD PALMERSTON. Mr. Bancroft to Mr. Buchanan. LONDON, November 3, 1846. SIR: * The straits of Haro While in the Navy Department I caused a traced copy of Wilkes's chart of the Straits of Haro to be made. If not needed in the Navy Department I request that the President will the treaty boundary. direct it to be sent to this Legation. It is intimated to me that questions may arise with regard to the islands east of that strait. I ask your authority to meet any such claim at the threshold by the assertion of the central channel of the Straits of Haro as the main channel intended by the recent treaty of Washington. Some of the islands, I am well informed, are of value. Mr. Buchanan instructs Mr. Bancroft that Haro is the SIR: I have obtained from the Navy Department, and now transmit to you, in accordance with the request contained in your dispatch No. 1, [November 3,] the traced boundary channel. copy of Wilkes's chart of the Straits of Haro. This will enable [60] you to act understandingly *upon any question which may here after arise between the two governments in respect to the sovereignty of the islands situate between the continent and Vancouver's Island. It is not probable, however, that any claim of this character will be seriously preferred on the part of Her Britannic Majesty's government to any island lying to the eastward of the Canal of Arro, as marked in Captain Wilkes's "Map of the Oregon Territory." This, I have no doubt, is the channel which Lord Aberdeen had in view, when, in a conversation with Mr. MacLane, about the middle of May last, on the subject of the resumption of the negotiation for an amicable settlement of the Oregon question, his lordship explained the character of the proposition he intended to submit through Mr. Pakenham. As understood by Mr. MacLane, and by him communicated to this department in his dispatch of the 18th of the same month, it was, "First, to divide the territory by the extension of the line on the parallel of 49° to the sea; that is to say, to the arm of the sea called Birch's Bay; thence by the Canal de Haro and Straits of Fuca to the ocean," &c. I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, GEORGE BANCROFT, Esq., &c., &c., &c. JAMES BUCHANAN. [Inclosure: Chart of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, &c. By the U. S. Ex. Ex., 1841.] SIR: Mr. Bancroft warns Mr. Buchanan of the designs of the Hudson's Bay Company. Mr. Bancroft to Mr. Buchanan. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, March 29, 1847. While on this point I ought to add that my attention has again been called to the probable wishes of the Hudson's Bay Company to get some of the islands on our side of the line in the Straits of Fuca. I speak only from my own judgment and inductions from what I observe and hear; but it would not surprise me if a formal proposition should soon be made on the part of the British Government to run the line between the two countries at the west from the point where it first meets the water through the straits to the Pacific Ocean. Such a proposition is in itself very proper, if there be no ulterior [61] motive to raise unnecessary doubts and to claim islands *that are properly ours. The ministry, I believe, has no such design. Some of its members would be the first to frown on it. But I am not so well assured that the Hudson's Bay Company is equally reasonable, or that on the British side a boundary commissioner might not be appointed favoring the encroaching propensities of that company. * I am, &c., JAMES BUCHANAN, Esq., &c., &c., d ́c., Washington City. GEORGE BANCROFT. SIR: Mr. Bancroft's interview with Lord Palmerston. Mr. Bancroft to Mr. Buchanan. UNITED STATES LEGATION, The Hudson's Bay Company have been trying to get a grant of Vancouver's Island. I inquired, from mere curiosity, about it. Lord Palmerston replied that it was an affair that belonged exclusively to the Colonial Office, and he did not know the intentions of Lord Grey. He then told me, what I had not known before, that he had made a proposition at Washington for marking the boundaries in the northwest by setting up a landmark on the point of land where the forty-ninth parallel touches the sea, and for ascertaining the division line in the channel by noting the bearings of certain objects. I observed that on the main-land a few simple astro nomical observations were all that were requisite; that the water in the channel of Haro did not require to be divided, since the navigation was free to both parties; though, of course, the islands east of the center