122 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



I touched also upon the debts due to British subjects, and my 

 apprehensions of loss by confiscations. Mr. Jay replied that he had 

 heard of no such confiscations, but in the province of Maryland; 

 which he seemed not to approve of. However, as I had before been 

 satisfied that they, as Commissioners, could do nothing in the matter, 

 I did not insist further upon it. 



Before we parted, this gentleman came again upon the subject of 

 West Florida, and pled in favour of the future commerce of England, 

 as if he had been of her Council, and wishing to make some repara- 

 tion for her loss. Amongst other things, he repeated, that there is 

 water carriage by rivers or lakes all the way within land from Canada 

 to the mouth of the Mississippi, excepting a few short stoppages of 

 portage; so that, for outward merchandize, we might engross the 

 whole of their supplies, for a stretch of country between two and 

 three thousand miles, and in like manner (chiefly by means of the 

 Mississippi) receive their country commodities in return, and par- 

 ticularly should embrace the whole of the fur trade. In all which 

 I am satisfied he is well founded. 



[178%, October 8: Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the 

 United States and the Netherlands. (Ratified January 22, 

 1783.)} 



74 No. 75. 1788, October 11 : Extract from Mr. Oswald's Minutes 

 of sundry Articles recommended in his Instructions, not 

 included in the Treaty. 

 ******* 



5. Drying fish in Newfoundland, excepted in the Instructions but 

 demanded in the treaty. Quere, if material. Supposed not so. 

 When the privilege of fishing was asked by Dr. F. in August, this 

 was not mentioned particularly, and I did not think it proper to 

 appear so attentive and tenacious of such like indulgences so as to 

 ask any questions about it. And when lately demanded, although I 

 objected, yet did not insist, for the same reason. And now although 

 Mr. Jay seems not positively to say that the privilege is indispensible, 

 yet I own I wish much that it may not be considered in England as a 

 matter of such consequence as to occasion a claim of exception. For 

 to tell the truth, when Dr. Franklin stated the privilege of fishing. I 

 suspected drying was included, though not mentioned. Otherways I 

 should have wondered at his asking our leave for Americans catching 

 fish in the open seas, so near their own coasts, and wrote so in my 

 letters at the time. 



No. 76. 1782, October 13: Letter, Mr. Jay to Governeur 



PARIS, October 13, 1782. 



DEAR MORRIS: I have received your festina lente letter, but wish it 

 had been at least partly in cipher; you need not be informed of my 

 reasons for the wish, as by this time you must know that seals are, on 



