320 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



On coming to anchor here, I waited on the collector and authorities of the 

 port; and their statements tend to confirm my previous reports, that, so far 

 from any dissatisfaction being felt at our fishermen, they are welcome on 

 the coast, and nothing has yet transpired to alter my previously expressed 

 opinion. 



Very respectfully, I remain, your obedient servant, 



J. M. WATSON, 



Lieutenant Commanding, United States Navy. 

 Com. WILLIAM B. SHUBRICK, 



Commanding Eastern Squadron. 



Now, these are American official documents, which certify as to the treatment 

 that the American fishermen had received at the hands of the cruizers up to 

 that time. In order to show further what this treatment was I will mention 

 the case of the Charles, which was seized by Captain Arabin, of the Argus, at 

 Shelburne, on the 9th of May, 1823. Although this happened a long time ago, 

 I sighted to show how the British Government treated these matters then and 

 ever afterward. The Charles was actually seized in the very act of fishing; 

 and there could be no doubt about the right to condemn her. But the mid- 

 shipman who was put in charge of her, while in the course of his passage from 

 Shelburne to St. John, according to the instructions of Captain Arabin, stopped 

 some other vessels which were fishing, and, I think, brought one or two of them 

 into St. John. The Charles was then put in the admiralty court and con- 

 demned; but when the British Government learned what had been done, 

 inasmuch as Captain Arabin had exceeded his instructions by using the vessel 

 as a cruizer while en route from Shelburne to St. John, before her condemnation, 

 not only gave her up, but also paid the costs of the prosecution, and the other 

 two vessels which had been so taken whether they were liable to condemna- 

 tion or not I do not know were also given up. This was the treatment which 

 American fishermen received at the hands of the British Government. 



Again, at Grand Manan, two vessels were taken by cruizers in 1851 or 1852 

 I think they were called the Reindeer and Ruby or before that, because the 

 account of this affair is found in the Sessional Papers of 1851 and 1852. They 

 were actually taken in one of the inner harbors of Grand Manan ; a prize crew 

 was put on board, and they were sent to St. Andrews; but on their way up, as 

 these two schooners passed Eastport, as they necessarily had to do, an armed 

 force came out from Eastport, headed by a captain of Militia, overpowered the 



crew, and took possession of them. Correspondence ensued on this sub- 

 193 ject to which I call your attention between the British Ambassador 



and the American Secretary of State, in which it was pointed out by the 

 former that this outrage had been committed on the British flag; but through 

 the whole of this correspondence I cannot find any apology was ever made, or 

 that the British Ambassador's remonstrances on that subject were ever 

 answered. 



No. 14. 1886, May 11: Letter, Lord Lansdowne, Governor-General 

 of Canada, to Earl Granville. 



GOVERNMENT HOUSE, Ottawa, May 11, 1886. 



MY LORD, I had the honour to send your Lordship yesterday a tele- 

 gram giving particulars of the detention on the 7th instant, at Digby, 

 Nova Scotia, of the United States' schooner " David J. Adams " for 

 breach of the Customs and Fishery Laws. 



2. Your Lordship will observe that the case was one in which there 

 was no doubt that the vessel had knowingly entered a Canadian port 

 for an alleged purpose, her captain having endeavoured to conceal 

 her name and port of registry. The evidence on this point, and also 

 the proof that she had bought bait in large quantities, was, I under- 

 stand, ample. 



