24 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



land possessed by, and under subjection to allied potentates 

 was to be respected, served as a warning, that, if Newfound- 

 land were to be annexed by England, the deed must be done 

 before it was too late. Frenchmen were not likely to stay 

 their hands. Like Spain, France followed up American 

 but was as exploration by immediate colonization. Spanish methods of 

 y imi>erftct co l m ' zat i n consisted of two stages : the first stage was to 

 stage. keep ajar the door of Asia, through which gold, silver, and 

 spices were expected to flow ; and the second was to keep 

 in military and industrial subjection the American continent, 

 from which these blessings actually did flow, by the same sort 

 of feudal pressure as that which had been applied in Granada. 

 French methods were an improved edition of Spanish 

 methods, but Cartier and Roberval were still in the first stage, 

 and wanted merely to hold by force the threshold of Tartary. 

 The second stage began sixty years later. 



The new French move instantly produced an English 



countermove, of which there were other predisposing and 



exciting causes. The chief predisposing cause was the 



growth of an international fishery in Newfoundland. 



(2) There Cabot discovered an ideal annual trade-route to and from 



inter- Newfoundland. Ships were wafted thither from the south- 



national wes t o f England and north-west of France by the east-wind, 



Newfound- which was described as constantly blowing from February to 



land oj May. Ocean currents were equally propitious. The nearest 



English . 



ships, 1S n t t ne straightest way to Newfoundland, for the earth is 



J 502? et a sphere, but lies north of west; and when the ships neared 



S6Q '. 



the American shore the Arctic current, which sweeps down 

 Davis Strait and chills the Atlantic sea-board of North 

 America with an unnatural coldness, helped them to regain 

 or cross the latitude from which they started. 1 During 

 September and October, before the harbours froze, the west- 

 wind wafted the wanderers homeward. What more could 

 summer-fishermen desire? Possibly English ships fished 

 1 51 lat., if from Bristol. 



