CHAPTER VII. THE SAN JUAN WATER BOUNDARY: ARBITRATION UNDER ARTICLES XXXIV.-XLII. OF THE TREATY OF MAY 8, 1871. Boundary from Lake of the Woods to Rocky Mountains. By the convention signed at London October 20, 1818, by Albert Gallatin and Richard Rush on the part of the United States and by Frederick John Robinson and Henry Goulburn on the part of Great Britain, the boundary between the territories of the United States and those of His Britannic Majesty, from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods to the Stony or Rocky Mountains, was fixed at the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude. And in case it should be found that the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods was not on that parallel, it was provided that a line should be drawn from that point due north or south, as the case might be, till it should intersect the parallel, and that from such point of intersection the boundary should be continued due west along the forty-ninth parallel to the Stony Mountains.' Boundary Westward of Rocky Mountains. On the 15th of June 1846 James Buchanan, Secretary of State of the United States, and Richard Pakenham, British minister at Wash ington, concluded a treaty for the adjustment of differences between the two countries "respecting the sovereignty and government of the territory on the northwest coast of America, lying westward of the Rocky or Stony Mountains.” The territory thus referred to is that which was known at the 'Article II. In connection with this chapter, see Bancroft's History of Oregon, and his History of the Northwest Coast; Benton's Thirty Years' View; Greenhow's History of Oregon and California; Twiss's Oregon Territory; Gallatin's Oregon Question; Curtis's Life of James Buchanan; Coues's History of the Expedition under the Command of Lewis and Clark; Maine's International Law; Br. and For. State Papers, L. 796; LV. 743, 1211, 1281; LIX. 21; LXII. 188. time as the Oregon territory, embracing what is now comprised in British Columbia and the States of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It was bounded, according to the claim of the United States, by the forty-second parallel of north latitude on the south, by the line of 54° 40' on the north, and by the Rocky or Stony Mountains on the east. It embraced, roughly speaking, an area of 600,000 square miles. Over all this territory the United States claimed to be the rightful sovereign. This claim was disputed by Great Britain. The treaty of June 15, 1846, was intended to terminate the dispute by a nearly equal division of the territory. The first article, by which the dividing line was defined, reads as follows: "From the point on the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, where the boundary laid down in existing treaties and conventions between the United States and Great Britain terminates, the line of boundary between the territories of the United States and those of Her Britannic Majesty shall be continued westward along the said forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island; and thence southerly through the middle of the said channel, and of Fuca's Straits, to the Pacific Ocean: Provided, however, that the navigation of the whole of the said channel and straits, south of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, remain free and open to both parties." Indefiniteness of Water Boundary. This article, so far as it described the boundary on land along the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, was definite, and the line only required to be surveyed; but an examination of the text in connection with a map of the coast will disclose the fact that the language relating to the water boundary was not definite. Just below the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, where it strikes the Gulf of Georgia, there is an archipelago, commonly called the Haro Archipelago, consisting of a large number of small islands, between which there are several channels that connect the waters of the Gulf of Georgia with the waters of the Straits of Fuca. At the time when the treaty was made only two of these channels had been surveyed and marked. These were the Canal de Haro, named after its Spanish explorer, and a channel to the east, which was variously known as Rosario Strait, as Ringgold's Channel, sometimes as Vancouver's Straits or Channel, and by Spanish navigators as the Canal de Fidalgo. But, in spite of its wealth of names, this eastern channel, though designated as the Canal de Fidalgo on the Spanish admiralty charts, was not designated by name on any of the general maps of the northwest coast likely to have been used by the negotiators of the treaty of 1846. On the chart of Vancouver, which doubtless was used by the British Government, the Canal de Haro is marked as the Canal de Arro, the phonetic reproduction in English of its Spanish name. The Rosario Strait is not denoted on Vancouver's chart by any name, but is marked by a line as the channel through which Vancouver sailed from the Straits of Fuca to the Gulf of Georgia. When we consider these facts, it is obvious that the language of the treaty left room for a dispute as to what channel was intended by "the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island." An examination of the history of the negotiations will also show that there was no express understanding between the two governments at the time the treaty was concluded as to the channel that was intended. Although the language employed was not free from doubt, that which has so often happened in the negotiation of treaties happened again. The negotiations had, after many years of controversy, reached a critical stage, when both parties were desirous of securing an amicable result, but apprehensive lest any delay might jeopardize and prevent it. At such a conjuncture it has not infrequently happened that a treaty has been signed without any disclosure of the uncertainty as to its meaning which either or both of the parties may have felt. Grounds of American The boundary question submitted under the Treaty of Washington of 1871 to the arbitration of the Emperor of Germany was the last point of difference in a territorial contest the origin of which must be sought in the struggles of England, France, and Spain for empire in America. By the second article of the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain concluded November 30, 1782, and made definitive September 3, 1783, it was provided that the northern boundary of the United States should pass through the Great Lakes to the Lake of the Woods, and thence through the latter "to the most northwestern point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi." By the fourth article of the treaty of 1794, commonly called the Jay Treaty, it was declared to be uncertain whether the Mississippi extended so far north as to be intersected by a line drawn due west from the Lake of the Woods in the manner prescribed, and a joint survey of the line was provided for. This survey never was made; and by the fifth article of a |