IV PREFACE 



apartness of Newfoundland from the rest of British 

 America has persisted for a long time, and its history 

 has for many centuries contrasted with the history of 

 other colonies in two or three essential characteristics, 

 each of which, strange to say, alternately daunts and 

 fascinates the student. 



In the first place there is an immobility in the 

 history of Newfoundland, and a fixity of character in 

 the Newfoundlander, which is unique in colonial history. 

 Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Irish peasants are there 

 and have been there from the first or almost from the 

 first, preserving their ancient types, partly it is true by 

 constant movements between their old and new homes, 

 but partly also from other causes. These things 

 presage monotony. On the other hand, Newfoundland 

 has lived a continuous life and has kept its identity 

 inviolate for more than 300 years. Its earliest years 

 were surrounded by the thrilling incidents of the heroic 

 age of European history, its middle years were dis- 

 turbed by the din of the three Anglo-French duels, and 

 even its latest years enshrine bygone prejudices, which 

 it requires some historical imagination to reconstruct. 

 There is always interest in a long life ; and the long 

 life which is a doubtful and a threatened life, and 

 over which swords hang by threads, is doubly interest- 

 ing. The uncertainty of its fate is the second charac- 

 teristic which distinguishes the history of Newfoundland 

 from that of other colonies. 



For three hundred years, that is to say, during the 

 whole of its colonial life, the colony has been menaced 

 with complete or partial extinction ; not by force but 



