530 COKRKSrONDENCE, ETC. 



of the unsettled bays, harbors and creeks of the southern part of the 

 coa£( of Neu -foundland above described, of the Magdalen Islands, 

 and of Labrador as here above described; but so soon as the same, or 

 cither of them, shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said 

 fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settlement, without previous 

 agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors or 

 possessors of the ground; and the United States hereby renounce any 

 liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by the inhabitants thereof, to 

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

 coasts, bays, creeks and harbors of his Britannic Majesty's dominions 

 in America, not included within the above mentioned limits." 



It seems to the undersigned that these words according to their 

 natural import, and without any aid to their construction by the 

 Proviso which follows, are confined to fishing within the three miles, 

 and to drying fish on the land. The term " taking fish " certainly 

 does occur in the clause; but is immediately limited by reference to 

 the three miles, and to the process of curing & drying on the land. 

 And the word " bay " in the clause quoted also occurs, but it occurs 

 likewise in the proviso, and we may look to the sense which it bears 

 in the proviso, as explanatory of its meaning in the Article. 



In the Proviso the word occurs in this connection, to wit — 



" That the American Fishermen shall be admitted to enter such 

 bays and harbors for the purpose of shelter & of repairing damage 

 therein, of purchasing wood, & of obtaining water, and for no other 

 purpose whatever." 



The signification of the word bay therefore, is known by its con- 

 comitants. It is a bay where' shelter is to be had, where damages 

 may be repaired, & where wood and water may be obtained. 



It is a bay used synonymously with a harbor, which may be re- 

 sorted to for the same purposes. It is hardly less than absurd to say, 

 as it appears to the undersigned, that the meaning was that a United 

 States fishing vessel might put into the Bay of Fundy for shelter, or 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence for repairs, or the Bay of Chaleurs for 

 wood and water. 



Most clear is it then, that the term bay, used in the proviso, means 

 landlocked recesses, places inaccessible to winds, in short natural 

 harbors. 



What ground is there for giving to the term bay, in the prin- 

 cipal clause, any broader extent, especially as giving it that 

 broader extent, and understanding it in the sense in which the 

 provincial authorities appear to understand it, would be to sup- 

 pose that the American Commissioners had given up all the old 

 ground upon which the United States had stood, and which they had 

 maintained from the first, and to violate their own instructions, 

 purposes which there is no proof of whatever kind, that they 

 even contemplated. But there is another consideration still more 

 stringent in the construction of this word bay, for the proviso says, 

 That American fishermen may enter into " such bays and har- 

 bors for the purpose of shelter and of repairing damage therein, of 

 purchasing wood and obtaining water," — thus making the term bay 

 in the proviso synonymous with the principal article of renunciation, 

 and this shows conclusively that the bay in which American vessels 

 might find shelter, repair damages, and obtain wood and water, was 

 the very bay, and none other, than such as they were excluded from. 



