2252 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



merit, or rather the no-Government of this country, for it can scarcely 

 be said that a Government exists here during the summer months. 



Immediately after I received your Lordship's instructions I re- 

 quested an interview with Mr. Monroe, at which, after a long con- 

 versation upon the subject, I brought forward the first proposition 

 contained in Lord Melville's letter to your Lordship, which allots to 

 the use of the United States such part of the southern coast of Labra- 

 dor as lies between Mount Joli and the Esquimaux Islands. Mr. 

 Monroe told me that if he could procure in Washington any circum- 

 stantial information respecting the proposed coast, he should be able 

 to proceed immediately in the business; but on the following day I 

 received a note from him stating that he had been under the neces- 

 sity of writing to the Secretary of the Navy, then at Salem, beyond 

 Boston, for the information which he required. 



After repeated interviews with Mr. Monroe, he told me that he 

 imagined that the Secretary of the Navy had sent to have the coast 

 in question examined, and Mr. Monroe himself then went into the 

 country, from whence he only returned yesterday. I immediately 

 waited upon him, when he told me that the tract of coast which I had 

 proposed had several settlements upon it ; and, though convenient in 

 point of position, it appeared to the persons who had examined it 

 to want many of the requisite advantages. He then expressed his 

 wish that an allotment should be given up on the eastern coast of 

 Labrador, above the Straits of Belleisle. I told him that I could 

 save much useless discussion upon that point by assuring him that 

 there were insuperable objections to granting any part of that coast; 

 but that, if the one proposed was really unsuitable, I would not dis- 

 guise from him that I was authorised to offer part of another coast, 

 which unquestionably afforded every convenience which the United 

 States could require. I accordingly offered the second proposition, 

 which gives the unsettled part of the southern coast of Newfoundland, 

 from Cape Ray to the Ramen Islands. 



This is the state of the business at this moment, and I expect that, 

 in a few days, we shall come to some final agreement upon the sub- 

 ject; but I have already detained the packet so long, in waiting for 

 Mr. Monroe's return to Washington, that I do not think it right to 

 delay it any longer. 



From the manner in which Mr. Monroe received the second proposi- 

 tion, I entertain hopes that it will be accepted, and that I shall be 

 able to annex to the acception an express abandonment of all pre- 

 tensions to fish or dry on any other of the coasts of British North 

 America at all events, that I shall not be under the necessity of 

 yielding the two propositions, which your Lordship may be assured 

 that I snail not do, excepting in the very last resort. 



By a letter which I have received from Admiral Griffith, I learnt 

 that he had already given orders for the seizure of all American 

 vessels found fishing within our limits; but I wrote to him on the 

 6th of last month (the day after I had first seen Mr. Monroe upon 

 this business), requesting that he would abstain as much as possible 

 from taking any steps which might, at the present moment, em- 

 barrass the negotiation, which I confidentially acquainted him was 

 then on foot. 



I have, &c. CHARLES BAGOT. 



