The Oregon Territory, Its History and Discovery

The work traces recorded voyages, discoveries, and colonial activity along the northwestern Pacific coast from early sixteenth‑century navigators through later eighteenth‑century expeditions, assessing primary accounts behind contested claims. It examines disputed discovery narratives and evaluates the evidence for figures such as Drake, Gali, Juan de Fuca, Vancouver, Heceta, Gray, and Broughton, finding some asserted discoveries to lack reliable support. It reconstructs the diplomatic negotiations and treaties between the United States and Great Britain, including the Nootka Sound correspondence and debates over the Columbia River and boundary proposals. It also sets out pertinent principles of international law, the limits of map evidence and derivative title, and surveys Spanish, Russian, and missionary establishments that informed possession claims.