430 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



sular agent, for the very prompt and obliging manner in which he 

 furnished all the information in his power upon the subject of our 

 inquiry. 



1 am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



Isaac O. Barnes, Naval officer. 

 To George Bancroft, Esq., 



U. S. Collector, &c, Boston. 



[Sub-inclosure 2.] 



Consular Agent Grantham to Commander Sturgis. 



Consulate or the United States, 



Yarmouth, N. S., June 18, 1839. 



Sir: At your request, I enclose to you an abridged statement of 

 the depositions of the masters and crews of the four American fishing 

 schooners lately seized by the commander of the British government 

 vessel Victory, and now lying detained in this port; together with a 

 succinct account of my proceedings upon the application to me for 

 assistance by the masters of these vessels. 



Upon the 27th day of May last, application was made to me, as 

 the consular agent of the United States at this port, by William 

 Burgess, master of the American fishing schooner "Independence" 

 for advice and assistance, under the following circumstances: On 

 Sunday, the 26th day of May last, while lying at anchor in the Tusket 

 Islands, near the coast of this province, the said schooner was boarded, 

 and, with her cargo and papers, seized and taken possession of by 

 the commander and part of the crew of the British government vessel 

 " Victory " for an alleged infraction, by the crew of the " Inde- 

 pendence.'''' of the treaty between Great Britain and the United States, 

 and the laws of this province for the protection of the British 

 fisheries. The schooner was brought into this port stripped of her 

 sails and part of the rigging, and the master and crew obliged to 

 leave her. Depositions of the master, William Burgess, and of the 

 crew. Benjamin Sylvester, Samuel C. Mills, Ezekiel Burgess, and 

 Samuel Burgess, all of Vinalhaven, in the State of Maine, were 

 taken to the above facts, and also to those which follow. They deposed 

 that the schooner Independence, of the burden of thirty-one tons, or 

 thereabouts, and belonging to Vinalhaven, was fitted out and cleared 

 from that port on a fishing voyage into the Bay of Fundy, on the 

 10th day of April last; and that they continued to fish in the bay 

 (never at any time at a less distance from the coast of Nova Scotia 

 than fifteen miles) until about the last of April of the present year, 

 when being in want of water, and it blowing very heavy, they stood 

 in for the coast, and anchored in the Tusket Islands, where they 

 remained about twenty-four hours. 



At the expiration of that time they again put to sea, and remained 

 upon the fishing-ground until the 25th day of May last, when, the 

 compass having been accidentally broken, and there being no other 

 on board, they again stood in for the coast, intending to make the 

 port of Yarmouth, for the purpose of having the compass repaired, 

 and of procuring a supply of water; but the wind being adverse and 

 very violent, and the weather thick and hazy, they were unable to 



