716 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



the immediate vicinity of where the local shore boats were fishing for 

 squid, but in a short time they returned and reported to me that they 

 were not allowed to fish by the men on board the shore boats, and not 

 wishing any trouble they returned on board. I then manned my lines 

 on the vessel and commenced to catch squid; the men in the shore 

 boats seeing us fishing came off to us to the number of sixteen boats, 

 with some thirty men. These men demanded that I should stop fish- 

 ing or leave, or else buy squid from them. They were very violent 

 in their threats, and to avoid trouble I bought my squid, paying them 

 one hundred and fifty dollars for the squid, which I could easily have 

 taken if I had not been interfered with. 



Wherever I have been in Newfoundland I find the same spirit ex- 

 ists, and that it is impossible for any American vessel to avail herself 

 of the privileges conferred by the Treaty of Washington; that the 

 fishing articles of that treaty are entirely useless and valueless, and 

 in no sense does the American fisherman receive any benefit from the 

 treaty. 



JOHN DAGO, Master. 

 MASSACHUSETTS, Essex, ss: 



GLOUCESTER, November 18, 1880. 



Personally appeared the above John Dago and made oath to the 

 truth of the above affidavit. 



AARON PARSONS, Notary Public. 



[Inclosure No. 2.J 



Depositions of Joseph Bowie, master, and Charles Cr. Ferguson, one 



of the crew. 



November 18, 1880. 

 (Received February 2, 1881.) 



I, Joseph Bowie, master of the American schooner Victor, of 

 Gloucester, Mass.. do, on oath, depose and say that I sailed from 

 Gloucester on or about the 7th of June, 1880, for a trip to the Grand 

 Banks for codfish. I went into Musquito. Newfoundland, three times 

 for bait, and bought capelin from the local fishermen, which they had 

 taken in seines of their own. I paid for bait (and ice to preserve it) 

 sixty-six dollars for the three baitings. The next time I went to a 

 place called Devil's Cove on the chart, but it is called Job's Cove by 

 the people; this was on the 4th of August, and the only bait to be 

 obtained was squid. I anchored in the cove about of a mile from 

 the shore, and commenced to catch squid with the common hooks or 

 jigs used for that purpose. I had no nets or seines on my vessel. I 

 had been fishing about fifteen minutes when some sixty boats that 

 had been fishing in-shore from us, manned by at least one hundred and 

 fifty men, rowed up alongside of us and forbade our taking any 

 squid. I was not interfering in any way with their fishing, they 

 being a long distance inside of us; in fact, we were outside of the 

 cove, in open water. I had intended to buy my squid, but finding 

 them plenty I found I could catch them and save the expense of buy- 

 ing. I was acting in perfect accordance with my treaty rights and 

 knew what my rights were. 



