958 COBRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



would not wait for a reply to telegram, but take a clearance, which 

 the collector gave me. I was treated kindly, allowed to enter my 

 vessel after customs hours, and a clearance granted me next morning 

 before the office was supposed to be opened. I was at the port again 

 in November, on my way to the banks, and the collector allowed me 

 to report my vessel inwards and outwards and gave me a clearance 

 at 8 in the evening. 



The statements purporting to have been made by me to the effect 

 that the collector refused to give me my papers when I asked for 

 them, also that this treatment towards me was harsh and cruel, 

 driving myself and crew to sea, having but little flour and water, 

 etc., are all untrue. 



And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the 

 same to be true, and by virtue of an act of Parliament entitled "An 

 act for the suppression of voluntary and extra judicial oaths." 



MEDEO ROSE. 



Taken and declared before me, at Sandy Point, this 20th day of 

 April, A. D. 1887. 



JOHN PTJRNEY, 



Justice of the Peace. 



Mr. Bayard to Sir L. S. SacJcville West. 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 

 Washington, October 31, 1887. 



SIR : On the 19th of July last I had the honor to receive from you 

 a letter, dated the day previous, inclosing a printed copy of a declara- 

 tion made by Medeo Rose, formerly master of the schooner Laura 

 Sayward, of Gloucester, Mass., in which he controverts certain state- 

 ments theretofore made by him under oath, in relation to his treat- 

 ment by Mr. Atwood, collector of customs at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 

 on the 13th of October. 



Upon receiving your letter I at once communicated its contents to 

 the collector of the port of Gloucester, Mass., through whom the 

 original complaint had been forwarded to this Department. 



To-day, for the first time, I was informed that on the 5th of August 

 last a reply and sworn statement, by way of explanation of this 

 variance between his affidavit of October 13, 1886, and his subsequent 

 declaration at Sandy Point, Nova Scotia, dated April 20, 1887, had 

 been in my absence received at this Department, and by inadvertence 

 not laid before me until to-day. 



I therefore now inclose a copy of the affidavits of Captain Rose 

 and Augustus Rogers, made at Gloucester, Mass., on August 3 last, 

 before a notary public, by which it appears that his declaration of 

 April 20, 1887, was not voluntary, but was obtained from him by the 

 collector, Atwood through fear and intimidation, under circumstances 

 fully stated. 



I should transmit the documents without further comment, but 

 that, in closing your note to me of July 18 last, you stated that you 

 were further instructed to ask whether the United States Govern- 

 ment have any observations to make thereupon." 



