502 A. D. 1770. 



of Dominica, reprefentlng, that its great diftance from Grenada, the 

 feat of government, rendered the connexion with that ifland very de- 

 trimental to it, it was refolved to ere&. it into a feparate government ; 

 and Sir William Young, who was lieutenant-governor of it under Ge- 

 neral Melville, the governor-general, was appointed the firft governor. 



Mr. George Walker, the juftly-renowned commander of the fquadron 

 of private fliips of war, called 716^ 7?oj'rt/yrtOT//)', and the public-fpirited 

 promoter of fiflieries ar Campbelltown and elfewhere in Scotland, fent 

 home from Nova-Scotia a memorial to the board of trade, fettlng forth, 

 that about feven years ago he had carried a large cargo of fait and fi{h- 

 ing implements in his own fhips to America, and having eftablifhed a 

 fettlement on the coafl; of Nova-Scotia northward of St. John's ifland, 

 entered largely into the fifhery. He obferves, that the coafl from Baye 

 vert (Green bay) to the Bay of Chaleur, a tra6l of about 50 leagues, is 

 the mofl produdive of fifli of any part of America ; that the Bay of 

 Chaleur abounds with falmon, cod, herring, mackerel, fturgeon, bafs 

 little inferior to falmon, lobflers, and oyflers; and that it is the only 

 place in that country free of fogs, whereby the fifh are caught and cured 

 fiX'weeks earlier than elfewhere, and confcquently can be fo much 

 fooner at market ; and he adds, that about the firfl of July the fifli mi- 

 grate to the coafl of Labrador. That great trad of coafl, whereon he 

 had fettled, was now in the legal pofTeflion of about twenty Britifh fa- 

 milies, and fllll inhabited by numbers of Indians, and by many Acadian 

 French, who took advantage of their remotenefs from the feat of go- 

 vernment, there being no other authority in the whole country than 

 a fmgle unfupported magiflrate (Mr. Walker himfelf), to inflill princi- 

 ples of hoflility to the Britifli fcttlers into the minds of the Indians. 

 The French moreover ufed to procure from the Indians large quanti- 

 ties of furs in exchange for French goods, which were run in upon the 

 coafl from St. Pierre and Miquelon. The total want of any legal re- 

 flraint encouraged the people employed by the Britifli undertakers of 

 fifheries to run off with their boats and veflels in the fifliing feafon to 

 remote parts of Newfoundland, where they fold the fifh, and, in order 

 to elude the purfuits of juflice, entered into other fervices, whereby con- 

 fiderable property and many fubjeds were lofl to Great-Britain. Other 

 fifliermen ufed to fell their employer's fifh on the bank for rum, &c. 

 to the New-England veffels, whereby they rendered themfelves ufe- 

 lefs for the remainder of the feafon, the confequence of which to their 

 employers was ruinous. The New-Englanders, no: contented with their 

 unlawful purchafes, ufed to land upon the coafl, and rob the flakes 

 of the fifli drying on them in the care of the women and children, and, 

 prefuming on impunity, frequently carried their piracy to fuch a 

 pitch of audacity as to let fire to veffels th '.t were flraadeJ, though they 

 might be got off, merely in order to plunder the iron work. Another 



