68 



FISHERIES OF THE ISLAND OF CAPE BRETOW. 



The extraordinary value placed upon this island by the French, and 

 by the people of New England, as well as the expenditures and exer- 

 tions of both — the one to fortify and retain possession of it, tlie other to 

 capture it — have been considered in the first part of this report. We 

 may here, without repeating anything there stated, give a view of the 

 whole subject by an extract from the " proposals " of Robert Auchmuty, 

 of Boston, to the British ministry while in London, in 1744, the yenT 

 previous to the expedition against Louisbourg under Pepperell. 



Auchmuty, it will be remembered, was a distinguished lawyer and 

 judge of the vice admiralty court for Massachusetts and New Hamp- 

 shire. The communication in question is headed "The Importance of 

 Cape Breton to the British Nation," and commences with the following 

 remarkable declaration : " This island, situated between Newfoundland 

 and Nova Scotia, the Encflish exchanged Avith the French for Placentia 

 in the treaty of Utrecht; and during the late peace between the two 

 nations the French, by the advantage of the place, carried on an un- 

 bounded Jisherii, annually employing at least a thousand sail, from two hun- 

 dred to four hundred tons, and ticenty thousand men. hi the year 1730, 

 th''re was a comjmtation made of tiventy-two hujidred thousnyid quintals of 

 fish at Marseilles, only fur a market ; and coinmunihus annis* they ewe above 

 five millions of (pdntals. How dangerous a nursery of seamen this island, 

 therefore, has been, and ever will be, while in their possession, is too 

 obvious to a British constitution ; and it is as demonstrable the recovery 

 of a place of this consequence will entirely break up their fishery, and 

 destroy this formidable seminary of seamen ; for if they are happily 

 removed from this advantageous shelter, no protection is left fi^r them 

 on the fishing ground nearer than old France." Such are the exagge- 

 rated statements and conclusions of one of the most intellio-ent men of 

 New England of the last century. He, of course, did but embody and 

 repeat to the ministiy the opinions expressed in Boston before his de- 

 parture for England, and his declarations are accordingly to be con- 

 sidered as those common at the time. The number of quintals of fish 

 caught and of vessels employed at Cape Breton in 1744, which I have 

 placed in the table of statistics, though much less than Auchmuty's 

 computations, and though authorized by authentic documents, and par- 

 ticularly b}^ an official report of a special agent of Governor Shirley, I 

 consider too large. 



That, however, the French fisljery was extensive at this island, can- 

 not be doubted. But whatever allowance should be made in the esti- 

 mates and figures of exasperated rivals, enough remains certain to show 

 that there has been a great decline in this branch of industry since 

 Cape Breton became a possession of the British crown. 



Louisbourg, the once famous fortress, is now a heap of ruins. Even 

 the materials of which it was built have been carried away, to a very 

 considerable extent, to be used in the erection of structures hundreds 

 f)f miles distant. It is almost desolate. 'J'hose who visit it — with the 

 aid of the imagination — hesitate to believe that armies and fleets once 



* One year with auother. 



