ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE A BRITISH SCHOONER 'ON LAKE ERIE.

West Coast Times, Issue 572, 25 July 1867, Page 2 (Supplement)

ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE A BRITISH SCHOONER 'ON LAKE ERIE.

In Cleveland, on Lake Erie, on the afternoon of Sunday, the sth May, a party of thirty Fenians went to the British schooner Elk, which was at one of the wharves, having arrived on the previous day from Toronto, and demanded of the captain that he should haul down'the Britishflagthat.wasflyingatthemast-head. He refused, to do so, whereupon the Fenian leaders seized the halyards and hauled it down themselves. The captain, having but two boys and one man with him, could not resist the"; insult. The Fenians said they had "fought the British flag at Limestone Ridge and other places, and would not consent to see it flying here or elsewhere." No violence was offered, but the Fenians hung around the vessel until ten o'clock at night, to prevent the flag being placed at the masthead; and the captain, fearful of them, made no complaint to the city authorities until next day. It is announced that the Mayor of Cleveland is investigating the affair with the intention of bringing the offenders to justice, and the Cleveland papers characterise the act as a highhanded out rage, disgraceful to the city, that should be severely punished. Information of the affair has been sent to Washington, and the- Cleveland Fenian " circle " has repudiated the act of these Fenians as "foolish and insane." The Washington correspondent of the " New York Times," writing on the 10th, says : " Sir Frederick Bruce yesterday called the attention of our Government to the outrage committed on the British schooner Elk, at Cleveland, by a party of alleged Fenians. The district attorney for the northern district of Ohio will prosecute the perpetrators for whatever crime they may be deemed guilty.'' »