if you pleased to extend that Plan still farther and name the Towns of those Tribes to which the Several Governors may grant Licences, so that no Two Governors may have a Power to send Traders to the same Place. That has often Occasioned great Confusion.

I send Your Lordships a List of the Towns of the lower Creeks with the Names of their Head Men, and the numbers of their Gun Men and other Inhabitants, As those are the Towns with which this Province is most connected, but in the general Partition 'tis probable they will fall under the Governments of Georgia and the two Floridas.

'Tis only in Obedience to Your Lordships Commands that I have taken the liberty to offer my Sentiments upon a Subject which has already been under your Consideration.

I have the honor to be
My Lords-

Your Lops most Obedt. and most hbl Servant.

JAMES GRANT.

2. Letter of Kamehameha II. to Alexander I., 1820.

For the following curious document we are indebted to Professor Frank A. Golder, who found it in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Petrograd, and who has contributed most of the information which we are able to give respecting it. It is found in a carton entitled "Dobell ", and numbered 3601.

The reader who wishes to know more of the status of relations between the Hawaiians and the Russians at the date of the letter should consult the paper by Professor W. D. Alexander, "The Proceedings of the Russians on Kauai, 1814-1816", in Papers of the Hawaiian Historical Society, no. 6. This is based on an article by Rev. Samuel Whitney in the Hawaiian Spectator, I. 49-51 (1839; the writer had got his information in Kauai in 1820), and from Tikhmeniev's Istoricheskoe Obozrenie, etc. (Historical Survey of the Formation and History of the Russian American Company) and Kotzebue. It does not appear that either the company or Baranov, its governor at Sitka, planned an occupation of Kauai, though apparently Baranov's agent, the German doctor Scheffer, so planned, building in 1815 the fort of which some remains are still visible. When King Tomaree, or Kaumualii, at Scheffer's instigation, asked to be taken under Russian protection, the emperor declined, and the same response was given in 1818 to a memorial in which Scheffer advocated the making of a Russian establishment in the islands.

When the letter was written, Kamehameha I., the great king who had made himself overlord of all the Hawaiian Islands, had been dead eight months. It was two months before the first American missionaries arrived, bringing with them from the United States. George P. Kaumualii, the son of Tomaree.

Jean Rives, by whose hand the letter was written, was a low French sailor from Bordeaux, one of the dissipated young king's boon companions, half cook, half secretary.

Peter Dobell, by whose hand the letter was sent, was a native of Ireland. He served for a time in the Irish militia, came to America, is found serving as a private in 1794 in the Bucks County (Penn.) troop of horse under Captain Samuel Gibbs,1 and with it took part in the expedition against the Whiskey Insurrection. According to his own account, he was made deputy quartermastergeneral, with a rank equivalent to colonel of infantry in Russia, resigned, became a member of the Philadelphia corps of gentlemen infantry called "McPherson's Blues", went with them to Pittsburgh, and remained there till 1796. After this service he went abroad. On his return he sailed as supercargo to China. There he acquired a considerable fortune. From Krusenstern and others he heard that there was a scarcity of food in Kamchatka, and he therefore took two ship-loads thither in 1812 for commercial purposes. Thence he went overland to St. Petersburg in order to lay certain propositions before the emperor having to do with the trade of the North Pacific. He got himself appointed consul general to the Philippines, but the Spanish government would not recognize him. At the date of the letter he was on the way to Manila. He returned to St. Petersburg in 1829.

Sa Majete Imperial L'Empereur de Toutes Les Russies

Sire Ayant toujours entandu qu' Votre Majeste Imperiale Est un Souverain tres bon et fort magnanime je suis porté de croire qu'Elle ne permettra jamais ses sujets de faire du mal à personne impunement.

J'Ecris Cette Lettre par La voie de Votre Consul General Monsieur Dobell actuellement ici pour informer Votre Majeste Imperial qu' La Compagnie Americaine Russes se comportée tres inimicale aupres de moi Car Elle á envoyée des Navires et des hommes pour prender une de mes Iles Nommé Wahoo.2 O'uter de cela Elle pretends d'avoir achete L'Ile de Atohwy3 du Roi Tomaree1 et Elle à fait de reclamations pour avoir Cette Ile et paiement aussi pour un des Navires et des effets échouée par les Russes Sur la Cote. Comme le Roi Tomaree est Tributaire de nous il n'avait aucune droit de vender sette Ile. la Reclamation pour des objet vendu et pour un Navires que les Russes eux même ont échouee Sur no Cotes est egalement injuste. Je suis tres alors qu' Votre Majeste ecoutera mes plaintes et qu' Elle ne permettra pas encore ses sujets de venir en Ennemie chez une Nation qu' desire tou pour La paix et 1 Pennsylvania Archives, sixth series, V. 136.

2 Oahu.

3 Ataui, or Kauai.

4 Or Tamoree; more commonly Kaumualii, sub-king of Kauai.

5 Désireux [?] omitted.

Lamitié avec Votre Majeste Imperiale et tout Le Monde. Comptant tres fort Sur la generosité et la grandeur de Votre Ame J' demande qu' nous soyons amis et qu' Votre Majeste Imperiale me donnera Votre aide et Votre protection affermer Mon pouvoir et Le trone Laissée a moi seul par mon Pére Tammahamaha mort depuis L' 8 mai L'Annee 1819.

