494 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



[Sub-lnclosure 8.] 



Mr. Dodd to the Provincial Secretary. 



Sydney, Cape Breton, 



December 23, 18)^. 



Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter 

 of the 13th instant with an extract of a despatch received by his 

 Excellency, the lieutenant-governor from her Majesty's principal 

 Secretary of State for the colonies, having reference to a charge 

 against me as late commander of the revenue schooner Sylph, for 

 harsh treatment to the master and crew of the American fishing 

 vessel Argus seized by me, and requesting a full explanation of my 

 proceedings on the occasion in question. In reply I have to state, 

 for the information of his Excellency, the lieutenant-governor, that 

 when in command of the "Sylph" on the Gth of August last, then 

 cruizing round the coast of Cape Breton, I discovered the Argus 

 some miles off Saint Anne's with her crew actually employed fishing; 

 and although more than three miles from any land, still much within 

 the bay that is formed by a straight line drawn from Cape North 

 to the northern head of Cow bay, and consequently I felt it my duty 

 to take her into Sydney, being the nearest port to me at the time, at 

 which an officer of her Majesty's customs was stationed. In cor- 

 roboration of this part of my statement, I beg respectfully to refer 

 to the affidavits made by two disinterested persons on board the 

 " Sylph " at the time of seizure, at present in the office of the attorney- 

 general at Halifax, and which I would now have renewed for the 

 purpose of accompanying this communication, but the persons mak- 

 ing them are out of the island of Cape Breton, and consequently out 

 of my reach. The fact of the owners of the Argus allowing her to 

 be condemned in the admiralty court of Halifax, without a defence 

 of any kind whatever, must, to most minds, carry a conviction that 

 the vessel when seized was not within the limits in which subjects of 

 the United States are permitted to fish on the coasts of this province. 

 Had it been otherwise, as stated in the affidavit of Doughty, that 

 the vessel was three miles outside the line before referred to, — how 

 is it that a defence was not made to the action, and the important 

 fact at least attempted to be proved, which if successful, would have 

 liberated the vessel and cargo, and made me liable to an action for 

 damages? But all on board the Argus were too well satisfied of 

 their liability, and of their having violated the treaty which excludes 

 them from our shores, to have risked the test of an examination, as 

 witnesses in the case, and therefore they abandoned a defence as 

 hopeless. The vessel, as I have already stated, was brought into the 

 harbor of Sydney, which was on the seventh, in the morning, when 

 I gave her in charge, agreeably to my instructions, to the collector of 

 customs at the port, whose letter to me of this day's date, herewith 

 enclosed, I beg to refer to for a more detailed account and perfect 

 confutation of the charge of harsh treatment by me towards the 

 master and crew of the Argus." 



The "Argus" on coming into the harbor of Sydney, was accom- 

 panied by another American fishing vessel, both in the employ of the 

 same owners, foi the purpose of giving assistant to the crew of the 

 "Argus." They had also the advice and assistance of the American 



