INTRODUCTION. 



ciently dreary in winter. No wonder that at such a time a stranger 

 feels that he has reached the limits of civilized warmth, so to speak, 

 arising from his own country, home ; while he is surrounded by the 

 icy arms of the far north stretching continually downwards and out- 

 wards ! 



We have seen now that Labrador was discovered — no matter 

 by whom — at a time very nearly contemporary with the discovery 

 of Columbus, if we exclude the probable claims of the Norse- 

 men ; that it was once an important fishing station whose develop- 

 ment was in every way hindered rather than helped ; that its relation 

 to the Hudson's Bay Company's trading territory was a very near 

 though not absolutely necessary one, as far as that company was 

 concerned — since the agents of that Company always ran more or 

 less opposition to the Quebec and Halifax traders ; that its re- 

 lation to the Province of Quebec was that of a perfectly natural 

 northeastern dependency or addition ; and that Blanc Sablon, sit- 

 uated as it is at the entrance of the Straits of Belle Isle, was so evi- 

 dent and natural a division between this and the Newfoundland 

 dependency of Labrador proper, that it ought not to be difficult 

 to understand where the one ended and the other began. 



In Anspach's "History of the Island of Newfoundland," 1827, 

 p. 323, the reason for annexing Labrador to Newfoundland is given 

 as follows : — 



" The coast of Labrador, although discovered by Cabot, was 

 very little known until the latter part of the last century, when the 

 progressive increase of the Newfoundland fisheries induced the 

 British Government to extend them to this coast, by annexing it to 

 the government of that island, in the year 1763. The native in- 

 habitants of those parts were included in the regulations which 

 were, at the same time, forwarded to the Governor of the colonies, 

 to prevent the different tribes of Indians from being in anywise 

 molested or disturbed in the possession of such territories as, not 

 having been ceded to or purchased by the Crown of England, 

 were reserved to them as their hunting grounds. All settlements, 

 formed either wilfully or inadvertently upon such lands, were to 