N' sachant pas Nous même La Langue Francaise jei Commande mon Secretaire un francois Mr. Rives d'Ecrire Cette Lettre daquelle j'prie Votre Majeste Imperiale davoir La bonte de recevoir avec la même confiance comme si elle fut tout ecrit de ma proper main.

Pour Montrer lattachement qu' jai pour Votre nom, est Pour Votre Gloire, j'ai vians de donner à votre Consul General un Canoo fate Par Les natives de mes Iles dont je Prie Votre Majeste Imperiale de vouloir bian accepter Comme une marque du Grand respect et Estime de Votre tres humble

IN going over old fur-trading documents at Hudson's Bay House in London, recently, especially at the period of the Treaty of 1846, a copy of a letter from the Mormons, then newly settled at Salt Lake City, was found. Their wish was to establish trade relations with the company at Fort Vancouver, under arrangement that the goods should be sent overland with the regular trading goods to Fort Hall or to Great Salt Lake, as the officials might determine. The document gives a clear description of the settlement at that time, even to the arrangement of the buildings.

The letter was written a year and a half after the boundary settlement had been made. The Hudson's Bay Company was holding its forts, under agreement, until its possessory rights should be bought by the United States, or otherwise legally disposed of. James Douglas was in charge at Fort Vancouver, the actual governing head, his colleagues on the Board of Management being frequently at other posts.

No arrangement such as the Mormons wished seems to have been made. As Utah was American, and had never been part of the area held under joint-occupancy, the American law forbade such arrangements as to traffic. Additional goods may have been sent to

6 Or Kamehameha.

7 Kailua, the royal residence, on the west coast of Hawaii.

Fort Hall, and sold from there, as part of the company's sales, but the sales reports do not indicate any extensive business with the Mormons.

Great Salt Lake was known to both British and American fur traders. In the years of early struggle for the beaver of the Snake River country, in the 1820's, Peter Skeen Ogden is known to have visited it, and other British trapping parties came near it, in their frequent tours down the Snake River to its source, thence around the Salt Lake region, and back over the mountains southwest to the Bonaventura Valley and the California coast. It was a source of resentment to the Americans that the British came so far inland. The letter explains itself. The spelling, punctuation, and capitalization of the copy have been retained. The original of the letter was not found. KATHARINE B. JUDSON.

GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Great Basin,
North America, Dec. 7, 1847.

To the Board of Management of the Hudson's Bay Company

Gentlemen:

At the request of your agent Captain Grant of Fort Hall, and in accordance with our feelings and views, we take the liberty of writing you this brief letter.

We as a people, commonly called Mormons, began to settle in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, the latter part of last July and have laid out a city in Latitude 40° 45′ 50′′, a plot of which we have furnished Captain Grant.

Our buildings at present for reasons of advantage, are in the quadrangular form common in Western posts, the outside lines 190 rods long by 40 rods wide, with three cross walls at convenient distances; this fort, as we call it, contains not far from 600 houses, built of logs and sun dried bricks, and accommodates comfortably a population of about 3000; we have built this fort since the 2nd of August, most of it since the 1st of October, laboring at the same time with many disadvantages. Our location has so far proved itself delightful as to climate, rich in soil, with timber sufficient and verge and scope of land ample for the exertion of our industry to its utmost stretch.

We have plowed and sowed with winter wheat about 2000 acres and purpose putting in 3000 or more acres in spring crops in the season thereof, the seed for which, together with all the property we have on hand we have brought in wagons from 12 to 15,000 miles.

The plot of our city will be forwarded you by the Captain Grant and will explain itself; at the same time, while building it up we expect to form settlements at different points in the valley, and in neighboring valleys, according to the accommodation of our members, which as near as we can safely calculate will increase from 3000 this winter to 10,000 the coming winter, and in proportion the season after next, if not longer.

Your judgment and experience will readily suggest to you that there will be many articles of trade we shall need and be obliged to buy from some quarter before we can manufacture the same at home, and will be

also obvious to you that from our inland position, it will be difficult to bring goods to us and for the same cause our produce will avail us but little in exchange for your commodities any farther than your establishments in our vicinity might require and the supply of western emigration, still there is and will be more or less money in our midst and probably no inconsiderable share of peltries; we therefore at the request of Captain Grant respectfully solicit your Honorable Board to furnish us as soon as convenient a list of articles of use and necessity in our position, with the prices annexed calculated for this city or Fort Hall according to which place you choose to land them.

To guide you in making out your list for our trade, we take the liberty of specifying a few articles, viz., Sugar, coffee, bleached and unbleached domestics or cotton cloths, cotton drillings, calicos, woolen goods, moleskins, blankets, iron, steel, powder, hollow ware, leather, and such other useful articles as may occur to you that will warrant so lengthy a land carriage.

We would remark that in case you saw fit to send your goods direct to your place, we feel to write to you that we will use influence to have the channel of trade in your favor, to the utmost extent that your prices will warrant when compared with what can be done in other directions. We have already I grist mill in operation and 4 saw mills in rapid progress to completion.

We close by soliciting an answer at as early a date as possible; and subscribe ourselves respectively your friends and well-wishers and desirous of the peace of all men.