A HALF-CENTURY OF PROGRESS, 1713-63 121 



(1747), Rodney (1749), and Drake (1752) expressed alarm 

 at their numbers and at their refusal to take oaths of 

 allegiance, or rather abjuration. Captain Drake pointed out 

 with dismay that they were half the inhabitants of the colony, 

 and that in St. John's Irishmen and Englishmen fit to bear 

 arms were nicely balanced, the former preponderating in 1747 

 and the latter in 1748, and that in some places in the south 

 the Irishmen were in a large majority. The Protestant 

 Succession was not assured ; and French priests were never 

 far off, so that the political danger was not pure illusion, and 

 assuming that it was illusory there was a very real social 

 danger from Irish criminals. Drunken brawls between Kelly, 

 Murphy, Doyle, Quinn and other Irishmen, were frequent; 

 and all, or nearly all, the murderers of W. Keen bore Irish -which was 



names. At one time convicted felons were preferred to Irish- cre < lse< * 



by the 



men; thus in 1731 Captain Osborn wrote that 'it is mw presence of 



become a practice of masters of ships to bring over here trans- *''f ns P rte <t 



felons. 



ported felons instead of Irish servants ', and Captain Clinton 

 enclosed a petition in which the petitioners ' represent the 

 danger we are exposed to by the transportation of felons from 

 Great Britain hither, which before this year hath not been 

 known, and since which five of the basest and most barbarous 

 murders have been committed, not without strong suspicion 

 of its being done by some of them, one of whom is at this 

 time in prison for theft' (1731). But out of evil good 

 came, and convicts and Irish criminals were the first cause of 

 Criminal Courts being instituted. 



New industries of a watery character were developed, and Seal-catch- 



sealing became an industry instead of a pastime, bringing in ln S and 

 - . , r . . . salmonrtes 



4,000111 1720 and 3,379 in 1735. Innity and Bona- i e g a n, 



vista Bays were the principal places where seals were caught; 1 7 2 . Sal- 

 and a district north of Bonavista Bay was for the first time 1722, A^ 



occupied by fishermen, sealers, and salmon-catchers. The a ' 

 north coast of Bonavista Bay had been inhabited as early as \i\2, bein 

 1698, and George Skeffington had made the district famous occupied. 



