471 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



Portsmouth, Now Hampshire, at which place we arrived on the 15th 

 instant. 1 further depose and say, that at no time while I was on 

 board said schooner did we or any of us take or attempt to take fish 

 within ten miles of the coast of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or of 

 the islands belonging to either of those provinces; that the place where 

 said schooner was taken possession of, as aforesaid, was opposite to 

 a place on the coasts of Nova Scotia called Gulliver's-hole, and is dis- 

 tant from Annapolis-gut about fifteen miles, the said Gulliver's-hole 

 being to the south-westward of said Annapolis gut. 



William Bragg. 



United States of America, State ofJMassaciiusetts, 1 



County of Suffolk and City of Boston, I ss ' 



On this 17th day of May, A. D., 1843, before me, John P. Bigelow, 

 a notary public, duly constituted and sworn within and for said 

 county and city, came the above William Bragg, and made oath that 

 the statements by him above signed are true. 



Witness my hand and notarial seal. 



[l. s.J John P. Bigelow, 



Notary Public. 



Mr. Everett to Lord Aberdeen. 



46 Grosvenor Place, August 10, 181$. 



The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipoten- 

 tiary of the United States of America, has the honer to transmit to 

 the earl of Aberdeen, her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for 

 foreign affairs, the accompanying papers relating to the seizure on 

 the 10th of May last, on the coast of Nova Scotia, by an officer of the 

 provincial customs, of the American fishing schooner Washington, of 

 Newburvport, in the State of Massachusetts, for an alleged infraction 

 of the stipulations of the convention of the 20th of October, 1818, 

 between the United States and Great Britain. 



It appears from the deposition of William Bragg, a seaman on 

 board the Washington, that at the time of her seizure she was not 

 within ten miles of the coast of Nova Scotia. By the first article of 

 the convention above alluded to, the United States renounce any 

 liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by their inhabitants to take, 

 dry, or cure fish on or within three marine miles of any of the coasts 

 of her Majesty's dominions in America, for which express provision 

 is not made in the said article. This renunciation is the only limita- 

 tion existing on the right of fishing upon the coasts of her Majesty's 

 dominions in America, secured to the people of the United States by 

 the third article of the treaty of 1783. 



The right, therefore, of fishing on any part of the coast of Nova 

 Scotia, at a greater distance than three miles, is so plain that it would 

 be difficult to conceive on what ground it could be drawn in question, 

 had not attempts been already made by the provincial authorities of 

 her Majesty's colonies, to interfere with its exercise. These attempts 

 have formed the subject of repeated complaints on the part of the 



