PERIOD FEOM 1871 TO 1905. 873 



United States in favor of negotiating, before the commencement of 

 the next fi.-;hing season, an arrangement based on mutual concessions, 

 and which would therefore (to use the language of your note) "con- 

 sist with the dignity, the interests, and the friendly relations of the 

 two countries." 



Her Majesty's Government can not conceive that negotiations 

 commenced with such an object and in such a spirit could fail to be 

 successful; and they trust, therefore, that your Government will 

 endeavor to obtain from Congress, which is about to assemble, the 

 necessary powers to enable them to make to Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment some definite proposals for the negotiation of a mutually advan- 

 tageous arrangement. 



I have, etc., IDDESLEIGH. 



Mr. Bayard to Sir L. West. 



DEPARTMENT or STATE, 

 Washington, December 1, 1886. 



SIR : As possessing additional and very disagreeable bearing upon 

 the general subject of the harsh treatment of American fishing vessels 

 during the late season by the local authorities of the maritime prov- 

 inces of Her Majesty's Dominion of Canada, I have the honor to send 

 you herewith a copy of a letter addressed to me, under date of the 

 12th ultimo, by Capt. Solomon Jacobs, master of the American fishing 

 schooner Molly Adams, of Gloucester, Mass. You will share, I doubt 

 not, the regret I feel at such churlish and inhospitable treatment of a 

 vessel which had freely, and with great loss and inconvenience, ren- 

 dered such essential service to the suffering and imperiled crew of a 

 Nova Scotian vessel. But for his generous act Captain Jacobs would 

 have had no occasion to put into Malpeque, or, subsequently, when 

 short of provisions, into Port Medway. As his narrative shows, the 

 local authorities at Malpeque treated him with coldness and rudeness, 

 making no provision to receive the Nova Scotian crew he had saved 

 from such imminent danger, even causing him to incur a pecuniary 

 burden in completion of his humane rescue, and even treating the 

 landing of the property so saved from the wreck of the Nova Scotian 

 vessel, on her own shores, as not lawful for an American fishing ves- 

 sel " within the three-mile limit." 



The treatment of Captain Jacobs at Port Medway is a fitting sequel 

 to that received by him at Malpeque. Having undergone fourteen 

 days detention in the latter port, and having shared his purse and 

 slender stock of provisions with the men he had rescued, he put to 

 sea, when, his supplies falling short by reason of his charitable action, 

 he asked leave to purchase at Port Medway " half a barrel of flour, or 

 enough provisions to take his vessel and crew home." With full 

 knowledge of the cause of Captain Jacobs's dearth of provisions, even 

 this the collector at Port Medway absolutely refused, and threatened 

 Captain Jacobs with the seizure of his vessel " if he bought anything 

 whatever." The urgent need of supplies in which Captain Jacobs 

 stood, is shown by the fact that although the run with favorable 

 weather from Port Medway to his home port, Gloucester, Mass., only 

 occupied three days, his crew were on half rations for two days, and 

 without food for one day of that time. It is painful to conjecture 



