156 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



that he was now a land-mammal he was allowed a horse. In 

 consequence of the change in his position he began to reside 

 in the island both winter and summer, but postponed his first 

 winter sojourn until 1817-18. In the winter of 1816-17 

 crime and incendiarism were rife. Captain Buchan, R.N., of 

 H.M.S. Pike, who was present, alleviated some of the distress 

 and controlled some of the disorder. The winter of 1817-18 

 was still colder than that of 1816-17, an ^ was nicknamed 

 ' the winter of the Rals ' or rowdies. It began in November 

 with the burning of three hundred houses in St. John's, 

 probably by an incendiary, and by a frost which lasted until 

 spring. Famine as well as frost and fire was abroad ; half 

 the population lived on the other half, and in January, when 

 every harbour was sealed by frost and men's hearts failed 

 them for fear, a Boston ship came crunching through the ice 

 laden with provisions as a present from our late foes. A 

 kinder act was never done. The winter of the Rals was of 

 political as well as sentimental significance, as it was the first 

 winter in which the Governor resided in his government in 

 order to cope with this sea of troubles. The saddest, darkest, 

 and most dangerous winter, which Newfoundland ever ex- 

 perienced, was the first occasion on which the Governor was 

 converted from a fleeting into a permanent institution, and the 

 revolving light became a fixed light. 

 Thus New- During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries men used 

 lo ar g ue whether Newfoundland could be called a colony. 

 The English Custom House officials held that it was a colony 

 f r tne ^ r P ur P ses > m s pi te f wnat planters said to the 

 contrary : l and the Board of Trade held that it was not a 

 colony because it could not tax or be taxed. 2 In June 1765 

 a learned legal opinion was given, to the effect that it was a 

 colony for the purposes of Acts enforcing the registration of 



1 Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, Jan. 12, 1687 ; Oct. 14, 

 1698. 



2 Ib., May 10, 1698. 



