in 1871 the damage done by the alabama, a british-built ship, and several other cruisers sent out partly to facilitate the cotton trade and partly to do a little fighting when a federal vessel came that way, was assessed at fifteen million five hundred thousand dollars against great britain by the arbitrators who met at geneva, switzerland, and the northwestern boundary line between the united states and british america was settled by arbitration, the emperor of germany acting as arbitrator and deciding in favor of america.