152 University of California Publications in History

"If we live, Mr. Gallatin, we shall see trouble about it in less than
forty years." Gallatin did live to see the final Oregon settlement.
 In 1816 Astor wrote to Monroe, then secretary of state, asking
permission to send an agent to the Columbia if the long-anticipated
reoccupation of Astoria took place. He even offered to furnish a
ship to carry out the mission, saying:
 I eee the Busiana are doing greathings in that country I have oberved
in a Late London paper the arrival a the Busilan Ship Suwarro [Buworowt]
from the north Pacise with a Cargo of fur Bayd to be worth not Less than
200.000 Stg with which she was proceeding to St. Peterbourgh this Show
something of what the trade is in the north Paeific.
 A year later Astor was instrumental in assembling a dinner
party of a hundred persons to welcome Adams home from Eng-
land." Did he greet the new secretary of state with the same ad-
monitions which he had made to Gallatin There is no record
available. In the same year, however, official recognition was given
to Astor's interest in the region. The President, when the "Ontario"
was sent out, stated his desire that the fur magnate be notified of
the intention finally to reoccupy Astoria."
 The continued attention which the United States gave to the
Northwest, and the prevailing vagueness with respect to claims
therein, are indicated in the negotiations of Richard Rush and
Gallatin with Henry Goulbourn and Frederick John Robinson at
London, which resulted in the Convention of October 20, 1818. By
that agreement England and this country set the boundary at
latitude 490 north, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rockies,
leaving the region west of the mountains, to which both laid claim,
for joint occupation over a period of ten years. It is important
to emphasize here that the limits of the territory reserved for joint
occupation were not defined either on the north or on the south.
 The southern limits of that region, inasmuch as they would be
virtually established by a definition of the United States' claim,
rested on the outcome of the Adams-Ons negotiations. The proposal
which Adams had made for a line along the Forty-first Parallel
would have taken from Spain the region now included in all or
parts of seven northern counties of California, three counties of
Nevada, seven of Utah, and four of Wyoming. Had his plan been
effected, it is probable that quite a different delineation of state
boundaries might appear today.