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 intersection, due west, along and with the said parallel, shall be the line of demarcation between the territories of the United States and those of His Britannic 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.
Art. 3. It is agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the northwest coast of America, westward of the Stony mountains, shall, together with its harbours, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open, for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two Powers: it being well understood that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of the said country, nor shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other Power or State to any part of the said country; the only object of the high contracting parties, in that respect, being to prevent disputes and differences amongst themselves. . . .
ZACHARY MACAULAY TO LORD CASTLEREAGH, 8 May 18171
[The Pavement, Clapham Common.]
. . . The British settlements in Africa form at present a very loose and disjointed whole, subjected to great diversity of management and pursuing ends which widely differ from each other. Goree is a military government immediately under the directions of His Majesty, Sierra Leone is at present governed by the Sierra Leone Company by the authority of a charter of justice obtained from the King. Bance Island, a fortified settlement in the same river, is the property of Messrs. John and Alexander Anderson of London who hold it by virtue of an Act of Parliament, and who have hitherto used it as a slave factory.
____________________C.O. 267/24, miscellaneous section. Enclosed in Macaulay to Edward Cooke, 16 September 1808. Z. Macaulay had written to Ludlam, Governor of Sierra Leone, on 4 November 1807 that he had no doubt that the Government would be disposed to adopt 'any plan which we may propose to them with respect to Africa, provided we will but save them the trouble of thinking' (C.O. 267/24). Admiralty instructions following this letter certainly show that Macaulay was not overconfident.
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