826 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



[Inclosure.] 



Affidavit of Captain Cunningham, of the schooner Rattler. 



I, Augustus F. Cunningham, master of the schooner Rattler, of 

 Gloucester, being duly sworn, do depose and say: That on Thursday, 

 July 8, 1886, we sailed from Gloucester on a mackerel cruise. On 

 Tuesday August 3d (having secured a fare of mackerel and while on 

 our passage home) , at 7 p. m., the wind blowing hard, the sea being 

 rough, and our vessel being deeply loaded, with two large seine- 

 boats on deck, we put into the harbor of Shelburne, N. S., for shelter. 

 Just inside of the harbor we were brought to by a gun fired from the 

 Canadian cruiser Terror, Captain Quigley, and came to anchor. 



Immediately a boat from the Terror came alongside and its com- 

 mander, Lieutenant Bennett, asked why we were in the harbor. My 

 reply was, " For shelter." Then taking the name of our vessel, names 

 of owner and captain, where from, where bound, and how many fish 

 we had, and forbidding any of the crew to go on shore, he returned 

 to the Terror for further instructions. 



Boarding us again, after a lapse of perhaps forty-five minutes, he 

 put two armed men on board of us, asked for our crew-list, and said 

 if I remained until morning I must enter at the custom-house, but if 

 I could sail in the night to tell his men to fire a revolver and a boat 

 would be sent to take them off. At 12 o'clock that night, preferring 

 to risk the dangers of the sea to the danger of seizure, I ordered the 

 anchor hove short, the mainsail hoisted preparatory to sailing, and 

 told one of the Terrors men to fire a revolver, which he did. 



Receiving no reply, and seeing no signs of life on board the Terror, 

 I ordered the revolver to be fired again. This brought a boat from 

 the Terror, commanded by First Lieutenant Bennett, who boarded 

 my schooner, gave each of the two men on board an extra revolver, 

 and told me the orders of Captain Quigley were, that I should not 

 leave the port until I had reported to the customs officer at Shel- 

 burne. Upon receipt of these orders I payed out the chain and low- 

 ered the mainsail. The boat went back to the Terror and immedi- 

 ately returned with Captain Quigley on board. 



He denied the permission given me by his first officer to sail in the 

 night and ordered me to go to Shelburne and enter and clear at the 

 custom-house there. 



I asked him how I should go, as we were 8 miles distant from the 

 custom-house. His reply was, " I don't care, sir, how you go ; but 

 you must go there ; and on your return show your clearance to me or 

 suffer the consequences." He told me my vessel was in charge of his 

 two men, and to them he gave these orders : 



" Gunner, you will allow the captain to proceed to Shelburne with 

 the vessel, come to anchor, take his dory and two men, no more, and 

 go on shore to enter. Allow them to bring nothing off in their dory ; 

 and if a man puts his hand oa the wheel to go to sea, chop his arm off 

 or shoot him, as the case may require." 



I asked him if the law was not very strict that did not allow a ves- 

 sel arriving at night after office hours to proceed before daylight, and 

 why the law was enforced. He replied, it was to prove that Cana- 

 dian harbors were a benefit to American fishermen. 



