From the head of Connecticut river to the Sault, or Rapids of St. Mary, the boundary between the United States and the British territories is fixed, and was finally determined under the 6th article of the treaty of Ghent, and by a report signed at Utica, the 18th of June 1822, by Peter 13. Porter for the United States, and Anthony Barclay for Great Britain. From the Straits of St. Mary to the north-western, or rather the we-;tern part of the Lake of the \Voods, the common boundary re mains agreeably to the treaty of 1783. By that treaty, however, an impossible boundary from the Lake of the Woods to the river Mississippi was provided for, in these words, viz. " and from thence (the most north-western point of the Lake of the \Voods) on a due west course to the river Mississippi." Future discovery demonstrated what was then (1783) suspected, that the extreme northern sources of the Mississippi did not reach the latitude of the north-westernmost, or any part of the Lake of the Woods. It is not probable that the extreme sources of the Mississippi arc yet determined to the utmost certainty; but sufficient has been ascertained to decide the facts, that no water flowing into the Mississippi rises as far north as 48° of N. Lat. and that the southern angle of the Lake of the Woods is at least as high as N. lat. 48° 50'.
The whole boundary or boundaries from N. lat. on Connecticut river to the Rocky, Stony, or Chippewayan mountains, is or are indo,:d fixed on the basis of the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713. That part between the Lake of the Woods and Rocky Mountains, was finally fixed (as far as a convention could fix it), by solemn stipulation in the convention or treaty of that year : " Art. is agreed, that a line drawn from the most north-western point of the Lake of the Woods, along the 49th parallel of north latitude, or if the said point shall not be in the 49th parallel of north latitude, then that a line drawn from the said point, due north or south, as the case may be, until the said line shall intersect the said parallel of north latitude, and from the point of such inter section due west along and with the said parallel, shall be the line of demarcation between the terri tories of the United States and those of his Brit tannic majesty, and that the said line shall form the northern boundary of the said territories of the United States, and the southern boundary of the territories of his Britannic majesty, from the Lake of the Woods to the Stony Mountains." "The extreme north-western point of the Lake of the Woods, is declared to be latitude N. 49° 23' 54", and Long. 95° 14' 38" W. (18° 19' 38" W. from W. C.), so that in conformity with the treaty, this point having been ascertained to be north of parallel 49°, a line is drawn due south from it to parallel 49'; on which it is to be continued to the Rocky Mountains. No means have yet been taken to delineate the boundary westward from the Lake of the Woods."* We proceed to these diplomatic reviews of the boundaries of the United States, with a notice of an object destined to become of the most stu pendous consequence; that is, the great basin of Oregon, and the adjacent regions on the Pacific Ocean, westward of the Rocky or the Chippewayan mountains.
The great river, named by the Spaniards (the original discoverers of the coast) Oregon, and by travellers and writers of the United States until recently, Columbia, pours its great volume into the Pacific at N. Lat. 46° 19' and Long. 46° 25' W. from W. C. • Oregano, in Spanish, is the name of wild mar joram, and without pretending to give that as the origin of the name of Oregon river, we may, how ever, suggest, that such was the fact, from that plant or some other bearing to it a strong resem blance, being found on its banks. Let that conjec ture be well or ill founded, the revival of Oregon ought to be supported, to avoid the embarrassing repetition of the same name so common in Ameri can geography. In the present case we are more concerned with the political claim of the United States to the basin and adjacent parts, than with their geography.
It was certainly making the most of a claim, to include Oregon in Louisiana, as did many writers and speakers of eminence, subsequent to the acqui sition of the latter by the United States. Nor was such questionable extension requisite. We have already shown that, by the treaty of Washington, Spain surrendered to the United States all claim to the northward of N. Lat. 42°; of course, from the final ratification of that compact, the United States obtained sovereignty over Oregon as far as Spain was concerned; but two much more powerful com petitors presented themselves to disturb the title, Great Britain, extending her claims from the east ward, and Russia from the northwest coast.
It is useless to traverse a beaten path, to prove priority of discovery, as Vancouver himself ac knowledges that the first knowledge he received of Columbia river was from Captain Gray, of the ship Columbia. We shall merely and briefly state that some merchants of Boston in 1788 fitted out two vessels, for the express purpose of trading to the northwest coast of North America. One of these vessels, the Columbia Redivina, was, on a second voyage, 1792, commanded by Captain Robert Gray, who discovered and entered a great river, the Ore gon. Captain Vancouver was then at Nootka, and Captain Gray, naming his great discovery after his own ship, very fortunately communicated the whole to Vancouver, who sent his first lieutenant to survey the entrance, but acknowledges the facts. Again, the expedition of discovery under the direction of Lewis and Clarke, is known to every reader, and in 1804, 1805, 1806, completed the inland discovery of the central parts of the basin of that river, called by them Columbia. The British government, urg ing claims to the same region, succeeded in some measure to obtain a recognition of their justice from the United States in the convention of 1818.