PERTAINING TO SITUATION IN 1852-1853. 181 



apparently for concealment, which appeared to have been thrown 

 in in a very hurried manner. And this appearer further saith that 

 the said vessel was then about two miles from the coast or shore of 

 Lower Canada, having sailed at least a mile directly from the suid 

 coast from the time when this appearer first saw her. That this 

 appearer, seeing such strong evidence that the said vessel had been 

 fishing within three miles of the coast, hailed the. said steam-sloop 

 and desired Lieutenant Samuel George Rathbone to come on board 

 the said vessel with eight men to take charge of her, which was 

 accordingly done, and this appearer then returned to the Devastation. 

 That this appearer then sent a boat from the said steam-sloop to 

 a boat which was near to her, and in which was one Mr. Frederick 

 Bond, of Quebec, merchant, who was passing down along the coast 

 in his boat, and requested Mr. Bond to repair on 'board the Devasta- 

 tion. That Mr. Bond accordingly came on board of the said steam- 

 sloop and informed this appearer that he was close into the Grand 

 Valley, in his boat, when the Devastation hove in sight. That he 

 saw a number of American vessels fishing there within a mile from 

 the shore, and among them the said vessel called the " Starlight," 

 which he saw actually engaged in fishing at the time, and that she 

 was much closer in to the shore than any of the other vessels, and that 

 when the Devastation hove in sight she made sail with the rest of 

 the vessels and stood off the land. That this appearer having thus 

 clearly ascertained that the master and crew of the said vessel had 

 been palpably guilty of a flagrant violation of the treaty or conven- 

 tion made between his late Majesty King George the Third and 

 the United States of America, signed at London on the twentieth 

 day of October, A. D. 1818, ordered Lieutenant Rathbone, who, 

 shortly before, he had placed temporarily in charge of the said 

 vessel, with a midshipman and ten men, to take final charge of, and 

 proceed with her to Charlottetown, in the said island, so that the 

 said vessel might be handed over to the authorities of the said island 

 for condemnation. That the enrollment or register of the said vessel 

 hereunto annexed, marked A, and the codfishing license, marked B, 

 also hereunto annexed, were both handed to this appearer by thei 

 said master of the said vessel called the " Starlight." That neither 

 the name of the said vessel nor the place to which she belonged were 

 painted on her stern, it appearing as if they had been recently erased. 



[Inclosure.] 



Master of the " Starlight " to Captain Campbell, British Navy. 



CHARLOTTETOWN, August 16, 1853. 



SIR : As you have, in command of her Majesty's ship Devastation, 

 seized the vessel called the " Starlight," of Gloucester, United States 

 of America, for breach of the convention of 1818 between Great 

 Britain and the United States of America, and have expressed a 

 willingness to discharge her on my acknowledging that I had, in 

 her, broken the said treaty by fishing within three miles of the coast 

 of Canada, and undertaking not to do so again hereafter, I there- 

 fore hereby admit the breach of the said treaty in manner as before 



