FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



117 



Company, and that the American fishermen shall also have 

 liberty for ever to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled 

 bays, harbours, and creeks of the southern part of the coast 

 of Newfoundland, hereabove described, and of the coasts of 

 Labrador. ' ' 



AMERICAN INVASION OF CANADIAN FISHING 

 RIGHTS. 



The Convention of 1818 had scarcely been signed when 

 bitter complaints were made of the infringement of the Treaty 

 of 1818 by American fishermen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



Robert Christie, Esq., M.P. for Gaspe and author of a 

 well known history of Canada, testified as follows before a 

 Special Committee of the Legislature in 1823 : 



' * I have knowledge that the British establishments in that 

 district complain loudly of the decay of the fisheries in that 

 quarter, which they attribute to the advantages granted to 

 the Americans by the Lake Treaty of 1818, and who they 

 assert are in the daily habit of infringing upon it, by exceed- 

 ing the limits assigned them, to the ruin of the British 'sta- 

 tionery fisheries. A letter written by a gentleman, concerned 

 in the house of Messrs. C. Robin & Co. (who carry on the 

 fisheries in the Bay of Chaleurs and at Perce on a great scale), 

 addressed to Captain Bourchier, of His Majesty's Ship 

 Athol, in September last, with a view of drawing the atten- 

 tion of His Majesty's Government to the subject through 

 that gentleman, has been put into my hands, by a friend to 

 that concern. I now lay it before the Committee, as a docu- 

 ment which may throw more light on the subject than any 

 information of my own can afford to the Committee." 



"To Henry Bourchier, Esq., Commander of H.M. Ship 

 Athol, at anchor in Paspebiac Roads. 



"Sir, It is with pleasure we comply with your request 

 of yesterday to commit to writing what we had to say respect- 

 ing the state of the Cod Fishery, and the American Fishing 

 Craft. 



