Iio HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



Before 

 1713 sett- 

 lers sur- 

 vived 

 nomads, 

 and of the 

 two systems 

 of settle- 

 ment the 

 fittest sur- 

 vived ; 



and New- 

 foundland 

 came under 

 one owner 

 and was 

 regarded as 

 one with 

 itself, 



The wheels of the chariot of history moved very slowly as 

 though tortoises were in the shafts, and it took three centuries 

 to arrive at the starting-point of other colonial histories. 



Other self-evident truisms were laboriously evolved at the 

 close of the first period of two centuries, and the Treaty of 

 Utrecht proved a landmark and signpost in the history of 

 Newfoundland in more senses than one. 



In the first century four nations fished, in the second 

 century four nations fished and two of these self-same nations 

 settled in Newfoundland; at the Treaty of Utrecht no 

 other nations except the nations of settlers disposed of New- 

 foundland ; and of the nations of settlers, the nation whose 

 settlements were most widespread and spontaneous prevailed 

 against the nation whose settlers were most orderly and 

 organized. Nature overcame Art, and clumsy half-hearted 

 defenders expelled spirited and skilful aggressors. The 

 Anglo-French settlements left no room for the Spaniards and 

 Portuguese, and the Anglo-French duel left Englishmen 

 masters of the field. Thenceforth fate spun from a single 

 European distaff. And thenceforth if the metaphor may 

 be pursued one spindle was used. In Guy's, Lord Balti- 

 more's, and even in Kirke's grants, Newfoundland was not 

 regarded as one independent unit, but the subject of the 

 grant was sometimes less, sometimes more, and sometimes 

 both more and less than the island. The image was seen in 

 part, or with a blurred or even double outline. The very 

 convoy-captains patrolled the coast 'as far' only 'as 

 Trepassey ' J and enforced regulations applicable only ' between 

 Capes Race and Bonavista '. 2 The Act of 1699 f r ^ e ^ rst 

 time anticipated rather than asserted, and the Treaty of 

 Utrecht for the first and last time uncompromisingly asserted 

 the unity of the island and of the Power that owned it. 

 England was declared supreme over the whole island, and 

 nothing but the island and its attendant islets. The nations 

 1 Ante, p. 72. * Ante, pp. 72, 77, 97. 



