NEGOTIATIONS AT WASHINGTON IN ISie-l":. 37 



examination of the correspondence exchanged at that time will show 

 that three proposals in all were made during this negotiation, and 

 that they all came from the British Minister and were all promptly 

 declined by the United States. 



Mr. Bagot in his note of November 27, 1816, to the Secretary of 

 State, reviews the course of the negotiations up to that time, and with 

 respect to his first proposal he says : 



It being the object of the American Government, that, in addition 

 to the right of fishery, as declared b}' the first branch of the fourth 

 article <" of the treaty of 1783 permanent^ to belong to the citizens 

 of the United States, they should also enjoy the privilege of having 

 an adequate accommodation, both in point of harbors and drying 

 grounds, on the unsettled coasts within the British sovereignty, I 

 had the honor to propose to you that that part of the southern coast 

 of Labrador which extends from Mount Joli, opposite the eastern 

 end of the island of Anticosti, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to the 

 bay and isles of Esquimaux, near the western entrance of the straits 

 of Belleisle, should be allotted for this purpose, it being distinctly 

 agreed that the fishermen should confine themselves to the unsettled 

 parts of the coast, and that all pretensions to fish or dry within the 

 maritime limits, or on any other of the coasts of British North 

 America, should be abandoned.'' 



Mr. Bagot then goes on to say in the same note that this proposal 

 was declined by the United States and he sets forth his second pro- 

 posal as follows: 



Upon learning from you, some weeks afterwards, that, from the 

 information which you had received upon the subject of this coast, 

 you were apprehensive that it would not afford, in a sufficient degree, 

 the advantages required, I did not delay to acquaint you that I was 

 authorized to offer another portion of coast, which it was certainly 

 not so convenient to the British Government to assign, but which 

 they would nevertheless be willing to assign, and which, from its 

 natural and local advantage^, could not fail to afford every accommo- 

 dation of which the American Fishermen could stand in need. I had 

 then the honor to propose to you as an alternative that, under similar 

 conditions, they should be admitted to that portion of the southern 

 coast of Newfoundland which extends from Cape Ray eastward to the 

 Ramea islands, or to about the longitude of 57° west of Greenwich. 



The advantages of this portion of coast are accurately known to the 

 British Government ; and, in consenting to assign it to the uses of the 

 American fishermen, it was certainlj^ conceived that an accommoda- 

 tion was afforded as ample as it was possible to concede, without 

 abandoning that control within the entire of His Majesty's own 

 harbors and coasts which the essential interests of His Majesty's 

 dominions required. That it should entirely satisfy the wishes of 



"This should be the third article, which is the fisheries article. 

 ^Appendix, p. 290. 



