Ch. Vir. SOUTH AMERICA. 375 



fair. In winter, however, this harbour is totally im- 

 pradicable, being entirely frozen io as to be walked 

 overj th^t feafon begins here at the end of Novem- 

 ber, and la its tiii Mayor June; fometimes the frorts 

 fet in fooner, and are more intenfe, as in the year 

 1745 i whenj by the middle of OJcober, a great part 

 of the harbou! wa. already frozen. 



The inhab'tants of Luuiibourg, which at that time 

 was the only to'.vn in the ifland, confiiled of French 

 families, lome Europeans, and others Creoles, of the 

 place itfelf, and from Placentia in the ifland of New- 

 foundland, from whence they removed hither on the 

 cedmg of that ifland to the crown of Great Britain. 

 Their principal if not only trade is the cod-filhery, 

 from which alio large prorits accrued to them, not 

 only on account of the abundance of this fiili, but 

 that the neighbouring iea affords the beft of any 

 about Newfoundland. The wealth of the inhabitants 

 confifted in their ftorchoules, iome of which were 

 within the fort, and others fcattered along the ihore, 

 and in theii> number of fiihing baiks; and of thefe 

 more than oi;e inhabitant mamtaincd forty or fifty, 

 which daily went on this fifliery, carrying three or 

 four men each, who received a fettled faiary, but 

 were at the fame time obliged to deliver a certain 

 number cf IknHard fi(h; fo that the cod ilort-houfes 

 never failed of being fiiied agaiiiil the time the ihips 

 reforted hither from molt of the ports of France, 

 laden with provilions and other goods, with wnich 

 the inhabitants provided themfclves in exchange for 

 this fiQii or configned it to be fold in France on 

 their own account , likewife veííels from the French 

 colonies of St. Domingo and Martinico, brought 

 fugar, tobacco, cofl^ee, rum, &c. and returned load- 

 ed with cod; and any iurplus, after Louiibourg 

 was fupplied found a vent in Canada, where the return 

 was made in beaver fkins and other kinds of fine furs. 

 Thus Louifoourg, with no other fund than the fifliery, 

 B b 4 carried 



