206 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



for bait with purse seines. The threats of the local fish- 

 ermen were so serious and determined that the Americans 

 were obliged to refrain from fishing, and returned home 

 without fares. In August, of the same year, the schooner 

 Howard Holbrook put into Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, for 

 the purpose of seining bait. The fishermen were opposed 

 by about thirty natives, who threatened to destroy seine and 

 dory if used within the three-mile limit, the spokesman of 

 the party declaring that no one should set a seine for 

 squid within three miles of the shore and live to haul it. 

 In the summer of 1880, other New England fishing ves- 

 sels were interfered with while in Newfoundland waters. 

 Negotiations were begun between this government and 

 that of Great Britain to recover damages for injuries caused 

 at Fortune Bay and other places. As evidence was pro- 

 duced, very largely from testimony and proceedings of the 

 Halifax Commission, showing the undoubted right of 

 American fishermen to catch fish as they pleased in 

 provincial waters, a settlement was effected in the summer 

 of 1881 by which the United States received from Great 

 Britain the sum of 15,111. The Fortune Bay fleet put 

 in claims amounting to $100,247.58. The amount actually 

 disbursed to them was $52,977.26, the payment being made 

 on the basis of actual expenses, less the value of cargo se- 

 cured, with seventeen and one-half per cent interest, or at 

 the rate of five per cent per annum. 1 



The Newfoundland herring fishery has been, in recent 

 years, also, the source of complaints of the fishermen of 

 New England and the natives of the island. Attempts 

 at satisfactory adjustment of differences have resulted in 

 no agreement acceptable .to both parties. The present out- 

 look is that an amicable settlement will be effected by 

 leaving the question to the Hague Tribunal for its decision. 2 



1 Fishermen's Own Book, p. 112. 



2 See Ch. XIX. 



