94 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



Naval 

 operations 

 followed^ 

 and a 

 garrison 

 was left in 

 St. John's, 

 1697. 



300 refugees on Carbonear Island, and some others at 

 Bonavista, the English colony was wiped out. A glance 

 at p. 8 1 will show that if Carbonear and Bonavista escaped 

 two out of the three principal settlements escaped, and that 

 the 220 persons who were shipped from St. John's must have 

 consisted to a large extent of the fluctuating hangers-on, 

 whose restoration Orders in Council had been vainly com- 

 manding the fishermen to effect during the last thirty years. 

 The French authorities were unconsciously obeying, and 

 they were the only people who ever obeyed, the command 

 to repatriate ' passengers '. Next year the settlers and their 

 families numbered 570, of whom 176 were women and 268 

 children. Fathers, mothers, and infants were actually more 

 in number than they were in 1677. Had D'Iberville and De 

 Brouillan smitten windmills and wineskins their conquests 

 would not have been less complete. But booty as well as 

 conquest was their object. Doubtless they took care not to be 

 out of pocket by what they did ; doubtless, too, live stock was 

 wasted, homes were laid low in ashes, and all the Furies 

 except Death were let loose; but the boats of 1698 ex- 

 ceeded in number those of 1677, and cautious people, who 

 read of the money losses which were sustained, think of the 

 big bill of Captain Holman and shake their heads. 



On July 8, 1697, De Serigny's fleet of five sail left Placentia 

 for the far north with D'Iberville on board ; and a month or 

 two later, D'Iberville was playing the part of demon or hero 

 around the shores of Hudson Bay. New naval preparations 

 were made by both sides in Europe. De Nesmond sailed 

 from France with eleven men-of-war and four fireships for 

 Placentia, where he arrived, July 24 ; and De Pointis, who 

 was operating in the West Indies with a fleet of twenty-six 

 sail, was expected to join De Nesmond at Placentia before 

 the season closed. 1 Sir John Norris sailed from England 



1 Edouard Richard, Stipplement, 1901, to Report, 1899, on Canadian 

 Archives, by Brymner, March 13, 1697; Canada, Documents relatifs, 

 &c., April 21, 1697. 



