A HALF-CENTURY OF PROGRESS, 1713-63 125 



he praised two rye-fields at Connaigre (Hermitage), and 

 wrote that he saw on the islet of figeron a French Ariadne 

 whom her Bacchus had deserted, and who had 'a good stock 

 of sheep and goats. In her garden was the largest and 

 heaviest ears of wheat that ever I saw, besides cabbages and 

 root-crops ' ; so that Frenchmen, like Englishmen, looked on 

 agriculture in this region as a branch of horticulture. French- 

 men from Cape Breton Island used to seal in ' Bay de North- 

 East ' and other coves apparently in Despair Bay, otherwise 

 French civilization did not extend west of Hermitage Bay. 

 But in 1*734 Captain Taverner discovered almost by accident 

 a detached ' little Commonwealth ' of French ' men, women, 

 and children ' who had ' deserted from Cape Breton and 

 settled in Port Basque near Cape Ray ', who drew supplies 

 from ships which came from Bayonne and the French Basque 

 port of St. Jean de Luz ; and who were very few and very 

 poor. These waifs and strays took oaths of allegiance and 

 soon disappeared. From time to time we hear, also by ac- 

 cident, of French-Indian parties from Acadia hunting in mid- 

 winter year after year near Cape Ray, 1 a practice of which we 

 have noted possible traces in or before i662, 2 and the evidence 

 so far as it goes proves that with these exceptions the south- 

 west coast was uninhabited and unvisited. 3 French settlers 

 melted away and became more and more intermittent during 

 or immediately after the war, and were ultimately replaced by 

 Englishmen ; but for a long time no English settlers arrived in 

 their place and the colony was the fort of Placentia. The 

 identity of colony and fort, and the isolation of Placentia 

 produced a curious economic situation. 



Until after 1720, no English fishing-ships sailed to The gar- 



Placentia 4 : Placentia was 'of the least consequence to the r j^ w ^, 



Placentia 



fishermen of this land, it lying far out of the way ' 5 ; and on took tofish- 



1 Captain Taverner, Reports, May 20, 1718 ; Feb. 5, 1734. in S and 



2 Ante, pp. 29, 79. trading; 



3 La Hontan, Voyages, ed. by Tbwaites, p. 332. 

 * Dispatch of Captain Scott, Nov. 1718. 



5 Dispatch of Captain Percy, Oct. 13, 1720. 