of the channel of Haro were ours. He had no good chart of the Oregon waters, and asked me to let him see the traced copy of Wilkes's chart. He spoke of the propriety of settling definitively the ownership of the several islands, in order that settlements might not be begun by one party on what properly belongs to the other. On returning home I sent him my traced copy of Wilkes's chart, with a note, of which I inclose a copy. Mr. Bancroft writes to Lord Palmerston that Haro is the MY DEAR LORD: As your lordship desired, I send for your inspection the traced copy made for me at the Navy Department of Wilkes's chart of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Puget's Sound, &c. Unluckily this copy does not extend quite so far north boundary. as the parallel of 49°, though it contains the wide entrance into the Straits of Haro, the channel through the middle of which the boundary is to be continued. The upper part of the Straits of Haro is laid down, though not on a large scale, in Wilkes's map of the Oregon Territory, of which, I am sorry to say, I have not a copy, but which may be found in the atlas to the narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition. I remain, my dear lord, very faithfully, yours, Viscount PALMERSTON, &'c., &c. GEORGE BANCROFT. Mr. Bancroft to Mr. Buchanan. UNITED STATES LEGATION, Mr. Bancroft con that unjust claims SIR: I send you a map of Vancouver's Island, recently published by James Wyld, geographer to the Queen. It purports to mark, by a dotted line, the boundary between the United States times the suggestion and Great Britain. You will see that this map suggests all may be made, encroachment on our rights by adopting a line far to the east of the Straits of Haro. You may remember that Mr. Boyd, more than two years ago, suggested to you that a design of preferring some such claims existed. I inferred, from what I could learn at that time, that this design grew up with the Hudson's Bay Company, and I had no reason to suppose it favored by the Colonial Secretary. I am, &c., JAMES BUCHANAN, Esq., Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. * GEORGE BANCROFT. [63] *Mr. Bancroft to Lord Palmerston. 108 EATON SQUARE, November 3, 1848. MY LORD: I did not forget your lordship's desire to see the United States surveys of the waters of Puget's Sound and those cially informs Lord dividing Vancouver's Island from our territory. Mr. Bancroft off Palmerston that the through the middle of boundary runs These surveys have been reduced, and have just been the channel of Haro. published in three parts, and I transmit for your lordship's acceptance the first copy which I have received. The surveys extend to the line of 49°, and by combining two of the charts your lordship will readily trace the whole course of the channel of Haro, through the middle of which our boundary line passes. I think you will esteem the work done in a manner very creditable to the young navy officers concerned in it. I have the honor, &c., Viscount PALMERSTON, &c., &c. GEORGE BANCROFT. Lord Palmerston to Mr. Bancroft. FOREIGN OFFICE, November 7, 1848. SIR: I beg leave to return you my best thanks for the surveys of Pu Palmerston get's Sound and of the Gulf of Georgia, which accompanied cence of silence to the your letter of the 3d instant. Lord gives the acquies Haro channel as the boundary. The information as to soundings contained in these charts will no doubt be of great service to the commissioners who are to be ap pointed under the treaty of the 15th of June, 1846, by assisting them in determining where the line of boundary described in the first article of that treaty ought to run. I have the honor to be, with high consideration, sir, &c., SIR: Your letter of May 27 has but just reached me, in consequence of my absence from home on a long journey. Mr. Bancroft refers Mr. Campbell to his correspondence with Lord Palmerston. I was in the administration of Mr. Polk at the time when Mr. Buchanan perfected the treaty for settling the boundary of Oregon. The basis of the settlement was the parallel of 49°, with the concession to Britain of that part of Vancouver's Island which lies south of 49°. The United States held that both parties had a right to the free navigation of the waters round Vancouver's Island, and therefore consented that the British boundary should extend to the center of the Channel of Haro. Such was the understanding of everybody at the time of consummating the treaty in England and at Washington. The Hudson's Bay Company may naturally enough covet the group of |