MISCELLANEOUS. 1293 



The Independence, on her way from the fishing ground to a colonial 

 port to get a compass repaired, and to procure water, encountered a 

 gale which required her to put into an intermediate harbor, where she 

 lent her nets, for a single night, to a British fisherman, and was seized 

 and confiscated. 



The master of the Shetland, importuned by a lad, sold him a pair 

 of trousers, one pound of tea, and six or eight pounds of tobacco, for 

 which he received four dollars. The seizing officer himself confessed 

 to the American consul at Halifax that he gave the boy the money to 

 induce the master to sell the articles mentioned. The Shetland 

 "escaped condemnation," says the consul, "by the merest accident;" 

 she was released on payment of about six hundred dollars expenses. 



The complaint against the Amazon was "for selling gooas on the 

 coast. The charge was denied, and was not proved. She was 

 restored on payment of $138 88, as follows: 



Captain TAYLOR, master of the schooner Amazon, 



To DUNCAN MCMILLAN, DR. 



1839. To sundry attendance on said vessel 21 100 



James TurnbulPs fees 1 3 4 



Mr. John Bullam's charges for wharfage, storage, &c 7 11 1 



Lauchlin McLean's bill for watching vessel 3 10 



34 14 5 



Captain Taylor deposed before the American consul at Pictou, that 

 being reducea to the alternative of paying this enormous demand, or 

 of "leaving his vessel in the hands or said McMillan, chose the former, 

 and gave a draft on his owners for the amount; on which his vessel 

 and stores were delivered to him by said McMillan, with the excep- 

 tion of a rifle and a musket, which the said officer took possession of, 

 because "he thought they would get rusty on board the vessel, and 

 he would take care of them; and they were not returned, * * al- 

 though he demanded them from said McMillan. * * * That 

 the said vessel was detained in the possession of the said officer from 

 the 7th day of July last until the 21st day of the present month, being 

 forty-five days, which detention has ruined his voyage, deprived the 

 owner of the power of procuring the bounty for the vessel for this 

 season, and, together witn the other heavy expenses incurred, * * 

 the whole loss to the owners and crew of the said vessel, hi consequence 

 of such seizure, cannot amount to less than from two thousand to two 

 thousand five hundred dollars." 



The consul, in a communication to Mr. Forsyth, after the Amazon 

 had proceeded to sea, remarked, that "the (as I apprehend it) un- 

 justinable detention of that vessel led not only to the destruction of 

 her intended voyage, but, as I am informed, to her total loss in a gale 

 on the coast of Cape Breton, soon after she was released." 



The Charles, drifting from her anchorage under a fresh wind and 

 heavy sea, (according to the account of her master,) put into a harbor 

 for shelter, and was seized. The British minister at Washington, who 

 considered that she was a lawful prize, alleges no offence, except that 

 a ship-of-war found her "at anchor in Shelburne harbor, into which 

 she had not been driven by stress of weather. From that harbor she had 

 already sailed once, after having previously anchored there, and had 



