Hornby's restraint in the San Juan Islands Pig War

The Oregon Treaty's reference to a middle channel left San Juan Island disputed because two channels fit the wording. In 1859, American settler Lyman Cutler shot a pig belonging to Charles Griffin, a Hudson's Bay Company employee, after it repeatedly rooted in his potatoes. Their disagreement over compensation escalated into British threats to arrest Cutler and American calls for military protection. American troops then occupied a difficult position beneath British naval guns while five Royal Navy ships carried far greater firepower and manpower. Although the British held a decisive advantage, Hornby refused Governor James Douglas's demand to dislodge the Americans without higher naval authority. He kept the American position supplied even though he could have cut off its water, preserving leverage without manufacturing a pretext for combat.