308 



menl of a bill of three hundred and one dollars and twenty-five cents, 

 "assessed" against her by her unjust captors; the agent preferring to 

 liquidate the claim rather than to risk further difficulty. 



The Three Brothers, relates Lieutenant Paine, in a letter to Mr. 

 Forsyth, (1839,^ "having met with some injury by grounding, com- 

 menced lightemng; but the captain was advised to apply for permis- 

 sion, and did so: the permission was refused, and the articles landed 

 (some barrels of salt) were seized. This was afterwards ordered to be 

 restored to the owners, but had already been sold ; and the proceeds 

 are now in the hands of the collector of customs . at Charlottetown, 

 subject to the orders of the honorable the board of customs in London, 

 arid cannot be claimed by the owners without first entering into bonds — <■ 

 probably ten times the amount of the salt seized." 



A second vessel, called the Charles, having fitted for the Magdalene 

 herring fishery, (says the collector of the customs of the district of 

 Frenchman's Bay, Maine, in a communication to Mr. Forsyth,) "after 

 making her fare, on her return put into the harbor called Pirate Cove, 

 near the Big Gut of Canso, and had not lain there twenty-two hours, 

 when the schooner was boarded by an ofiicer of the revenue, called a 

 seizing officer, and by him taken possession of and carried to Guysbor- 

 o,ugh. The only pretence for this seizure was, that the schooner was 

 under cod-fishing license, and had on board herrings. The vessel, after 

 a detention of nineteen days, was given up by directions firom Halifax. 

 That at the time of said seizure, the ofiicer took from him ten barrels 

 of his herrings, which have never been returned; and the remainder of 

 bis cargo, by the detention, has been nearly all lost. The name of the 

 seizing oflScer was John G. Marshall." The master of the Charles, he 

 a,dds, "is a very poor man, and totally unable to bear such a loss. It 

 is at his request I write to solicit the aid of the government in his be- 

 half, knowing of no manner in which he can obtain compensation for 

 his losses from this British officer, but through his own government." 



The allegation against the Pilgrim was that her lines were cast, and 

 fish caught, within one and a half mile of the shore. After her capture, 

 her master, assisted by one of the prize crew, rescued her. The Di- 

 rector and Pallas were seized for " aggressions," which do not distinctly 

 appear in the official papers, and were "ultimately wholly lost to their 

 owners," who claimed redress ; but, as is beheved, none was obtained. 



The Java, the Hero, and the Combine, were probably condemned 

 for' good cause. With regard to the first, however, it may be said, that 

 the American consul at Hahfax, feeling a deep sympathy for her owners, 

 gave directions for her purchase at the government sale, "if it was 

 possible, by so doing, to save these poor men from ruin." 



In the case of the Washington, there was no pretence whatever that 

 she had committed any offence under the convention. When captured, 

 she was ten miles from the coast ; but being within the headlands of the 

 Bay of Fundy, was made prize of, merely on the claim set up that we 

 could not rightfully fish in the .waters of that bay. The Argus was 

 seized off the coast of Cape Breton, and fifteen miles from the shore, 

 upon the same general ground. Her owners, in a letter to Mr. Calhoun, 

 Secretary of State, say that she "had two hundred and fifty quintals 

 of fish on board ;" that "the vessel was valuable to them and to her 



