340 J. G. BOUEINOT 



"Now to carry this fish to Europe, to market, there must be employetl 93 sail of ships of the burthen of 2,000 

 quintals each, one with the other, and each of these ships have at least 20 men, wliich are 1,S60 seamen. And 

 these, added to the 3,400 fislierraen above, make 5,2G0 men employed at Cape Breton only in the fisherj'. 



" At Gaspé, Quadre and other liarbours mentioneii in tlie followinj; estimation there are six ships j'early, 

 which, as they come out from France manned to catch their own car<,'oes of shallops, they haul up and leave in 

 the country every winter, till they return the next spring, one with another may be allowed 60 hands. And it ha'* 

 always been allowed from St. IMaloes and Granville they have at least 300 sail of these ships in the fishery, and 

 fish at Petit Kord,' Fishante, Belle-Isle and the Gulph, which will, all comjiuted as above (allowing those ships 

 that so come out to make their own voyagfts to carry each 3,000 quintals), be as follows : 



At Cape Breton 93 



At Gaspay 



At Quadre 



At Port an Basques 



At Les Foils [Trois ?] Isles 



St. Male's men 



414 24,.520 1,152,000 



" Here it may be objected tliat of the 300 ships above from St. Malo (which they insist upon) some of them 

 are of tliose ships above reckoned at Gaspay, Quadre, etc., which is well known to be so. But then no regard is 

 here had to the ships so employed, among the rest, from St. Juan de Luz, Bayonne, Nantz, Havre de Grace, etc., 

 which go annually into tho.se parts on the same voyage, and are a great many more in number than those twenty- 

 one ships above, and would, could an exact list be had, much swell the account. 



" Besides all these there have been constantly from the river Sendre, Clone,-' le Poitou, Havre, etc., 150 ships at 

 least, the French say 200 sail, employed in the Mud Fishery or IMort Vert (as they call it) from sixteen to twenty- 

 four men each, which carry, home, upon an average, from 22,000 to 30,000 fish in number; which make, on the 

 most moderate estimate, 150 sail of ships, and on a medium, at 20 men each, employ 3,000 men, and in the whole 

 3,900,000 fishes in Tale. Tlie?e ships are fitted out in France for their voyages on tlie Vianks, and there tarry until 

 they are laden, unless they meet with any disturbance, in which case tliey resort to Cajie Breton for shelter and 

 supplies, and from tlience home to France. And it was thus frocpicnt for them wlien tliej' had made their voyages 

 to go into Cape Breton for water especially, as they had no other port. 



" In regard to the value of this branch of tlie trade it is necessary here to observe that there is hereby pro- 

 duced a large quantity of train oil, which France has always an immediate demand for at home for their woollen 

 manufactures, lights, etc, and witli wliich also their sugar colouios, that cannot do without it, are yearly sup- 

 plied. It is certainly well known that they either do, or may at least make one hogshead of sixty gallons of oil, 

 clear drawn ofi' from the blubhor, out of every hundred quintals of lish. And this, out of the quantity of fish 

 before mentioned, will produce 11,4!I0 liogsheads of oil. And, allowing that 4,000 fishes in number are equal tolOO 

 quintals wlien cured, then the 3,900,000 mud fish, by the same rule, will yield 975 hogsheads of oil, which, added 

 to the other, make 12,465 liogsheads of train oil, which are equal to 3,I1G tons and a quarter. 



" Now let the 1,149,000 quintals of fish be valued only at 10s. sterling per quintal, the £ s. 



prime cost usually at Newfoundland, and it is worth 574,.500 00 



" And to this allow 3s. sterling freight per quintal of it, in English bottom.s, to market. .. 172,350 00 



" And then the fish only is worth 746,850 00 



" And let the 3,116 and quarter tons of oil be valued at £18 sterling per ton, the amount 



of it is 56,092 10 



" As to the mud-fish, it is generally sold in France at 1,000 livres per 1,000 fish ; and then 



at lid. sterling per livre their value is 178,750 00 



" And thus it appears that one year's fishery of the French only is worth, sterling 981,692 10 



which great branch of trade in a manner depends entirely on their possession of the island of Cape Breton, as it is 

 impossible to carry it on without some convenient harbour of strength, etc., to sujiply, support and protect it; and 

 it is now with us to determine whether they shall enjoy it or not." 



[The foregoing computation of the French fishery (as I have given it) is found in English in " The Works 

 of James Houstoun, M.D.," (London, 1753, pp. 370-37G). Houstoun's correspondent, who gives an account of the 

 siege of 1745, says that the coniputation "was given to General Pepiierrell on the spot by such of ourselves 

 who, at Canso and Louisbourg, have been eye-witnesses of it, and from their captains, etc., of their ships at differ- 

 ent occasional conversations on c(im])aring the French fishery with the English, and transmitted by the General to 

 Great Britain, for the consideration of his Majesty in Council and our British Parliament." The computation 

 apjiears to have api^eared in various I'.nglish pamphlets after the capture of Louisbourg in 1745. The following 

 note on the .subject from Dr. Justin Winsor corroborates the statement: 



'"The Importance and Advantage of Cape Breton, etc.,' London, 1746 (which is by .some attributed to Wm. 

 Bollan), says, p. S4 : ' Having in my possession ' A Computation of the French Fishery as it was managed before 

 the Present War,' I should have inserted it here if I had not met with it in a pamphlet lately printed at Exeter 

 entitled ' An Accurate Journal and Account of the Proceedings of the New England Land Forces during the late' 

 Expedition against the French Settlements in Cape Breton.' 



1 Petit Nord was the name given to the northwestern waters anil oo.ast of Newfoundland. See Bellin's map of Terre-Neuve, Charle- 

 voi.^, vol. ii. Quadre, Port aux B.isqucs, Les Foils [Trois] Isles and Fishante were all places on that coast. 

 - Sables D'Olonne in France. The names in this computation are as a rule inaccurately given. 



