-170 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



occasionally through the season. That on the twenty-second day of 

 the month of September last, this deponent, with the rest of the crew 

 of the said Schooner Egret, were on board of the said vessel, which 

 was then running up Cape Breton Island, when off Sea Wolf Island, 

 and about seven miles from the land, a vessel astern of the said 

 Schooner fired a gun for her to heave to, which the said Schooner did; 

 That (lie vessel which fired the gun as aforesaid, and which was the 

 Government Schooner Victory then sent a boat alongside of the said 

 Schooner Egret, with seven men one of whom ordered three or four 

 men of the said Schooner Egret to get into the boat of the Victory, 

 whereupon the said deponent, as Master of the said Schooner Egret 

 being then on the high seas and pursuing his lawful business, ordered 

 the men not to leave the said Schooner on which they had been legally 

 shipped; that four men then jumped on deck from the said boat, 

 one of whom said that if the Crew of the said Schooner Egret did 

 not get into the boat he would make them when the deponent as 

 Commander of the said vessel Egret ordered them not to leave their 

 vessel; that pistols were then handed up from the boat; that de- 

 ponent then went below to look for some defensive weapon, but 

 finding none in an efficient state to enable him to protect his men, 

 his vessel or himself, he returned to the deck unarmed, when he 

 found that four of the men of the said Schooner Egret were in the 

 said boat alongside, and one man belonging to the said boat stood 

 over the Companion way of the said Schooner Egret, armed with a 

 pistol, and another man armed with a handspike; that the boat pro- 

 ceeded with two of her original crew and four men belonging to the 

 Schooner Egret as aforesaid, on board the Schooner Victory, and 

 four men belonging to the boat of the Victory carried the said 

 Schooner Egret into Port Hood, at which place the said Schooner 

 Victory also arrived during the same night: That on the following 

 morning the twenty-third day of September, in the boat from the 

 Victory came on board of the said Schooner Egret, Mr. Marshall 

 (who was the person that ordered the men into the boat as afore- 

 said) and then demanded from this deponent his ship's papers, who 

 in reply inquired for his authority for making this demand, to which 

 Mr. Marshall in answer said " I will shew you my authority by 

 pitching you into the boat; " that deponent then replied that if Mr. 

 Marshall were a Government officer and the Vessel a Revenue Cutter 

 he would shew him the license of the Schooner Egret, which the 

 other declined accepting; the said Schooner was then taken to the 

 Gut of Canso, where Mr. Marshall discharged her Crew, and placing 

 deponent on board of said Schooner Victory, he proceeded with both 

 Vessels to the Port of Guysborough, where Mr. Marshall took the 

 ship's papers of the said Schooner Egret out of the cabin of that 

 vessel, and then took possession of the vessel herself; And the said 

 Samuel L. Fears on oath further declared and saith that at the time 

 when he was fired at and brought to, he was under sail as aforesaid, 

 and had been so for some time previous, and that neither himself 

 nor any person on board the said Schooner Egret had been fishing 

 since the preceding day when they took only one fish about twelve 

 miles off the land, and then no round fish on board; That the Officer 

 of the said Schooner Victory did not make himself known to this 

 deponent, as a seizing or authorized officer when he boarded the said 

 Schooner Egret, and that she was boarded after being brought to on 



