62 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



labour', but that a convenient number of West-country 

 labourers should be sent out. The settlers, who were staying, 

 numbered thirty-four. They supplemented salt of their own 

 make with purchases, obviously from the French or Portu- 

 guese, at Fermeuse and Renewse. One of them announced 

 that he had actually drunk water and ' it did quench my thirst 

 as well as any beer'. In 1624 Sir W. Alexander praised the 

 ' horses, kowes, and other bestial ', l and the industry of these 

 colonists. In 1625 Lord Baltimore hired one ship to 

 transport cattle, and another ship to transport himself to 

 Newfoundland, but there was a general arrest and the visit 

 was postponed. In 1627 Sir A. Aston succeeded Captain 

 Wynne as Governor, and Lord Baltimore paid his first visit. 

 In 1628 Lord Baltimore paid a second visit with forty Papists, 

 including his wife, sons, daughters, and sons-in-law, and two 

 Romish priests. To E. Stourton's horror the priests actually 

 celebrated mass. Ecclesiastical squabbles arose ; Lord Balti- 

 more banished Stourton, the priests went, and there was 

 neither Popish, Puritan, nor any other minister of religion in 

 Newfoundland for the next seventy years (1628-97). A rude 

 echo of the great world invaded his political as well as his 

 religious repose. The French and English were at war in 

 Europe and America, at La Rochelle, Tadoussac, and Quebec ; 

 and three French privateers, manned with ' La fleur de la 

 jeunesse de Normandye ', made a raid near Cape Broyle, 

 which Lord Baltimore repelled, rescuing several English ships. 

 Then Lord Baltimore made a counter-raid near Trepassey, 

 resulting in the capture of six French fishing-vessels (1628), 

 and the grateful English Government loaned one of the prizes 

 as a privateer to Lord Baltimore's son for a year. The 

 climate proved too cold, and his house became a winter 

 hospital. Fifty out of a hundred colonists were sick at a 

 time, so he asked for a colony further south for himself and 



1 Prince Society, Boston : Sir IV. Alexander, by E. F. Slafter, 1873, 

 p. 187. 



