74 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



enlisted the sympathy and services of the Indians, who 

 assisted them in carrying on their depredations against 

 the English colonists. The fort at last was taken by 

 Iberville and Castine in 1696, thus extending the frontier 

 of the French dominion into the heart of Maine, and put- 

 ting to an end, for a time, the fisheries in that region. 1 

 This condition of affairs emphasized rather than weakened 

 the conviction in the minds of the New Englanders that 

 the French should be driven from the North Atlantic 

 coast of America. 



By the treaty of peace at Ryswick, in 1697, the French 

 retained possession of the whole coast, islands and fishing 

 grounds, from the Penobscot River to beyond Labrador, 

 with the exception of the eastern half of Newfoundland, 

 which was held by the English. The country lying be- 

 tween the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers was left in 

 dispute, but it was claimed by the French in spite of the 

 fact that no settlements had been made there to substantiate 

 their claim. 



The evil effects of the treaty were soon manifest. 

 Scarcely a year had elapsed before the French laid claim to 

 the sole ownership of all the fisheries. The king of France 

 sent over an order for the seizure of all vessels other 

 than French found in Nova Scotia waters. A rigid en- 

 forcement of this order was attempted. Bonaventure, of 

 the ship-of-war Envieux, boarded and sent home every 

 English colonial vessel found trespassing within his juris- 

 diction. From Villabon, governor of Nova Scotia, came 

 an official despatch to Massachusetts that he had received 

 instructions from his royal master to seize every colonial 

 fisherman found east of the Kennebec River. 2 



At the end of the century the strife between the French 

 and English "for the monopoly and the mastery' of af- 



1 Bancroft, History of the United States, II, p. 183. 



2 Sabine, p. 11. 



